The picture of four generations of Martins in my photo album was originally entitled fourgen.html. On Monday, June 5, 1995, I received in the mail (snail mail) a letter from a company called FourGen Software, Inc. It seems people looking for their Web site were inadvertently finding my photo album. Would I please change the names of my files? I did, but not without responding. Unfortunately, not only was their Web page inaccessible, but my mail to them kept bouncing. So I had to fax it to them...
June 15, 1995
Last night I received another nice letter, thanking me for changing the name of my files. Also included was a lovely FourGen coffee mug.
It's great to see there are still people out there with a sense of humor.
And now their home page is working.
January 21, 1999
I just got a nice piece of e-mail from the webmaster at FourGen, now called Endura Software. Endura was recently purchased by HK Systems, Inc. of Milwaukee, WI. Apparently, this page is responsible for a small number of hits to their pages.
I think I'll try to get a new coffee mug from them...
October 29, 2001
The Saga Continues...
Today I got a piece of mail from a former FourGen employee. Here it is, with the name removed to protect the innocent:
I ran across your letter dated June 7, 1995 to Harry Little at FourGen Software in Seattle. I found it hilarious, and I will take just a minute to tell you why.
I'm presently looking for work, and a prospective employer has asked me to provide information on former employers. I worked for FourGen in 95/96. They are now out of business, and a web search on their successor corp has turned up nothing so far, just your article http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~tlm/lettertoFourGn.html.
The reason I found this so funny is that it was classic Harry Little. Here's a guy who sent me 5 emails the day I started working for the company. When I finally received my computer and email account 2 weeks later, I received his email - the last one asking me to call him if I did not get his email. Classic Harry.
Good luck to you at VT!
Name removed
Last updated October 29, 2001.