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

[Jan-Erik Söderholm]

Den 2022-06-30 kl. 18:27, skrev Bill Gunshannon:
> On 6/30/22 11:06, Jan-Erik Söderholm wrote:
>> Den 2022-06-30 kl. 15:02, skrev Bill Gunshannon:
>>> On 6/29/22 22:01, Dave Froble wrote:
>>>> 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 ...
>>>>
>>>
>>> Should have used COBOL.  Then they could move to z/OS and DB2.
>>> DB2 meet the relational database requirement.  And z/OS, well,
>>> nobody ever got fired for going with IBM.   :-)
>>>
>>> bill
>>>
>>> (Still time to do the conversion.   :-)
>>>
>>
>> I think that Davids application runs as a distributed system.
>> z/OS are usually very centralized systems.
>>
>>
> 
> I guess my comment was too tongue-in-cheek.  The same auditors who are
> trying to push VMS and BASIC out the door would apply equal pressure
> on z/OS and COBOL today.
> 
> Oh, and Dave, I thought you were the boss?
> :-)
> 
> bill
> 

Some companies have one boss "on paper" and one "IRL"... :-)