RE: Fast 400 - going out of business...

Wow, that had to be a bad day even though you hadn't done anything ! And
then all the hassle of the legal stuff.

I had a similar incident when I was 17. Not sure what order to tell this in.

I was at a friends house and there was a knock at the door. We were just
hanging out, doing nothing illegal or anything. He asked if I could get the
door and I said sure. I open the door and this long haired (and mine was not
short back then), bearded guy in scruffy clothes sticks a chrome plated 357
magnum in the middle of my forehead and said "Move and I'll blow you brains
out" and out of the corner of my eye I see guys with weapons with the
military stocks busting in the back door. Another guy grabbed this guy and
told him to know if off. My friends father ran a very successful air freight
company (this was back in the mid 70's) and I thought at first maybe someone
was trying to rob them until the guy that told the other one to knock it
off, showed me a badge and told me what was going on. They ended up
apologizing all over them selves (well not the jerk that jammed the gun in
my forehead) and told me I could leave. I slowly walked out the door, around
a turn in the street and SPRINTED home (about 1/8th of a mile).

Found at latter what had happened. My friends sister was dating a hood. This
guy and another guy had been hired by a local pub to "rob them" and they did
that. The pub called it in as these guys were leaving (thinking there would
be plenty of time) but as luck would have it a sheriff's deputy was driving
right by the place and got the call ! And these jerks tried to shoot him.

So these undercover detectives were in a pretty jazzed up mood when they hit
the house looking for my friends sisters boyfriend...

And boy of boy was there father (a native of Chicago) not happy...

Chuck

-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of David C. Shea
Sent: Monday, November 21, 2005 3:43 PM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: RE: Fast 400 - going out of business...

In addition to my archiving software biz, I run TimeShare400.com , an
as400 timeshare service.

A few months back a nice older guy in a Red Sox hat walked into my
office and handed me an envelope.

"Monster seats?" I asked.

"Federal subpoena..." he retorted.

Oh.  Bummer.

Turns out that IBM thought that the developers of FAST400 had built
their little gizmo on my box and wanted everything I had on them and
their stuff.

IBM had me confused with one of the other services out there (I dunno
who).

I called the lawyer and explained all this, and then spent the rest of
the day writing a letter to the lawyer responding to each of their
questions.  Each response was along the lines of "as I stated in the
cover letter and on the phone, I have never heard of Mr. X or Company
Y...".  They never called back, and now the case is settled, so I guess
I'm done with that project.

Sheesh.  That's all I'd need.  IBM gunnin' for me when they're looking
for somebody else.

Speaking of gunnin' for the wrong guy, I once lived in a city with an
apparently successful drug dealer by the same name.  I used to get his
calls once in a while...

"Hey, man... I got the <bleep>.  I'm waiting for you at XYZ bar."

"Uh... you got the wrong guy."

"Oh...  do you happen to have his number?"

Phone calls were one thing.  I just hoped that he didn't really make
somebody mad and they'd find me instead.