RE: Where are all of the /400's going. -- MIDRANGE-L

Joe,

I was JUST asking a question...  I hate to say.. but I think you get
irritated when I agree with you, as far as the facts, but draw a different
conclusion than you do.  We don't see the trade-offs the same, that's all.
And I'll readily admit that most companies agree with your POV.

I think we disagree on a small minority of points.  However, they ARE some
pretty fundamental issues.  A lot of people, including the majority of the
most influential (as well as many in IBM) buy into the idea that Java is the
language of choice.  I think this is a point that we're gonna have to agree
to disagree on.  Granted, Java is **chosen** for a HUGE percentage of
development.  Once, that was a controversial view, and still is to a small
extent, in the 400 community.  But now that's become the CW in the industry
(or one of primary views of a large percentage, anyway).

But just because it's chosen frequently throughout the industry, and RPG
isn't, IMHO that doesn't make it the language "of choice".  I think that
fundamental difference of our views is reflected in this debate here.  I'm
just not sold on cross-platform to the extent you are, Joe.  So we view the
trade-offs differently.

See inline.

jt

| -----Original Message-----
| From: midrange-l-admin@midrange.com
| [mailto:midrange-l-admin@midrange.com]On Behalf Of Joe Pluta
| Sent: Sunday, December 16, 2001 1:42 AM
| To: midrange-l@midrange.com
| Subject: RE: Where are all of the /400's going.
|
|
| > From: jt
| >
| > Seems like I could fit the content of most websites on my 8G 170,
| > diskspace-wise.
|
| JT, we never seem to be able to hit even fundamental common ground, either
| on specifics or on the abstract concept.  This is a perfect example.
|
| Regarding the specifics, I don't know how many AS/400 clients you
| have, but
| most of mine fret about disk space on their production machines.
| I know of
| people who change the disk warning limit to a number less than the default
| of 5% because they routinely run at over 95% DASD utilization.

I'm not sure what you're getting at.  I don't have many clients, and never
have had.  And furthermore, I do as little work as I can get away with.  I
don't think that's really limited my experience too much, though.

I was one who routinely ran over 95%.  About half-way through my tenure of 8
years, I went from a 38 to a 400, and got some additional disk then.  It was
16 G.  Couldn't afford raid and paid for that with my time.


| With images,
| flash presentations and PDF files it's not hard to get 100MB on a
| web site.
| In your case, that's over one percent of your storage.  Many of my clients
| would kill to get one percent of their DASD back.

Okay.  I hate to get in a p* contest with you.  But I believe I hold the
world record for being tight on space.  We filled up the disk with save
files twice, IIRC, in the 18 years I worked and my Wife consulted there.
I'm not talking about that.  I had plenty of close calls, where the system
didn't go down.  I'd call in from home, to check the system once a night.
We had several close calls, but this one was the closest.  I could tell I
was in trouble, because whenever the disk got above 98%, it would take 10 or
15 minutes to sign on.  So I knew I was in trouble, this one night.

I believe the Guiness Book would record this, if I'da kept the screen print.
"Closest Call On Running Out Of Disk Space":  99.9965%.  I'm pretty sure I
recall that number correctly, because on a 16 G system, it calculates to
less than 1 floppy of free disk space.  About 540K of free disk, in fact.

So, ya...  I know what you're talking about...  Scarce resources.

Back to the original question, then:  how much does 100M of disk cost?  Sure
it's astronomical on a 400, compared to a Wintel.  I don't recall what I
paid for the extra 4 G, three years ago.  Let's just guess $4K.  (Prices
have dropped so much anyway, but let's start with that.) Sure $1000 per Gig
is outrageously expensive.  But in my limited experience, I don't know too
many businesses that can claim to be making any sound business judgments if
they worry about $1000.

I'm not saying that well.  We're talking do you support a new platform and
an added layer of management?  Any business that evaluates that decision in
terms of an asset that costs $1000...  Well, in my limited experience, I've
never seen anything like that...  Haven't worked in many companies, but
they've ranged from < $10M to > $1B, and I've never seen anything like that.

I'm sure some businesses make a decision of that magnitude along those
lines, but I consider that more of a decision based on which way the wind is
blowing.

|
| But ultimately the issue is not whether you CAN put the stuff on your
| AS/400, but whether you SHOULD.  Why in the world would you waste the
| precious space on your production machine for something that could just as
| easily be stored on a different medium?  There is no good reason,
| other than
| management.  And if you can't manage the storage on a single attached PC,
| then you have far larger problems in your IS organization than this
| particular issue.

As it happens, I was just finishing a post on this particular issue.  The
post may sound like boasting, to some, but I figure the point will come
across because I'm mainly boasting about my Wife.

|
| Joe "I see herrings, and they're all red!" Pluta
| www.plutabrothers.com
|

j "Sorry, Joe, but I think you're just seeing red" t