On May 19, 2007, at 9:55 AM, Eric Bielefeld wrote:
Ed,
I don't think this is off topic at all. It could become the next hot
storage type, or it could fizzle like so many new technologies.
Thanks... I didn't want to get hopped on by the usual crowd.
Just a comment on your postings, Ed. As many have commented on your
postings, your opinions and memories about several vendors, and
especially Share, seem to clash with a lot of others experiences.
But, you often post articles of interest that no one else comes up
with. Keep posting articles like this.
I have an unusual background when it comes to GUIDE/SHARE. Unlike a
lot of people on here I was a "grunt" at GUIDE for 20 (or so years).
Yes I eventually headed up a group but during that 20 years I sat in
the background doing my job and getting to know a lot of people. I
include IBMers as part of that. Towards the end I was getting invited
out to dinner with IBM at least 1 or 2 times a meeting. I also hung
around SCIDS and drank my fair share. I will say this that although
it was a rewarding experience (working as a grunt and as a group
leader). I got to see the stuff that tends to go on in the background
that normal attendees did not see. A lot of stuff that is glossed
over on here I lived through and experienced. I sort of get a kick
out of the people that say "well I never saw that" or that never
happened as in fact it really happened. Then the people who say get
involved volunteer or don't criticize as you haven't experienced
"it". Probably only a few on here went to SHARE/GUIDE for 20+ years
like I have. Those that have can may have rose colored glasses on or
have an optimistic view of the world, I don't know.
I cannot say I was at SHARE for 20+ years, I can say I started out at
SHARE in the early 70's and got tired of it and then started going to
GUIDE. I found that SHARE attendees were almost all young and
somewhat naive when it came to IBM. Yes I liked IBM but knew that
they were good but a needed "evil". The people that attended SHARE
were most likely to be tech people that could go on arguing for hours
about a bit or byte or a fullword contents. That was fine, up to a
point. It got tiring at 4 sessions a year (2 majors and 2 mini's). I
got tired of the rose colored glasses everyone had on. After GUIDE
evaporated I started going back to SHARE. It had slightly changed in
that there was no longer the arguing over bits and bytes but had
picked up a lot of characteristics of GUIDE, but it kept the "old boy
network" that was there since the early 70's (or before I am not sure
what went on before the 70's).
When I started to attend SHARE in the 90's, it took me about 4 (or 5)
meetings to realize that SHARE just wasn't GUIDE and as long as the
"young" people ran it, it would never grow up.
Ed
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