1 Feb
2022
1 Feb
'22
2:28 a.m.
On 2022-02-01 02:06, Dave McGuire wrote:
Seems you just described exactly what I tried do describe above. So how
did I get it wrong?
Then be amazed. It happened most recently just a few months ago, and
several times last year. This is a lot more common in the real world
than you've assumed.
Hmm. Maybe we're talking about something else than PDP-11 software now?
Considering that I'm usually even more overlooked than you are, you can
go with that complaint somewhere else.
The only reason I'm this deep into this specific topic is because of all
the things I'm doing with RSX, and have been for a very long time.
Which got me in contact with Dave, and it continued from there.
Take PDP-8 stuff for example - I've been around the block, done more,
seen more, and have more information and stuff than most everyone on
those lists nowadays. But I don't actually care anymore. They can talk
and do things as much as they want. I don't need them, and they don't
even know I exist. Their problem. Not mine. And since it's also not a
problem for them, it's not a problem at all.
It's only a problem when you want attention and recognition.
Wow, DEC sure did go down a bad path with suits. :-/
Yes.
And for some people, saying they do something, while not doing it, means
also exposing themselves to risks they are not willing to take.
Different people are willing to expose themselves to different amount of
risk. Not to mention doing what they feel is morally correct...
I'm daily facing the same dilemma. I have done so much improvements to
RSX. I'd like to release V5.0, which I have sitting here. But I can't. I
signed documents with XX2247 that limits what I can do, and I am not
willing to break the trust Dave put in me. Even though that improved
version have lots of stuff that would be really fun to share.
Instead I'm trying to find ways of resolving the problem. Meanwhile it's
sitting at my place, and nowhere else.
Until the day I die... Who knows what happens then.
Well, I'm trying to get more (and younger) people interested in
PDP-11s, and I'm having pretty good success at that. You could try that
too.
I'll leave that to others. I'm busy just fixing things in RSX...
If someone really interested comes along, I'm happy to help with
information and guidance, but I'm not trying to enlighten people.
Johnny
--
Johnny Billquist || "I'm on a bus
|| on a psychedelic trip
email: bqt(a)softjar.se || Reading murder books
pdp is alive! || tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol
On 1/31/22 7:03 PM, Johnny Billquist wrote:
Yeah. Tell that to their kids when they are thrown into the street.
Because for some people, that "near zero
risk" is maybe not so "near
zero", and that have actual implications for actual people.
Yes, but they've been poorly (and selfishly) prioritized. You seem to
really just treat it as "there is no risk, so why aren't
people just doing whatever I think they should do", without
considering that for others the situation might actually look very
different.
You've jumped to a conclusion about what I think, and (with respect)
you're incorrect. I think risking some suit in a glass building getting
angry with me, or even filing a lawsuit against me, is not, and will
never be, more important than a piece of history that stands to be lost
forever. I'm not speaking in theoretical terms. That
exact sentence has
been said TO MY FACE, more than once, by people in conversations
about sending materials to LSSM.
If you've experienced that recently, then I am a little amazed.
Because that means people have been hanging on to things for a *long*
time, but now they don't care. Which for me sounds like an unusual
situation.
But of course, everything is possible. Al Kossov from
bitsavers were in the loop, and also trying to help get
things released. But he had no more luck than the rest of us.
So it's not that noone else knew or were involved. But Dave kept the
number low for the stated reasons, and I guess you are just too new to
have become involved in this loop.
Well, neither Al nor most of the rest of that crowd tend to pay me
any mind, despite what I've accomplished over the years. That's a
different matter. But like it or not, I'm preserving things too, as we
are at LSSM.
"New" I am not. For 37 years I've been running, programming,
repairing, buying, selling, etc DEC hardware and software, and I've
accomplished quite a bit. I guess I just don't brag about it enough;
people chose not to involve me. So, as with pretty much everything else, the damn
suits ruined it.
That is definitely true. The specifics of the contract between DEC and
Mentec seems to have been complex. DEC sold the software to Mentec.
However, there is some clause in there that allows DEC to just take it
all back under some circumstances, if I got it right. And that is
what Dave was worried about HPE potentially doing, which
would legally force him to delete everything he had. Which in his eyes
would have been very bad, since he obviously didn't trust HPE to
actually do anything good if that happened.
That's a reasonable stance. But "yes sir I've deleted that" are
words that are easy to say. And I have a
contract with XX2247, giving me access to whatever. You
could say that I'm the last RSX developer. :-)
...and it is in excellent hands. :-)