Conference 7.286::digital

    
    The Integrated Repository Hotline is DTN 297-7307.  The contact is
    Debra Fleck (@MRO or SALES::DFLECK).  There is also a feedback choice
    on the main menu as well (#99).  I've gotten good response from Debra
    in trying to find various itmes (like info sheets) on the IR.
    
     

    I initially tried Debra but, after getting voice mail, decided that
    this may be broader than VTX IR alone and a business practice (or lack
    of) that needs a look at by itself.
    
    I don't  seem to have problems locating that data that's there and I
    doubt this is Debra's responsibility.

    If I were trying to tackle this, I would go to the Sales Update
    articles to get contact names.  Typically, the product marketing
    manager can help you with presentation resources.
    
    cw

    I got a reply to my feedback from Christian Merhy SALES::CMERHY.
    
    Mark

    If you are looking to address a wider issue, you might try Len Levy in
    MRO.  I understand he is in charge of IM&T for Sales and Marketing
    information and I believe these are the sort of issues he addresses.
    
    Jim

    I posted a "QAR" in the Linkworks notes today. It was actually a reply
    to someone else's comment that one of the files in OPAL was unuseable.
    That note was from earlier in the month (no reply though).
    
    The wider issue is simply that we can't afford to be sloppy in our
    product marketing delivery for products which were particularly the
    core of our Oct C/S announcement. If folks in the field can't get
    access to the customer consumption material, how can we generate
    customer awareness of these products?
    
    Has anyone else been able to pull down and print the Linkworks material
    from VTX IR?

  Today I got, thru a long forwarding chain, a memo on the Repository. It
said there are four ways to access it: two via GATEKEEPER (too much trouble
for me to try), one via WWW (which I can use, but I'm not expert enough on to
interpret their pointer), and VTX IR. Until now, I had had no reason to try 
VTX IR. I tried it today out of curiousity and found two things I didn't like:
the response time at the top menus is very slow (about a minute) and there is
apparently no way to search for "everything" (performance data, product specs,
etc.) on a specific product line (such as "DECserver") by keyword. Is the re-
sponse time always this slow? If so, I would not want the people selling my 
group's products to have to depend on VTX IR as their main source for any class
of information.
  I am planning to contact someone about this but I thought I would post this,
since it is being discussed.

    As the poster of the original note, I will say that I still have not
    been able to print out a presentation on LinkWorks. I don't believe
    that Objectbroker has a presentation yet in VTX IR either.
    
    The point is that I'm in sales and in the field and have attended 2 off
    site training session emphasizing client/server and these 2 strategic
    offerings from Digital. There are too many people who believe the field
    is laden with PCs (laptop or otherwise). My sales branch certainly
    doesn't fit into this category (although I personally have ample Macintosh
    tools available at my own expense). I would think that engineering,
    marketing, or whoever wants the sales force to push these products
    would make every effort necessary to ensure that Sales has (easy)
    access to every selling tool possible. It's bad enough having a single
    DEClaser 2200 serving a dozen sales reps for postscript printing.
    
    So, back to the original queston...who's doing QC on all this stuff?

    If it's a queston of a lack of information on desired topics, .5
    mentions Len Levy.  Have you tried him yet?  If he isn't the right
    person, he can probably give you a name.
    
    Jim

    There's also a list of contacts in the IR infobase for some of the
    information segments.
    
    Jim

    As being actively involved in the Integrated Project I wanted to
    post this note to clarify some things.
    I handle the 'helpline' calls which come in regarding the repository
    (my name/number are listed on the main screen of the IR).
    Christian Merhy handles the written feedback which comes in
    regarding the IR.  All the feedback is pulled together on a
    weekly basis, and submitted to my management (Corp. Communications)
    and a copy is sent to our partners in IM&T.  Future enhancements are
    decided from this user feedback and prioritized by what needs to be 
    addressed immediately.
    
    More categories/subcategories of information will be available very
    soon, as well as enhancements to the overall design and functionality
    of the system  (e.g. adding a User Help and Contributor Help section to
    the main menu with all appropriate documentation).  Future enhancements
    being worked include; search by date functionality, displayed keyterms
    limited to the search parameters, easier navigation through screens,
    etc.) Your feedback is being looked at!
                                                
    In regards to the Objectbroker and Linkworks questions, I just went
    into the IR and did a keyterm search, across all the categories, and typed
    in the word Objectbroker (receiving 15 matches) and Linkworks (receiving
    31 matches).  Linkworks information included Literature, Presentations,
    References, a PC Demo, Sales Update articles, and Videos. I printed out
    two of the presentations (PostScript Files) indexed to Linkworks, with
    no problem,
    
     - Linkworks: Next Generation of Open Client/Server Groupware
     - Groupware Product Strategy
    
    If people are having problems printing any of these files, please let
    me know so it can be addressed.  We print out files before posting the
    information to assure it prints, but there are a lot of different
    hardware platforms, and various versions of software being used, 
    so problems do arise.  We've been handling these on a per call basis 
    to better understand what the problem is.
    
    Objectbroker information included Literature, References, Sales Update
    articles, and one presentation (although I don't think that one
    presentation was devoted to Objectbroker).
    
    The Integrated Repository will post information that is submitted, but
    we do not have the resources to go looking for information to be posted. 
    We are dependent on contributors to submit all appropriate information
    that is created in their group.  Neither are we responsible for the content
    of the information which is submitted. It is the contributors
    responsibility to submit quality information, which has been through all 
    the proper review channels.  The IR is trying to assure the information 
    posted is timely.  We are implementing a renewal process, whereas the 
    contributor will be notified, after a specified time, to either validate 
    the information, update it, or request it be deleted.
    
    I have forwarded your note regarding self extracting files (.exe files)
    to the Presentation group to address.
    
    Response time is something we continue to work on.  Yesterday some work
    was being done on the system which really slowed things down, but there
    are also peak hours during the day which slow it down.  We are working
    on solutions to this.
    
    
    
    Don't hesitate to contact me (or Christian) directly if you have any
    further questions/issues.
    

    Thanks for the interest. I've forwarded my base note to Len (identified
    a few notes ago).
    
    There is now a valid pointer in the Objectbroker Notesfile for
    presentations. There's nothing yet for Linkworks (I have an oustanding
    request in that Notesfile for presentations). I did order the videotape
    though and that is very good.

Hello:

I have been forwarded on your memo to help you with your technical problems.

Could you please supply your DTN and name.  I could not 
locate you in ELF, and it would be helpful to have that information in 
case I need to call you.

Thanks and regards,

Kathy Hughson
OPAL/Presentation Office

re: .0
    
    LinkWorks - Several Items listed in VTX IR. The Postscript file there
    though won't print on my LN07/Laser2200 (it just grinds up trees and
    prints the ascii). Using SoftPC and Powerpoint on my Macintosh (I don't
    have a PC), I'm able to expand both Powerpoint presentations and bring
    them up on the Mac. Both however get rejected during printing with
    postscript errors.

**** I will investigate the problem with the PostScript file, and 
will let you know the results.

I can say that the LinkWorks presentations are extremely heavy with 
graphics and bitmaps.

There was a problem early on with using various printer drivers 
and their compatibility with various Digital printers.  There is 
an Adobe driver we have been working with to create one PostScript file that 
seems to work with many of the Digital printers.

If you are having printing issues right from PowerPoint to your 
printer, please identify what the exact print command error is... 
there could be a font that was used that may not have been 
caught... sometimes different fonts are used which are not 
accommodated on the printer.... we try to catch everything, but 
there is that margin...****

re: .0
    
    One last thing....it doesn't make a lot of sense to maintain the .ppt
    files as self extracting (i.e., ".EXE") as that requires that an
    individual using a Macintosh to acquire SoftPC. The use of ZIP files
    would be more universal and the expanders are public domain for both PC
    and Mac.

**** I have enclosed some information from other folks who are 
working with Macs.  Please let me know if this helps you or not...

                     <<< PROD08::USERX:[OPAL]OPAL.NOTE;1 >>>
                                   -< OPAL >-
================================================================================
Note 138.0                 Advice sought for Mac users                 2 replies
IJSAPL::VRIES_R "The UnDutchable"                     7 lines  27-AUG-1993 07:21
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    I am using PowerPoint V3.0 on the Mac. I have been able to get .ppt
    file read in without any difficulty. However, I am unable to do so
    with the files with the .exe extension that OPAL profides.
    
    What do you suggest?
    
    Rene de Vries
================================================================================
Note 138.1                 Advice sought for Mac users                    1 of 2
MKOTS1::HUGHSON                                      48 lines   7-SEP-1993 12:14
                      -< UNZIP utility for .EXE on MAC? >-
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hello Rene:

We had someone else who was having problems opening .EXE on 
their MAC and they found a solution by using a program called
UNZIP (sp. ?) which was on their MAC.  (see attached memo)  Is 
this something you have available to you to use??  If not,
let me know and I can try to get further help for you.

OPAL Group


From:	PROD08::OPAL         "OPAL PLUS Group, DTN: 264-1564,264-0742 OUTSIDE: 603-884"  7-SEP-1993 12:01:40.16
To:	CGHUB::HUGHSON
CC:	OPAL
Subj:	Mac and .EXEs

From:	JAYJAY::KORNS        "David A. Korns, Austin, Texas (512)343-4657" 29-JUL-1993 11:37:58.88
To:	prod08::opal
CC:	
Subj:	... well guess what!

I pulled the .ZIP file to an area in my VMS account which I can mount
and access from my Mac PowerBook which sits by my VAXstation. I
launched this "Unzip" application on my PowerBook (V1.10 freeware
I got somewhere) and could see the .ZIP file.

I opened the file and Unzip didn't see anything in the file. Since
you had mentioned there were various versions problems, I did an
"About..." Unzip to see what version it was. Oddly enough, the
help information for this Mac Unzip utility said that it could
process .ZIP and .EXE!!! format files.

So, I recopied the NAC398CM.EXE file and low and behold, my Unzip
utility on my Mac can open, see the files, and extract them !!!
I never expected it to be able to deal with .EXEs, I assumed it
had to run it on an Intel-based PC. 

So anyway, I have the "Wireless" presentation displaying under
PowerPoint on my PowerBook down here. 

I guess I should quote Steve Martin and say "Never mind...."

I'm happy. Thanks for all your help. I should have just tried
to UNZIP the .EXE first.

See'ya later, Dave :-)


================================================================================
Note 138.2                 Advice sought for Mac users                    2 of 2
IJSAPL::VRIES_R "The UnDutchable"                    10 lines  10-SEP-1993 05:18
                           -< UNZIP to the rescue! >-
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Thank Opal Group!
    
    I tracked UNZIP version 2, which can be found on
    VMSMKT::MAC$COMMTOOLS:UNZIP_V2_0_1.COMPACTOR
    
    Works like a charm with the .EXE's
    
    Tnks,
    
    Rene

    Common Name:   ALBERT HERB 
    Search Surname:  HERB  Search Given Name:  ALBERT,  Al  DTN:  339-5404,  
    327-5371,  -not-5311  Telephone:  301-290-5371  Intrnl Mail Addr: 
    COP1-4/4  
    Location:  COP  Node:  LITTL4  Username:  HERB (or GUCCI::HERB)  
    Org Unit:  DMD-DISCRETE MFG&DEFENS
    
    Sorry, I've long forgotten my password to update my ELF entry (always
    wondered why it had to be password protected within Digital). Email is
    GUCCI::HERB and DTN is 339-5404.

Albert:

With reference to LinkWorks (OL0014):

There was a graphic embedded twice in the file, called 
BYTECOLO.EPS which had a reference to Helvetica-Narrow font.

This could have been causing the problem.  

The file was edited and replaced with an updated 
version of the .EPS file.

I will shortly be sending you PostScript files for the visuals and 
speaker notes.  They are large in size due to the bitmaps used, 
and it could take a little while to print.

Please let me know if you are able to print them on your printer; 
if you continue to get errors, please tell me what your print 
errors are...

Thanks and regards,

Kathy Hughson
OPAL/Presentation Office
Customer Consumable

    We have been hearing of instances of longer than acceptable response
    time for the Integrated Repository. Obviously we're concerned and want
    to work the issue. What I'd like to try and understand is whether or
    not the instances are isoltade or wide-spread.
    
    Use this note or send me mail directly @MRO
    
    Thanks,
    
    Len Levy
    

    I just logged into VTX IR for the new 2100 .ps presentation and
    response time was especially slow.  My home node is CSOA1 in Chicago.
    

I'd like to suggest that comments concerning response be forwarded directly
to the author of .16, and NOT posted in the DIGITAL conference.  There will
be no useful purpose served by posting them in here.

Thanks,

Bob - Co-moderator DIGITAL

        We have been developing a *prototype* World Wide Web access
        method for the integrated repository.

        (This is an experiment and could go away at any time.  The
        data is a snapshot of the IR as of approximately May 1.)

        There are in fact two versions of it, at the URLs:

        	http://nrsta2.mso.dec.com/mcgarry/sql/ir1.com
        and
        	http://lgp30.mso.dec.com/ir/search.com

        Please feel free to try these out, send us comments, but
        remember:  these are prototypes, for the absolutely latest
        information use VTX IR.

        Bob

    re the reference to slow response, in you message to Len, please be
    specific as to at what point you experienced slow response and if you
    also experience slow response in other real-time network applications,
    such as NOTES and Web.
    
    Is it slow connecting to the infobase, doing the search, mailing the
    material, turning infobase pages, all of the above?
    
    Jim