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=============================================================================== Robb Kambic Unidata Program Center Software Engineer III Univ. Corp for Atmospheric Research address@hidden WWW: http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/ =============================================================================== ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Sat, 9 Sep 2000 15:26:35 -0400 (EDT) From: C. Vandersip <address@hidden> To: Jim Koermer <address@hidden> Subject: Re: Alden ku-band DDPLUS Dead-Again! Believe it or not.... I spoke with Alden CEO David Doyle yesterday. I had left a message on his voice mail regarding this whole mess and he returned my phone call. (!) I explained to him the frustration we in the Unidata community were experiencing from the lack of information coming out of Alden regarding their troubles. He explained that the network problems with MCI and their subcontractor last month were real and were unrelated to the company's current financial woes. He also confirmed that the company was undergoing a restructuring that he expected to be finalized yesterday or today, with services continuing. I told him I appreciated this information, but that he needed to directly address his customers with some type of official message. I gave him the ldm-users@unidata email address and suggested he present an official explanation/future plan of action to the forum. I reminded him again that the opinion of the company was now quite low, not so much because they were having problems, but because they had chosen not to communicate with their customers who keep them in business. Hopefully he will do the right thing and contact the list. We'll see. I don't know why so many tech vendors choose the secrecy route when they have problems. Witness Sun's current woes over flaws in the 400MHz UltraSparc II chip that were kept quiet until a couple of weeks ago [http://www.computerworld.com/cwi/story/0,1199,NAV47_STO49485,00.html] and the earlier backlash against Intel's cover-up of Pentium problems. If customers were treated less like potential enemies and more like partners, much of this animosity could be avioded. FWIW, Chris On Sat, 9 Sep 2000, Jim Koermer wrote: > It looks like Alden ku-band DDPLUS died around 09/0445Z. This was the > same time that NWS seemed to be having problems, since data (mainly > surface) for several hours after that time seemed to be a bit light on > both NOAAPORT and IDD. However, those systems seemed to come back to > normal, but who knows about Alden. We are seriously thinking about > dropping our service, but that may be a moot point given the > circumstances. > > Jim > -- > James P. Koermer E-Mail: address@hidden > Professor of Meteorology Office Phone: (603)535-2574 > Natural Science Department Office Fax: (603)535-2723 > Plymouth State College WWW: http://vortex.plymouth.edu/ > Plymouth, NH 03264 > ############################################################### # Chris Vandersip # # Computer Research Specialist/Dept. Sysadmin # # Rm. 024, Dept. of Meteorology, Florida State University # # address@hidden (850)644-2522 # ###############################################################