daf@cs.man.ac.uk (Daphne Tregear) (12/18/90)
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SUN UK USER
AUTUMN 1990
2 Your New Look User Group Magazine
3 New Products and Prices from Sun Microsystems
5 Sun UK User Group Conference Report
7 Sun's Scottish Plant Opened
11 Sun Microsystems Management Panel
13 Do You Have a Question for Sun Management?
14 Goodbye to the Sun-3 - and the Sun386i?
15 Sun Administration Hints and Tips
17 Formation of the UK Internet Consortium
17 Sun User Conference and Exhibition,
NEC, Birmingham, 10-12 September, 1991
17 To Advertisers
18 The Sun UK User Group
19 Contributed Software Tapes - An Apology
19 Election for Chairman
19 Meeting Notice - Connecting Small Computers to Your Sun
20 Readership Questionnaire
The following pages are available only in the electronic version:
21 UKUUG & UKnet Winter Technical Meeting, 17-19 December, Cambridge
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YOUR NEW LOOK USER GROUP MAGAZINE
With a change of editor comes a change in appearance for your
Newsletter, as well as a change of title.
We hope to convince you that these changes are not simply being made
for change's sake.
Any publication must evolve to continue to meet the needs of its
readership, and in a fast-moving area like workstation usage things
are changing all the time.
So we have a new look. This will be evolving over the next few issues,
however, as experiments proceed to establish a readable and
easy-to-assimilate style.
There will also be changes in content - as usual there have been very
few contributions from members, and we need to do something about
this. Thanks to those who have sent something in.
New Title
We are just about to see another huge increase in the market for Sun
workstations, after Sun's aggressive announcements of new products
and reductions in price on existing products.
The title has changed to tell the casual reader that it is for any
body who uses Sun workstations, not just the members of the Sun UK
User Group who are its primary readership.
The Group will be seeing a lot of changes in the next year, and many
of these will mean we have to raise money.
We are promoting the Newsletter as a magazine, which we will use to
generate revenue for the group by encouraging a wider range of
advertisers to take space.
Three Columns
Typographers have known for a long time that it is easier to read text
when it is set in lines which do not usually exceed seven words in
length. If you look at almost any commercial magazine you will find
that columnar lay out is very much the exception rather than the rule.
In trying this we have had to bear in mind that not all subject matter
is ideal for this treatment. For example, articles on UNIX often
quote command lines, which are often too long for this format.
We have written technical articles in the past for commercial
magazines, and quite often the command lines are simply set as text,
which is extremely confusing for the reader and annoying for the
author.
We will try to avoid this in the Sun UK User.
Advertising
This is the last issue for which we will be accepting adverts in the
form of bound inserts. We will be experimenting with new production
methods, so it may not be possible to bind insertions along with the
rest of the magazine.
We continue to look to advertising for contributions to the User
Group coffers, and hope that we can offer a more attractive range of
options by taking artwork rather than asking our advertisers to do
most of the production job.
For those advertisers who already have suitable material in printed
form we can accept inserts for inclusion in the mailing envelope, but
they will no longer be bound in.
Those with smaller budgets can take advantage of a new range of sizes,
since by taking artwork we can include almost any size.
We wish to encourage regular advertising, and so will be offering
series discounts. If any reader knows of companies who may wish to
advertise in the magazine, please let your editor know!
New Product Releases
Sun users are probably among the more innovative computer users,
putting their workstations to a wide range of uses.
In this issue we include details of new products from Sun together
with the price reductions on some products. We have also included
details of Sun-related products from third parties which have come
into the Desktop Connection offices over the last three months,
Companies who produce such products are welcome to send press releases
to the Sun UK User for consideration. We will happily include "all
the news that's fit to print".
In this way we hope to make it easier for you to find the extra bits
you need to get the most out of your Sun workstations.
There are many interesting peripherals and software packages which
will be of interest. Your editor is about to make a trip to the US
for the winter SUG conference in San Jose. We hope to include details
of new products from the US in our next issue.
UK and US Events
The San Jose SUG conference is one of a number of events which Sun
users might well profit by knowing about and/or attending.
We will be writing as many of these up as we can, and also asking our
readers to let us have their opinions about the events they attend. We
also want to develop a regular calendar of forthcoming events, and
would like to hear from organisers about anything they feel will be
relevant to our readers.
Training courses, product launches, seminars and conferences are
among the events we need to tell you about. Please drop us a line if
you have anything you think should be included, and we will be happy
to help you to publicise it.
User Group News
There are a number of other User Groups in the UK with interests
closely related to those of the SUKUG. The UK UNIX Systems User
Group, for example, holds meetings which discuss matters of relevance
to Sun Users.
We will, of course, continue to give prominence to what's happening
in the SUKUG - as long, that is, as anything is happening.
In short, we are trying to make the Sun UK User more readable and more
useful. If there's any thing you want to see, let us know. As we say
in Yorkshire, "You get nowt if you don't ask"!
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NEW PRODUCTS AND PRICES FROM SUN MICROSYSTEMS
New workstations give new performance levels on the desktop, with
high-speed print and new OS release
November 5th saw fireworks from Sun UK as they announced a new range
of powerful desktop workstations, a new printing subsystem driven by
SPARC, and reduction in prices of existing workstation models.
Sun are quite open nowadays about their aggressive pricing policies,
and the fact that they are looking towards commercial and technical
applications to start eroding the huge PC systems base which they
claim offers inferior price-performance.
Traditionally strong in technical markets Sun are now looking to
become a volume platform like the PC and the Macintosh. The volumes
they have achieved with the various SPARCstation ranges, coupled with
the continuing strength of the pound against the dollar, have allowed
existing products to be reduced in price.
The price reductions are likely, of course, to lead to higher-volume
sales, so with luck this could lead to a "deflationary spiral" which
makes Suns ever more competitive against traditional low-end
platforms.
SPARCstation 2
The SPARCstation 2 is the basis for many of the new products, and
offers the highest level of performance Sun have ever offered from a
desktop workstation. It comes with 16-Mbytes of memory and a 3.5-inch
floppy disk drive as standard.
By clocking the SPARC at 40MHz instead of the 25MHz of the
SPARCStation 1+ Sun have achieved a performance of 28.5 MIPS and 4.2
MFLOPS.
The base configuration with a monochrome screen comes in at #10,995,
an amazingly low price for such a powerful machine.
The low-end colour system of the new family, the SPARCstation 2GX,
includes graphics acceleration as standard at #14,700. The GX
accelerator has been available for the SPARCstation 1+ for some time,
and can make an amazing difference to graphics output rates.
For mid-range graphics performance on 3-D solids Sun are offering the
SPARCstation 2GS at #19,800, which gives 24-bit colour performance.
If even this isn't fast enough then you can go for the 2GT at #36,700.
This model marks a move away from Sun's now well established 1152x900
graphics format, giving 1280x1024, or about 25% more pixels on its new
21-inch 76-Hz display monitor.
The 2GT model can display 500,000 2-D or 3-D vectors per second, and
100,000 shaded 3-D polygons per second. Both the GS and GT
accelerators include hardware support for depth-cuing and Gouraud
shading
The GT can handle up to 32 light sources in hardware as opposed to
the GS's 8, and also gives hardware support for transparency and
anti-aliasing.
Interestingly the announcement publicity included details of a
SPARCserver 2 configured without a display monitor at #18,095, but
this is not yet shown in the UK price list.
SPARCstation 2 systems can be increased in memory size from the basic
16-Mbyte to 96-Mbyte (GX, GT) or 64- Mbyte (GS). A 32- Mbyte SBus
memory expansion card is being offered at #4,700.
SPARCstation IPC GX
For the first time you can now get GX graphics acceleration on the
low-end IPC machine, which will represent a useful boost to its
graphics performance.
Sun claim 450,000 2-D vectors per second and 240,000 3-D vectors.
This is in line with their claims for the SS 1+ which has been on the
market for some time now.
At #9,995 the price for this level of performance has tumbled again.
Anyone using CAD systems like AutoCAD on 486-based systems will
surely ask themselves again whether it isn't time to switch to a UNIX
workstation.
NeWSprint and SPARCprinter
For a long time now Sun have had the ability to interpret PostScript
output to the screen. This technology was first demonstrated in Sun's
NeWS window system, which has now been merged with X windows into the
Open Windows product.
NeWSprint is a software product which uses the same abilities, taking
advantage of the SPARC processor, to prepare images for printing.
This removes the need for printer intelligence as the work station's
CPU controls the output device. NeWSprint, it is claimed, can drive
dot-matrix and inkjet as well as laser and colour thermal printers to
produce high-quality PostScript-compatible output.
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The announcement says that NeWSprint can operate with many printers,
from manufacturers like Canon, Epson, Fujitsu, Hewlett-Packard, Kodak,
Xerox, Mitsubishi, Okidata, Seiko and Versatec.
This product announcement is combined with that of the SPARCprinter,
which provides twice the speed, better print resolution and more
fonts at less than half the cost of the LaserWriter II which it
replaces. It will print at up to 12 pages per minute driven by
NeWSprint, and because the setting is done by a high-speed CPU there
is much less degradation in printing speed than is common with
complex PostScript print jobs.
The print engine can be software-selected at 300 or 400 dots per
inch, and interfaces to the SBus in a SPARCstation via a card which
includes a Centronics port as well as the SPARCprinter port.
NeWSprint comes with 57 fonts prepared using Sun's F3 font for mat,
making them scalable and rotatable. More than 700 fonts are now
available from suppliers who have licensed F3 from Sun.
The SPARCprinter is shipped with the NeWSprint software, the SBus
printer card, interface cables the manuals and a single right-to use
licence.
Price Reductions on Existing Systems
To make existing products more attractive and open up the lower-priced
end of the market Sun have announced immediate price reductions on
their low-end desktop SPARC systems.
The entry-level SPARCstation SLC is reduced from #3,995 to #3,495, and
the IPC comes down from #7,995 to #6,995 with 207 Mbyte disk.
Sun UK are now selling a wider range of IPC-based systems, including
a 19-inch monochrome system for #6,350 including the disk.
They have also reduce the price of a 16-Mbyte upgrade from #4,850 to
#2,600. While this does not make them competitive in the memory
market, it will mean that more customers buy Sun memory for the
convenience of "one-stop shopping".
SunOS 4.1.1 Announced
The new SPARCstation 2 product announcements coincide with the
introduction of a new release of SunOS.
Release 4.1.1 is the first SunOS release to include the Open Windows
environment as standard, although Sun have been shipping it on
configured IPC systems since they were introduced.
More than 250 bug fixes have been incorporated in this release, which
offers full binary compatibility with release 4.1.
An Asian Language Environment (with the perhaps unfortunate acronym
ALE) will also be available for SunOS 4.1 at release time.
The new release will be preinstalled on all diskfull desktop
SPARCstations, making it easy for customers to install their own
workstations. Open Windows will be preinstalled on systems with more
than 130 Mbytes of disk storage.
The binaries, source code and encryption kit (presumably the latter
for US users only) are all available on CD-ROM.
The new release includes a PC DOS filesystem, allowing easy transfer
of data between UNIX and PC filesystems without the need to buy DOS
Windows if you don't want to execute DOS soft ware.
The SCSI drivers can now use synchronous I/O and parity error checking
and recovery where appropriate, improving both reliability and
transfer rate over the bus.
This builds on the new ability to cluster I/O on to logically
contiguous blocks on the disk, making transfers even more efficient.
Also, a new tmpfs temporary filesystem provides significant
performance improvements for applications which use several temporary
files.
So Where Does This Put Sun?
These new announcements un derline Sun's determination not to fall
behind in the race for higher performance.
Sun have a policy which has been called "technology push" - they
release new products almost as fast as they can be developed, where
older-established firms such as Dec and IBM prefer to ensure that new
products do not obsolete existing money-makers.
IBM are currently wondering how to get around exactly this problem on
the RS/6000, which makes their AS400 systems look rather overpriced.
At the same time, the fall in the price of entry-level systems has to
make SPARC attractive for anybody who is running out of performance,
or who needs proper multi-user and/or multi-tasking systems.
With over 2,100 SPARCware applications already shipping, it looks like
anyone wanting to compete against Sun has an up hill battle in front
of them.
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SUN UK USER GROUP CONFERENCE REPORT
This year's Conference was a two-day bash at Edinburgh's Conference
Centre, on Heriot Watt's new Riccarton campus.
Until recently Heriot-Watt University was located in the centre of
Edinburgh, so the facilities we were allocated had only been opened
about three weeks. this made it a very pleasant place, although
having travelled so far it would have been nice to be closer to the
historic city.
Numbers were disappointingly low for the event, but I think it's fair
to say that those who did attend found it both enjoyable and useful.
Beginners' SIG
The opening event was a Beginners' Special Interest Group (SIG) for
those who hadn't had their Suns very long.
This was a very well attended session, many experienced users popping
in to see if their help was required. Most people had fairly simple
requirements, not knowing who they could contact for help with things
like filesystem backup and electronic mail.
Many people had simply had the Sun thrust upon them, without really
being a part of the decision-making process, and had not taken any
formal training on workstation usage and/or administration.
It underlined the importance of making sure that we don't try to pitch
the Conference topics at too high a level, so that less-experienced
members will be able to understand what is being discussed.
The SIGs were probably the most interesting part of the entire
conference, and certainly got the most interaction going among the
members.
Keynote Speech
The Conference proper was brought under way with a session to run
through the program for the benefit of those who couldn't read the
agenda handed out with the registration packages. This was followed by
Paul Musson, Sun's European Marketing Director, who talked about the
changes Sun were seeing in their European markets.
Paul said that Sun were now starting to attack commercial markets
which had until recently been the province of the PC, and presented a
fair prospect of success.
Sun were now manufacturing in Europe, and had a software development
centre in France. The European market represented over 25% of Sun`s
business in the last full fiscal year, and they were targeting an
eventual level of 33% of worldwide business.
The internationalisation of the product range is proceeding, and the
European involvement will help to ensure this is done with local
understanding of the problems it can involve.
Graphics Running Under X
This talk was given by Rob Bamforth, again of Sun Microsystems. Rob
knows a great deal about graphics, and explained the relationships
between X Windows, PHIGS and XGL to give realistic 3-D rendering under
X.
There was an interesting section when the implications of using a
local server were discussed - it seems that to get maximum efficiency
implementors now seem to accept that it may some times be a good idea
to know when the server and the client are running on the same
machine.
The reasons for this are not so much connected with network
transmission as the increased performance which can be gained by
sharing data structures.
Sun User Group in the US
We were pleased to have Stan Hanks, a SUG Board member, across this
side of the Atlantic to let us know what had been happening their
side.
The SUG is rather older than SUKUG, and was set up as an independent
organisation from Sun quite a while ago. They now have their own
Executive Director, and have located in Boston.
Stan says that the US group makes a great deal of its revenue from
conference registration fees and exhibition income. The fact that they
have over 6,000 mem bers of whom up to 1,000 turn up to the
twice-annual conferences certainly can't hurt, either!
The SUG is interested in forming links with other groups such as
ours, and is prepared to offer them membership privileges on a "block
booked" basis.
Those SUKUG members present thought this was a good idea even if it
led to a slight increase in subscriptions, and so we shall be
adopting that course of action as soon as it is practical.
Distributed RPC Computing
After a very pleasant lunch next up was Chuck McManis from Sun
Microsystems in Mountain View.
Chuck has been a part of Sun's development team for quite some time,
and he outlined the approach that was currently being taken to move
Remote Procedure Call forward in such a way as to ensure it integrates
well into System V Release 4. This had been quite a problem, since
there were conflicting requirements from diverse groups who all
wanted to see their own solutions adopted.
Visit to Sun's Linlithgow Manufacturing Facility
Buses were then boarded by the majority of delegates for a trip to see
the site where Suns are being made.
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A couple of hardy souls decided they would go sightseeing in
Edinburgh, and later reported that it was still there.
The factory at Linlithgow is pretty impressive - very clean and not at
all like the dark satanic mills I grew up in when I were a lad [that's
enough Yorkshireman sketch - Ed.]. As there is a description of the
opening there is no need to describe the visit in detail.
In point of fact this tour had to be arranged at extremely short
notice, and the Sun staff involved deserve our thanks for their
magnificent efforts.
Then back to campus in time to clean up for the Conference dinner,
waking up with a slight hangover in time to hear most of the first
session.
Traps and Pitfalls with Third Party Peripherals
This session was given by Steve Wolski of PCS, a company which will be
know to most Sun UK User readers since they are a regular advertiser.
Steve's talk looked at how the third-party peripherals market for Sun
workstations had grown in the UK from nothing five years ago.
There were a few cautionary tales about dealing with companies who
didn't understand the problems associated with the various SCSI
peripherals and the interaction between software drivers and firmware
revision levels.
It seems that the main rule of peripheral buying remains caveat
emptor.
System V Release 4
Rob Gingell, again from Sun in Mountain View, talked about the
problems involved in migrating from one operating environment to
another.
Unfortunately my hangover required a little attention at this point,
so I went out and about to get some fresh air, fresh water, and other
requirements.
Perhaps someone who stayed to take notes could give us the benefit of
their experience in the next issue?
Management Panel
There is a separate write-up of this event elsewhere in this issue, so
all that needs to be said is that it was a lively session in which
some useful information came out.
It really is useful to be able to get the story from someone who sets
policy rather than someone who works at the lower levels of the
company.
SUKUG Business Session
This was an unusually stormy one for the SUKUG, normally you couldn't
hear a pin drop for all the snoring.
This time, however, there was serious business taking place. The
current chairman, Steve Holden, proposed that the group take a vote on
a written constitution.
Several of those present felt that it was rather too early to do this,
since there had been limited time for discussion and there were
several areas of concern - what happened if the group wished to wind
itself up, how did elections take place, and so on.
Steve then withdrew the draft constitution, warning that the group was
in danger of finding it self in a difficult position in the future
without one.
The next business was the election of the next chairman, since Steve
is unable to continue due to commitments to his own growing business.
Two candidates had been identified, Steve Wolski of PCS and George
Elms of Amtech. After both had given a short address, a member spoke
from the floor and said he wasn't entirely happy about the commercial
orientation of the candidates.
Steve [Holden] pointed out that he was himself a commercially oriented
person, but there had been no problems during his term.
After some discussion it was agreed to adjourn for lunch, and reopen
the call for nominations.
A vote was duly taken, with the following result:
Dwight Ernest 31
Steve Wolski 8
George Elms 5
Thus Dwight Ernest became our next chairman.
Open Windows
The next talk was by William Vablais of Sun Microsystems' marketing
group in the UK.
As my company is already committed to Open Windows I decided I would
have a look around what was left of the exhi bition.
This was not anywhere near as good as the one at Manchester last year,
but there are promises that next year will be a major event in the Sun
calendar.
Programming Freedom
Rick Innis of Edinburgh Univer sity talked about some of the current
issues of European copyright. Did you know that new legislation, if
passed in its present form, would make the disassembly of a program
illegal for any purpose?
SBus Peripherals
Finally, Jim Bailey of Baydel, who had been delayed by fog, gave an
interesting talk about what you needed to consider when building
things to put on the SBus.
Jim is to be congratulated for overcoming the difficult circumstances
and giving a lively and stimulating talk.
Conclusion
And that was it. A pretty good set of talks, with less impressive or
ganisation and smaller numbers than last year. It will be very in
teresting to see how the large event we have been promised next year
compares.
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SUN'S SCOTTISH PLANT OPENED
Daf Tregear
On Monday 10th September 1990, 350 people assembled in Sun
Microsystems' manufacturing and supply facility in Linlithgow,
Scotland, to witness its official opening.
Speeches were made, champagne was drunk, generous quantities of
excellent food and wine were consumed and the guests were shown the
assembly plant in operation.
Those of us with the stamina left were then whisked away to an hotel
in Edinburgh to be treated to a malt whisky tasting and yet more
food, wine and entertainment.
The Line-up
The opening ceremony was attended by Scott McNealy, SMI's dynamic
(and perpetually tanned) president and chief executive officer and
the Rt. Hon. Malcolm Rifkind, QC, MP, who is (at the time of writing,
but these are Troubled Times) Secretary of State for Scotland.
Also present was Ian Bell, manager of the Linlithgow plant and
managing director of Sun Microsystems Scotland Ltd., Kevin Melia,
Sun's VP for Worldwide Operations Management and Worldwide
Distribution (how do they think of these titles?), Darryl Barbe, VP
for European Operations and Carol Bartz, VP for Worldwide Field
Operations.
I hadn't come across Carol Bartz before, but she has apparently
worked for Sun for some years and always done wonders for whichever
section of Sun's operations she was assigned to, being finally
rewarded by being made a VP of Sun. She was charming, even to the
person who made the patronising assumption that she was present to
accompany Scott McNealy as his wife!
The day's speeches were delivered in a wonderful medley of accents;
Scots (Bell), Etonian (Rifkind), Irish (Melia) and Transatlantic
(McNealy, Barbe and Bar tz). The speeches were given to an invited
audience of the Press, local people, Sun VARs and Sun users (which
included myself and Steve Holden).
After our group had been taken on a tour of the production facility
by our rather attentive tour guide (we weren't allowed to stray far
from his gaze - did he think I would try and fit a SPARCstation up my
jumper?) [do you think you could? Ed.] and fed and watered, we were
then returned to the auditorium for a `Sun Forum' chaired by Richard
Kershaw (ex Newsnight, BBC).
The Sun Forum
We were eventually given the opportunity to fire questions at the
assembled Sun bigwigs - how could I resist? Scott McNealy had alluded
to more tools around the corner to ease the burden of ad ministering
networks of Suns. I asked him for more details as Manchester
University's Computer Science Department's collection of around 250
gives its system managers nightmares.
Scott didn't answer my question directly, but gave an illustration
of Sun's concern at the issues involved. Earlier in the summer, there
had been a meeting of Vice Presidents at HQ. Without warning, Scott
had divided them into teams and set them a task to be completed; the
race was on to find the best time for unpacking a SPARCstation from
its box, read ing all the `Read Me First's, connecting the
components, getting the machine up and running and connected to Sun's
network, pulling across two pieces of software from a machine in
Linlithgow and getting them running on the SPARCstation.
The winning team took 56 minutes. Scott's team came third after an
hour and ten minutes. [Our own Bill Passmore was enigmatic when asked
how his team fared, but bemoaned the lack of a map to help one after
one had strayed from the straight and narrow path...] The feeling of
the VPs after this experience was that the task was too complicated
and took too long; they felt that such a task should be achieved in 15
minutes. Comments, anyone?
The Linlithgow Plant
The Linlithgow plant is the first to be built outside of the U.S.A.
There are currently facilities in Milpitas, California and Westford,
Massachusetts. Linlithgow is the third, and a fourth site will come
on-line in the Pacific Rim in the mid 1990s.
Sun chose Linlithgow because of its situation 15 miles west of
Edinburgh in "Silicon Glen" which gives it access to a highly skilled
local workforce and easy access to the European markets. Also, they
chose it for its beautiful surroundings.
The plant is built on a green field site on the outskirts of
Linlithgow; from the staff's first floor restaurant the views are of
green fields giving way to gentle hills. Cows graze on Sun's land, so
after the Sun pens, Sun mugs, Sun watches - Sun milk!
The current installation occupies 140,000 square feet and cost #17
million. It can currently turn out 1000 workstations a week at full
capacity (the first were in fact shipped in June 1990, just 14 months
after the turf was broken).
-- page 8 --
Linlithgow currently employs 150 staff, but will expand to 300.
Expansion on all fronts has been catered for at the very beginning;
the current building has more than enough spare space for a second
production line (the auditorium for 350 for the opening speeches was
placed in this free space!) and there is enough land for a second
building.
All this is obviously Good News for Scottish industry. However,
Linlithgow is a `manufacturing and supply facility'; nothing is built
from scratch here, every thing is assembled from components. The
components come from the USA at the moment, but they will gradually
switch to sourcing most of the components locally.
The Production Line
Here follows a description of how a machine is assembled and tested
in the plant.
First, Production Control generates a list of parts for a particular
unit to be made.
The parts are selected by a technician and put into a box and the box
placed on a "hot pallet" which is a base that the unit sits on as it
moves along the production line. The unit will stay with its hot
pallet until it is completely finished and tested. The hot pallet has
a power connector and an Ethernet connector (used later in the Test
Chamber).
It takes about 15 minutes to as semble a complete unit - the whole
assembly uses between 9 and 13 screws.
The serial numbers of all components, and the hot pallet, are scanned
from their bar codes. This enables the whole unit to be tracked
through its progress through the factory by the Shop Floor System
software (written in-house at Linlithgow).
After assembling there is an initial test taking 15 minutes.
Any units which fail at any stage of the assembly process are routed
automatically to a special arm of the production line where the area
of failure is identified and a replacement part fitted. Parts are
mended where possible (down to board level) and returned to the
beginning of the line, or returned to the vendor.
The assembled system is then loaded by a robot into what can only be
described as a vast oven to be aged. This Automated Test Chamber can
hold up to 288 units; the units are placed there for a period of 18
hours to endure a temperature of 35 degrees C. After being placed in
its roost, a unit will automatically be hooked onto the network and
will power itself up and will receive and run the appropriate test
software. Again, the results are returned to the Shop Floor System.
Having survived this ordeal, worse is to follow. During Final System
Test, 2150 Volts is shot through the unit [amps go through, volts
exist across. Ed.] to check insulation and leakage. Then checks are
made on the software, floppy drives and sound units. Finally, the
Customer Installation Software is loaded onto the disk and the system
shut down and valeted.
The system is then bagged, bar coded, given its dollop of `Read Me
First's and then shunted into the finished goods store, awaiting a
call from a customer.
When a customer order is received, the required boxes are selected
automatically by their bar codes, and then shipped. They have a really
nifty machine for moving monitors around - many's the time it would
have come in handy for me - that is rather like a super jumbo giant
vacuum cleaner hose that picks them up by suction.
The factory floor gave the impression of being a pleasant place to
work - if only the average university was of that standard...
Some of the offices used by the support staff are situated there, so
there isn't a segregated feel be tween white and blue collar workers,
rather the more integrated feel of what one would expect from a
Japanese enterprise.
Assembly Technicians work on two systems at once and put them through
their Initial Systems Testing, thus hopefully side stepping the
production line blues.
What Does This Mean For Me, The User?
Linlithgow will make the full range of desktop machines exclu sively,
and makes them to hold in stock ready for orders. This should spell
the end of the long waits for delivery that have happened in the
past.
More importantly, an investment of this scale shows that Sun really
is taking Europe seriously these days. And well it should! Overseas
sales now make up half of Sun's business, with 28% of its revenue
generated in Europe. This is not an insubstantial sum; Sun's revenue
for its eighth year of trading was $2.47 billion and it has now more
than 285,000 units installed worldwide. Just think of the potential
when Eastern Europe is as economically successful as it wishes to
be... Sun HQ now has every reason to listen to our voice.
It is good to see our part of Europe getting a piece of the action!
-- page 9 --
SURVEY FOR THE UK INTERNET CONSORTIUM
This survey is intended to guage the viability of an internetwork that
would connect UK-based subscribers with other domestic and
international Internet sites. Just because you return a completed
survey to the consortium doesn't mean that you will in any way be
obliged to subscribe to the service, nor that you will be bothered by
promotional mailings. All responses will be scrupiously used only for
the purpose of determining the viability of such a network.
In the questions below, "networks" refers to all of the external or
wide-area communications links or networks that are currently used by
you, your company, your university, or your user group now.
Please feel free to photocopy this sheet and pass it on to people whom
you think might have an interest.
Please answer by circling the best response(s).
Name:
Position:
Organisation:
Address:
About your uses of computer networks:
A1. What protocols do your network(s) use/support?
o TCP/IP
o DECNET
o Novell
o Xerox
o OSI
o ISO/Pink Book
o Appletalk
o Other (specify)
o Don't know
o No network
A2. If you use IP, have you registered with the NIC your IP network
number(s)?
o Yes
o Don't use IP
o Don't know
o Don't understand
A3. If your site makes external connections, how are they made?
o Dial up
o PSS (BT or Mercury)
o Kilo/MegaStream
o Leased line
o ISDN
o Other (specify)
o Don't know
o None
A4. What protocols are used on those links?
o Uucp
o SLIP-TCP/IP
o DECNET
o X25
o {X,Y,Z}modem
o Other (specify)
o Don't know
o None
A5. Even if they are not used for external connections, to which of
the following facilities is your organisation connected?
o BT PSS dial up
o BT PSS direct
o Mercury 5100 dial up
o Mercury 5100 direct
o ISDN
o Dial up modems
o None
o Don't know
A6. What are your external link used for?
o E-mail
o File transfer
o Interaction (logging in)
o Usenet news
o Other (specify)
o Don't know
o None
A7. What is the single most significant use of your links?
o E-mail
o File transfer
o Interaction (logging in)
o Usenet news
o Other (specify)
o Don't know
o None
A8. Is the external E-mail system you connect to store-and-forward?
o Yes
o No
o Don't know
o Don't understand
o Don't have E-mail
A9. What is the average delivery time of the bulk of your external
E-mail?
o Milliseconds
o Minutes
o Hours
o 2 days
o 5 days
o More than 5 days
o Don't know
o Don't use E-mail
A10. Do E-mail delays cause you concern?
o Yes
o No
A11. What volume of traffic do your external link(s) carry? (in
Megabytes per day)
o <1
o 1
o 10
o 100
o 1000
o 100000
o 10M
o >10M
o Don't know
-- page 10 --
A12. What is the peak throughput on your fastest current link? (in
bits per second)
o <1200
o 1200
o 4800
o 9600
o 32K
o 56K
o 64K
o 96K
o 1M
o 2M
o >2M
o Don't know
A13. Are you aware of the software resources available to the public
at various archives sites throughout the world?
o Yes
o No
A14. Do you currently have your own connection to the Internet?
o Yes
o No
o Don't know
A15. Are you currently spending money on international network
connectivity and will ing to consider alternatives to reduce costs?
o Yes
o No
o Don't know
A16. Are you aware of the recent Government changes to liberalise the
telecommunications industry?
o Yes
o No
A17. Is your site within one kilometre of a British Rail facility? (BR
may soon be a net work provider)
o Yes
o No
o Don't know
About your future needs:
B1. Would your organisation benefit from direct end-to-end delivery of
electronic mail (with much the same ease as that offered by a FAX)?
o Yes
o No
o Don't Understand
B2. Is delivery of electronic mail to all parts of the world important
to your organisation?
o Yes
o No
o Don't Understand
B3. What is your desired external E-mail delivery time?
o Milliseconds
o Minutes
o Hours
o 2 days
o 5 days
o >5 days
o Don't know
o Don't care
B4. Is access to publicly available files such as software updates and
freely available packages from all around the world valuable to your
organisation?
o Yes
o No
o Don't Understand
B5. Would interactive access to computing facilities at research
institutes and commercial organisations around the world be useful to
your organisation?
o Yes
o No
o Don't Understand
B6. Would you like to make available to others in the world
information from your organisation, such as to make available research
material or software updates for them to access at your site?
o Yes
o No
o Don't Understand
B7. Would IP access to the Internet be useful to your organisation?
o Yes
o No
o Don't Understand
B8. How much budget would your organisation have available to
subscribe to an Internet connection? (In Pounds per month)
o Nothing
o #20
o #200
o #2000
o #20000
o Cannot say
B9. Do you have any other significant future networking needs not
covered by the above question? If so, please supply more details
separately.
About your site:
C1. Is your site:
o Commercial
o Academic
o Neither (specify)
C2. Do your replies reflect networking plans/policy at your site?
o Yes: I am an authority
o No: I am a user
C3. If you are a user, whom can we contact at your site for more
details?
C4. How large is your site?
Machines on LAN:
o 0
o 1
o 10
o 100
o 1000
o 10000
o Don't know
o Can't say
Users at Site:
o 1
o 10
o 100
o 1000
o 10000
o Don't know
o Can't say
C5. May we contact you again in respect of your networking needs?
o No
o Yes (give contact details)
C6. We agree to keep the contents of this survey confidential and not
reveal details about you and your site without your permission. Do
you give us permission to make information from this survey available
to others working to improve networking in the UK?
o No
o Yes
C7. How did you get this survey?
o With user group newsletter (please specify which one)
o I asked for it
o With a promotional mailing
o A friend passed it on to me
Thanks for taking the time to complete this survey. You may mail your
responses electronically (by referencing just the question number and
its answer, to save space) to ip-interest@independent.uucp or post
them to The UK Internet Consortium, PO Box 360, Harrow, HA1 4LQ or FAX
them to (081) 863-6095.
We invite you to join our electronic distribution list to discuss
issues involved with a UK Internet. To subscribe, send a request to
ukipnet-request@independent.uucp.
-- page 11 --
SUN MICROSYSTEMS MANAGEMENT PANEL
Friday 21st September 1990
The Management panel is the highlight of the Conference for many
delegates, since it offers a chance to get a straight answer from a
senior member of the company management rather than evasions from a
sales representative. As you can see below, many people took advantage
of the opportunity.
Participating:
Bill Passmore Vice President, UK & Nordic Territories
Ian White UK Customer Support Director
Phil Lander Product Support Manager, OS & Languages
David Thompson Northern Regional Director
Q: Why do upgrades take so long to deliver?
A: The SPARCstation upgrades were intended to be available 6-9
months after the SPARCstation was announced, but were placed
immediately in Sun's Price List by accident and begun to be sold
immediately too. Their delivery time is now 30-45 days. Getting
equipment upgraded will be easier as well with the formation of Sun's
Installed Base Group.
Q: Why does Sun form its UK Price List by taking the US price in
$ and changing the $sign to a #sign? How do you justify this?
A: The price differential funds shipping, import duties as well
as Sun UK's Discount Concession. Sun are changing the structure of
their pricing and will load servers more than desktops. The price of
desktops is becoming closer to the US price, and should improve since
there will be no import tax to pay on shipments from Linlithgow.
Q: Does Sun intend to introduce support for `non swap' machines?
RAM is becoming so cheap that companies are building machines with
extremely large RAM and hence no need ever to swap programs out of
memory.
A: Yes, probably in SVR4. The audience was reminded that very
little swap space was now essential for a kernel crash dump (5 MB
maximum). The amount of swap space required above this depended on the
way the applications used memory.
Q: Does Sun have plans to support multiple Ethernet machines
which support diskless workstations i.e. hang diskless clients on a
second Ethernet board and be able to boot them?
A: A member of the audience (Dwight Ernest) has done this
successfully.
Q: Is Sun planning to develop a machine which can support large
numbers (80-100) diskless workstations (i.e. the Auspex market)?
A: Sun recommends the upgraded 4/490 and a Prestoserve for this
task. Work is ongoing in Sun on benchmarking this configuration for
the numbers of clients that can be supported.
Q: Are there any plans to put SVR4 on the Sun3, Sun3x (i.e.
Motorola Suns) and Sun386i?
A: No; the market for them is too small and nobody will be using
them for development.
Q: What do we do with our Motorola and Intel Suns?
A: Upgrade them. Diskless workstations will have to be run from a
SPARC server. Sun will do no future development on Sun3. Sun software
will be supported for a further 2 years past the end of 1990 and the
hardware will be supported for 5 years.
Q: When will the Sun-3 and Sun386i stop being sold?
A: Around the end of 1990. As with previous hardware withdrawals,
Sun takes great care to try and ensure continued availability for
those customers who have requirements going past the planned end of
production. If you have need of further deliveries of Sun-3 and/or
Sun386i systems you should make your Sun salesperson aware of those
requirements.
-- page 12 --
Q: What is Sun's policy on supporting third party disks when the
boot disk used is not one bought from Sun?
A: Sun prefer that at least one disk on each system is Sun
supplied and that this disk is used to boot from. Where non-Sun disks
are all a system is equipped with there may be a need for a chargeable
on-site inspection to determine whether the equipment can be
supported. This should not be a problem where the equipment is the
same as that supplied by Sun. Bill Passmore will write again to his
Sales and Support staff to remind them they do support systems
containing third party disks.
Q: Could I have one Sun disk which I attached to a workstation
when it had a hard ware problem requiring engineering attention?
A: They would support a system which still exhibits the problem
providing it can be demonstrated with a Sun supplied disk containing
SunOS attached. The main concern is that Customer Service personnel
should not have their effectiveness reduced by becoming involved in
complicated procedures before repair work can commence. Please clear
any such procedure in advance with Sun Customer Service.
Q: What is Sun's attitude to supporting 3/50s etc. with third
party memory up grades?
A: In general, OK providing the upgrade is of the non-intrusive
sort. But the answer will depend on the particular circumstances, so
they will have to take a look and then decide. Steve Holden suggested
that Sun hold discussions with the memory upgrade suppliers to see
whether a list of `approved' ones could be formed, rather than
requiring on-site inspection for each installation.
Q: When a disk bid from Sun is 2 or 3 times more expensive then a
rival bid, and the functionality is the same, I wonder whether Sun is
in terested in selling disks?
A: Yes, we are interested in selling disks. In our business plan
we had to decide what to put the load on, the cpu, disk or whatever.
If at the end of the day prices are wrong our customers will tell us
by not buying from us and we will get the message. IBG [Sun's
Installed Base Group] are charged with bringing prices down. Companies
that just sell disks have different needs and attitudes to profit
margins than Sun do. Customers should certainly ask Sun to quote for
larger requirements, where pricing can be more aggressive.
Q: Your engineers and support staff seem unaware of patch es
available. Why is this?
A: A new corporate patch database was set up three months ago
which should ease problems. Changes made to this database are posted
to Hot-line staff.
Q: These changes don't seem to filter through to Sun engineers.
A: We are aware of this. We are addressing this problem and
aiming to make engineers more systems oriented with an ongoing
training programme.
Q: Will you make the patches database available to users?
A: We would like your opinion on this. Do you want it on line? If
so, how do we send you patches, which may be large? Patches have not
undergone rigorous testing and may have undesirable side effects, and
should not be considered as fully supported since the normal Sun
Quality Assurance procedures cannot be applied. We would rather not
keep sending you tapes, which is an expensive way to do it. Would the
users like to receive all new patches on a monthly basis? [Please
would any members with an opinion on these matters send their comments
and suggestions to Sun UK User - Ed.]
Q: Suggestion; what is needed by Sun engineers/Hot-line staff is
a list of related patches/known problems.
A: They already have that, but the bugs database is vast.
Retraining is needed.
Q: What is going to happen to PC-NFS? It is a long time since an
upgrade was issued and there has been no upgrade at all to the
toolkit.
A: Upgrades to PC-NFS and its toolkit are on their way. They were
held up while key decisions were made on SVR4 (such as RPC development
direction). The panel did not know of this product's long term future.
Q: I was told that I couldn't get support for PC-NFS unless I had
a site licence for it. Is this true?
A: We don't know, but will investigate and report back.
Q: Should we all learn Post Script in order to take ad vantage of
NeFS?
A: None of the panel seemed aware of NeFS. [It is described by
Jim Reid in the UKUUG Summer 1990 Conference Proceedings in a paper
entitled "N(e)FS: the Protocol is the Problem". NeFS (Network
Extensible File System) is a new protocol which has been developed to
overcome the shortcomings of NFS and be more readily-adaptable to non
UNIX environments. It uses a form of PostScript to express client
requests and server responses. Its draft Protocol Specification was
published internally in Sun Microsystems in 1990 - Ed.]
-- page 13 --
Q: PC-NFS applications are too large and don't fit in to the
limited amounts of memory in the DOS environment. Could they be made
smaller?
A: PC-NFS applications are being improved. I've never seen
improved code that was smaller than the original. [Dwight Ernest
reported he has developed strategies to make his applications smaller.
Also, note that our next one day meeting planned for 9th January 1991
is on the topic of Connecting Small Computers to Suns, and will
address this topic among others - Ed.]
Q: Who is responsible for choosing host names to which mail is
delivered within Sun? [This question arose because Sun apparently
suggest the use of the address "uk.sun.com" to mail UK staff ersfrom
the US. Unfortunately, "uk" is a top-level domain, and many mailers in
the UK (where domain ordering in mail ad dresses differs from most of
the rest of the world) find such addresses impossible to resolve -
Ed.]
A: This will be investigated.
Q: What steps has Sun UK taken to alert customers of security
issues, particularly with respect to the Sun's Custom er Warning
System which was announced on 14th August and for which users were
invited to register a contact point?
A: A new group has been set up to deal with security problems. A
group representative has been appointed and we are talking to people
about what they want. [If you would like your input forwarded then
please send your comments and suggestions to Sun UK User. We will
pass them on to the relevant person in Sun - Ed.]
Q: How have you informed the customer base of the CWS scheme?
Sun have mailed well known security mailing lists. A copy of
the CWS registration form is to be found elsewhere in this edition of
the Newsletter. [Sun: could we have a copy of this form for
publication, please? - Ed.]
Q: Why doesn't file locking work in SunOS 4.1? Why weren't the
problemsspot ted during beta testing?
A: Sun apologises for the state in which file locking was
released and has re-evaluated its strategy with respect to file
locking. They are producing patches to address the problems. Users
badly affected by file locking problems may call the Hot line and ask
to be put on an escalation list and will be informed as each new patch
is released. We are also choosing our beta test sites more carefully.
Sun are producing post-release support and are monitoring quality and
increasing it. The report which results affect the bonuses received by
the Sun staff!
Q: Do you do beta testing in the UK?
A: Yes. Two UK sites were used for SunOS 4.1. Please get in touch
with Phil Lander at Watchmoor Park if you wish to be considered as a
test site, but be aware that it involves much responsibility.
Q: Is the British Standards 5750 approval process finished?
A: Only one small part was completed earlier this year. Work is
ongoing in getting all of the Sun UK operations approved, but this
will take around 18 months to complete.
Q: Will you be publishing the standards to which you adhere?
A: We will. We are also beginning to survey the entire UK
customer base annually for perceived quality of service among other
issues.
Did you enjoy this article? See the voting form on page 20 to register
your opinions about the Sun UK User.
Do You Have a Question for Sun Management?
As the panel session shows, despite frequent opportunities for
contact with Sun staff at a functional level, that Sun users do have
questions for the management when they get the chance to ask them.
Although there are no formal agreements between the User Group and Sun
management, we will wherever possible attempt to get answers to
serious questions of policy.
Obviously we cannot guarantee results, since the User Group relies on
the volunteer efforts of the committee, whose time is often limited.
Also please remember that urgent issues are unsuitable for this
channel, since meetings are infrequent and irregular.
None the less, if you really need help in getting an answer to an
important question from Sun, we would like to help you if we can.
Send your questions, in writing please, to:
Management Questions
Sun UK User
Watchmoor Park
Riverside Way
Camberley
Surrey
GU15 3YL
-- page 14 --
GOODBYE TO THE Sun-3 - AND THE Sun386i?
Well, it had to happen some time. The latest figures from Sun
indicate that over 95% of their product shipments are now SPARC based
product. Those who read the Management Panel write-up from the
conference will realise that the trusty old Sun-3 will be going out of
production at the end of 1990.
The information we have received from Sun concerns the transition
from Sun-3, but we can safely assume that the Sun386i will be a
dwindling product for which the writing is on the wall.
Don't Panic!
First of all, you should realise that this is not the first time that
Sun have phased out products. There was the original machine, of
course, which has never been on sale in the UK. Sun UK had not started
when it was withdrawn.
For those of you with long memories, Sun's founding UK customers from
1984/5 will also remember the Sun-2. The good old Sun-2/120 was based
on the Motorola 68010 processor and came with a Multibus backplane.
What Are the Changes?
The following changes have been announced:
o No new SunOS or unbundled soft ware products after January 1,
1991 (in particular, no UNIX System V Release 4)
o Sun-3/80, Sun-3/470 and Sun-3/ 480 until March 31, 1991
o Hardware and software support will continue for five years
o Professional Service and new up grade products will ease the
transi tion to SPARC
So, what should you do?
First of all, if you haven't yet heard from your Sun sales
representative about these changes, you should contact them straight
away and let them know you have a continuing need for these products.
Sun's plans indicated that those with a known need should have been
told some time in October, so perhaps in future you should try to talk
more frequently to the sales force [assuming you can get them to call
- Ed.]
It may already be too late by the time you read this, since Sun were
planning to stop accepting orders for Sun-3 products by December 15,
1990.
Obviously, you need to plan for the future, and upgrade your systems
to the most current software revision levels. Sun are only likely to
offer continuing support for these products. It would be an impossible
task to support any software release still out in the field once
development had stopped.
The January 1991 issue of Sun's Software Technical Bulletin (STB) will
carry final release numbers for SunOS and unbundled soft ware that
will support the Sun-3 platforms. The recently-announced SunOS 4.1.1
will support the Sun-3 products.
UNIX System V Release 4 will at some time in the not-too-distant
future become the basis for Sun's operating system offerings, and only
the latest Sun-3 software releases will be integrated into this range.
What If I Still Need Sun-3s?
Such requirements will be handled on a case-by-case basis. It is
often possible to continue to deliver products - for example, if you
are building Sun-3s into systems and are using software only
available for Motorola processors.
Sun have quite a good record of making older machines available from
their stock of systems used internally, and are planning to produce
enough Sun-3s to meet demand which they know about by December 15.
So, it may be possible to carry on using Sun-3s for rather longer than
it might at first appear. If you are using them in a stable
environment with current applications, there is no necessity to
upgrade.
What About Upgrading?
Sun have announced a new set of upgrades, less expensive than previous
upgrade offerings, and with a claimed delivery time of less than 60
days.
Upgrades to take you to the SPARCstation 300 are now board swaps so
you don't have to ship pedestals back to Sun, they can be upgraded in
the field.
What Support Will I Get?
Sun have announced a phased plan of support for obsolete software
products. In particular, full support will be available for SunOS
4.1.1 will continue until January 1992.
After that the support services available will slowly dwindle until
January 1995, when the last year of support will be on a time and
materials basis.
Sun have said that SVR4, when it is released for the SPARC range, will
support diskless Sun-3 systems running SunOS.
-- page 15 --
SUN ADMINISTRATION HINTS AND TIPS
Mark Blackmore
Software Methods Group, Seimens Plessey Defence Systems
Swap Space
I recently had to add three rented 3/80s to the network. They cam
with 104 Mb internal disks on which SunOS had been installed. But
they had a rather silly disk partitioning. Only 15 Mb of swap (we
needed 25 Mb) and 40 Mb /usr partitions (with only 27 Mb of files in
them!)
I did not have time to reformat the disks. Instead I added a swap file
in addition to the existing swap partition as shown in Figure 1. I
would be interested to know if this kind of swap has a performance hit
[so come on, readers, let's see some benchmarks to find out - Ed.]
Centralised User Setup
The nature of my network is such that we get a fair turnover of users
as people try out applications on evaluation. I soon got tired of
editing /etc/motd to say "Please add /apps/thingy to your path".
So I gathered all the essential .login and .cshrc entries into two
files, /usr/local/lib/.cshrc and /usr/local/lib/.login. Now most
users who are happy with the default setup have one line .login and
.cshrc files, show in Figure 2.
Advanced users can still override any setting in the `global' login
files (such as "set ignoreeof"). Now when I get a new application
that requires yet an other addition to the $path environment
variable, I have only to change one file. There are also fewer user
environment problems from users (ever had to trace a problem caused by
an "alias if?" in a user's .cshrc file?
A word of caution, though: the global .login and .cshrc MUST be READ
ONLY to the mortal users! It is a rather good target for system
crackers. It might be an idea to periodically check the file's
checksum and permissions with a cron job.
Filesystems on Floppies
To make a filesystem on a floppy disk you first need a high-density
floppy. We are talking 2 Mb floppies here. MAKE SURE you have the
correct density or things will not work. Then make a filesystem with
newfs /dev/rfd0c
OK, but to use floppies this way ordinary users will need to be able
to mount filesystems. What is required is limited access to mount
privilege for this instance. An ideal time for a little bit of setuid
C code.
I wrote two "noddy" programs for users, called fin and fout. Fin
simply mounts the floppy disk to a fixed mount point (which, for these
simple examples, must of course exist). Simple but effective. The
source for fin is shown in Figure 3.
Figure 1: Adding more swap from filestore.
# mkdir /usr/SWAP # seems to have lots of space!
# chmod 777 /usr/SWAP
# mkfile -v 10M /usr/SWAP/more_swap # another 10 Megs should do it
[add this line to /etc/fstab: /usr/SWAP/more_swap swap swap rw 0 0]
# swapon -a # done automatically by /etc/rc next boot
# pstat -s # just checking!
Figure 2: Global user setup files.
.cshrc: if (-r /usr/local/lib/.cshrc) source /usr/local/lib/.cshrc
.login: if (-r /usr/local/lib/.login) source /usr/local/lib/.login
Figure 3: Source of the program "fin".
main()
{
system("/usr/etc/mount -o nosuid /dev/fd0c /diskette");
}
-- page 16 --
Complicated stuff, I think you will agree! The other program, fout,
unmounts and ejects the floppy. It is shown in figure 4.
These programs will need "setuid to root" permissions. They are not
foolproof. In particular, the effect of running fout while the current
working directory is within the floppy filesystem may vary! Also it is
important to use the nosuid option when you will not know what files
are on the filesystem to be mounted - particularly filesystems that
could have rogue setuid programs in stalled on them.
Users will need to access their files via the mount point. But why not
put a link to this in their home directories?
FUN
Now for a bit of fun for those of you with a good collection of raster
files! (Though clearing your screen on logout is a good policy). Why
not screenload a picture "randomly" when you logout? Try Figure 5 in
your .logout file. Simple but effective! Some of the raster files have
more than one entry in the switch statement and will therefore appear
more frequently. It is easier to modify the switch when all cases are
specified. Program performance is not important here!
We use a similar method in .cshrc to alias sunview to start up with a
random background, although this does result in sloooow logins. You
could also extend the technique to loading colour raster files on
colour workstations.
Figure 4: Source of the program "fout"
#include <stdio.h>
main()
{
fprintf(stderr,"Attempting to unmount floppy before ejecting...\n");
system("umount /dev/fd0c /diskette");
system("eject");
}
Figure 5: Logout file giving "random" screen backgrounds
set tty=`tty`
set sec=`date +%S`
#only screenload when leaving the console, and never on server with VT100 console
if ( `hostname` != <SERVER-NAME> && $tty == /dev/console) then
switch ($sec)
case *o: screenload /data/image/colour/Cheryl
breaksw
case *1: screenload /data/image/colour/Cheryl
breaksw
case *2: screenload /data/image/holi.ras
breaksw
case *3: screenload /data/image/holi_pic
breaksw
case *4: screenload /data/image/holi_pic
breaksw
case *5: screenload /data/image/holi.ras
breaksw
case *6: screenload /data/image/colour/f16_big
breaksw
case *7: screenload /data/image/colour/f16_big
breaksw
case *8: screenload /data/image/mount
breaksw
case *9: screenload /data/image/daybreak
breaksw
endsw
else if (-e /usr/games/fortune) /usr/games/fortune
endif
echo "`hostname`: `whoami` logged out at `date`"
-- page 17 --
FORMATION OF THE UK INTERNET CONSORTIUM
London, 21 November 1990
Following years of mostly unfocused frustration about the lack of
clear direction in the UK net working community toward the creation of
a UK Internet, a group calling itself the UK Internet Consortium has
been formed in the last few weeks. The group intends to either provide
or to press for the timely and reasonable provision to UK customers of
a network with connections to continental and international Internets
running the TCP/IP protocol suite.
Consortium members said that the emphasis would be on UK management,
UK-based service availability, reasonable prices, and cooperation with
other network providers. All agreed that in the current climate of
telecommunications deregulation, the time was ripe.
What Is the Consortium?
Founding consortium members included representatives from the
following UK firms: Unipalm Ltd., a Cambridge firm offering
TCP/IP-based communications software; The Independent, a quality daily
newspaper; Spider Systems Ltd., an Edinburgh based company offering
networking equipment; Desktop Connection, a Manchester-based
desktop publishing vendor and service provider; and Specialix Ltd.,
who design and manufacture third-party communications equipment for
the PC aftermarket. Both the Sun UK User Group and the IBM PC Users
Group were also represented, as were several private individuals with
background and skills in computer networking.
The consortium says it will be distributing a survey to gauge market
potential and emphasized that all consortium mem bers had signed an
affidavit to the effect that responses would not be misused. They said
that all aspects of the Data Protection Act would be strictly adhered
to in the collection of responses. Approximately 30,000 survey copies
would be printed, and they will be distributed through user groups and
company promotional mailings.
Contact Details
Additionally, they said that surveys may be requested by sending email
to
ip-interest@independent.uucp
or by posting a request to
The UK Internet Consortium
PO Box 360
Harrow
HA1 4LQ
They also mentioned that an electronic mailing list to facilitate
discussion of the issues has been created. Subscription requests
should to be sent to
ukipnet-request@independent.uucp
SUN USER CONFERENCE AND EXHIBITION,
NEC, Birmingham, 10-12 September,1991
Well, never let it be said you haven't had enough notice of this one!
Three organisations have joined forces to launch this event, which
should see the largest collection of Sun and Sun-related products ever
assembled together outside the US.
With 1992 and the Open Market in mind the event will bring together
workstation users and po tential users from across the UK and Europe
to meet suppliers and resellers of Sun products and services.
You will be able to take advantage of the following features:
o computerised appointment service
o application trails
o advice centres
o seminars
o a major conference
o visitor lounges
o hundreds of new products and applications available within the
workstation market
The exhibition will be run by Emap International Exhibitions, who
specialise in high technology events and run many of the UK's leading
shows.
The Sun UK User Group will be organising the conference programme, and
already have promises of participation from several well-known
industry figures. A call for papers will be issued early next year and
reproduced in the Sun UK User.
So get those dates in your diary now! You can't afford to miss the
most highly relevant event in the UK 1991 calendar.
TO ADVERTISERS
The Sun UK User is always pleased to hear from companies with a desire
to promote quality products to UK Sun users.
We now offer new formats and a wider range of more cost-effective ways
to reach your target markets. We will no longer be binding insertions
in.
Please contact the office for a rate card and publication schedule:
Sun UK User
Desktop Connection
Manchester Science Park
Lloyd Street North
Manchester
M15 4EN
Tel.: 061 227 9055
Fax: 061 226 4922
Copy date for next issue (Winter 1991) is Friday 15 February 1991.
-- page 18 --
THE SUN UK USER GROUP
Secretariat
Elisa Hodgson & Sue Crozier
Sun UK User Group
Watchmoor Park
Riverside Way
Camberley
Surrey
GU15 3YL
Tel.: 0276 20980
e-mail: Sunuk.Usergroup@sun.co.uk
Chairman & Newsletter Editor
Steve Holden
Desktop Connection Limited
Manchester Science Park
Lloyd Street North
Manchester
M15 4EN
Tel.: 061 227 9055
Fax: 061 226 4922
E-mail: steveh@r7.cs.man.ac.uk
Treasurer
Tony Morris
Computer Laboratory
Cambridge University
Corn Exchange Street
Cambridge
CB2 3QG
Tel.: 0223 334600
Answerphone: 0223 334732
e-mail: awm1@cl.cam.ac.uk
Member
Andrew Stewart
Department of Computer Science
University of Hull
Hull
HU6 7RX
Tel.: 0482 465951 or 465744
E-mail: andrew@cs.hull.ac.uk
Member
Daphne Tregear
Department of Computer Science
University of Manchester
Oxford Road
Manchester
M13 9PL
Tel.: 061 275 6227
E-mail: dtregear@cs.man.ac.uk
Member
Elwyn Davies
OTIB (Automation Technology) Cambridge
Unit 326
The Science Park
Milton Road
Cambridge
CB4 4GZ
Tel.: 0223 423355
Fax: 0223 420724
Member
Gillian Hensler
Amtech (UK) Limited
Sunrise Park Way
Linford Wood
Milton Keynes
MK14 6QA
Tel.: 0908 69299
Fax: 0908 691501
Member
Steve Wolski
Productivity Computer Solutions Limited
Monarch House
George Street
Wakefield
West Yorkshire
WF1 1NE
Tel.: 0924 379627
Fax: 0924 379632
Member
John Wilson
The Open University
Faculty of Technology
Walton Hall
Milton Keynes
MK7 6AA
Tel.: 0908 653921
Fax: 0908 653658
Sun UK User
The Sun UK User is the magazine of the Sun UK User Group, and
publishes material of interest to everyone who uses, sells, buys or
otherwise has an interest in the products of Sun Microsystems Limited.
SUKUG members receive a free subscription. Unsolicited articles are
always welcome, and should be sent on floppy diskette (DOS or Sun
format, 3.5" or 5.25" low density), 1/4" cartridge (QIC 11 or QIC 24)
or e-mail. ASCII text is preferred to other formats. Please enclose
printed copy if layout is critical, or telephone to discuss.
-- page 19 --
CONTRIBUTED SOFTWARE TAPES - AN APOLOGY
Steve Holden, Chairman, SUKUG
Many Sun UK User Group members have taken advantage of the service
offered by the group of distributing public-domain and other
contributed software from a range of sources.
Over the last three months this service has not been functioning
properly. Some members have contacted us to complain that their orders
have not been fulfilled, and so we owe you all an explanation.
The Story So Far
As is so often the case this problem has been caused by a number of
factors together. First of all, there has been the serious illness of
the committee member responsible for tape production and shipping.
Those of you who know Andrew Stewart will know that he has been
admitted to hospital several times in the last year. Since moving the
tape server machine was likely to cause some disruption our decision
on all these occasions was to leave it where it was, in order that
tape production could continue on Andrew's return.
I am sorry to have to tell you that Andrew has now been forced to
relinquish his position as Donated Software Coordinator. At the time
of writing Andrew's latest hospital stay had extended to four weeks,
and I am sure you will all join me in wishing him well at this
difficult time.
Of course the SUKUG is a body which depends on volunteer effort, and
it has taken some time to establish how we are in future go ing to
produce the tapes.
The Future Position
The good news is that the machine has now had an upgrade, and has over
300 Mbytes of additional disk space. The bad news is that, with three
moves behind it, we are only just now in a position to start cutting
tapes again.
What You Should Do Now
If you have a tape on order, whether or not you have already in formed
SUKUG about its non-arrival, please let the secretariat know. The
contact details are given in "The Sun UK User Group" on page 18.
We expect to be able to deliver all outstanding tape requirements by
15th December, and maintain a 14-day delivery service thereafter.
What You Should Do In Future
We will be publishing a complete list of tapes available, with a
description of the contents of each one, in the next issue of Sun UK
User.
Every issue thereafter will contain an order form showing pric es, and
you should use this to request tapes.
We very much regret the disruption in service that the events
described above have caused, and hope that we will retain your
goodwill in spite of the difficult circumstances.
I shall be visiting the US at the start of December, and hope to
return with the 1990 SUG tape to swell our collection of software for
Sun users. If any of you have software which you would like to make
available to a wider audience, let us know.
ELECTION FOR CHAIRMAN
As mentioned in a previous issue, Steve Holden is no longer able to
act as the chairman of the SUKUG. Earlier in this issue you will have
read of the election of Dwight Ernest.
For personal and professional reasons Dwight is now returning to his
home country, the US, and is therefore unable to take up the post to
which he was elected. As a result of this decision a letter was sent
out to all members in November calling for nomina tions for the
position, which be comes vacant in January.
We have received two nominations, from Rick Innis of the Cen tre for
Speech Technology at Edinburgh University and Elwyn Davies of GST
Professional Services in Cambridge. Consequently it is necessary to
hold an election.
Ballot papers should be included in the envelope in which you received
your Sun UK User if you are a member of the group. Please mark a cross
against the name of the candidate of your choice and return the voting
slip to the Sun UK User Group Offices not later than 5 January 1991.
The result will be announced at the next meeting of the group, and
published in the next issue of Sun UK User.
MEETING NOTICE - CONNECTING SMALL COMPUTERS TO YOUR SUN
The next one-day meeting on the above topic will be held on Wednesday
9th January 1991, at Sun's rather swish new offices at Watchmoor Park.
Although meeting details have yet to be finalised it promises to be an
interesting session, with PC and Sun hardware connected to gether for
demonstrations and practical hands-on experience. There will also be
speakers from Sun and other companies to give you some ideas about
what is practical and what isn't.
You will be mailed before Christmas with full details, and we hope
that as many of you as possible will turn out for the first meeting in
1991.
Since this is the last chance we have to address you in 1990, we will
end with a traditional greeting.
A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to All Our Readers!!
-- page 20 --
READERSHIP QUESTIONNAIRE
Tell Us What You Think of Sun UK User
Well, this is the end of the last issue of 1990. We would like to hear
your opinions about various aspects of the magazine, as only by paying
constant attention to readers' views can we improve it still further
next year. By giving us this feedback you will be helping us,
yourself, and members of the Sun UK User Group. You are not obliged to
give your name and address, but of course it will help if you would
like a reply!
Did you think this issue was more readable than previous editions?
Yes No
On a scale of 1 (least relevant) to 9 (most relevant), how well did
this edition as a whole meet your interests in Sun issues?
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Please give each article you have read a rating from
1 (not at all interesting) to 9 (extremely interesting)
Your New Look User Group Magazine
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
New Products and Prices from Sun Microsystems
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Sun UK User Group Conference Report
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Sun's Scottish Plant Opened
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Sun Microsystems Management Panel
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Do You Have a Question for Sun Management?
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Goodbye to the Sun-3 - and the Sun386i?
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Sun Administration Hints and Tips
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Formation of the UK Internet Consortium
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Sun User Conference and Exhibition, NEC, Birmingham
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
To Advertisers
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
The Sun UK User Group
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Contributed Software Tapes - An Apology
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Election for Chairman
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Meeting Notice - Connecting Small Computers to Your Sun
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Readership Questionnaire
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Are you a Sun user?
Yes No
Do you use other computers besides Sun workstations?
Yes No
Are there other types of material you would like to see in Sun UK
User?
Yes No
If so, please explain
How often would you like to receive Sun UK User?
Not at all Annually Quarterly Monthly
Please return this form, together with any other comments you may have, to:
Sun UK User Group
Watchmoor Park
Riverside Way
Camberley
Surrey
GU15 3YL
Thank you for your assistance in helping to improve the quality of
this publication.
-- page 21 --
UKUUG & UKnet WINTER TECHNICAL MEETING
17-19 December 1990
Queens' College, Cambridge
Note that Tuesday covers very hot topics.
Mail has always been a hot topic at SUKUG comms SIGs, and as for IP .....
UKUUG Cambridge PROVISIONAL timetable
Monday 17th December 1990
1400 Introduction, Sunil Das, UKUUG
1415 Project Hygiene, Vic Stenning, Anshar Ltd
1515 Tea
1545 Managing Network Services, Martin Beer, Univ of Liverpool
1615 Lynx: The Object Oriented Inode Eater, Andy Bartlett IST
1930 Conference dinner
Tuesday 18th December 1990
0930 Designing an X500 User interface, 1 year in, Andrew Findlay, Brunel
1015 Integration of message handling and directory, Steve Kille, UCL
1100 Coffee
1130 PP Julian Onions, Univ of Nottingham
1230 Lunch
1400 Mail site hiding: Andrew.Macpherson@stl.stc.co.uk
Tom Dawes-Gamble <tmdg@uk.co.ti>
Mail site hiding using ATTMAIL, Tris Mabbs, UEL
1445 IP - User view, Jim Reid, Strathclyde University
The UK IP Consortium, Peter Dawe, uk.co.unipalm
1515 Tea
1545 IP - Provider View, Phil Jones, JNT
1615 UKnet + IP provider, Peter Houlder, UKC
1930 Buffet reception
Wednesday 19th December 1990
0930 Unix for the Business Community, Brian Clark, OSM/PTME
1000 UNIX V4, Donal Daly, ICL
1030 Coffee
1100 NFS Fileserver Benchmarks, William Roberts QMW
1130 Filewatcher, Paul Davison QMW
1230 Lunch
1400 X11 Tutorial, Niall Mansfield, Unipalm
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Costs:
The event is open to all with concessionary prices being available to
members of the UKUUG or the Sun UK User group.
Prices:
members non-members
Sunday B&B 24 24
Monday Lunch 9 9
Conference Fee 125 160
X11 tutorial 45 - (includes Wed lunch)
Wednesday Lunch 9 9
How to book..
a) Payment by cheque. Phone Owles Hall to obtain booking form
b) Payment by Visa/Access/Eurocard/Mastercard. Telephone/fax bookings
available - phone Owles Hall.
Owles Hall will supply further information when you book.
Owles Hall Tel: 0763 73039
Fax: 0763 73255