Omni Systems?

[Dave McGuire]

On Jul 9, 2009, at 11:50 AM, Rick Bensene wrote:
> I am wondering if anyone here has had dealings with Omni Systems
> (www.omnicorp.net) located in New Jersey, and if so, if the experience
> was good or bad.
>
> They advertise on their website that they buy/sell DEC hardware.  They
> have an item listed on their website that I've been looking for, and
> want to get any impressions from those here before I contact them.
> Their website looks as if it hasn't been updated in quite some  
> time, and
> the Email links provide addresses that are rejected by their server,
> which raise some yellow flags with me.
>
> Any help is appreciated.

   I can tell you a lot about them.  Omni Systems is a small company  
with a handful of employees.  It is owned by a man named Jim  
Gonzalez.  I have known him for about 26 years.  He was my childhood  
DEC mentor and is largely responsible for my "getting going" in PDP-8  
and PDP-11 stuff.  He is ex-DEC field service, and knows his stuff  
very well.  He left DEC and started Omni Systems some thirty years ago.

   Before I was old enough to drive, I would beg my grandmother to  
drive me up to his place (~2hrs away) with a stack of RL01 packs and  
my RSX11M distribution tape, so he could make me a set of install  
packs for my PDP-11/34a, as I lacked a magtape drive.  I did that  
about three times as I learned about sysgen and expanded my system.   
He gave and sold me lots of hardware, and helped me get everything  
running.  Over a few years my grandmother drove me up there perhaps a  
dozen times...she'd go upstairs and hang out with Jim's wife, while  
Jim and I would descend to the first floor and hack on PDP stuff.

   He and I lost touch for many years, but ran across each other  
again about three years ago.  This past March, on a big road trip, I  
was able to stop by his place and hang out with his family a bit.

   He is one of the most all-around great guys I have ever known.

   I will call him and tell him about the email link issue.

              -Dave

-- 
Dave McGuire
Port Charlotte, FL