wendyt@pyrps5 (Wendy Thrash) (05/27/89)
This isn't exactly a Usenix issue, but the Baltimore conference is coming soon, and . . . Someone from personnel asked me what people like to find in hospitality suites. I told her large quantities of edible food and imported beer, but it started me wondering: What _do_ hackers want? Sushi? Pizza? Limp vegetables? Imported beer? Any old beer? Fine wines? Truffles? Yoyos? Fluorescent shoelaces? Little pocket screwdrivers? What's the function of a hospitality suite, anyway? Is it supposed to convince people to come work for your company? If so, wouldn't it make more sense to have people there who know something about all the exciting work the company is doing (if, in fact, it's doing any) than vacuous types handing out information packets and pizza slices? Does anyone ever end up working for or buying something from a company because they go to a hospitality suite? If not, should I hush it up rather then risk ending the flow of free goodies? :-) -Wendy
kent@ssbell.UUCP (Kent Landfield) (05/27/89)
In article <71673@pyramid.pyramid.com> wendyt@pyrps5.pyramid.com (Wendy Thrash) writes: >Someone from personnel asked me what people like to find in hospitality >suites. I told her large quantities of edible food and imported beer, >but it started me wondering: What _do_ hackers want? > >Sushi? Pizza? Limp vegetables? Imported beer? Any old beer? Fine wines? >Truffles? Yoyos? Fluorescent shoelaces? Little pocket screwdrivers? Yes. > If not, should I hush it up >rather then risk ending the flow of free goodies? :-) Yes. :-) :-) -Kent+
brian@ucsd.EDU (Brian Kantor) (05/27/89)
When I was a poor student, I used to spend the entire week of a conference living off hospitality suite munchies.... What I think a hospitality suite should have is: Intelligent representatives who don't bullshit you, and who have more than a "well, the front panel's got our name on it" knowledge of the products. (leave the beancounters and the sales clones home, eh?) Nifty Toys - yoyos, little projectors, squirt pistols, etc. Munchies - something you grab and wave while you talk: FRESH fruit and veggies and dips cashews chicken wings chocolate cookies pretzels potstickers ribs roast beast rumaki (sp?) sandwiches shrimp sirloin tips spring rolls Beer (wine for the yuppies) While I've never TAKEN a job as a result of a hospitality suite, I've interviewed with a few. I believe it was the access to technical managers that impressed me as to the competence of the firm - and I consider the quality and quantity of the spread to be at least some indication of just how a company treats its employees. It's not unlikely that a miserly hospitality suite means a cheapskate work environment. After all, if they won't spend some money to get you to come work for them, just how much do they want you to stay after they've got you? Or maybe they don't spend the money because they don't have it? NOBODY bounces my payroll check twice. Oh yeah - see if the employess of the company are stoking up on goodies too. If they've been told not to eat any of the munchies, maybe there's some cheapness lurking behind the scenes. Face it, a hospitality suite is sometimes the only chance you have to interview prospective employers before you're desperately looking for a job. Maybe you aren't ready to leave where you are now, but when the next contract doesn't materialize, which companies are you going to contact first? The ones that treated you right at the last conference. Good food and no bullshit are IMPORTANT! - Brian
roy@phri.UUCP (Roy Smith) (05/27/89)
kent@ssbell.UUCP (ssbell Admin) writes: > Little pocket screwdrivers? Never underestimate the value of a good little pocket screwdriver. Several (5?) years ago I got a LPS from one of the terminal switch companies (Micom?) with a phillips on one end and a flat blade on the other. I kept it on my person daily until somebody stole it and wouldn't give it back (not that he denied having it; he simply liked it so much he flat out refused to give it back). I mourned its loss. Recently, Artecon (I think I spelled it right; the pepole who make chassis and cable extensions for Suns) had an ad offering the same screwdriver as a sales gimick. I jumped at it and now keep that one on my person. Everytime our Sun service tech comes around, he has a similar pocket gizmo, but with a RS-232-sized flat blade screwdriver on one end and a Sun-VME-chassis-screw sized hex wrench on the other. Every time we ask him if we can have one, but everytime he refuses, claiming Sun doesn't give them out to customers, just to their service techs. Listen up SUN: that's what you need at your next hospitality suite; the LPS's your service techs have. And dammit, if you give them away at a Usenix that I'm not at, you better send me one in the mail! The shoelaces were cute, but LPS's are more useful. -- Roy Smith, System Administrator Public Health Research Institute {allegra,philabs,cmcl2,rutgers,hombre}!phri!roy -or- roy@phri.nyu.edu "The connector is the network"
henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) (05/28/89)
In article <3783@phri.UUCP> roy@phri.UUCP (Roy Smith) writes: > Everytime our Sun service tech comes around, he has a similar >pocket gizmo, but with a RS-232-sized flat blade screwdriver on one end and >a Sun-VME-chassis-screw sized hex wrench on the other. Every time we ask >him if we can have one, but everytime he refuses, claiming Sun doesn't give >them out to customers, just to their service techs... I believe the Sun Users Group came up with that idea originally. At least once Sun has had them available at their trade-show booth. We stocked up. :-) -- Van Allen, adj: pertaining to | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology deadly hazards to spaceflight. | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu
henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) (05/28/89)
In article <71673@pyramid.pyramid.com> wendyt@pyrps5.pyramid.com (Wendy Thrash) writes: >Someone from personnel asked me what people like to find in hospitality >suites. I told her large quantities of edible food and imported beer, >but it started me wondering: What _do_ hackers want? Edible food, yes. A good supply of *non*-alcoholic drinks, over and above the beer. (At at least one Usenix reception, the hotel staff seemed to have considerable difficulty keeping the soft-drink table stocked -- my guess is that many public-relations/convention-planning people assume that everyone drinks [alcohol] like a fish, like them. :-)) Real Coca-Cola, not brand X [or brand P!] tank-car cola. For that matter, it would be very nice to see milk and juices in addition to sugared bubble-water. Doughnuts (in quantity!). Apples and other fresh fruit. >... Yoyos? Fluorescent shoelaces? Little pocket screwdrivers? See if you can come up with something new and useful. The shoelaces and yoyos were cute, but something utilitarian gets remembered for years. Especially since you can repeat it with much the same effect, where toys and shoelaces are mostly novelty value and get stale quickly. Durable penlights? Credit-card-sized calculators that can do hex and octal? A little parts kit to convert a Sun Ethernet transceiver cable from clip-on to screw-on? (No ':-)' on that one -- if you only have a limited supply, you might need to call in the riot squad to restore order!) A little RS232 jumper box? A pocket-sized reference card for something of wide interest (RS232; Ethernet cabling; ways of breaking Unix security :-))? A six-inch ruler marked in tenths, twelfths, picas, points, and 300ths of an inch? >... wouldn't it make >more sense to have people there who know something about all the exciting >work the company is doing (if, in fact, it's doing any) than vacuous >types handing out information packets and pizza slices? If you have vacuous types handing out information and pizza slices, you can expect to be treated as a source of wastepaper and pizza. Have big garbage cans outside for the information packets. :-) On the other hand, if you actually have people there who know what's going on, a reasonable number of people will stick around to hear what they have to say. This goes double if you have some of the troops, not just the generals, so prospective employees can ask what the company is *really* like and have some hope of a straight answer. -- Van Allen, adj: pertaining to | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology deadly hazards to spaceflight. | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu
davidson@intvax.UUCP (William M. Davidson) (05/30/89)
This will be my first USENIX conference and I would like to know how to find the locations of these hospitality suites. Is there anything else that a first-timer should know? -- Forking is Fun! William [i aM not a dweeb] Davidson Sandia National Laboratories (505) 846-1868 davidson@intvax
dave@galaxia.Newport.RI.US (David H. Brierley) (06/01/89)
In article <3783@phri.UUCP> roy@phri.UUCP (Roy Smith) writes: > Everytime our Sun service tech comes around, he has a similar >pocket gizmo, but with a RS-232-sized flat blade screwdriver on one end and >a Sun-VME-chassis-screw sized hex wrench on the other. Every time we ask >him if we can have one, but everytime he refuses, claiming Sun doesn't give >them out to customers, just to their service techs. Listen up SUN: that's Are these the same screwdrivers that the Sun User Group sells? I bought one at a SUG conference a couple of years ago for something like four or five dollars. I think that the SUG still sells them. Five dollars is kinda steep for a LPS but it is a handy little gadget to have. -- David H. Brierley Home: dave@galaxia.Newport.RI.US {rayssd,xanth,lazlo,mirror}!galaxia!dave Work: dhb@rayssd.ray.com {sun,decuac,gatech,necntc,ukma}!rayssd!dhb
leres@ace.ee.lbl.gov (Craig Leres) (06/07/89)
Roy Smith writes: > Everytime our Sun service tech comes around, he has a similar > pocket gizmo, but with a RS-232-sized flat blade screwdriver on one end and > a Sun-VME-chassis-screw sized hex wrench on the other. Every time we ask > him if we can have one, but everytime he refuses, claiming Sun doesn't give > them out to customers, just to their service techs. Listen up SUN: that's In addition to giving them away (as they have on numerous occasions, I have one in my Cerveza Tecate mug next to my 3/260 head) Sun ought to assign a part number and sell them. If they used the same markup rate they use on their disk subsystems, it would be a real boost to profits. Craig