haque@umn-cs.UUCP (Samudra E. Haque) (08/09/87)
+========================================================+ Please note this was written in a hurry.. Sorry for the grammar and syntax. There aren't that many HOURS in a day to do everything I wish!! +========================================================+ I am thinking of a proposal to "IBM" (we have a local liason office here at the University of Minnesota) to invite them to become a new member to USENET. With all the "millyuns and millyuns" of users and megabytes of traffic flowing accross on comp.sys.ibm.pc and comp.sys.ibm.pc.digest and whatever.else, and with all the discussion that we do about them, against them, and for them.. [re: PS/2 vs DOS and such].. it might be time for them to become aware of the vast number of Technically Oriented Users out there! We are quite a community of people .. covering all ranges of jobs. What I am about to propose is something similiar to what SUN microsystems has informally set up on the USENET. (I believe there is a Daniel Bercel from SUN who is an avid fan in this group? She might be able to correlate for me). If you have any comments,gripes about SUN products you can mail to sun.UUCP and they would forward it internally to whoever was responsible. They even welcome their own engineers to look out for possible customer enquiries.. (example being fischer@umn-cs's request for info about PC-NFS being carried on to the author of the Program itself, who works for SUN).... This is the sort of communication that I would like to see..... with IBM!!!! What I really REALLY need is comments on the PROs and CONs and usefullness/un-usefullness of such a "gateway" to IBM. What I will be doing is collecting all responses and forwarding to the local liason team here through BITNET. I am currently suggesting using a IBM/RT using UUCP as a gateway to transfer between IBM internal network (how does that work?) and the rest-of-the-world. More information requested from knowledgable USENETters. +========================================================+ Samudra E. Haque Computer Science Systems Group (CSSG) Computer Science Department University of Minnesota, Minneapolis (612) 625-0876 haque@umn-cs.ARPA || haque@umn-cs.UUCP || haque@uminn1.BITNET +========================================================+
dhesi@bsu-cs.UUCP (Rahul Dhesi) (08/09/87)
Keywords:
In article <1903@umn-cs.UUCP> haque@umn-cs.UUCP (Samudra E. Haque) writes:
[proposal to invite IBM to be on Usenet]
I think we should get PC's Limited on the net first. Also Borland.
Not much interest here in hearing why IBM stuff costs twice as much
as everybody else's.
--
Rahul Dhesi UUCP: {ihnp4,seismo}!{iuvax,pur-ee}!bsu-cs!dhesischung@cory.Berkeley.EDU (Stephen the Greatest) (08/10/87)
I think it will be neat to have IBM on the net. Just like in comp.sys.mac they have Apple answering their questions and gripes. sugih jamin
davidsen@steinmetz.steinmetz.UUCP (William E. Davidsen Jr) (08/10/87)
In article <1903@umn-cs.UUCP> haque@umn-cs.UUCP (Samudra E. Haque) writes: |I am thinking of a proposal to "IBM" (we have a local liason office |here at the University of Minnesota) to invite them to become a new |member to USENET. -- more -- This implies: a) IBM admits that their products are not perfect b) that they care. Seriously: Relevant articles from this group (technical issues) are forwarded to IBM. I have posted some patches and technical info to this group which has come from IBM. They don't want to hear questions about policy, and only have interest when one of their products doesn't work. By all means invite them, but don't be surprized if they reject you. They just got rid of the group which supported PC user groups (or cut it way back), on the grounds that the market was corporate. Be assured that some of these notes do reach IBM. -- bill davidsen (wedu@ge-crd.arpa) {chinet | philabs | sesimo}!steinmetz!crdos1!davidsen "Stupidity, like virtue, is its own reward" -me
henry@garp.mit.edu (Henry Mensch) (08/10/87)
IBM already *is* on the net: their Almaden Research Center has
a 3081 called IBM.COM, their Yorktown Heights Research lab has
a machine on Usenet called "polaris.UUCP." They also have a bunch
of individual machines on BITNET, as well as a gateway to their
internal network called "VNET."
So much for invitations . . . :)
# Henry Mensch / <henry@garp.mit.edu> / E40-379 MIT, Cambridge, MA
# {ames,cca,rochester,harvard,mit-eddie}!garp!henryomega@ut-ngp.UUCP (Omega.Mosley`) (08/11/87)
> By all means invite them, but don't be surprized if they reject you. > They just got rid of the group which supported PC user groups (or cut it > way back), on the grounds that the market was corporate. Be assured > that some of these notes do reach IBM. > ...it should be noted that IBM has cut funding to a lot of external user functions, such as Relay and Project Quest. The reasons for this have really been vague, and IBM seems to be trying to isolate itself from any sort of outside contact for some reason or another. Any comments on this? Omega.Mosley
martillo@athena.mit.edu (Yakim Martillo) (08/11/87)
I thought IBM was on the net. I see Yaacov Rekhter who did the TCP/IP port for Xenix and tn3270 posting fairly frequently. Yaqim Martillo
aiv@euraiv1.UUCP (08/11/87)
in article <946@bsu-cs.UUCP>, dhesi@bsu-cs.UUCP (Rahul Dhesi) says: > Keywords: > > In article <1903@umn-cs.UUCP> haque@umn-cs.UUCP (Samudra E. Haque) writes: > [proposal to invite IBM to be on Usenet] > > I think we should get PC's Limited on the net first. Also Borland. > > Not much interest here in hearing why IBM stuff costs twice as much > as everybody else's. To feed the discussion: 1. although IBM may be expensive, they're still more or less an "industry-leader". Especially with OS/2 coming up it may be interesting to have some knowledgable first-hand feedback. 2. it might be a nice thing to have a "code-of-conduct" for commercial participants on the net; that way we'll all know what we're up to. This code might for example forbid over-advertising of a company's own products, over-critizing other companies' products etc. Any company that is willing to confirm to the code should be allowed the net if a sufficient number of users agrees; now, define "sufficient".... (fe. #pro > 10*contra ?) 3. IF we invite Borland, we should force them to make patches available on a server that can be accessed by anyone on USEnet, not just by those on ARPAnet or Compuserve. [yes I use Turbo C ;-)] Eelco van Asperen. ----------------------------------------+------------------------------ Erasmus University Rotterdam |uucp:mcvax!eurifb!euraiv1!evas Fac. of Economics,Computer Science Dept.|earn:asperen@hroeur5 PO.box 1738 / 3000 DR Rotterdam | T H E N E T H E R L A N D S |Yet Another Silly Signature. ----------------------------------------+------------------------------