From: brian@umbc4.umbc.edu (Brian Cuthie)
Subject: Dialing for Dollars (was: Turning off SCSI devices and Rel 2.1)
Organization: University of Maryland Baltimore Campus
Date: Mon, 27 Jul 1992 14:33:13 GMT

In article <Bs18ry.Grw@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> lemson@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (David Lemson) writes:
>brian@umbc4.umbc.edu (Brian Cuthie) writes:
>
>>This is good advice if for no other reason than you may choose to power 
>>up a device at the same time then NeXT decides to swap or something and
>>who knows how well behaved a device going through power up is.
>
>>Nothing personal, Alan, but is this the kind of answer I can expect from
>>NeXT tech support at $225/Question ?
>
>First of all, this was what I would consider a good answer.  You
>said so above yourself, "This is good advice."  If anything, they
>should 'err' on the side of safety.   Suggesting that all SCSI
>devices be powered up and properly terminated is a safe way of doing
>things, IMO.
>

Ok, well I don't want to start a flame war.  Perhaps I was in a bit of a
foul mood when I wrote this.  I do appreciate David's advice for free.

I think what set me off about this is actually not directly related to David.
I am a little irked that NeXT, a company in real need of software for their
platform, has decided to start charging what I consider to be big bucks for
technical support.

NeXT is supported almost entirely by small companies and, quite honestly, most 
don't have an extra few kilobucks laying around for tech support.  I consider 
my investment of time and money thus far more than adequate in support of 
NeXT.  Yea, I expect to make some money too.  But, I could, just as easily, 
write software for half a dozen other platforms and probably make more money.

What grieves me is that dealing with tech support, at *any* company, is not
always a pleasent experience.  Quite often, I find it difficult to 
get a real anwser to a real problem. This is not to imply that the tech
support people are bad or stupid.  Mostly I think they're just overwelmed. 

David's answer, while good advice, is not technically accurate.  If I *had*
paid $225 for it, I would not have been satisfied that this was a complete
answer.  I have worked with *many* SCSI devices.  In a previous life I used
to design SCSI disk controllers for DEC compatible storage systems (this was
long before the NCR5380 and it's cousins hit the streets).  I stand by
my original statement: any well behaved SCSI device (this is most in my
experience) will not load the bus when powered down. However, this also
requires that your SCSI bus is configured correctly.  If you are using 
a peripheral device for far end terminator power, then powering that device
down will take the bus with it.

SCSI interfaces on machines can often be their achilles heel. The problem is 
that everytime you connect or disconnect the SCSI cable, you create some 
kind of ESD event.  Over time, this can kill the SCSI controller chip in 
either the computer or the peripheral.  I have seen this happen to many 
Macintoshes.  I don't personally recommend plugging and unplugging SCSI 
devices from your system any more than is absolutely necessary.


...
>
>Ever call Sun tech support?  Every looked at how much AnswerLine
>support costs?  Ever deal with their DAMN tech people on the other
>end?   I had one lady who was actually what I could call mean to me.
>I won't go into it here (this isn't alt.bash.sun, although I feel
>that such a group should be created).

So ?   Is this a reason for NeXT to charge $$$ ?

Ever deal with Apple as a developer ?  For years they have provided 
relatively good, almost free, tech support.  Along with CD's, tech notes, 
and piles of other developer stuff.  NeXT's bean counters just see this as 
another profit center for the struggling company.  It looks, however, like 
they are missing the big picture.

>-- 
>David Lemson                                                 (217) 244-1205


-Brian


-- 
Brian Cuthie
Systemix Software, Inc.
brian@systemix.com
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.sysadmin