RE: Name help

Bill,

I think you may want to modify your proclamation a bit as IBM in their
finite wisdom may change things again on you. And since nobody knows that
an i is you may want to consider Earl's comments previously posted.

But, you are very correct to keep things as generically named as you can and
to develop company and product names that do NOT tie themselves to a
particular product line (ESPECIALLY IBM) as the company will most likely
make changes and you'll have the extra overhead expenses of having to follow
suite.

You were smart to chose a company name that has its own identity and
reputation track which is easily identifiable for what it is and in its own
nicheness.

As has been stated here many times in the past, IBM refuses to learn the
value of product brand loyalty as a function of the product name, which is a
simple tenet that many other companies learned long ago and continue to reap
the benefits from.

What's even more scary is listening to Palmisano's comments with Obama at
the White House last week. Frankly he sounds like he wants to create a
super pipeline from Armonk to india and china while giving lip service to
the US job market and quietly closing down jobs in the US...

Jmho...

DR2





-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of William A. Hansen
Sent: Thursday, February 05, 2009 5:34 PM
To: midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Name help

Scott,

Thanks for the thoughtful response. I think its time to go back to the
future. I wrote mainframe training for 20 years, and one of my rules was to
never use the name of the hardware. It changed too often as it went
System/360-->System/370-->ES9000-->etc. Instead, I used "MVS" for the
operating system and "MVS system" for the collection of hardware and
software. Even in an operator course, there is hardly ever a need to
reference the hardware as a whole. If I am teaching a particular skill, I
will talk about the "control panel" or "tape drive."

Since one of IBM's new rules is to never use "i" by itself, I hereby
proclaim that the "IBM i system" is the collection of software and hardware
under the control of the IBM i operating system. If you need to refer to a
particular piece of equipment, call Trevor.

Bill
William A. Hansen
whansen@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Manta Technologies Inc.
Toll-free: (800) 406-2682 x 101
Direct: (303) 862-4562