3000 veterans to host
World Wide Wake
as HP’s sales end

Alan Yeo of 3000 connectivity supplier ScreenJet Ltd. has kicked off a series of “good old fashioned Irish wakes” to be held around the world on Oct. 31, the last day that HP will be taking orders for the HP 3000 line.

Yeo set up a Web server (207.21.244.161/hpwake) “where people can register suggested locations, and add their name to attend a location. The idea is that someone picks a pub/bar in a particular town, and anyone within striking distance can make their way there.”

Nothing entered on the Web page will be recorded off-line or used for any type of marketing, Yeo added, and the information will be deleted after October 31.

Yeo, whose company is selling HP 3000 software that modernizes interfaces for MPE software and also streamlines migration tasks, said he hopes the wakes attract “anybody who works with, or has worked with the HP 3000 and who might like to get together to see him/her/it into retirement.

“As we know, many of us will be working well beyond official retirement age. But ‘World Wide Wake’ sounded more fun. And yes, whilst I’m one of the people who hope to earn a living out of migration, I know it’s not the right answer for everyone — and that for a significant number, Homesteading is the right approach. The wake wasn’t intended to be promoting anything, just a recognition that the date does sort of mark a point of no return, and it will be sad.”

The World Wide Wake page lets customers view already-suggested locations, add new ones, or indicate to a location’s proposer that they would like to attend. As of presstime, 14 locations had been proposed from Australia to Anguila to the Brittania Arms in Cupertino, a few blocks from HP’s 3000 headquarters. Austin-based the Support Group Inc. was leading with a total of 10 RSVPs.