Windows 3.1 is 30 Years Old

[Reality Check]

I kind of liked Lotus Notes. I was the first email program my company used that was PC based. I had nothing to compare it to though. I used Outlook Express on my home PC at the time.

In 1998 my company merged with a larger company who used Groupwise for email. We could stay with Lotus Notes or switch at first. I stayed with Notes. Eventually I switched to Groupwise so I could get my business expense charges on line instead of having to enter them manually. It was awful even when compared to Notes.

After Windows 2000 came out we upgraded to standard PC's with Windows 2000 and Office so everyone moved to Outlook for email.

[bill_g]

Isn't Lotus Notes stuck with the DOS 8 x 3 character limits (example abcdefgh.exe)? That led to some hilarious email addys for people with long last names, and some very odd choices for multiple people with similar names.

[RTH10260]

Flashback to the early 70's when a genius in a large company decided that all employees (1000+) need to have standardized ids for letterheads. Ids to be unique and short, like 3 characters, derived from surname then first name, and when nameclash of the short id then the worker with more years in the company would get the first match, the other the id mashed with some remaining characters, rinse and repeat until no two ids the same. And then they decided that contractor personell had to follow up too also. Giving the super bright mind of the system programmer of the computer supplier the code DYM. And while estimate my self somewhere higher they had the SHT left over for me.

[Sam the Centipede]

Off Topic

Prompted by discussion of 8+3 issues for names…

In Scandinavian companies staff usually have official initials, decided by the company or by trial and error, with clash resolution dealt with by looking for alternatives or adding suffixes. Memos would be addressed by initials. Logins to company systems would use the initials as a username.

One advantage is of course brevity. Another is that referring to a person doesn't require wondering what the appropriate label in the context might be: so much easier to write "please ask JLP to look into this" than to wonder whether to use Jan Larsen Pettersen, Mr. Larsen Pettersen, the Deputy Director of Regional Sales (Europe), Jan, Jan in Sales, etc. It's just JLP whether the top boss or the most menial minion is the author.

So I was SC in one company but STC in another, SCEN in another. When working for one large company as a contractor I was required to have an X on the end of my initials to indicate that status, so I became SCEX.

I miss that system when working in environments that don't use it.

[bill_g]

Flashback to the early 70's when a genius in a large company decided that all employees (1000+) need to have standardized ids for letterheads. Ids to be unique and short, like 3 characters, derived from surname then first name, and when nameclash of the short id then the worker with more years in the company would get the first match, the other the id mashed with some remaining characters, rinse and repeat until no two ids the same. And then they decided that contractor personell had to follow up too also. Giving the super bright mind of the system programmer of the computer supplier the code DYM. And while estimate my self somewhere higher they had the SHT left over for me.

(face palm)

[bill_g]

Off Topic

Prompted by discussion of 8+3 issues for names…

In Scandinavian companies staff usually have official initials, decided by the company or by trial and error, with clash resolution dealt with by looking for alternatives or adding suffixes. Memos would be addressed by initials. Logins to company systems would use the initials as a username.

One advantage is of course brevity. Another is that referring to a person doesn't require wondering what the appropriate label in the context might be: so much easier to write "please ask JLP to look into this" than to wonder whether to use Jan Larsen Pettersen, Mr. Larsen Pettersen, the Deputy Director of Regional Sales (Europe), Jan, Jan in Sales, etc. It's just JLP whether the top boss or the most menial minion is the author.

So I was SC in one company but STC in another, SCEN in another. When working for one large company as a contractor I was required to have an X on the end of my initials to indicate that status, so I became SCEX.

I miss that system when working in environments that don't use it.

Nobody forgot your initials!

[Lansdowne]

Off Topic

Prompted by discussion of 8+3 issues for names…

In Scandinavian companies staff usually have official initials, decided by the company or by trial and error, with clash resolution dealt with by looking for alternatives or adding suffixes. Memos would be addressed by initials. Logins to company systems would use the initials as a username.

One advantage is of course brevity. Another is that referring to a person doesn't require wondering what the appropriate label in the context might be: so much easier to write "please ask JLP to look into this" than to wonder whether to use Jan Larsen Pettersen, Mr. Larsen Pettersen, the Deputy Director of Regional Sales (Europe), Jan, Jan in Sales, etc. It's just JLP whether the top boss or the most menial minion is the author.

So I was SC in one company but STC in another, SCEN in another. When working for one large company as a contractor I was required to have an X on the end of my initials to indicate that status, so I became SCEX.

I miss that system when working in environments that don't use it.

That system would be quite interesting if Carl Erik Ohlsson got a low graded job there and was known by his initials?

[bill_g]

That system would be quite interesting if Carl Erik Ohlsson got a low graded job there and was known by his initials?

Karen Ida Alcott
Thomas Robert Devlin
Bernard Oswald Osterland

[Reality Check]

When my company" A" merged with larger company "M" we used different ways to sign in to the network. A had just used our 6 digit employee number. M used what they called PIC's or personal identification codes. It was just 3 random alphanumeric characters. When we were absorbed I was assigned Z17. That code would also work for email. I you sent email internally to just Z17 it would go to me. Your PIC code became part of your life. Even today if someone addressed me as Z17 I would probably answer.