Conference 7.286::digital

Signing the papers to sell it, obviously.

-Jack

Re .0:

>    What would be an appropriate way to commemorate this occasion?

Walk a camcorder down every corridor from both directions & look into every
room; scan representative frames online; link the images via HyperText Markup
Language, and export the document on the World Wide Web.
				/AHM

    re: -1
    
    Be afraid...  be very afraid.

    Invest the money in Salary's put on hold ! 

> Walk a camcorder down every corridor from both directions & look into every
> room; scan representative frames online; link the images via HyperText Markup
> Language, and export the document on the World Wide Web.

  I don't think Security would allow this until after we have moved out. Too
much risk of confidential stuff being seen by outsiders. But there should be
enough time between when people move out and when we lose access to the Mill
to do this, and we should.
  I don't think anyone is in the mood to celebrate anything at the moment. 

    
    re: .-1
    
    Yes, HP, IBM and SUN are dying to figure out how we do things.  They
    must have spies watching over us form all angles..  Our tactics are
    amazing, subtle and top secret...  
    

    I only worry that the camcorder might get too close to the sources for
    OpenVMS...
    

    
    re: .5
    
    The only thing we have to hide is the empty offices full of equipment
    where people used to work.  Yes, it would be an embarasment to capture
    that on video.
    
    
    Gary

    As far as I'm (emotionally) concerned, once the Mill is sold, Digital,
    the company I joined and so loved is gone forever, dead, alive only in
    wistful memories.
    
    I can remember when, if you worked for DEC (<== intentionally monikered
    that way) all roads, ultimately, led to the Mill, bustling engineering
    centre, and home to KO, our wonderful, crusty, enigmatic and
    charismatic founder, Prez, leader, father.
    
    I was a Millrat, and my memories are joyful ones, when the mystique
    that was DEC was alive, it was a special place to work and be, and I
    have not been in the company anywhere near as long as some, I'm a
    relative newcomer from the 80's.  Memories of Ken holding doors open
    for me with that Cheshire Cat Grin of his, and some courteous words to
    speed me on my way...  tunnels in the sky, windows that actually
    opened, the greatest assortment of odd creatures  I'd ever seen
    indoors...  engineers by the hundreds, a quirky lot, they, and I loved
    them all, and a bustling atmosphere, things happening, a company alive
    with a common vision...
    
    Nope, not in a celebratory mood, I...  I am grieving, instead.  Wonder
    if they'd let me take the Clock Tower home...  many's a time I looked
    at it from running an errand in convenient downtown Maynard, to make
    sure I made it back from lunch on time...

    RE: .9
    
    My feelings too.....
    
    Marc H.

    In my opinion MILL is the most dirtiest office space ( for a computer
    Company) I have seen in USA. Several customers have made similar
    comments about it. IHMO as a celeration of 20th anniversaty they should
    use wrecking ball 20 times in each building..
     

    re: .12
    
    "Dirtiest office space"?  If you think it's dirty now, you should
    have seen it 25 years ago!  

    	Actually, the first water-powered woolen mills in Britain were
    there about 150 years before Columbus set sail. If that is your
    definition of an industrial revolution then the U.S. was about half a
    millenium late to the party.

    Gee, anyone else been down into the bowels of Bldg. 4 and had a gander
    at the water wheels down there?  KO, bless his soul, had a sense of
    history, and the restorations at the Mill are a pleasure to see.  There
    used to be guided tours of the historic restorations in my Mill days... 
    and it always gave me pleasure to see some of the old sewing machinery
    set up on various floors, such as 1-4, by JFS' satellite office...
    
    KO's respect for the history of the complex is to his undying credit.
    
    The current management team might do well to remember Alex de
    Tocquevile's words, from 1860 something, as I dimly recall, something
    to the effect of "those who do not learn from history are doomed to
    repeat it"...  wonder if one might alter the thought just a snort, and
    ponder whether those who do not RESPECT history, are doomed to repeat
    it in the final analysis...  

    re .15
    
    The Mill was water powered? I assumed from the date that it used steam.
    As a Lancastrian my definition of an industrial revolution involves
    steam-powered cotton mills.
    
    Peter

    Most of the large New England textile mills (of which Digital's Mill
    was one) were located on rivers, and used water/gravity as their power
    source.
    					andrew

    re: .17, .18
    
    Originally (1853) the mill almost certainly ran on water power, at
    least partially.  Later on, there must have been steam engines.
    In fact, there's one at the Walnut Street end of Building 5 that
    was used for generating electricity.  The preserved (actually,
    now totally rebuilt) generator in the basement of Building 4 ran a
    generator.  Back in '73 or whenever the first oil embargo was,
    some enterprising folks hooked up the original generator (before
    it got rebuilt) and used it to power the Christmas lights on the 
    tree out in front of the mill.  (Because of the oil embargo, we 
    weren't supposed to waste electricity on frivolities like Christmas 
    lights.)
    That original generator put out something like 24 volts at 40
    cycles, so it wasn't much practical use.  (Maybe somebody else
    knows the real numbers.)  Digital eventually rebuilt the generating
    equipment and water supply system so it could generate useful
    power; at the time all that happened, I heard the figure quoted
    that it could supply about 10% of the mill's power needs.

    
    If the Mill were to be demolished (heaven forbid !)
    
    Our new product could be bricks from the Mill in the same spirit
    as pieces of the Berlin Wall. We could return to profitablilty !
    
    Own a piece of history !
    
    There will be those who will no doubt be offended that a symbol 
    of captialism, entrepreneurship and all that is good about America
    would be handled in the same fashion as a symbol of tyranny, brutal
    oppression, and ideological conformity.
    
    .....But from my experiences with management over the past few
    years I am getting used to such moral inversions.
    
    -Publius
    

    re: .20
    
    Hey -- a souvenir is a souvenir. 
    
    Or does this mean we should merge with Prudential?  They've had a lot
    of experience selling a piece of the rock. 
    
    --bonnie

    
    re: .11
    
    Dan, your reply struck a chord with me. I grew up in Natick,
    and I remember the brewery well (lived just a few short miles
    away). 
    
    It's funny too because I worked for Prime in the late '70s,
    just before the explosive growth years. I worked at Wang as
    well. And Honeywell.
    
    Looking back on it, it seems like I was always one step ahead
    of the decay in the minicomputer industry. Guess I should have
    kept moving, huh?
    
    Glenn