[net.news] Orphaned Response

bloom@inmet.UUCP (06/14/83)

#R:ittvax:-75600:inmet:6700005:177600:34
inmet!bloom    Jun 13 13:31:00 1983


I'm a VM hacker ---- I like it!!

ajs@hpfcla.UUCP (10/08/83)

#R:umcp-cs:-286400:hpfcla:18800001:37777777600:125
hpfcla!ajs    Oct  6 14:11:00 1983

If you want every user to be able to control the presentation order of
his/her newsgroups, what you need is notes, not news!

jc@inmet.UUCP (04/21/84)

#R:seismo:-87500:inmet:6700011:177600:687
inmet!jc    Apr 20 17:14:00 1984




> version B 2.10.1 4/1/83 (SU840401)
> 	kremvax.UUCP	

Really?  They must have been fast workers, to bring it up on April first
and submit a message the same day.  Who'd have ever thought those bureaucratic 
types could have even plugged in a terminal in less than a day!

Congratulations, either to the originator of this hoax, or to the kremvax
system administrators, for a job well done!  I hope to read many interesting
submissions from their address.  How about a followup on the mammontelephas,
for a starter?

					John M Chambers [inmet!jc]
					Intermetrics, Inc.
					735 Concord Ave.
					Cambridge, MA 02138
"I don't have any solution but I certainly admire the problem."

mpackard@uok.UUCP (11/24/84)

<>
If you ask how much it costs, you can't afford it.
I heard that someplace...

andrea@hp-sdd.UUCP (andrea) (01/14/85)

>
>Not to flame an article such as this one, but "many religions", Chuq?
>Christianity is the only religion I know of with a major holiday in December.
>Judaism has only a minor holiday.
>

All of the older nature-rooted religions now lumped together as
"pagan", as well as the newer mysticisms which have grown from them,
celebrate a major holiday on or around the winter solstice.  The darkest
time of the year, when the days start waxing longer and the promise of
life to come is nurtured in the midst of death and bleakness, has 
been an important time for symbolic and spiritual rebirth for many
centuries before Christ.


Andrea Frankel, Hewlett-Packard (San Diego Division) (619) 487-4100 x4664
net:  {allegra|ihnp4|decvax|ucbvax}!hplabs!hp-sdd!andrea 

 ...searchlights casting for faults in the clouds of delusion

paul@hp-lsd.UUCP (paul) (01/15/85)

One of the current ways of packaging files, par & unpar (alias SYS-V ar)
is neat and clean and fast but too limited (in my opinion) for what is
needed.  I'd like to see something:

No shell used - for security and speed

Ability to package directory trees (a la cpio and tar) (par can't do this)

Starts on a trigger string
	So that news and notes headers wouldn't get in the way - you could
	just pipe the article you're reading through the unpacking program.
	The program would not start unpacking until it received the trigger
	string.

Stops reasonably (by noting file lengths for example)
	So automatic signature lines don't mess it up.

Capability to send binary files in 7-bit ASCII or something
	gnu@sun mentioned mailing fonts and images

Ability to have the un-packer check to see that present files are not
destroyed.  (ie.. so .profile in the package wouldn't trash yours).

Ability to preserve file modes AND user/group names by name rather than number.

	This is less useful in general (accept maybe for news software) but
	real useful locally.

[fancy]
Ability to find out what the package contains (like tar tv)

Ability to restore selective files with wildcard matching (I have
wildcard matching routines available if needed)

Ability to package files by some flexible method
	cpio does this pretty well, tar does this poorly

By now, this should start to sound like a general-purpose archiving
system like cpio or tar.  Maybe, with all the current confusion
with cpio and tar (I hear tar might be disappearing) it's time to
write a good public-domain archiver?

We wouldn't need variable blocking factors - folks could just use 'dd' if
they needed blocking.  Much of the code already exists:

	Format of package could be stolen from SYS-V ar but extended to
	allow real path names and textual user/group names.

	'unpar' could be modified to unpack a package - it has to be
	fixed to wait for the trigger string before starting.

	Methods for packing binary files into 'safe' mailable formats
	abound.  Might even be a good idea to specify some standard
	for file compression too.

	Bourne shell wildcard matching routines are available from me.

		--Paul "Really dreaming now!" Bame
		UUCP: {hplabs,ihnp4!hpfcla}!hp-lsd!paul
		CSNET: hp-lsd!paul@hp-labs.csnet
		ARPA: hp-lsd!paul&hp-labs@csnet-relay.arpa

mazur@inmet.UUCP (03/02/85)

> Many of you have mentioned you feel things would be just ducky if I were to
> make public the names of the clients as well as a client contact person.
> Yes, I suppose you WOULD like that!  But you see, that defeats the intent of
> the client ... to have me do their sifting for them.  They don't WANT to hear
> from you directly.

As well as it defeats the intent of the typical recruiter.  To make BIG
BUCKS off a highly paid computer professional.  What's your rate Sue?

Beth Mazur
{ihnp4,ima,harpo}!inmet!mazur

tower@inmet.UUCP (03/07/85)

Re: Policy/Purpose articles for each news group.

Why not have each line of Gene's list posted to each group ever two
weeks, with a pointer back to mod.newslists.

Something like:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
....
Subject: PURPOSE OF THIS GROUP
.....

net.news	....

See newsgroup "mod.newslists"
Article: "List of Active Groups"
for more info.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
It wouldn't be that much more overhead, and would clue new (and old)
users into things pretty quickly.
It could also be automated pretty easily (up for another late night
hack Gene?).

-len tower	    UUCP:     {ihnp4,harpo}!inmet!tower
 Intermetrics, Inc. INTERNET: ima!inmet!tower@CCA-UNIX.ARPA
		    USPS:     733 Concord Ave., Cambridge, MA  02138, USA
		    PHONE:    (617) 661-1840

carl@hpcnoe.UUCP (carl) (03/15/85)

> However the single sheet, folded and stapled, is intended by the sender to
> be more private.  If it were meant to be public, it would have been so
> posted.

Well, yes...  with one caveat:  If you want something to be reasonably
private, you probably wouldn't staple it shut and hand it to a stranger,
who would give it to somebody in another company, etc...  You go and put
it on somebody's chair directly because you know the people around you
are reasonably trustworthy.  (I hope!)

You trust the USPS because they have earned it.  Even so, you don't put
anything really important on a postcard.  Right now the
forwarding of E-mail across the country is on a bunch of people that
you don't even know, much less trust.


Carl Dierschow
{ihnp4|hplabs}!hpfcla!hpcnoe!c_dierschow

phil@amdcad.UUCP (04/29/85)

In article <154@gloria.UUCP>, colonel@gloria.UUCP writes:
> The Net is the arsenal of anarchy.  Nobody has any business going outside
> the Net for redress.  In fact, all news recipients ought to be required
> to agree not to prosecute one another for netlibel.
> 
> Legally, you're in the clear.  How could it be proved who you are or
> that you and not somebody else posted the article?
> -- 
> Col. G. L. Sicherman
> ...{rocksvax|decvax}!sunybcs!colonel

Just as a point of information, our policy is that we will not say anything
bad about vendors, competitors, or customers on this network. (although
sometimes new users slip up) We'd prefer to work it out with them rather
than getting outsiders involved. I happen to think this is a wise policy
but am not trying to force this on others.
-- 
 I speak for myself and no one else.

 Phil Ngai (408) 749-5720
 UUCP: {ucbvax,decwrl,ihnp4,allegra}!amdcad!phil
 ARPA: amdcad!phil@decwrl.ARPA

kre@ucbvax.ARPA (Robert Elz) (07/21/85)

part of theheader of a recent article in net.notes.

What more can (need) I say ...

	Posting-Version: Notesfiles $Revision: 1.7.0.5 $; site uicsl
	Path: ...!uiucdcs!uicsl!seefromline
	Newsgroups: net.notes
	Subject: Re: Orphaned Response

wombat@ccvaxa.UUCP (07/24/85)

You guys are just too hung up on headers :-). The message ucbvax!kre was
complaining about showed up here with a perfectly reasonable header like

Note 1			    net.notes
mather			 Response 1 of 2		11:27 am  Jul 18, 1985
(at uicsl.UUCP)



"When you are about to die, a wombat is better than no company at all."
				Roger Zelazny, *Doorways in the Sand*

						Wombat
					ihnp4!uiucdcs!ccvaxa!wombat

guy@sun.uucp (Guy Harris) (07/27/85)

> You guys are just too hung up on headers :-). The message ucbvax!kre was
> complaining about showed up here with a perfectly reasonable header like
> 
> Note 1			    net.notes
> mather			 Response 1 of 2		11:27 am  Jul 18, 1985
> (at uicsl.UUCP)

1) Great.  So why didn't it *leave* your site with a reasonable header?  Why
isn't Mr. Mather's name in the "Path:" line?  And where is the subject line
for the discussion in that header - or is the lack of a subject line the
reason why it left with "Re: Orphaned Response?"

2) That header tells me nothing about the contents of the note in question -
there's no per-note subject line.  Admittedly, when a discussion drifts
subject lines aren't always changed, but it would be nice if they did change
more often - does "notes" understand the concept of a discussion not all of
whose notes have the same subject?

	Guy Harris

tim@ISM780B.UUCP (11/13/85)

/* Written  8:21 pm  Nov  2, 1985 by geoff@desint in net.news */

> [ if you see a control message IN a group, then it didn't work ]

Brian is right that a properly-formed control message should be invisible,
and we can be thankful the intruder made a formating error.  However, on
my machine (2.10.2 news with most patches), the damn things still seem to
cancel articles successfully.  At least, my investigations have shown
"cancelled" messages in my history file for some of these articles.

/* End of text from net.news */

It sounds like the person discovered his formating error and resent
corrected control messages.  This is why you both say them and had them
take effect.

						Tim Smith
						ima!ism780b!tim
						ihnp4!cithep!tim

george@sysvis (01/22/86)

Re: Message costs (vs. National Debt  :-))

The use of large aggregate numbers for ALL sites is a bit misleading for some
readers and is totally inaccurate.  It might be better to display the USENET
AVERAGE score for cost/site.  In order to make some sense of this average, a
standard deviation might be needed.  As I understand it, there is no one who
actually pays $125/message ANYWHERE.  A per-site display would be much more
useful for comparing one's own costs to the network, rather than just posting
some meaningless large numbers.  I would think that some sites with only local
feeds might be well below average in cost and vice versa for sites with only
long-distance feeds.  There are probably two populations (multiplied by large
|mini|micro computer cost).  Total per-site costs should be computed with some
reasonable allocation of the cost of disk space and CPU usage at the site.
Just quoting a telephone bill does not tell one what percentage of the money
is spent for USENET information and what is not.

Can anyone propose an alternate form of USENET cost computation that is useful?

				...!ihnp4!sys1!sysvis!george

ajs@hpfcla.UUCP (01/29/86)

> Material posted to USENET is the copyright
> property of the poster under U.S. statute.

How can that be?  If I post something here, copyright means I have the
right to control copies.  But the very nature of the Net implies massive
copying out of my control, and I know that.  So, haven't I given
implicit privileges to others, merely by posting?

Let me ask a different way.  At what point has someone who saves my news
posting committed a copyright violation?  In saving it?  Giving it to a
friend?  Reposting it with changes?  Where do you draw the line?

Alan Silverstein

Unknown@vortex (04/30/86)

This message is empty.

chip@hpclld (04/30/86)

> /***** hpclld:net.news / vortex!lauren /  6:45 pm  Mar 18, 1986*/
> Just a technical point about polling.  Comparing Usenet polls of this
> sort to Gallup, Nielson (they're the ones with the boxes on the TV's,
> not Arbitron) ...

OK, I can't keep quiet.  Arbitron DOES use the boxes.  In fact, I think
that's ALL they use.  If Nielson uses them too, that's great, but I
thought it was an Arbitron exclusive (patented?).



Chip Chapin -- HP Computer Language Lab (ITG/ISO/CLL)
Usenet:	... {allegra,decvax,ihnp4,ucbvax} !hplabs!hpclla!chip
	or ... {hp-lsd,hpda,hpdsd,hpfcla,hpfclp} !hpclla!chip
HPMail: chip (hpclla) /HPUNIX/UX
USMail:	19120 Homestead Ave, 47LH; Cupertino, CA  95014

lkw@csun.UUCP (05/26/86)

In <12200001@hpclld> Pnews thinks chip@hpclld wrote:
>OK, I can't keep quiet.  Arbitron DOES use the boxes.  In fact, I think
>that's ALL they use.  If Nielson uses them too, that's great, but I
>thought it was an Arbitron exclusive (patented?).
>
>Chip Chapin -- HP Computer Language Lab (ITG/ISO/CLL)

We were an Arbitron "family" (four people sharing a house, actually) a 
couple of years ago.  They provided us with a logbook to record our
viewing habits in, and even paid us a couple of Arbitron Dollars for our
efforts.  This is why during ratings "sweeps" periods, you'll hear
stations give their station ID in this manner: "Arbitron viewers, be
sure to record that you're watching KXYZ, channel 84."  No boxes, just
the crystal-pure faith the Arbitron Corporation places in upright
families such as our own to honestly and intelligently guide the
television viewers of America into the 21st century.
-- 
Larry Wake                   uucp:   {ihnp4 | hplabs | psivax}!csun!lkw
CSUN Computer Center         BITNET: RETPLKW@CALSTATE
Northridge, CA 91330         ARPA:   RETPLKW%CALSTATE@WISCVM.WISC.EDU
"He's no fun, he fell right over."

nrh@faust.UUCP (05/29/86)

>/* Written  1:01 pm  May 14, 1986 by rap@oliveb.UUCP in faust:net.news */
>One possibility is to have Pnews reject submissions from any
>user  that has sent more than N kilibytes in the last month.
>Problem is that would be site dependent.  Possible advantage
>is that there would be more encouragement to post sources to
>mod.sources instead of net.sources.

Err... I'm not sure what "pnews" is, but it seems like it would inspire
a lot of faking-out of the uucp code (in order to 
create the illusion that a lot of different folks were sending
articles, rather than just one), which is *not* secure.

mcb@styx.UUCP (Michael C. Berch) (06/30/86)

The discussion of news vs. notes, outstanding bugs in both, and other
matters germane thereto, has been moved out of net.news.group and into
net.news, on the well-taken point of Dr. Weemba.

My response to Terry Poot <tp@ndm20> can be found in net.news under the 
subject "News, Notes, and Reality".

Michael C. Berch
ARPA: mcb@lll-tis-b.ARPA
UUCP: {ihnp4,dual,sun}!lll-lcc!styx!mcb