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Date: 12 Feb 90 22:49:00 GMT
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    Hi Everybody,

Keith E. writes:

>I see a real need for people like me, who
>have a real background at the bench (for perspective) and who know the ins and
>outs of using the machine to answer specific questions.  When I first started
>at Merck full time, managing the sequence analysis software was only a small
>part of my job description.  Now all I do is sequence analysis and associated
>tasks.  People here have learned that they have a new type of resource to call
>upon, and they do call upon it.  In fact, the company is sending me back to
>graduate school to finish my Ph.D. (at their expense), and giving me time off
>of work to do it (on a daily basis that is...).

From the several people I know that work for pharmaceuticals, I have gotten
the impression that one of the big differences between a business and academic
environment is that a business recognizes the importance of well-run centralized
facilities. While working a prestigious E. Coast University I remember
having to go to meetings, (even giving an advertisement/seminar for GCG) in
an attempt to convince three different departments that it would make sense
for them to cooperate in chipping in the $2000 for the GCG software and
whatever $ for ONE DAY A WEEK of my salary. It is hard to get labs/depts
which may be competing to cooperate. So I have go to agree with Mike Y.
who writes that "Guaranteed customization, tutoring and support by local
sysops is not include as part of the package, as far as I know." Gosh I love
biting sarcasm, mmmm mmmm.

Even when C. T. and S is available, the scientists are sometimes iritated at
having to use it. It is hard to feel in control of what you are doing or
very independent if you are always running for help. What if they are working
on the weekend or at night, when the computer rates are cheap (another
big concern)? No, I must side with the camp that thinks this stuff has got
to be accessible to the novice. (a digression: there are two types of
difficulty, understanding the algorithms and using the computer. Maybe
understanding the algorithm can't be made simpler, but there is a lot
of room for improvement with the interface). Those interfaces at MIT might be
the solution. I would like to see GCG adopt some sort of front end like
theirs.

L. Caballero