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Conference 7.286::digital

Title:	The Digital way of working

Moderator:	QUARK::LIONELON

Created:	Fri Feb 14 1986
Last Modified:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Last Successful Update:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:	5321
Total number of notes:	139771

3072.0. ""Stop it Dave... I can feel it... Daisy, Daisy ..."" by DRDAN::KALIKOW (World-Wide Web: Postmodem Culture) Sun May 15 1994 15:20

         (Cross-posted in HUMANE::DIGITAL and SOFBAS::INTERNET_TOOLS)
    
    Remember that classic scene from Arthur C. Clarke's movie "2001," when
    Dave Bowman lobotomized HAL?
    
    Something like that MAY be happening even as you read this, at DIGITAL. 
    For our own good.
    
    I've chosen HAL's words to dramatize the issue.  I'm wondering whether
    we can "feel it."
    
    No, I'm not talking about the need perceived by Wall Street and top
    management to reduce the number of employees and contractors.  That's
    another issue.  
    
    No, I'm harking back to an edict many of us saw some months back, to
    the effect that the groups responsible for our telecommunications were
    to reduce their costs by 20%.  After a considerable amount of _St�rm
    und Drang_, (involving some changes in management in the affected
    areas, I think I remember) nothing further was heard of this notion,
    and the general consensus among my contacts (DECnet and IP EasyNet
    users all) was that "nobody would be so misguided as to CUT effective
    bandwidth at a time when we are poised to enter the Internet business,
    and when we (with fewer hands on deck) will have to work smarter, not
    harder."
    
    Another way of saying that is the comms analog of the reaction to the
    forced departure of productive "grunts" -- "If the patient is failing
    to act in a productive manner, it makes no sense to lobotomize him (or
    to cut major sensorineural pathways) in an attempt to cure him."
    
    I heard last week that backup T1 links between various DIGITAL offices
    in the southern USA were being cut, as part of this cost reduction
    program.  The person mentioning it to me made the point that his access
    to intra-DIGITAL Web servers in those locations was noticeably
    spottier.  This was the first I'd heard of it, and I discounted it
    until it was confirmed last Friday by another person in a position to
    have heard.
    
    I heard from that second friend that in DEC's past times of
    retrenchment, an informal "sunset law" on high-bandwidth links was
    imposed.  Comms admin would in effect approach a bunch of in-service
    links and broadcast words to the effect "On day X, link Y will be cut. 
    Any problems?" and if no objections were heard, the link would go. 
    Much money was saved this way, I was told.  Fine.  No complaints is an
    adequate measure imho.
    
    Imho, saving jobs while cutting comms such that inadequate bandwidth is
    left for the "survivors" is a disservice to the latter as well as to
    those others who were fired.  But I have no firm evidence that that is
    the plan, or that inadequacy will be the effect.
    
    My questions are these.  
    
    *  Is there any recent official pronunciamento from Comms Admin about
       the status of their plans?  Pointers would be welcome.  
    
    *  Does anyone notice any changes in the performance of the EasyNet
       (either DECnet or IP, and gateways to the Internet)?  If so, what
       sorts?
            
    Discussion would be welcome, at least by me...

T.R	Title	User	Personal Name	Date	Lines
3072.1	too much redundancy	CARAFE::GOLDSTEIN	Global Village Idiot	`Mon May 16 1994 00:34`	26
	Dan, There is no "comms admin". You should know that, being in IM&T. There are many of them. There's a comms czar for the Central States and Southern region, and one for the northeast and one for the west, in the US. Then there are other countries. There's also a group (which I am more closely affiliated with, I think, though you never know) which is "Corporate" and owns some backbone links. In terms of redundancy, well, the regional guys hate Corporate so they put in costly "fractional T1" channels even though Corporate owns and provides bandwidth multiplexed from T1s; unit bandwidth on a T1 is roughly a third the price of fractional, but that's external dollars, and OMS Finance charges back more for the share of a T1 than for a fractional, so we have TONS of redundancy. Not in service, just sitting there. THis is a problem that OMS was supposed to fix up, but has not done, its VP (who's also CIO) preferring, perhaps (I speculate), to devote more attention to making sure he (part of DC) and not MCS or other groups own various worldwide groups.... DECnet and IP both follow ONE route at a time between any two sites. Redundancy is only there for standby, not load-sharing. In Europe, the backup links have been replaced by ISDN dial-up, which gives the speed when needed on a per-time-unit basis. We could do that (with Switched 56 where ISDN not available) in the US too; maybe that's going on in the "territories".
3072.2	Just kidding....	NPSS::BRANAM	Steve, Network Product Support	`Mon May 16 1994 13:51`	13
	DECnet Phase VI will implement a new wireless network layer called floppy routing, using the latest in high speed floppy-switching technology. Floppy-switching is primarily a local area technology, dependent on the latency between user's forefinger and floppy eject button. Wide area floppy routing uses existing third party terrestrial and airborne common carriers: USPS, FEDEX, UPS, etc. Floppy-switching currently uses 1.44MB frame sizes, providing much higher data carrying capacity than such small-frame technologies as ATM and frame relay. The elimination of all physical transmission media and intereconnect devices will provide a tremendous cost-savings to all network users. It is predicted that Digital customers will rapidly migrate to this new communications architecture. Digital is already rapidly embracing this technology within its corporate infrastructure.
3072.3		ELWOOD::LANE		`Mon May 16 1994 20:30`	3
	re: .-1 AKA SneakerNet (tm)?
3072.4	Don't forget security...	HLDE01::VUURBOOM_R	Roelof Vuurboom @ APD, DTN 829 4066	`Tue May 17 1994 03:02`	10
	re: .-2 In fact, the technology is much further than this. Security issues are being tackled using a patented highly original floppy frame fingerprintering (fff) techinque. Using fff and a specially designed fff proof ink, users can indivdually fingerprint each floppy frame for a level of security and user friendliness that far outstrips dated ATM techniques.
3072.5	The cutting is noticeable for telephone usage already.....	TPSYS::WEST		`Tue May 17 1994 09:44`	25
	See Note 2804.* for previous information on this issue. Already I get serious re-order (fast busy, 120 beep/minute) when I make calls from TAY to the Mill and MKO.... for the uninformed, this is an indicator of busy trunks or equipment between buildings... I dont call them very often, but have a hard time when I do try.. I may have to call two and three more times to get thru... "I don't think I can feel my toes and fingers anymore, and my legs are feelings cold......" "Daisy.... da..isy..... give meeeeeeeee youuuuuuurrrrr answwwwweeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrr t r u e.
3072.6	not a planned cutback, just bad planning	CARAFE::GOLDSTEIN	Global Village Idiot	`Tue May 17 1994 15:02`	17
	re:.5 I am also in TAY and I know who's in charge so I checked it out. It's not intentional cutbacks. Back when TAY2 was built, we had just put in Northern Telecom SL-100 telephones in the GMA; AT&T had little presence left. We had a contract with NT that set prices for SL-100 parts, upgrades, etc., and it was assumed that new sites in the area would just add on to the SL-100s (which were sized for growth) with remote line modules. But TAY's phones were put up for bid. AT&T was discontinuing an old product (System 85) and had closeout pricing. They underbid NT. Foolishly, Digital bought it. Now, it's totally out of capacity. Adding a single additional channel of trunk capacity would require a costly capital upgrade. We're more likely to throw it out and put something else in (from closed-site inventory). On the other hand, with the empty desks soon to show up, we'll probably not run out of calling capacity so often.