DRAFT Agenda for SLUG/SMBX Meeting of 15 December

[Kenneth Forbus <forbus@A.CS.UIUC.EDU>]

A $10K-$15K "discount" on trade-in is a very bad joke.  Having paid
premium prices once, and have Symbolics totally fail to protect our
investment, why in heavens' name should we do it AGAIN???

The last place where I'm seeing any advantage for Symbolics systems is
(a) debugger and (b) "endurance" of the envirionment, supporting
multiple-day computations without a hitch.  Advantage (a) is almost
gone, with the new version of Lucid I'm testing.  Advantage (b)
similarly.  At university prices, I can buy a new workstation, which
will perform as well or better, for the price I would pay for full
maintenance on two Symbolics machines.

Given what I am hearing, I'm afraid my only option is to start
scraping my Symbolics machines.  Use them until they break, and let
them die with dignity.  Sigh.