Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!comp.vuw.ac.nz!actrix!templar!jbickers
From: jbickers@templar.actrix.gen.nz (John Bickers)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: IAC (was Re: Clipboard (was Re: The Amiga's Future))
Message-ID: <4407.tnews@templar.actrix.gen.nz>
Date: 13 Jun 91 07:27:23 GMT
References: <1991Jun8.044840.1404@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu> <1991Jun8.074935.781@neon.Stanford.EDU> <1991Jun8.084126.3287@news.iastate.edu> <1991Jun8.150550.21859@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu> <1991Jun9.005806.18799@news.iastate.edu> <4264.tnews@templar.actrix.gen.nz> <43@rypty
Organization: TAP, NZAmigaUG.
Lines: 72

Quoted from <1991Jun12.010912.6193@neon.Stanford.EDU> by torrie@cs.stanford.edu (Evan Torrie):

> >    File/printer sharing LANs seem to be the real core of business
> >    networking (wherever I look at work, which is a bank running PS/2s

>   Ahh, NZ banks are not known for their forward looking microcomputer
> technology.  Could this be BNZ?  National?  ANZ? Westpac?  Last year, I

    BNZ. Sure they aren't advanced. The bit I work for does electronic
    banking (call a mainframe, swap files, etc). From a banking point of
    view, we are not bad. Technically, the operation is very inefficient
    (something like 85% wastage of on-line time, at the mo... :).

    Anyhow, I get a lot of calls from our support folks (who install
    the PClone software), and the bulk of our customers with networks
    use PClones and Novell. A handful use other network products. Our big
    customers (BP, for example) use true blue PS/2s like us. And from what
    I can gather visiting their installations, talking to folks over the
    phone trying to get our software running on networks, etc, the primary
    function of their networks is to share files. There are even a few
    customers who use diskless PClones on Novell networks, and care a
    lot about the security of file access provided by networks.

> did a quick article on how NZ banks were using microcomputers, and the

    Quick article for who, btw?

>   Suppose you want to work with your colleage on a proposal.  Unfortunately, 
> your colleague is in Auckland, and you're in Wellington.  Now, you both
> have copies of the most recent printout, which you want to make changes

    I'd do it by ZMODEM transfer. Or email.

> forth over the changes?  Or how about just getting it both on your computer
> screens, and working on it in real-time?

    I would not do that, even if the capability to do it were free.
    "This file is mine, mine, mine!", as the saying goes. Structured
    data yes (as in database servers). Text files no.

>   You just fire up your copy of Timbuktu, or Carbon Copy, make his

    Hm. Funnily enough we had a support guy doing this, except he was
    installing Carbon Copy without explaining to customers the
    ramifications of the thing.

    There is a problem with cost, and the audit folks in the bank
    getting uptight about what a bank employee may do to a customer's
    data (by accident or design). The support guy I refer to above no
    longer works for this bank.

> machine into a host, and start controlling his computer directly from
> yours.  Having worked briefly in a microcomputer support group, I can
> tell you that something like this would have saved around 50% of the
> support person's time.

    And as a current employee who has a support role, I know how useful
    just getting at their files is. Because of the cost and audit
    problems with products like Carbon Copy, I recently wrote a program
    which a customer uses to call the bank, and allows us to traverse
    their file system and ZMODEM files back and forth.

    Using the software on their machine would admittedly be nice, but
    this isn't simultaneous use of the software. And as a training
    mechanism it would be a pointless alternative, since a bank rep.
    is required on the spot anyway to install the software the first
    time.

> Evan Torrie.  Stanford University, Class of 199?       torrie@cs.stanford.edu   
--
*** John Bickers, TAP, NZAmigaUG.        jbickers@templar.actrix.gen.nz ***
***         "Endless variations, make it all seem new" - Devo.          ***