Isn’t “here” enough?  Was he wearing boots, or shoes?  Or perhaps in a building, several feet away from dirt?

Arg!

http://www.pcworld.com/article/249951-2/if_it_aint_broke_dont_fix_it_ancient_computers_in_use_today.html

Guess “timeout” will only be used when Netflix can’t connect over the wireless.  Another word disappears from common use…

Funny, that “old” system withstands the assault of millions of people trying to buy tickets all at the same time.  No other system has emerged that can handle that load — many have tried, all have failed.

As I’ve said before, “legacy” means “stuff that just works”.  That’s VMS!

Think about it the next time you send a text message — chances are, it was handled by VMS!

VMS — when “legacy” means “stuff that just works”.

Dear Ms. Millier:

Thank you for coming to the OpenVMS Bootcamp. Those of us at the front lines of VMS support appreciate your participation.

My company is very small. I provide support for a number of customers who do not have HP software support. Instead, I have been providing them with patch services and system administration services on an “as needed”, time-and-materials, basis.

I also provide patches for my CHARON-VAX and CHARON-AXP emulation clients, who are typically running ancient versions of VMS, in some cases all the way back to VMS 5.0. Support for VAX version 5.5-2 is available under Prior Version Support, and has had a few critical patches released over the last couple of years.

Now that ITRC is going to a “paying customers only” model, I will not be able to provide these services. My enterprise-level customers (General Electric, Northrop Grumman, etc.) typically have software support contracts, but most of my customers do not. In fact, many of those customers feel abandoned by DEC or Compaq, not realizing that HP now owns the VMS operating system.

This situation leads me to several questions:
* Do I have to buy HP software support for each customer?
* Can I buy a single “small” support contract for my company, and then provide patches for all my customers?
* What are the costs? I see no benefit to my company, just an increase in the cost of doing business.
* Can I get access to patches from AllianceOne (formerly known as DSPP)?
* Can we continue to get FTP access to the patches? The web interface is fairly painful to use, all but requiring Internet Explorer (which is not available on VMS, Linux, or even HP-UX).
* What about hobbyist systems? These are the only entry-level way to get exposed to VMS.

I know that you are not in a position to solve the problem, but I trust that you can take these concerns to the support-side of HP and come up with a solution. Their uni-lateral action has caused damage to dozens, if not hundreds, of small entities. And these entities are HP Partners!

–
Stan Quayle
Quayle Consulting Inc.

The Bootcamp is held in Nashua because that was where VMS was originally developed. Unfortunately, Hewlett Packard canned the entire VMS development team a couple of years ago and moved development to India. *sigh*

I directed a session titled “Risk vs. Benefits of VAX/Alpha Emulation”. I’ll be doing it again Thursday afternoon. Here’s a link in case you can’t drop by and see it in person…

• CHARON-VAX version 3.4 build 110 and later
• CHARON-AXP/4100/DS/ES/GS version 2.3 Build 108 and later
• CHARON-AXP/SMA and CHARON-AXP/SMA Plus version 2.1.26 and later

There are some requirements:

• The CHARON virtual machine should have exclusive access to the CHARON USB license dongle. It could be achieved with a third party product, for example: http://www.digi.com/products/usb/anywhereusb.jsp#overview.
• The CHARON virtual machine should meet standard CHARON hardware requirements in terms of Windows OS version and patch level, CPU, RAM, storage, etc.
• On any physical server hosting a CHARON virtual machine, the total number of VMware vCPUs allocated to all active Virtual Machines should not exceed the number of host physical CPU cores. The same requirement is applicable to RAM: total vRAM allocated to active VMs must not exceed total host RAM.

Some product features are not supported:

• The Pass Through mode in CHARON-AXP/SMA and CHARON-AXP/SMA Plus
• Direct device access

Please note that the supported CHARON-VAX version requires a HASP dongle. The older Hardlock dongle can be swapped at no charge for customers under support.

http://www.linkedin.com/companies/quayle-consulting-inc.

A lot of people become consultants as a way to make some money and develop contacts after being laid off. Another job comes along, and they’re not consultants anymore. It’s sad to see them let the contact list rot in a drawer until they’re laid off again.

It’s hard to stay a consultant. In order to get work, you have to be willing to sell your services. And that means taking risks like talking to strangers. If you can’t do that, you won’t survive as a “real” consultant.

I was trained as an engineer. Nothing in engineering school teaches you how to sell. But you are selling, even if it’s just convincing your client to do the right thing. If you want to be more effective in your job, some sales training might be a good thing.

Me? I’ve been a consultant for 17 years. I’m not “between jobs” — I’m a real consultant.

P.S. My parents still think I need to get a “real job”. *sigh*