VOICE - General Meeting for 2003-10-04
<WalterOS2> (VOICE Meeting starts)
<WalterOS2> Mark, since your here now, why don't you give us your Warpstock report?
<MADodel> I have to look for the report I sent you Walter
<WalterOS2> OK...:-)
<MADodel> Warpstock 2003 is two weeks away. The final schedule is still being worked on, but we have 31 presentations committed, including a panel discussion on "The future of eCS and OS/2" with Lynn H. Maxson, Oliver Stein, Bob St. John, Neil Waldhauer and Oliver Mark.
<MADodel> We have over 100 registrations so far and 5 exhibitors (including VOICE, Serenity, CDS, Stalker Software, Help Desk Computers).
<MADodel> Unfortunately there have been problems with people making hotel reservations. The hotel has on several occasions told people the arpstock room block was full, when it wasn't.
<WalterOS2> That sounds familiar. :-(
<MADodel> We still don't have a finaldecision on the Social event. The Social Event will either be extremely nice but a bit more expensive then in the past (we are looking at a $60 boat tour of the San Francisco Bay, with dinner on board) or cancelled completely. Anyone that has already paid for a social will either receive it for the price they paid, or if it is cancelled they will receive a refund.
<MADodel> At the end of event giveaway, we have for prizes so far, one 50 user licence for Stalker Software's Comunigate Pro, two licences for RSJ CD Writer for OS/2, a CD-RW drive, several wireless routers, a number of books from O'Reilly, and some things from IBM.
<WalterOS2> At WS 2000, people calling the hotel chain's 1-800 number got incorrect information because the people they talked to were out of touch with the hotel itself. :-(
<MADodel> As to the VOICE exhibit, we have 7 volunteers so far. I will send out another announcement to see if I can drum up a few more, but I've been waiting for the schedule to be posted. I will be bringing the VOICE banner for the table.
<MADodel> Finally Douglas Clark will be doing a session on Warp Doctor. ;-)
<KenKrchnr> Mark, I'll be there. I can take a couple of stints at the table if it will help.
<WalterOS2> Yea, Doug!
<MADodel> WalterOS2: Believe it or not this hotel has screwed things up even worse, or at least more often
<WalterOS2> :-(
<MADodel> Ken: That would be a big help
<WalterOS2> I'm very envious of Doug...
<WalterOS2> :-)
<MADodel> I'll add you to my list. That would make 8 people. :-)
<MADodel> Doug is also doing a session on WarpIn
<WalterOS2> Great!
<WalterOS2> Mark: Do you know what Communigate Pro is?
<MADodel> We were initially worried we wouldn't have enough sessions, now we have so many that making the schedule is difficult. We are using all four rooms.
<MADodel> WalterOS2: Communigate Pro is a mail server
<WalterOS2> That's a nice problem to have.
<WalterOS2> It sounds like they would be good candidates for a SpeakUp.
<MADodel> It is better then not having enough, but we need the schedule completed. People want to know when things are and I need the schedule to put in the event guide
<MADodel> I can give you a contact name but I'm not sure they would know anything about IRC
<MADodel> That's pretty much all I have for Warpstock.
<WalterOS2> If you give me the name, I can educate them. :-)
<MADodel> I will email it to you
<WalterOS2> Thanks, Mark.
<WalterOS2> OK, let's go to the Agenda. Has everyone read it? :-)
<KenKrchnr> Continuing with the Warpstock thread, I stuck the Warpstock banner on os2voice.org. But I haven't activated it as I haven't had a chance to talk to Jeremy.
<WalterOS2> As a reminder it's at http://www.os2voice.org/Agendas/voice_2003-10-04.html
<KenKrchnr> Try http://www.os2voice.org/indexws.html
<WalterOS2> I don't see a banner.
<WalterOS2> I see a broken graphic and and a text link to Warpstock.
<KenKrchnr> Try a reload now
<WalterOS2> OK, it's there now.
<WalterOS2> I think you should activate it, since WS is so close. I wouldn't to lose any registrations just because you couldn't get hold of Jeremy.
<KenKrchnr> OK, will do.
<WalterOS2> Have you emailed Jeremy about it?
<KenKrchnr> I thought he might be here. But I'll email him shortly.
<WalterOS2> OK, great. :-)
<WalterOS2> Next Item regards my info on the telephone support page.
<WalterOS2> I guess I still need to send that to Jeremy, unless he tells me otherwise.
<WalterOS2> There have been so many changes in the leadership, I almost need a program to keep track of them. :-)
<WalterOS2> Ken, do you remember Jeremy saying he wanted to be relieved of the Webmaster role, or is that just my imagination?
<KenKrchnr> Not your imagination.
<WalterOS2> That's a relief.
<KenKrchnr> He was going to send a mailing to ask for a volunteer.
<WalterOS2> OK, thanks.
<WalterOS2> I had hoped to finalize some of the details of moving our Server, but I don't think we can realistically do with just the three of here. :-(
<WalterOS2> ...three of us...
<KenKrchnr> It would be difficult, but if Mark has any answers to the question of who maintains the FORUMS site, it would help.
<WalterOS2> On that thought, here's what Vaughn said he needs to be done wrt Weasel and MajorMajor:
<WalterOS2> Hi
<WalterOS2> All I need to do is zip up the weasel directory and the Majormajor directory and ftp it over to the other server. if the two pieces of
<WalterOS2> software are going to reside on different drive letters then I need to make some minor changes.
<WalterOS2> or
<WalterOS2> I can export the user lists of weasel, and Majormajor and reimport them into newly installed software and then do some tests.
<WalterOS2> I would rather just zip up the directories and move them over...less work and less bugs to work out.
<WalterOS2> Sincerely
<WalterOS2> Vaughn
<WalterOS2> ----------------------------------------------
<KenKrchnr> OK, that's been done :-) We already mirror both onto voice2.
<WalterOS2> Sorry, I should have put a line after my line ending "wrt Weasel and Major".
<WalterOS2> Mark: Are you still here?
<WalterOS2> Ken: If by forums you mean the Ceiligh forums, the answer to your question would: moi!
<KenKrchnr> Ahh, that makes it easier.
<KenKrchnr> How do you maintain them?
<WalterOS2> Their pretty much self-maintaining. Once I got them set up the way Terry (and I) liked them, I rarely look at them. When maintainance is required it's done using a special Ceilidh utility.
<KenKrchnr> Ok, then they should work just the same when switched to voice2. They are in a different place on voice2, but if you use the web interface it won't make any difference.
<WalterOS2> If you keep them in the same drive letter and directory structure that they are now--which I highly recommend--you can do a simple XCOPY to transfer them.
<WalterOS2> Let me check something...
<KenKrchnr> I went through and fixed all that up when I initially moved them. Since then (June) they have been mirrored. I check that the mirror and main site are showing the same info every once in a while.
<WalterOS2> In several cases, the drive letter in which Ceilidh is installed/running is hard-coded into the files. :-(
<WalterOS2> The same is true of the directory structure.
<KenKrchnr> Yes, I found that. They are taken care of.
<WalterOS2> What you mean: "taken care of"?
<KenKrchnr> I fixed all the hard coded references when I moved the structures. On voice2 I tried to keep 1 "public" drive. So forums is in \home\forums
<WalterOS2> OK, good. We should try running/using Ceilidh in voice2 before the changeover, just in case there something you missed. :-)
<WalterOS2> Believe me, it's easy to do. :-)
<KenKrchnr> Yes, we will. It's a necessity :-)
<WalterOS2> What's the best way to do that without changing the existing data?
<KenKrchnr> We can set the "hosts" file to point to voice2 for forums.os2voice.org, then try all functions.
<WalterOS2> Where is the data (i.e. live messages) now?
<WalterOS2> I'm getting a tad confused. :-)
<KenKrchnr> On voice2 drive 'E'cplusplus seems to be the most used.
<KenKrchnr> Strangely enough, I don't see much new activity. August 27 is last I see.
<WalterOS2> Terry Norton is running his C++ course in that forum.
<WalterOS2> Maybe he's finished the course..I'll have to check.
<WalterOS2> No, the course is still on--I checked the current issue of eZine. Maybe he's lost everyone. :-)
<KenKrchnr> I'll need to see what the most recent is on voice1. It's been a month or so since I last checked.
<KenKrchnr> No, looks like that's it. I just looked at voice1.
<WalterOS2> Ken: I'm still a little confused. You said we could set the hosts file for voice2--forums.os2voice.org, then do our testing.
<KenKrchnr> Yes, make a hosts entry like -
<WalterOS2> Our testing will involve changing some of the data/message areas.
<KenKrchnr> 206.135.240.102 forums.os2voice.org
<WalterOS2> How do we recover the original data once were finished testing?
<KenKrchnr> Anything we change on that address will get wiped out tonite when the mirror script runs.
<WalterOS2> OK, that clears things up. Thanks. :-)
<KenKrchnr> The biggest thing is to be sure you're on the right site. I have a hard time telling the difference.
<WalterOS2> Then no wonder I do!
<WalterOS2> Both of them are virtual as far as I'm concerned, whereas the machines I usually use are more or less on site.
<WalterOS2> I can see them, IOW.
<KenKrchnr> Before going to the test site, I do a "host forums.os2voice.org" to be sure it's address is correct, then I purge the cache in Mozilla.
<WalterOS2> Ah..the Mozilla cache. That would be nice trap. :-)
<KenKrchnr> Caught me more than once ;-)
<WalterOS2> Have you got a script set up to do that?
<KenKrchnr> I just leave a bunch of addresses setup in the hosts file, #'g out what I don't want at the time.
<KenKrchnr> 192.168.0.7 voice2
<KenKrchnr> # 192.168.0.7 www.warpdoctor.org www.webbnet.info www.os2voice.org forums.
<KenKrchnr> # 206.135.240.102 www.os2voice.org os2voice.org www.warpstock.org
<KenKrchnr> # 206.135.240.102 forums.os2voice.org os2voice.com
<KenKrchnr> # 206.135.240.98 www.warpdoctor.org # www.webbnet.info www.os2voice.org
<WalterOS2> I find scripts invaluable for those tasks where's easy to leave something out but where it's critical it be done right.
<KenKrchnr> The main thing to remember is that the browser needs to be restarted after changing the hosts file. That one will really cause a problem.
<WalterOS2> Have you notice that the Hosts tab of TCP/IP Config object sort of chokes at "#" characters?
<KenKrchnr> Yes, that's one of the reasons I don't use it.
<WalterOS2> I still use the # technique, I just try to be careful. :-)
<KenKrchnr> I have to change mine so often it's easier to do manually. The only way for me to see locally hosted sites is by using the internal address (192.168.0.7), then when I go home I have to go back to standard addresses.
<WalterOS2> I have never managed to conquer the technique of "programming" \mptn\bin\setup.cmd, so I have to use the TCP/IP for at least that. :-)
<WalterOS2> TCP/IP Config Tool, I mean.
<KenKrchnr> It's really not too bad. I even made a script for 1 of our guys here to switch between hardcoded address and dhcp while he was at his vacation place each weekend.
<WalterOS2> I realized a little while ago that Mark isn't around: He goes to church at 4 pm on Saturdays.
<KenKrchnr> He did say he'd only be around for a little bit.
<WalterOS2> Yes, I was hoping he would be here long enough to tell us how the Newsletters are posted to the server.
<WalterOS2> You wouldn't happen to know, would you?
<KenKrchnr> Yes, that's going to be the big one. I know there are several people working on it, but all I know is Mark said they ftp the stuff to the server.
<KenKrchnr> The question is how they collaborate during the editing and such. I saw some stuff was by email, but we need to be
<KenKrchnr> sure we don't knock anybody out when things are changed.
<KenKrchnr> Walter, you looking at forums.os2voice? I just posted a test message in cplusplus on (I hope) voice2.
<WalterOS2> First, I just fired off an email to Mark asking how the Newsletters are posted to the server.
<KenKrchnr> OK, it worked. I just went back to voice1 and it isn't there.
<WalterOS2> I'm sorry, I wasn't looking at the forums. :-)
<WalterOS2> Having written several articles myself, I believe the collaboration is done by email. I know the authors of each articles develop the article on their own, and email them to Mark/Christian. Then then upload them to the server.
<WalterOS2> However, we need confirmation of this.

<WalterOS2> Well, I guess we should bring this "meeting" to an end. Do you want to the honours?
<WalterOS2> ...want to do...
<KenKrchnr> Motion to adjourn
<WalterOS2> All in favour?
<WalterOS2> Aye
<KenKrchnr> Aye
<WalterOS2> Meeting adjourned.