There are some people who busy themselves with MAKING the best possible
things (for instance, the best operating system, such as MPE, or the best
hardware, such as the HP3000, or the most reliable and high-performance
DBMS, such as IMAGE).  I'm proud to be among such people (making the best
possible complement for IMAGE databases that I can humanly produce, with
the help of my friends).
 
There are also people who enjoy spreading the good news about such
wonderful things to as many people as possible.  The HP3000 community is
certainly among the most active in this regard.  (I sincerely wish I could
say the same thing about HP Corporate, above the CSY level.)
 
There are, of course, also people who must busy themselves with such things
as stock prices, market share, the approval of analysts, and so on.  These
are important things, but I believe they are consequences that derive from
more fundamental causes (such as the guts, full-commitment, and
perseverance of LEADERS such as Bill Gates, Jim Clark, Scott McNealy, and
others who are driving the computer industry).  Back to the "people who
must busy themselves with such things as stock prices, market share, the
approval of analysts, and so on,"  these people (as they FOLLOW the
leadership of others) should not forget this fact:
 
        Cockroaches are far more numerous than humans.
 
 
The vital questions are:  Should all of us (humans) quit working on
improving the living conditions for the human race?  Should we all bow down
to cockroaches (or to whatever the current insect-of-the-day may be)?
 
HP has the wonderful opportunity to work hard on the HP3000, on MPE, on
IMAGE and to make them the best possible solution for business-oriented
customers who insist on reliability, performance, good value, and
ease-of-use.  These customers (shall we call them "humans"?) are not as
numerous as the thrill-seeking, MTV-weaned, short-attention-span masses
(call them what you will!).  This is, precisely, the whole point of this
note.  But, for this pre-selected elite group of computer customers, the
combined power of the HP3000, MPE, and IMAGE has it NOW (as human customers
always want it -- they always want it now) and can have it even better
tomorrow, if only HP would work on it.
 
Food for thought (yuck!)
 
+---------------+
|               |
|            r  |  Alfredo                     [log in to unmask]
|          e    |                           http://www.adager.com
|        g      |  F. Alfredo Rego               Tel 208 726-9100
|      a        |  Manager, Theoretical Group    Fax 208 726-2822
|    d          |  Adager Corporation
|  A            |  Sun Valley, Idaho 83353-3000            U.S.A.
|               |
+---------------+