The Four Hundred Guru Retires

December 13, 2021 Ted Holt

This is the last issue of The Four Hundred for which I am serving as technical editor.

I have been editing the technical content of and writing articles for this august publication for 20 years. For most of that time, this has been a side job that I’ve done outside of normal working hours (i.e., nights and weekends). I’m ready for a change. Technical editing and writing are not easy and they take a lot of time, time that I had rather spend doing other things.

In the days ahead I plan to spend:

• Less time sitting and more time in motion
• Less time indoors and more time outdoors
• Less time working and more time doing things I either need to do or want to do
• And most important, less time with computers and more time with people, especially my kids and grandkids

To edit and write for an internationally distributed publication is an immense honor, an honor that few people are given, and one that I do not take for granted. I have a lot of people to thank.

• Tim Prickett Morgan, for the opportunity
• The many authors who contributed articles
• My many teachers (I didn’t learn what I know without a lot of help)
• You, the readers, without whom none of this would be possible

Thanks to all who gave me feedback, whether positive or negative. A special thanks to all of you who supported me and encouraged me.

Enjoy the holidays. May 2022 be our best year ever.

–Ted

Editor’s Note: Two decades is a long time to do anything, even if it is something that you love to do, and even if you enjoy the work, it is still work. And after a long and venerable career in programming and technical writing, Ted Holt is taking a well-deserved break.

Each and every one of us on planet Earth are unique, but some of us are more unique than others. It has been my distinct honor and pleasure to work side-by side with Ted Holt from the time that I joined Midrange Computing way back in 1998. When we all lost our jobs in 2001 and when I reconstituted The Four Hundred after a two-year hiatus and put together a plan to provide much broader and deeper coverage for the IBM i market through what became IT Jungle.

Let’s just state the obvious right here: There is no way that our IT Jungle publications, which were separate two decades ago when the market was larger and richer and which have been consolidated over time as the market has itself condensed, would have gotten off the ground without Ted Holt. While we can cover news and provide tactical and strategic advice, it was Ted Holt who provided the practical, technical tips and features – and cultivated others who could further add to that content – that gave us the third leg of the publishing stool that made IT Jungle stable and viable and, most importantly, immediately useful.

Ted Holt is simply irreplaceable, and we say this with joy. Every part of the universe has a narrative arc, and it is his time to actually spend more time with his family, and we rejoice in this. We will carry on our technical content as best we can with the help of others, fear not. But by definition it can never be the same. And what one hell of an archive Ted has built and what a shining example he has made with Four Hundred Guru over two decades. And for this we are forever grateful. We love you, brother.

–TPM