I'd like to respond to the ideas in the following statement. > I think our energy and $$ can be more wisely spent developing new systems and solutions for our favorite platform. Let CSY fight the battle internal at HP for mindshare. Besides, I'm beginning to tire of all this negative talk. Its beginning to appear like a bunch of little kids jumping up and down whining that > they aren't getting what they want. The internal battle. This hands-off approach strikes me as sort of childish, that is, to sit back and depend upon others to decide one's fate. One lesson of growing up is that often part of getting what you want is asking for it. On negative talk. One person's "whining" is anothers "getting it off my chest". We are amoung friends here are we not? I say feel free to whine. There is room in productive communication for negative thoughts. That is the normal course of human progress. First we wimper and lick our wounds, lay up for a while, then go forth and change the world. On the other hand I do want the conversation to shift from the past to the future. In other words, how to take effective action. I think our last go-around before HP World was effective. I know for instance that the Wall Street Journal's west coast reporter that covers HP was unaware of the HP e3000 up until a few weeks ago. Now he is aware of the '3000 and my thoughts on how HP is sending mixed messages about the HP e3000 and killing the platform by silence. One thing that did bother me the last go around was, in my opinion, how diffuse and even confused the message was. I believe joint action around a few clear points will get the best results. To me the key points are: First do no harm. The cumulative effect of HP's marketing strategy is harmful to the future of the HP e3000 platform. Stake holders. The future of the platform also impacts the futures of HP e3000 customers and IT professionals. We have a legitimate stake in this. Mixed message. One part of HP says they support the HP e3000 while the top guys "kill it with silence". Acknowledgement. We are not asking for a major marketing campaign, we are asking for mere acknowledgement of it's existence, three words "HP three thousand". Subsidiary point - Branding. The HP e3000 experience potentially sends a poor message about HP being a reliable, long term partner. We are willing to use this story as leverage to get the attention of corporate HP. Cortlandt Wilson