See a few comments below. David Hanwell ACE-INA Information Technology Tel: 215.640.2212 Fax: 215.640.5538 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
-----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Lee Bacall Sent: Thursday, May 06, 2004 4:32 PM EDT To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: Harvey Rodstein; MIke Shebesta; Becky Piel; Porfirio Matt Sperandio Subject: Re: [U2] MV Fad Ross and others, One would have to go back in time to around 1987 for those exciting attendance figures for Spectrum. The shows at that time were incredible events. Ask some of the old-timers like Charlie Noah and Henry Eggers; they can tell you some interesting stories about "history". No, Pick isn't a fad, as fads are fashion news. ********** Not exclusively. Here are some definitions of "fad": \Fad\, n. [Cf. Faddle.] A hobby; freak; whim. See also Fad\"dist, n. Source: Dictionary.com, (c) 2003 "It is your favorite fad, to draw plans." -- George Eliot. Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, (c) 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc. fad n : an interest followed with exaggerated zeal: "He always follows the latest fads"; "The convertible car fad was all the rage that season" [synonyms: craze, furor, furore, cult, rage] Source: WordNet (r) 1.6, (c) 1997 Princeton University ********** Most of us happen to work in an arena that is considered un-fashionable by mainstream IT, which tends to favor large staff and huge budgets that justify big salaries and senior IT titles. Pick shops don't generally have titles like Chief Information Officer, Director of Information Technology, or Vice President of Information Systems. We tend to have a single programmer capable of supporting 500 users doing double duty as both support person and help desk while enhancing applications and running reports for management. ********** <<"We tend to have a single programmer capable of supporting 500 users doing double duty as both support person and help desk while enhancing applications and running reports for management.">> That is not a Fortune 500 or Fortune 1000 company that you are describing. What you are saying is that Pick shops are almost exclusively mid- to low-level companies. Then that is our market niche. ********** We have allowed it to become an environment that is looked upon by management as a bastard child rather than as a valuable adjunct to the business. The mainstream world shines in their ability to sell management on their importance. I'll pose this question rhetorically to the group. What have we done to become the kicking post for CEOs and CFOs who now favor Oracle or even Microsoft SQL Server as an environment? ********** I'll pose an even better question. What have we done to NOT become the kicking post for CEOs and CFOs who now favor Oracle or even Microsoft SQL Server as an environment? ********** Essentially, we have tried to "cheap out" by telling ourselves and management that we can do it cheaper, when what we really should have been saying is that we can do it better, but we are going to need more money and more help and more education. We didn't get, because we didn't ask. Oracle sells because management "buys in" at the boardroom level or on the golf course where bragging is king and no one can brag about spending 50k on a database, but spending 2.5 million on Oracle implies bragging rights. Dick Pick although a gifted visionary in terms of seeing the elegance in the methodology to flexibly store and retrieve data, truly screwed up when Billy Gates asked hime if he would port Pick to a PC with two floppy disc drives, as he said "no, go #$%(* yourself" in a fit of pride. Lee Bacall http://www.binarystar.com Phone: +1 (954) 791-8575 Cell: +1 (954) 937-8989 ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ross Ferris" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, May 05, 2004 8:51 PM EDT Subject: RE: [U2] MV Fad > I don't recall there EVER being 5,000 people at a Spectrum conference, not that I have been to many, > and based on the previous 2 years that I have attended, 500 sounds like an increase. > > By definition a fad is also relatively short lived. To even make reference to 5 years ago indicates that this is not > the case, and the first International Spectrum I went to was in 1992, so I think that for a "fast paced" arena like technology, > multi-valued is not a "fad', though the growth rate could always be better :-) > > Ross Ferris > Stamina Software > Visage, an Evolution in Software Development ____________________________________________________________ CONFIDENTIALITY This e-mail and any attachments are confidential and also may be privileged. If you are not the named recipient, or have otherwise received this communication in error, please delete it from your inbox, notify the sender immediately, and do not disclose its contents to any other person, use them for any purpose, or store or copy them in any medium. Thank you for your cooperation. ____________________________________________________________ ------- u2-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.u2ug.org/listinfo/u2-users
