** End of an ERA **
I just wanted to formerly acknowledge the end of a great PowerBuilder Community resource ... the PowerBuilder Developers Journal magazine. In case you had not noticed, the last publication of the magazine was on March 6, 2013. Also, online digital editions had ceased to be updated since the end of 2009. As of late, you can not subscribe to the PBDJ magazine either - only various the Syscon news letters.
Just to make sure, I tried to contact my PBDJ editor Nancy Valentine and then to be even more pragmatic emailed the VP sales, subscriptions, etc contacts as well. All of these contacts are published on the Syscon website but the emails were returned as undeliverable. From there, I went to the Utilizer website and tried to contact them as Utilizer now controls Syscon. The final response I received from them is that the PBDJ Magazine was no longer but the PBDJ web portal was still running.
The PDBJ web portal does still accept articles written by Utilizer authors and verified RSS feeds like the one I have from this blog to PBDJ. This means that you can still publish to the PBDJ web portal using either of these mechanisms. Looking the PBDJ website though ( http://pbdj.sys-con.com ) most of the current articles are actually from my blog transferred over to PBDJ via my automatic RSS feed. So not much new content related to PB seems to be evident these days.
I would also really like to thank Bruce Armstrong for all his years of service to the PBDJ
Unfortunately, with the demise of the PBDJ magazine, the whole PB community has lost another great resource in the PB Ecosystem!
Regards ... Chris
This is one more bad news related to PowerBuilder.
ReplyDeleteIt is a shame!
ReplyDeleteWill the last one out of PowerBuilder please turn off the lights?
ReplyDeleteYes, sad. And as of less than a month ago you could still find a way to pay for a print subscription on their website, which I did, and was not told they had stopped publishing! They told me I would receive a refund but it hasn't arrived yet.
ReplyDeleteIt's actually still possible to pay for a new subscription on the sys-con.com website, by logging in, going to the My Profile page, then Subscriptions, then clicking on “Order magazine subscription”. I have been mentioning this to them for a while but it hasn't been fixed.
ReplyDeleteHi Dan;
ReplyDeleteI think that its a "scam" by Syscon to allow you to get to the digital editions. However, as you will see once you have a login - they only exist up until 2009. I certainly find allowing a subscriptions basically "false advertising".
Now, trying to get anyone respond at Syscon could be another problem as I emailed *all* the contacts on their website a few weeks ago and the emails all came back as "undeliverable". So to me, it sounds like Syscon (or at least Syscon's PBDJ area) has been totally dismantled. ;-(
Regards ... Chris
I'm getting replies from Nancy Valentine, nancy@sys-con.com. No action on my refund yet though ...
DeleteThanks Dan!
DeleteI will check the email address I used for her - but, I'm pretty that's the same one. I wonder if they have someone else at Syscon answering that email address as its the one publicly listed on theior web site.
There have been a lot of signs lately of PB's demise. The version change from 15 to 12.6 when it was finally released, the image of the last vestiges of a dead dandelion being blown away, and Dave Fish no longer being employed by SAP. The nice thing is that PB still works as a development tool, and applications made with it still work. Until Microsoft makes enough changes to Windows that applications made today are no longer compatible, that is.
ReplyDeleteHmmm ... "Dave Fish no longer being employed by SAP"
ReplyDeleteIs that true?
OK .. looks like Dave has left SAP ....
DeleteFYI: http://my.isug.com/p/bl/et/blogid=35&blogaid=1036
Correct. However, this had nothing to do with PB. Unfortunately for Dave he worked in the wrong Denver office that SAP shuttered. A lot of good people working on other products (that DO have roadmaps!) were also let go.
DeleteThe good news is that Dave's joined the ISUG-TECH board, and will continue to contribute to the community, now as a volunteer!
Hi Mike;
DeleteI beg to differ ... when we were at the North Carolina PB Convention last March in Charlotte, NC - Dave Fish was there representing PB. Dave was introduced to the attendees as a PB evangelist that was now reassigned back to PowerBuilder (along with some other products). Dave presented the PB Release 15 Features Overview and participated in the numerous sessions including the PB Enhancement forum with Sue Dunnell. So anyone attending that convention or reading about it knows that Dave was back on the PB side to some degree. So loosing Dave from SAP totally severs that product connection. Especially now that John Strano has also been reassigned to other SAP products as well.
Regards ... Chris
I think you misunderstood what I wrote, so let me be clearer: Dave wasn't let go because he worked on PB; he was let go because he was based in the wrong Denver office.
DeleteYou can choose to believe otherwise if it makes you somehow feel better.
Hi Mike;
DeleteI got that ... the Denver office closed. However, SAP has employees all over the globe that work from home. So why didn't they re-channel his expertise back into PB and other Sybase products? That's the sad point I was trying to make from the PB Community aspect.
On a brighter note though ... congratulations on getting him to help out at ISUG-Tech director level!
Regards ... Chris
Oh wow, that is bad news about the publication... and Dave Fish leaving!
ReplyDelete