🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <D1JHGq.85I@world.std.com>,
 mew@world.std.com (Michael E Willett) writes:
> 
> The original article appeared in the November 28 issue of Computer
> Reseller News and was written by one of their editors, Joel Shore.

 [stuff deleted]

  (Quoting from article mentioned above ...)

> It turns out that a known engineering fault exists in Digital's 
> StorageWorks RAID system:  Remove and replace a drive too often and 
> you'll blow a diode that in brings the entire system to a screeching 
> halt. 

    So what is "too often". Is this a situation that most users are
likely to encounter, or does it only show up if you sit there plugging
the drive in and out continuously for a while ( as you may well do in
a booth at a trade show, but would be unlikely to do in real life )?
I'm not trying to say this isn't a problem, just curious what the chances
are that I, as a user of the product, would have trouble because of this
defect.

> But there is more.  The unit on display in the Digital booth was 
> having fits as well.  And to make matters worse, the StorageWorks product 
> manager admitted onstage during his Test Center interview that the 
> problem has been recognized for nearly the entire four months since the 
> company began shipping the product.
>
 
    Did anyone ask how many customers had actually had a failure from
this problem? There's obviously a big difference between what you can break
when you beat on it in the lab and what is likely to happen in regular
usage.

> Such brazen disregard for resellers cannot pass without comment.  
> Although an engineering change is in the works, the company knowingly 
> continues to ship a product shackled with a potentially--and 
> likely--fatal flaw.......
> 

    What exactly are these guys whining about with this "brazen disregard
for resellers" stuff. Is Digital refusing to honour warranties and replace
these units when they fail? Are the resellers getting stuck for the cost?
Are flocks of customers having this problem and beating on the reseller
over it? If any of this is true why don't they come right out and say
so, all we know for sure is *their* unit failed under some test condition
which they don't elaborate on.

    I'd love to hear what these guys have to say about Intel and the
FDIV problem in the Pentium (which strikes me as several orders of
magnitude more serious than the problem they're reporting here) :-)

> And while the band plays on the sinking ship Digital, the company is 
> admitting it knew all along that a problem existed.......
> 

    So was Digital ignoring the problem or working on an ECO and contacting
the customers to arrange its installation? I have had numerous "problems"
fixed in Digital products before I even knew I had them ( Digital F/S calls
you up and says they have an ECO to install ). That fact that they take
a proactive approach like this is far more valuable than just expecting
them to get everything perfect the first time ( a standard which NO vendor
will EVER achieve ).

    If this type of journalism is typical of "Computer Reseller News" then
all I can say is they must be the "National Enquirer" of the trade press.
Makes me glad I'm not a reseller and not "qualified" to receive this rag.

> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> This sinking ship stuff surely gets carried too far.  The people here at
> StorComp think DEC has been, continues to be, and will be a fine company, 
> generating super products such as the Alpha.  One does wonder if Ken had 
> still been running DEC, with his commitment to engineering excellence, 
> whether these ECOs would have been necessary.
> 

     It's just the products which compete against yours which are no good
then is it ;-)

     I can recall several ECO's during KOs time at the helm which sound
at least as serious as this one ( eg the "travelling glue" problem on
RA81 disks and a P/S problem on VT100s which could put hazardous voltages
on the power cord of a freshly unplugged terminal ).

    Any company can, indeed will, release some products which have significant
defects. What they do about correcting them is what really differentiates a
quality company from a fly-by-night outfit ( that is not meant to be a comment
about StorComp - I've never dealt with you and have no idea which end of the
spectrum your company fits into ) 


--
=============================================================================
Malcolm Dunnett    Malaspina University-College     Email: dunnett@mala.bc.ca
Computer Services  Nanaimo, B.C. CANADA V9R 5S5       Tel: (604)755-8738