[Macinsloan] Fwd: Enabling Mac support for Pcounter
John Harthorne
jharthorne at sloan.mit.edu
Wed Apr 5 14:32:48 EDT 2006
FYI, update on attempts to gain Sloan support for Macs.
- John
________________
John Harthorne
MBA Candidate, Class of 2007
MIT Sloan School of Management
Cell: 617.894.3425
jharthorne at sloan.mit.edu
Begin forwarded message:
> From: John Harthorne <jharthorne at sloan.mit.edu>
> Date: April 5, 2006 2:31:40 PM EDT
> To: "doucette at mit.edu" <doucette at MIT.EDU>
> Cc: "studentsupport at sloan.mit.edu" <studentsupport at sloan.mit.edu>,
> "chammond at sloan.mit.edu" <chammond at sloan.mit.edu>,
> "adaniel at sloan.mit.edu" <adaniel at sloan.mit.edu>,
> "sascha at sloan.mit.edu" <sascha at sloan.mit.edu>,
> "anzolah at sloan.mit.edu" <anzolah at sloan.mit.edu>,
> "kurt.campbell at sloan.mit.edu" <kurt.campbell at sloan.mit.edu>,
> "rpremo at sloan.mit.edu" <rpremo at sloan.mit.edu>
> Subject: Re: Enabling Mac support for Pcounter
>
> Mr. Doucette:
>
> Thank you.
>
> Student IT Senate:
>
> I strongly encourage you to introduce Mac support moving forward.
> There are a significant number of mac users on campus despite the
> lack of support, and you can bet this number will only increase
> moving forward. We have initiated a self-support group via the
> mailing list "macinsloan". Together, we have solved all IT-related
> issues, except printing. If you adopt mac support, our mailing list
> content can feed sloan's documentation on mac support. As for
> printing, the print servers no longer support IP printing, because
> of the P-Counter system. P-Counter does, in fact, support macintosh
> printing, but our servers are not configured to enable this feature.
>
> Essentially, Sloan is very, very close to being able to offer full
> mac compatibility. As far as I know, we are the only MIT school
> that does not support macs. Personally, I find the lack of mac
> support both functionally frustrating and philosophically absurd --
> historically, MIT has been one of the world's biggest contributors
> to Unix, the open source movement, and computing interoperability.
> Now, when Apple is producing a world-class and elegant operating
> system based on an open-source kernel and Microsoft is adrift in a
> sea of seeming-incompetence and anti-trust suits, we are only
> supporting Windoze?!? Arrggghh.
>
> Anyway, ranting aside, please consider this a serious request for
> mac support. It is not difficult, and it is the "right thing to
> do". I will be more than happy to assist in any way possible.
> Please see the attached PDF for more information on how to
> configure the print servers to enable mac support. I would be happy
> to provide further data on how to mount shared volumes and other
> setup details as necessary.
>
> FYI, I will forward this email to the macinsloan mailing list for
> the benefit of transparency.
>
> Thanks,
>
> John Harthorne
> ________________
> John Harthorne
> MBA Candidate, Class of 2007
> MIT Sloan School of Management
> Cell: 617.894.3425
> jharthorne at sloan.mit.edu
>

>
> On Apr 3, 2006, at 5:31 PM, Armand Doucette wrote:
>
>> John,
>>
>>
>>
>> Please accept my apologies for you not receiving a response from
>> STS. I can tell you that there have been a number of recent
>> discussions around this topic and the more general subject of
>> Macintosh support. STS is in the process of upgrading the
>> Pcounter software so we’ll see what that brings in the way of a
>> workable solution for Mac users, one that we can support.
>>
>>
>>
>> Please understand that it is not feasible for us to put forth a
>> service offering that places students in a primary/sole support
>> role. Like all Sloan students, your time here is short and while
>> you are enthused and engaged enough to make such an offer (to
>> “act as the conduit for information to the mac community”), I
>> can’t count on that arrangement long-term. So on this and the
>> larger question of support for Macs, I’ll ask that you work with
>> the Student IT Senate to move this along. I’ve had an initial
>> conversation with them on this subject so they are at least
>> familiar with your request.
>>
>>
>>
>> Armand
>>
>> ____________________________________
>>
>> Armand Doucette
>> Executive Director, Sloan Technology Services
>> MIT Sloan School of Management
>> 50 Memorial Drive, E52-024
>> Cambridge, MA 02142
>>
>> (617) 253-0827
>> doucette at mit.edu
>>
>>
>> From: John Harthorne [mailto:jharthorne at sloan.mit.edu]
>> Sent: Monday, April 03, 2006 1:57 PM
>> To: Doucette Armand
>> Subject: Re: Enabling Mac support for Pcounter
>>
>>
>>
>> Mr. Doucette:
>>
>>
>>
>> Have you considered my prior email about enabling support for mac
>> printing?
>>
>> It has now been four months since my first email to Student
>> Support, and I have not received any response at all.
>>
>>
>>
>> - John
>>
>> ________________
>>
>> John Harthorne
>>
>> MBA Candidate, Class of 2007
>>
>> MIT Sloan School of Management
>>
>> Cell: 617.894.3425
>>
>> jharthorne at sloan.mit.edu
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Mar 8, 2006, at 6:45 PM, John Harthorne wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Mr. Doucette:
>>
>>
>>
>> I realize that Sloan does not officially support Macs. I am
>> writing to urge you to reconsider that policy, and specifically to
>> update the print servers to enable mac users to print using
>> Pcounter. The required changes are relatively simple; see the
>> email below and the attachment for further details.
>>
>>
>>
>> Macs are increasingly common ... at least 5% of the Sloan students
>> are using mac computers right now, probably closer to 10%.
>> Currently, we are unable to make full use of the computing
>> infrastructure due to policies that do not reflect the relative
>> ease of cross-platform compatibility. It is my understanding, for
>> instance, that Sloan is the only MIT school that does not support
>> macs (or unix).
>>
>>
>>
>> At the beginning of the year, a group of us formed a mailing list
>> and solved every single incompatibility issue with the Sloan
>> network, including printing. Since then, however, changes to the
>> print server have rendered us unable to print. That is why I
>> researched Pcounter and determined that it does, in fact, support
>> printing via mac computers. Please read through the email I sent
>> to student support in November (below), and examine the attachment
>> for information on how to enable mac printing via Pcounter. As I
>> indicate in my email, I am more than happy to act as the conduit
>> for information to the mac community, and can help with
>> troubleshooting and setup if desired. I was formerly a technology
>> consultant (@stake and Symantec), and I am very facile with mac/
>> windows integration.
>>
>>
>>
>> Thank you very much,
>>
>>
>>
>> John Harthorne
>>
>> ________________
>>
>> John Harthorne
>>
>> MBA Candidate, Class of 2007
>>
>> MIT Sloan School of Management
>>
>> Cell: 617.894.3425
>>
>> jharthorne at sloan.mit.edu
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Begin forwarded message:
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> From: John Harthorne <jharthorne at sloan.mit.edu>
>>
>> Date: November 29, 2005 5:27:09 PM EST
>>
>> To: StudentSupport at sloan.mit.edu
>>
>> Subject: Enabling Mac support for Pcounter
>>
>>
>>
>> Dear support staff:
>>
>>
>>
>> I am writing to request that STS reconfigure Pcounter to enable
>> printing by Mac users at Sloan.
>>
>>
>>
>> I understand that STS doesn't officially support mac users. In an
>> attempt to minimize the intrusion of mac-user related support
>> questions, we created an ad hoc mailman list to self-support and
>> help each other achieve the perfect configuration (macinsloan). By
>> collaborating with each other, we were able to solve all possible
>> issues, and had become entirely self-sufficient ... until
>> recently. Recent changes to the printers have rendered it
>> impossible for us to print on anything but the Athena printers in
>> the basement.
>>
>>
>>
>> We fully recognize the need for STS to ensure that students pay
>> for the use of printers, and therefore understand the motivation
>> behind these recent configuration changes. In fact, we have done
>> some research and have determined that it is actually possible to
>> configure Pcounter to allow printing by mac users while ensuring
>> that printing is tracked and billed accordingly. It should not
>> require significant time investment by STS to enable this
>> configuration, and should not affect other users in any way
>> whatsoever.
>>
>>
>>
>> I have attached a PDF file clarifying how this works, and I would
>> greatly appreciate it if you would review the document and
>> consider applying the appropriate configuration. I will be happy
>> to take responsibility for clarifying the system to mac users (via
>> macinsloan), and will be happy to be the point person for any and
>> all questions they may have. Also, if you need someone to test the
>> configuration, I am happy to be the guinea pig.
>>
>>
>>
>> Thank you,
>>
>>
>>
>> John Harthorne
>>
>> Macinsloan Moderator
>>
>>
>>
>> P.S. I originally found the PDF file here:
>>
>> http://www.andtechnologies.com/support/Mac-Windows-install.pdf
>>
>>
>>
>> ________________
>>
>> John Harthorne
>>
>> MBA Candidate, Class of 2007
>>
>> MIT Sloan School of Management
>>
>> Cell: 617.894.3425
>>
>> jharthorne at sloan.mit.edu
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> <Mac-Windows-install.pdf>
>>
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
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