austraLasia 1413
Bosconet snagged on a reef in cyberspace, and other related issues
ROME: 28th January 2006 -- A word of explanation is due to faithful browsers (peopleware, not software) and suffering email recipients. Three issues: why Bosconet occasionally goes on the blink, why some of you don't get austraLasia even though you've asked for it, and why 'Sr Maryanne MMB' recently wrote to me telling me she had 'whitelisted' me in spam remover and asking me to whitelist her - using the same one, obviously.
I'll start with Sr Maryanne. I don't know her, but I do know quite a number of the Mercedarian Missionaries of Berriz who work in the Central and North Pacific islands and I'm not all that sure they have a Sr Maryanne. By the same token I receive, almost daily, email requests from Salesians to join their mobile phone network and update my address. I don't have a mobile phone! So what is going on here? Easy enough - it is all part of the spam which BG said he would have eliminated by the beginning of 2006. Let's get straight to the point. Bill Gates did not mean that he could stop people from spamming. He just meant he could produce good spam filters. My spam filter is an open source item and not from BG. I can 'see' items going into it, so I can actually check their headings. If I wish to I can 'white list' an item, meaning it no longer goes in. Now, it happens that the sdb.org address, responsible for a veritable tsunami of email in any one day, has been automatically 'blacklisted' by many spamfilters. There is no easy solution to that. We could use @dduck.com and it would still happen.
That answers the second question - I know that many pull austraLasia out of their spam box to read it, because I see the 'Re: Spam: australasia' in the heading when they write to me. And of course if you don't pull it out because you are unaware it is even going in there, then you are not reading this, more's the pity! I do suggest you check your spam box today and see what is in there and maybe suggest to others that they do the same. 'White list' items you do not want to go there in the future, you know, letters from your provincial, ANS news and the like! That could help.
But Bosconet? For two days this week our Regional website went off-line, or seemingly so. It appears to be online again this morning, but I can't upload. Which also means I cannot update its contents at the moment, and that seems to include the XML file for Feed readers, even though I seem to be able to FTP them (don't worry if you can't follow the technicalities, but you know the results, or lack of them!) Why is Bosconet occasionally snagged on a reef somewhere in cyberspace? If I knew why it would no longer be snagged. It is almost certainly related to problems with the Rome server. Fix it, you say! Easier said than done. It's time there was a patron Saint of cybersapce, or one for patience at the very least.
Later today, server permitting, something on the Chinese New Year which, UK's 'Independent' newspaper today says has involved the greatest mass movement of human beings ever known on the planet this year, as Chinese workers travel home to their families to celebrate. 2 billion journeys that puts the Haj in the shade for mass movement in a single event.
VOCABULARY
on the blink: doesn't work; in this case goes offline.
_______________________
AustraLasia is an email service for the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific. It also functions as an agency for ANS based in Rome. For RSS feeds, subscribe to www.bosconet.aust.com/rssala.xml
Bosconet snagged on a reef in cyberspace, and other related issues
ROME: 28th January 2006 -- A word of explanation is due to faithful browsers (peopleware, not software) and suffering email recipients. Three issues: why Bosconet occasionally goes on the blink, why some of you don't get austraLasia even though you've asked for it, and why 'Sr Maryanne MMB' recently wrote to me telling me she had 'whitelisted' me in spam remover and asking me to whitelist her - using the same one, obviously.
I'll start with Sr Maryanne. I don't know her, but I do know quite a number of the Mercedarian Missionaries of Berriz who work in the Central and North Pacific islands and I'm not all that sure they have a Sr Maryanne. By the same token I receive, almost daily, email requests from Salesians to join their mobile phone network and update my address. I don't have a mobile phone! So what is going on here? Easy enough - it is all part of the spam which BG said he would have eliminated by the beginning of 2006. Let's get straight to the point. Bill Gates did not mean that he could stop people from spamming. He just meant he could produce good spam filters. My spam filter is an open source item and not from BG. I can 'see' items going into it, so I can actually check their headings. If I wish to I can 'white list' an item, meaning it no longer goes in. Now, it happens that the sdb.org address, responsible for a veritable tsunami of email in any one day, has been automatically 'blacklisted' by many spamfilters. There is no easy solution to that. We could use @dduck.com and it would still happen.
That answers the second question - I know that many pull austraLasia out of their spam box to read it, because I see the 'Re: Spam: australasia' in the heading when they write to me. And of course if you don't pull it out because you are unaware it is even going in there, then you are not reading this, more's the pity! I do suggest you check your spam box today and see what is in there and maybe suggest to others that they do the same. 'White list' items you do not want to go there in the future, you know, letters from your provincial, ANS news and the like! That could help.
But Bosconet? For two days this week our Regional website went off-line, or seemingly so. It appears to be online again this morning, but I can't upload. Which also means I cannot update its contents at the moment, and that seems to include the XML file for Feed readers, even though I seem to be able to FTP them (don't worry if you can't follow the technicalities, but you know the results, or lack of them!) Why is Bosconet occasionally snagged on a reef somewhere in cyberspace? If I knew why it would no longer be snagged. It is almost certainly related to problems with the Rome server. Fix it, you say! Easier said than done. It's time there was a patron Saint of cybersapce, or one for patience at the very least.
Later today, server permitting, something on the Chinese New Year which, UK's 'Independent' newspaper today says has involved the greatest mass movement of human beings ever known on the planet this year, as Chinese workers travel home to their families to celebrate. 2 billion journeys that puts the Haj in the shade for mass movement in a single event.
VOCABULARY
on the blink: doesn't work; in this case goes offline.
_______________________
AustraLasia is an email service for the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific. It also functions as an agency for ANS based in Rome. For RSS feeds, subscribe to www.bosconet.aust.com/rssala.xml
