Packard Reviews

Correct decisions may lead to discovering the castle and ultimately returning to one's own time. Wrong turns may have the reader die centuries in the past.

This was one of my favorite CYOA books, along with "Escape" and "Hyperspace."

Also, the book does not cover the current line of HP scanners. It talks a lot about the DeskScan II software which, evidently, came with previous HP models; however, DeskScan II is not shipped with the current line of HP scanners. And the PrecisionScan software which does come with current scanners does not have the same features/capabilities as the DeskScan II software.

This book is largely geared toward the WIMP (window, icon, mouse, pointer) tools for configuring CDE, as well as a somewhat useful section on actually extending the environment. However, for basic configuration, the almost exclusive focus on GUI tools (which frankly don't need explaining to a semi-competent admin) is a severe liability.

Coverage of configuration files, fundamental X philosophy, X resources, and releated issues is completely inadequate. I found the online man pages from HP-UX for VUE, and references such as the O'Reilly X Window users and administrator' references, to be far, far more useful in this context. Compounding this issue is the apparent unwillingness of vendors (I've worked with both Sun and HP boxes using VUE) to provide detailed man pages describing CDE, startup processes, and configuration.

The only praise I can give is that, for the topic of CDE, this is the best book I'm aware of. However, it's also the worst, as this is a class containing exactly one element.

A good book as an overview of the history and purpose of poetry, with some excellent exercises ("triggers"). Not however a book for someone starting out in poetry, or for anyone who has even the slightest doubt about their own abilities as a poet.

This and the 11.x "How To" book cover everything I need to know for HP-UX system administration. Topics are covered first at the introductory level and then the advanced level. I got the information I needed to know about tasks you perform when starting out such as installation, basic system administration, and an intro to shell programming, then advanced topics such as performance commands and Ignite-UX for system recovery were covered.

Marty also includes the most often used manual pages right in the book. If you see a command used in a chapter there is a good chance the manual page for that command appears at the end of the chapter.

This is the most complete guide for a specific UNIX variant I have seen.

The other major aspect of Fiorina's disloyalty has been her disloyal refusal
to compete aggressively with key competitors, most notably Sun
Microsystems. This company in the past has beat HP badly in the UNIX
server marketplace, but is currently very weak due to competition not from
HP but from Linux. Any loyal HP executive would take this incredible
opportunity to try to run them out of business before they recover. Instead,
Fiorina is going out of her way to help them! For example, her effort to
ship Java on HP PCs (WSJ 6-12-03). Anders should have noted this let's-
help-a-key-competitor (Sun) aspect of Fiorina which was evident in her
Bluestone acquisition for 400 million (a total waste) which occurred before
the merger, with plenty of time to be included in Anders' book.

While these disloyal actions have hurt HP severely, note that they are
strongly beneficial to Fiorina personally. One can only assume that Job One
with Carly is to remain on very good terms with the Cisco and Sun
Microsystems Boards, both of which are likely to have a CEO opening in
the next couple years. This situation should have been given central
position in Anders' book, not ignored completely.

For Perfect Enough, George Anders gained access to HP CEO Carly Fiorina and her fellow board members and executives. It provides a full picture of the genesis of the computing deal. Explaining the frustration board members felt at the company's inability to keep up with competitors benefiting from the Internet boom such as Dell Computer Corp. or release a killer new product since the laser printer in the early 1980s, Anders stresses that the board members - and not just Fiorina- were seeking a radical makeover for HP.

Peter Burrows' competing book about the merger, Backfire, paints Carly Fiorina as a brilliant marketer and communicator who stumbled into HP after one of the worst executive search jobs of all time by Christian Timbers. Her first two years was good idea after good idea followed by poor execution after poorer execution. The Business Week journalist implies the Compaq merger was primarily a way to deflect attention away from her inability to turn the company around after her first two years there.

Anders' more sympathetic account is fascinating at times such as its description of the complex relationship between Fiorina and David Packard's daughter Susan Packard-Orr. But, Burrows' book - unencumbered by any sense of loyalty to Fiorina, who snubbed the author - digs deeper into Fiorina's past by interviewing her ex-husband and childhood friends, thereby providing a much fuller picture of the executive, if not the entire organization.

Taken together, the two books complement each other nicely. It remains to be seen if the same can be said for the merger.