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RAIN IS BACK
Wilder & Wetter
Bigger & Better
PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS NEWSLETTER STARTS WITH THE MOST RECENT INFO AT THE TOP.
THAT WAY, YOU DON'T HAVE TO PAGE THRU OLD STUFF THAT YOU HAVE ALREADY READ!
The newsletter currently contains news going back to Janice's last messages
before I took over.
December 30, 1995 2 PM
I have put the CDs back on line, with some trepidation. Hopefully, the
CD server will behave now.
December 29, 1995 11:20 AM
Diane Werner, a longtime faithful subscriber, won the year's subscription
for being the 250,000th caller, yesterday, on her birthday too!
Thanks go to Randal Black for contributing to the Timedoor Trivia.
December 21, 1995 12:30
Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Kwaanza Greetings, Bah Humbug, or
whatever holiday greeting suits. Happy New Year too to all. May 1996 be
a better year for all of us.
December 19, 1995 11:10 AM
Regarding the CDRom files, if anyone wants files out of any of the
CDRom directorys, just leave me a message and I'll put them where they are
accessible.
December 18, 1995 1:30 PM
The CDRom server has been taken offline again temporarily, as it has
developed major instability , again! This has caused several user crashes
lately. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, this may or may not be
related to the power outages.
Just a reminder, the 250,000th caller gets a one year paid subscription.
We are now at 249,297, so the magic # should be right at the end of the year.
December 15, 1995 1:30 PM
There are some new files in the Adult areas, mostly in #87. For some
reason, the system is not putting the current date on these when they are
uploaded, so they would not be picked up on a new files listing.
If any subscriber would like a week extra added to their time to make up
for the down time, please let me know.
December 15, 1995 11:30 AM
Finally somewhat back to normal, other than the problem with the new
SCSI drive, which does not affect the running of the system. The satellite
dish is working again. Turned out the receiver was fine, the problem was
that when the nose cone blew off, it loosened the cable at the LNB, so no
data was coming through. $600 later, for new motherboard and hard drive,
hopefully UPS insurance will compensate.
December 14, 1995 Midnight
Finally have it back up and running, sort of. The new hard drive
refused to cooperate, so finally had to set the server to boot from A:.
We still need to get the satellite operating again, but the system itself
should run OK (I hope). Enough is enough for one day, so will tackle this
again tomorrow.
December 14, 1995 9:00 PM
We are still working on the system. Picked up the server late this after-
noon, complete with new hard driver to replace the fried one. Having major
problems getting it set up again. Please have patience. Although the main
new server is running fine, and would load Wildcat, I can't do that. The
first time anyone tried to access something that the old server handles, the
system would crash.
December 13, 1995 5:00 PM
Our power went off here totally last night at 4PM, back on again this
morning at 10:30. However, (again despite the power backup), the old server,
one of the old hard drives, and the satellite receiver got totally fried. I
am going to file a claim against the UPS insurance, as we spent $600 for the
UPS, so as not to have this sort of problem. I took both the server and the
receiver in for repairs this afternoon. I have also ordered a new receiver,
but they are backordered, and it may be several days before it arrives. I
am hoping the old one can be repaired. The repair shop did not have some of
the parts needed, so it will be tomorrow afternoon, before I can pick up the
server, probably tomorrow evening before we're back up again. (Hopefully!)
December 11, 1995 4:45 PM
The Intelec network is now about 90% implemented. Everything is coming
in nicely, into conferences #s1500-1700. The outgoing still has to be done.
December 11, 1995 9:00 AM
Sorry about that! As only one person called me at home, I guess
everyone figured that East County weather got me again. The system went
down around 10:30 Saturday, and didn't recover (despite the brand new $600
power backup!). I live 2 miles away, at the end of a quarter mile of steep
driveway, much of which had 2 inches of ice on it. It didn't start melting
until 11 PM last night. Everything seems to be back up OK, except the
satellite feed, which I'll tackle next. PS: Fixed that easily enough,
however, 2 days worth of messages and files have been lost. Everything is
running fine again.
December 04, 1995 3:00 PM
We are going to hit the 250,000th caller very soon, probably before the
end of December. Whichever caller hits that mark will receive a 1 year free
subscription, that will be a nice Christmas present for someone.
On the subject of presents, don't forget that you can buy a gift
subscription, see Bulletin #12!
IGA users, please note that there have been some changes to conference
numbers, and some new ones added. There are quite a few more that I have not
put on yet, but will if people want them.
I was down a little longer than usual today, increasing the size of the
file and conference areas. This is in preparation to adding the Intelec
Network.
A reminder: take another look at TVAgent. Bulletin # 14 contains more
info.
A serious problem with RIME routed mail, now appears to have been
fixed, thanks to constant noodges from Bob Donahue. This is one that
should have been fixed long ago, but sort of slid by. Please let me know
if anyone has any further problems with it.
November 30, 1995 12:15 PM
There are now over 50,000 files in the RAIN libraries! Most of these
are new since I took over the system.
November 29, 1995, 2:20 PM
One of my users, Robert Short, has just very kindly uploaded 133 files
to RAIN. Please note that while some of them are old, they are all items
that are new to RAIN. The lot includes games, utilities and educational
programs. There are some particularly nice programs in the educational
portion, now moved to File Area #17.
November 25, 1995 3:30 PM
Happy late Thanksgiving to all. Had 20+ people at my house, so that
kept me busy for a few days, not much done here!
I have changed GOODFILE to ALLFILES to be more in line with standard
usage. This is updated daily, and lists all of the nearly 50,000 files
now on RAIN.
Per the suggestion and help of Robert Short, I am moving all the WADs,
game characters, and misc. game utilities into a new file area, #40. This
should be finished within a few days, if not sooner. Some may have noticed
that there is now a separate file area #44 for Epic games only. I am also
adding a new area #37 for Construction and Engineering type programs. If
anyone is interested in dividing out any of the other file areas, and
would like to work with me on it, please let me know. You can earn
subscription extensions.
I am also working on adding several new networks in the near future,
starting with Intelec.
November 13, 1995 1:45 PM
Re recent problems with crashes again:
1. Phone lines, talked to the phone co. again, seems to have
helped some.
2. File Area 71 (Shareware CDRom) appears to be acting up again,
I deleted what I thought were the offending files, no help, so have taken
it offline temporarily. I have an update to install anyway, so there will
be new files, when it goes back online.
3. Several nodes lost their time this morning, causing all sorts
of interesting problems.
November 10, 1995 7:45PM
Major power outage today, 3000 people out for 4 hours including RAIN!
We have just purchased a power supply that will take care of brownouts and
power surges, but it sure won't take care of 4 hours out. Sorry!!!!
November 1, 1995 4:45PM
To answer complaints regarding changes in the system login, requiring
2 ESCs on the 3rd node.
Regarding the phone numbers; they currently ring in the following
sequence (which I have just verified with the phone company):
695-3250 5th line not in rotation
695-3260 used for Sysop, and incoming/
695-3261 outgoing mail
695-3290
back to 3250
This means that 3261 is 3rd in line. If you get 3261, by dialing 3290 when
the board is empty, something is wrong at the phone company. I have asked
them to change the rotation so that 3261 is at the end of the line. I have
had a LOT of phone line problems here, and at one time did ask people not
to use 3250. That seems to have been fixed, and should be OK to use. If
you use it, you ordinarily would not wind up on 3261, unless the board is
full.
Regarding the login change to asking which "John Smith" you are, I had
too many occurrances of people with the same name, calling in, and the
system has to have some way to diferentiate between 2 or more John Smith's.
Now as to the pesky ESC sequences, the problem is mostly solved,
if you are not on 3261. Why did I put this in? Because of user requests to
carry Fido style conferences! I have just spent the last week in setting
this up, thinking I was making some people happy. I sure didn't think it
would piss someone off. What good is it? The conferences first added all
belong to the International Genealogy Association. The same very necessary
programs will also handle the main Fido conferences, and many smaller
conferences using the same technology. This may not be important to some,
but it is to others. I cannot run the Fido style conferences without
FrontDoor and the ESCs, which is only on 3261.
Just so you are warned, other changes are in the offing. I plan to keep
on making improvements and responding to user' requests as much as possible.
One of the next changes will be in the screens, with improved, easier to use
menus. However, I am sure some people may find that hard to get used to,
too.
October 31, 1995 1:30 PM
IGA bugs finally licked, and all incoming and outgoing messages seem to
be operating perfectly. Setting up Fido style conferences turned out to be
a major pain the Butt! Another thing that Janice apparently had running at
one time, which got lost in the transitions. Read next paragraph for more
info.
October 17, 1995 12:15
International Genealogy is now basically set up and running, I have
processed part of the incoming messages that have stacked up, and will finish
the rest soon. These are in conference #s 898-915. Incoming files will be
in File Area 97. These are open to everyone, except that you have to be in
one of the IGA conferences in order to access the File area. I have also
changed all the satellite conferences to read only, as outgoing messages
placed in them won't go out, and messages to me should be in Conf. 0. Now
that IGA is setup, the infrastructure is in place for all the other networks
brought in via satellite. If anyone wants one of them, please say so!
October 18, 1995 2:00PM
Finally, the last of the old hard drives has been reformatted, and the
messages are being moved back onto it. It will now have room enough for the
binaries whenever the satellite starts sending those down. We have added
one new server, 5 new drives, done a lot of system tweaking, and moved
data and programs all around to maximize the use of the new drives.
Unfortunately, a lot of this has to be done with the system down, there
is no other way around it, and it has caused some extra crashes while
finetuning the additional equipment. Apologies to anyone who has been
inconvenienced in the process. We are still working hard to make RAIN the
best BBS in the Northwest. There is now nearly 50,000 files in the system,
most of them new since I took over.
We are currantly working on adding the International Genealogy Network
to RAIN, hopefully this will be online within the next two weeks.
October 12, 1995 7:00PM
Sorry about that, landlord broke my satellite coax cable. In the
process of getting that fixed, the entire system went down!
October 12, 1995 11:30 AM
Not too much new and exciting. The usual troubleshooting, fixes and
updating. Lots of new files coming in. Windows 95 shareware files coming
in now (File Area #60). Still waiting to hear back from the International
Geneaolgy Assoc. so I can get that set up. Project Gutenberg files are all
being moved into their own File Area #70. One user complained that Internet
Email was not going out. Has anyone else had this problem?
Anyone not doing new file searches, ought to try it, as there are new
goodies almost every day. Today's crop included utilities, Windows programs,
music files (RAR) and many more.
October 5, 1995 1:30PM
@#$%^&* The system decided to go bonkers around 10AM, don't know whether
there was a power surge or what. I get in late on Thursday, so didn't
discover it until 1PM, another half hour to fix it. To repeat: if the phones
aren't answering, please call me at home so I can fix it!!!!!
September 30, 1995 12:30
New drives all in, data mostly transferred, parameters tweaked etc.
There were several crashes on Node 1 this week, due to missing one important
tweak, which is now fixed. Major downtime this morning due to transferring
the entire Wildcat running files to one of the new drives. The system
should now be running faster and smoother! And we should not have any more
major down time for a while. Apologies to anyone who was inconvenienced in
the changeover.
September 23, 1995 12:45
We will be putting in one more new hard drive tomorrow to service the
Planet Connect incoming feed. Starting fairly soon, PC will be transmitting
the binaries, which we are not now receiving. This will require a lot more
disk space. So we will probably be down an hour or so with no message again,
while doing this.
September 21, 1995 2:30 PM
Apologies to all who tried to get on this morning, and got no answer.
Apparently there was a power outage, and the system did not recover properly
by itself. Thursday is the one day that I come in late, and I have no way of
knowing that it is down, unless someone calls me at home and tells me.
September 16, 1995 6:45 PM
Down time today was caused by adding 4 new hard drives to the system, in
a new file server. This should speed up file access, once we get all the
files transferred into their new locations. We may be down a little longer
than usual during the next few maintenance cycles in order to reformat the
old drives, and do the file transfers.
September 12, 1995 11:30 AM
Well, today is the anniversary. One year since I officially took over
this board! Sure doesn't seem like a whole year has passed since Janice
handed me the keys. I sure didn't have any idea what I was getting into. I
hope those who have hung in there with me are pleased with the progress to
date. A lot has been done, but there is still a long way to go.
September 6, 1995 2:30 PM
Finished fixing the rest of the Sunrise games. They all seem to be OK
from my end, I'm sure someone will let me know if there are still any
glitches.
September 5, 1995 12:30
As many may have noticed, we were down most of Labor Day. This is
because we finally got around to organizing the hardware, stacking it on
new shelves, fixing the rat's nest wire tangles etc.. It is now much easier
to care for, and much less subject to downing the system because someone
tripped over a wire and pulled it loose. Thank you for your patience while
we were doing this. The next improvement coming up will probably be the new
screens. The Sunrise games are now nearly all updated and organized.
August 30, 1995 1:30 PM
Was down a little longer today, adding some new file and conference areas.
There are new Adult areas on disk, with a few new files in them including
some of the Japanese Anime. I am also preparing to add the International
Genealogy conferences and files to the system. New Usenet conferences
include #35 for G-rated Japanese Anime, and #135 for soc.roots.
August 21, 1995 2 PM
Haven't written much here lately. Just been busy trying to get new stuff
into the system. New files, game updates etc. Sunday, there was a pool
tournament for BBS Sysops and their users, which I will publicize better the
next time it comes up. There was people there from RAIN, Silver Bullet,
Weirhouse, and Fire & Ice. My brother, who has been helping me lately, went
with me. He used to be a toprate player, and myself a fair one. However,
RAIN didn't win! I guess we need a lot more practive. If anyone is
interested in playing in the next one, let me know.
The system has been pretty stable now since July 17, when the last user
crash (that I know of) occurred. I didn't think it would take this long to
get there. I have mailing out newsletters in batches of 100, so some of you
have gotten yours by now, some have not.
Grateful Dead fans, check out files in File Area 68.
August 12, 1995 11:50 AM
Yesterday, I noticed someone dropping out of a New files search at the
end of File Area # 14. New files are NOT all in that File area. There are
several different ways that files go into the system, some go into #14 or 15
unsorted, and are cleaned up and moved to the proper file areas later. Many
go directly into their proper file areas, and if you stop at #14 or 15, you
will never see them! Also, Adult users MUST be in an Adult conference in
order to access the Adult file area!!
August 9, 1995 11:00 AM
Forgot to mention before: on July 30, we finally dialed in the Galaxy 4
satellite, after several previous failed attempts to do so. The old
satellite got phased out rather suddenly. The data seems to be coming in
better on the new one. This means more new files, and more messages in the
newsgroups, as it will no longer be missing out on some of them.
In case anyone has been wondering why there are no binary pictures in
newsgroups that contain same; we are not getting them from our service
provider. The Planet Connect band width is not able to carry them, so they
are being stripped out of the newsgroups. PC is planning to offer a 100K
bandwidth service sometime in the next few months, it is in the beta stage
at present. I can subscribe to it, when it becomes available, however, it
will cost me an additional $500-800. This is an undisguised pitch to
everyone to help get more subscribers, as I am still not covering overhead.
This should be of particular interest to the Adult area subscribers.
I have added several new conferences for the binaries, as soon as they
are available.
There are also several new RIME conferences:
#1198 Urban Legends
#1376 Chronic Pain Support
#1473 Birds
#1474 Babylon 5
#1475 Diabetes Support
Names of some RIME conferences have been changed slightly
RIME conferences closed include:
#1145 Multi-Taskers
#1233 Atari
#1326 IDC
#1327 Qualitas
#1466 Single Touch
August 8, 1995 10:20PM
The first newsletter mailing (of about 100 out of a total of 600) went
out on 7/31, the 2nd 100 today. The rest should go out by the end of August,
so that all current and expired subscribers will have a real newsletter to
look at, and refer to.
August 7, 1995 1:10 PM
Down time today was to do a Wildcat maintenance update, in addition to
the regular maintenance.
August 5, 1995 11:30 AM
Another batch (5) of Sunrise games have been updated, they are now all
the latest versions through Ladders. You may notice that I have been
rearranging them as I went, so that they are in alphabetical order. Hilo is
a new card game, not there before.
July 28, 1995 2:15
Someone complained about the mystery ZIS/ZIV files, so I am trying to
add at least a brief description to them, as some of them appear to be of
some value.
July 24, 1995 3:15
The update shareware CDRom went on today. The routine that added new
files, added a large number of *.ZIS & *.ZIV files. Unfortunately, these
were not listed in the master files list that comes with the disk, and most
of them did not contain a FILE_ID.DIZ. However, they are ALL ZIP files in
disguise, some have game PCX's in them. PKunzip will undo them, if you
decide to take a chance on any of them.
July 19, 1995 12:20
In case anyone notices the total file count going down today, I deleted
another batch of old, unused obsolete files to make more room for new ones.
I have also been working on a newsletter that should go in the mail very
soon.
July 12, 1995 2:30 PM
Timedoor appears to be fixed, bad IO card!
July 11, 1995 10:30 AM
The total file count is back up over 30,000 again for the 1st time since
I deleted all the bad files. As I also keep deleting old, unused files, or
obsolete and duplicate version, this file count now represents a truly
excellent selection of new stuff. The message count total runs around
200,000, a far cry from the basically 0 message count when I started.
File Area #90 contains only RAR files. This is a new compression
program. Many of the RAR files appear to be music associated. Again, as
with the HN files, if anyone downloads any of these, clue me in.
I am finally starting to get some of the Amiga files on, there are over
2000 of these in backlog at the moment. Also, for any of you running your
own board, there are hundreds of BBS files in Areas 31 & 32.
We are currently working on new Menu screens, both RIP & ASCII. Would
appreciate some feedback. If anyone wants to see changes in these, now is
the time to do it! We hope to have the new screens on by the end of July.
They will be brighter, more attractive, and hopefully, easier to use.
Wildcat 4.11 is in, hope to put that on next Monday, or the following
Monday at the latest.
Still working on the Timedoor problem on Node 1 (the new box). It
appears that the problem occurrs when people try to hurry along their exit
by hitting Return. This locks up the system royally. This does not occur
on any other node.
June 30, 1995 10:00PM
File Area # 91 now has some files in it with an .HN ending. These are
actually Zip files that contain other zip files, and apparently come from
something called Hintnet. I have no idea what they are, except that some of
them seem to be some sort of film clips. If anyone looks at these, let me
know what they are, and whether they are worth the trouble to put them on.
June 25, 1995 5:20 PM
The CDRom file areas are back online, appeared to be a set of bad files
that caused the problem.
June 25, 1995 1:30 AM
The CDRom file areas are temporarily offline, until I can find out why
it is crashing. They will be back soon.
June 23, 1995 10:50PM
File area # 71 has an updated CDRom in it, with about 70 new files.
Unfortunately, the company that issues this one, changed their file structure
and in dealing with getting the new structure into the database, I lost the
new file information. The next update is due in July, and that should be
handled better.
June 19, 1995 1:00PM
I have a new box on Node 1, the idea being to alleviate crashes which
seemed to occur more on 1 than anywhere else. However, it appears that this
box has a problem with Timedoor. If anyone wants to use Timedoor, please
call in on one of the other lines until this is fixed!
June 18, 1995 2:00PM
There are some changes in the RIME conferences, some new ones and some
name changes. I have also made some changes in a few of the Internet
conferences. Please read Bulletin # 1 for details.
June 15, 1995 10:00 AM
Keeping fingers crossed! It seems like the system is FINALLY beginning
to stabilize. I am seeing far fewer crashes, which I am sure is appreciated
by all you users. So time I was spending troubleshooting, can now be spent
more constructively. More files are going in to the system all the time.
At one time Janice apparently had 45,000 files, when I took it over, there
were about 30,000 listed. Many of these did not exist, were old, or were
duplicates. After massive pruning, the file list went down to 18,000, is
back up to 25,000 now. The Goodfiles.lst is accurate and up to date.
ALL the CDRom file areas are operational now, 2 are for Adult material only.
BTW, so far, only 1 user has signed up for Adult use. There seems to be some
objections to the legal requirements, which unfortunately are necessary for
my protection.
Some of you may have noticed the new little screen that comes up when
the system is down, and tells you what is happening, which is tremendously
helpful.
June 12, 1995 12:30PM
I see I haven't written anything for a while. Been busy adding
files, fixing hardware problems etc. As many of you already know, I managed
to bump a power cord Saturday, hard disks went down, trashed file database.
Rebuild took from 2PM Saturday to 8:30 AM Sunday. My last backup was 5 days
old, and was missing about 1000 files that I had added. That will teach me
not to back up every day!!!! At least now I have the screen setup that tells
people what is happening when it is down.
June 4, 1995 10:40 AM
Ignore comment below about file dates, technical problem solved. Areas
73 & 84 will be going on with today's date after all. New areas # 72
Internet Info & # 83 Adult-Digital Dreams will be going on later this week
as well.
June 3, 1995 3:45PM
Files from two more CD-Roms started going on today, File Area #73, Space
Pics & File Area #84 (Adult access only). Please note that both of these
are going in with their true file dates, not today's date, for various tech-
nical reasons. The files in CDRom area #74 Tech Lib. are going in under
today's date. More problems solved in the message areas, so that is running
much more smoothly.
May 29, 1995 3:30 PM
The "Mark" problem has reared it's ugly head again. When Marking files
in one of the CD Areas (#s72-75), the system occasionally locks up tight.
Use Mark at your own risk. If you can, make a list as you go and enter the
file names at the download screen.
May 28, 1995 2:30PM
I have two other CDs to go on, one with space & other scientific GIFs,
the other with Internet info. However, they are not being as cooperative in
goin on, as the Science Library is. The Adult access should be on by the
end of the week. Two new CDs have been ordered (I am trying to put all new
stuff on the board), and the Adult conferences have been accumulating
messages for several weeks. Look for Adult.txt in the Free File area.
May 24, 1995 2PM
New file Area #74 (CDRom) is now on line with a scientific library. I
add about 100 new files per day from this.
May 23, 1995 1:15 PM
I have making some major changes in some of the startup files, improving
memory management, file sharing etc., hoping to alleviate more of the many
system problems. Unfortunately, one of these changes impacted RIME, and two
days of RIME feed was lost. However, RIME is running again nicely, even as
I write this, and there should be no further problems with it. The CD-Roms
(File Area #71) should be OK now too. I am still waiting on feedback on the
Adult access, I need a copy of Janices' Adult.Txt.
May 20, 1995 5:30 PM
The CDRoms are temporarily off-line while updating some problems with the
server (including a fried power supply, and some setup problems). File area
#71 will not be available until the CD server is back on. However, there are
LOTS of other new file goodies on the system!
May 12, 1995, 2:15 PM
I notice that some people have left the board with a "dropped carrier"
messsage on my end. I need to know if RAIN is dropping the carrier, or if
people are letting it time out on their end.
I am starting to work on the ADULT areas. I need to know if anyone has
a copy of the Adult.txt that Janice used. Apparently Graham deleted it from
the system, as I can't find it anywhere. If anyone has it, please upload it
to # 15. I have implemented a number of adult oriented newsgroups, do not
have any file online yet. Feedback from those interested would be
appreciated.
May 4, 1995 11:30 AM
There hasn't been much here lately, as there hasn't been much of
interest to report. It appears that my last conversations with the phone
company have finally paid off. User crashes have diminished significantly.
Of course, the last time I said that, they started up again! Let's hope that
doesn't happen this time. Anyway, this is the 3rd day in a row WITHOUT A
SINGLE USER CRASH, that I know of.
April 26, 1995 7:40PM
In case anyone missed this on the opening screen. PLEASE, please
TRY to call in on one of the other board lines (3260, 3261 or 3290).
Most of the crashes are occuring on 3250, no matter which node I put it on.
I have asked the phone company to check it out again. They were able to
fix the problems on 3290, I hope they can do something on this.
April 24, 1995 2:30PM
File repair ran again last night, started at Midnight, didn't finish
until 2PM today, which is why the board was down. It took a LOT longer this
time, however, the problem seems to be fixed now. You notice I keep saying
"seems". Every time I think I have something fixed, the system seems to find
some new and innovative way to crash.
April 23, 1995, 4:35 PM
The problem with the hard crashes now seems to be fixed!! You may still
get dumped out of the system occasionally, but at least it does not now lock
you out to where I have to do a complete system reboot to get you back on.
The current problem causing the dumps appears to be a corrupt file database.
I ran repair on it last week, but will have to run it again tonight. Certain
searches just simply bomb out totally, others work fine. I just did some
experimenting, a search for PCX or GIF bombed, FONT did not. So far, the
(M)ark problem in File Areas 71 has not re-surfaced to my knowlege.
April 20, 1995 after midnight
Please note info in Bulletin # 1 about the board problems. File repair
will run again very early on Monday.
April 18, 1995 4:30 PM
I am activating File Area # 71 again, lets hope it works better this
time. Please note that all files are dated yesterday or today, which is
when I ran the update. However, many of the files are actually older
versions than ones that have come in on the satellite, as the shareware disk
is just not as current as the satellite feed. But it does have some things
on it that I wouldn't have otherwise.
April 17, 1995 5:45PM
ALL RIME conferences are now completely enabled again (FINALLY). The
RIME mail drop tomorrow should feed into them. Please note updated
CONFLIST.NEW in File Area # 2. The File Repair ran last night from about
midnight to 8AM. Hopefully, that will solve the occasional file area crash
problems. I have not put any new files on lately, as I kep running into the
bad file records.
The network updates that I ordered are being returned. As it
looks like I am going to have to go to Novell in order to run the full
Internet access, there is no point in spending a lot of money (which I don't
have) on interim fixes. So we will limp along on this network for a while
yet.
April 16, 1995 3:00 PM
I had the system down for a couple of hours just now, adding the rest of
the RIME conferences to Wildcat. This took a little longer than I figured
on, as there were over 200 more. These now have to be entered into the RIME
end of things, which can be done with the system up aand running.
#s 1250-1299 should be in the next Rime mail dump tomorrow. #s 1301-1499
will go in this week. The file repair will start around midnight tonight,
and will take most of the night.
April 14, 1995 1:00 PM
We may be down for quite a while this Monday, as I am going to HAVE to
run file repair, which takes a long time. I have been trying to avoid this
at all costs. There are apparently 2 or 3 corrupted file records out of the
nearly 40,000 total. Every time a file operation happens to run across one
of those, it crashes the whole system, and there is no way to identify which
ones they are by name.
April 12, 1995 6:00 PM
CDRom File Area # 71 is back off line temporarily. When trying to
install the latest disk this morning, I managed to totally mangle the
database. Restored from a 2 day old backup rather than run repair, as
WCRepair takes the whole system offline for 8-10 hours. But I then had to
restore all the file changes made in the last 2 days. Which will make some
files show up as new again today. I am going to wait until the new CDRom
software arrives before I mess with it again, as every time I change a CD, I
seem to run into major problems.
Anyway, if anyone had problems getting in today, it was because of the
above! Sorry!
April 10, 1995 12:45 PM
Haven't put much in the newsletter lately, as things have been fairly
uneventful for a change.
I have added a lot of new files, and have tried to start moving them out
of #14 into their proper file areas faster.
The system seems to have stabilized considerably, a lot less user crashes
lately.
The CDRom Area #71 has not crashed yet either to my knowlege. One of the
drives is out for repair (the 3rd one since I took over the system). I hope
to start getting those promised new CDs online soon.
Planet Connect has been behaving, have lost very few incoming files
lately. I still need to know if anyone is interested in any of the networks
listed in Bulletin # 1.
I have been purging messages after 21 days in most of the conferences, 60
days in local conferences. Once I add the next batch of RIME conferences, I
may have to cut this even closer, as the hard disk is close to running out of
room.
Network and CDRom software updates have been ordered. I will probably
install this next Monday, so may be down for a while Monday morning.
April 3, 1995 1:15 PM
I have put File Area #71 back on line, to see if it behaves this time.
Tests I have run so far have been OK.
April 1, 1995 11:55 AM
Note to RIME users. The incoming RIME starts at 11:AM and usually runs
for about an hour. Calling after 1PM guarantees that you will get ALL the
RIME messages for that day. As I add more RIME conferences, this time
frame may change or take longer.
A lot of the files that were in #61 have been split out to new file
areas including #62, Radio & Communications, #64 Crafts, #65 Religion &
Philosophy (Including the Guttenberg Project materials), #66 Genealogy,
#67 Health & Medical and #69 Hypertext.
#71 for JCSM shareware is going to go back on again soon, hopefully
the marking problem has gone away with the new software. Also have
several nifty new CDs to go on soon.
If anyone can't get into a conference today, it is because message
packing is running, which locks out the conferences it is working on.
New network software is on the way also.
March 29, 1995 1:30P PM
Back to the hard crashes in the message areas again. !!!###$$%%% I am
going to have to repack the messages databases again, C++ seems to be a
particular problem area. Was gone all day yesterday, doing some consulting
work (need the money).
March 27, 1995 3:40PM
Have started upgrading the Sunrise Game doors, the first 4 on the menu
are now new. However, 2 of them balked at importing the old scores, so
they are starting over. Also, they are showing registration messages when
they should not, as they are all registered except for # 1, Acey Deucey,
which is new.
March 26, 1995 12:10 PM
Some conferences (see Bulletin #1) were getting a double feed, both
Holonet and Planet Connect, which was apparently causing some conflicts if
they both hit the same message area at the same time. I have changed them
all to be one or the other only. As I can fit it in with other things, have
started on the games, either adding new ones or updating the old ones,
starting at the top of the games menu. The first one is Acey Deucy, a
gambling card game.
March 24, 1995 8:20 PM
I have found out what is causing part of the dropped carrier problem.
There are apparently one or more corrupt files in the file database. When
someone runs across one of these in a file search, it causes a dropped
carrier. Before it was causing hard crashes, I guess that is some improve-
ment anyhow. In order to fix it, a database repair must be run, which takes
most of a day. I may or may not run it Monday, depending on how long it
takes to fix another problem, that being that the CDRom server is totally
down. The system does seem to be running much better since last Monday,
when the new Wildcat was installed, and I also did some disk cleanup.
March 22, 1995 12:00PM
So far everything seems to be running better, less hard crashes. I do
se the Log reporting some dropped carrier incidents. I could use some
feedback as to whether people let it time out due to inactivity, or under
what circumstances the dropped carrier occurred.
March 20, 1995 3:30PM
As noted in the opening screen, Wildcat 4.1 is now running on the
system. There were a tremendous amount of listed bug fixes in this version,
and a lot of new features, although it looks pretty much the same. The
upgrade itself didn't take that long, but the CDrom server was being testy,
and that slowed things down.
March 19, 1995 1:00 PM
Please note comments in Bulletin # 1 regarding subscription processing.
March 18, 1995 1:15 PM
I have the upgrade in hand and plan to run the install on Monday, 3-20,
so may be down for a while. I will also be adding a moderated local
conference dealing with Therapeutic Massage. One of my users, Matthew
Starrett-Bigg is a licensed Massage Therapist. He is currently running a
conference on Rendevous, but wants to find a more mature audience that
has some idea what massage therapy is all about. More on this to come.
March 16, 1995 11:30 AM
Wildcat 4.1, (a major upgrade with a lot of new features) should be here
soon, as it has started shipping. I am hoping that this will solve some of
the current system problems. I will probably be down a day (hopefully less)
while doing the install, but will warn people ahead of time when that is
going to happen.
March 15, 1995 2PM
More new files. Still having major problems with hard crashes,
especially in the message scanning. If any computer gurus out there have
any bright ideas, I'd sure like to here them.
March 13, 1995 4:15PM
More new files. 50+ new RIME conferences, #s 1200 to 1251, 3 new
Internet newsgroups, #s 22 Beatles Music, 51 Pink Floyd, and 179 Electronics.
March 11, 1995
Tried to find the new satellite again, still no luck. Old one is working
fine!
March 10, 1995 2:30PM
Finally got back to new files today, about 100. ENJOY.
March 9, 1995 6:15 PM
Power outage 2PM to 5:30! NUF SAID! Such outages usually totally scramble
CDRom server brains, requiring various CMOS setting fixes, before it will boot
up.
March 7, 1995 9:30PM
Apologies for all the crashes lately. I have not been able to pinpoint
the cause (s). There have been soft crashes which merely dump people out of
the system, but they can still log back in. And hard crashes where I have to
physically reboot the entire system in order to recover the crashed node.
Most of them seem to occur while accessing messages, but I cannot find a
pattern, and they seem to be occuring more often. I heard today that another
Wildcat Platinum system is having similar problems! Wildcat is coming out
with another upgrade soon, and I hope that helps. In the meantime, I will
keep working on other fixes for the problems.
The new RIME conferences all received messages last night. RIME
conferences are numbered starting with 1100. Also, I have been trying to
get all the Skydata files into their proper file areas, so I can throw
another batch in there.
March 6, 1995 4:45PM
Finally, back to more constructive things. 50+ more RIME and Usenet
conferences added, messages will come in on them on the next message dump
late tonight. The old satellite seems to be working fine, should have paid
more attention to the old "when it ain't broke, don't fix it" idea!
March 5, 1995 3:45PM
Two days of hell trying to get the new satellite lined up, with no
success whatsover. Finally went back to the old one again, and it is
coming in flawlessly. It is actually working better than before we started
messing with it. So new RIME and Internet newsgroup messages will be back on
the board tomorrow. Apparently, (according to Planet Connect) the old
satellite is not sinking, it is just fading slowly. Unfortunately, all this
time spent on the satellite, was time not spent on new conferences, files
and other goodies.
There was a memorial service for Janice Stevens yesterday, up at the
Wommen's Forum Outlook Point overlooking the Columbia Gorge. This is
probably one of the most beautiful spots in the world. Janice had three
children, two daughters and a son. She had apparently been estranged from
them, changed her name, and led a totally new life for the last 20 years.
None of us who knew her here, knew that she even had any children. The
children were all there, with assorted spouses and grandchildren. Her
sister Peggy was there, and many of her Corbett & Portland friends. I had
wanted to post a notice about this on the board, as I am sure some of you
would have liked to have been there. I was asked by the family, not to do
this. I guess they wanted just family and close friends there.
March 3, 1995 10:40 PM
Can't win for losing. Get one problem solved, and two more pop up. I
think the alligators are breeding too fast. The satellite currently
carrying our service is sinking slowly to earth, and we have to change to
another satellite. Setting it up the first time was a piece of cake. Doing
the changeover, not so. Somehow, could not lock into the new satellite, went
back to the old, and bombed on that one. Will try again tomorrow, and get it
back online. Also a mysterious new problem has cropped up causing crashes
(no apparent reason) in doing message searches. At least the Internet mail
is still processing!
March 1, 1995 7PM
Internet problem SOLVED!!!! Messages going out to Holonet even as I write
this (including attachments). No one should have to do anything, as all of the
original messages are going out, plus probably some duplicates that I created
during this very frustrating day of trying to solve the problem. After running
message database repairs ad infinitem, among many other things, I finally
traced it down to a 200 byte file containing message high number pointers
that apparently did not reset properly after the Internet file was eaten last
week. If anyone was wondering why the system was down today, it was because
much of the detective work had to be done with all nodes down. Sorry for the
delays and problems, I will know where to look next time.
March 1, 1995 2:30PM
Still have not solved the Internet message problem. Still working on it!!
February 28, 1995 5:30PM
For no apparent good reason, the system had decided it does not want to
Export Internet EMail. It is Importing to that conference just fine, and
Exporting just fine from all other conferences. This dates back about 1 week,
approximately to the time when that message file got eaten. Don't know if
there is any connection. I will work on fixing this tomorrow! SORRY!
February 25, 1995 11:30 AM
Added another 30 RIME conferences. See Bulletin # 1 for more details.
February 22, 1995 5:45Pm
Over 1200 new files have gone into the system over the last few days, half
of them today. That should keep you all busy for a while! Some of you
looking through file lists, and collecting mail today, may have noticed a
File Lock message in the upper righthand corner of your screen. New files
and messages both were going into the system, causing a general slowdown and
the lock message. Files are done as of right now, messages are still running.
February 21, 1995 3:30PM
The computer ate the Internet mail, so Conference #001 is starting over
from scratch. If anyone sent messages in the last few days, and did not get
an answer, you will have to try again. I'm really sorry.
February 21, 1995 1:30PM
Message packing is running today, see note in Bulletin # 1. The Internet
EMail will be offline a little longer than usual, due to a problem with the
packing routine. More new files on, also added some new newsgroup feeds into
conferences that did not have one before.
February 20, 1995 3:00PM
Important notice regarding Internet ads! There are two files in the free
area that are must downloads if you are planning to post advertisements on the
Internet. They are USEGROUP.ZIP & USENINFO.ZIP. The first one contains a
newsgroups listing, and several articles about Internet etiquette etc.. The
second contains copies of messages I received yesterday regarding the proper
posting of ads. The FAQ lists the proper groups to post to. In line with this,
the former Internet BuySell # 6, is now #944. All of the messages should still
be there. I have added two new conferences for Business ads #s 920 & 921 &
another one for non-business, # 945. Please note that the newsgroup currently
feeding # 944 is going to be phased out. Those wanting to post ads should tell
me what groups they would like to see setup, so that I can add them. I was
going to add more RIME conferences today, but got involved in this instead.
February 18, 1995 6:10PM
Things finally getting back to "normal". I THINK RIME is running
properly now. The phone script sent the outgoing messages to the hub this
afternoon. The incoming messages from the satellite were working several
days ago. I put some new files in today, mostly in File Area 14 until I can
sort them out. This seems to work faster than trying to sort them as I go.
I also cleaned out a LOT of old stuff and duplicates.
February 15, 1995 6:15 PM
Took me two hours to get home last night, including having the snowplow
pull me the last few feet up the hill, becuase the 4-wheel drive AND the cable
chains broke! The snowplow cost $150+, but at least most of the drifts are
cleared. Finally was able to spend some time here today, do some needed
cleanup and file work.
February 14, 1995 3:30 PM
The message databases are packing this evening, If you are denied access
to one, it will be back later. It is only up to # 26 at this hour, and it
takes quite a while on each one.
February 14, 1995 2:PM
As most of you may have guessed, weather brought the board down totally.
It went down a little after 9AM Sunday morning, apparently due to a brownout
which knocked out the CDRom drive in such a manner as to prevent the system
from recovering by itself. We had a 5 hour power outage later in the day, but
it still did not recover. I live on top of a hill with a 1/4 mile driveway
which is now full of 3'+ snowdrifts. My son hiked out yesterday, got to the
board, and was able to reboot it following my instructions. Today we were
able to shovel out enough so that I could get down the hill, don't know if I
am going to get back home or not. This was the first time I have not been
able to get here since I bought the board. Needless to say, nothing has been
done on it either.
February 11, 1995 5:15 PM
RIME is now partly enabled. That is, incoming messages are going into
their conferences correctly (new conf. #s starting at 1100 for RIME). I
have only enabled the first 20 so far, just to see if it worked.
Messages are in starting at 2/7, when Planet Connect turned me on,
after finally getting the okay from Bonnie Anthony. I will get the rest
of the conferences in a few at a time, whenever I can take the system
down to do it. Please let me know if there are any conferences you
want in particular. I will get the outgoing end of it done as soon as
possible, will need some messages in there to test it. Thank you for
your patience.
You don't even want to know how many different things had to be
tweaked to get this running. There was very little information left by
Janice to go on with this problem.
February 10, 1995 12:20
Apologies for not putting any new files into the system for a while there,
had too many other alligators to kill. Now that I can see over them, will get
back to the files. Instead of trying to sort them as I go, I am going to dump
a bunch into areas 14 & 15, and sort them later.
February 9, 1995 6:30PM
The Internet mail now appears to be working OK. However, FORGET the UUCP
routine, now put the Internet address in the To: field. Test messages I sent
earlier today seem to be working OK.
Please make a note of this! Most of the crashes have been solved.
However, there still seems to be a conflict whenever someone tries to read mail
in the same area that mail is dumping into. Apparently the system error
trapping is not adequate to take care of this. Holonet runs every two hours
for the Internet Email on Node 5. The Planet C dump starts at 1 in the morning
and runs until about 5AM on Node 7. If you check WHO and see that either of
these nodes show a blank, then there is a small possibility of a crash.
February 9, 1995 1PM
I have made some changes in the conference areas and message procedures
hoping to solve the Internet mail problem. This should also enable you to
enter the Internet address in the To: field instead of in the body of the
messsage. I have sent out several test messages today, we'll see what happens.
I also added three Holonet test and news conferences, which I should have had
in before. These are #s 385, 386 & 387. In case anyone didn't notice I added
an Oregon Politics (or.politics) a while back.
February 8, 1995 5:45PM
In case you wondering why some of the conferences are unavailable this
evening, it is because the message packer is running. I meant for it to run
earlier in the day, but ran into a problem with a corrupted message area,
which had to be repaired. All conferences are locked, and release one at a
time as the packing is finished.
February 8, 1995 1 PM
The system seems to be behaving better this week, hope it stays that way
for a while!
RIME update. I now have Planet Connect turned on, and all the new RIME
files downloaded from Bonnie. See note under 2/6 for what else needs to be
done on this. At least the satellite messages will now be coming in, and as
soon as I figure out how to get them into the system, we'll be in business.
This is one area that Janice did not get to, and it was completely gone from
the system as I bought it.
Internet messages, a glitch has developed in this. I changed nothing in
the message feeds, but now messages are not going out properly and other
newsgroups re-feeds are going out that are not supposed to. I talked to
Holonet yesterday, they were very helpful, but didn't have a clue either as
to what was wrong.
Due to all the other problems, no new files have gone in lately. I have
about 2000 sitting there to process, plus getting the CDRoms back on line.
February 7, 1995 12:10
Some comments on slowness lately. One of the changes I made to try to
alleviate the constant crashes, also caused unacceptable slowness whenever an
event was running, which is pretty often. So we will go back to taking a
chance on the crashes, while running faster.
February 6, 1995 5:30 PM
RIME! RIME! RIME! I have finally gotten some answers from Bonnie Anthony
who has accepted my credit card, and posted my new registration and other files
on her board for me to download. I got part of it today, will try and get the
rest tomorrow. It may take another 1-2 weeks to get it up and running
on whether or not I have any more major crises with the board or otherwise.
I have to redo all the conferences in Wildcat, as they no longer exist, get
the software up and running, talk to the satellite people, and so on. But we
are getting closer! Thanks to all of you who have been helping with this.
February 6, 1995 1:00 PM
Some comments were made about the system being slowed down. Ordinarily,
it should be OK now. However, when one of the events is running, whether
dumping mailbags, or doing file database updates, it tends to slow down the
system substantially. I have tried to schedule these for times when not too
many people are on, but inevitably there are going to be conflicts. For
example the weekly file update has just been started. This usually runs early
in the morning on Mondays, but the mailbags took longer than usual. This will
probably run most of the afternoon, and the system will be slow until it is
finished.
February 5, 1995 1:00 PM
Miracles do happen, came in this morning and the system was NOT crashed.
Hope this continues for a while, it has been a bad week.
Wildcat was running slower for a day or two there until I fixed the afore-
mentioned QEMM items. It should be OK now, please let me know if there is any
more problem with slowness. The system also slows down when the Internet mail
bags are dumping. These are set to start at 2AM, usually finish by 6AM,
today they ran until 11AM.
File Area 71 is temporarily unavailable until I can fix it. Likewise,
Tradewars. Now maybe I can get back to adding new files and other features.
February 4, 1995 1:15 PM
I missed two parameters in the QEMM setup that are peculiar to Wildcat,
which I have now fixed. Hopefully that will solve the QEMM errors, and QEMM
will solve some of the other problems. Still haven't solved (M)ark.
February 3, 1995 1:30 PM
I am going to have to take file area # 71 offline until I can solve the
(M)ark problem. People keep doing it, despite my warning message. It crashes
their node, preventing them from getting on again. Then the whole system has
to be rebooted to get that node to operate properly again. Which means I
either wait til everyone is off, or boot people off to do it, which I don't
like to do.
I added QEMM as a memory manager on the nodes, hoping that it would solve
some of the problems. I am not sure it isn't causing more problems than it
solved, so may have to change it again.
The second all day file repair did not solve either the (M) problem or the
corrupted database problem that was preventing uploads. So I copied back a 3
day old backup, which appears to be working fine. However, all files that
were added in the last few days will have to be done again. I just should
have done that in the first place instead of listening to the Mustang tech,
and I wouldn't have had the board down for two days losing subscribers.
I have been told that Internet mail is not going through properly. I need
to hear from anyone who has been using it, either successfully or otherwise.
Following is the text of a message I sent today in reply to a subscriber
with complaints, with a few additions that I thought of after I wrote it
originally.