Oh, damn. The OpenVMS hobbyist license is actually why, a long time ago, I joined DECUS Munich. It was a very complicated affair: DECUS Munich was one of the few DECUS organizations that accepted members from outside their area (I was nowhere near Munich, and there was no DECUS organization anywhere near me -- ironically, I think DECUS Munich was the closest one). I am pretty sure they had an age restriction so I may have lied on my application form, as I was 14 or 15 at the time or something like that. Also I didn't speak or write any German so the application form wasn't exactly easy to fill in. This was before Google Translate, so I had to go out and buy a German dictionary. Thankfully, a lot of its members spoke English and they were extremely nice to me.
It then took about two months for the thick envelope containing a booklet, some promotional material from a bunch of sponsors, and my membership card to reach me by snail mail. I'd given up hope by then -- the local post service is extraordinarily bad and I assumed they'd lost it.
I still carry my DECUS member card in my wallet, and it's getting harder and harder to explain what it is...
Edit: the world is a very small place. Many after that, it turned out that one of my colleagues at the time was also a DECUS Munich member. He was an extraordinarily bright German physicist, many years older than me, doing research at the same lab where I was working at the time. I don't know how many members DECUS Munich has, or had, but oh boy!
I have fond memories too, it was around 2002/2004 ish when I inherited an alpha server 2100A from a friend and wanted to put OpenVMS on it, being in a small town in New Zealand I went to the HP building in the closest city and asked to speak to someone about OpenVMS
They of course had no idea what I was talking about, and after 5 cycles of (10: explain what I want, let me get someone technical for you, I don’t know what you’re talking about, go to 10)
I finally managed to get someone to point me at the OpenVMS hobbiest programs.
Eventually a managing to get the install media I got the system running and spend 2/3 years coding applications for this weird system, while also working on the Linux port for the alpha chips.
So much fun and positive memories, I’m sad to see the hobbiest program come to an end
It then took about two months for the thick envelope containing a booklet, some promotional material from a bunch of sponsors, and my membership card to reach me by snail mail. I'd given up hope by then -- the local post service is extraordinarily bad and I assumed they'd lost it.
I still carry my DECUS member card in my wallet, and it's getting harder and harder to explain what it is...
Edit: the world is a very small place. Many after that, it turned out that one of my colleagues at the time was also a DECUS Munich member. He was an extraordinarily bright German physicist, many years older than me, doing research at the same lab where I was working at the time. I don't know how many members DECUS Munich has, or had, but oh boy!