[Info-vax] For sale: VAXstation 4000/90 128MB Fully Working and Tested

[Dave Froble]

On 6/29/2022 3:36 PM, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
> On 6/29/2022 3:28 PM, Dave Froble wrote:
>>                                   My days working with VMS, and computers in
>> general, seem to be coming to an end.
>
> What??
>
> We expect you to stick around for a few more decades!
>
> Arne
>
>

Erik (the boss) is 80, I'm 76, Bill in early 70s, and Niel is late 60s, and 
really want to retire.

We made a pitch to the customers.  Buy the software package, and we will give 
you a year or whatever we can to train new people.  They said they didn't want 
to be in the software business.  (Almost every business for the last 30-40 years 
has been in the software business, in some way.)

Largest customer, now being run by original owner's children, had their auditors 
come in, and were told:

You can't use that ancient OS (VMS) ...
You can't continue with that ancient language (Basic) ...
You need a relational database ...
And a few more ridiculous claims ...
Above all, "you can't count on these old geezers" ...

They refused to give them a successful audit ...

Can't purchase business insurance without successful audit ...

Then they pointed out a company with a cloud based solution for the customer to 
talk to.  Too bad they didn't mention that the company was a wholely owned 
subsidiary of the auditing firm.

:-)

The app uses a single connection to the cloud.  There is inadequate throughput. 
It is slow.  Every time the customer asks for a feature in Codis, they are told 
that cannot be done.  After several postponements, the customer went live on the 
cloud solution.  They are missing many features they counted on.  The system is 
inadequate.  For example, (Bill likes to gather statistics), max orders from 
Amazon have hit 100 per minute.  The new system is lucky to handle 5 Amazon 
orders per minute.  Most people aware of this are predicting that they're going 
to crater.  There is also the penalties from Amazon if a vendor does not perform 
as agreed.

This customer might have spent a million over the last 30 years on Codis. 
Already they have spent over 5 million trying to get the new cloud based 
working, and it isn't doing so well.

We have continually offered to help.  Other customers are looking at the 
clusterfuck, and are re-thinking about being in the software business.  Codis 
does all they need to run their companies.  The main problem is the age of the 
people involved.  We'd really like to do something about that, but if we could, 
we'd be rich and in the medical field, not software.

Erik has told the customers, the company is shutting down at the end of 2023. 
We'd like to continue, but we can't make any promises.  We will do what we can. 
But if the beer truck gets us ...

We have told the customers:

VSI is currently supporting VMS, and porting it to x86 ...
VSI is currently (I hope John) supporting Basic ...
The auditing firm is a bunch of crooks ...

The names were changed to protect the guilty ...

-- 
David Froble                       Tel: 724-529-0450
Dave Froble Enterprises, Inc.      E-Mail: davef at tsoft-inc.com
DFE Ultralights, Inc.
170 Grimplin Road
Vanderbilt, PA  15486