Re: Need for regular IPL's

PaulMmn wrote:
> 
> At 02:38 PM 5/8/97 -0500, you wrote (in part):
> 
> >....as you probably shouldn't be replacing objects in use,
> >that shouldn't be a big deal.
> 
> I disagree...  One of the purposes of QRPLOBJ is so you -can- 
replace
> objects on-the-fly, without disrupting users.
> 
> --Paul E Musselman
> PaulMmn@ix.netcom.com

True, QRPLOBJ lets you do this, I'm just suggesting that it might not 
be the best practice to follow.  Otherwise, you can have users 
simultaneously using both the old and the new code to modify data.  A much 
cleaner turnover is to move in changes when users are off.  If something is so 
important that it can't wait, then do you really want people continuing 
to use the old version?

> Although our AS/400 seldom sleeps, I encourage all PC users to power 
off
> their machines.  My reasons:  (1) 8-16 hours of wear and tear on the 
moving
> parts saved  (2) 8-16 hours of electricity saved (3) tends to avoid 
those
> lightning storms overnight (4) re-connects the PC to the AS/400 
after we IPL
> (weekly) and avoids all those "My PC is locked up / I can't sign on" 
 (5)
> Each PC powered off is one less left signed-on and open to the 
public.
> 
> --Paul E Musselman
> PaulMmn@ix.netcom.com

This is a point of great debate.  While your PC power supply runs 
continuosly (thus wearing the bearings on the fan) and if you have a screen 
saver, your hard drive may also run frequently, powering off a PC could 
be one of the worst things you do to it.  A rule of thumb is that every 
time your power up a PC, it takes one day of its life.  The reason is 
that the solder is sensitive to temperature changes.  As long as your PC 
is on, it is at more or less constant temperature.  Turning it off allows 
the solder to cool.  Heating it again causes stress fractures in solder 
which can eventually lead to failure (every notice how when a PC fails, 
it tends to do so when powering up?  They rarely go down 
(hardware-wise) while running.) 
Powering off doesn't provide much more protection from lightning 
storms.  True, files are open and can be corrupted by power off (with DOS, 
try parking the drives, or do a Win95 or OS/2 shut down).  Lightning can 
come up your ground and fry the PC or just crash the disk with an EM 
pulse (had a 400 brought down that way once - UPS can't protect against EM - 
doesn't travel through power lines).  Better protection is a UPS or at 
least a surge suppressor.

Bring down QCMN  and QINTER to eliminate signed on PC's.  Educate your 
users to shut down, or at least exit all programs (if you can educate 
them to power down, you can educate them to do this - otherwise they're 
just powering off with everything open - we've lost a few OS/2 hard 
drives that way!), but power off sparingly.  
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