> By "the z6 stuff" are you referring to materials about or related to z6 > marked "IBM Confidential"? (The z6 chip information from Charles > Webb is not confidential. An unusual step for IBM, yes, but not > confidential.)
17. And it's not at all an unusual step for IBM, which has the most hypocritical attitude in the whole industry towards pre-announcing. Like Dr Goebel putting the z890 MIPS table up in the opening plenary session at WAVV in Leipzig weeks before the announcement? Get out of here. (I actually called my IBM contact [name withheld] in the UK on my cellphone while the slide was on the projector. What did IBM do? You guessed right. Shot the messenger.) This is a game I'm not going to play again. The last time, as I say, I sent 13 (thirteen) notes to various parts of IBM about z890 materials in general circulation before announcement. It earned me the most insulting and threatening letter I've ever had. It's on the web at http://www.isham-research.co.uk/ibm_letter.html - I have never received an apology, a retraction, or even an acknowledgement of my concerns. And until I do, it stays there and I will do as I damn well please. I shall continue to open my email, no matter what IBM's lawyers say. And if stuff turns up that IBM thinks shouldn't - that's not MY problem, it's IBM's. Duty of care. I have no relationship with IBM and no obligation to treat anything that arrives as anything other than public domain. It was IBM legal that threw our relationship into the toilet, not me. In days of yore, this was a competitive issue. IBM spoon-fed Gartner and Meta and even corrected their draft copy for them - competing with that was very tough. IBM's letter names Tiiu Mayer - ask her how many times I complained about this, and how many times I held back from publishing only to see Gartner publish first. I find it hilarious here sometimes, where certain people desperately point you to every MIPS source but mine when I'm actually supplying the ones they point you to. Do a Google Search on "IBM Confidential" - with the quotes. 13,500 hits. There was an article in Datamation over three decades ago concluding with the suggestion that IBM should introduce a new classification: "WOW! This one's REALLY secret". But for now what "IBM Confidential" really means is "Please turn over". E.g. - check out: http://www.usabilityprofessionals.org/usability_resources/conference/2006/douglass-competitive_eval.pdf "IBM Confidential"? GMAB. It's absolutely meaningless. Not even up to the task of frightening infants and puppies. And on the subject of z6: Many, many years ago IBM made a word that I already knew but thought very obscure into a part of my life. Concatenation. Had I not got involved with System/360, I doubt I would have used that word more than three or four times in my lifetime. Working - as I now do much of the time - with malformed websites, I've learnt to use another obscure word. Deprecated. It's used to describe HTML features that are really obsolete and have been replaced by better ways of doing things. Hmmm. Has LSPR been "deprecated" on z6? A poisoned chalice, if ever I heard of one. -- Phil Payne http://www.isham-research.co.uk +44 7833 654 800 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
