Re: Midrange Computing Closed -- MIDRANGE-L

Ken,

I heard Neil comment on the situation, I _didn't_ hear him call for
legislation.  Frankly, other than this being the end of an era (the jobs of
some really good people, and perhaps the threats against David for the
midrange dot com domain name), I'm thinking that the shutdown of "MC" was a
long time coming.  Most of my clients, what few even bother to subscribe to
platform-specific magazines these days, subscribed to NEWS/400 rather than MC.

To tell the truth, IMHO, _BOTH_ of these magazines deserved to go out of
business a long time ago.  Why?  Oh, let me count the ways...

1.  Numero Uno, The Big One, El Presidente, "What, are you stupid?" -- They
are (were) _OUTRAGEOUSLY_ expensive!  What other magazine (especially
considering that magazines derive most of their income from advertising)
could you _POSSIBLY_ subscribe to for more than $100 US per year that reaches
so few people?  None, zippo, nada.  Heck, I can't get _RID_ of the _FREE_
magazines that I receive that contain more content than "News/400" and "MC"
put together -- my circulation boosts their advertising dollars.

2.  As mentioned earlier, the web.  Who needs a technical magazine when they
can get the latest "tips and techniques" on any one of the forums hosted at
midrange dot com?  Let alone the dozens of other forums available?  All of
the AS/400 manuals, including Redbooks, at a glance?

3.  Unsolicited advertisements.  Not to blame these periodicals entirely,
_ALL_ magazines sell every piece of information that they have on you to the
highest bidder -- BUT, I don't like paying that kind of money annually to be
sold to the highest bidder.  Just like those cute T-shirts and stress balls
that _USED_ to be free at COMMON now cost you a swipe of your card, I'll buy
my own before being subjected to 48 million faxes, junk mails, and phone
calls.

JMHO,

Dean Asmussen
Enterprise Systems Consulting, Inc.
Fuquay-Varina, NC  USA
E-mail:  DAsmussen@aol.com

"Miracles happen to those who believe in them." -- Bernard Berenson

In a message dated 7/30/01 8:21:22 PM US Eastern Standard Time,
kjs@idirect.com writes:

 >   You're right, the compensation packages for key corporate players
 >  should definetely be legislated, and not left to the whims of corporate
 >  lawyers.
 >   Their, 'competitive' salary crap doesn't cut it.
 >   There is no co-incidence, when the outgoing CEO of Nortel left with his
 >  $200m severance package, that one month later 5000 workers hit the
 >  street.
 >   The number of fully qualified people, that would gladly take the job
 >  for even a pittance of that figure.
 >   I don't understand why, but I'm willing to bet the corporate lawyers
 >  get a very big slice of the greed pie.
 >
 >  Neil Palmer wrote:
 >  >
 >  > Chuck,
 >  >
 >  >  especially if some key members of the board of directors are
 >  > planning on leaving soon and want to raise the share price before they
 >  > cash in the ridiculously large stash of shares they have been given for
 >  > meeting mediocre performance targets that should just be considered part
 >  > of their job in the first place - for which they are usually grossly
 >  > overpaid anyway) let's be fair here. 

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