Re: Good Grief!

>Believe it or not, when stuff leaves here it looks good, and I
>learn of problems when they come back as complaints of various
>degrees (hot). Usually it's because the Windows interface has
>done something that is not standard Out There in Unix-land.

[Technical point: this isn't just Unix-land; it is also Mac land, IBM
mainframe land, VAX/VMS-land, and even IBM mainframe land. In fact, I
believe this list is handled by an IBM mainframe running VM/CMS.]

>Sometimes it's because of lack of storage at the other end, or
>limited access time to waste on long or numerous posts.

Most of this is handled by long-standing customs which vary from place to
place on the net. Generally, posts should stay within a page; if you've
something longer and you don't think the list will handle it, either put it
in some location for pickup or put out an offer to e-mail it around. Side
note: no mailing list is complete without a file archive; that's the usual
home for such things.

>
>(FWIW, my provider, The Pipeline, has recently signed a deal to
>market its product world-wide as a standard for consumer
>interface to the Net. I have heard that it will give its
>software to companies to boost the standard while selling
>access.)

Eeeek! I hope they fix it up first! (Please, no more aluminum wiring! :-)
(Assuming, of course, that the problem is not actually with the server.
Part of your problem may be the VM/CMS application LISTSERV; I'm not sure
it handles attachments at all.)

>
>What I don't know is what other people have, hardware and soft,
>format and storage, access time and cost. And, I'm no computer
>wizard, so I may not know if you tell me.
>

I'm on Netcom, a national service provider. I have a Unix shell account
and a Power Mac 7100 at home; I pick up my mail with Eudora. I have enough
disk so that I can manage attachments in the megabytes, if need be, but
would prefer not to see too many of them in a day.

>
>The design questions (ta da):
>
>What do universities and commercial accounts provide now in the
>way of hard and soft services different from mine to
>accommodate the changing Net population? How much does it
>cost, who pays, and how much for machine use, storage, and net
>access? And, what should all these be?
>

I'd be interested in hearing what you find out about this.

>What hardware and software changes might be needed to handle my
>type of mass-marketing, mindless Windoze hookup if it becomes
>the standard? For example, I have few problems with
>sophisticated domains where there are high-capacity, high-speed
>systems running software that recognizes whatever comes in and
>translates it to whatever format is needed for redistribution.
>The problems yesterday were with lists served by the same
>software.
>

Your hardware's fine. MS-Windows is ok, too. The applications you are
running on Windows appear to have some problems. The best way to run other
applications is probably a software interface called winsock ("Windows
sockets;" software designers are almost as bad as deconstructionists for
puns.)

Technical thing to check: does your Pipeline-provided interface support
Winsock? If it does you can run all kinds of applications. If not,
there's probably something else you can run that will support winsock &
work with Pipeline. For mail, I highly recommend Eudora; I believe there's
a freeware edition on Windows, as well as a moderately-priced shrink-wrap
product. I know that the Mac version handles attachments; I'm pretty sure
the Windows version does, too.

>
>How many people are holding off on posting anything because the
>format does not suit their tastes, skills, whatever?
>

I'd like to know the answer to that one, too! I really wish we had a good
sketch interchange format; GIF and DXF just do not cut it. The technical
work to make the Net accessible to people who primarily communicate
graphically is still not complete.

>
>Good grief! I'm feeling cowed by all this operational
>interference.
>
>Surely unsub is not the only answer.
>

Oh surely not :-) But I think we've a long road to go yet with this.


Randolph Fritz
Software engineer, network wizard, and architecture student
randolph@xxxxxxxxxx
Mountain View, California, Earth
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