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World Community Grid Forums
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Forum: Chat Room
Thread: History of the Grorg - what happened? |
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Thread Status: Active Total posts in this thread: 77
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retsof
Former Community Advisor USA Joined: Jul 31, 2005 Post Count: 6824 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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Sure you can cut out a lot of the "dead wood" What did Stradivarius use to make his product? Preferably dead at least 500 years. Some endangered or extinct woodpeckers and owls are gone, because they only lived in dead trees. Cut out the dead wood, and you cut out a lot more.As for laying off 90% of United Devices, that's only about 20 people. United Devices is a very small company to begin with, and now could be even smaller.
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
I was a mod there for over 4 years before I fell out with the Management. This is from a conversation I had with one of the other Mods who remained my friend. I asked if the Mods had any warning.... Not only did the mods not know, most of the UD staff didn't know. As soon as Ivo heard, he telephoned Moose. It wasn't 5 minutes later that the announcement was posted. I honestly believe that something indeed "fell through"... from the very tip-top, down through the staff, and onto us. I don't think Mary lied to us. I believe there was indeed something in the works, but halted at the last minute. And your telling me that Oxford was surprised gives it even more credence. While I don't think anyone saw it coming down like this, I guess we all knew it was just a matter of time. Let me explain. Hell's bells, most of us knew that the project was a drain on UD's resources. But we were the "in the wild" beta testers for the agents (not the projects, just the agents) on UD's commercial side. It was a smart way to get beta testers, if you ask me. And I personally think it was a fair exchange. But when the Rouse became the new CEO, the priorities changed. It was never made more clear that we were the red-headed step-children than when Moose was canned. (Moose and Moose alone held it together, while at the same time doing two other HUGE jobs: IBM-France and World Community Grid. Yup, WCG was Moose... who wasn't even allowed to get new "spit and wire" for us.) If you go to UD's site and read up on Rouse, you'll find it says "He has more than 20 years of experience with start-up, rapid-growth, and Fortune 500 companies in distributed infrastructure sales, marketing, and product development roles." Meaning his job is to get companies ready to sell. Read the link; see how many positions he's had at companies that were "acquired by" other companies during his tenure. Need more? Mobius Venture Capital has a member on UD's board of directors by the name of Aaron Cheatham. Rouse got 15 million dollars in venture financing for UD. One of the seven companies putting up the money was Mobius Venture Capital, apparently led by none other than Aaron Cheatham. Now seven, count 'em - seven, venture companies do not put up 15 million dollars without expecting to get a lot more back. So, is UD now finally ready to become another "acquired by" company on Rouse's curriculum vitae? Did Rouse need to get rid of the "drainage" (aka grid.org) in a hurry? Hey scribe,you been taking lessons from JJS?  how are ya mate? |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
I also wouldn't be surprised if there was a legal component to this. Technically our work at Grorg was a charitable donation. However these donations were made based on certain representaions - specifically that we were doing something more useful than just running a screen saver. If that representation was knowingly false, and the odds of that are looking better all the time, then continuing to accept the donations - even if they were of no immediate value to UD - would probably constitute fraud. And given the fact that Grorg was a national, not to mention global, endeavor, it would be ripe for a class action suit. This is quite possible. The closure came rather quickly after the HPF paper/yeast work incident. Cancer WUs recycled in the past, and recycled HPF1 WUs admittedly sent by UD "because some like the screensaver"... sounds like misrepresentation to me. [Edit 2 times, last edit by Former Member at May 16, 2007 3:27:55 PM] |
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twilyth
Master Cruncher US Joined: Mar 30, 2007 Post Count: 2130 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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What did Stradivarius use to make his product? Preferably dead at least 500 years. Some endangered or extinct woodpeckers and owls are gone, because they only lived in dead trees. Cut out the dead wood, and you cut out a lot more. I was talking about the kind of dead wood you get from Viagra - or is that petrified wood? I know the girlfriend was pretty scared (oops - sorry - daydreaming again). Anyway, talking about birds in dead wood just sounds wrong. Could I have gotten it flipped around? Hmmmm. I'm so happy it hurts.    |
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Sekerob
Ace Cruncher Joined: Jul 24, 2005 Post Count: 20043 Status: Offline |
hmmm parallel universe.... was someone anticipating here?
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Per retsof:
As for laying off 90%... Remember, that estimate came from the anonymous emailer. It was about half of the Sales staff, and a few from the marketing and technical departments, which may or may not total up to 90%. We don't know the exact numbers. ~~~ [off topic] What is the difference between Sales and Marketing? |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Per retsof: As for laying off 90%... Remember, that estimate came from the anonymous emailer. It was about half of the Sales staff, and a few from the marketing and technical departments, which may or may not total up to 90%. We don't know the exact numbers. ~~~ [off topic] What is the difference between Sales and Marketing? The salary??  |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Guitar Man:
The salary?? That was my first thought. You know, the "In lieu of a raise, we'll give you a new title" kind of BS. |
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twilyth
Master Cruncher US Joined: Mar 30, 2007 Post Count: 2130 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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Per retsof: As for laying off 90%... Remember, that estimate came from the anonymous emailer. It was about half of the Sales staff, and a few from the marketing and technical departments, which may or may not total up to 90%. We don't know the exact numbers. ~~~ [off topic] I wouldn't discount information just because it's provided anonymously. As you recall, a lot of people at Grorg made that mistake with the HPF1 controversy. Given that Rouse's job is to spin the facts to make UD and himself look as good as possible, I would give the statements of each party AT LEAST equal weight. Rouse would be fool to fabricate information but I'm sure he's capable of omitting things that an objective observer would consider important. It is sad that Grorg started out with such a noble (even if commercial) purpose and then devolved into what it did. Neither good times NOR the bad should be forgotten or ignored. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
twilyth:
----------------------------------------I wouldn't discount information just because it's provided anonymously. That's why I said, "...which may or may not total up to 90%. We don't know the exact numbers." [Edited to correct a typo.] [Edit 1 times, last edit by Former Member at May 16, 2007 11:38:23 PM] |
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