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Net.digest summarizes helpful technical discussions on the HP 3000 Internet newsgroup and mailing list. Advice here is offered on a best-effort, Good Samaritan basis. Test these concepts for yourself before applying them to your HP 3000s.

Edited by John Burke

Is “Laptop Computer” an Oxymoron?

Because of the heat generated by the internal power supply and increasingly faster CPU, has laptop computing become an oxymoron? This and other weighty topics were discussed on HP3000-L in June. We were treated to a lengthy thread on how to prepare a checklist for travel outside of the US that turned into a discussion of British cuisine; which, of course, may also be an oxymoron. There was even a thread comparing the HP 1000 (RTE) and NT — now where did that come from?

More on SETI@home, though on some days one wonders if there is any intelligent life on Earth. As an example, one thread dealt with the need for idiot checkers as well as spell checkers and grammar checkers in e-mail. Speaking of which, there was a discussion about proper e-mail Netiquette and the “Lookout” MS mail client. Interex and its almost universally panned proposed bylaws change consumed a lot of bandwidth towards the end of the month. On a sad note, the list was informed that long-time contributor Jim Trudeau succumbed to cancer.

Even with all this there were still well over 1,000 postings meriting serious technical consideration last month. Contained in those postings was a wealth of technical commentary too great to be covered completely anywhere, even by the 3000 NewsWire. Some threads that caught my eye:

Snow Job? HP explains under-priced products

The title for this section actually comes from the subject of a posting which replied to Dave Snow’s explanation of HP 3000 upgrade pricing/tier changes. It should be noted that the poster had tongue planted firmly in cheek when writing the subject. I could also have called this section “Be Careful What You Ask For,” because while HP’s HP 3000 customers have been clamoring for various pricing changes and getting them, it is easy to forget that in any large-scale price restructuring, some will suffer, while others benefit. A case in point:

“We just received a quote on upgrading our user license from 384 users to unlimited on our 979 box. HP increased the list on the upgrade June 1st from $8,800 to $56,434! This seems like a lousy way to take care of customers.”

Dave Snow, HP’s 3000 Platform Product Marketing Manager) replied (edited only for conciseness):

“In a recent discussion it was noted that HP had raised the price for upgrading from a 384-user License level to an unlimited User License level for MPE/Image on a 979KS Server from $8,800 to $56,434. Since I was involved in setting the prices for the User License levels, I felt I should comment.

“First let me note that this change took place on August 1, 1998, not June 1, 1999. On August 1 HP did a significant re-pricing of its hardware platforms and its operating system/database/user license (OS/DB/UL) products. Several things drove this re-pricing:

• A desire to bring the hardware prices closer if not on top of the corresponding HP 9000 prices.

• Simplification of add-on HP software pricing tiers from seven to three (with a corresponding reduction in many servers’ specified tiers).

• The introduction of OS/DB/UL rebates for customers buying new HP 3000 servers that involved trading in an old HP 3000 Server.

Since we were introducing a 9x9KS platform (the 989KS/x00) that performed very close to the top end 997/800 platform, we felt we ought to align the prices of the OS/DB/UL products for the 997 and 9x9KS Servers. So we made the prices equal. This resulted in the lowering of all 997 OS/DB/UL price points. It also resulted in the raising of prices for the 9x9KS 384 and Unlimited User license levels, which we felt were significantly undervalued given the performance levels of the 979KS, the 989KS/x00, and the (at the time) unannounced 989KS/x50.

“As a result of these changes and to be consistent across the product line, we adjusted all OS/DB/UL upgrade prices to be consistent. These changes resulted in the noted increase for the 9x9KS MPE/IMAGE 384-to-unlimited user upgrade from $8,820 to $56,434.

“Yes, this is an increase in price. However, we believe we were under-pricing the product before.

“We believe that there is still real value in this pricing. If the customer is moving up to around 512 users from 384 users (adding 128 users), this would be only a price of $441 per seat. If the customer is moving up to 1024 users from 384 users (adding 640 users), then this is a real steal at $88 per seat for each added MPE/iX and Image user. These prices should be compared to other database per-seat prices (e.g., Oracle), which can easily approach $1,000 per seat for only the database product.

“So yes, we increased prices (we were under-priced before). Our prices are still under other database per-seat prices for similarly performing servers. And the price change did not occur in June of this year but was part of the August 1, 1998 changes.”

After a number of responses to Dave Snow’s posting above, he came back and elaborated on the effects customers would see:

“For the HP 3000 OS/IMAGE/User License upgrade products, the effects of re-pricing varied. We focused on making the OS/DB/UL product price changes and then let the upgrade prices fall out wherever they fell (we felt we had to be consistent between the product and upgrade prices).

“Virtually all the 99x OS/IMAGE/User upgrade prices went down, except for the 64-to-100 user price which went up. Remember we made the 99x and 9x9KS prices equal.

“For the 9x9KS upgrade prices the OS/IMAGE/User changes were minor up or down except for the 8 to 20 upgrade, the 256 to 384 upgrade, and the 384 to unlimited, which went up significantly. This is the area that caught Jim. We believe we were under-pricing the 384 and unlimited licenses.

“For the 9x8 upgrade prices for the OS/IMAGE/User license, again, the changes were minor up or down except for the 256-to-unlimited, which also went up significantly.”

It should be noted that these explanations were not met with agreement from all corners. In particular, some felt that existing customers should be protected from extreme changes caused by the new pricing model. After all, telling someone the price for an upgrade has increased seven-fold because what they were using was grossly underpriced seems intuitively unfair, and hardly customer friendly.

Subsys tape? We don’t need no stinkin’ subsys tape!

Ah, yes, it is time again to wander through the maze that is CSY’s naming conventions for releases of MPE. Everyone on support received a notice about MPE/iX 5.5 Express 7 and maybe even received a tape labeled PowerPatch 7. But Express means subsys, so where is the subsys tape, you ask?

Or, as one poster put it:

“For those few who have received PowerPatch 7, and the even fewer who’ve read the ‘Read Before Installing’ document, on page 8 there is this cryptic statement...

“If you install the 5.5 Express 7 only, it updates your system only with the FOS enhancement. The subsystem products must be ordered and installed via the SUBSYS tape from MPE/iX-Express 3 based on Release 5.5. To install MPE/iX Express 7 based on Release 5.5, you need the following:’

“...and there’s a little chart which says I need, among other things, a ‘SUBSYS C.55.07’ tape.

“I didn’t get a SUBSYS tape.”

He later followed up with:

“The Response Center called back a short while ago. It seems that the C.55.07 SUBSYS tape is needed only for new installations of MPE/iX 5.5 with PP 7. An MPE/iX 5.5 system that was installed with the Express 3 SUBSYS tape is fine: for PowerPatch 7, only the Power Patch is needed. Furthermore, the PowerPatch 7 SUBSYS tape is essentially a relabeled Express 3 SUBSYS tape.

“I guess that means anyone running a 5.5 release less than Express 3 does need to order the SUBSYS tape.”