Conference mr1pst::dec_history

294.0. "Ian Pugsley's farewell...." by GIDDAY::GILLINGS (a crucible of informative mistakes) Sun Feb 16 1997 19:34

  There isn't a specific note here for farewell's, and although Ian's departure
  cannot be classified as "end of an era", it's not every day that someone
  with nearly 30 years service leaves the company. Although I don't have formal
  permission to post this, he did broadcast it, so I'm sure he won't mind ;-)





From:	MEOC02::MEOC02::MRGATE::"A1::PUGSLEY IAN" 14-FEB-1997 10:21:57.58
To:	@Distribution_List
CC:	
Subj:	Goodbye

From:	NAME: Ian Pugsley                   
	FUNC: SYSTEMS: Software Licensing     
	TEL: 61-3-92753641, DTN 739-3641      <PUGSLEY IAN AT A1@MEOC02@SNO>
To:     See Below

Today is my last day at DIGITAL.  A bit different from the first day,
10th December 1968. After an overnight flight with my family from 
Seattle to Boston, taxi out to Maynard through the snow; mill pond 
frozen over outside the knitting mill housing the small computer 
company which was to dominate the minicomputer market around the world.

I started on the 4th floor of building 5; PDP-10 manufacturing was on 
the 5th (top) floor and software development was spread around the 
mill complex.  The LINC-8 (later the PDP-12) was just hitting the market, 
combining the breadth and flexibility of the PDP-8 with the data 
acquisition power of the LINC (developed in MIT's Lincoln labs).

Ron Smart was running the GIR office (GIR means General International
Region, a fore-runner of GIA, a forerunner of AP).  We had visitors
from around the world just as we do today, but the offices weren't
quite as plush.  Throughout the mill complex you could see the lanolin
between the floor boards which used to have bundles of wool everywhere.

The peak of DIGITAL's success started with the release of the RSTS
operating system for PDP-11s, and ran through to VMS on the VAX in the
late 1970's.  Software was the driving force for DIGITAL, and the
source of its profitability.  Customers' businesses depended on
long-term reliability of the software, and the incremental
improvements attracted strong loyalty from customers.  My specialty
was PDP-10 software, and there again it was the quality of the
software which attracted customers.  Of course as the software grew
stronger and stronger the demand for hardware and memory grew too;
clustering of VAX computers was the key product differentiator which
pushed DIGITAL to leadership over IBM in many markets. 

The changes and instability of the last few years throughout the
computer hardware industry come with dramatic increase of the pace of
change.  As we all learn to cope with change we must also learn to
pick the strategically important factors and concentrate on the key
needs of customers.  We can see increasing rate of change throughout
the world.  International currency rates, which used to change about
once a year when I was a boy are now changing every few minutes. The
pace of our daily lives is also ramping up to a frantic level.  To me,
this speed change is one of the indicators of the end of time.

Of course there are other indicators of lesser or greater importance.
To some people the wars we see daily on our televisions herald the end
but to my mind they are not key.  I've recently been looking at the 
work of some statisticians measuring the spread of Christianity in the 
world.  In view of the predictions of ancient writings these statistics
are telling me the end of time will not be less than about three years 
away but probably not more than a generation.  Well, that's enough 
philosophy.

If you want to contact me, here is my address and phone number:

	Ian Pugsley
	48 Fitzgibbon Street
	Parkville VIC 3052
	03-93473303.

I intend to become involved in international commerce, particularly 
between Australia and Asia.  I hope this will give me opportunities
to communicate good news in Asia, much of which has not yet heard the 
word.

My best wishes to all in DIGITAL.

Ian.

My goodness! With Alan Kotok gone, who is left with a 3-digit badge
number besides me?

Dave

I don't know about 3-digit numbers, but there are four people with 2-digit
badge numbers listed in ELF: Robert Reed, Heln Yan, Arthur Clockedile, and
Steve Lambert.

Dave:

  I asked ELF a while ago, and there were still about 25 of you
  folks left. I'll ask it again as soon as I can.

                                   Atlant