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To: nihil who wrote (19955)	12/20/1998 12:47:00 AM
From: limtex	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 77400

Thread - Anyone ever heard of a Jupiter router?? Regards, L

To: nihil who wrote (19955)	12/20/1998 12:53:00 PM
From: Frank A. Coluccio	Respond to of 77400

nihil, Very well put. I'd like to say thanks for reminding me of the many folks who were, indeed, brilliant and dedicated, who made strident attempts to make a difference at their own peril, but were muted for the reasons you so very aptly enumerated in your post. >>When I think of the hundreds of thousands of people -- many of them really brilliant and ambitious -- who were encrusted in that company it angers me to this day. Of course, I've always cheered the mammals, something about loyalty to the order.<< I failed to give credit in another post that I made here in SI in the Last Mile Thread, to some very industrious and creative souls who were my peers in an earlier era, as well. The essence of those experiences can be found in the trailing paragraph excerpt of a long message copied below: Message 6817751 A particular episode sticks out in my mind. It was at a time when I was shoveling fecal matter up against the tide for several years on a special situation desk, attempting to meet escalating (although reasonable) customers' data transmission demands while using the same tools, I felt, that Alexander Graham Bell used to set up the first manual transfer exchange between Boston and NY. I saw the benefit of effectively divesting the special services group from the POTS divisions. This I thought would allow my staff the ability to exercise some autonomous movement, and for once allow them to get things done in an unencumbered way. Roving task forces in the field, dedicated "frame men," the use of wireless comms for dispatch and troubleshooting, critical path techniques... nothing star-warish, just common sense things. Let's just consider this my failed attempt at the pursuit of excellence in domestic private line services, a long time ago. I still have a copy of the memorandum. (Remember those things? Typed out and photocopied letters that were actually circulated around offices at one time?) I submitted it with the purpose of recommending what I thought were reasonable measures to cut costs, improve service and boost morale. When I handed it to The Guy in charge of Manhattan, he thanked me and told me that he would take it under advisement, that he would get back to me, and the meeting was suddenly over as quickly as it had commenced. Several days, maybe a week, later, I questioned him about it, and he said, "You know Frank, after you left my office the other day, I read the memo once again, then I shuddered. I shuddered. And then I put it back into in my desk drawer. That's where I think it's going to stay for a while. By the way, you weren't kidding, were you?" A month later I was teaching private line transmission theory in the NY Hilton and Americana Hotels in NY City, while taking orders to project manage the implementation of two branch banking systems. This, in an age when anyone who left the Bell System was suspect of being slightly more than just a little certifiable. And so it went. Regards, Frank C.