RE: Another one bites the dust

        ==> I was "on the bench" 2005 a few months, "not enough programmers" 
for the IBM midrange/System i just sounds funny... 

...If they offered equivalent pay for their System i programming needs, from 
what I've heard the Oracle DBAs and application "tweakers" are paid, they could 
get all the experience they want for programming anything they want on the the 
System i. And they won't go years and years past deadline and millions over 
budget like Oracle conversions. 

...Last place I was at they were replacing the company's systems with Oracle. 
German parent company had decreed this change worldwide. They had a couple of 
dozen guys in Atlanta working full-time on just that and they were already a 
year into it.

Met an Oracle saleman on my trip to Redwood City for my daughter's wedding. He 
told me that the JDE World shops were stubborn and they just couldn't pry them 
off the platform. Haha. I think it's new IT directors and managers that just 
don't know what they're losing that make these decisions. And I think we are 
going to be responsible for our own future to get the word out, partners, 
programmers, users that know.. 

I think it's okay to bring these things up again each occasion like this to 
keep it fresh in our minds and to help keep a growing "mind share" here. (A 
hopeful "trickle up" theory :) ...)

--Alan