[15] in Tooltime
Mtg. time & questions/issues
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Barbara Goguen)
Tue Feb 6 15:32:02 1996
Date: Tue, 6 Feb 1996 15:31:50 -0500
To: bpapp@scopus.com, dcampbel@scopus.com
From: goguen@MIT.EDU (Barbara Goguen)
Cc: tooltime@MIT.EDU, paheff@MIT.EDU
First of all, 1pm on Tuesday 2/13 is not the best time for several of the
key players here. Could you come instead at 1pm on Wednesday 2/14?
In the meantime, here are some questions that we will need answers to as we
continue to consider your product:
- Will Scopus support the newest release of Oracle's SQL*Net (2.1) for
Windows and the Mac, thus allowing it to be used with Secure Network
Services (SNS) 2.0? (We are currently running it with SQL*Net 2.0.1.5.)
- SNS 2.0 from Oracle is not a "plug and play" product, but instead is
simply a driver for implementing Kerberos V5 security. Will Scopus be
making use of this driver?
Related to the above question, will Scopus continue to put up it's own
login box, or will they eventually make use of something supplied by
Oracle?
- What about accessibility to our Scopus database via a dial-up connection
- is this possible? Also, does Scopus provide alternative accessibility
that would allow someone needing to use a screen reader (possibly visually
impaired) to access the database?
- About security of the data in the database - are we correct in
understanding that Scopus implements security within the client that can be
set at the field, button, etc. level, leaving the database wide open to
those accessing it from products other than Scopus?
Related to the above question, if we then build security into the Oracle
database itself, what kind of impact might this have on the Scopus
performance, will it make it difficult to install and maintain the Scopus
product, and will it make subsequent upgrades to the Scopus software more
difficult because we have done things in a "non-standard" way?
- Given the rather high-priced product quote we received from you, I wanted
to verify that you understand we already own an Oracle site license and
that you are not including in your product price any bundling in of Oracle
products.
- Does your current pricing include licensing only for 1 server, 1 site?
At what point might we expect to "max out" that one server? Would our need
to expand to multiple servers be based on the size of the database, the
numbers of folks logging on, or what? What if we want to have two servers
initially, one for production, one for development - would we need to
license more server software?
Things we'd like to get resolved and/or see:
- Windows 3.1 and Mac client installs
We really want to get the Windows 3.1 and Mac client installs done. As
Bill knows, we were unable in the afternoon he was here to get Scopus
running on Lynne's Windows 3.1 machine. She has since been able to get it
running on a Windows 95 machine, but we still need to get it running on
3.1. I have still not been able to get it to run on a Mac. I have gotten
further on a PowerMac than on a 68040 Mac - don't know if this means
anything. But as I pointed out to Bill, we really have no installation
instructions other than what comes on the Mac diskette, and I am at a loss
at this point in terms of figuring out how to troubleshoot the problem. I
know it is not with the Oracle or network pieces, since I am able to
connect to the Oracle database using SQL*Plus. If we could get these
installs working prior to your coming in next week, that would be
preferable.
- Web interface
In the short term, if we could be set up with an account to play with your
implementation of your own Web interface at your corporate web site, that
would be helpful. In the longer term, we really want to get your Web
interface installed here at our site so that we can get a better
understanding of how it works, and how it interacts with the Oracle
database back-end.
- Email access to the database
If email access to a Scopus database is possible, we would really like to
see it in action.
Looking forward to hearing back from you.
-barbara
goguen@mit.edu
617-253-6135
