31 Aug
2004
31 Aug
'04
12:10 a.m.
I was contacted by a gentleman in the UK who has two PDP-11/53 systems that
control a "printing press management information system". They are currently
not working. He is looking for someone to repair, and possibly support them
for a couple of years.
If anyone is interested, contact me off-list.
Regards,
Jay West
---
[This E-mail scanned for viruses by Declude Virus]
31 Aug
31 Aug
1:15 a.m.
Why doesn't some big company in St. Louis ask me to maintain their HP1000
systems. I'd quit one of my day jobs in a heartbeat! *sigh*
Jay
---
[This E-mail scanned for viruses by Declude Virus]
1:44 a.m.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jay West" <jwest(a)classiccmp.org>
To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts"
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>
Sent: Tuesday, August 31, 2004 9:15 AM
Subject: Re: Classic computer job/work offer (UK)
Why doesn't some big company in St. Louis ask me
to maintain their HP1000
systems. I'd quit one of my day jobs in a heartbeat! *sigh*
Jay
---
[This E-mail scanned for viruses by Declude Virus]
Call them all up and ask them if they need a consultant.
1:28 a.m.
Call them all up and ask them if they need a
consultant.
Well, unfortunately most all the HP1000's in St. Louis are in the missle
systems division of Boeing, formerly McDonnell Douglas. They won't even
admit what computers they have, security & stuff :\ Guess I need to
find the "right guy" in the know there.
Jay
---
[This E-mail scanned for viruses by Declude Virus]
1:51 a.m.
On Tue, 31 Aug 2004, Teo Zenios wrote:
Actually, this procedure works pretty well. I have done this with a
number of companies I either knew or expected to have certain systems
in production use, and out of the 9 I contacted, 7 did sign up for
service, and were *relieved* to find some backup. Usually, such
companies rely solely on their sys admin to not die or quit...
And: there's decent money to be made in these jobs, too.
--f
Why
doesn't some big company in St. Louis ask me to maintain their HP1000
systems. I'd quit one of my day jobs in a heartbeat! *sigh*
Call them all up and ask them if they need a consultant.
2:07 a.m.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Fred N. van Kempen" <waltje(a)pdp11.nl>
To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts"
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>
Sent: Tuesday, August 31, 2004 9:51 AM
Subject: Re: Classic computer job/work offer (UK)
Actually, this procedure works pretty well. I have done this with a
number of companies I either knew or expected to have certain systems
in production use, and out of the 9 I contacted, 7 did sign up for
service, and were *relieved* to find some backup. Usually, such
companies rely solely on their sys admin to not die or quit...
And: there's decent money to be made in these jobs, too.
--f
There is always decent money to be made in servicing equipment (or software)
that the vast majority of people don't understand because the equipment is
obsolete. The problem is that its a short term money maker and not a long
term career since that equipment will get junked sooner or later for
something new. If you can get experience with different platforms at the end
of their lifespan I guess you could keep on making some decent consulting
money.
On Tue, 31 Aug 2004, Teo Zenios wrote:
> > Why doesn't some big company in St. Louis ask me to maintain their
HP1000
systems. I'd quit one of my day jobs in a
heartbeat! *sigh*
Call them all up and ask them if they need a consultant.
2:56 a.m.
On Tue, 31 Aug 2004, Teo Zenios wrote:
This goes for any work in a niche market. The good news is, that once
you "get in" on a retro-based support job, and do it well, chances are
above average they will also grant you more of the regular support
work available, assuming "if he can do the VAX this well, he probably
will do a decent job on our other stuff too". And, quite often, this
is not a bad assumption.
The difference between a consultant with a retro background and one
without is, that the retro person usually has actual hands-on experience
with many aspects of what lies at the base of modern IT issues. Most
newly-grown consultants have their base knowledge from books and/or
hear-say from collegues and teachers, but that's it. They have never
seen an Ethernet bridge, so would not know how to spot collision-domain
problems, for example. The retro-guy *spots* the problems, based on
experience and recognition of symptoms, where the new-guy has to perform
several rounds of analysis to figure it out. Or not.
In my personal experience, I have gotten "in to" companies based on
reputation (muhahaha !) and to help out with a retro system issue, and
then gradually more and more of their total IT "business". Since I am
far from cheap, and customers still attack me with requests, I must
therefore assume they are pleased with my work, since they kicked out
others (from the new-guy arena) in favor of moi...
Cheers,
Fred
--
Fred N. van Kempen, DEC (Digital Equipment Corporation) Collector/Archivist
Visit the VAXlab Project at http://VAXlab.pdp11.nl/
Visit the Archives at http://www.pdp11.nl/
Email: waltje(a)pdp11.nl BUSSUM, THE NETHERLANDS / Mountain View, CA, USA
And:
there's decent money to be made in these jobs, too.
There is always decent money to be made in servicing equipment (or software)
that the vast majority of people don't understand because the equipment is
obsolete. The problem is that its a short term money maker and not a long
term career since that equipment will get junked sooner or later for
something new. If you can get experience with different platforms at the end
of their lifespan I guess you could keep on making some decent consulting
money. 
1:53 a.m.
Heh, That's one of the reasons why I like this job - a current project
is reading some on-topic DEC MO disks and getting the data off and onto
a CD....this involves VMS and Pathworks work with the possibility of
having to go get their VAX 4000-505a (the one that wrote the disks in
the first place) if I run into problems :)
*one* of your day jobs?
Cheers
a
-----Original Message-----
From: cctalk-bounces(a)classiccmp.org
[mailto:cctalk-bounces@classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Jay West
Sent: 31 August 2004 14:15
To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
Subject: Re: Classic computer job/work offer (UK)
Why doesn't some big company in St. Louis ask me to maintain
their HP1000 systems. I'd quit one of my day jobs in a
heartbeat! *sigh*
Jay
---
[This E-mail scanned for viruses by Declude Virus]
7200
days inactive
7200
days old
7 comments
5 participants
participants (5)
-
jwest＠classiccmp.org -
jwest＠imail.kwcorp.com -
teoz＠neo.rr.com -
waltje＠pdp11.nl -
witchy＠binarydinosaurs.co.uk