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7. Print Services

Print services should be available on the network for all workstations and remote sites. While PostScript is the most commonly used protocol and must be supported, we should also support HP, ANSII, and Tektronics protocols. The simplest solution for support of these protocols may be to purchase printers that support network connection and queuing from all machines.

Simple commands supporting indented and wide printing should be implemented.

8. Spares

It is desirable to maintain a stock of common spares, which includes monitors, SCSII devices, and power supplies.

IV. Staffing

Staffing is an issue that pervades all of the major categories in this report. In these areas skilled professionals should be sought after. This means that competitive salaries must be offered to attract qualified people. Many of the achievements in communications of the 93-94 season can be attributed to the ASA winter-over, Brent Jones, and Paul Eden at Malibar. Together they were able to improve the system after station closing. Such improvements have been historically sporadic and occur only when talented people are available for operations.

The challenge associated with supporting four hardware and operating system sets is recognized, but the productivity for research will be much higher if researchers are able to work within a familiar environment rather than spending valuable time at South Pole learning a new and unfamiliar system. We believe the investment in hardware, software, and staffing can be very modest relative to the cost of retraining researchers and of time lost from primary research objectives at South Pole.

A mixed computing environment is the norm for research groups, and system manager support is rarely given unless there are critical real-time requirements. It is not recommended that support staffing at South Pole be increased significantly to support the specified systems. Instead, new paradigms for support should be considered.

Recognizing that a single systems expert might be useful in McMurdo and even at ASA, South Pole might not have the expert on site for the entire summer season. With better communications to the station, experts do not necessarily have to be at the Station in order to help. Using remote logins, staff at McMurdo or CONUS may remotely assist with software support or other problems. We recommend the following division of labor between a systems Expert and a systems Manager to improve support at little added cost (in all cases below we refer to 'systems' as meaning ASA provided systems - researcher provided systems are the responsibility of that research group):

1. System Expert Duties

Experts should tune the computers, network devices, and communications gear near station opening and near station closing each year. It is believed that less than a week on site should be required for knowledgeable personnel to service these systems. The use of system experts will help ensure uniform performance. It is demonstrably true that, in the

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