Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!iuvax!cica!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!mcgill-vision!clyde!cspolo!goldfish
From: goldfish@cspolo.cs.concordia.ca (Paul Goldsmith)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apollo
Subject: Re: the deafening silence
Message-ID: <1341@clyde.Concordia.CA>
Date: 8 Oct 89 18:14:45 GMT
References: <1989Oct5.224148.19484@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov>
Reply-To: goldfish@cspolo.CS.Concordia.CA (Paul Goldsmith)
Organization: Concordia University, Montreal Quebec
Lines: 52

In article <1989Oct5.224148.19484@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov> dave%jplopto@jpl-mil.jpl.nasa.gov writes:
> In the past few weeks I have noticed a marked discrepancy between
> the amount of questions asked on this newsgroup and the amount of
> answers received.   
>   ...
> This leads me to ask "Is this newsgroup alive?" "Does APOLLO listen?"
> "Does APOLLO care?" 
> 
>    ...
> 
> Certainly if none of us users know the answer, someone from APOLLO (and
> some of these people have posted in the past) would be in a position 
> to provide needed answers. Or at least a "Well, hey, got your message
> and we're working on it/looking at it/thinking about it/etc."

Dave ( and anyone else out there who is listening)

Yes there are people out here who hear you.  Unfortunately, my inquiries with
Apollo get only that:
	- they neither acknowledge the use of internet, nor
	- officially support its use.
	
I have spent some time talking on the phone with "the powers that be" at Apollo
and while they always respond politely, the issue of providing hard information
to knowledgeable customers seems to create some difficulties.  Several of their
people have undertaken to post comments to this group, however, I believe this
is on an unofficial basis only.  

Perhaps the thing to do is for EVERYONE reading this group to dial the customer
support 800 number and verbally register a request to have an official Apollo
representative posting to this group.  Perhaps that should be accompanied by a
letter from your organizations' purchasing officer...

A while back a Mr. Jim Wright offered to provide an anonymous FTP site for the
almost mythical Apollo patch tapes and other Apollo specific data of a general
interest.  I have seen nothing since his original posting, though he did reply
to my note thanking him for his initiative.  (What is happening on that front
Jim?)

While we keep hearing that Apollo is now part of HP and "eventually" the
support issue will be delt with, "eventually" we will all be dead; and systems
run in the present tense.  

I encourage anyone at Apollo to comment on this posting.  I challenge Apollo to
post an official reply.

Paul Goldsmith
goldfish@concour.cs.concordia.ca


- Goldfish
  (Shirley Maclaine told me there would be LIFETIMES like this)