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Comment by gaius | Hacker News Reader

Wow, that's a blast from the past! I did a big ATG Dynamo project about 10 years ago, when they had Droplets (IIRC) as their own alternative to EJBs, doing all that AOP lark that's all the rage now. They were one floor below us in the building opposite the mall in Cambridge, which made getting support very easy :-D

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Indeed, ATG was hot 10/12 years ago. I have checked their "customers" page and they still manage to hold big accounts, like AT&T, Best Buy. Surprising, considering how heavyweight are their solutions.

Yep, I worked on AT&T's ATG-based implementation for their mobile dumbphones. Once you get on ATG it's mighty hard to get off, even if it's costing you millions of dollars in licensing/support fees.

Back then, their product really was one of the best. You had Dynamo and Sapphire (now owned by HP I think), then a big gap, then WebLogic that was only being used by existing BEA shops, then another big gap, then Sun/Netscape's awful iPlanet thing.

Hard to get off ATG? Sounds like the perfect addition to Oracle.

I remember that building, I spent some time at the ATG offices in early 2001-3. Those offices were unreal. They had their own Starbucks in the break room. I was always a little surprised they stuck it out.

I was there 2000-2001! Small world.

Was this the Lotus building in Cambridge, MA? IBM had an "innovation center" on one of the floors (I think 7 or 9) that I used to work in when I worked for IBM in 2001. The Cambridge Side Galleria was close by. I stayed in the Royal Sonesta hotel that was attached to that building.

No, but it was nearby. I forget the name of the building but it was right across from the mall, near Hoshmand's I think. It was taller, brick, and had a big atrium.

It was the Davenport Building, http://www.thedavenportcambridge.com/. This was originally the home of the furniture company that manufactured Davenport sofas.

Thank you. I couldn't remember that and it was driving me crazy. I thought that was a really nice looking building.

Close to Cheesecake Factory too! Good times.

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