Daynote mail 1999 week 15

Daynote mail: Week of 12 - 18 April, 1999

Daynote mail and replies -- Week 15

* Link to: last modified at 09:45 GMT+2, on 18.04.1999

Any quoted mail from reader feedback ends up here. This tends to reflect something of the ongoing discussions between myself and readers (and other web-daynote maintainers), provide tips, ask for help, and just be plain fun.

The sidebar "Daynotes"-link, beside each weekday, links to the corresponding day in the daynote file. The reverse linkage is also provided on the daynotes.

himself Mail your comments to: bo@leuf.com

Anyone who wishes correspondence to remain private should say so up front.

Quoted mail may be shortened and is usually based on my reply quotes. There may be some minor overlap between what's on the daynote page and what is given here in order to give correct context.

(BTW, week numbering is according to the Swedish calendar, which this year started January in week 53. "Current" weekday is of course based on GMT+1.)

Monday 12.04

There is definitely something odd going on with accessing this site for some. Both Bob and Tom report time-out, and more interestingly a different DNS resolve than what I get (and which obviously works for me, both for ftp updates, email and webserve). Bob was also having trouble accessing Tom's site.

If anyone else have been experiencing problems and only recently accessed these pages again, please let me know.

Here is the later segment of an exchange with Bob Thompson about this:

(In response to a tracert listing.)

Definitely odd. Here's a current tracert from my end... Note that I get a *different* DNS resolve on my domain (.22) I think I normally get a "black hole" IP, 172.16.210.* as next-to-last hop on the com domain, but I've noted no problems associated with it. The domain block is evidently administered by bellsouth.net

If your DNS query is giving an incorrect IP number, that would explain the problem.

Okay. It seems that you don't have a static IP address, which is a bizarre way to run a web hosting company. I think they're piggy-backing multiple web sites onto one IP address with host headers, which is pretty non-standard.
Hmm, I seriously doubt any form of "dynamic" here. However, the "virtual domain hosting" typically offered by hosts does mean that hosted domains often share the same fixed IP for a physical or virtual server these days. AFAIK, my com IP number has been static up until now. From my end, I still have normal connectivity, web and ftp, to the com site, but as noted, the IP number is currently resolving to .22 at the DNS. If you manually enter:
http://205.152.36.22/
this should bring up the com site. The .16 IP does not, that is what I can verify as well, but that's not the number I get from DNS.
There are all kinds of behind-the-scene changes going on with upgrades and new NIC-interfacing, and godknowswhat in store.

Tuesday 13.04

I this morning sent the following further to the above reply:

Bob and Tom,
Just thinking. Both of you sit behind proxy. Could DNS caching be part of the problem, assuming that the IP number was shifted at com?
Further on IP and hosting. A bit of research suggests that any webhost (or "reseller") that does not provide unlimited aliasing/POPaccounts for a hosted site account type, is probably assigning multiple domains to the same ("server") IP-number, or reserving the right to do so. This seems to be what "virtual domain hosting" is all about, as opposed to when you run your own physical server on a continuous line to an access provider. In one way, it is an expression of the shrinking pool of available IP blocks and the explosive growth of domains wanting to be hosted.

Bob Thompson's most recent reply to my IP-number suggestion (Monday, above):

I have manually entered the address you mentioned, and I get a generic PagePlanet banner page saying that I've mis-entered something. Clicking on the link below and then refreshing yields the same error page.
Perhaps the DNS servers at your provider are screwed up.

I find that last a bit hard to believe, given that I experience normal access from way over here in Sweden. And the IP-number and domain alias both work from here. The site is physically hosted in Raleigh, NC, i.e. not far from where Bob lives. Very odd that explicit IP-number generates a "404".

Speaking of screwed up, I finally got a response from Geocities (see last Sunday) concerning non-removal of plus and VURL..

Notice that datestamp! Back to the future...

From: billing@geocities.com Date sent: Thu, 6 May 1999 04:20:47 -0700 Subject: Re: RCPT: Re: Geoplus Bill Statement
Hello--
So sorry about the confusion. I have confirmed that your GeoPlus account is qued to cancel with no further billing (it cancels at the end of the current billing cycle). I have also cancelled your VURL. I will credit your account $9.95 for the last month. Please allow 2 to 3 weeks for this credit to appear on your statement. We are sorry to see you leave GeoPlus!
Please let us know if we can be of further assistance.
Thanks.

Oh, "queued to cancel" yet. Hmm. No tracking number. No ID of who sent this, just the generic return/reply-to. Hmm, again. Things may be just a tad chaotic in customer care, methinks, given that they have millions of sites to administer.

Namesecure, whom I also contacted, did give an (automated) response with tracking number. Interestingly, Namesecure is still redirecting the domain to Geocities, despite the general backbone DNS update on leuf.org two weeks ago. I am unclear about to what extent that may still affect anyone.

A slew of responses from Bob, which I will compress somewhat...

BTW, your site is coming up fine this morning. I suspect there were problems on the server.
--
Did they recently move you to another server (or IP address?). If so, and if they also removed your site from the old location too quickly, people still using old DNS tables would be directed to the old (and non-existent) site. ...
Yes, I begin to suspect that something like this may have happened, that IP-number and domain got a shuffle for some reason and some DNS tables were invalid for a while. What IP-number do you now resolve? If it ends .22, then this explanation seems likliest. The funny thing is, that I have been accessing the site regularly during the whole time. I suppose the DNS-tables I was accessing got updated quickly overnight, my time.
--
My proxy isn't caching DNS. I'm getting DNS direct from bellsouth. ... DNS changes take time to propagate through the system, and any time you make a change, some people will be getting the old address and some the new for quite some time. ...
--
I noticed on your journal page that I'd said something unclearly. When I mentioned the thing about "static" IP address, I wasn't suggesting that your provider was using dynamic addresses. Instead, I was commenting on the fact that it is usual practice to assign one unique static IP address to each domain. ...
What I thought (and still think) is odd is that it appeared from your description and the tests I ran that your provider is assigning more than one domain to a single IP address and then using host headers to sort it all out. That's a common enough practice in some situations (e.g. corporate Intranets) but is not considered best practice for commercial web hosting. If nothing else, it breaks browsers that don't support host header names (including older versions of IE and Navigator, millions of copies of which are still in use). ...

I've asked the provider for more info on this and related matters. Though perhaps not "best practice", multi-domaining IPs seems common enough even in commercial web hosting.

One phrasing of this is "... host field mapping, the current standard for transmitting URL requests. Of the major browsers, it has been over three years and three major revisions since host field mapping was not the standard. "

Wednesday 14.04

Every so often one gets these emails with a bad return address. Spelunking the links, not all of which were willing to be served turned up an alternative (free) email address to try.

From: "Arthur D'Alembert" <aalembert@iname.com> To: bleuf@geocities.com Date sent: Tue, 13 Apr 1999 21:32:22 +0000 Subject: book promotion Send reply to: aalembert@iname.com Priority: normal
Hello Bo, how do you promote SF books?
Thanks
I live into http://www.goplay.com/aalembert
To: artis@mypad.com
Original reply at bottom. Your reply-to was invalid.

------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
Date sent: Wed, 14 Apr 1999 03:35:37 -0400
...
----- The following addresses had permanent fatal errors -----
<aalembert@iname.com>

First off, note that the email address you used (bleuf@geocities.com) may not always work. I am in general now recommending people to use the domain-tied addresses, such as this one (bo@leuf.org).
I don't really "promote" books. However, I do make author listings from time to time about authors that I feel are important or whose works interest me. This is of course a never-ending project, and the selection will always be arbitrary and incomplete. Sometimes I may mention some title in passing in other contexts.
I've downloaded the pdf sample, and bookmarked UP, since e-publishing is an area to keep an eye on.
Thanks for the mail.

The book he is presumably referring to is one he has e-published via e-publishers Universal Publishing, ("The Song of the Swan"). This seems much more "serious" than a lot of other ventures. And the book may even be half-way decent. I skimmed through the preview pdf-file, and the story only really gets started by about the last page or so of this. I'd need more to get a fair impression of where character and plot are going. There is no grabbing initial hook to start things rolling, more of a science lecture with a vaguely poetic attitude. In my opinion a shame, because although the intent to provide some serious science (astronomy and number theory) background may be laudable, I feel it should be just that: background, not foreground, dispensed with care.

Thursday 15.04

To a posted article under the disisay banner on the org site came this comment today:

We at Astral Systems Inc. CA are in the process of developing AUTOMATED TOOLS to transform legacy systems to open systems like ORACLE APPS., PEOPLE SOFT and JD EDWARDS.

Although this reads like your typical automated email ad, it is in fact a manually posted item via the linked comment server. I fear the reader missed the point of the article somewhat.

Friday 16.04

I felt I had to give a further on something posted on Bob's page relating to the Balkans and the German interlude there in WWII.

Dave Farquhar wrote:

"... Two things about the Nazis: They were competent soldiers, and they had no qualms about being cruel. ..."

Well, a couple of issues come to mind. The *Nazis* per se were in fact rather clueless about many things, including military strategy, often overruling the carreer officers on matters large and small, and just as often costing their troops significant losses. Secondly, the "cruel" attitudes can generally be attributed to the various special forces. The straight military were "professionals", expedient, but probably no crueler than any other professional military force, as opposed to fanatics with agendas other than fight&win.
When looking at the Balkan situation in general, and the troops there, we are on the other hand much closer to the fanatic fringes. History shows that these troops and leaders fight to revenge past wrongdoings and slights, and on the Serbian side not a little fueled by dreams of "a larger (lost) empire". Point well made that the Germans of WWII could not take and subdue this region, and that this should pose a serious warning to any NATO/US plans to put in ground troops in a hot war there without good cause and much contingency planning. Going in would mandate a total commitment to persevere whatever the cost, and that cost will assuredly be high. Finally, ground troops in a hot war will almost certainly expand the conflict to the entire region, well outside the confines of the current "rump" Yugoslavian federation.

I received replies from both Dave and Bob. First off, Dave:

Good points -- shows some difference in the European perspective as opposed to the U.S. perspective. I really should read some European-written history on WWII. We were there, but we were strangers in a strange land, and we came in late.
Doesn't necessarily have to be European-written. Though not the rule perhaps, a number of Americans can be quite insightful on non-US perspectives. Just as quite a number of European writers can be abysmally ignorant about their own region and history.
I generally read Newsweek to keep up on background material concerning current affairs. Quite early, Newsweek realized the wisdom of having different regional editions for various parts of the world, and overall I would say their efforts have led to a global perspective on most issues. I often find the analysis and history lessons included in the articles to be both clear and accurate, while the mix of commentary by a broad selection of international figures gives a good indication of the wide range of POV and interpretation.
As far as a total mandate to persevere whatever the cost, the only American who seems to have that dedication right now would be Clinton, and only then when there's some threat to his presidency. I'm afraid we've become spoiled and we want things to come easy. One can only hope that now that this war is approaching the length of the Gulf War and our biggest accomplishment is firing on and killing a bunch of the refugees we supposedly went in to save, U.S. patience will wear thin. It hasn't happened yet. If and when it does, whether Clinton will listen to it or continue to emulate Lyndon B. Johnson remains to be seen.
Dave Farquhar
Well it's inevitable that casualties be taken among "friendly" groups, given the speed and general chaos of organized destruction. By most accounts, the Kosovo Albanians are aware of this and bear no ill will to NATO forces for any mistakes like this. What they might object to is the fact that outside support should have come much earlier, on the ground, to prevent the "cleansing" from creating all these streams of refugees in the first place.
Whatever the result of the current mess, one thing is clear, Kosovo is now to all intents and purposes a Serbian region, reclaimed, with all Albanian homes, businesses and claims erased. Re-establishing the Kosovo Albanians in their former homes and villages will be a costly nightmare from any perspective, even assuming that NATO "wins" the campaign against the Belgrade regime.

Now Bob's reply:

You make a good point about the Nazi's special groups. I've known many former members of the Wehrmacht and the Waffen-SS. All of them were honorable men, and all of them fought to defend their country, as any soldier does. All of them were disgusted when they learned of the horrible things the Einsatzgruppen, Totenkopfverbande, and similar Nazi organizations had done. They claim, rightly in my opinion, that their own names were unjustifiably blackened because of the actions taken by these other groups, actions in which they had no part nor even knew about until after the fact.
Contrary to movie lore, none of the Wehrmacht soldiers I've known hated or feared the Waffen-SS. There was some envy, certainly, because the SS always had first claim on the best recruits and on the latest and best equipment. But every Wehrmacht soldier I've ever spoken with about it said that, given the choice, you wanted the SS defending your flank. And, Wehrmacht or Waffen-SS, these were some of the best soldiers who ever took the field. Prevailing US public opinion, at the time and later, was that one American soldier was a match for any two German soldiers. In reality, of course, the situation was almost exactly the opposite.
So in the Spring of 1941, up-to-strength with battle-hardened veterans, fully-equipped and on their way to invade the Soviet Union, a significant portion of the German forces took an unexpected right turn into the Balkans and wasted five critical weeks attempting to subdue an area that has never been subdued since Roman times. They failed.
And the United States, which would be lucky to be able to field a Corps let alone an Army Group, expects to succeed. We don't even have the advantages the Germans had: short supply lines and a complete lack of concern with world opinion. We go in with both hands tied behind us. The logistics will be horrible, our forces are largely without combat experience, we will fight the war with the world watching on television, and the guy making the strategic decisions bases them on polls. No way.
Robert Bruce Thompson

Saturday 17.04

From Tom Syroid, about the wonders of the Web:

... I see your package just left Paris sort facility (04/16 22:43). Fascinating to watch an envelope in its journey around the world. I’ve never had the opportunity to do such a thing before, and frankly I find it “pretty cool”. Don’t ya’ just love technology? ...

We are tracking a FedEx shipment that consists of the printed contract copies for our signature, using the Fedex web pages.

I can add that even the lowly Post Office here has this kind of tracking implemented for all parcel post and registered mail.

Sunday 18.04

* A fair bit exchanged between Bob Thompson and myself about Google and digital cameras, but most of this is posted on his site (Saturday-Sunday).

And on a comment about NT workstation and NT server, apropos the recent beta-to-live MS-offerings for NT5 server, Bob confirms.

Bo is correct that NT4W and NT4S are basically the same product. They run the same kernel. The only real difference in the core products is a couple of registry entries that are made at install time. In fact, if you know what you're doing, it's possible to use Registry Editor to change an installed copy of NT4W to NT4S or vice versa. The other major difference between the products is which utilities are supplied. For example, the DHCP Server software doesn't come on the NT4W CD.
But NT4W and NT4S are really the same product being marketed at different prices for different purposes. The same is likely to be true for NT5.

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