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- Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.sysadmin
- Path: sparky!uunet!europa.asd.contel.com!darwin.sura.net!haven.umd.edu!news.umbc.edu!umbc4.umbc.edu!brian
- From: brian@umbc4.umbc.edu (Brian Cuthie)
- Subject: Dialing for Dollars (was: Turning off SCSI devices and Rel 2.1)
- Message-ID: <1992Jul27.143313.23277@umbc3.umbc.edu>
- Sender: newspost@umbc3.umbc.edu (News posting account)
- Organization: University of Maryland Baltimore Campus
- References: <4455@rosie.NeXT.COM> <1992Jul27.025718.22038@umbc3.umbc.edu> <Bs18ry.Grw@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
- Date: Mon, 27 Jul 1992 14:33:13 GMT
- Lines: 82
-
- In article <Bs18ry.Grw@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> lemson@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (David Lemson) writes:
- >brian@umbc4.umbc.edu (Brian Cuthie) writes:
- >
- >>This is good advice if for no other reason than you may choose to power
- >>up a device at the same time then NeXT decides to swap or something and
- >>who knows how well behaved a device going through power up is.
- >
- >>Nothing personal, Alan, but is this the kind of answer I can expect from
- >>NeXT tech support at $225/Question ?
- >
- >First of all, this was what I would consider a good answer. You
- >said so above yourself, "This is good advice." If anything, they
- >should 'err' on the side of safety. Suggesting that all SCSI
- >devices be powered up and properly terminated is a safe way of doing
- >things, IMO.
- >
-
- Ok, well I don't want to start a flame war. Perhaps I was in a bit of a
- foul mood when I wrote this. I do appreciate David's advice for free.
-
- I think what set me off about this is actually not directly related to David.
- I am a little irked that NeXT, a company in real need of software for their
- platform, has decided to start charging what I consider to be big bucks for
- technical support.
-
- NeXT is supported almost entirely by small companies and, quite honestly, most
- don't have an extra few kilobucks laying around for tech support. I consider
- my investment of time and money thus far more than adequate in support of
- NeXT. Yea, I expect to make some money too. But, I could, just as easily,
- write software for half a dozen other platforms and probably make more money.
-
- What grieves me is that dealing with tech support, at *any* company, is not
- always a pleasent experience. Quite often, I find it difficult to
- get a real anwser to a real problem. This is not to imply that the tech
- support people are bad or stupid. Mostly I think they're just overwelmed.
-
- David's answer, while good advice, is not technically accurate. If I *had*
- paid $225 for it, I would not have been satisfied that this was a complete
- answer. I have worked with *many* SCSI devices. In a previous life I used
- to design SCSI disk controllers for DEC compatible storage systems (this was
- long before the NCR5380 and it's cousins hit the streets). I stand by
- my original statement: any well behaved SCSI device (this is most in my
- experience) will not load the bus when powered down. However, this also
- requires that your SCSI bus is configured correctly. If you are using
- a peripheral device for far end terminator power, then powering that device
- down will take the bus with it.
-
- SCSI interfaces on machines can often be their achilles heel. The problem is
- that everytime you connect or disconnect the SCSI cable, you create some
- kind of ESD event. Over time, this can kill the SCSI controller chip in
- either the computer or the peripheral. I have seen this happen to many
- Macintoshes. I don't personally recommend plugging and unplugging SCSI
- devices from your system any more than is absolutely necessary.
-
-
- ...
- >
- >Ever call Sun tech support? Every looked at how much AnswerLine
- >support costs? Ever deal with their DAMN tech people on the other
- >end? I had one lady who was actually what I could call mean to me.
- >I won't go into it here (this isn't alt.bash.sun, although I feel
- >that such a group should be created).
-
- So ? Is this a reason for NeXT to charge $$$ ?
-
- Ever deal with Apple as a developer ? For years they have provided
- relatively good, almost free, tech support. Along with CD's, tech notes,
- and piles of other developer stuff. NeXT's bean counters just see this as
- another profit center for the struggling company. It looks, however, like
- they are missing the big picture.
-
- >--
- >David Lemson (217) 244-1205
-
-
- -Brian
-
-
- --
- Brian Cuthie
- Systemix Software, Inc.
- brian@systemix.com
-