Dick's Tribute Gathering
Kevin Nelson
200 people gathered to remember a man who has had a huge impact on my life,
and I'm sure, many more people who hang out here on comp.database.pick. As a
22 year old, not quite out of college, I was handed the job of implementing
Pick on the IBM 4300. About a year later, while installing the first system
for Xerox, I was staying in the best hotel in Rio de Janeiro, and partying on
the beaches of Ipanema and Copa Cabana. Heady stuff; my life hasn't been the
same since.
It was a nice evening. I went there straight from work, so was dressed
rather casually. I walked into the hotel behind some people who I
recognized, but couldn't name, who were wearing suits. I thought to myself,
"Oh God, this is going to be some glowing tribute about Dick and his life,
with a bunch of people wearing suits and looking sad. Dick would have hated
it!" I'm glad to say, that's not what it was like at all.
Terri Hale and John Sisk presided over the event which included short
speaches by a number of people who've been around Dick for years, and a few
relative newcomers. Everyone shared stories and laughs. Most shared the
theme that Dick was very smart, but had significant flaws. Everyone related
how Dick liked to have fun. He did. Several people mentioned, that in spite
of what each of us may think about Dick personally, he had a significant
impact on the world of computer users. He did this almost solely through the
power of his will. However, that same will also kept the Pick system from
becoming all that it could be.
Bill Mitchell, an ex Pick Systems attorney (who incidentally once wrote me a
threatening letter, that I wear as a badge of honor:-), opened by mentioning
how appropriate it was that a lawyer be present at an event for Dick Pick.
Good laughs. Bill told the story of one of his first duties at Pick. He was
asked to attend the 1983 (4?) Comdex, where Dick was quoted, while hanging
upside down wearing gravity boots, that all Unix programmers were just a
bunch of "Jerk-brained mathematicians." (I hope I got that quote right) Bill
must have wondered what he had gotten himself into.
One of the highlights of the evening was John Bohner bounding up to the
podium, wearing a 1975 era orange leisure suit with lapels capable of
granting flight in a strong wind, tripping over the microphone cord and
sending the video camera crashing to the floor. It seemed appropriate for
the man who then told the story of how he was once arrested while trying to
steal the Microdata sign that hung over the original site where Pick &
Associates developed the first Pick OS. Dick thought it would be a good
trophy.
The evening ended with a brief speach my Dick's son, Mark. He mostly said it
was interesting to hear all these stories about the man he just knew as
"Dad," and that he missed him. It was a nice ending to a nice evening.
Kevin
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Kevin_...@vos.stratus.com
Stratus Computer, Inc.
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Henry Eggers
: Last night at a hotel in Costa Mesa, there was a tribute to Dick Pick.
[dele]
: Bill Mitchell, an ex Pick Systems attorney (who incidentally once wrote me a
[dele]
: Good laughs. Bill told the story of one of his first duties at Pick. He was
: asked to attend the 1983 (4?) Comdex, where Dick was quoted, while hanging
: upside down wearing gravity boots, that all Unix programmers were just a
: bunch of "Jerk-brained mathematicians."
It was '83, the year that DataMedia, Pertec and GA were there with
68K machines, as well as ADDS, Ultimate and Microdata. Computer Systems
News deposited a copy of the paper in front of every hotel room door
in Las Vegas (or at least the Hilton). It was the show issue, and it
featured Dick, bigtime, including a portrait, in the middle of the
front page, hanging like a bat. The lisencees were somewhere between
inconsolable, homicidal and suicidal. Not only that, but the interview/
description of the Pick system went on for pages. CSN at the time was
being driven by Maureen O'Gara, a very bright and subtle medievalist,
and Mike Azarra (if memory serves). They knew a lot about the doings
at Pick, by virtue of Bill Thrurman's tilling of the soil, and were intent
upon putting forward the case for it.
The quote about Jerk-brained mathematicians was with respect SQL. Dick
intuitively understood that SQL can do little or nothing which English
can do, and did not understand the problem which the rest of the world
had and has with mutual incompatibility, specifiablity and accessability
of data, about which SQL is intended to try to do something. Why, in
other words, would rational people get themselves in such a mess, and then
educe such a solution to it? This remains a non-trivial question.
This Comdex marked the high-water mark of the Pick system 'going public'
in some sense. It was the point where it became clear that Pick was
not a 'Comdex' machine, not a machine for propeller-heads (prefer
techo-twits?). It was, and is, a machine for people who want to run
a business, and who are not interested in playing with computers.
I also observe that, refering to Comdex programs for the shows of that
period, it appears more likely that the year was actually 1982, although
that won't be verifiable until I find the copy of CSN. Never did read
the whole article.
The article poses the on-going question, "How do you get people to jump
their thinking over the hurdles to a better system?" Those who would
espouse RDB/SQL would ask me the same question... :-) So the question
becomes, "How do we identify what the question is, state it, and
ascertain what the better answers are?" Dick, I think, was in the position
of either saying that Pick is a better solution to the same old questions,
or that it obviates those questions entirely (or a lot). He opted for
the latter, or at least Maureen did, particularly by having his picture
on the front cover, in the top, center of the front page, upside down.
The metaphor is that he is turning the world of computing upside down.
With respect to anything, not a lot of people are ready for 'upside down',
so that's a high-risk strategy. The Pick machine substantially did this,
and still does, vide the verbalizations with respect to RDB/SQL. People
who moved to Pick did it with an "Ahah" response. They 'saw' that they
could get a lot more done in a lot less time using it, and they decamped
to it. And it is fundamentally this intuitive leap of faith which
makes it a 'cult' machine.
So the article, although it upset the lisencees, who were discovering
that the customers at Comdex weren't real interested in solving business
problems, was fundamentally the right thing. It's implications remain
to be stated and worked out.
Regards, hve.