Did Sun get a sweetheart deal?

So why did Sun cave in?

Ern

-------- From San Jose Mercury: "Good Morning Silicon Valley"

NASA has its day in the Sun

  Sun Microsystems Inc. said Wednesday it received two contracts from
  NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center worth a total of $100 million. The
  Mountain View-based company said the pact calls for software
  development and the design about 34,000 computer-aided engineering
  and design workstations. NASA will use the workstations to design
  integrated circuits.

Ernest Hua writes:
> 
> So why did Sun cave in?

I'm not sure they did.  I've seen two quotes from Sun- one
pro-GAK one from Eric Schmidt, one from someone else I
have never heard of who's head of government relation or something
like that, which was pretty anti-GAK.  Schmidt is regarded as
somewhat clueless by a large number of Sun employees.

In addition, I had lunch today with the people I used to work
with/for at Sun, who're probably the most likely to be asked to implement
such a thing.  They haven't heard anything about it and were quite dismayed
at the whole idea.


Oh, and government contracts (especially NASA ones) take a shitload of
time to set up.  The only coercion that a TLA could do with it would
be to threaten to scotch the deal for "national security reasons".
The fact that some deal went through doesn't prove anything.
I think it much more likely that the Govt would use carrots
like possible additional sales or a leg up on competitors.
Hey, it worked on IBM didn't it?
 

-- 
Eric Murray  ericm@lne.com  ericm@motorcycle.com  http://www.lne.com/ericm
PGP keyid:E03F65E5 fingerprint:50 B0 A2 4C 7D 86 FC 03  92 E8 AC E6 7E 27 29 AF

On Thu, 3 Oct 1996, Eric Murray wrote:
> In addition, I had lunch today with the people I used to work
> with/for at Sun, who're probably the most likely to be asked to implement
> such a thing.  They haven't heard anything about it and were quite dismayed
> at the whole idea.

I'd love to know what John Gage says about this, since in the past I 
believe he's used been "Over My Dead Body" on GAK. 

Simon

---
Cause maybe  (maybe)		      | In my mind I'm going to Carolina
you're gonna be the one that saves me | - back in Chapel Hill May 16th.
And after all			      | Email address remains unchanged
You're my firewall -    	      | ........First in Usenet.........

At 1:50 AM -0400 10/4/96, Simon Spero wrote:
>On Thu, 3 Oct 1996, Eric Murray wrote:
>> In addition, I had lunch today with the people I used to work
>> with/for at Sun, who're probably the most likely to be asked to implement
>> such a thing.  They haven't heard anything about it and were quite dismayed
>> at the whole idea.
>
>I'd love to know what John Gage says about this, since in the past I
>believe he's used been "Over My Dead Body" on GAK.

You hadn't heard?

Sadly, John Gage was run over in the Sun Microsystems parking lot two weeks
ago.
The driver was not apprehended, but an APB for hit-and-run is out on black
Ford  Contintental with the license plate "WeBeSpooks."

Jim Bidzos was narrowly missed by the same car, and now supports GAK.


--Klaus! von Future Prime


"The government announcement is disastrous," said Jim Bidzos,.."We warned IBM
that the National Security Agency would try to twist their technology."
[NYT, 1996-10-02]
We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, I know that that ain't allowed.
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
tcmay@got.net  408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Higher Power: 2^1,257,787-1 | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."

At 5:01 PM -0700 10/3/96, Ernest Hua wrote:
>So why did Sun cave in?
>
>Ern
>
>-------- From San Jose Mercury: "Good Morning Silicon Valley"
>
>NASA has its day in the Sun
>
>  Sun Microsystems Inc. said Wednesday it received two contracts from
>  NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center worth a total of $100 million. The
>  Mountain View-based company said the pact calls for software
>  development and the design about 34,000 computer-aided engineering
>  and design workstations. NASA will use the workstations to design
>  integrated circuits.

If this theory is true, look for Apple to see some reprieves in government
conversions away from Macs towards Windows.

(To those who don't follow the Mac market, the weekly trade mag, "MacWeek,"
reports frequently on various government agencies deciding to replace Macs
with Windows machines. Users of Macs are often freaked out by this, of
course, and write letters urging the government to reconsider. If Ernest
Hua's theory is even slightly on-target, there may be some reversals of
this "everybody needs to be using Windows" government edict.)

--Tim May

(By the way, I've added some new stuff to my .sig. The apparent infighting,
with Jim Bidzos trashing NSA and IBM, is delicious. Maybe Jim will withdraw
his support. Of course, he's got multiple tens of millions of bucks riding
on the balance, and there's that threat I reported on a couple of years
ago, where an NSA guy said they could always run him over in the parking
lot if he didn't play ball.)


"The government announcement is disastrous," said Jim Bidzos,.."We warned IBM
that the National Security Agency would try to twist their technology."
[NYT, 1996-10-02]
We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, I know that that ain't allowed.
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
tcmay@got.net  408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Higher Power: 2^1,257,787-1 | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."

On Thu, 3 Oct 1996, Ernest Hua wrote:

>   Sun Microsystems Inc. said Wednesday it received two contracts from
>   NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center worth a total of $100 million. The
>   Mountain View-based company said the pact calls for software
>   development and the design about 34,000 computer-aided engineering
>   and design workstations. NASA will use the workstations to design
>   integrated circuits.

34,000 Sun workstations? If any of the software designers from Sun are 
reading this, I would like to make a suggestion as to the screensaver 
that will ship with every workstation.

--Lucky

Mr. Green wrote:
> On Thu, 3 Oct 1996, Ernest Hua wrote:
> >   Sun Microsystems Inc. said Wednesday it received two contracts from
> >   NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center worth a total of $100 million. The
> >   Mountain View-based company said the pact calls for software
> >   development and the design about 34,000 computer-aided engineering
> >   and design workstations. NASA will use the workstations to design
> >   integrated circuits.
> 34,000 Sun workstations? If any of the software designers from Sun are 
> reading this, I would like to make a suggestion as to the screensaver 
> that will ship with every workstation.
 
     Would that bring the crack down to under a month? 

Petro, Christopher C.
petro@suba.com <prefered for any non-list stuff>
snow@smoke.suba.com