Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sdd.hp.com!hp-pcd!hpcvlx!tay
From: tay@hpcvlx.cv.hp.com (Mike Taylor)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.hp
Subject: Re: HP bias's
Message-ID: <101950204@hpcvlx.cv.hp.com>
Date: 19 Apr 91 03:09:31 GMT
References: <1991Apr13.011054.15941@sura.net>
Organization: Planet X
Lines: 88

> This is not the only example I have seen in the last week.  It is getting 
> pretty bad.  It makes a difference if the opinions expressed are coming
> from employees of the same company.  Since this is comp.sys.HP, how about HP
> employees making it REAL clear whose opinion they state.

I'm afraid that if you are expecting the corporate opinion, on most issues
you will not find it on notes.
 
>if a post comes from *.hp.com i should assume that it comes from an 
>HP employee? 

Yes, this is 99.9% safe assumption.

>Should i assume this person is knowlegeable of what he speaks?

I think one can usually tell the degree of knowledge a person has by
what they say or how they say it.  HP does not have any restrictions to
my knowledge about what I can say, within reason, on notes (and most of us 
would like it to stay that way).  HP is a very large company that employs 
90,000+ people and sells something like 10,000 products.  For this reason 
its hard to say if someone is an expert on a particular product.  
Historically, HP was in the early days essentially a company that 
consisted of several independent companies that just happened to all get 
paid from the same account.  HP is much more integrated and system 
oriented today, but that is where the company comes from. 

>Should i also assume he is not an HP sales rep?  

Yes, this assumption will be correct probably less than 5% of the time.
HP has been slow to get sales offices on Internet.  While most of them are
on now (I think), most have not yet had time to realize the value of 
reading notes.  Heck, even the marketing folks here at this factory don't 
even get in to read notes (with very limited exceptions) as much as I think 
they should.

>I guess there are no spouses, friends or relatives on hp.com.

Yes, this is 99.9% safe assumption (unless the spouse, friend or relative
also works at HP).

>What im trying to say is, if this group is about Kmart, and u work 
>for Kmart, dont u think it should make it very clear if you are on the
>clock or not?  Are you expressing your personal opinion or the companies?

Well we don't work for Kmart.  Not one of the people in this division
punch a clock.  I'm sure you mean this figuratively, but for a whole lot
of HP folks the distinction is not always clear.  For me, work is just
another activity in my life that I enjoy and happen to get paid for.  HP
hires people, not employees, and expressing my personal opinion is very
often a part of the job.  

Most of the HP people I know are very customer oriented and and do their
best to help out a customer.  From what I read in this post, what you got
was a reply from an HP customer, who also happens to work at HP.  I'm sure 
he'll think twice and get his reply approved by marketing the next time he 
thinks about giving some input to a customer, and I am not saying that to 
be flippant.  It is for this very reason that most HP engineers (the ones 
who can really help you) do not reply to comp.sys.hp.

At the risk of exposing more HP bias, if your original questions pertained
the new s700's, I am very impressed with the boxes.  Sure, I probably would 
not say so in this forum if I wasn't, but I would not state falacies and 
half-truths if I wasn't.  The s700 is an amazing improvement to our 9000 
line.  We can't hardly touch them because customer demand is so high.  I 
had the good fortune to have one ON MY OWN DESK for three days, which made 
it real hard to go back to my 370.  Of course I can't comment on the 
compiler, but X performance SCREAMS.  I'll have to agree with you somewhat 
on HP mice, but only because mine seem to need replacing about every year
or so.  Other than that they are just fine for my needs.  I think your 
concerns about the two internal disks may be legitimate, I have our 
operation's computer room to my left and our testing area immediately behind 
me so the noise/heat levels are already pretty high.  If I were you, I'd 
ask a local sales rep for a demo and weigh the price/performance against 
concerns like these.

BTW, I know nothing and if anyone asks me if I said this I'll deny it.
:-)


Peace,

Mike Taylor
Current Products Engineering & Online
Interface Technology Operation

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    "I get stranger things than you free with my breakfast cereal!" 
                                                   - Zaphod Beeblebrox