Java, Blacbird and The Future of the Web ...

[Thomas Dowling]

>> Are you really many years away from 486/33s with more than 4MB of 

>> RAM?  If so you have my sympathies, but I think your energy would be 

>> better spent explaining the situation to your budgeting and purchasing 

>> people.
>
>Please don't underestimate how far away from those specs many of 

>the lurkers on this list may be. 

>
>The City of Santa Fe's MIS department has proudly arranged for us to have 

>29 brand new, count 'em, 29, 4MB machines for our soon-to-arrive (and no, 

>up to now we haven't had one) online public access catalog...

While I can't help thinking this is a short-sighted purchase on the city's  
part, if you specifically asked for PCs to serve as OPAC terminals this is  
probably ample RAM.  For that matter, you might be best served by running  
a DOS-based terminal package, in which case extra RAM probably won't be  
wanted or accessible.

But...if you really asked for PCs to serve only as OPAC terminals, you  
were limiting your options going in.

>So naturally 

>when we go to deliver Net access to the critters, they are not gonna run 

>Netscape or any graphical browser very efficiently. The next thing, 

>Java or whatever? No way. Not to mention that the remainder of the 

>stations on our ethernet will be even older feebler clunkers which we 

>are just grateful they will function as dumb OPAC stations. 

>
>> explaining the situation to your budgeting and purchasing people.
>
>Nah. Relations with MIS for the moment are excellent, after years of 

>stress and disrespect on both sides. Making ungrateful noises is not  
being 

>allowed by our director.


I didn't mean to suggest that you make ungrateful noises.  As you say, in  
this day and age it's something just to have any equipment, or even to  
stay in business.  However, it sounds like your city MIS folks just spent  
about $40k-$50k for equipment you will find suboptimal from day one.  You  
can be grateful and still suggest that more librarian feedback may make  
the next round of purchases (even if they're in 1999) more successful.  My  
suggestion was that librarians clearly state a polite, well reasoned  
request for flexibility and input in the hardware purchasing process; the  
corollary to this is that this input must be well-informed.  Maybe at some  
point a decision could have been made to change those 29 4MB machines for  
22 4MB machines and 3 16MB machines, or some other configuration which  
would both meet your current needs and give you flexibility to play with  
new toys like Java.

Thomas Dowling
OhioLINK