response 3 of 78:

Jul 3 19:59 UTC 1999

Why "sigh"?  Evidently I've missed some sort of past argument about this one,
but it seems to me that Richard has a good point.  If we could be earning
interest on that money, why shouldn't we be?  

response 5 of 78:

Jul 3 22:54 UTC 1999

re #3:  "<sigh>" because I generally don't think much of Richard's ideas
for improving Grex's (or, once upon a time, M-net's) finances.  In this 
case, the idea of putting Grex's "extra" savings in mutual funds seems
like another idea that's only half-thought-through.  A couple of downsides:

   1) it might not seem like it based on the past several years,
      but mutual funds have a risk associated with them -- they don't
      *always* go up.  who'd pick which investments, and decide when
      to sell?  who'd be blamed if things didn't work out?

   2) who handles the extra paperwork involved?  how does it complicate
      Grex's tax situation?

a money market account sounds simpler and more prudent.  the upside potential
might not be as large but the downside is negligible, the behavior is simpler
to predict, and the paperwork (which must be handled by volunteers, remember)
may be more straightforward.

response 7 of 78:

Jul 4 06:33 UTC 1999

I'm not a big fan of investment, since I'm not sure what we'd do with 
the money anyway.  I'm uncomfortable as it is having the money just 
sitting around like this.  It might be prudent to attempt to anticipate 
future large expenses so we can squirrel money away for them.  This 
seems moot now, but this is the sort of time when moving to a new 
permanent location or replacing hardware is highly practical.  I'm not 
advocating this sort of expense, but it's a thought.

response 9 of 78:

Jul 4 19:22 UTC 1999

        You COULD, however, look at certain certificates and Bonds for
        say.. Half the fundage.. for like.. 6 months..?

        This would yield ther Evil Profit that could itself be rerouted
        back into the the pay-stream.

response 11 of 78:

Jul 6 21:38 UTC 1999

grex can now afford to add more phone lines and more telnet ports if
it wants-- that would be a quality service improvement

response 13 of 78:

Jul 6 23:59 UTC 1999

   I agree with Jennifer--'real' improvements are needed.  We need to 
figure out how and what they really are.  I suspect they run along the
lines of a faster net connection and more CPU or starting the move
towards distributed services, but thats fodder for another item.

   We probably don't want to buy any disks right now, because we have
2G disks galore right now, and we could spin *10* of them for a year
at a cost of buying one new big one.  Given that load is far better
balanced among several different disks than one, we'd see a real
performance hit in doing that.

response 15 of 78:

Jul 7 12:29 UTC 1999

As a regular dialer-in, I personally don't think we need more phone lines.

response 17 of 78:

Jul 7 16:43 UTC 1999

  I can't recall the last time I got a busy signal on the local dial-ins..

response 19 of 78:

Jul 8 20:11 UTC 1999

resp:18 that would most deffinately be cool

response 21 of 78:

Jul 8 21:08 UTC 1999

Add one in Blacksburg, and I'll call in every day.  Hmm... maybe that's not
such a good idea; I do need to get SOME sleep.  At least the library closes
every night, and I *have* to leave.

response 23 of 78:

Jul 9 04:05 UTC 1999

I wonder how far afield we could add lines and still have them be on our
Centrex system?

response 25 of 78:

Jul 9 04:37 UTC 1999

I think it's called OPX Centrex, Off-Premises Extension.  MSU, my employer, 
has some scattered around.  The problem is that there is a per-mile charge
every month.