RE: Fast400 Value to iSeries community is less than zero -- MIDRANGE-L

Tom,

You wrote "Every once in a while, you get it extremely right."

Well.. Even a blind squirrel finds a nut, once in a while...;-)  If you
think I've found one, I am /extremely/ honored...:-)

You also wrote "(The IS group begged and pleaded to do a real conversion,
but important management bent to user requests that there be zero
retraining. Sheesh.)"

You mean you HAD management that knew there WAS an IS group...?!?  How'd YOU
get to be that LUCKY...  "It can be hard to sympathize some times."  LOL...!
(Actually I did a poor job of PR, to management, and didn't properly market
the value of the services that the department provided.)


Seriously, Tom, that was a great story.  And I know, for a fact, that
there's at least a few folks that have similar experiences.  Getting the 400
to fit seemlessly into WHATEVER management wanted.

Those who started small got the fortunate experience/impossible task of
doing the coding, design, sysadmin..  the PR, hiring, paperwork (well, I
never did, but...;-).  Dealing with management, users, CEs, vendors,
contracts...  Dealing with packages, and even more complex stuff like
hardware and cables (never liked that part much, myself, but did it because
it needed done).  Doing the mentoring... getting mentored...  Dealing with
the commode if it didn't flush...;-)

Back in the old days, when things were simple, one guy could do all that...
Was even better if there was some decent help to spread the work around.


I've been thinking about this, off-and-on, most of the day.  You know what
I've decided...?  Thinks aren't any more complicated now, than in the old
days.  Rather, they're more complicated in some ways, but less complicated
in others.  As the bean-counters would say...: it's a wash.


What HAS happened, though, is that Computer Engineers seems to have lost
sight of the fact that there is an inherent advantage to designing
simplicity into a product.  And simplicity has to be designed in, because it
just doesn't naturally occur out of thin air.


The designers of the 38 sure knew that, and I've often wondered where we
took a wrong turn somewhere to get in the shape the industry is in today.
I've concluded that happened with the introduction of the PC.  You'd have to
be a fool to deny all the good things that PCs have done for the world.
Cheap computing being primary amongst the numerous good things.

But when computing capability first started becoming a commodity market,
what also happened was that care wasn't taken to design the simplicity right
into it from the ground up.  Right at the point where it was most important
for simplicity to be designed in, those decisions weren't made...  I think
it has a lot to do with corporate culture...  And the industry's been paying
for those decisions ever since.

Not to say that PCs aren't a phenomenal success, or they can't achieve
simplicity sometime in the future.  But that's the kind of achievement which
is "always just around the corner".  In his first speech to the industry,
Comdex '95, Mr. Gerstner added (something like) "The question is:  When are
we going to find that corner...?!?"  Point was lost on most, I'm afraid.


All that to say, Tom, if you ever think about recreating that QBE, and are
into collaboration, let me know...  Simplicity CAN be designed in, and maybe
we could make a little "walking-around money" off our avocation. (?!?)


jt
E-mail:  jt@ee.net



"Have a GREAT day...!  And a BETTER ONE TOMORROW~~~:-)" (sm)

> -----Original Message-----
> From: midrange-l-admin@midrange.com
> [mailto:midrange-l-admin@midrange.com]On Behalf Of thomas@inorbit.com
> Sent: Friday, November 09, 2001 9:50 PM
> To: midrange-l@midrange.com
> Subject: RE: Fast400 Value to iSeries community is less than zero
>
>
> jt:
>
> Every once in a while, you get it extremely right.
>
> On Fri, 09 November 2001, "jt" wrote:
>
> > So I mean no offense, but it can't help but come across that way, I
> > guess...:  I think that explains why the idea of a 15-user
> system needing
> > 1000CPW seems pretty doggone funny, to some of us "old dogs".
>
> I can't agree more. A few years back, we were running a model
> 300. Supporting a couple hundred users for general OV/400 stuff,
> and a number of major applications.
>
> First was a decent sized ImagePlus/400 application that used OS/2
> workstations for direct image handling and WAF/400 for the
> server-side management. This was paired (linked via WAF APIs) to
> a database application that was a horrendous mess. Never could
> get decent management support to rewrite it.
>
> There were also a half-dozen or so good sized SQL COBOL
> applications. These were interesting in that they were direct
> emulations of applications previously created within the Wang VS
> PACE environment. And I mean these all looked and acted just like
> they used to on the Wang. (The IS group begged and pleaded to do
> a real conversion, but important management bent to user requests
> that there be zero retraining. Sheesh.)
>
> An interesting side effect was that a couple very useful user
> tools were created to make this work. One, which I think about
> recreating from time to time, was a slick 'query by example'. It
> far out-classed Query/400 in utility.
>
> Anyway, I judged basic response time just a bit sluggish compared
> to the Wang which meant user complaints were minimal. Hardly
> surprising given the work that was being done under the covers to
> emulate PACE not to mention the database structures which were
> designed to meet federal guidelines, but easily acceptable.
>
> Had these applications actually been designed to AS/400
> standards, performance would have far surpassed the Wang environment.
>
> In any case, CPW today blows the model 300 away. My own two model
> 400s can each do more. It can be hard to sympathize some times.
>
> Tom Liotta
>
> --
> Tom Liotta
> The PowerTech Group, Inc.
> 19426 68th Avenue South
> Kent, WA 98032
> Phone  253-872-7788
> Fax  253-872-7904
> http://www.400Security.com
>
>
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