NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #30/NN_1992_30.iso/spool/vmsnet/internal/1704

Internet Message Format | 1992-12-21 | 2.8 KB

Path: sparky!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!sdd.hp.com!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!nntp-server.caltech.edu!SOL1.GPS.CALTECH.EDU!CARL
From: [e-mail] (Carl J Lydick)
Newsgroups: vmsnet.internals
Subject: Re: Received Bytes Accounting
Date: 19 Dec 1992 10:47:11 GMT
Organization: HST Wide Field/Planetary Camera
Lines: 44
Distribution: world
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
References: <[e-mail]>,<[e-mail]>
Reply-To: [e-mail]
NNTP-Posting-Host: sol1.gps.caltech.edu

In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Aaron Leonard) writes:
=In article <[e-mail]>, Paladin
=<[e-mail]> writes:
=
=| None of the process accounting data that VMS records is a fair
=| and accurate way to charge a user for use of a time-shared Vax:
=
=Bull.  Connect time is a perfectly good measure of resource
=consumption, because it directly relates to usage of real
=physical hardware: a terminal, a serial line, a modem, a
=terminal server port, etc.

Not always.  They could've logged in via DECnet or the INTERnet.  In this case,
all they've done is taken up the process overhead, which is pretty trivial.
Don't forget:  There *ARE* VAXen (more or less;  I consider the 3100 marginal
:-) VAXen out there that don't have terminal lines, and that are accessed
entirely via the network.

=Doubtful.  A Usenet reader perusing alt.sex.bondage may receive
=megabytes of "information" sent to his screen during a single terminal
=session.  A physicist running a simulation may receive one line of
=terminal output following an eight-CPU-hour run.

Exactly.

=I would contend that providing "usage information" in endless
=granularity and myriad detail would be overall harmful, because
=it would further encourage myopic beancounters to spend enormous
=amounts of time grovelling over infinitesimal particles of data, just
=as SHOW MEMORY/POOL has caused man-centuries of somewhat
=valuable system manager time to be squandered twiddling IRPCOUNT.
=(Although it could well be argued that people so inclined are better
=occupied entangled in makework than what they might be doing
=otherwise, e.g. incompetently creating unmaintainable software.

I like that!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Carl J Lydick | INTERnet: [e-mail] | NSI/HEPnet: SOL1::CARL

Disclaimer:  Hey, I understand VAXen and VMS.  That's what I get paid for.  My
understanding of astronomy is purely at the amateur level (or below).  So
unless what I'm saying is directly related to VAX/VMS, don't hold me or my
organization responsible for it.  If it IS related to VAX/VMS, you can try to
hold me responsible for it, but my organization had nothing to do with it.