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<font face="Courier New, Courier, monospace">Hi, Paul, everyone ...
Horace answered you yesterday evening, but accidentally sent to me <br>
instead of to the list. He can't get to a computer till mid-morning, so
late (too late) last night he <br>
asked me to forward his reply to pianotech. -- Susan <br>
<br>
-------------------------<br>
</font>Hi, Paul,<br>
<br>
Yes...I'm semi-sorry to say that I could/can do that myself. What makes
more sense to me is to have some ISP set up and manage the server, and
then have some TBD person(s) act as administrators to setup mailman and
then to populate it with the archives from the existing instance. <br>
<br>
Missing, unless they were to be made available by the guild, would be
the attachments. I'm sure that many of us collectively have most of
that stuff available...just not necessarily connected to the correct
original post.<br>
<br>
While for many things I really like Amazon Web Services, I think the
best location for something of this nature is a real-time ISP. There
are thousands around the country, many with very competitive rates. The
advantage of this route is that all of the support of the physical
server and its OS and related software is managed by the ISP, leaving
someone else largely only having to worry about the mailman application
and things related to it. If you're wondering where $30K has been
going, it's for too few people to manage too few boxes...there's no
economy of scale and it looks like pianotech has been taking a hit for
about 50% of someone's salary...from a business perspective, that's
clearly unsustainable. What's inexplicable/illogical is why this wasn't
contracted out years ago...but, that's another topic for another time.<br>
<br>
I'm happy to check with the ISP I use; or, someone else can...doesn't
matter. I've used <a href="http://Sonic.net">Sonic.net</a> for over 15
years and always been pleased with their services costs. There may be
other places that are cheaper and/or better.<br>
<br>
Anyway, thanks for your kind words, Paul. I'm speaking up because I
hate to see what appears to be so many people effectively cut off or
opting out when there is no real need and the options proferred really
don't provide the same service for the same amount of end-user effort.<br>
<br>
Kind regards<br>
<br>
Horace<br>
<br>
<font face="Courier New, Courier, monospace"><br>
<br>
</font><br>
Paul McCloud wrote:
<blockquote
cite="mid:512c6876.4874b60a.7b9f.04fbSMTPIN_ADDED_BROKEN@mx.google.com"
type="cite">
<pre wrap="">Hi, Horace:
Well, it seems you understand the software and technical details enough to be able to set it up and get it going. You wouldn't, um, be able to, ah, jump in and, say, start it up again? Ok, ok, just askin'
I don't understand why PTG has to just throw it away, since it's working now. If it's run from a dedicated machine in the home office (which it sounds like it is), can't we just purchase it and have it set up somewhere else? Where it is doesn't matter. If it takes an expert IT guy to get it up and running again, I know a few myself that could do it blindfolded. My website is hosted by my webmaster on his own machines, so it can be done. If the home office is just going to pull the plug and heave the server out the window, why we don't just dive in the dumpster and get it? What am I missing?
Anybody ask Andy Rudoff about this? It was his system after all. He created it, and maintained it, so he might be willing to give some expert advice on it. Anybody know how to contact him?
Paul McCloud
SAn Diego
----- Original Message -----
From: "Horace Greeley" <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:hgreeley@sonic.net"><hgreeley@sonic.net></a>
To: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org">pianotech@ptg.org</a>
Sent: Monday, February 25, 2013 10:26:35 PM
Subject: Re: [pianotech] Google groups
Hi, Jim,
On 2/25/2013 8:10 PM, Jim Moy wrote:
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">No, because running a server that you control is quite beyond the
scope of simply administering the control panel of a hosted listserv.
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap=""><!---->
I respectfully disagree in part.
If one chooses to own one's own hardware, provide software, do the
installation, server management/maintenance, and all the other cruft
that goes along with it, the you are correct...
On the other hand, if one chooses to contract with one's ISP, or other
service provider, for the provision of the base server and its related
software, then the main choices one has to make (if one is using
"mailman", anyway) is does one prefer to have a "closed" or an "open"
list...that is, does the administrator(s) choose to have to personally
act on every subscription request, or, do they allow the built-in
controls in the mailman application to handle those basic chores for
them. If the contract is properly written, the service provider even
backs up both the data and the server, so that there is a level of
service provided that is not available with either Facebook or Google.
Other than that, the primary responsibility of the administrator(s)
would be to be in reasonable contact with the service provider when
users report things like spam/etc to see what can be blocked by the
co-located spam/AV software.
Only FWIW, from watching and reading these discussions as they have come
and gone over the last couple of years, and (hopefully) putting politics
aside, shutting off something as antique and low-tech as mailman in
favor of any replacement (whether HL, Facebook, Google, what-have-you)
that requires relatively fast end-user machines with at least ADSL2+ or
broadband connections for the web interfaces to work properly
automatically cuts off many of the very users who have not only
contributed much to the profession over time, but who also either have
slow connections (the U.S. is now #10 in the "industrialized west" for
internet connection speed and reliability), or slow machines, or both,
or who don't have the time to spend waiting while the latest version of
Java downloads and installs so that the ads on the page can display.
This really isn't rocket science...nowhere close. Frankly, it's so easy
and cost effective (as opposed to all of the other solutions which have
been suggested so far), that I'm only surprised that no one has pointed
out that the very simple and ultimately easiest solution is simply to
start up another mailman instance with another service provider. The
base server doesn't have to be very large...an old PIV running virtually
any semi-modern version of Linux can run mailman in about 4 Gb RAM. The
whole archive for both pianotech and the old caut list is under 150MB in
(compressed) size...and, looking quickly at my "attachments"
directories, even if the now-removed attachments are somehow magically
replaced, there would be only 15 - 20 Gb storage required to hold the
whole thing. Even if this were to be put up in some portion of the
Amazon S3 cloud, this kind of thing might run as much as $25/month to
run 24/7/365...even if it turned out to be $50/month, that's only
$600/year...or, call it $1,000 per year to be conservative. While I run
a number of Linux and other OSes on different boxes for different
purposes, for things like this I rely on my ISP and/or one of the Amazon
cloud-based services to handle web, mail, and database servers rather
than trying to maintain production equipment myself. It's far more cost
effective and makes much more efficient use of my own time and energy.
It's also cheap.
It's really very, very simple. Properly configured, mailman is
effectively self-contained and reliant. Mail comes in and goes out.
Attachments are properly delivered with the appropriate EM. After their
initial subscription, users do not have to sign in, wait for web pages,
click on multiple links to where they are going, and, don't get lost in
a maze of sub-menus/groups/etc. Archives can be be created
automagically. It just works. If the supporting services are
contracted with a competent service provider, the human input to the
whole system is minimal.
Paul's question is the right one to be asking; and, the direct answer is
that, as noted above, it depends on which of the above-noted routes one
takes. Basically, there's no competent technical or budgetary reason to
throw this list under the bus.
Anyway, I'm just surprised that no one has suggested this previously.
Kind regards.
Horace
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">Jim
On Mon, Feb 25, 2013 at 8:11 PM, paul bruesch <<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:paul@bruesch.net">paul@bruesch.net</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:paul@bruesch.net"><mailto:paul@bruesch.net></a>> wrote:
Wouldn't it be just as easy to run a mailman listserver? OK, maybe
not, but...
On Mon, Feb 25, 2013 at 7:20 PM, Jim Moy <<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:jim@moypiano.com">jim@moypiano.com</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:jim@moypiano.com"><mailto:jim@moypiano.com></a>> wrote:
A perfectly valid objection to the "cloud computing" way of
things.
If the pianotech run on Google servers goes away some day, how
can you guarantee its contents were preserved for the future,
in the way we are able with the Mailman list archives on the
server we control?
It seems like it would be a good idea to set up a machine
subscriber to the Google Group that automatically stores the
emails it receives in an archive that is under our control...
On Mon, Feb 25, 2013 at 6:01 PM, Susan Kline <<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:skline@peak.org">skline@peak.org</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:skline@peak.org"><mailto:skline@peak.org></a>> wrote:
There's something else -- I don't trust the likes of
Google or Yahoo at all, even though
I'm part of a big Yahoo group. And Facebook --- why not
just let a bunch of corporate
jackals into your private home, unlock everything, let
them take whatever they want
and piss on the rest?
Susan, now getting old and cranky
Terry Beckingham wrote:
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap=""> Well, I thought I had Google groups figured out, but I
guess I was wrong.
It appears that the only way I can send to Google groups
is to go onto the web and log into my Google account and
send from there.
I don't like going to the web if I don't have to, because
I do not have high speed. I use Eudora for my email and
everything comes directly into my Eudora. I can have
Google forward from my Gmail account to my other address,
but I can't send to Google groups from my Eudora.
Am I missing something here? Is there a way to send from
my Eudora to Google groups without logging onto my Google
account on the web?
I'm frustrated.
Terry Beckingham
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap="">
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap=""><!---->
</pre>
</blockquote>
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