--------8< cut here >8-------- ALL QUIET ON THE DATAFRONT? =============================== Copyright (C) Peter H. Nelson 1996 A flash of light and a loud click greet you as the microguard lets you into the war room. As you enter, you are visually assaulted by the dark roots of the network. They lay entangled and exposed by the swift current of change, but they still remain connected: here to a cable patch rack and banks of modems; and there to telephone and network routers... a row of unix workstations stretches into the far distance. A four-processor SMP stands symmetrically proud behind it's little processing brothers. A strategic build up is in progress. There are plans for a robot operated tape silo. Rapid deployment of backups to any part of the known network is now required rather than conventional mainframe forces. The star wars program is being talked about again and a space saving SP2 may be needed to ensure stability in the new world wide order! Ah, but all is not well on the charcoal-grey checkered floor of the datafield. The wounded and dying DEC VAXstations lie on the ashen floor unloved and unplugged. Even the name of their former country has changed. A lone Digital Alpha stands tall like the defiant sentinel of an empire in political upheaval. A black IBM mainframe looms darkly in the corner like Darth Vader's tree house. It has fallen from its lofty perch onto the cold, hard field of even-playing. Mainframe disk and tape cabinets stand in military formation protecting their beloved leader. The blue storm-troopers stand guard against the next attack, all too keenly aware of the recent cutbacks. Many gigabytes of their former comrades have been moth-balled to await shipment to some unknown destination. Like toxic waste, no-one wants them in their backyard. They huddle together for support and shelter like the homeless that they are. A wasted life in a packing crate, inconsolable in the knowledge that even for free, their service is unwanted by an uncaring society. Lost and alone, a Macintosh frantically tries to keep up with the daily deluge of microsoft mail. But this postal-worker's grip on real-time mail processing has, sadly, already been lost. Only stricter gun control can prevent a massacre of Big-Mac-eaters. All the while, its bigger unix cousins sit unconcerned nearby, looking forward to the day when all the mail is IMAP and can be processed by them. A radical element in the back is secretly planning a revolution. The people are guaranteed free speech! and we will give it to them! Distributed Computing will be a friendly Environment - but is making all the soldiers equal a desirable thing? Douglas Adams' Babel fish[1] "by effectively removing all barriers to communication between different races and cultures has caused more and bloodier wars than anything else in the history of creation"... YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED! Lurking in the next room are a bank of ominous red cylinders with attached plumbing thrusting cruelly into the ceiling panels and reaching out over the checkered floor. Should the sparks fly for real on the datafront, the final solution will be to drop halon gas on the combatants to put the fire out. Only then will the fighting stop. [1] Douglas Adams: "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" Pocket Books NY 1979 This work was inspired by a visit to the computer room at Boston College, where my wonderfully wicked wife, Jaqui, works as manager of systems services. (tm) @ --- @ This article has been / : `@' : \ For a really good time... / .@-/-\-@. \ brought to you by: @ < X X > @ ...visit Pete's Wicked Web! \ `@-\-/-@' / Pete's Wicked Web \ : .@. : / http://www.circle4.com/pww/ @ --- @ Pete recommends Netscape! You are hereby granted a nonexclusive license to distribute this article in its original form (including the copyright notice above and the ad for Pete's Wicked Web) - free of charge by electronic means only. This document is also available at http://www.circle4.com/pww/allquiet.html No computers were harmed in the making of this article. --------8< cut here >8--------