General Meeting from 01/15/2001

<DCasey Well, this is certainly a lively bunch, tonight
<Sector Is there an agenda"
<DCasey Nothing cast in stone
<DCasey We've discussed a members-only newsletter ... nothing like the monthly newsletter we have now, just something to keep members informed on our current projects
<DCasey That .. and The Warpdoctor project
<DCasey I think it's time we cranked up the Warpdoctor
<mandie was anything ever worked out for the database?
<DCasey mandie not yet
<DCasey I already have the OK to re-do the Notebook/2 site and place it on the Warpdoctor site
<mandie who were you going to work with on the database?
<DCasey But I'd like to have some sort of plan in place before we do that
<Projects and it has a working db
<DCasey mandie I was planning on getting together with Andreas Linde
<mandie I think that should be a starting point...then once a database is setup, it would just be a matter of entering info
<mandie searchable database
<DCasey I think the Notebook/2 site is a good place to start
<DCasey That site has loads of good information ... but the pages (frames) are way too "busy"
<Longstaff webserver installation requirements would be comething to consider regarding that
<Projects and the important frame is far too tiny... I almost didn't see it
<DCasey Longstaff in waht way?
<mandie you might want to do html>txt and insert into a template that would be used for all WarpDoctor pages
<Longstaff DCasey: well, hypothetically, like to run oracle on a linux server, you'd need a linux version of oracle
<DCasey Longstaff This all native OS/2
<DCasey Webserver is currently running the latest version of Apache
<Longstaff DCasey: kewl
<Longstaff where you be hosting the site?
<DCasey Longstaff Abel has a friend in NC that owns a small ISP
<DCasey The server, that we built, is located there, on a T-1 connection
<Sector Site exists now, VOICE's own server it's co-located at a site
<DCasey K62-500 w/256Mb of ram
<Longstaff the database won't take up that much diskspace, even when substantially populated
<Sector Hi StevenL
*  Longstaff was hoping abel would be here......please tell him i said hello
<StevenL Hi there. I've been convinced to join.
<Rat-Salad he said be home soon
<DCasey Longstaff I thought he'd be here, too
<Sector Hi Swanee
<DCasey Oh ... it can't be!!!!!!!!
<Swanee Hi all
<Sector So now we are just short the System Administrator and the Secretary. (not counting Marketing who isn't usually present for these)
<os2r what's the talk about tonight?
<Sector We've been discussing WarpDoctor
<Projects and then in walked wayne :-)
<Rat-Salad hello
<DCasey Another semi-ralated topic (to Warpdoctor) is the NEWS list
<madodel What about the News list?
<DCasey If we are to come up with a replecement to warpcast,
<Swanee What is the status of WarpCast other than the fact that it hasn't been seen (around here) for a while now?
<Sector The newslist is there, just under utilized... Though for a full WarpCast replacement it could use some more options (web archive, digest)
<DCasey we need to get a way to archive all the messages on a website
<madodel Peter Moylan is working on adding the Digest feature to MajorMajor
<madodel He just added a multiple-moderator feature at our request
<madodel There is a REXX exit in MajorMajor. perhaps we can build a web archive using that?
<DCasey I'd think that would be a good thing to look into
*  Sector agrees
<Swanee Is WarpCast completely dead or just broken (still) since the equipment replacement of last year?
<Sector Was nice when WarpCast appeared on the scene
<madodel Swanee: It's been about 4 weeks. Even a Linux guy should be able to fix it by now
<Swanee I know that things are much differnt now at BMT. They were almost trouble free all the years I did business with them but since redesigning, there have been a multitude of mixups and problems.
<DCasey I think Thomas is trying to grow his business ... and he's either doing it too quickly, or he's not doing it the right way
<Swanee Maybe it's just because they are larger and more prone to problems because of that. I have to give them the benefit of the doubt.
<Swanee In any case, I think OS/2 users are missing out on a great resource.
<DCasey Projects did you ever get confirmation from BMT on those memberships in question?
<madodel the OS2SS has languished for over a year. It's like TeamOS2.org. It's dead Jim
<Projects DCasey: huh?
<Swanee MADodel: Agreed, it was also a victim of the changes.
<DCasey Projects I thought you said something last BoD meeting about a couple of memberships you'd received, but had yet to receive the confirmation from BMT
<Projects DCasey: ah, you mean the ones I mentioned that BMT hasn't (apparently) processed yet... answer is no
<DCasey OK
<madodel Swanee: Yes I agree. I don't understand what they did to screw things up, but it happened.
<os2r gotta reboot....bbiab
<mandie WarpCast was a free service that consumed the time of moderators....not exactly a money making deal for BMT
<Swanee Didn't Trevor Smith moderate?
<DCasey I've seen an increase in the amount of traffic on our news list this past week
<DCasey Is that due to increased submissions?
<mandie yes, but I believe he's tied in with BMT now
<DCasey Or is Mark picking up on them, and re-sending them on that list?
<Swanee mandie: Oh, I didn't know that.
<Projects DCAsey: mark's been advertising the hell out of the news@ list :-)
<mandie Projects: better known as "marketing"
<Projects hehehe... yup
<XRange Mark doing good job of to.
<madodel I asked Adreas to add os2voice.org to the News Add page on os2.org
<madodel We are now getting most posts from there
<DCasey Thta's good
<DCasey I know there are a few good sites where I can go to get news ... but I prefer to have it delivered to me rather than go looking for it
<Projects exactly
<Projects kinda like subscribing to a newspaper you have to pick up at the printers...
<Swanee What would we need to do to recreate a new WarpCast? Start a new mailing list and be able to access archived copies?
<DCasey Swanee We already have the mailing list (news@os2voice.org)
*  Sector prefers email for news
<DCasey We need a way to setup multiple moderators (which I believe we now have as soon as Abel installs the files from Peter Moylan)
<DCasey And a way to archive the posts to a webpage
<DCasey The listserver software we are using (MajorMajor) has a REXX exit built in
<DCasey May be able to do it with a REXX script and a webpage template
<DCasey But that's out of my are of expertise
<madodel Abel has setup a new email address for news submissions - submit@os2voice.org
<madodel Currently that just comes to me.
<Swanee Is the news list just for news type announcements? (Swanee just subscribed to it - didn't know he wasn't subscribed)
<madodel What other type posts?
<DCasey Swanee yes .. anything OS/2 related that's newsworthy
<Projects or eCS related
*  Projects ducks
<madodel It's actually not moderated yet. But to this point the volume has been so low it hasn't mattered
<DCasey Didn't Warpcast have a policy of not accepting announcements from Commercial vendors?
<Projects oh, no TM :)
<Swanee OK, another Q: Do all the submissions to "news" go into a separate directory?
<DCasey That's a good question
*  Swanee is just thinking... (grind... whirrrr....)
<madodel What does that mean? Another directory?
<madodel I have no idea what MajorMajor does with them
<DCasey Yes .. they are in their own directory
<Swanee MADodel: I'm wondering if all the news submissions are placed in a separate directory from any other mail that MajorMajor recieves
<DCasey I just checked the directory structure on VOICE1
<Swanee DCasey: OK
<madodel So each list has it's own directory? I didn't know that
<DCasey I may be mistaken ...
<Swanee I'm sure I could do something to process them and get them ready for sending out so a moderator could just approve them and then send.
<DCasey Let me do some more looking
<DCasey I think I was in the old directory structure from Hethmon's mail server
<madodel Swanee: MajorMajor already has a moderator feature. We just need a way to get posted announcements on a web page
<DCasey OK .. I think it's still the same
<DCasey each mailing list seems to have it's own directory
<Swanee That shouldn't be too difficult.
<DCasey I need to get with Abel and see which directories are actually in use (and get rid of the ones that aren't)
<madodel Can we also build an archive of old Warpcast posts? That would give us a few years of archive
<Swanee MADodel: Yes
<madodel I have Warpcast posts back to july 1998
<Swanee I've already written rexx to update webpages from directories full of information. This wouldn't be too difficult.
<madodel great, now all we need to do is come up with a method for multiple moderators to determine when to post. We also will need volunteers for moderators
<DCasey Swanee GREAT!
<madodel We don't want every moderator posting the same announcement
<Swanee MADodel: One dir for incoming and they get archived after being posted. Mods can just watch the incoming dir.
<Sector Some sort of holding place for the messages where the moderators could check on new message and approve or disaprove them
<madodel Swanee: Watch how?
<DCasey Sector That could be the ditrectory for the submit@ e-mail address
<DCasey ?
<Swanee MADodel: We'd have to write a rexx script to update the webpage for mods.
<Sector A web interface to this directory where designated moderators could approve the post so it goes out and gets archived, or disapprove where it simply gets deleted
<mandie or edited
<madodel OK, so moderators get an email that a post has been received. they then check the directory and approve/disappove it for posting.
<Swanee MADodel: We could do it that way
<DCasey If the SUBMIT@ address is just a POP3 account, then the posts go nowhere, by deafault
*  Projects thinks that getting an email would be pointless... there'll be news everyday. You really want all those notices?
<DCasey The moderators could check the inbox of that account periodically
<madodel It's an alias
<Swanee I will assume that MajorMajor has a filter system that we can route mail or run rexx against it?
<Swanee Like: anything with [NEWS] in the header goes here or whatever we specify?
<Sector Check the page when they have time, no need to get flooded with emails that might tell a moderator about something submited that's allready been sent out or deleted
<ccatgirl whats this room about
<Sector !ask voice
<VoiceBot [voice] Virtual OS/2 International Consumer Education (mandie)
<Rat-Salad hehe
<DCasey ccatgirl It's about OS/2 ... IBM's Operating System/2
<Swanee haha
<Chrissy I think she was lost...
<mandie Sector: ideally, the postings could be checked nightly at a specific (approx) time....moderators could rotate days/nights
<ccatgirl i never saw this room was just wondering
<Swanee She was probably looking for #hottub
<ccatgirl no i wasnt
<Swanee haha
<ccatgirl ha ha
<DCasey If we had an actual e-mail account setup as submit@ .. and the news@ list was limited to posting only by certain people (moderators) .. would that make it any easier?
<Sector I'de rather check more often then that... Get the posts out, if checked just once a night/day could build up a bit.
<DCasey You could have as many or as few "moderators" as needed
<madodel Sector: so would I. We want to be responsive
<Swanee MADodel: Could you zip the WarpCast dirs and an example webpage and send it to me?
<Rat-Salad its funny when they wander in like that :)
<DCasey If a :moderator: checked the inbox, the posts would be deleted from there (providing the mail client was set to remove posts from the server)
<mandie even funnier when you "think" they've wandered out already :)
<madodel I could send the Warpcast posts, but I have no idea on what the web page should look like
<Swanee mandie: hajha, she did but she came back just as I hit
<DCasey The "moderator could then send the pst on to the NEWS list .. and the archiving could be done from there
<Swanee DCasey: True... good thinking
<DCasey No duplicate posts
<DCasey since whoever last checked the inbox at submit would have removed them
<madodel Could we subscribe a different email address to the list to build a different directory for the archive
<DCasey newsarchive@os2voice.org?
<madodel Swanee: I have 4178 Warpcast posts - 876,575 bytes according to MR2ICE
<Swanee MADodel: I can take an email that big if you want to send it.
<Projects Swanee: won't be that "big"... just watch out for 4178 incoming messages... :-)
<mandie or ftp it
<Swanee My isp is changing mail servers and the one I'm on goes offline tonight. Guess I'd better get cracking on changing my setup. I've been avoiding it until now.
<DCasey As to the webpage ... I'd think a chronologicaly ordered list by subject that links to the text of the post should suffice
<Swanee MADodel: Can I get it via FTP?
<Sector At least they let you know about it...
<Sector Should be a search feature as well
<madodel I just found a few more in an older archive.
<Swanee DCasey: We'd still need some kind of header and footer for it. They don't have to be fancy.
<madodel Swanee: I can setup my ftp server, but I can't leave it up.
<Swanee MADodel: Just let me know when, where and what time and I can get it.
<DCasey Header and Footer for the page?
<Swanee MADodel: If it is a pain to setup hjust email it to me Mark.
<madodel Shouldn't we have a page with just dates-subjects which link to either individual posts, or maybe a month's worth of posts?
<Swanee DCasey: Yeah, that's no big deal. I'll do it so you can change it when ever you want.
<madodel Doesn't Seth have a shell page he uses?
<DCasey MADodel Maybe weekly and monthly?
<madodel Course how will it be searchable?
<madodel We don't have a search engine on os2voice.org
<Swanee MADodel: search.cgi
<DCasey Searchable would be nice ... but I don't think that's a priority right now
<madodel Though Warpcast's subjects should be pretty useful for doing a find
<Swanee search.cgi is free and works pretty well. Does Abel have Perl setup on the server?
<madodel Maybe Date-subject and poster
<DCasey Swanee not sure if he does or not
<DCasey I know he was fiddling with perl a while back
<Swanee If he does, search.cgi would work really well.
<madodel I'm still waiting for MR2ICE to finish up moving those old posts to my Warpcast folder. It's a big archive it's moving from.
<DCasey Maybe we could use that for a search engine in the newsletters as well
<madodel anything would be better then what we have on the newsletter
<DCasey The JAVA search engine we have now is slow
<DCasey and innacurate
*  Projects muttered something about that last meeting
<DCasey Swanee where do we find search.cgi?
<DCasey Projects I remember it being muttered ... just not who muttered it :-)
<Projects spent about 3 hours looking for an article...
<Swanee I have it but there is a place to get it customized automatically for you on the internet. I'll find it.
<Sector Hello again os2r
<Swanee http://users.hypermart.net/autocgi/
<DCasey Thanks
<DCasey I'll pass that along to Abel
<DCasey So I don't screw up the usernakes and directories and such :-))
<DCasey usernames, even
<os2r is there anyway to get lotus smartsuite to install on a large harddrive? i just want it over the original install and it's a drive with 5g free
<Swanee DCasey: That is especially for Hypermart hosted sites but it will give you the adjusted script and how to install. We can edit the script for the proper directory later
<DCasey Oh .. OK
<DCasey os2r which version?
<os2r 1.51
<DCasey It should install .. what error are you getting?
<mandie how secure is that...giving out the username and directory to the site
<os2r not enough space.....i
<Swanee os2r: Is it because you have more than 2 megs free? How about having a rexx script write a 3 meg file to be deleted after the installation.
<os2r it only sees 100mb
<mandie nevermind :)
<Swanee os2r: Yep, sounds like it
<os2r and it's wseb fp2
<DCasey What hard drives? IDE or SCSI?
<os2r scsi
<DCasey Controller?
<os2r adaptec 2940u2w
<DCasey Which SCSI Controller card?
<DCasey OK .. Look in your config.sys file and see if there is a BASEDEV statement loading the SYM8XX.ADD driver
<os2r nope
<DCasey Hmm
<DCasey Is the AIC78U2.ADD driver loading?
*  Projects has to go... will catch up with the logfile