c8s-an@franny.Berkeley.EDU (Alex Lau) (10/24/89)
As requested, here are the updates to the stories I posted earlier: - Apple's DeAnza 3 building is inoperable due to water damage suffered when the sprinkler system didn't shut off after the earthquake. The ensuing shower turned much of the paper in this important R&D building into mush, and wrecked two days of data. This could conceivably delay the release of System 7.0 by months, or at least give Apple a really good excuse for coming out late. Earlier reports of condemnation may have been premature; I'll find out more later. - The water damage may not have been as extensive as once thought. A hard disk with confidential information was sent to a friend of mine for data recovery; however, once it dried off, all the data was intact and the hard disk booted right up. I doubt if Apple will try to sell the water-damaged computers, though. Look for a large donation in the near future of those machines. - Neither educational nor developers' discount computers will be shipped for a while after the earthquake, and it may be quite a while before Apple builds up the inventory again. No word on what the exact delay is going to be, but expect it to be at least two extra weeks. - The two MacUser staffers who were killed as a result of last Tuesday's earthquake are (forgive me if I misspell, but this is from memory): editor John J. Anderson, 29 and Derek Van Alstyne, 22. Both were just leaving the Macromind building when they were crushed in their car by a collapsing wall on Sixth St. in San Francisco. Earlier reports of a Macromind employee being killed in the same accident are still as yet unconfirmed. - MacWEEK was delayed in their printing schedule, but was supposedly out only one day behind deadline. Much of the weekly magazine will focus on the effects of the earthquake on Apple. If this is true, I probably don't need to keep updating these little reports. Let me know if you want me to continue regardless. --- Alex (not at home machine, no .sig)
lsr@Apple.COM (Larry Rosenstein) (10/26/89)
In article <18735@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU> c8s-an@franny.Berkeley.EDU (Alex Lau) writes: > ensuing shower turned much of the paper in this important R&D building > into mush, and wrecked two days of data. This could conceivably delay > the release of System 7.0 by months, or at least give Apple a really > good excuse for coming out late. I don't see how a loss of two days of data could delay System 7.0 by months. According to the director of facilities at Apple, everyone should be back at work by today Wednesday. (In other words, the people from De Anza 3 should all be relocated. I know that some of the people were back working as early as Tuesday morning.) So far, I haven't seen any reports of data loss, and I've seen several reports of "no loss of data". >Earlier reports of condemnation may have been premature Earlier reports were wrong. De Anza 3 is fundamentally sound. The interior will have to be refurbished, however.
c8s-an@franny.Berkeley.EDU (Alex Lau) (10/26/89)
In article <4896@internal.Apple.COM> lsr@Apple.COM (Larry Rosenstein) writes: >In article <18735@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU> c8s-an@franny.Berkeley.EDU (Alex >Lau) writes: >> into mush, and wrecked two days of data. This could conceivably delay >> the release of System 7.0 by months, or at least give Apple a really >> good excuse for coming out late. >I don't see how a loss of two days of data could delay System 7.0 by >months. Two months was the original delay estimate of one of the people that was working on System 7.0, although it's hard to calculate a delay when there's no official release date. :) >According to the director of facilities at Apple, everyone should be back >at work by today Wednesday. (In other words, the people from De Anza 3 >should all be relocated. I know that some of the people were back working >as early as Tuesday morning.) So far, I haven't seen any reports of data >loss, and I've seen several reports of "no loss of data". So the reports you and I have gotten are different. I got a report from someone who was at DA3 when the quake hit (same guy who got hit by the 19" monitor) that the System Software crowd had to revert to a backup two days old that was stored offsite. A later report from the same guy said that the data loss wasn't so bad because many of the hard drives that were reported as dead started working again after they dried off for a day or so. >>Earlier reports of condemnation may have been premature >Earlier reports were wrong. De Anza 3 is fundamentally sound. The >interior will have to be refurbished, however. Apple Public Relations reported, according to MacWEEK, that DeAnza 3 had suffered "major structural damage," and would be "closed indefinitely." You guys better talk to them about this, if they're so wrong... --- Alex UUCP: {att,backbones}!ucbvax!franny!c8s-an INTERNET: c8s-an%franny.berkeley.edu@ucbvax.berkeley.edu FIDONET: Alex.Lau@bmug.fidonet.org (1:161/444)
blob@apple.com (Brian Bechtel) (10/26/89)
In article <18815@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU> c8s-an@franny.Berkeley.EDU (Alex Lau) writes: > >Earlier reports were wrong. De Anza 3 is fundamentally sound. The > >interior will have to be refurbished, however. > > Apple Public Relations reported, according to MacWEEK, that DeAnza 3 > had suffered "major structural damage," and would be "closed > indefinitely." You guys better talk to them about this, if they're > so wrong... Major structural damage reported 3rd hand? DeAnza 3 suffered: * the loss of almost all of its ceiling tiles * extensive water damage from the sprinklers going off * perhaps 10% of its windows fell out, and many more windows were damaged. * damage to the office partitions. (All this from a message by Glenn Barber, director of facilities at Apple. Who do you think has the message straight: Glenn or MacLeek?) Some of the occupants were planning to move soon. Those moves got (vastly) accelerated. Other people weren't planning to move soon. They moved. The building has been declared sound ("...the fundamental superstructure of the building is sound.") We are beginning the process of renovating the building ("Apple had already planned to refurbish DeAnza 3, and will proceed now instead of later in the fiscal year.) I'd also like to point out that DeAnza 3 was the only one of roughly 40 buildings in Cupertino that needed to be evacuated. Over 50% of Apple was back to work within 24 hours. Over 75% of Apple was back to work within 48 hours. Over 90% of Apple was back to work within three working days. 100% of Apple was back to work as of 1 week from the quake. Hey, I usually bitch and moan about facilities, but these folks did an OUTSTANDING job. The occupants of DeAnza 3 wound up in 10 different buildings. Facilities had telephones, mail, electricity, cubicles, and networks all in place in an incredibly short time. Bravo. --Brian Bechtel blob@apple.com "My opinion, not Apple's"
lsr@Apple.COM (Larry Rosenstein) (10/27/89)
In article <18815@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU> c8s-an@franny.Berkeley.EDU (Alex Lau) writes: > two days old that was stored offsite. A later report from the same guy > said that the data loss wasn't so bad because many of the hard drives This clearly shows that you can't judge a situation from way it looks initially. Until a couple of days ago, no one could say what equipment was damaged because it hadn't been tried yet. > Apple Public Relations reported, according to MacWEEK, that DeAnza 3 > had suffered "major structural damage," and would be "closed Since when is MacWEEK the ultimate in reliable information. De Anza 3 was inspected right after the earthquake, and by the Thursday afterward was found to be safe to reenter to remove equipment. There's no way employees would have been allowed to enter the building if it was structurally unsound. Larry Rosenstein, Apple Computer, Inc. Object Specialist Internet: lsr@Apple.com UUCP: {nsc, sun}!apple!lsr AppleLink: Rosenstein1
c8s-an@franny.Berkeley.EDU (Alex Lau) (10/27/89)
In article <18815@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU> c8s-an@franny.Berkeley.EDU I write: .> Apple Public Relations reported, according to MacWEEK, that DeAnza 3 .> had suffered "major structural damage," and would be "closed .> indefinitely." You guys better talk to them about this, if they're .> so wrong... In article <4906@internal.Apple.COM> blob@apple.com (Brian Bechtel) writes: .Major structural damage reported 3rd hand? DeAnza 3 suffered: .* the loss of almost all of its ceiling tiles .* extensive water damage from the sprinklers going off .* perhaps 10% of its windows fell out, and many more windows were damaged. .* damage to the office partitions. .(All this from a message by Glenn Barber, director of facilities at Apple. . Who do you think has the message straight: Glenn or MacLeek?) I believe you and Larry when you tell the net what Glenn says. I also believe MacWEEK when they say Apple PR said something completely opposite of what Glenn says. I see no particular reason for the two stories to be so different, but my place is to report what I've heard and to give my opinions on that information, not to try and figure out Apple's internal politics. If I was able to do that, I could probably get a pretty good job at one of Apple's competitors... :) .Some of the occupants were planning to move soon. Those moves got .(vastly) accelerated. Other people weren't planning to move soon. They .moved. The building has been declared sound ("...the fundamental .superstructure of the building is sound.") We are beginning the process .of renovating the building ("Apple had already planned to refurbish .DeAnza 3, and will proceed now instead of later in the fiscal .year.) This is what bothers me... if it's structurally sound, why such a hurry to renovate? Just a thought... .I'd also like to point out that DeAnza 3 was the only one of roughly 40 .buildings in Cupertino that needed to be evacuated. Over 50% of Apple was .back to work within 24 hours. Over 75% of Apple was back to work within .48 hours. Over 90% of Apple was back to work within three working days. .100% of Apple was back to work as of 1 week from the quake. The reason I (and many others) are so interested in DeAnza 3 is its importance in research & development, especially in the development of new System software. .Hey, I usually bitch and moan about facilities, but these folks did an .OUTSTANDING job. The occupants of DeAnza 3 wound up in 10 different .buildings. Facilities had telephones, mail, electricity, cubicles, and .networks all in place in an incredibly short time. Bravo. I'm glad, too. But it doesn't answer the question of who, between PR and Facilities, is not telling the whole story. And why they would be any different in the first place. Hmmm... .--Brian Bechtel blob@apple.com "My opinion, not Apple's" --- Alex UUCP: {att,backbones}!ucbvax!franny!c8s-an INTERNET: c8s-an%franny.berkeley.edu@ucbvax.berkeley.edu FIDONET: Alex.Lau@bmug.fidonet.org (1:161/444)
rsvp@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (R. Scott V. Paterson) (10/27/89)
The four building campus that comprises Excelan (a Novell Company), of
which Kinetics is a division, made it through the quake and is fully
operational. All employees were accounted for. Here's some info I came
across.
-rsvp
===
Novell Contributes $50,000 to Kick Off
United Way Earthquake Relief Fund
San Jose, CA. -- Novell, Inc., a computer networking
software company with more than 800 Bay Area employees, today contributed
$50,000 to the United Way of Santa Clara County to help kick off the newly
created United Way Earthquake Relief Fund.
Tom Vais, president of the Santa Clara County United Way, received the
check for $50,000 from Novell president and CEO Raymond J. Noorda at
United Way's Silicon Valley headquarters.
Established specifically to channel aid to victims of this week's quake, the
United Way Earthquake Relief Fund is intended to ensure that contributions
for relief meet the community's needs for immediate disaster response, as
well as for on-going assistance over the coming weeks and months.
"Some of our 800-plus Bay Area employees had narrow escapes, many of their
homes have been damaged, and all have been deeply affected," said Novell's
Noorda. "All of us who have been through this tragedy need to do what we
can to help.
"United Way has a proven record of putting donations where they do the
most good," Noorda added. "I'm sure that, through the Earthquake Relief
Fund, this money will reach the people who need it most." According to
United Way, 100 percent of the Earthquake Relief Fund will be passed directly
to organizations working locally to aid earthquake victims, with no
deductions for administrative costs.
"We're grateful for Novell's rapid response to our call for help," said Vais.
"Our goal is to provide a community-wide clearing house for earthquake
relief funds to help people during the coming difficult months of clean-up
and rebuilding. It's going to take this kind of generosity, from as many
sources as possible, to get the Bay Area back on its feet again."
Upon Novell's request, $5,000 of its donation will go to the Second Harvest
Food Bank of Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties. This organization, part of
the national Food Bank network, is an important source of food supplies to
the American Red Cross and Salvation Army relief efforts. Some 19 semi-
trailer truck-loads of food and other supplies are arriving at the Food Bank
from across the country. They will then be dispatched to the hardest-hit areas.
Second Harvest estimates it delivers $12 worth of food for every dollar
received in contributions.
In addition to its corporate contribution, over the coming weeks Novell will
funnel individual employee contributions to the United Way Earthquake
Relief Fund.
Novell has significant operations in the Bay Area, with facilities in San Jose,
Sunnyvale and Walnut Creek. The company's employees live in virtually
every community affected by the quake, from the Marina District in San
Francisco to Santa Cruz.
Novell, Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) is the leading independent provider of high-
performance network computing products. The company's NetWare(
network operating system software has become a standard for personal
computer-based local area networks. Novell products account for more than
70 percent of networked PCs worldwide.
For additional Second Harvest Food Bank information please contact:
Mary Ellen Heising, or Steve Mangold 408-286-9170
===
Disclaimer: I do not work for Novell, nor it's wholly owned susidiary,
Excelan, nor for its Kinetics division. I'm Just contributing to mac
related earthquake news.dowdy@apple.com (Tom Dowdy) (10/28/89)
This is a bit long, but I'd rather fill in all of the details than let this keep going on any longer.I've resisted posting anything on this subject, but since nobody who was "there when it happened" has posted, and it seems so important to all of you, I guess I'll chip in with some facts. First, for those not from the area, the Cupertino-Sunnyvale-Los Altos-Santa Clara-Mt View areas are small communities and all kinda sit near San Jose, about 20-30 miles north-east of Santa Cruz, about 50 miles south from SF. The news kept showing those areas which were hit hard, namely, SF, Oakland, Santa Cruz and Los Gatos. However, what they didn't show was that most of the areas named above got minimal damage. I count myself as very lucky, not one thing broke in my apartment, and I had power restored later that first night. There just wasn't any of the mass destruction you see on TV going on down here. I don't know why, but I'm sure it has to do with the ground in these areas and where they were in relationship to the motion of the quake. "There but for the grace of God go I..." In article <18836@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU> c8s-an@franny.Berkeley.EDU (Alex Lau) writes: > >[ someone says that DA3 is sound ] > This is what bothers me... if it's structurally sound, why such a hurry > to renovate? Just a thought... Because a building can be structurally sound without being "workable." While people are repairing stairwells, drying floors, putting back in glass, etc, it can be pretty impossible to work. The most important thing was to get people out and into a situation where they can get their work done. And once you have all of the people out and working, why not take the chance to upgrade the building, rather than moving them back in and disturbing them again later? DA3 wasn't going to fall down, but with wet floors, stairwells that needed work and glass that popped out, it was going to be more than a week before us folks in system software could work well. In addition, they have said that the renovation of the building can now take place in about 1/3 of the time that it would have with people hanging around in the building. > The reason I (and many others) are so interested in DeAnza 3 is its > importance in research & development, especially in the development of > new System software. People seem to be hinting that the problems in DA3 are somehow effecting system software. Okay, let's clear that up once and for all. I'm in system software. I was on the 4th floor of DA3 when the quake hit. Facilities: By *Sunday* I was out and in my new cube across the street, along with every single other person in system software. The move was going to take place in the November-December time frame anyway, but got moved up a bit. It would have taken longer to clean up the 4th floor of DeAnza than it did to move us across the street. And this way, we wouldn't have to clean up, and then lose more time moving when November-December rolled around. So after the move, it doesn't matter *what* happens to DA3, we are all out of it and working. Software: The file servers were all intact and all of the source code is just fine. It was all backed up off-site on tapes anyway, but none of the servers were lost, so backups didn't need to be brought in. And since everyone backs up on a daily basis to the file servers, anyone who lost a hard disk couldn't have lost more than a day. In addition, since projector is used to keep track of the projects, you basically have n+1 backups of the software, where n is the number of people working on that project and 1 is the file server copy. Lost engineering days: Many (myself included) worked at home during the forced days off. I can only watch MTV and play my Sega for so long without going nuts. :-) I took the chance to catch up on design work and some investigation that I'd been putting off. Since I have a machine at home, I even took the chance to write some new code. If this still makes you think that Apple is somehow "covering up" something about the quake, then I think you're making much more of this than it is. And if you really think that we would have done something so silly as not having archival backups of all of the ROM and system software sources off-site, then you are just plain wrong. Apple is a California based company, and as such, part of the cost of living in this area is being prepared for such events. Those at Apple who needed to be prepared were. As mentioned before, Facilties, Telecom, and the hardware support groups did a wonderful job and worked some killer hours to make this move happen *faster than a normal move does* in a situation that wasn't really the best. Huzza! Tom Dowdy Internet: dowdy@apple.COM Apple Computer MS:81EQ UUCP: {sun,voder,amdahl,decwrl}!apple!dowdy 20525 Mariani Ave AppleLink: DOWDY1 Cupertino, CA 95014 "The 'Ooh-Ah' Bird is so called because it lays square eggs."