srw
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response 1 of 7:
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Jan 9 06:09 UTC 1995 |
The Grex staff met Sunday evening to discuss numerous matters.
Attendees were popcorn, srw, mju, mdw, steve (and family).
Not attending were gregc, carl and remmers each of whom
was unavailable for one reason or another.
We are sorry they could not attend this meeting.
The first activity was a group edit session on the motd, in an attempt to
shrink it down to a more manageable size. We added a paragraph in
memory of Grex user mlady, who was tragically killed in a car accident
early this morning. The entire Staff feels the pain of her family
and friends.
This is a list of the items discussed. They are in the order we discussed
them, which is not the order of importance.
* Security issues
These were discussed at some length, but the contents will not appear in
these minutes.
* 8mm DAT and Backups
The staff has decided to buy a refurbished unit rather than one being
offered for sale locally as used. This may cost more but the companies that
refurbish drives sell them with warrantees. Greg Cronau is arranging to
purchase an 8mm DAT drive from such a refurbisher. The price should still
be within the amount approved by the board for this purchase.
* Newuser settings
The staff did not fully agree on this issue, but the consensus was that we
need to change the default settings that newuser provides, from "dumb" to a
bare-bones full screen-capable setting. This is so that we can also set up
the default mailer to be somnething other than "mail". A significant amount
of confusion is generated by new users who wind up trying to use mail, when
they actually have a full-screen capable terminal emulator, as almost
everyone does.
Valerie will work on a script called default-mailer which will run pine
unless the term is set to "dumb". Then it will run mail.
* Dungeon
Steve reported that the drywall activity at the dungeon was essentially
completed today. Greg Cronau will be obtaining the necessary equipment and
plans to do the wiring on the phone lines shortly after the painting is
finished.
* The Disk Problem
We didn't spend any time discussing this problem. It will be possible for
staffers, in particular mdw, to spend more time looking into this once the
system has moved to the dungeon.
* Router
The new router is functioning in its test environment, and has been
undergoing extensive checkout. This machine is a 486 running NetBSD Unix.
It will be shut down and moved to the Warehouse tomorrow, when we can get
access. Grex will be rebooted some time tomorrow, and may be off the
internet for a short period while further routing tests are performed.
* Kernel Mods
These are still less pressing than the pther things like the move and the
disk backups. Marcus and STeve will be making these changes when the decks
have been cleared a bit.
* New Staff Member
The staff would like too add a new staffer to its ranks, and a candidate has
now been identified. Selected staffers will be discussing work to be done
with the candidate to see if we have a real match of skills with needs. If
so, the staff may wish to add this person to the staff mailing list, and
may possibly propose to the board at the next opportunity that the
candidate be added as an official Grex staffer, with root access.
The candidate will be identified if the interviews prove that he/she is
a good choice.
* Expansion Path
The need for additional capacity on Grex is painfully obvious. Long-range
planning requires that the Grex staff determine what processor family is best
to provide a smooth upgrade path. There were two options considered: (1) The
Intel family and (2) The Sparc family.
Once again there was not unanimous agreement, but the consensus of the Grex
staff believes that it is a better choice to stay with Sun equipment for
primary service. Factors in this decision included the greater
expandability of Sparc, the upgradability from what we have, and the
greater number of binaries available for Sparcs.
In all likelihood additional secondary service machines will be Intel-based.
The router is a good example of this.
* IRC software
The staff recognizes the need to provide irc client software. There were
security problems with the previous incarnation of the client. CERT has
approved the latest version, but there are some difficulties getting it to
compile properly.
* Usenet
This is a real problem area. We don't have enough link bandwidth, processor
time, nor disk space to support Usenet properly. We have been looking at
band-aid solutions while Usenet itself has been growing rapidly. The only
practical solution for Usenet, the staff now believes, is to put together
another machine for that purppose. What is needed is (1) A 486 DX/2 66 cpu
with ethernet interface, (2) 32MB memory, (3) a 2 GB disk, (4) a phone line
and modem, and (5) a news feed.
Technically we would have a uucp link to the news feed going directly into
this 486 box. All of the news maintenace software would run on it,
including an nntp server. The news clients on Grex would be able to access
this server over our (fast) ethernet connection.
The cost of this proposed system needs to be figured out and the funds to
develop it must be applied for at a board meeting. The staff believes that
with this system it will be possible to have an excellent Usenet service.
* Req - The request system
Mark Unangst reported the installation of a new software system for handling
requests on the staff's time, and to track problems better. We hope to wast
less staff time duplicating our efforts. Problems emailed to
help@cyberspace.org will automatically be entered into this system.
--
The meeting was adjourned shortly before 11 PM due to attrition and exhaustion.
Thanks to Valerie for letting us meet at her place.
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