ARPAVAX:UNKNOWN:G:antares (11/04/82)
Many thanks to Alan Watt for posting his `Everything you wanted to know . . .' article. I have initiated a number of queries recently and I appreciate the information. However, it does not seem to me to be an abuse of the network to ask for information. The /usr/group catalog cannot possibly be the last word on what's available in the Unix software world, especially for esoteric or specialized things. At first I was posting to the `net.general' group until I realized there was a `net.wanted' group. If people don't want to help others out with information, they don't need to read `net.wanted'. As for efficiency, I've found the network to be more efficient than getting information through the mail or calling coast-to-coast. It might not be a bad idea for vendors on the network to establish some new newsgroup to introduce products. Harry Weeks Materials and Molecular | ARPAnet: G.antares@Berkeley Research Division | LBLG!Harry#pdm@LBL-Unix Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory| UUCP: ...!ucbvax!G:antares Bldg. 22, Room D-8 | ...!ucbvax!populi!antares Mailstop 11/B-85 | Voice: FTS 451-4354 1 Cyclotron Road | (415) 486-4354 Berkeley, California 94720 | Messages: (415) 642-0731
ARPAVAX:UNKNOWN:G:antares (11/04/82)
One further comment on queries on the net . . . Although something like /usr/group's catalog may be useful in getting information about what's available, it doesn't do much good in getting objective information about how well something works. I think the most valuable aspect of the network is that one has a way of contacting people who have experience with a product. It is important to be able to base a purchase decision on something more than a glossy brochure. Harry Weeks Materials and Molecular | ARPAnet: G.antares@Berkeley Research Division | LBLG!Harry#pdm@LBL-Unix Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory| UUCP: ...!ucbvax!G:antares Bldg. 22, Room D-8 | ...!ucbvax!populi!antares Mailstop 11/B-85 | Voice: FTS 451-4354 1 Cyclotron Road | (415) 486-4354 Berkeley, California 94720 | Messages: (415) 642-0731
wm (11/04/82)
Really! Let's get rid of all these bothersome software and hardware queries on the net so we can free up the news groups for things that are *really* important, like hamburger debates! Actually, I think that software queries are one of the most beneficial aspects of the net. I once posted a query looking for Simula, whick I would not have found in any of those documents, and was told about a new package which added abstract data types to C, which is what I really wanted anyway, and which also was not to be found in any of those documents. The timely distribution of new software is one of the most wonderful features of the net. I also gain from reading other people's software and hardware queries, because it keeps me up on new developments. Access to information like this is just about the only thing I get out of the net that helps me in my work. Please don't take it away. Wm Leler - UNC Chapel Hill
jcj (11/27/82)
I must strongly agree with the position that what a network is really useful for is asking questions about what other people have available, whether software or hardware (tho esp the former), since I am lazy enough to want not to have to write/build it myself unless I have to. If we can't ask what you've got that's worth having, you can't ask either, and that means you have to write/build it yourself too. Marketplace of ideas and all that. I can't think of anything more appropriate to do with a network than use it as a sort of "continuous conceptual bootstrap" to improve what all of us are working with. Thanks for the time. I needed that. John Columbus "Lum" Johnson II (after my greatgrandfather) ...!cbosgd!osu-dbs!jcj (new on net)