[Beowulf] [OT] HPC and University IT - forum/mailing list?

[Bill Rankin]

> I was unclear - communication is great, and "outreach" is one of  
> the things I spend a fair amount of time on.  that's not what I  
> meant by big-A, though - I meant people who sit behind a big desk  
> behind a big secretary who decide that today is the day to solve  
> all our problems by standardizing on a single desktop for the whole  
> university.  or that Outlook will be the only mail client in use.   
> these approaches are often
> justified as "putting the uni on a sold, business-like footing".

The situation you describe is not endemic to "big-A" but rather to an  
administrative person failing to understand the environment they are  
administering.  The "one mail client to rule them all" may be  
entirely appropriate in certain business environments (eg. non- 
technology companies).  It is the wrong approach (again, in general)  
for a university or heavy research environment.  Not understanding  
this difference is a failure of the person, not the position.

-b