response 1 of 23:

Jul 30 05:21 UTC 1995

(Cornelius -- you can respond to a question asked in an item by typing r or
respond at the "respond or pass" prompt.  You don't have to enter a new item
for it).

Reading both this item and the last item you entered, it looks like you
probably want to know if Grex is going to go to the same sort of system the
Talahassee Freenet is using.  I just took a look at the Talahassee Freenet,
and it looks like they're running on three login servers, and who knows how
many other computers doing miscelanious other things.  They also claim to have
20,000 active users, which is considerably more than Grex has (although that
would depend on what their definition of active is; despite my not having
logged in in over a year, and their having gone to vastly different hardware
during that time, my account was still there).

Grex is currently using two computers, the Sun 3 that we all log into, and
where all our files live, and a 386 called Gryps that serves as our Internet
router.  Grex's current high priority hardware upgrade is switching everything
that's currently done by the Sun 3 over to a Sun 4.  After that, there's been
some talk of having a different computer (maybe the Sun 3, maybe something
Intel) handling News, if we ever get that going again.  There's also been some
talk of maybe using a different machine for mail at some point in the future.
But, using seperate mail and news servers is considerably different from that
the Talahassee Freenet is doing, since we'd still have everybody logging into
one computer, rather than their three.

The Talahassee Freenet has more users (there were around a hundred people
logged in when I checked), more money, and a different set of goals than Grex
does.  What's best for them is not necessarily what Grex should be doing.

response 3 of 23:

Jul 30 07:13 UTC 1995

For a small number of users, a server/client type system is actually at
a disadvantage, because of the extra overhead the network traffic
entails.  Server/client systems do scale better however.  I don't see
grex moving to such a system in the immediate future.  At some point,
however, this would certainly make sense, and it's certainly something
we want to allow for as we plan our expansion.

response 5 of 23:

Jul 30 21:47 UTC 1995

Grex could. It's been a while. ;)

response 7 of 23:

Jul 31 02:14 UTC 1995

Grex already gets lots of donated computer equipment, and sells it at JCC
sales.  It's not clear to me that we would make more money by raffling the
stuff off, given that at the JCC sale people know what they are getting, and
that they will really get it.

response 9 of 23:

Jul 31 12:28 UTC 1995

   We don't have a large enough user base to raffle off anything but
the most common of items.  Part of the really cool aspect of the JCC
is that the most interesting computer-hunters are present, such that
an item (like those amazing TI Lisp creatures) thats *really* rather
odd will delight some person, to the point that they're willing to
fork over some real money for them.  We could not realistically do
that with a raffle.

response 11 of 23:

Aug 1 00:27 UTC 1995

Soo - how can such a "really wanting" member get Usenet?

response 13 of 23:

Aug 1 04:54 UTC 1995

I should point out that this avenue of Usenet access is not supported or
recommended by the Grex staff.  Yes, it will work, but as Rob says it will
be horribly slow.  I would think that most people interested in Usenet news
would rather go elsewhere for the time being, than deal with the lag times
involved in reading it from Grex.

I would also tend to discredit any sort of "conspiracy theories" that people
might come up with about bizarre reasons why the Sun-4 transition is going
so slowly.  The only reason it's moving so slowly is that staff has been
having problems getting access to the hardware needed for the upgrade. 
However, Greg has said he will be able to work on this on Wednesday, so it
looks like things should start moving soon.

response 15 of 23:

Aug 1 17:19 UTC 1995

   ...All the staff needs is a six-pack of time.  Even a couple of
cans would help.

response 17 of 23:

Aug 1 19:47 UTC 1995

I used to know a few other members who used Grex to read
Usenet over the link, not many though.  The fact that I
even put up with it shows you how much of a Usenet-junkie
I really am...  >8)

response 19 of 23:

Aug 2 06:57 UTC 1995

I had the same beginnings as Rane re: Usenet.

response 21 of 23:

Aug 2 14:36 UTC 1995

I would expect that there might be one or two usenet-readers among the
members. Not many, though.  I singled out robh as the only Grex
*staff* member who reads this way.

I have no time for usenet, even if it were speedy.
I think usenet would be a very valuable addition, for those with the
time to read it.

response 23 of 23:

Aug 2 22:25 UTC 1995

I only read sci.geo.satellite-nav (re GPS), amateur radio newsgroups,
and skating newsgroups for Alice....it is containable, if you keep
your interests focused.