Dear Nancy, To address your original question, I agree with your reasoning about the need for a revived MDC in some form. I will schedule an MDC Revival session at the Boston meeting to discuss how best to proceed. We can treat it as a brainstorming jam session in which we first list what worked and what did not in the original MDC format, and then identify the best choice for how to resume work.
With that in mind, we very much need to invite the MDC clan to this meeting to bring perspective to our brainstorming. Many of them will be interested in attending NEMUG's +$H=60000 celebration anyway, so we should have a good turnout at the session. For that matter, we should invite NEMUG as well to the MDC Revival brainstorm. If we schedule the brainstorm for Saturday afternoon, it will flow naturally into the evening's celebration. Yours truly, Rick On Wed, 2005-03-02 at 09:47, Nancy Anthracite wrote: > Gee Greg, seems it was so easy you could do it in your sleep. SOOO, what is > the problem? ;-) > > On Wednesday 02 March 2005 11:36 am, Greg Woodhouse wrote: > > What bothers me about this argument is that I believe any competent > > programmer ought to be able to pick up a new language if the need > > arises. (The first time I ever heard of MUMPS was in my initial job > > interview!) > > > > Okay, to be honest learning MUMPS wasn't that easy: I was taking Greg > > Kreis' MUMPS class and struggling with a homework assignment. One > > night, I went home and had a dream in which I saw the source code in > > front of me. I went in the next morning, typed it in and it ran > > perfectly! Learning a language does involve some struggle bedfore the > > "Aha!" moment comes, but it does come. > > > > --- steven mcphelan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > RE: [Hardhats-members] MDC RevivalI believe Cameron's statement about > > > the VA management not being able to back off of migrating to a newer > > > platform is probably very close to the truth. However, I am sure > > > that there were some real business management decisions made (or at > > > least I hope so). I saw an article recently that estimated that > > > 40-50% of the current VA IT staff will be retiring in the next 5 > > > years. If I was a manager of VA IT I would be very concerned about > > > that. I would seriously consider moving my technology to a platform > > > that enables me to recruit competent IT staff without having to rely > > > on in-house training for the next generation of VA IT support. I > > > would even consider technology that is inferior to my current > > > technology as long as the new technology meets my needs and gives me > > > greater flexibilty in personnel matters or provide me the opportunity > > > to competitively outsource some IT functions. > > > > ===== > > A practical man is a man who practices the errors of his forefathers. > > --Benjamin Disraeli ==== > > Greg Woodhouse > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > > > > > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------- > > SF email is sponsored by - The IT Product Guide > > Read honest & candid reviews on hundreds of IT Products from real users. > > Discover which products truly live up to the hype. Start reading now. > > http://ads.osdn.com/?ad_id=6595&alloc_id=14396&op=click > > _______________________________________________ > > Hardhats-members mailing list > > Hardhats-members@lists.sourceforge.net > > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/hardhats-members ------------------------------------------------------- SF email is sponsored by - The IT Product Guide Read honest & candid reviews on hundreds of IT Products from real users. Discover which products truly live up to the hype. Start reading now. http://ads.osdn.com/?ad_id=6595&alloc_id=14396&op=click _______________________________________________ Hardhats-members mailing list Hardhats-members@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/hardhats-members
