response 329 of 480:

Dec 15 05:58 UTC 2006

Re resp:326: Ah, okay.  I had thought you were still doing simple 
keyword matching.


Re resp:327: Having worked with a tape changer, I'm not sure I'd have 
called it "highly reliable."  In four years the Overland 10-slot unit 
where I used to work was out for repairs at least three times.  Oddly, 
the problem was usually not the robotics, but the Benchmark DLT1 drive 
they fed.

response 331 of 480:

Dec 15 09:57 UTC 2006

re 327: modern relative to what?
and all the goodies you mentioned are very nice if one can
afford them... grex doesn't even have a decent amount of RAM,
a tape backup robot is probably way down on the wishlist...
and re:passwd: I'm still pulling my jaw up from the desk
where it slammed as I read about it... doesn't *BSD support
anything like pam? was this thing ported over from the
previous incarnations? 

response 333 of 480:

Dec 15 14:20 UTC 2006

FreeBSD uses PAM, OpenBSD and NetBSD use login.conf. My understanding is
that login.conf is simpler to audit, simpler to secure and more
portable, and hence why it was retained by these two versions. 

response 335 of 480:

Dec 15 18:26 UTC 2006

re #319
 While keesan's filtering scheme is a nice effort, applying it globally
 (as someone back there suggested) is not an answer.  It's too specific
 to the email *she* gets.  If someone else used it, it would probably
 miss more spam and throw out more legitimate mail than they would
 prefer.

I suggested it.  I tried it and used it for a long time.  She does a great
job of hitting all the major offenders.  I eventually just gave in and now
use a .forward to a gmail account which has built-in filtering.  I think that
the KeesanFilter (KF) would be better than no filtering at all.  KF could be
easy enough to roll out so long as the first few lines are populated according
to the user.

response 337 of 480:

Dec 15 18:36 UTC 2006

re #332:  
>  Let me be sure I have accurate data:  There has been no face-to-face
> staff meeting since sometime before November 2005?

Apparently since before March of 2005, actually.  And depending on
what is meant by "face-to-face" there probably never will be, as
Grex has had several not-local-to-Ann-Arbor staff members during
that time and there's not enough money in the Silly Hat Fund to fly
everyone in for a staff get-together.

>  Do staff members ever telephone each other?  Do staff members have
>  alternative email addresses that are known to other staff members?

There's an off-site staff list that's available when Grex goes down
and all staff are reachable via that.  Also, some of the staff know
each other socially and may communicate informally outside of e-mail.

>  I'm also curious who has staff privileges on Grex.

staff:*:20:root,bhoward,gelinas,glenda,i,janc,kip,mcnally,mdw,remmers,srw,steve
wheel:*:0:root,bhoward,gelinas,glenda,i,janc,kip,mcnally,mdw,remmers,srw,steve

Apparently I am still in the "staff" and "wheel" groups despite my resignation.

response 339 of 480:

Dec 15 19:00 UTC 2006

Newbie (n): 1. Someone new 2. In the case of Grex staff, the person who
wasn't an original founding member.

response 341 of 480:

Dec 15 20:41 UTC 2006

 In my (limited) experience most of the time staff act unilaterally,
 generally in reaction to a crisis.  There's some group communication
 in the staff conference and on the staff mailing list but there's
 not a lot of planning discussion that takes place in those forums.
 Such discussion, when it occurred, usually took place in agora or
 coop.

response 343 of 480:

Dec 15 20:52 UTC 2006

re:Mary's response in 283

" In terms of helping out our present staff I'd proabably not go the white
 board and interview route quite yet.  Mostly, I think they need to simply
 meet more often. "

Mary, do you still feel that a staff that has not met in more than 18 months
does not need to make any changes other than more frequent meetings? 

It seems to me that a staff that acts unilaterally, and is crisis-driven needs
some input from the board.  Someone needs to begin a process of bringing new
staff onboard, and it does not sound like current staff have the energy or
time to do so.  

What is the role of the board and the membership in this regard?  

I'd like to hear from current staff and board, and from candidates as well.

response 345 of 480:

Dec 15 21:39 UTC 2006

re 344: *giggle*  Yeah, if you were a dictatorship, would you take kindly 
to an offer of a more fair, transparent, and useful direction?

response 347 of 480:

Dec 15 21:46 UTC 2006

re #344
I've had the same constraints in similar organizations.  Its all fun and games
really til you're down for a month and lose the majority of your userbase,
though.  If you don't have at least a few reliable staff people that you can
reach in a timely manner then you put the whole organization at risk.  M-Net
never really recovered from the crash in 2000.  Prior to that, we had hundreds
who relied on that system for email and within a couple weeks it became
apparent we weren't ever going to fully recover even though we had a few folks
willing to put in full time to replace the system.  Even worse, we had a
disconnect where the board itself didn't have an official communication
liaison to deal with the media so alot of mixed messages were sent out.

response 349 of 480:

Dec 15 22:55 UTC 2006

I'm sharing my opinion here but, who really should be giving you advice, 
are the staff themselves.  I'm not sure of the best way to reach them 
though.  Maybe email?  Or attend the next board meeting?  There are almost 
always staff at the board meetings and you'll get a different kind of 
conversation going there than you will here.  

response 351 of 480:

Dec 15 23:12 UTC 2006

This suggests that perhaps the board should start considering how to foster
working relationships that do not require face-to-face meetings.