Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site pur-ee.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!mgnetp!ihnp4!inuxc!pur-ee!ecn-ee!davy
From: davy@ecn-ee.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.flame
Subject: To Purdue's Defense - (nf)
Message-ID: <2054@pur-ee.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 16-Aug-84 18:17:01 EDT
Article-I.D.: pur-ee.2054
Posted: Thu Aug 16 18:17:01 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 18-Aug-84 00:44:38 EDT
Sender: notes@pur-ee.UUCP
Organization: Electrical Engineering Department , Purdue University
Lines: 39

#N:ecn-ee:15500008:000:1726
ecn-ee!davy    Aug 16 16:38:00 1984



I'm posting this for a friend, send all mail, nastygrams, etc. to
him.  I'm staying out of this.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
	Having been a graduate student at Purdue  for  several  years,
I found a great deal of misconception in  the note about the  ECN  and
the management thereof.  Because of the growing demands on the network
by an ever increasing student population, the network has grown from a
single PDP-11/70 to a network of 15 Vaxes with a  variety  of  support 
hardware.  It should also be  noted  that  in  this  time  frame,  the 
software staff has decreased from six persons  to  three.  There  have 
been vacancies open for as long as I have been here, but being a univ-
ersity, Purdue cannot meet the wages of the industrial sector, so  the
staff decreases.

	With respect to the comments about the ECN and living  in  an
``Ivory Tower,'' I  have  taught  classes  over  the  course  of  the
past two years.  Whenever I  have  shown  that  a  program  does  not
work,  they have repaired the program as quickly  as  possible.  There
have been times that they have had to go to the folks  at  Berkley  to
get problems resolved.  Further, unlike many  installations, if  there
is a question, there are people hired to answer  questions.   Problems
or questions about  the  software  can  also  be  handled  by  mailing 
questions to the proper person.  

	It should be understood that no system is  perfect,  and  that
the ECN is  no  exception  to  this  rule; however,  having  seen  and
dealt with the operations of this network, it is very clear  that  the  
person  writing the ECN slam-o-gram was uninformed.

					Bradley Smith
					(pur-ee!sb)