Reader Feedback on IT Jungle Shutting Down Non-AS/400 Newsletters
September 22, 2008 Timothy Prickett Morgan
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Well, my decision to shut down IT Jungle’s mainframe, Linux, Windows, and Unix newsletters took many of you by surprise. No surprises there. I would like to thank the many, many people who called, instant messaged (yes, a lot of you are online with me every day), or sent email, commending our efforts to stay in the AS/400 game while letting me make a decent living (so I hope) by having two jobs. It shouldn’t take two jobs, but that’s life in general and my life in particular. Not all of the feedback was positive, of course. This first bit of feedback is not from my parents. HA!
Oh no! Tim–what are you doing? I always regarded The Register as the wacko IT magazine. All scandal and no real substance to their articles. More the Daily Mirror of IT publishing world. Sorry to see you do this. I don’t think you will mix well in that environment. –Pete
Tough call, but a good call. Best wishes to you and your team as you continue. –Keith (Keith is a programmer, and minces few words. I like that. I am just not capable of it.)
Sorry to read this, but I’m sure all will work out well. The Register in the U.K. sounds like a great gig. Sure hope you’re feeling better and you actually have a real vacation soon! Best regards, –Debbie
Tim, Incredibly brave and responsible editorial on your situation. We want to know what we can do to help. –Dennis Keep reading what we do. That’s all there is to it. –TPM
Timothy, Congrats on the new opportunity with The Register! I’ll miss the variety of newsletters here at IT Jungle–I’ve especially enjoyed the Unix newsletter the past few years–but I look forward to reading your articles at The Register and following the 400 stuff here, too. Best, –Corey
Timothy, I read your article knowing the sadness you felt when writing. I have also gone through a difficult eight-month odyssey of providing half-time support for a client reducing their AS/400 footprint while looking for the “next thing.” I was struck by how my AS/400 experience and the market situation both strengthened and weakened my prospects for a new assignment. Strengthened, due to a long, long obvious falling out of market favor, which provided time to learn Java and related technologies, and to attend the local Sun user group to learn more about Solaris and server farm issues (NAS, SAN, SSO, etc.). Weakened, due to the history of the System/38 encouraging so many companies to build their own software because it was so easy to do. Having never taken the track to learn packaged software (why would I want to maintain someone else’s pitiful code?) my resume is bereft of SAP, PeopleSoft, JD Edwards, Seibel, and Oracle Apps. Didn’t help that I turned 60 this year. Fortunately, I started a great job yesterday with a great bunch of middle-aged and older oil and gas production engineers, and even better, there is no snotty nosed 35-year-old Microsoftie manager to report to. Unfortunately, I have gone through four of the five Kubler-Ross stages of grief (Denial, Anger, Depression and Acceptance). I figure it is pretty useless to bargain with God. Zero power trying to negotiate with infinite power is a humorous scenario. Looking back, the ordeal was necessary to achieve closure on that part of my career. The companies in Houston who have built great RPG-based apps (Sysco Foods, Academy Sports and Outdoors, Garden Ridge Pottery, etc.) will be supported by IBM indefinitely with OS/400 on the Power System. But I see zero movement to adopt the platform for first-time users. So be it. It was a great ride for 25 years, IBM’s masterpiece and my efforts fed my family, paid the mortgage, and put two daughters through college. I will miss working with a few of my friends, but will not miss the ones who stubbornly refused to learn new technologies. I hope you will enjoy writing for The Register as much as I enjoy reading their biting British insights. My day usually begins with a check of Drudge, IT Jungle, Sun Microsystems (to see what’s new from Jonathan) and The Register. Good luck to you and to your team members. –Doug
Just wanted to let you know how much your faithful readers have enjoyed your publications through the last few years. We are also an AS/400 company and are reassured that those publications will continue. Best of luck with the new ventures upon which you are embarking. –Steve
I wish you all the very best in your endeavors. It has been a great pleasure to read your articles over the years, and I have appreciated the times that you have replied to my various emails. Best of luck to you and yours. . . . –Paula
I wondered what happened to Computerwire/Datamonitor. Seemingly overnight it went from usually worth a read to never worth the click. I’ll look forward to reading you at El Reg, they need some help with the tech stuff. –Phil
I have been reading your articles for 15 years. What content will you be writing for The Register? Sorry to see you leave. Thanks. –Lee Hi Lee, I am not leaving, just giving myself a split personality. I will continue to cover the AS/400 and related IT items for The Four Hundred, and will be the Systems Editor over at The Register, covering servers, operating systems, virtualization, and other data center issues. I am sorry we didn’t make more dough putting out the non-i content. But, at some point, this has to work financially for myself and my employees. We’ll all adjust. That’s what people do. –TPM
I wish you every success, TPM, and am confident that everything will work out for the best. I’ve always admired very much the top-notch professional editorial content that you and your team provide, and look forward to these e-newsletters every week. I also love your writing style and the sincere human touch that comes through in them, such as in today’s final issue of The Windows Observer. All the best from a faithful reader in Ontario, Canada. –Tom
Mr. TPM, I am sorry to hear things did not work out for these other pubs! I know full well that all of you have poured, and continue to pour, 110 percent of yourselves into your work. Heck, I did, what, like three articles for you guys and I cried “Uncle!” fairly quickly, whining that I didn’t have time to do more. (And so it seems I still whine about that.) It’s not easy to consistently deliver accuracy and clarity when the subjects of your writing is a near-impossible-to-hit moving target, as “information” truly is in our digital lives, but you have always done that. In fact, I can’t tell you how many times I perused other pubs and got the feeling that they were just riding your coattails on some of their stories (even if they didn’t actually credit y’all, as they probably should have). I continue to look forward to reading your Four Hundred publications. I depend on them to know what’s going on in the midrange market and I often share the stories with my colleagues, who know nothing about the green screen world, of course! Bottom line: I know all of you guys are seriously at the top of your game and I wouldn’t bother going anywhere else! Take care, –Steve
Tim, I check IT Jungle every single day and respect your articles and insight very much. Not that you need encouragement from me, but I also am committed to the long-term in spite of many setbacks and disappointments. H. Ross Perot was rejected 77 times before landing his first contract after leaving IBM, after being the star IBM salesman, and he is now worth $4.4 billion. You are making a big difference. All the best, –Paul
I just read your “Survive, Adapt…” column and can only imagine how hard it was to write. I didn’t know the whole history of your company (in its most recent incarnation); it looks like we started our respective companies at about the same time and have faced many of the same problems. I’m really sorry that some of the Jungle is going away–no one could touch you on content. Your stories were always well thought out, well written, and timely. It read more like really good analyst content than tech journalism. There are maybe two or three other tech journalists who come close to your quality, but you’re quite a ways ahead of them due to your understanding of the technology and, more importantly, your ability to explain complex technical concepts in a way that makes sense to laymen. I was glad to hear that you landed at The Reg, it’s a great fit. I think you can do quite a bit to help them get to the next level. Again, I’m sorry about the changes at the Jungle. But, on the other hand, I think you’ll do some great things at The Register. There’s lots of opportunity there and you’ll finally have a solid platform and an amplifier that goes up to 11. Nothing wrong with that. –Dan
Godspeed, my friend! See you in the familiar haunts as well as at The Register. Congratulations on the new job! –Brian
Hey, TPM: Glad to hear you’re going to be writing for El Reg over here 🙂 I talked a lot with their writers whenever iSeries/storage articles came up, and your articles and position in the forefront of the news in the industry were always discussed. Looking forward to seeing your articles; hopefully the plucky sense of humor and sarcasm on The Reg means the demographic will welcome you. Cheers, –Si RELATED STORIES Survive, Adapt, Repeat: IT Jungle Shutting Down Non-AS/400 Newsletters The X Factor: Survive, Adapt, Repeat
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