Conference 7.286::digital

>Bob Supnik	>[email protected]
>		>All opinions expressed are those of a hardline microcoder
>		>and do not reflect those of Digital Equipment Corporation
    
    What about his disclaimer?  Does that let him speak his mind more
    freely, or doesn't that matter?
    
    --Simon
    

    We did have more Veeps like Supnik, but they are disappearing fast.
    Bell, Cutler (well at least the engineering equivalent of a VP),
    Heinen, Osterhoff, and so on. We are rapidly running out of what I
    would classify as "visionaries". 
    
    q
    

    	Bob is much more of a "regular guy" than other VPs I've known.
    He'll even respond to electronic mail! What a concept. And with his
    recent promotion, he's given hope to the rest of us vertically
    challenged individuals.

Memory check:

Many, many moons ago I recall seeing Bob Supnik's name in a copy
sourcecode (Fortran) for the Adventure game as one of those that helped
port it into DEC. "Bob Supnik - Disk Engineering" I think is how the name
appeared.

Can anybody clarify my foggy recall?

Lee

    Yup, that were he, game hacker par excellence...
    
    q
    

	Bob Supnik's a VP? I had no idea! I thought he was just another
	of you hardworking, easygoing, unflappable engineers...

	The guy deserves a medal for staying so human.

	But what happens when the PID police discover he's being telling
	the Internet stuff they won't let product managers put in their
	PIDs because Legal doesn't understand it yet (so can't pass it)?

	Interesting test case.

	/Tom

I thought Willy Crowther and Don (dan?) Woods of MITMULTICS and SAIL
originated the game on a PDP-6 (8? Help me here...)

No port would be necessary, and my 1977 copy didn't have Bob's name in it,
but it did have theirs.

Perhaps it's the stuff legends are made of?
\john

    The game in question was Dungeon (nee Zork) translated by Bob from the
    original MDL (as developed at MIT) into FORTRAN in or around 1979.

    i've seen one VP here at ZKO about 2 months ago. i was there using
    the bank machine when suddenly a VP walked across the hall, i sware i 
    was about no more than 4 feets away from him at one point.
    
    it was quite an exciting experience for me. 
    
    /nasser

>    The game in question was Dungeon (nee Zork) translated by Bob from the
>    original MDL (as developed at MIT) into FORTRAN in or around 1979.

Bob did the port during the week in February of 1978 when Massachusetts
was shut down for the Blizzard of '78.
I can't recall now whether he was stuck at home or at the Mill for that
week.

re          <<< Note 1905.9 by STAR::ABBASI "i^(-i) = SQRT(exp(PI))" >>>
                     -< my personal experience with VP's >-

>    i've seen one VP here at ZKO about 2 months ago. i was there using
>    the bank machine when suddenly a VP walked across the hall, i sware i 
>    was about no more than 4 feets away from him at one point.
    
    If you are standing at the ZKO ATM, then you are about 15 feet from
    David Stone (senior VEEP - Software)'s Office.He is in and out of their
    all day long. He eats lunch in the cafeteria, most days, and is known
    to turn up for work in Jeans and a Plaid shirt. Like most executives,
    he doesn't stand eight feet tall or glow in the dark. 
    
>    it was quite an exciting experience for me. 
    
    Gee, I hope you don't run into KO, by accident, you might faint... :-)
    
    q

    Bob worked in Disk Engineering when he came to DEC from Massachusetts
    Computer Associates, Inc. in the late '70s.  He eventually moved into
    semiconductor engineering (self-taught, I believe), ended up running
    the a/d groups there, etc., etc.  I haven't followed his career
    closely, but I'm glad he was promoted to VP.  
    
    Back in 1976-77, at Mass. Computer Associates, I worked on a project
    which Bob managed.  Of the 8 people who passed through that project:
    
    	1 is a DEC VP (Supnik)
    	1 is a DEC senior consulting engineer
    	1 is a DEC consulting engineer
    	1 is chief scientist at a local mini-supercomputer company
    	1 is an independent consultant, having left her job as the
    	  head of all network systems development at Data General
    	2 I don't know what happened to
    	1 is a DEC s/w manager (me -- the underachiever of the group).
    
    -- Paul

    I had breakfast with Don Zereski at the Embassy Suites in Santa Clara a
    few months back.  I saw him at the coffee machine and introduced
    myself...he asked me to join him...
    
    Had a nice chat...and then he went off to WRO to meet the troops...
    
    

>================================================================================
>Note 1905.11            We need more VPs like Bob Supnik                11 of 13
>CREATV::QUODLING "Ken, Me, and a cast of extras..."  18 lines  20-MAY-1992 09:51
>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>                                                    Like most executives,
>    he doesn't stand eight feet tall or glow in the dark. 

No, but he does take over one of the nicest library spaces in the company for
his office and attendants.

    Bob participates in several tech conferences and tells it straight. 
    Occasionally he's gotten flamed, and is never vindictive.
    
    karl

    It is nice to see a VP on the network.  However!  From what I'm hearing
    from customers, Bob did not answer the key question.  In fact, he did a
    nice dance around it.  The customers are saying that they can not
    easily move their code that runs on DECstations to the Alpha.  Binary
    "mumble" isn't solving their problem.  Major porting efforts are
    required.  VMS is much easier.  That's the key issue around the U*
    support question and disenchantment.  From a customer's viewpoint, Bob
    loses credibility and continues the DEC VAX/VMS arrogance/blindness
    msg.  If Bob has proof to the contrary (and not more marketing msgs) I
    know some people who'd love to test it out.

Ahhh Gi'day...

    I don't  think that's really fair (although he doesn't need me to stand
    up for him).  He can't really stand up and say, "It's DAMNED difficult,
    don't  even  consider it".  He's been fairly exact in what he says, and
    simply rebutts the "It's impossible" message. Marketing sells, you know

    VMS is easier because they haven't bitten off as big a chunk to chew...

    VMS is on a new H/W architecture, VAX -> Alpha

    The U* world bit off Ultrix -> OSF, MIPS -> Alpha, 32 -> 64 bits.

    
    Re: .14
    
    Bob,
    
    I believe that the library was turned into office space for Bill
    Strecker, back when he was made VP of all engineering. It's just
    that another reorg happened soon after, and Bill never got to
    occupy it. David Stone simply inherited the plush office space.
    
    Anyway, the new library just down the hall in ZK1-3 (formerly a
    computer lab) is just as big and nice as the old one.
    
    JP

Bob Supnik also provides a firm hand on the rudder in some internal notes files.

Specifically the DWT notes file.

RE: the objections about the ULTRIX stuff.

Bob stated that he wasn't an ULTRIX expert.  What we need is for the VP in 
charge of ULTRIX (is there one now?) to post a similar note to Bob's.

Ken Slattery

    The Vice President in charge of Ultrix is David Stone.
        John Sauter

    re .18
    
    Strecker, lived in a common or garden cube, when in ZKO, He moved back
    to the mill either sometime before or after stone moved in.
    
    q
    

    RE .21 re .18 re Stone's digs -

    That may be true, but I also heard that the plans for converting the
    space to an office complex started under Strecker and was inherited by
    Stone.

RE: .18

Stone's office space is no more "plush" than the rest of ZKO--it's 10'x10'
cubes just like everywhere else here.  The only thing unusual about it is
that it occupies the space that used to be the ZKO library.  The library, BTW,
is now in what used to be the raised-floor room of the ZKO1-3 computer lab.

--PSW

    Plush is relative, I guess.  100 square feet sounds absolutely
    luxurious to me...  Those of us in Sales, Sales Support and
    Services in this office each have a 6�'x5' (32.5 ft�) area of
    which only a 5'x2�' (12.5 ft�) area is not covered by a work
    surface (i.e. no places for briefcases, etc., unless you don't
    want to open the desk drawers - opening both sets of drawers drops
    the open space down to just over the size of a desk chair).  This
    set up is part of a four unit `core' so that the area behind you
    as you sit at the desk is open into the other three units leading
    to a cacaphony whenever more than one person is on the phone
    simultaneously or some two-four person group decides to have an
    impromptu discussion right behind your back.

    I wish we had the old 5'x8' modular office furniture we used to
    have.  As tattered as they were, they had more space, privacy and
    far less noise than does this `modern' open office setup we now
    have.

	Mike

    Oh good, we've degenerated this discussion into one on office space.
    
    Ye Gods.......
    
    JK

    Hey,if you want intelligent diatribe along with wit,humor and a
    piercing rhetoric,go to SOAPBOX!
    
    
    Ken

    There has not been enough office space in ZK for some time. That's why
    my group and also Alpha OSF are across the river in Hudson. It was for
    that reason that excess computer lab space was converted to house the
    library and the library was converted to office space. This was planned
    in the year that Strecker was managing software but was not completed
    until after Stone arrived. So he and his supporting staff moved into
    the space that had been planned for Strecker. By the way, it is not
    particularly good office space [ask Gayn Winters or others who sit
    there].
    
    Jim Mills
    

    Re -.1
    
    If they needed more office space and had excess computer lab space, why
    didn't they simply convert the lab into office space? Why go to the
    trouble of moving the library.
    
    They also converted a computer lab in ZK01-2 into offices. They took
    down a wall and opened the space up so that it's not so tomblike. 
    
    I liked the old library better -- it had windows. Now it's gone, the
    resulting office space is not good either, and the new library space
    is walled in and windowless. Bleah.
    
    Neil
    
    

    re -.1
    Neil, I don't know the answer to that question. You might ask Ken
    Madore. 
    Jim