Intellectual Ammunition

[Jonathan Hutchins]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Monty Harder [mailto:lists at kc.rr.com]

>   I don't see how it's better for me to re-download the 
> message every time I want to look at it, especially when 
> you add everyone in our office together...

Think of it as being similar to reading the message over telnet - not a lot
of bandwidth for that.

Of course, if everybody uses 24bit graphic stationery, we could be talking
trouble...

> ... mail not explicitly downloaded to the
> local HD will be inaccessible whenever that T-1 goes down. 

Ahh...  You can run it either way, you can sync local folders with the
server on each connect, or manually.  I _don't_ think you can disable this
from the server, so you'd have to lock down the desktop options, which might
well be possible for you.  Still, sync'ing local folders is the best way to
do it for dial-up users.  Lotus Notes works the same way, and so do most
IMAP systems.  

I find this an advantage, to be honest.  I'm far more likely to nuke a
workstation than a server (though I have done the latter), and I change
workstations more often than servers too, so having all the mail on the
server is an advantage for me.  We (my company) and I (my
home/shop/lab/clients) don't ever back up workstations except with something
like Ghost.  Workstations are as disposable as Kleenex.  Dr. A. kicked his
over one day, and that drive was never gonna read again.  I had him back up
in fifteen minutes, because it was a generic, off-the-shelf workstation, and
all the non-unique information was in a locked cabinet behind four locked
doors (and on tapes on and off site as well).

>   I wonder how many multinational corps had centralized 
> servers in the WTC?

A hundred or more.

> I wonder how many had offsite backup?

Most of them were setting up operation centers at pre-contracted sites by
Tuesday afternoon, complete with new equivalent-hardware servers and
workstations.  Would a company dumb enough not to have off-site backup and a
disaster plan have offices in the WTC?

Seriously, I've had contact with people who work for companies who have
offices there, and if you asked them that question they'd assume you were
from another planet or something.  It was the WORLD Trade Center.  You
didn't get there by playing stupid.  

Which means, dispite the recovery plans, that we have lost a lot of very
bright, talented people.