Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!apple!chuq From: chuq@Apple.COM (Chuq Von Rospach, only here for the beer) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.system Subject: Re: But Seriously Folks Re: Cooperating on Sys7 distribution Message-ID: <52889@apple.Apple.COM> Date: 15 May 91 04:52:39 GMT References: Distribution: comp Organization: Dottie I's Private Eyes Lines: 109 >On a negative note, it is surprising that ftp.apple.com would be down, after >all they should have enough support. Anyone who learns how to properly schedule hardware failures and disk crashes to non-critical times in the Gantt chart is guaranteed to be rich. Things break when they want to, not when they're convenient. And Apple is currently hosting a party for a few thousand close friends down the road, so everyone is just a mite busy. >I am disturbed by the obvious contradiction that they have not placed 7.0 on >apple.com. If ftp.apple.com is really down, why haven't they moved it to >apple.com? See previous paragraph. Also, apple.com is short on disk space for ftp, and the amount of work it would take to do a 'trivial' thing like get it up on apple.com and make sure all of it is accessible and not corrupted and etc and etc would take a good chunk of time. Better to work on a permanent solution than spend a lot of time on a temporary one and then put the real fix off that much lonter. Everyone is missing -- they're at the developers conference putting in 12 and 14 hour days doing things they're already committed to doing. It may be inconvenient for folks on the net, but when people have paid chunks of money and flown in from all over the world to listen, talk (and sometimes yell) at Apple, it makes sense for the Apple folks to be where the time- and calendar-critical things are. Those folks are flying home in a few days. Ftp.apple.com will still be around when sanity returns to the Apple campus. It's called "setting priorities". You can't always do everything right now. Some stuff has to wait. >Humorous quote: "they'll be fired if they actually do something >sensible to help customers". Maybe the folks will simply say the heck with it and not bother? I know THIS comment was supposed to be humourous, but it's the latest in a long line of things that really grate on my nerves -- and on the nerves of my cohorts here. These folks (I'm just moral support -- I'm not involved in running these machines) work their tushies off, weekends, evenings, etc, trying to get stuff ready and, among other things, they've been yelled at because the software wasn't available PRIOR to its official release, yelled at because factors beyond their control have made the machine unavailable and yelled at for dozens of other reasons -- all because the massive gymnastics weren't perfect (or worse, WERE perfect, but weren't what you wanted). Hey, we do what we can, saddled with little things like 24 hour days, lawyers that are paid to protect Apple's business interests, the need to actually MAKE enough money to support our profit sharing checks so they don't reposses our Ferarris and the fact that we happen to love our jobs and don't want to be fired for doing anything that gets us in trouble over any of these things (and -- please don't tell anyone -- many of us WILL consider bending rules here and there if we feel it's really important. But I didn't say that. Neither did David Ramsey). So, you know? It's been a bitch of a month. You want to take a massive piece code that completely redoes what we've done before, adds some really revolutionary new features while guaranteeing compatibility with something like 4000 existing, shipping software packages, make sure tens of thousands of copies are available on the day it intros -- while preparing for a developer's technicao conference and the associated hassles. We do what we can. We aren't perfect, okay? Neither are you. We do what we can. If it's not good enough, then go buy a PC and download a free copy of Windows 3.0 from the Microsoft server, okay? Keep it in perspective. As a corporate entity, the last six weeks have been one of the hairiest experiences I've ever been a part of. We have a lot of people on the verge (or beyond) of exhaustion, some walking wounded and a few cases of full-blown burnout, all to turn out the best, most stable, most revolutionary damn piece of code we could do -- and we're getting yelled at because some folks aren't going to be able to get theer FREE copy of it for another two or three days. Ergo we're scum. Like, name how many OTHER companies give you the opportunity to do this under any circumstances? 10? Five? Three? It's FREE. You're getting exactly what you're paying for. If life isn't perfect, tough. You're welcome to go do it better. (enough rant -- by this time, the small minority of people that this message is aimed at have already stopped reading and are starting to write their next message on how insensitive Apple is to their needs. A few more are now pissed at me for yelling at them, because they'd never do that (of course, I'm NOT yelling at them if they didn't do it, but they'll still be pissed). The rest are nodding their heads and saying "I wish I could do something about those idiots, too" -- so do I. And sooner or later we'll probably hear from Tim, too) To the majority of you who have been patience and understanding -- thanks. We do what we can. To the idiots, I suggest you get enough of a life to learn just how silly, immature and selfish you sound to us. It doesn't make it any more tempting to spend the time and energy to make the net useful for everyone -- it's done for the majority, but the few screamers and idiots make it really hard to justifiy to myself sometime... (oh. One final comment. this message probably won't do a bit of good -- the ones who most need to read it won't bother, or won't let it sink in through their skulls. But *I* feel better, so thanks for listening) -- Chuq Von Rospach >=< chuq@apple.com >=< GEnie:CHUQ or MAC.BIGOT >=< ALink:CHUQ SFWA Nebula Awards Reports Editor =+= Editor, OtherRealms Book Reviewer, Amazing Stories ---@--- #include Recommended: ORION IN THE DYING TIME Ben Bova (Tor, Aug, ***-); SACRED VISIONS Greeley&Cassutt (Tor, Aug, ****+); MEN AT WORK George Will (****); XENOCIDE Orson Scott Card (August, ****)