rost@decwrl.dec.com (Randi Rost) (10/16/90)
The object archive server and graphics bibliography server are back on-line. I apologize for any inconveniences caused by the servers being down the last couple of months. We moved systems and directories around in a major computer systems reorganization. Since the archive servers are maintained on a volun- teer basis (read: supporting them cuts into my social life), it was a little while before they bubbled up to the top of the priority queue. Also, the mail address of the graphics bibliography server has been reported incorrectly in the past as "graf-bib@decwrl.dec.com". It should have been "graf-bib-server@decwrl.dec.com", but now we have added the alias "graf-bib" so that either address should work. Despite the downtime of the servers, I got only two or three complaints. There is another alias "object-archive-manager@decwrl.dec.com" that can be used to report problems. This mail is delivered to a human, currently it is me. So if you are having problems with either server, send mail to the archive manager, and we'll try to get things resolved as quickly as we can. Randi J. Rost Workstations Advanced Technology Development Digital Equipment Corporation -------------------------------------------------------------------- Wondering where to get the famous teapot data? As a service to the graphics community, Digital Equipment Corporation has donated disk space and established an archive server to maintain a library of (somewhat) interesting objects. The objects collected are in OFF format. Documentation on OFF, a library of useful OFF routines, and one or two useful OFF utilities are also available through this archive server. The archive server lets you obtain ASCII files across the network simply by sending electronic mail. To obtain help about using this service, send a message with a "Subject:" line containing only the word "help" and a null message body to: object-archive-server@decwrl.dec.com To get an index of all that is available through this server, use a subject line of "send index" instead of "help". To get a list of objects that are available use a subject line of "send index objects" and a null message body. In order to save disk space and transmission time, the more lengthy files available through this archive are compressed using the UNIX "compress" utility and then uuencoded so that they may be sent as ASCII files. For those of you who don't have access to these utilities, buddy up to someone who does. As with other archive servers, it is only possible to get small portions of the database at a time. Small requests have priority over large ones. If you have ftp access, you can copy all of the objects and OFF programs from the file ~pub/DEC/off.tar.Z on the machine gatekeeper.dec.com. Please respect the copyright notices attached to the objects in the .off header files. The original author usually worked pretty hard to create the model, and deserves some credit when it is displayed. If anyone out there knows something about any of the objects I've left uncredited, please let me know so that I can include the appropriate credits. We'd *LOVE* to add to this collection of useful programs and objects. If you'd like to submit an object, an OFF program, or an OFF converter of some type for inclusion in the archive, send mail to: object-archive-submit@decwrl.dec.com We cannot guarantee anything about when submissions will be made available as part of the object archive, since maintaining the archive is an after-hours activity. We can only promise that an interesting or useful object that is already in OFF format will make it into the archive more quickly than one that has to be converted from another format and then tested. To report problems with the archive server, send mail to: object-archive-manager@decwrl.dec.com Finally, we have added to the graphics bibliography that is also available through decwrl. Bibliographies from the years 1976-1986 are now available for use with the graf-bib server. This server can be accessed in the same manner as the object archive server by sending mail to: graf-bib-server@decwrl.dec.com The bibliographies are also available for ftp access from the machine gatekeeper.dec.com. Through ftp, you can log on to gatekeeper using the login name "anonymous" and any password. Then you can use the cd command to get to the directory ~pub/misc/graf-bib. The bibliography files are also stored as compressed versions, so you may need to transfer them in image mode, and you will need to uncompress them once you have successfully transferred them. For more information on using the graf-bib server, see the April 1989 issue of Computer Graphics, pp. 185-186. Randi J. Rost Workstations Advanced Technology Development Digital Equipment Corporation
jef@well.sf.ca.us (Jef Poskanzer) (10/16/90)
Thanks. I have restored the text to the weekly posting.
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Jef
Jef Poskanzer jef@well.sf.ca.us {ucbvax, apple, hplabs}!well!jef
And now, back to the news.