In the 2000th issue, the publisher described the origin of VNS and also outlined the scope of the readership – 33 countries around the world and 31 of the 52 states in the USA. This issue had 7851 readers via email and over 4000 on Digital’s VTX (VideoTeXt) service.
<><><><><><><><> T h e V O G O N N e w s S e r v i c e <><><><><><><><>
Edition : 2000 Friday 9-Feb-1990 Circulation : 7851
VNS Announcement .................................. 45 Lines
VNS COMPUTER NEWS ................................. 204 "
Please send subscription and backissue requests to CASEE::VNS
VNS Announcement: [Marios Cleovoulou, VNS Publications]
================= [Valbonne, France ]
Eight and a half years and two thousand issues ago....
The VOGON News Service started after a number of software engineers
from Reading, England relocated to the Spit Brook Road facility in
Nashua, NH, USA. Amongst them were Alan Blannin and myself. Alan
asked a friend, Richard De Morgan, still in Reading, to send him the
test match scores so that Alan could keep up to date on events in his
favourite sport -- cricket. Richard sent not only the requested
results, but also included some small snippets of news.
Alan forwarded this information on to other "expat Brits" in the U.S.
and the VNS (although it wasn't known as such then) was born! Issue
number one was "published" on the 3rd of August, 1981. Soon after,
Richard, being at the time on node VOGON::, jokingly titled his MAIL to
Alan "The VOGON News Service" and the name stuck.
(A Vogon is an ugly extraterrestrial which enjoys torturing its victims
by reading his exceptionally bad poetry to them. For further
references on Vogons readers should consult "The Hitch-hiker's Guide to
the Galaxy", by Douglas Adams).
Alan left DIGITAL at the end of July 1983 and I took over the job of
"publisher". Our circulation was then just over the 100 mark and we
had just taken on a new staff member -- Tracy Talcott [VNS COMPUTER
NEWS]. Mike Taylor [VNS TECHNOLOGY WATCH] joined us at the end of 1983
and Ken Merrick [VNS UK SPORTS REPORT] enlisted in January, 1989.
Andrew Payne [VNS MAIN NEWS] signed up in October, 1989, carrying on
the tradition of providing news for British expats started by Richard
De Morgan who had recently left DIGITAL.
VNS for the past four years has been "published" in Valbonne, France
and is distributed to readers in 33 countries: Australia, Austria,
Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, England, Finland, France, Germany,
Greece, Hong Kong, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Malaysia,
Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, Norway, Portugal,
Puerto Rico, Scotland, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan,
Thailand, and the U.S. of A. (AZ, CA, CO, CT, DE, DC, FL, GA, IL, IN,
ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MO, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, OH, OR, PA, SC, TN, TX, VT,
VA, WA, and WI).
In addition to the 7800+ MAIL readers, the VNS VideoTeX service
($ VTX VNS) is accessed by circa 4000 readers each day.
Onwards to the next 1000 issues......:-)
VNS COMPUTER NEWS: [Tracy Talcott, VNS Computer Desk]
================== [Nashua, NH, USA ]
Thursday's Market
Quote Change Dow Jones Change 85% of FMV 30-Nov-1989
DEC 79 3/4 + 5/8 2644.37 + 4.28 $73.25 (85% of $86.187)
IBM 102 3/4 - 3/8
Apple - Denies that Jean-Louis Gassee has resigned
{The Boston Globe, 8-Feb-90, p. 33}
But a company spokesman said Gassee has "been in discussions with [Apple
chairman] John Sculley for some time regarding Jean-Louis' future role at
Apple." The spokesman declined to elaborate.
Lotus - Offers Realtime, a version of 1-2-3
{The Boston Globe, 8-Feb-90, p. 40}
The new software can handle constantly changing numerical information from
newswires and trading data.
Hewlett-Packard, Oki Electric - Will build and operate a Puerto Rican plant
{The Wall Street Journal, 8-Feb-90, p. A8}
The companies will spend $40 million to construct a 115,000-square-foot
printed-circuit board manufacturing facility at an HP site in Aguadilla. HP
will use the boards in its computer products; Oki's portion of the jointly
manufactured boards will be sold on the open market. Construction is expected
to be completed next year. The plant, which will be operated as a 50-50 joint
venture, will employ 200.
NetWorld90 - Hynes Convention Center, Boston. Feb. 13-15, 10 am - 5 pm
{The Boston Globe, 8-Feb-90, p. 47}
Everything from LANs to WANs to Enterprise Networking will be covered during
the four day seminar program which is geared to every level of professional
expertise from novice all the way to expert. [The half page ad includes a list
of seminars and exhibitors - Digital and IBM are among them - TT]. For
complete tutorial and Seminar information call 1-800-444-EXPO.
Hackers - Accused of scheme against BellSouth. Legion of Doom group.
{The Wall Street Journal, 8-Feb-90, p. C20}
Federal grand juries in Chicago and Atlanta indicted four alleged computer
hackers in what authorities called a fraud scheme that could potentially
disrupt emergency "911" telephone service throughout nine Southern states. The
men, alleged to be part of a closely knit cadre of computer hackers known as
the Legion of Doom, gained access to the computer system controlling telephone
emergency service of BellSouth Corp., the Atlanta-based telecommunications
giant. The Chicago indictment said members of the Legion of Doom are engaged
in disrupting telephone service by entering a telephone company's computers
and changing the routing of telephone calls. The hackers in the group also
fraudulently obtain money from companies by altering information in their
computers, the indictment said. The hackers transferred stolen
telephone-computer information from BellSouth to what prosecutors termed a
"computer bulletin board system" in Lockport, Ill. In turn, the men planned to
publish the computer data in a hacker's magazine, the grand jury charged.
Digital - Manufacturing launches series of meetings open to all employees -
provides broad picture of the state of the business
{Livewire, 7-Feb-90}
This Friday, Feb. 9, Manufacturing is beginning a series of meetings
intended to provide information about what is going on in the business as a
whole so people can make informed decisions in their particular jobs. "People
need to hear about business conditions," explains Bill Hanson, vice president,
Manufacturing Operations. "Give them information, and they'll do the right
things." "Times are changing and we need to know how well we are doing and
where we should put emphasis so we can be more supportive of one another's
efforts and of the company's overall business objectives," adds Linda StClair,
group Personnel manager, Manufacturing. "If we are restricted to our own
little pieces of the business, we miss the opportunity to work as part of a
total integrated enterprise. We need the sense of totality." The first part of
each of these meetings will deal with business data. The rest will consist of
"feature" presentations on timely topics relating to how Digital is realizing
its manufacturing visions:
o developing the best people in the industry,
o products that never fail,
o shortest cycle time in the industry,
o lead in defining competitive manufacturing, and
o competitiveness independent of volume.
The first meeting is scheduled for 8-9 a.m. on Feb. 9, in the General Doriot
Conference Room at the Mill in Maynard, Mass. All employees are welcome.
Subsequent meetings will be held the second and fourth Friday of each fiscal
month (Feb. 9, 23, March 9, 23, April 13, 27, etc.) at the same time and
place. Plans include broadcasting future meetings using the Digital Video
Network (DVN) once the appropriate links are in place.
Digital - Kanata plant to manufacture MicroVAX 3100 systems
{Livewire, 7-Feb-90}
Digital Canada's Kanata manufacturing/engineering facility will manufacture
MicroVAX and VAXserver 3100 systems, and will start shipping production
volumes in March to meet the demands of the Canadian market and for export to
Digital's worldwide operations, excluding Europe. "This supports our strategy
of positively impacting Canada's balance of trade and maintaining a
fully-employed, constantly improving manufacturing workforce in Kanata,"
commented Maurice Tavares, vice president of Manufacturing, Engineering and
Distribution for Digital Canada. "Since the announcement of the MicroVAX and
VAXserver 3100 systems last July, demand for these low-cost VAX computers has
greatly exceeded forecast," added Maurice. No new hiring is anticipated, since
employees will be shifted to manufacturing the new systems, from products
whose demands are declining.
Fiscal News - Ashton-Tate
Ashton-Tate - Posts $995,000 loss for fourth quarter
{The Wall Street Journal, 8-Feb-90, p. A8}
Ashton-Tate posted a $995,000 loss for its fourth quarter, compared with
earnings of $13.4 million in the year-ago quarter. Revenue was $62.1 million,
down from $87.3 million a year ago.The results reflect continuing fallout
from delays in introducing a new version of the company's much-criticized
dBASE IV product. In a telephone conference with Edward J. Esber Jr., chairman
and CEO, declined to say when the company would finish work on the product,
saying only that "significant progress" has been made toward completion. He
added that from 300 to 400 customers are now evaluating a test version of the
product and that Ashton-Tate will release one or two more test versions before
completing it. Because of the problems with dBASE, Ashton-Tate has been
troubled by flat sales and excess inventory. Mr. Esber said the company
continued to reduce inventory. He said cost-cutting moves had also paid off.
For the year, Ashton-Tate posted a loss of $28.6 million on revenue of $265.3
million. For the year ended Jan. 31, 1989, the company earned $47.75 million
on revenue of $307.3 million.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Well, another 500 issues have gone by, so it must be time for me to say that
"Another 500 issues have gone by."
Here's part of what I wrote in issue 1000:
<><><><><><><><> T h e V O G O N N e w s S e r v i c e <><><><><><><><>
Edition : 1000 Thursday 6-Feb-1986 Circulation : 2348
VNS INDUSTRY REVIEW: [Tracy Talcott, VNS Computer Desk]
==================== [Nashua, NH, USA ]
Here we are, another 500 editions of VNS have gone by and it's time again
for something out of the ordinary. What follows is my personal opinion,
flavored to some extent by the articles I've read while writing for VNS these
last three years.
In VNS #500 (if I remember correctly), I wrote about the tough times that
people felt were in the offing for the computer industry. Many people were
projecting consolidation of smaller, perhaps weaker high tech companies as
the industry slowed from its blistering pace. The general feeling was correct;
papers often talked about the "high tech slowdown" or "semiconductor slump".
I've found it interesting that no article I've read has talked about an
industry recession or depression. Those adjectives have been used frequently
when talking about, for instance, the shoe industry in Maine or the U.S.
lumber industry. Yet over the past months many computer-related companies
have seen their quarterly revenues plummet by up to 95%, over 7,000 high tech
employees in Massachusetts were laid off last year, companies had furloughs
and pay cuts, and interviews with Silicon Valley assembly line workers
indicated that many felt that the good times were coming to an end and they
doubted they'd be employed in a year's time. Some companies are currently
operating in technical default of their loan provisions and others are
finding it increasingly difficult to secure private and public financing.
Fewer college freshmen are planning careers in engineering. Times have
certainly changed from just two or three years ago. [And then I continued
with several pages concerning the issue of quality - TT]
........................
Doesn't seem like times have changed much, eh? Layoffs, losses,
restructurings and early retirements abound. Prices (and profit margins) are
dropping. Companies tout networking, organizations like OSF, AT&T/Sun, and OSI
point toward open systems where a company's software will run on multiple
platforms with software no longer locking customers in to particular hardware,
and many companies tout their ability to provide integration services.
So what's to differentiate one company from another? I still believe it's the
same thing I wrote about in VNS issue 1000 almost exactly five years ago.
*QUALITY*!!! I still have that Honda I wrote about in issue 1000. It's still a
darned fine running car, and when it finally gets replaced (by issue 3000??)
I'll go buy myself another one.
Everyone I've dealt with at the dealership where I purchased that car has
treated me well - from the service manager to the people who work in the parts
department to the accounting people - who take my $$ after I'm done dealing
with the service and parts departments :-). And it isn't just the regular
service that's turned out well. We're a 2 Honda family now - I got married
some time between issues 1500 and 2000. When my wife's new car had a problem
that the dealership didn't handle, they offered - and we accepted - to elevate
the problem to their district level. A few days later the district manager
gave the dealership the okay to fix the problem. No hassles, no delays, no
red tape. The beauty (and simplicity) of it almost overwhelms me: Our car was
brand new and broken. They could have easily lost a customer and future sales,
not to mention (apparently) a mention every 500 or so issues of VNS. But their
organization - and the people in it - "Did the right thing." I hardly remember
what was wrong with the car. But I sure remember the corporation and the
individuals who treated me the way I wanted to be treated as a customer. And
I'm just a guy who pays $7500 for a car once every 10 years; not someone who
spent $100 million on hardware, software and support in the last 18 months.
What I'm asking is that we all think extra hard about our customers.
Without them our company wouldn't exist. If they don't get the level of
quality from us that they feel they deserve, they'll go elsewhere. Enough do
that and the implications for Digital are obvious. More importantly, they
deserve to get the best we can give them. When they make a purchase from us,
they're making a statement of their faith of our ability to deliver on our
commitments and fulfill their needs.
I've been at Digital in one fashion or another for just a tad under 15
years. There's lots of you who've been here long enough that folks who started
when I did must seem like the new kids on the block. And I didn't envisage
when I started that I'd work with people whose badge numbers are over 300,000!
Digital certainly has changed over the years. Sometimes it seems we have piles
of people and organizations to coordinate with, mountains of red tape, endless
approvals, pre-work/post-work/lunchtime meetings and even
meetings-preparing-for-other-meetings to attend. You know what needs to be
done - where to go; and sometimes it's difficult to achieve your goals.
All I ask is that after you've finished reading VNS today and get started on
your work, please keep our customers (and your fellow employees who depend on
what you do) in mind throughout the day. They deserve your best efforts. We
often talk about "Doing the right thing" at Digital. Such a simple goal. One
that can be hard to accomplish day in and day out. But one that means so very
much to all of us.
Trace
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Please send subscription and backissue requests to CASEE::VNS
Permission to copy material from this VNS is granted (per DIGITAL PP&P)
provided that the message header for the issue and credit lines for the
VNS correspondent and original source are retained in the copy.
<><><><><><><><> VNS Edition : 2000 Friday 9-Feb-1990 <><><><><><><><>
History of the VOGON News Service 