Interesting approach by UMN... When UIUC's quad was built, they didn't put
in any sidewalks at all; once the students had worn the grass down in
recognizable patterns, they added sidewalks following those paths. I can't
recall any time I wanted to cross the quad where there wasn't a sidewalk
going where I wanted, and the rest of the grass stayed nice without the need
for fences or signs.
Customers are generally much happier when you give them what they ask for
instead of forcing them to use something else; if people want to be able to
mail full DVDs to each other, it's our job to determine how to make that
technically feasible and (hopefully) efficient.
S
| | Stephen Sprunk, K5SSS, CCIE #3723
:|: :|: NSA, Network Consulting Engineer
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C I S C O S Y S T E M S Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
----- Original Message -----
From: Danny Iacovou
To: J. Noel Chiappa ; [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Thursday, December 16, 1999 16:57
Subject: RE: Email messages: How large is too large?
Speaking of University campuses:
The University of Minnesota has a great looking mall. They spend a
lot of time and money maintaining the trees, shrubs, and grass. The
sidewalks running between buildings were a great idea. A lot of people
used them and stayed off the grass. But you know, a lot of other people
did the math and the shortest distance between 2 points is a straight
line. Too bad the sidewalks weren't designed to run along that line.
So a lot of nice pretty grass turned to ugly mud as more and more people
stomped over the grass to get were they needed to be in the most "optimal"
way.
This practice continued for a long time. Sure, eventually signs went up
telling people not to step on the grass. But that didn't work.
Eventually the University put chain fences on every corner of the mall.
The chain fences look nice. The grass is well maintained now. I guess they
decided not to add sidewalks.
E-mail should either be able to handle a message of any size or the user
should be told right away that the message can't be sent. People have
already mentioned the GUI aspect of this problem. I agree to a large
extent
with them.
So the problem essentially comes down to money. When are message sizes
causing too many problems for admins to cost justify their efforts on? At
that point we either decide to put up nice fences or we build sidewalks.
The post-office has a nice fence in place. They didn't want to build a
sidewalk. I think eventually we are going to opt for the sidewalk.
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