Greg Lindsey skrev:
>Ugh, no kidding. My university's student paper recently (meaning, before I
>graduated) complained that the online registration process was too slow and
>difficult to use, and resulted in registration errors. Their suggested
>solution? Switch to a web-based registration system. Sure, that will speed
>up our horribly bogged-down and underpowered Suns -- make them serve HTML
>and run CGI Perl scripts.
>Likewise, a flashy Web mail gateway was just set up for use. Luckily, they
>still kept Pine on the servers for those of us who prefer power over
>prettiness.
I really hate this M$-ish webification.
In the town where my grandparents live, the library was recently moved into a
new, pretty building, and of course, they had to "modernise" the IT system as
well. They replaced the old network of text terminals with sophisticated and
powerful flat screens with Pentium PCs hidden in their feet. Those must have
been cheap.
All right, so now they're running a terminal program on these fancy PC
screens, right? Not a chance! The consultants, who must have been subjected to
a mongoose gonad transplant into the void where brains usually go, decided to
run Citrix Winframe, which is a remote hack for Windows, working like a cross
between X11 and VNC, at only 256 colours, and then running Netscape or Opera
on the NT server (running Netscape or Opera in full colour on the local
terminal would make more sense, but then they wouldn't have their consultant
"fun"), with its homepage set to a WWW gateway to the old database on the
library's intranet.
Absolutely brilliant!
The old text terminals were there for one purpose, namely that of searching
the library book register, and they served their purpose without ever failing.
Their interface was also absolutely straight-forward, using only a very
limited number of keys. These new Windows PCs are not only more involved,
they're also infinitely slower. Compare the efficience of pressing F6 to get
the search screen, typing in a keyword, pressing return and then getting the
list with F7 to that of using the mouse to activate the input field, typing
the keyword, activating the search button with the mouse, getting the list,
and then having to use the mouse to select titles. The mouse is not only
slower, it's also more vulnerable and difficult for people not used to
computers. The entire GUI methodology is totally superfluous in as limited an
application as this. Every clickable gadget, every scroll bar on the screen is
just an opportunity for the inexperienced user to fail doing what he/she
wants, namely that of searching for book titles.
And HTTP, combined with HTML pages and fancy graphics, travelling over a
network to another host which renders the HTML and then transfers its screen
to yet another host is infinitely slower than text over a 9k6 serial line with
a direct connection to the database host.
And then there's security. These PCs are more or less wide-open. Any Quake-
playing fourteen-year-old is able to crack these PCs wide open. I do it every
time I visit to show my disgust. The terminals were impermeable. I knew how to
lock them up, but all you had to do in order to remedy that was to power-cycle
them, which took only a few seconds before they were back up. Your average
teenager will not be able to do any harm on them. And they had no loose or
moving parts. Bad boys love stealing mouse balls.
So far I've not been able to find any good point about the new system. They're
expensive, both at purchase and in maintenance, they're wide open for attacks,
they're slower and more difficult for the end user to handle.
I'm getting so disgusted, thinking of it, I'll have to find those responsible
the next time I visit.
How I love progress, especially the MCSE tech definition.
--
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Received on Wed Aug 15 2001 - 20:18:04 BST