Ahhh, it's Spring time, and we can see that love is in the air....
8-)
-----Original Message-----
From: HP-3000 Systems Discussion [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Denys Beauchemin
Sent: Tuesday, May 17, 2011 3:04 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [HP3000-L] de-comissioned HP3000 for spare parts [failed comedy]
I see. You chose to make public a private note sent to you only. So now we know that anything we sent privately to you is subject to worldwide distribution at you convenience.
Your skills as a mainstream media journalist are now complete, leaks and all.
Have you no shame?
Denys.
From: Ron Seybold [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Tuesday, May 17, 2011 2:33 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Cc: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [HP3000-L] de-comissioned HP3000 for spare parts [failed comedy]
Hi Denys,
Kinda disappointed that my comments are all about being a journalist to you.
That media trope, once again. But here goes, just to clarify.
I sure don't know if you have a weapons cache. My Oxford says that a "cache"
is a collection of items of the same type stored in a hidden or inaccessible place : an arms cache
So if your weapons are not hidden, or you've only got one, then accept my apology, please.
I am way behind on these ammo and weapons laws. I never said anybody committed a crime by carrying in public, or their own home. I said I was surprised. My friends in these cases exercise their 2d amendment rights, and they have the right to do that.
Like I said, I didn't want this discussion to devolve into weapons ownership, law or use. Big sinkhole. But too late...
I did fire that M-16 Denys. Had to assemble and disassemble it within allotted time. I wouldn't have been issued one if I had not passed that test, plus sharpshooter status. I never fired it in combat, but I did serve my country for three years during the Cold War. Two active alerts in that time, restricted to base in prep for immediate call up and deployment. You gotta check with any friends who served 1976-79, infantry mechanized armor.
I don't feel one way or the other about not firing a weapon since 1979.
Truth to tell, I'm proud of that service, though.
And if they want to record their antics and post on Youtube incontrovertible proof they are dickheads, I'm fine with that also. They have the right to do that and it does not bother me. It should not bother you either, but it apparently does and you write about it. Who's the bigger fool, those idiots or you?
First, please don't tell me what you think I should be bothered about. This list is full of that -- and for a change, this opinion has something to do with an HP 3000.
I think I'm the bigger fool, for believing that an old computer about which I have reported for almost 27 years represents anything to anybody but me.
It <http://me.It> 's a joke that was not funny to me.
Biggest fool of all, for believing this discussion might be about a lack of respect. Whatever we own, and want to blow up, we should be able to do that.
And if it upsets anybody, they ought to be called a fool. Right?
Ron
On May 17, 2011, at 10:52 AM, Denys Beauchemin wrote:
Now that I have calmed down and can type properly, I will now respond to your accusations, smears and personal attacks.
First off, let me say that you should be proud of yourself, you have finally reached the low level of the mainstream media journalist, throwing around with abandon wild accusations and demonstrating veritable glee at your ignorance of the subject; it's like you are proud of your ignorance.
In the very first sentence, you state in a professional forum of my peers, that I have a "weapons cache." I merely stated, quite correctly, that I do not have class 3 weapons and I did not know who the guys in the video are.
How you felt the need to insinuate, in public, that I have a "weapons cache", is beyond me, but obviously not beyond you.
Next you proceed to demonstrate your ignorance of NFA34, GCA68, FOPA86 and Texas CHL95. You further demonstrate a total ignorance of the CCW laws of Texas by telling the world your friend committed a crime by showing you his concealed handgun in public. I would have to check the law, but that is either a class 3 felony or a some type of misdemeanor. What part of "concealed" does your friend not understand? The permitting requirements are quite extensive and the training that is part of the syllabus covers this type of action; if the concealed handgun is revealed a crime is in progress. You may want to refresh that thought to your friend. Your other friend who wears a handgun around the house is perfectly within his rights, but I would caution him to not step outside where he can be seen with his open carry handgun. If he really wants to carry, he should obtain his CHL; it costs $140 for the first time and is renewable every 5 years, with another $100 or so for the 12 hour course and he needs to show proficiency with his handgun by shooting 50 rounds at a target during a specific course of fire. Also, he needs a VERY clean criminal record, like virgin and be able to pass a background check.
Just for the record, there are over half a million Texan with CHL permits and the police love them. When you get stopped for a traffic infraction, you usually get off with a warning since you have to show your CHL to the arresting officer; they know you are a good person and they treat you as such. When seconds counts, the cops are just minutes away.
Recently in Austin, they instituted metal detectors to enter the capitol building. If you want to bypass this check, you can show your CHL and waltz right through without going through the detector, especially if you are carrying at the time.
You know nothing of rifles if all you did was traipse around in the woods of Germany one weekend with an M-16. You didn't shoot it then, did you? And you probably have not shot since and you're probably very proud of that also.
Also, Tannerite is NOT "military-grade" explosives. I've never used it or played with it as I am just a serial paper puncher, but I know from many people that it makes for a fun reactive target, if you like that kind of stuff. Military grade explosives is something else entirely and the BATFE would like to talk to you if you know people who have that stuff in their possession.
You also seem to have a problem with the concept of personal property and freedom of speech as you demonstrate a propensity for telling people what they can and can't do with their own property and what they should or should not show or say on Youtube.
I'm perfectly happy to have people shoot up their own retired computers, with class 3 weapons they legally own. They can even stuff them full of Tannerite, I don't really care as long as they do not hurt people.
Denys
-----Original Message-----
From: HP-3000 Systems Discussion [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Ron Seybold
Sent: Friday, May 06, 2011 11:43 AM
To: <mailto:[log in to unmask]> [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [HP3000-L] de-comissioned HP3000 for spare parts [failed comedy]
I'd be the last person to ask about your weapons cache, Denys. I often get surprised when I hear that kind of report. (Like the time one good friend took a walk with me wearing a fanny pack. We talked about weapons as a hobby, and he said, "I'm packing right now." Unzip the pack, there's the pistol. Or the report that another friend wears his pistol on his hip around the house. People are going to love what they want, and I'm not a guy to diss love.) I know weapons a little. After all, I'm one of the spare few among our readers who's carried a loaded M-16 into German woods for one weekend, wearing a helmet, a field jacket, and Army rank on my collar.
But dissing disrespect -- yeah, I'm all about that. Maybe my weakness. But before this devolves into a debate about guns and military-grade explosives, we could take a minute to consider what's being shown.
If this was about blowing anything at all up, then why choose an HP 3000? I think that by using the "sensitive" in the title with sarcasm, these fellows are proud of being insensitive. Not sensitive at all about the unjust plight of people who've lost jobs, commuted three hours a day each way to stay employed and support their families, or been forced into retirement because a product didn't fit a business plan. When their 3000 was decommissioned at their business, some of them might've felt like Going Postal on a target other than a machine.
HP blew up a computer with very high grade explosives, proudly. That Superdome was vaporized, probably. But the happy ending was that an instant cutover of the system preserved all data. Not that the computer was junk to be sunk as a reef. (For the record, it was George Stachnik who pushed that
3000 off a roof, and there was a happy ending there, too -- they booted up the machine they'd tossed off a two-story office building.) I've got links to both of these up on the Podcast section of the blog.
But when I watched this latest bit of snuff, I felt the same way as when people who don't know this computer pronounced it dead, or chortled at the idea of companies using it to prosper, or just survive these hard times.
To me, this hapless machine represents my 26 years of devotion to a marginalized, underestimated and now-dismissed ideal. If anybody's watching this and doesn't feel that way -- that there's just a clump of plastic and metal being destroyed -- they might have missed the point in the title.
Blowing things up usually doesn't involve the [misspelled] word decommissioned. If their aim was to kick something while it was down, then com-Mission Accomplished.
There's a commission of some sort going on here, but it's not comedy, unless you're 12 -- or happy to acknowledge there was nothing in that plastic and metal to be devoted to in the first place.
This isn't about guns. It's about personal injury, mostly because my ardor outweighs my resignation. Me, I'm just interested in who these Brave Citizen Soldiers are, and what they do at jobs so they can stock their gun cabinets and ammo boxes. Can't be knowing the 3000; one of its points of pride is that it was the computer that ensured you didn't need a mainframe.
Ron
On May 6, 2011, at 8:58 AM, Denys Beauchemin wrote:
Ron, you really should refrain from anthropomorphizing a machine. The
HP3000 doesn't have feelings, it does not cry, it does not know fear, it
just runs programs.
And before you ask, no I do not know who the "perps" are and I don't have
class 3 weapons.
Denys
-----Original Message-----
From: HP-3000 Systems Discussion [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf
Of Ron Seybold
Sent: Thursday, May 05, 2011 4:27 PM
To: <mailto:[log in to unmask]> [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [HP3000-L] de-comissioned HP3000 for spare parts [failed
comedy]
Hello Friends,
Well, this is the kind of defiling that makes a fellow serious about
discovering the perps handling the automatic weapons. And laughing about it.
There's about 350 or so readers here. I've got another few thousand up on
the Newswire blog. Then there's print, coming out this month.
Can we make it a shared mission to find out who's laughing at our expense?
Not talking about a jihad here -- but really, like Jim said: What K Class
server which powered a company faithfully for years deserves to be the butt
of this kind of joke?
Help me out here, if you can. A little ID technology, anyone, from the
Wetware Division? About the 3-minute mark a fellow walks by the camera,
post-cannon, with lots of facial features visible.
Not getting the joke here,
Ron Seybold
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