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From: marty1@houdi.UUCP (M.BRILLIANT)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: Dubious marketing practices
Message-ID: <1022@houdi.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 10-Mar-87 10:33:59 EST
Article-I.D.: houdi.1022
Posted: Tue Mar 10 10:33:59 1987
Date-Received: Wed, 11-Mar-87 05:00:39 EST
References: <2607@phri.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Holmdel
Lines: 31
Summary: Just a lashup, maybe, but supported.

In article <2607@phri.UUCP>, roy@phri.UUCP writes:
> ....    Does it
> offend anyone else that DEC (just to name an example; they all do it) takes
> a collection of off-the-shelf parts, sticks a model number on it and touts
> it as some new push-back-the-edges-of-technology machine?....
> ...     Actually, the only interesting part
> of the ad was the bit about how the system includes a resident engineer.
> 
> I was having a conversation a few weeks ago ...  I
> was singing the praises of sexy things like Suns... when he said
> that the next machine he buys will be another Vax because if you make the
> wrong decision and buy something new, you'll get screwed but nobody will
> ever get fired by making the wrong decision and buying a Vax.  Comments?
> -- 
> Roy Smith, {allegra,cmcl2,philabs}!phri!roy
> System Administrator, Public Health Research Institute
> 455 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016

Yeah, I have a comment.  I thought a system administrator was somebody
who could lash together a collection of equipment and spend an unlimited
amount of time trying to make it work.  DEC is selling a lashup with a
guarantee of performance, and even includes a resident engineer to make
it work.  If that's not a technical breakthrough, it's still the
functional equivalent of a bigger machine.

As a user, I like the capabilities of sexy things like Suns, but I want
them to work before the computer support budget runs out.

M. B. Brilliant					Marty
AT&T-BL HO 3D-520	(201)-949-1858
Holmdel, NJ 07733	ihnp4!houdi!marty1