Gentle HP3000-L list members,
/* Wet blanket alert */
Quick research shows the cheapest rate for the ad you described in Infoworld to
be $15,500. This is a one time only, 1/4 page Black and White ad. If you want
2 or 4 colors, you need to go to 1/3 page, minimum size and that is $26,550.
I would say that anything less than 1/2 page, and preferably a full page ad,
will not have the desired impact. However, the B/W versions are $20,000 and
$37,000 respectively.
The overall cheapest one time rate is for a 1/8 page B/W at $10,500.
Here are the terms for Ad Close and Cancellations
"Frequency agreements, insertion orders, and prepayments are due by 2 p.m.;
cancellations are due in writing by noon on the date of close. Deadlines are
every Friday, 10 days prior to issue date for full run display ads, and 17 days
prior for demographic and selective ads. See InfoWorld's Editorial Calendar for
more information. "
Since we would be a first time advertiser, we have to prepay.
So we have somewhat less that 10 working days to make this happen, if we want
to make it for HP World week.
It might be more worthwhile to advertise in the HP World daily. Trouble is
Carly will not be at HP World in person, but I am sure someone from HP will
bring her a copy or we can arrange to send her a copy via special delivery.
I am not sure what the closing dates are for the dailies, and they may very
well be long gone. (I know we had to send our films FedEx last week.)
/*End of wet blanket alert*/
Let me suggest an workable alternative. If we are to send a message to Carly,
my opinion is that spending anonymous money on something like this is not
worthwhile. Commitment and openness are more important here.
I would suggest that we create a large card which would be signed by attendees
at HP World and would, at the end of the week, be delivered to Carly. We could
place the card in a booth at HP World, maybe Hicomp's or Adager's or Interex's
and then people could come up and sign it. They could put their company name
on it along with the number of HP 3000s in the company and maybe length of time
with HP 3000s. At the end of the show, we would get pictures of the card being
given to one of the high HP mucky mucks and then get the card sent to Carly.
All that remains to be done it create the text for the card and the information
to be written on the card. We have 4 weeks to get this done and this is
achievable. (BTW, if this is not "yet another great reason" to attend HP
World, then I don't know what is!)
I would respectfully submit that the text of the message be tasteful, somewhat
provocative and to the point. I would entirely refrain from any negative
comments about any other OS, I would concentrate on the positive aspects of the
HP 3000 toward HP, the user community and the industry as a whole. And for
God's sake, could we keep the mindless chatter and cute little remarks to a
minimum. :)
Here is a first cut, simple and to the point. To say much more would take away
from the impact of the message. I am sure when she gets this message she will
make inquiries as to why she got this message.
From: Some concerned HP World 2000 attendees
To: Carly Fiorina, CEO of Hewlett-Packard Company
Date: 1972 to September 2000.
We want to respectfully inform you that we exist.
We are among HP's most faithful customers and have been for a very long time.
We are users of the HP e3000, running the HP invented Operating System, MPE.
Our motto is "MPE Forever."
Signed:
Kind regards,
Denys. . .
Denys Beauchemin
HICOMP
(800) 323-8863 (281) 288-7438 Fax: (281) 355-6879
denys at hicomp.com www.hicomp.com
-----Original Message-----
From: F. Alfredo Rego [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Sunday, August 13, 2000 8:56 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Publicizing the e3000
At 3:28 AM -0600 8/13/00, Jeff Woods wrote:
>Where do I send my personal check? :)
>
>And how much do we need to raise?
Good questions. Julie? Ron? Anybody?
>I'm sure there are other advantages... for HP, for HP's shareholders, for
>MPE users (old and new), and if Wirt is right (and by my count he's dang
>near always right ;) it's good for the future of computing in general since
>MPE is so far the closest thing we have to "computing appliances" which
>must ultimately win out in the process of natural selection in the
>evolution of computer systems. So... this isn't for everyone else's
>good. This is for *my* good... and yours. Think about it. And choose
>wisely the path which leads to long term consequences you desire.
To be fair, it would be interesting to hear (from HP's Corporate Managers)
the *straight* answers to a few simple questions:
1) What are the disadvantages for HP caused by HP's Corporate Managers
*mentioning* MPE outside of the installed base?
2) What are the disadvantages for HP's shareholders caused by
HP's Corporate Managers *mentioning* MPE outside of the installed base?
3) What are the disadvantages for MPE users (old and new) caused by
HP's Corporate Managers *mentioning* MPE outside of the installed base?
4) What are the disadvantages for the future of computing in general
caused by HP's Corporate Managers *mentioning* MPE outside of the
installed base?
5) What are the long-term consequences that HP's Corporate Managers
desire to achieve by NOT *mentioning* MPE outside of the installed base?
>And last but certainly not least: TANSTAAFL
A quick search on the web reveals this among 2940 other possibilities:
TANSTAAFL /tan'stah-fl/
[acronym, from Robert Heinlein's classic "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress".]
"There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch", often invoked when
someone is balking at the prospect of using an unpleasantly
heavyweight technique, or at the poor quality of some piece of
software, or at the signal-to-noise ratio of unmoderated Usenet
newsgroups. "What? Don't tell me I have to implement a database back
end to get my address book program to work!" "Well, TANSTAAFL you
know." This phrase owes some of its popularity to the high
concentration of science-fiction fans and political libertarians in
hackerdom.
( http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/jargon/html/entry/TANSTAAFL.html )
I am hungry now. Time for lunch. Oops, I missed lunch again! Programmers
keep the strangest hours :-)
_______________
| |
| |
| r | Alfredo [log in to unmask]
| e | http://www.adager.com
| g | F. Alfredo Rego
| a | Manager, R & D Labs
| d | Adager Corporation
| A | Sun Valley, Idaho 83353-3000 U.S.A.
| |
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