From: brennan@tango.cchs.su.oz.au (Luke Brennan)
Subject: Re: Suggestions for VMS/DCL manuals
Organization: Cumberland College of Health Sciences
Date: Sun, 24 Jan 1993 08:46:54 GMT

In article <153@mccoy.dbaccess.com>, steve@dbaccess.com (Steve Suttles) writes:
> tshin@husc8.harvard.edu (Tae Shin) writes:
   [...]
> If you are the new system administrator, congratulations!  Among your newfound
> treasures you will find a six-foot-tall bookcase full of grey binders.  Start
> at the one marked "Intro to Documentation".

	not at this site.. :-(
	Thank God I had access to the Orange Wall at a site a few years ago!

   [...]
> You are the systems administrator.  Remove the power cord from the back of the
> system unit.  Hide it.  Go back to whoever told you you had a complete system
> and inform them that there are a great number of parts missing, and the system
> is completely inoperable.  Don't plug it back in until you get some
> documentation.

	so what do I do about the 100+ students/lecturers expecting to
	use the machine(s)?

> Everything's fine where the documentation is, but you're not there.  It is not
> a matter of another office, it is a county away.  Your options (actually, the
> options belonging to whoever holds the checkbook) are to get additional
> documentation for the new site, or get a quantity discount on telephone calls
> to the office of the guy who has the documentation.  Or do without or update
> your resume, as before.

	all our documentation is at main campus - 26 miles away..
	place a request.. wait for a few days.. go to the FAX machine..
	read the _minimum_ info they've sent to you..
 
> I have never understood the kind of people who buy computers but no
> documentation, but when they buy puzzles, they pay extra for instructions on
> how to solve it.  Why would someone get a tool, whether a computer or a
> chainsaw, without getting a handle on it?  (and this is a VERY close analogy).

	poverty is a good reason...

	funding streams (in this campus) take many strange turns..
	a school can have $50,000 to spend on just about anything, yet
	the EDP unit isn't allocated enough for VMS manuals..
	I had to rant/rave/scream to get a MAC LC-II - so that we could
	at least have *some* idea about the Deans problems with her
	MAC network amongst those 'On High'..  (!)

	pulling the plug won't get us manuals - it'll get us a one-way
	ticket...

	Now (after 3 months) I hope to soon have enough for X software
	on a MAC or PC.. *then* I'll be able to access the CD-ROM
	bookreader stuff!!! (I piously hope!)

	Not all the world works the way we'd like it to... :-}

	I haven't even mentioned the lovely SPARCstation 1+ sitting there
	doing its business - sans manuals - that was 'allocated' to us!!!

	Just a view from a twisted little backroom of a minor campus of
	a huge (and seriously twisted) university...

	go figure..  (yet I have a sinking suspicion I am not alone in
	this kind of madness!)

	Luke.
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+ Luke Brennan                             e-mail:   L.Brennan@cchs.su.EDU.AU +
+ EDP Unit, S209                       L.Brennan%cchs.su.edu.au@cunyvm.BITNET +
+ Cumberland College of Health Sciences,                              ,-_|\   +
+ The University of Sydney                  voice: +61 2 646 6402    /     \  +
+ East Street, Lidcombe, NSW 2141             fax: +61 2 646 4853    \_,-._*  +
+ AUSTRALIA                                                               v   +
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