Ron Seybold wrote a full report in
 
        http://www.3000newswire.com/other/seybold/manageround.html
 
from which I have shamelessly copied and pasted a few sentences here:
 
----------  Begin quoting from Ron Seybold
 
The makeup of the roundtable differed in one notable way this year: The
head of HP's Computer Systems
organization was on the dais. Dick Watts was not bashful about setting a
different course for the cooperation
between HP's Unix business and its loyal 3000 customers.
 
Watts, appointed to head HP's systems business after Wim Roelandts left the
company early this year, used his
first user group appearance to assure customers MPE wasn't being left
behind in HP's future strategy.
 
"I've learned an awful lot from being at this conference, and an awful lot
from this particular session," Watts
said. The "subtle" messages about more investment in the HP 3000 --
delivered with the usual passion by
customers happy with their systems but wanting a better future for them --
prompted a promise from him. "I
think we'll take those [messages] to heart," he told customers, drawing a
round of applause. "I expect a very
aggressive advertising budget to be submitted by Harry [Sterling] in the
next few months."
 
----------  End quoting from Ron Seybold
 
 
 
Good for you, Dick!
 
I would suggest an inexpensive way for HP to spread the good word about the
HP3000 (not that I want to undermine Harry Sterling's new and aggressive
advertising budget, of course; this idea is IN ADDITION to such budget).
 
How much would it cost for HP managers ABOVE Harry Sterling to MENTION
words such as "HP3000", "MPE" and "IMAGE/SQL" (all of which refer to
products that have been proudly conceived and proudly produced within HP
itself) with the same frequency that they utter words such as "Unix", "NT",
and so forth (all of which refer to products that were conceived and
produced OUTSIDE of HP -- not too well conceived, to boot, and with
tremendous growing pains still going on, to add insult to injury)?
 
How about a similar sprinkling of words within HP's annual report?
 
I believe this would not cost too much :-)
 
And, more importantly, I strongly believe this "subtle" change in attitude,
coming directly from the very top of HP, would make a HUGE difference in
terms of the bright future of the HP3000 (which, of course, depends on
continuing R&D; but a little bit of TLC from HP's top managers towards the
HP3000, towards MPE and towards IMAGE/SQL means a lot to the MPE engineers
within HP and feels much better than being blatantly blackballed).
 
 
Cinderellically,
 
 
 
 
 
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|               |
|            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.
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