% This file can describe the consulting activities of the SIPB.  This
% includes SIPB OLC, anwering phones, and answering questions for people
% who show up into the office.  Some mention of volunteer Athena
% consultants.
\section{Consulting}
One of the important services that SIPB has always provided is
answering users' questions.  A user with a problem or a question,
especially a technically difficult one, can visit or call the SIPB
office and get an answer.  SIPB members also provide help online,
either through the {\tt SIPB} and {\tt Help} Zephyr instances, or as
volunteer OLC consultants on Athena.

SIPB members are known for their wide range of expertise, due to the
variety of machines and platforms to which the SIPB has access.  Some
members have access to special resources, such as interesting
hardware, and can help with unusual requests.  SIPB members do have a
concentration of knowledge on software that SIPB members support or
use heavily.  Before Multics was shutdown, many SIPB members were very
knowledgeable about Multics, and a good fraction of SIPB members were
Multics online consultants.  Now, with Project Athena as the main
focus of undergraduate computing, the SIPB has many Unix hackers, with
expertise in \TeX, \LaTeX, perl, and C.  A smaller number of members
are Macintosh or PC hackers.