3000 Newswire Planning Features

June 2005 Planning Features

Editorial: Set memory aside; open your eyes and see what can be — Our recollection of things as we learned to love them can act like a snagged anchor when we sail into a new channel. On an afternoon's drive out to the changing lakeshore, the more we remembered the oaks and the quiet pastures dotted with goats in the past, the less we could appreciate what had replaced them. The 400-foot pylons helped along my awe, maybe like the 90-million-system footprint of Windows is helping you accept replacements for your HP 3000.

Q&A: Chris Bartram, A Steady Link to 3000 Knowledge — He worked at the start of the Internet era to connect HP 3000s, after he’d been developing for and taking care of the systems since his high school days. Now that the founder of 3k Associates is turning his 3kassociates.com Web site into a storehouse for 3000 techniques, we wanted to ask him about information’s lifespan and MPE networking

May 2005 Planning Features

Editorial: How to know how far you can go — A challenge of facing a hard journey — whether crossing the Hill Country on a bike or making the trek through transition country — gives us a reason to look for how long we should ride.

Q&A: Paul Holland, Wading Through Migration’s Common Problems — After more than 15 years of guiding companies through migrations away from a multitude of enterprise platforms, Transoft’s CEO shares advice on how to profit from the future, even if you don’t relish the change that seems to drive it

April 2005 Planning Features

Editorial: Step back onto your path toward success — Life offers a rich challenge when we try to reclaim success. This month I join you in such a challenge, along with HP’s new CEO. Whether you’re an IT pro who solved the mysteries of datacomm in the 1980s and now must learn Linux, a corporate executive hired to revive another computer icon, or a bike rider trying to complete another course of 100-plus miles, we all have an interesting spring before us.

Q&A: Chuck Ciesinski, A New Face for the Legacy of Spirit — This new OpenMPE board member extends his volunteer journey, powered by decades of 3000 experience. We ask about the future of his career, which like many 3000 pros’, is taking new turns during 2005, as well as MPE’s years to come

March 2005 Planning Features

Editorial: Meet change with eyes open, face to face — Last month I faced another where-were-you moment on a windy Wednesday, that February afternoon when I learned HP had fired its CEO. The event stood up as a bookend to another crucial day in the HP 3000’s transition, the Wednesday in 2001 when I learned HP was leaving another kingpin behind: Its HP 3000, crown jewel of its rise in systems, the company’s first computer hit.

Q&A: John Marrah, Commanding New E-commerce Options — The CEO of the application company which led the market in new 3000 sales has taken command of Ecometry’s future and extended the 3000’s lifespan while growing his company. See how Marrah is meshing the 3000’s present and future

February 2005 Planning Features

Editorial: Small-market wins require big-time investments — As San Antonio Spurs fans, we know it takes spirit to love a small-market team, one that plays outside the limelight of a big metropolis. This must sound familiar to the HP 3000 customer? In 20 years we have talked to a lot of them who feel overlooked, who have wished HP and its vendors sang the 3000’s praises, or compared it favorably to systems lauded more often. The HP 3000 feels like the classic small-market team.

Open Mike, by Birket Foster — Looking toward the future with friends from the 3000s past? The experience made a reunion dinner a priceless event

Q&A: Doug Walker, An Evolution from Software to Biology — The outgoing CEO of 3000 connectivity pioneer WRQ reports on what prompted the sale of the company and what the HP 3000 marketplace taught him about quality

January 2005 Planning Features

Editorial: New year’s motion can picture moves to make you ready — We’ve already spent hours in the dark to mark our new year, watching movies. The nominations for the Golden Globe awards led us into the theatres, screening those candidates for this month’s Oscar nominations. We want to be prepared, so we don’t have to play catch up. You’ll want to be prepared too, especially if there are changes on your 3000 horizon.

Q&A: Denys Beauchemin, Experiencing the 3000 First — The outgoing chair of the Interex board of directors served two straight terms, an unusual dedication to the user group. We asked the veteran HP 3000 volunteer and profilic source of 3000 advice online about his experiences with RISC’s earliest HP 3000 days, and what he advises about getting storage ready for the 3000’s years to come

December 2004 Planning Features

Editorial: Death opens the doors of life after — The only mystery about death is when it will arrive. People were stunned when HP announced the death of its 3000 business. (The 3000 market is far healthier than HP’s 3000 business.) But the truth is that death stands somewhere on every path. It has a habit of taking us by surprise when it arrives before old age sets in.

Q&A: Steve Cooper, Care For a Market with a Longer Lifespan — The co-founder of 20-year veteran company Allegro Consultants tells why he helped start a 3000 consortium which sees new growth at the tops of the oldest trees

November 2004 Planning Features

Classics can be a long-running affair — I couldn't sleep, and it was a very old movie, a classic in the truest sense of the word. I found myself following its story beyond my bedtime because its style was special. You might be doing the same thing over the next few years with your HP 3000. Some of you are doing this even while you’re leaving that classic computer behind. What it does for your company is so special it can’t be replaced, at least not easily.

Q&A: Organizing a New Orbit of 3000 Experience — Doug Felder, the new COO of ORBiT Software, tells how the new Resource 3000 consortium came to be and honed its aims, plus ORBiT’s role in the group and its new organization.

October 2004 Planning Features

Decide now about your future — October is a month of lawn signs in my neighborhood, a signal that it's time to cast your vote. You should be deciding what to do about your HP 3000's future, and looking at what's happened to Itanium when you do.

Disaster Recovery Plans for Homesteaders, by Paul Edwards — Get started on protecting the 3000 homestead resource with this planning advisory

Q&A: Planning Future Resources for 3000 ERP — Jeffrey Lyon tells how the new OpenERP Solutions can make 3000 support pay off today, when ERP firms like SSA Global have developed a taste for consolidating 3000 sites

September 2004 Planning Features

Making contact with the spirit of experience — The spirits uncapped in an HP trade show’s session rooms do not commonly include champagne. No matter. We celebrated an uncommon collection of people: Pioneers in the computing experience which we once called minicomputers. Your HP 3000s stand as the state of that art. About two dozen of us sat in chairs to play a game whose prize, industry intelligence, was already confirmed.

Q&A: Dave Wilde, Calculating the 3000’s Complex Answers — After two-plus years at the head of HP’s 3000 class, the business manager talks about what HP is doing for the platform, what it won’t do, and whether it might change.

August 2004 Planning Features

Catch a wave and surf away from the sharks — Astride Follet’s Island sits Surfside Beach, a sleepy little community where beach-house bums like us could plod out of our rentals into the salt water. Some days I could see how the surfers modeled habits for your HP 3000 transition.

Q&A: Coming Back to the 3000’s Future — Bill Lancaster returns to Lund Performance Solutions this summer recharged from a hiatus and building a homestead practice at one of the HP Platinum migration partners. See why.

July 2004 Planning Features

Be independent to take a role in the 3000 scene — Fahrenheit 9/11 draws a portrait of an America thoroughly divided over our country’s future. Fear and war, or faith and peace, appeared to be the choices we face. If that sounds familiar, I believe that’s because the movie that this veteran and his family watched felt like a picture of the HP 3000 community — a group now taking steps away from common ground, because neither side can see what’s got the other all worked up.

Q&A: Keeping Up the Links to the HP 3000 — Sawmills and mines stood at the start of Rich Corn’s computer career, but one of the most natural resources in his life has been the HP 3000. More than 20 years ago he developed print software for the platform, and his solution has been sold as continuously as the form-feed paper that was in vogue in 1984 when he launched his company, RAC Consulting. Now HP wants to step up and replicate some of RAC’s solution in one of its last enhancements for the system, an improvement on network printing features that led the users’ voting on the last SIB ballot.

June 2004 Planning Features

Finding a channel to float forward — Floating the San Marcos river shows the two kinds of HP 3000 customers, kicking hard or courting the current. Another channel continues to emerge, though.

Q&A: Keeping the Hardware Lights Lit — Keith Burson has supported 3000 hardware for 15 years as a third party. As business grows for non-HP support, he talks about who’s signing on, and how a third party’s service is unique

May 2004 Planning Features

An eye on skies defines outlook for the next year — We knew we had somewhere to go, but didn’t know what we’d have to overcome. The weather for this year's Hill Country Ride for AIDS was as unpredictable as HP must seem to HP 3000 owners of today. You know there’s going to be a storm of change that will wash out much of the last quarter-century of HP’s path for a 3000 customer. But a lack of information makes it tough to plan for anything but scrapping your systems by December, 2006.

Q&A: An Extra Helping of MPE — Pivital Solutions president Steve Suraci worked his way onto the authorized reseller table during the 3000’s last year of HP sales, expanded into MPE and 3000 support early this year, then earned a seat last month on the board of directors for OpenMPE. See what’s behind his hunger for MPE, and how much support appetite he sees in the marke

April 2004 Planning Features

Watch when spirit is being sold to serve profits — I sat in the Southwest Airlines seat while we approached the Bay Area, but the sight that caught my eye was not outside the 737’s window. I stared at an HP advertisement in my Sports Illustrated, then realized that after 20 years I didn’t recognize the company anymore. The new HP is high-spirited like the old Hewlett-Packard never was. HP 3000 owners will want to judge if HP’s spirits continue to serve them like their computers have.

Q&A: Backup for the Community, Present and Future — ORBiT Software’s Paul Meszaros, always a good touchstone about the community’s intentions, want to provide 3000 users choices while his company protects what’s working. He tells what his customer base is thinking about its transition, and how the latest backup technology is being adopted by the 3000 customers

March 2004 Planning Features

Lingering longer: A show of love, or sign of fear? — All this month I saw moving in my life. I couldn’t help but think of HP’s exit from the MPE support business, as well as the rate of your departure from the platform. All around me, there seems to be a lot of lingering going on. HP will tell you they are not lingering, just making your life easier and less costly.

Q&A: Keeping 3000 Strategies in Motion — Speedware’s Chris Koppe has signed up for an interesting 2004, winning a seat on the HP user group’s board of directors during a challenging year while his company works on being both a migration resource and source of help to homesteading 3000 sites

February 2004 Planning Features

Buy a house where homestead hope can live — For the first time in my life, I own a home away from home. I sat in the title company office signing paper after paper, pondering the promises that each one bound us onto. I couldn’t help but think of the house that OpenMPE may soon be trying to get you to buy — and how much our market needs such a homestead away from its HP home.

Q&A: Teaching Lessons with a Long Lifespan — Frank Smith built a second career as one of the busiest North American instructors teaching HP 3000 skills. Maintaining these MPE skills, and transferring the market’s knowledge to new staff, is becoming critical to a homesteading on the platform.. Even if the 3000 isn’t changing much, Smith still can profess a lot of value in the system.

January 2004 Planning Features

Keep calendars independent, but not passionate — Turning 21 is the most important birthday anybody celebrates, since it marks maturity and responsibility. You should mark your own responsibility this year for your HP 3000 futures. Every day shows me more evidence that your vendor matters less, unless you’re buying its 3000 alternatives. Only MPE’s ownership remains to be settled by HP.

Q&A: The Work to Master Something New — Alan Yeo has expressed himself with a World Wide Wake for the 3000, cartoons that lambast HP’s CEO, and hard questions about the future of 3000 user group conferences. We ask him about choices for migrations and why the customers have moved so slowly

December 2003 Planning Features

Giving thanks for what may grace your table — Even as HP slipped out the back exit of its HP 3000 sales floor, we could find plenty to be grateful for. Perhaps like 3000 customers in the post-HP-sales world, we didn’t expect to see some of the bounty that appeared at our table.

Q&A: Making Choices to Move On — HP’s Alvina Nishimoto has been the face of HP’s migration message, now being called transitions, for more than 18 months at user meetings. We quizzed her about the latest Transition Tools program, HP’s plans for its partners, and the size of the 3000 base

November 2003 Planning Features

Editorial: Traveling roads along trails of training — I drove the roads from my fortnightly novel workshop meeting out to Austin’s “World Wide Wake” for the 3000 in bright sunshine. My course traced a path from my novelist’s future into my journalism beginnings. Several hundred people in the computer’s community took a similar trip on Oct. 31, and thousands more made the journey in their hearts and minds.

OpenMike — On Halloween Night for the HP 3000, its biggest fans commemorate how much the environment has meant to them, and what they will carry forward

Q&A: Taking Steps at MPE’s Fork in the Road — Donna Garverick has led HP 3000 Special Interest Groups for MPE, and now sits on a Migration SIG. See how this advocate for the platform is preparing for futures of both career growth and maintenance

October 2003 Planning Features

Editorial: A new era, old skills, but always online — I spent a few hours this week crawling through dust balls and shopping near midnight. I was having the HP 3000 customer’s 2004-2006 experience, and my toils weren’t as tough as I feared.

How Portfolios and Outsourcing Can Help Transitions, by John Burke — In the last of a three-part series, see how a mix of strategies and going offsite can help

Open Opportunities, by Jon Backus — Frustration calls for a vote on spending

OpenMike — OpenMPE board members Birket Foster and Donna Garverick salute the 3000 with memories and poetry as sales end

Q&A: A Firm Solution to 3000 Emulation — Willard West plans to take his company to the source of PA-RISC chips and Strobe Data’s heartland to create a 3000 emulator

September 2003 Planning Features

Editorial: Start riding in a time machine — Sometimes a fella has to prove he’s earned an upgrade that’s actually long overdue. I enjoyed that experience on two wheels this month, and you can have it on the floor of your HP 3000 site, too. I’m talking new machine upgrade, and you should be listening hard right now. You may not have it as easy as I did the next time you want to improve your data vehicle.

Open Opportunities, by Jon Backus — After a meeting at HP World, the OpenMPE Web site now has Quick Polls to take the pulse of the 3000 homesteading sites

Q&A: Leading HP’s Way to Not Fade Away — Bob Floyd heads HP’s 3000 Americas support delivery for the next three years. Here’s how he plans to keep sites satisfied

August 2003 Planning Features

Three trades, two firings, but no future — The season is over in Cincinnati, but the 3000's opening season is still in play, and HP can still make some plays to matter.

Non-HP Disks: What about EMC? — HP seems to have engineered around EMC's differences so far

Open Opportunities, by Jon Backus — The chairman of the post-2006 MPE organization updates us on where the group has headed and what it has accomplished

Q&A: Mapping a New Harbor for 3000 Data — Eloquence creator Michael Marxmeier talks about making a database to take IMAGE’s place for migrating 3000 apps

July 2003 Planning Features

Transition can fly renewal course to greater reserves — Some computers are like old trees of the Clayoquot: standing proud, working for their environment, a resource to be conserved and preserved.

OpenMike, by Birket Foster — Reduce your risk and take care of your relationships, says an HP Platinum Migration partner, to prepare for the HP 3000’s end of life

Worst Practices: The New Compaq and The Old IBM, by Scott Hirsh — It’s not heresy: the closest you can come today to the old HP blue is IBM’s Big Blue

Q&A: One Man, One Shop — An Independent View — A one-man 3000 shop manager much like many of you shows how his alternative paths might lead to a new future

June 2003 Planning Features

Nothing is ever completely sold out — Finding a ticket became a lesson in supply and demand for me, but I learned you can always get a seat, or what your need for your 3000, over the years to come

Q&A: Steve Smith, Throwing Open a Window to Low-cost Power — A developer shares his tips on moving a complex COBOL app to the wonders of Windows

May 2003 Planning Features

You're never alone while pedaling up hard hills — A challenge can change you, once you open your heart to it.The last weekend of April taught me lessons about hard roads, what can ease an effort, and what makes the most difference while riding toward a place you’ve never reached before.

Q&A: Fred White, Heartfelt Values at the 3000’s Heart — The Co-creator of the IMAGE database checks in from his happy retirement to pass on durable values

April 2003 Planning Features

The best play: swinging away at the future — More than a quarter-century of seasons after our boyhood, I invited my brother to share the sport’s redoubtable exercise in hope, spring training in the persistent sunshine of Florida. Those diamonds sparkled with the same caliber of potential that I watched unfold a few weeks later, in a less-sunny Valley Forge at the e3000 Solutions Symposium.

Q&A: Christian Lheureux, Keeping the Faith Euro-style — OpenMPE board member and HP channel partner Lheureux reports on how Europe is making the transition

March 2003 Planning Features

Building a new booster makes all orbits safer — The building of a new emulation booster might seem to be of little concern to the 3000 customers who say they will migrate. But it should be.

Homestead Advisor, by Frank Calvillo — How to establish your support strategy

Open Mike, by Joseph Rosenblatt — The advent of commodity computing compares with a new standard in Gem jar sizes. Is this new jar full at all?

Q&A: Mark Klein, Waiting for the Key to MPE’s New Factory — Developer and OpenMPE director Klein outlines prospects for enhancing the OS without HP

February 2003 Planning Features

Taking measures to guide your projects — I am learning to become more of a “measure twice, cut once” kind of guy. In this effort I know I am trying to get to a level where our readers already work. The HP 3000 owner and manager defines this ethic. As you lay out your computing lumber for the biggest project of your IT career, measuring before you cut will be your greatest tool.

Q&A: Deb Lawson, Throwing Light Onto Dark Places — The Interex director of the user group’s advocacy and technical events, a former HP manager, has become a key player for the HP 3000 community, through Symposiums and surveys. We asked her about the will she sees for migration, and homesteading’s needs

January 2003 Planning Features

New Year’s calls for new calendars — The year 2003 is only three days old as I write this, a fact that’s easy to track in the NewsWire’s offices. This year we’ve got no fewer than five calendars in our work spaces, offering education, inspiration and memories. In the year to come, HP 3000 customers are going to need all three of those resources.

Q&A: Doug Greenup, Looking Over a Surprising Year — The founder of Minisoft looks over a customer base of 10,000, and sees Linux coming on as a contender to HP-UX, and lots of 3000 sites doing little but studying transition

December 2002 Planning Features

Showing thanks for family and familiarity — If you're taking some comfort in the familiar while the economic weather is foul, you've got company. It's a Thanksgiving kind of experience, like the one we had in Texas.

Homestead Advisor, by Jon Backus — In a column for customers planning MPE-IMAGE infrastructure beyond HP’s 3000 involvement, a director of OpenMPE invites users to start a free membership in the organization

Q&A: Dave Wilde, Moving the 3000 into HP’s Gray Areas — HP’s leader of the 3000 business talks about how the vendor will help in homesteading

November 2002 Planning Features

Opening Day in a Season of Superheroes — In the blackest part of the year we hear a story of origin that reminds us that superheroes are born in worst of bad times

Letter: How replacing software uncovers hidden costs — A university learns that its support is going up after it leaves home-grown software, a lesson for those replacing applications

OpenMike: Thoughts on Installing an OS — While loading the last MPE update to be supplied by HP, a longtime customer reflects on how much things feel different

Homestead Advisor, by Ron Horner — In a new column that helps customers plan their MPE-IMAGE infrastructure beyond HP’s involvement with the 3000, a consultant studies how much help the new system offerings might be to a homesteader

Q&A: Jim Kramer, Developing Intelligence About Migration — The director of R&D at Lund Performance Solutions is developing the company’s migration practice

October 2002 Planning Features

Taking a Turn Up Hope Street — Although I walked unaccompanied on a Los Angeles street leading to a library, this year’s HP World saw many 3000 customers crowding the curb on the community’s hope street, the path to OpenMPE’s homesteading future.

The Buck Stops in LA: Abby's Analysis — Dave Wilde of HP showed signs of Truman-esqe leadership at HP World; we celebrate 7 years of 3000 coverage by loving the trade show events

Open Mike: Not Dead Yet, According to the Data, by Gavin Scott — Comparing MPE’s state to the death of a loved one creates a premature obituary

Worst Practices, by Scott Hirsh: Train Wreck — Even the arrival of hard times in IT doesn’t provide an excuse to return to the bad history of no training

Q&A: Rene Woc: Composing the 3000’s New Movement — The CEO of Adager reports on why his company remains fascinated with the HP 3000 software environment, and notes that HP’s position at HP World falls short of what MPE and IMAGE deserve — an environment where their technology can continue to evolve

September 2002 Planning Features

Small towns can nurture big values — Small towns are where the natives stay while the rush of big city life lures others away. For the HP 3000 homesteader, life in IT might begin to take on the aspects of a small town. If you’re lucky.

Q&A: Jon Backus, Holding the Door Open for MPE — The chairman of OpenMPE talks about the current prospects for HP’s help with homesteading, and the health of the 3000’s infrastructure and hope for the community’s future

August 2002 Planning Features

Fill your sails before you change your course — The sailboat eked out its advances in slight winds, breeze that seemed to be fighting us off our bow much of the trip. Sailing on such days, whether you’re in a boat or working to advance your company’s information ability, takes patience and the flexibility to tack. Fortunately, you have enough computing sail to tack, a technique where you don’t chart a direct course for your destination.

Worst Practices, by Scott Hirsh — Identify potential transfer costs when you evaluate new technology, so you won’t get fooled again during a change

Q&A: Birket Foster:, Cooking Up New Strategies for 3000s — The founder of one of HP’s Platinum migration partners is also on the OpenMPE board of directors. It’s just another place where Birket stands in the middle, serving everything

July 2002 Planning Features

Editorial: A journey whose end is unseen — You must cross Wyoming more than once to see how big the world is. Last month Abby and I did it twice on the way to Montana by car, then back again, ferrying a fountain of a goddess on our return. After 4,219 miles of that trip, I know how HP 3000 owners feel, sitting at the wheel of IT shops on their transition journey.

Q&A: Dave Wilde: Customers First, In HP’s Last Period — The new leader of HP’s 3000 business unit talks about how much help homesteading customers can expect, and how the New HP has reorganized to maintain 3000 infrastructure

June 2002 Planning Features

Editorial: Back yard ecosystems grow surprises — HP 3000 customers have heard a lot about ecosystems from HP over the last seven months. You can start with a hole in the ground and end up with an ecosystem. That ought to be proof enough that nurturing an ecosystem is built around maintaining a healthy opportunity. At least that’s what we learned in our back yard this month, creating a healthy home-grown pond.

Worst Practices: The Contradiction of Openness, by Scott Hirsh — In the era of entropy, watch out for these worst practices in open systems purchasing, know more about your total cost of ownership than your vendors, and stay in touch

Q&A: Vladimir Volokh, Keeping HP 3000s on the Road — The VEsoft founder has spent months on the road visiting 3000 customers, carrying advice about how to avoid running on fumes when HP tells you the 3000 is at the end of the road

May 2002 Planning Features

Editorial: Be Carful of What You Wish For — As the merger's bloodletting gets underway, customers and business partners using HP 3000s might do well to recall the proverb atop this column. No matter how noble its motivation, any wish can lose its luster in the hard light of execution: mergers, migrations, or a boy’s dream of playing center field in his hometown.

OpenMike: Commodity Supports Soap, Not Computers — A lack of innovation has hurt computer makers in the past, and seems to be the endgame of HP’s merger

Q&A: Paul Dorius, Manufacturing a Landing Space — The president of an HP 3000 application supplier and part of the computer’s “ecosystem” explains how his company is handling the transition of several hundred customers. The head of eXegeSys also comments on HP’s choice to exit the 3000 business Transition — from the perspective of a company which took over for HP in the ERP application business in 1996

April 2002 Planning Features

Editorial: Keep Your Eyes on the Strikes, Not on the Clock — Baseball teaches us to watch the strike zone to see what's a hit, whether we're talking pitches from the mound or from a vendor working to get you to migrate

OpenMike: A Case for Commodity Computing — An MPE application provider moving to other platforms argues that HP’s 3000 value has been declining for some time

Q&A: Richard Gambrell, Pursuing an Education About Migration — The head of computing at a metro university has lots of Unix background, 3000 migration experience to packaged software, and stories to tell on what to expect out of a Transition

March 2002 Planning Features

Editorial: Close-Up Computing Will Live On — A friendly fixture in the 3000 community has passed away, but the kind of computing in vogue when Dick Kranz started reporting on HP continues to live on among you

OpenMike: Look to the Independent Market — Bill Towe advises customers using HP 3000s, especially the 9x7 models, look up the alternatives to HP support

Q&A: Gavin Scott, Choosing a Path for the 3000’s Tomorrow — Allegro Consultants seems to stand at the crossroads of multiple paths for the computer’s future through the transition. See how engineering outside of HP hopes to create safe roads to travel

February 2002 Planning Features

Editorial: An Alternative State of the 3000's Union — Think of it as another way to view your computer's future, delivered by the opposition after so much HP politics on the Web and elsewhere. Things are not about to change as much as HP wants you to believe

OpenMike: A Possible Roadmap for OpenMPE — In the first entry in our new guest editorial column, an HP 3000 software provider offers up a plan to create a new HP 3000 division outside of HP

The Fun of Understanding Unix, by Gavin Scott — Linux shows the potential for an operating system to be simpler than MPE, and fun to explore, too

Q&A: Mike Hornsby, Tending a Steady Light for 3000 Support — One of the strongest sources of third-party 3000 support talks about MPE’s bright future, beyond HP

January 2002 Planning Features

Editorial: Growing Up Enough to Be Santa Claus — HP has put an end to the myth of a huge corporation willing to sell a solution that's different but better. Now you can do more than believe in myths: you can be a legendary giver yourself

Worst Practices, by Scott Hirsh — If you have to make changes in a 3000 Transition, here’s thoughts on if you should buy new, or build on what you have

The Migration Dilemma, by Curtis Stordahl — Moving away from an HP 3000 carries a lot of risks, things that a phased migration using Posix-compliant MPE applications can mitigate

A Guide to Linux Licensing, by Shawn Gordon — A 3000 developer who started a Linux company explains how the alternative can be free, but not as in beer

Q&A: Winston Prather, Covering New Ground in a New Year — HP’s 3000 division leader talks about his second job at HP, the rationale behind ending HP’s support of the 3000, and whether HP thinks the computer can ever be killed off

December 2001 Planning Features

Editorial: Time to imagine thinking on your own — By announcing it won’t be in the 3000 business in five years, HP changed your ownership community forever. It’s up to you to make it a change it for the better. You will have to do some thinking on your own.

Inside VEsoft: Ranting from Washington, by Steve Hammond — Pardon the interruption as our columnist considers HP’s end of support notice and how ecosystems changed

Q&A: Jeff Vance, Opening Steps Towards MPE’s Future — A two-decade vet inside HP’s labs talks about the challenges and choices to make an OpenMPE possible

November 2001 Planning Features

NewsWire Editorial: A New Road to Travel in Transition

Editorial: Uncertain Seasons Require Flexibility, Demand Faith — The Yankees’ return to the Fall Classic this year proves that very little in life is certain. That is a sentiment that could be a great consolation to the HP e3000 community in this uncertain season.

Q&A: Paul Edwards, Commanding HP 3000 Conservation — A 25-year veteran of the platform outlines a plan that would revive tested applications over the Internet

October 2001 Planning Features

Editorial: Changing moments, lasting lifetimes — In an unexpected moment, your life can change forever. In changing times, it's better to look at relationships than make forecasts

Letter from the Publisher — As we prepared this issue — the beginning of the NewsWire’s seventh year — I found myself being more reflective about doing the impossible

Worst Practices, by Scott Hirsh — Now that the unthinkable has happened to one of the world’s more famous datacenters, it’s time to think about disasters without faking your recovery plan for them

Q&A: Alfredo Rego — The founder and creator of Adager keeps evolving right along with the e3000, remaining in forward motion while staying true to the database that HP has begun to honor as the extra value and heart of the platform’s success

September 2001 Planning Features

Editorial: What history buys HP 3000 users, and what it costs — How can a historic stadium with bad food and a spotty team sell out in Chicago? Might as well ask why people are buying the A-Class e3000s. The answer is that they're paying for history.

Q&A:Planting Seedlings of MPE Experience — Jon Backus has launched the first university for the e3000. See why he believes learning more can turn into earning more

August 2001 Planning Features

Editorial: Making deals means living in community — When shopping to replace a trusty but aging steed, I learned what you know isn't as important as what you believe

Worst Practices, by Scott Hirsh: You're Right, I'm Left, They're Gone — With companies being acquired in the e3000 world, it’s prudent to know what to do when a long-time relationship changes its face

Q&A: Keeping Up Connections to Learn — Jeanette Nutsford (with husband Ken) has blended in-person advocacy with 3000 applications business for a quarter-century

July 2001 Planning Features

Editorial: Students as Masters, and other pleasant surprises — A steel town and a sparkling new ballpark on a summer road trip show how students can help the 3000 continue its climb back

Worst Practices, by Scott Hirsh: Thank You for Your Support — When systems start to age, it’s time to examine support options for your 3000, and learn how to negotiate a better cost of ownership

Q&A: Porting the e3000 into the future — Mark Bixby brought the 3000 its Web server, domain name services, and more. Meet the man behind the ported treasures

June 2001 Planning Features

Editorial: Help is all around you — All you need to get you through tough times is around you in the e3000 community, a lesson I learned in my own life recently.

Worst Practices: Live Free and Die, by Scott Hirsh — Free is right up there with sex as one of the most attractive words in English. See how using something that costs nothing can be a worst practice, and how to avoid the pitfalls of free

Q&A: Practicing Community Magic for 3000s — Stan Sieler’s name can seem to be everywhere in the 3000 community, from frequent invocations on the Internet to lab-level debates. Meet the legendary creator of tools and vital parts of MPE

May 2001 Planning Features

Editorial: Share success, and score powerful goals — In a season of sunshine and riotous green, I am thinking of ice. My awareness of ice comes from my son Nick, who visited me last month just as the National Hockey League began its playoffs, the Quest for the Stanley Cup. Nick’s focus on a chilly sport made me aware of the power knowledge carries, and how sharing it can bring bounty for 3000 users.

Worst Practices: Dead Right, by Scott Hirsh — When does a best practice become a worst one? When 3000 managers don’t put their money where their mouth is by investing little, and treating their systems differently

Q&A: Lessons Learned Through Application — Duane Percox of application supplier QSS talks about what needs to appear to revitalize the 3000 as an applications platform, and where he sees the market headed in the years to come

April 2001 Planning Features

All that matters is what you can play today — I rode downtown into the smoke and sound of the South by Southwest Music Festival to see a legend last month, but I found more than history. I discovered that a reputation is less important than what’s on today’s playlist, a concept that HP 3000 owners and suppliers might remember.

Q&A: Channeling a Stream of New Systems — As the newest HP e3000s roll off the distributor’s configuration line, Client Systems president Mike Murphy reports on response from resellers and the future for the 3000 market in a tough economy

March 2001 Planning Features

Can Spending Help Us Save the Boom? — Plenty of people are on the bubble about new purchases now, from the 9x7 customers to minivan owners. Discounts might eliminate any plans to buy.

NewsWire Q&A: A Fresh Beachhead on Familiar Shores — Robelle founder Bob Green talks about why he’s coming back from the beach to helm his company and what’s changed in the next installment of his 30-year HP 3000 adventure

February 2001 Planning Features

Editorial: Moments of hope in a new year of expectations — It seems the longer we wait for something, the less chance it has to meet our expectations. And we sometimes set expectations, rather than the more mature desires of hopes, when we wait a long time. Knowing what you want for a long time, like HP e3000 customers did for the last year, can set expectations pretty high.

NewsWire Q&A: CSY Webcast Host George Stachnik— The ebullient engineer first appeared on the 3000 scene in the late 1980s, when he took over hosting duties from Winston Prather for an internal HP broadcast to its Service Engineers. More than 11 years later, Stachnik has returned to the HP 3000 Commercial Systems Division (CSY) to prepare and host a series of Webcasts about new 3000 capability.

Worst Practices: Lights Out — We all know that the HP 3000 has a long history of high availability — when cared for properly. But through no fault of our own, we may be faced with downtime in an era of 24x7 expectations. So what are the alternatives for the HP 3000 System Manager who is unlucky enough to be caught in the crossfire of electrical utility “deregulation?”

January 2001 Planning Features

Editorial: Growing old holds hope for change — Growing older demands grace, if we are to enjoy the experience. I recently flew to Las Vegas to surprise my mom for her 75th birthday and learned a few more things from her. This trip’s lessons were about aging, something that seems apt for a computer community among the industry’s oldest.

NewsWire Q&A: CSY General Manager Winston Prather — HP’s leader of the 3000 business talks about the impact of impending products on the system’s business, what role its North American distributor and Europe play, how 3000-L influences the community, and his own strategy of managing the change from product to customer focus at HP

Worst Practices: Slipped Disks — Even if the previous owners of your used HP 3000 failed to scrub their disks of software, you don’t get to keep it and run it for free

December 2000 Planning Features

Editorial: Be Thankful You Know the Way — I had to travel a long way to see how well people could stay on their path despite challenges — all the way to Europe

NewsWire Q&A: CSY Regional Business Manager Alexandra Wiedenmann — Alexandra Wiedenmann reports on how CSY Europe is breaking ground for the 3000 market with Web advances

November 2000 Planning Stories

Editorial: New gear gives seasoned body a fresh step — It can be hard work to believe in new potential as an aging athlete. Innovative gear is the best choice, no matter what your age or race experience. A new software tool like an application server is as state-of-the-art as Web service gets, and now the HP 3000 has several. They spring from Java, garb for younger computers.

NewsWire Q&A: 3kworld’s Chris Gauthier — The Technical Content Manager for the 3000’s Web portal brings the energy of Gen X to change the rules about information exchange

Worst Practices: Blind Update — Update season is here, as HP switches from carrot to stick to get users to move from 5.5. Get tips on how to avoid getting brained

October 2000 Planning Stories

Editorial: Founders free offspring to fly further — Being a founder has its rewards, but the 3000 community is experiencing the pain of putting HP on its computer path

NewsWire Q&A: Duane Zitzner — The HP corporate VP responsible for technology decisions explains the company’s position on the HP e3000, and its potential

September 2000 Planning Stories

Editorial: In Praise of the Peaks of Passion — Take a look at how a glacier survives and you'll see a method for the HP 3000 to move mountains and get its corporate support from HP

Why the 3000 Business Belongs Inside HP — An HP business partner makes a case for why a spinoff isn't the solution to low-profile marketing

Worst Practices: It's All In Your Head — Scott Hirsh shows off the hidden flaws of documentation at the worst of 3000 shops, and how to avoid the obvious mistakes

NewsWire Q&A: Terry Simpkins — Meet a prototype of the modern IT director who’s putting the e3000 and MPE in the driver’s seat for his corporation — someone who’s defended the business sense of the 3000 through corporate change, politics and technological fashion.

August 2000 Planning Stories

Editorial: Pack Perception for a Safer Hike — Taking along technology you're not sure you need is a lot like loading up for a hike in the New Mexico mountains in the summer. Not everything that the 3000 division should tote has an immediate need.

NewsWire Q&A: CSY R&D manager Dave Wilde — The new leader at the HP labs comes from old MPE stock, and is emphasizing good planning in delivering new technologies

July 2000 Planning Stories

Editorial: Carly: sound off on the e3000 to the C-level — HP's biggest boat could be breaking water for the HP 3000, and sounding her horn at the Corporate level about the system's e-commerce success

NewsWire Q&A: Smith-Gardner's Sharon Gardner — The vice president of marketing at the vendor selling more new 3000 customers than any other talks about how her firm will manage growth through the choppy waters of e-commerce, and how Carly can help

Worst Practices: It’s the People, Stupid — People’s pinhead analysis and faith in One True Platform can damage companies just as bad as any technical worst practice

June 2000 Planning Stories

Editorial: What's in motion is bound to change — Once the HP 3000 market went into motion, moving toward new possibilities for the platform, things were bound to change

NewsWire Q&A: Bill Lancaster — The spark behind the new Solutions Symposium and a source of healthcare IT counsel knows how HP 3000 IT managers can get a bigger voice in their companies

Worst Practices: Weekend Update — Learn from Scott Hirsh the 10 Worst Reasons for doing an MPE update, and how to have an exciting experience in moving to 6.5

May 2000 Planning Stories

Editorial: Easy to Own, Hard to Buy — At the same time that it is making its channel smaller, HP is protecting the value of licenses for the 3000. It's not nearly as easy to buy one as to own it, we think.

NewsWire Q&A: Chuck Piercey, Interex — The executive director of the HP users group explains how the association plans to keep up with the changes inside Hewlett-Packard

MANMAN’s been there all along — The 3000 ERP application is pretty Agile for its age. And it's been aware of other manufacturing options a long time, too.

April 2000 Planning Stories

Editorial: A cozy, captured environment — Driving through the mountain mist into the magic of Mendocino seemed like entering Shangri-La. And like that land of legend, the 3000 community can hold customers captive in a comfortable environment through purchase regulations.

NewsWire Q&A: Terry Floyd, the last MANMAN Standing — Terry Floyd has built a past and proposed a future around 3000 manufacturing. The founder of ERP integrator and consultancy the Support Group inc., Floyd is marking 25 years of experience with the system this year, making plans for far more, and sounds off on the future of ERP on the e3000

Worst Practices: Russian Roulette — Precision Systems' Group's Scott Hirsh says that if you're not employing user volumes, you'd better start soon

March 2000 Planning Stories

Editorial: It's Better to Give and Receive — The 3000 community got a taste of receiving information to go along with the giving in the recent California meetings — and so did we, while covering them together

NewsWire Q&A: ROC Software — The new software company founded by two married couples talks about making their work in the MPE market a family affair

Worst Practices: Vendor Bender — Learn to negotiate and get the 3000 tools you need for next to nothing

February 2000 Planning Stories

Editorial: Outside Dazzle, Inside Changes — There is a temptation to dismiss a product’s name change as a marketing feint or a publicity dodge — just another way to rise above the crowd and get noticed. The evolution to e3000 is designed to do that, yes. But it appears it’s more than just a bid for another 15 minutes of fame, once you consider HP’s history in business computers.

NewsWire Q&A: Payoffs from the Passion of Porting — Mark Klein, the programmer whose C++ port jump-started the 3000’s move to Internet interoperability, talks about the passion of porting to the HP 3000

Worst Practices: New Year's Resolutions — Now that you have Y2K safely behind you, get a good start on making your datacenter more stable, organized, secure and automated. Precision Software Group guru Scott Hirsh shows you how

January 2000 Planning Stories

Editorial: Survive the past and rebirth your dreams — The HP 3000 community can break a smile at watching the 1990s pass away. That was a decade dominated by demise, the death threat to a computer which many of you grew up with professionally.

NewsWire Q&A: Winston Prather — As he leads the 3000 division, the new GM says he’s tired of being defensive about the system, and wants to articulate why it’s better than Unix.

Worst Practices: A Walk in the Minefield — A well-hidden bug in the 3000 makes a veteran remember the System Manager’s motto — trust no one. Not even HP.

December 1999 Planning Stories

Editorial: A calm approach to the eve of construction — While the idea of an “eve of destruction” has sparked idle conversation and at least one terrible TV movie, most of you see Dec. 31 as the eve of something brighter. It looks like it will be the 3000 community’s eve of construction, a green light for projects and plans.

NewsWire Q&A: The Care and Feeding of Solution Provider Seedlings — Team leader Narinder Sandhu of HP tells how the 3000 division will be helping companies who supply applications grow their business and the 3000 installed base

November 1999 Planning Stories

Editorial: Harry's Way — equal parts respect and profit — We hope that the customers and partners in the 3000 community remember this respect-equals-profit philosophy in Harry’s Way. In our final Q&A with him, he says it plainly. It’s the same kind of plain speaking he’s become known for, the kind he must have used in that courageous presentation for partner benefits. Sterling seems to know the power of partners.

Worst Practices: Backing Up is Still Hard to Do — Maybe we even come to appreciate the value of planning. But not everyone. Not by a long shot. Some of us were born to be “action heroes,” thriving on chaos, most of it self-inflicted. So how do we do avoid being organized? The Precision Software Group's Scott Hirsh counts the ways.

NewsWire Q&A: Harry Sterling at the end of a career without limits — He’d already had 20 years of HP experience on the day he became general manager, so Sterling knew his way around the HP Way. In his final interview before retiring from HP, Sterling also told us about his own personal achievements that made a difference in HP.

October 1999 Planning Stories

Editorial: A season for beginnings and growing — As these crisp winds of change invigorate all of us in the 3000 community this fall, see if they don’t widen your eyes a bit. Plant a new project on your 3000 this fall. We’re forecasting great growing weather for you

Worst Practices: Completely Wasted — Maybe we even come to appreciate the value of planning. But not everyone. Not by a long shot. Some of us were born to be “action heroes,” thriving on chaos, most of it self-inflicted. So how do we do avoid being organized? The Precision Software Group's Scott Hirsh counts the ways.

NewsWire Q&A: David Greer, Branching Out from the 3000's Home Page — Robelle’s president counts more than two decades of 3000 service, and shows how MPE roots give the firm a base to branch out into new areas

September 1999 Planning Stories

Editorial: In training for Internet, Chapter 3 — You have proven technology to make your training path to the top smoother

Worst Practices: Shouldn't Happen to a Dog — You don't have to buy a dog to have a friend. Be your own best friend by avoiding these worst 3000 system admin practices

NewsWire Q&A: Pat Maley, consolidating HP 3000 flight traffic — Client Systems’ CEO explains why his company deserves so much of HP’s 3000 attention, and what the distributor will do to extend the 3000’s life

August 1999 Planning Stories

Editorial: The Season of Reunions and Relationships — The greatest reward is renewing our relationships, something HP obviously values highly considering its choice of CEO

Worst Practices: Shaky Foundation — Account management is the best first stop on the trip through 3000 management hell. Establish some order with guidelines based on nasty messes

NewsWire Q&A: Rene Woc, A Legacy of Connection to the 3000 — The CEO of Adager, whose career with the 3000 covers every Interex conference and the earliest 3000s, uses the 3000's past to predict its future

July 1999 Planning Stories

NewsWire Editorial: Persistence That Makes Champions — 26 years in the making, a group of veterans with a rookie spark end up on top — because the journey is the joy

Certification or Assessment? — Tour the state of today’s MPE training options and see if certification might help your career and the platform

Worst Practices: When Good 3000s Go Bad — In our new column, business analyst Scott Hirsh of Precision Systems Group takes us on a trip through 3000 management hell

NewsWire Q&A: Speaking up on 3000 Languages — HP CSY managers Pam Bennett and Becky McBride track MPE/iX languages’ future

June 1999 Planning Stories

NewsWire Editorial: The 3000's legacy is a family history — Family is the HP 3000's advantage, a way to revitalize its success and ensure its survival alongside our love affairs with the new

NewsWire Q&A: Fathers pass HP 3000 work to next generation — See how the computer with a 26-year legacy of success is capturing the energies of second generation, as fathers in the community work beside children who matured with MPE

May 1999 Planning Stories

NewsWire Editorial: Truth lies in the details — 3000 customers can measure integrity by how much detail is available. Tell the truth: there's less to remember

MPE Training: How Are We Learning? — HP 3000 training options include Web, CBT, in-class and others. See which ones can help you improve your MPE skills

NewsWire Q&A: Dave Wilde, CSY R&D Section Manager — The leader of HP’s growth work for 3000s shares some peeks at what’s on the lab’s drawing boards

April 99 Planning Stories

NewsWire Editorial: It's not a license to steal — A disbelief in the price or need for low-cost 3000 options are childish reasons to break HP's license codes

Onsite Insights: Multi-platform backup choices expand — A software developer with vast databases uses HIBACK TX to backup 3000s, Unix, NT and more

NewsWire Q&A: Christine Martino, CSY Marketing Manager — The new chief says a realistic approach to marketing 3000s means grooming existing partnerships

March 99 Planning Stories

Editorial: 3000 gardens challenge HP to vary growth — We're impressed with HP's plans to grow the 3000 capabilities. But its general purpose customer needs tending, too.

Q&A: HP's Kriss Rant, Grooming Alliances for 3000 Software — As the 3000 joins the new SPP developer plan, Rant details new software hope for the platform

February 99 Planning Stories

Editorial: The Heart of the NewsWire — Meet the partner who gives the NewsWire its beat each month as we celebrate relationships

State of employment looks solid for 3000's 1999 — A seasoned HP recruiter says some salaries are up and openings abound but heavy experience may not be a plus

Q&A: Birket Foster and the Economics of Access — Birket Foster has led a 3000 vendor for 21 years and SIGSOFTVEND, too. See how he says access will change your 3000

January 99 Planning Stories

Editorial: Our vision shows a peach of a market — Now is the season to grow the tree-ripe peaches of applications for HP 3000s. We hope HP can help nurture new orchards.

Critique as a Defense — A realistic assesment of the alternatives may well be the best way to defend your exisiting ERP solutions on your HP 3000s

Q&A: Our 1999 Vision Issue — More than a dozen of the 3000 market's top executives and HP leaders forecast the coming year's developments for the HP 3000

December 98 Planning Stories

Editorial: Heading home to talk turkey for the holidays Holiday visits with family give you a chance to show your parent that being older is a good thing. CSY's Strategic Customer Forums spread the word among customers in this way.

The Never Ending Story Sometimes a story too horrible to tell in any other way can be told as a fable. Here's one we heard in Europe, where the HP 3000 was in decline for many years. No more.

Q&A: Brad Tashenberg, Bradmark founder The founder of Bradmark Technologies believes the 3000 is worth R&D investments that can put it in charge of your enterprise.

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