RE: [Hardhats-members] MDC Revival

[Sowinski, Richard J.]

Title: RE: [Hardhats-members] MDC Revival

Sorry, I obviously thought I was replying only to my old co-worker, Mr Clemens.   Please disregard. -----Original Message----- From: Sowinski, Richard J. Sent: Wednesday, March 02, 2005 11:39 AM To: 'hardhats-members@lists.sourceforge.net' Subject: RE: [Hardhats-members] MDC Revival Thanks for the support, I think.   How are you ?   I am doing ok. My divorce is kind of winding down, and I'm dating again, and things are ok.   Sometimes I miss the old Cirn days when we used to have meetings in Florida every other week, because Marylin liked the weather down there. But I don't miss Yacobucci.   Doug Martin's company is really taking off. He has IHS all wrapped up, and now he's doing something for NASA.   - Rich -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]On Behalf Of Clemens, John Sent: Wednesday, March 02, 2005 11:18 AM To: 'hardhats-members@lists.sourceforge.net' Subject: RE: [Hardhats-members] MDC Revival Rich if you're still with VA in 10 years I hope you never give up on dishing out a little reality.   John Clemens IT Specialist, Software IRMS Veterans Affairs Medical Center (662) 4150 Clement Street San Francisco, CA  94121 Phone:  415.221.4810 x4540 (Tu,Wed,Thu) Digital Pager:415.303.0388 ( Mon,Fri) Fax: 415.750.2177   [EMAIL PROTECTED]       From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Sowinski, Richard J. Sent: Wednesday, March 02, 2005 6:20 AM To: 'hardhats-members@lists.sourceforge.net' Subject: RE: [Hardhats-members] MDC Revival When did everyone get so dumb ? You learned M. I learned M. When did it all of a sudden get so difficult to learn it ? Are you saying we were smarter than the upcoming generation ? I don't think so.   The real problem with Vista right now is not the language. It is the shear size of it, and the rat's nest of poorly documented code under the hood, which is the result of years of patching already patched code. I liken it to a huge wad of gum.   A redesign in M is as valid as a redesign in any other language. In fact, it would be much simpler. VA already has the installed base, and the in-house expertise.   We'll find out 10 years from now (maybe) when the current redesign is finished, how well it works , and how many people it takes to support it.   Oh yeah, by the way, outsourcing has worked really well. CoreFLS was a grand success.   -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]On Behalf Of steven mcphelan Sent: Tuesday, March 01, 2005 8:06 AM To: hardhats-members@lists.sourceforge.net Subject: Re: [Hardhats-members] MDC Revival I believe Cameron's statement about the VA management not being able to back off of migrating to a newer platform is probably very close to the truth.  However, I am sure that there were some real business management decisions made (or at least I hope so).  I saw an article recently that estimated that 40-50% of the current VA IT staff will be retiring in the next 5 years.  If I was a manager of VA IT I would be very concerned about that.  I would seriously consider moving my technology to a platform that enables me to recruit competent IT staff without having to rely on in-house training for the next generation of VA IT support.  I would even consider technology that is inferior to my current technology as long as the new technology meets my needs and gives me greater flexibilty in personnel matters or provide me the opportunity to competitively outsource some IT functions.