---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Text of TeleFinder Chat from Thursday, June 25, 1998 6 PM PDT. In attendance: From SpiderIsland: Rusty Tucker Sysops: Jim DeHaven, Donald McHose ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rusty Tucker hola! Jim DeHaven : hi Rusty Jim DeHaven : not very crowded thus far Rusty Tucker Hi Jim, do you like this new time? Jim DeHaven : but this time is great for me Rusty Tucker I expect a lite crowd tonight due to the new time Jim DeHaven : I am usually too overwhelmed with work during the daytime to join up though I read the transcripts religiously Jim DeHaven : (I read them in church) Rusty Tucker Good! So , any questions tonight? Jim DeHaven : I can think of some Jim DeHaven : hope they aren't too far off the beaten track of what is discussed Jim DeHaven : here Rusty Tucker Jump right in then... Everything is fair game Jim DeHaven : let me tell you of a problem I have mentioned before Jim DeHaven : it is that people who use PC's cannot connect to the BBS using AOL Jim DeHaven : This upsets them what is hard to understand is that the connection is made Jim DeHaven : the BBS detects it and shows it as a bad connection likewise Jim DeHaven : it is possible to connect using Macs Rusty Tucker Sounds like a "half-up" connection Jim DeHaven : on AOL Jim DeHaven : what causes that Rusty? Rusty Tucker Are they able to use anything other than a browser on their AOL connection? Jim DeHaven : I haven't tried it but AOL claims that they can use telnet software Jim DeHaven : and various games boards are supported, thing's other than web browsers Rusty Tucker It would be worth verifying that (telnet) Jim DeHaven : if that's what you mean Jim DeHaven : yes--you mean getting some generic PC telnet program Rusty Tucker and also trying TeleFinder on port 23 if you support that. Jim DeHaven : but do you know what causes a "half-connection"? Jim DeHaven : I already have tried the port 23 thing that doesn't work Jim DeHaven : I mean--what is meant by the term Rusty Tucker It means that the client side is not getting the message that the connection was accepted by the server. Jim DeHaven : and what causes that to happen? If it has a name, it must be a common phenomenon Rusty Tucker Lost packets are one cause. Jim DeHaven : how do they get lost? Rusty Tucker That wouldn't seem to be the case here. Rusty Tucker This must be an interaction between the AOL TCP stack, and TeleFinder. Jim DeHaven : You mean on the PC Rusty Tucker right Jim DeHaven : you are saying that it is not AOL itself Rusty Tucker maybe its because TeleFinder 3.x is 16 bit Jim DeHaven : really? Rusty Tucker did you have a chance to try the 32 bit TF? Jim DeHaven : so I should try 4 Jim DeHaven : not yet Jim DeHaven : I will Rusty Tucker Winsock DLL's come in 2 flavors 16 and 32 bit Jim DeHaven : the problem we have Rusty Tucker TeleFinder User 4 beta uses the 32 bit dll Rusty Tucker and that's probably what AOL tests and supports. Jim DeHaven : I will try that--our problem is that we need to chat Donald McHose joined the chat. Rusty Tucker Welcome to the chat Donald! Jim DeHaven : and BIAP chat is still rather cumbersome Rusty Tucker hey - I'll be back in a minute Jim DeHaven : Ok Jim DeHaven : hi Don Donald McHose : run run run screeeech bang !! East coast reporting in . Jim DeHaven : ditto Donald McHose : How's things going ? Jim DeHaven : I am putting several courses online Jim DeHaven : including complete videos of a lecture course in physics Jim DeHaven : so things are busy and you? Jim DeHaven : I have run in to the same problem that I think you alluded to on the bulletin boards Donald McHose : Great. I caught the last line on BIAP. Wow you are busy. Just work as usual. 6-12's. Donald McHose : Oh what was that ? I forgotten. Rusty Tucker hi again Jim DeHaven : namely that as our course/distance learning efforts increase Jim DeHaven : it becomes harder and harder to administer the site Donald McHose : Ah the county thing. Jim DeHaven : due to the proliferation of user access groups Rusty Tucker Just putting Connection Settings files, and a Transfer log into TeleFinder User for Win. Donald McHose : Oh yeah !!! Donald McHose : Tis a royal pain ;-) especially the access groups Jim DeHaven : yes--and everyone wants privacy Jim DeHaven : and of course you need groups for students and profs Donald McHose : but of course ! Jim DeHaven : and them special groups for students in more than one course Jim DeHaven : I have 50 or 60 of them now--groups that is Jim DeHaven : and I need to think of a more rational way to organize things Jim DeHaven : Rusty--what is the typical transfer rate over a LAN Jim DeHaven : what should it be? Donald McHose : Now you know what I was running into. I just can't wait to tie the High school into it next month ;-) Jim DeHaven : order of magnitude, is this a stupid question? Rusty Tucker Sounds like you need to get a program that will compile Access Groups for you Jim DeHaven : do you have something in mind? Rusty Tucker I get 50- 100K cps depending Jim DeHaven : OK we get up to 250,000 Jim DeHaven : chars per sec Jim DeHaven : so we are doing OK Rusty Tucker that's real good! Jim DeHaven : I thought it was but wasn't sure Donald McHose : bout the same , pending how many are hitting the lan for Encarta CD's Jim DeHaven : we have a fiber optic ATM backbone Jim DeHaven : which is supposedly very fast Rusty Tucker I don't -- but if you make a lot of changes that affect many groups, it would be nice to have a program that would compile the groups according to a set of rules. Jim DeHaven : OH yes indeed! Donald McHose : much better than a cotton string. We are 10 baseT right now. Sure would be nice RT Rusty Tucker The Access Group file format is very simple, and it would be easy (!) to make a C program that would do it. Rusty Tucker easy for anyone with the time that is :) Jim DeHaven : where does one find that structure--how to get to it Jim DeHaven : do I just open it up with BBEdit? and look? Donald McHose : Would it give the admin structure like ResNova ? Rusty Tucker BBEdit won't work, its a binary structure Rusty Tucker I think there is a definition for it in the development kit with v5.6 Jim DeHaven : OK Rusty Tucker basically its a file header, followed by an array of access paths Donald McHose : Hmmm..project 9876 Jim DeHaven : heh heh Rusty Tucker Jon P has decoded it for some of his stuff. Rusty Tucker maybe you could put a bug in Dan O'Leary's ear now that he has the Suzie code. Jim DeHaven : that code is now online Jim DeHaven : true? Jim DeHaven : Is he writing something? Rusty Tucker right its now online Jim DeHaven : I saw in a chat that he was thinking of web based chat with whiteboard--is that project # 9877? Donald McHose : Oh RT , Speaking of our stuff..Indian Land has reached a new stability level !! Three weeks no restart. Donald McHose : Heh heh Jim DeHaven : agreed Jim DeHaven : the stability of the server is incredible Jim DeHaven : 2 crashes since the 16th of December Rusty Tucker way cool! Donald McHose : that IS WAY KOOL Rusty Tucker I will be out of town next week, so I am relying on it here too! Jim DeHaven : I rub it in to our network perons Jim DeHaven : persons Jim DeHaven : I bought Timbuktu and that smart clapper thing Jim DeHaven : but have never used them Jim DeHaven : actually check that Jim DeHaven : the plug strip caught one crash Rusty Tucker Dan said that he would lead the project to make Suzie 3.0. I am sure that he needs some coders to help out. Jim DeHaven : the silence is deafening Rusty Tucker I usually only worry about my ISDN going down. Donald McHose : Haven't written anything since the days of Fortran and punch cards. Jim DeHaven : We will really give it a test this fall Rusty Tucker Well guys, looks like this is it for our first evening chat! Jim DeHaven : since we anticipate there being a dozen or so courses online Jim DeHaven : OK Rusty Jim DeHaven : thanks for showing up Donald McHose : RT has anybody you know used Digichat? Rusty Tucker Any other q's before we wrap up? Rusty Tucker No, I don't know about Digichat Donald McHose : C-above. Jim DeHaven : what is it don? Rusty Tucker I've seen a few Press notes about it, but have never seen it used anywhere Donald McHose : k..I'll let you all know how it goes. Much nicer than BIAP but a lot more proc. intensive. Donald McHose : A chat server Jim DeHaven : you know Rusty Donald McHose : not really a plug in from what I can tell. Jim DeHaven : I have given your name to a kindly little nun Rusty Tucker uh-oh Jim DeHaven : who wants to use your software at her high school, maybe Rusty Tucker oh! :) Jim DeHaven : Holy Angels High Rusty Tucker hah! Jim DeHaven : they were impressed Jim DeHaven : the nuns--not the angels Rusty Tucker That's good. We need more customers! Jim DeHaven : Well I have also given the info to our local educational/apple distribution co. Jim DeHaven : but I don't know what they will do with it Jim DeHaven : it really works well in doing what we do Jim DeHaven : there are lots of people in education who need an easy way to put course material online and communicate with their students Rusty Tucker Yes, too many of them got stuck with SoftArc... :( Donald McHose : NOW they are getting fried on NT ;-) Jim DeHaven : well there are lots of them who buy prepackaged stuff Jim DeHaven : like TopClass which actually needs a server to run Rusty Tucker ? Jim DeHaven : TopClass Rusty Tucker I haven't heard of that one Jim DeHaven : is a WebStar plug in that is specifically adapted towards administering distance learning sites Rusty Tucker oh? Donald McHose : Big $$$ Jim DeHaven : yes they want lots of money, 2000 at least Donald McHose : Does half of what TF does for twice as much ;-) Jim DeHaven : and more for more concurrent connections, exactly because TF gives more flexibility and has real time chat Rusty Tucker do they have a web site? Jim DeHaven : and has better conference areas Jim DeHaven : yes they do Donald McHose : Yup !! Rusty Tucker I'll look into it Jim DeHaven : and you can download a trial copy Donald McHose : I get an ad once a month at least you could we have people here who see that and think it is wonderful Jim DeHaven : until I show them how to use it and what it can't do Donald McHose : BINGO Jim DeHaven : Rusty--a whiteboard--even a simple on in the chat room--something where you could easily send a gif during a chat--something simple like that Jim DeHaven : would really help I think in this market Donald McHose : Every class room will have a new PC this fall. That's when I hope to rock-n-roll Jim DeHaven : just the ability to broadcast a gif file to the people online in chat rooms--would be extremely useful and would be a kind of gimmick that u could "show off" to people Donald McHose : So would a school to school game show ...hint. Rusty Tucker :) Rusty Tucker so what's their URL? Jim DeHaven : I feel like I feel when I am asking my dean for more money to buy software, don't have it--I will send it out to you Rusty Tucker ok thanks -- I'll look in my email Donald McHose : I'll give it a look too. Donald McHose : RT when will topics be able to SPML a hot link? Rusty Tucker u mean like Jon did in email? Rusty Tucker I should do something to look for http:// and make a link of it Donald McHose : Ahh yup. when someone uses the web in a conf and pots a url Jim DeHaven : couldn't find it using yahoo--I will look in the files on my computer later Donald McHose : Posts I mean. Donald McHose : Just a thought. Rusty Tucker Thanks for stopping in! I will be out next week, but be back for chat July 7. Rusty Tucker I think I know what you mean DM Donald McHose : O.K. see ya all then. Donald McHose : Great. Jim DeHaven : bye Rusty Tucker bye ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- June 26, 1998 -- ŠCopyright 1998, Spider Island Software