Terry:
I don't know if your gone, but I hope you get a chance to read this..
It is said there is nothing more important than that in which I believe,
and nothing so unimportant as that in which you believe. We now live
in a world in which the volume is set permanently to high and also have a
tendency to apply a regime of importance to everything that really
outweighs its true value. I think you should re-evaluate.
I know, and its been said many times Mach4 isn't
quite your cup of tea. In fact for many hobbyists it has had a reaction
ranging from disappointment to wonder, depending on personal points of
view and requirements. Its no secret I left many years ago from any
development, and Mach4 isn't quite my cup of tea either, but that's not to say
that it isn't the tea of choice for a different group of people.
I had a conversation with Greg from Tormach a few years before he passed. It was a quiet
moment away from everyone else. He asked if I missed being gone. I told him on reflection it was
what I imagined having child move out was like. Uncomfortable at times, nostalgic at others, but
inevitably a relief of responsibility and pressure. He told me what kept him going was a sense of
responsibility to his employee's. He mentioned they all had a life to live, and failure on his part
could result in them losing their living. It was his largest stressor.
I suspect Brian has those concerns too, he isnt free to take and implement advice from groups such
as this just because it sounds like a good idea. He has to face every decision such as that with
a visceral understanding of how his business works in every direction the various vectors point.
What I think you truly miss,( and many others), is the community we all once had,
a community born of a more carefree time. You must remember at that point in time, Mach3
was written by me, I had no responsibilities to anyone, my real job was an MRI engineer,
even the money Mach3 made wasn't spent. I had no employees, I wrote for fun, I took advice,
( I had to, I knew nothing..), appreciated it, and added it to the code. For me, I was
learning a field I knew nothing about but found very cool. Who doesn't like seeing motors move?
So Mach3 taught me how to program, gave a lot of machinist types software to use that
developed along the lines they requested. It was a fun place to hang. A true community
based on almost a 60's gestalt. Pretty carefree.
But as time passed, Mach got too successful, I was paying people to do things, and it
became stressfull. It went from hobby to business. I went from stoner at the keyboard
to CEO. Suddenly I realized, like Greg did, that peoples financial well being relied
on me not doing stupid things. Time for me to leave.
Brian's background is Machinist / Engineer. He came in to Mach WITH all the OEMS
at the time and grew that number. OEMS pay for software houses to operate. Software
houses pay their employees, employees have lives. Decisions have repercussions. I wont,
and I suggest you don't, apply your business logic to what Brian does. I hear way too much
comparison to the times when I ran things, but they were different times. I had the freedom
to do any thing I wanted, any time I wanted. I could play or experiment as I wished. If a
suggestion sounded good, I could add it. I repeatedly took heat for breaking code when doing so
, but what the hell, if wrong I impacted only myself. When that changed, it all changed.
When Brian changes code, he has to be much more cautious I suspect. When Brian does
anything his mind has to be on many things and this forum as well as yahoo's forum is likely
the small of it.
Long and short of it is.. yes, those days were great. We of the first generation will always
look back on early yahoo as the prime days of hobby CNC, just as I look on Music as being the stones
and Pink Floyd. It was a great time, but you know, at some point you gotta accept the fact that its
turned into a business, a serious business, and voices that harp are no different than the ubiquitous
"WinDoze" references ( think Bill Gates takes those to heart?) , or people who claim that Coke
sucks ever since Coke-Classic was removed. Mach is no longer a hobby, and I cry for its demise,
but understand its rebirth. Will it survive and prosper? I hope and think so, you always wish your children
well, but at the same time they go their way. This isn't to say advice isn't helpful at that point,
but it has to be understood it isn't taken in the same vein as when their young.It is life's final
irony that the value of experience is only truly understood by the experienced, and its everyone's
right to find their own path to that point.
You've given valuable council over the years, as so many have. Ive expressed many times publicly how
thankful I was for everyone's input. But now, as Mach enters its more serious years, perhaps
everyone from that generation should think about and accept its simply different now. Brian has shoulders
that will have to accept success and failure at times in equal measure, he has no responsibility to explain all the weights
in his decisions, to me, to you, to any of us. But that s not to say he doesnt listen, or wont
do his best to make everyone happy.After all , if you believe he doesn't want you happy, you'd have to be
insane, total bliss for everyone is the obvious goal of any businessman.
When a Hobby turns into big business, the originals become the expendables, just like parents to their
children.Embrace it. So I think you should stick around, enjoy your status which is much the same as mine,
Grandpa at the home. I'm free to speak of the good old days when we wore onions on our belts,or speak of
the impetuousness of the young fools in this industry. You wont change the world Terry, no-one on this
board will, but embrace the fact we already DID. Give advice freely, encourage, but accept that unlike
early mach3, where advice was the driving force, advice to a business is simply a toilet water, it flavors
the air and one hopes influences the end of the evening..
There is only one reason to get mad on this board, on any forum,or in the yahoo group. Your using the software
and it isn't doing as you were told. If this is true, get mad, yell, threaten to switch to unix, or to stand
in central park and scream, Ive never Seen ArtSoft not respond to such a problem. But if anyone gets upset that
progress isn't in their direction, rethink it, direction of progression isn't decided that way, too many strings being pulled for that.
BUT, if its a case of you have better idea's, and those damn fools wont implement them, join me at the home,
we can talk about foolish kids, bad business, the good old days, and mellow out. We can talk of how
we'd do things differently, how if only we were in ch..ZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.............
Seriously Terry, youve helped alot of people with a lot of advice, accept the grateful thanks of your
fellow community. Watch Mach's development and kick in when you wish. Step back as desired, step forward
as you like. But you cant get upset when they go a path not in your direction, they are simply following the road they
must, and we are no more privy to why then when Windows creates a browser I hate and most love.
Forward....
Art