>ROOTSWEB REVIEW: Genealogical Data Cooperative Weekly News >Vol. 1, No. 2, 24 June 1998 >Copyright (c) 1998 RootsWeb Genealogical Data Cooperative > >Editors: Julia M. Case and Myra Vanderpool Gormley, CG > >***************************************************************** > >RootsWeb Review is e-mailed on Wednesdays to all who make use of >the resources provided by RootsWeb Genealogical Data Cooperative. > <SNIP> >***************************************************************** > >CONTENTS: New This Week at RootsWeb; Free Web Space for Genealogy >Societies; Connecting through RootsWeb; Year 2000 Bugs; Geek >Speak; An (Almost) Unexpurgated History of RootsWeb; Mailing >Lists and Web Pages; Backstage at RootsWeb: Excerpts from the >Staff Diary; Tech Humor. > >***************************************************************** > >NEW THIS WEEK AT ROOTSWEB: We've added two more newsfeeds to >RootsWeb's news server, including one to France. The extra feeds >mean that Usenet articles in the soc.genealogy.* newsgroups will >flow more quickly and efficiently through our systems. It also >means that the flow of genealogy Usenet traffic between the U.S. >and Europe has improved a bit. > >Our goal is to make RootsWeb *the* central switching station for >genealogy netnews articles in the world. We're especially >interested in improving connectivity to Europe, Asia and >Australia. > >***************************************************************** > > FREE WEB SPACE FOR GENEALOGY SOCIETIES > >For "historical" and "fraternal/genealogical" groups RootsWeb >provides *unlimited* free space, subject to three rules: > >o Upload no copyrighted material save with permission. > >o Upload no lineage-linked databases. > >o If goods, services, or memberships are sold through RootsWeb, > RootsWeb expects a 5% honorarium. > >In particular, primary records are always welcome -- RootsWeb >will provide as much space as needed for BDMs, tombstones, census >records, etc. > >Family associations are treated the same as individuals, which >means they must become RootsWeb Sponsors and space costs an >additional $24 dollars per 25 MB block per year. Rules for family >associations and individuals are: > >o Upload no copyrighted material save with permission. > >o Space may not be resold. > >o If goods, services, or memberships are sold through RootsWeb, > RootsWeb expects a 5% honorarium. > >Lineage-linked databases are perfectly OK in paid accounts. > >IMPORTANT: At the moment RootsWeb IS creating "historical" and >"fraternal/genealogical" accounts, but there is a temporary >moratorium on family association/individual Web space. Once we're >satisfied that we have homepages.rootsweb.com operating smoothly, >then we'll begin offering family association and individual >accounts again. > >Most of the genealogical societies currently hosted by RootsWeb >are listed at <http://www.rootsweb.com/~websites/gensoc.htm> > >***************************************************************** > >CONNECTING THROUGH ROOTSWEB: Clare Peden Midgley, a USGenWeb >Project county coordinator (Allegheny County, Pennsylvania ><http://www.rootsweb.com/~paallegh> and Cambria County, >Pennsylvania <http://www.rootsweb.com/~pacambri/>, sent along >this message, which recently was posted on the Allegheny County, >Pennsylvania mailing list <PAALLEGH-L-request@rootsweb.com>. > >"As part of my routine, I always look to see what names others >are searching. About three weeks ago, I noticed a posting on >BAXENDELL. The individual posting was David Baxendell from New >Zealand. It turns out that that he is searching the same name as >my uncle Howard Baxendell, and had a great deal of information to >pass along to my Baxendell side of the family. The Baxendells >here in the USA, were elated to find their missing relatives. >THANK YOU, PAALLEGH." Lou Young, in CA <UPYOURTREE@aol.com> > > * * * > >How many connections do you suppose are made through RootsWeb in >an average month? > >When we asked Dr. Leverich that question, he responded: "For the >Roots Surname List (RSL), we know that users of the database were >looking up the e-mail address of the average submitter about >seven times each month. Folding that into anecdotal evidence, I'd >guess that the RSL brings the average submitter one or two new >contacts each month. In total, that's probably 100,000 contacts >made each month just by the RSL. > >"When you factor in the surname lists, the mailing lists, query >boards, and all that other stuff, I'd estimate that 200,000 to >300,000 contacts are made each month at RootsWeb. These are only >the contacts we *know* about -- the real number may be much >higher." > >***************************************************************** > >YEAR 2000 (Y2K) BUGS: "What happens to the RootsWeb system when >the year 2000 hits? Will the system survive?," inquired RWR >reader Mary Anne Fisher. > >Karen and Doc respond: "We use Linux (a dialect of Unix). >Well-designed Unix software is *less* prone to Y2K bugs than >Windows software. The systems definitely aren't going to explode >or stop dead, though we may have a few hiccups." > >***************************************************************** > >GEEK SPEAK: This week's entries are provided by Dale "Doc" >Schneider, Sysadmin and guru of RootsWeb. > >PING is a program which sends a small packet of information to a >server and returns it... with the time it takes to >get there and return. > >POP3 = Post Office Protocol v3 >It is how a person get their mail from their ISP to their mail >software. > >SMTP = Simple Mail Transfer Protocol >It is how a person sends their mail from their mail software to >the internet. > >Ellen expanded on entry two above: POP (Post Office Protocol) is >_one_ way of accessing your email from a service provider.If you >use Eudora or Netscape Mail, for example, what you're usually >doing is dialing your provider's POP server, querying a specific >port on that server, and downloading your mail to your Mac or >Windows PC -- all without ever actually logging in to an account >on the provider. I log in directly, work interactively and read >my mail directly from the spool, with Unix mail clients like >'mail' and 'mm'. People who use 'pine', a very popular Unix >mailer, may be getting their mail via POP *or* directly from the >spool, depending on local configuration. There are other >protocols for remote access to email, too. Some providers have >already moved ahead to IMAP (Interactive Mail Access Protocol) -- >Eudora, Netscape, and pine are all IMAP-configurable. There are >several other experimental protocols; these are described in the >"LAN Mail Protocols Summary", posted regularly to comp.mail.misc >and available at: ><URL:http://web.syr.edu/~jmwobus/comfaqs/lan-mail-protocols.html> > >***************************************************************** > > AN (ALMOST) UNEXPURGATED HISTORY OF ROOTSWEB > > by Dr. Brian Leverich, Co-moderator, > soc.genealogy.methods/GENMTD-L > RootsWeb Genealogical Data Cooperative > >Long, long ago and in a *really* distant galaxy (about 1976 at >Harvard), a young man was trying to finish a project on one of >the old S-100 bus machines, whose power supply was overheating. >His friends found him with his face and head fully buried in the >machine's cabinet, alternately blowing on some heat sinks and >sucking on the ceramic material encasing some big stabilizing >resistors. This same pervert was also engaged in interconnecting >computers in novel ways, doing something that was called >"networking" in the academic journals but at that time looked >more like a cybernetic group grope. > >Less long ago and in a less distant galaxy (about 1980 at the >RAND Corporation), there were two newly married, recently >escaped from graduate school folks who would read *every* post >made to Usenet every day. > >On a vacation in 1986, Karen started looking for her >grandfather's birthplace. She dragged Brian along for the search. >That was the start of the addiction. > >Being thoroughgoing Internet geeks, K & B started hanging out in >net.roots. Then Alf Christophersen launched the ROOTS-L mailing >list in December 1987, and that was yet another place to hang >out. > >Karen began maintenance of the Roots Surname List in 1989, when >everything was done with file archives and such. > >By something like 1993, the Web had gotten started and Steven >Woods had created the first Web-based search engine for the RSL. > >Shortly afterwards and largely to persuade RAND to let them >dabble on the exploding Web using the corporate Web server, K and >B and friends launched the RAND Genealogy Club. They created one >of the earliest genealogy Websites, a site which grew so popular >that it soon was generating significantly more traffic than the >official corporate Website. > >In the Fall of 1995, K and B drove and camped their way up to >Alaska with their German Shepherds. On the way back they decided >they'd had enough of Los Angeles. Back at home, they sold their >house in the suburbs and moved to a cabin on the North Slope of >Mt. Pinos, 60 miles from the nearest wide spot on any road. > >Along with getting indoor plumbing, they had Pac Bell install a >high-speed digital line. Moans from the telco's sales and >engineering staffs were blithely ignored. > >About that same time RAND's management, whose obliviousness to >the activities of the staff is legendary, was finally beginning >to suspect something was not quite kosher on the Web server. >Looking at the visitor counts, it was straining even management's >credibility that that many people actually cared what RAND was. > >Sensing a problem in the making, K & B registered the name of >RootsWeb.com and started serving the RSL and other genealogical >material out of their mountainside cabin in February of 1996. >They were amazed when a Dutch site spotlighted them and they got >*3,000* hits in one day. In May of 1996 K & B got their first T1. >A big day was 50,000 Web hits. > >While RootsWeb was getting started, Apple's eWorld was having >difficulty hosting ROOTS-L and its sister lists. There was a >major crash at eWorld in July of 1996, and RootsWeb began list >serving for ROOTS-L. K & B consumed 197.3 gallons of coffee and >4.73 stomach linings moving ROOTS-L to our servers. > >RootsWeb began accepting voluntary contributions from its users >at that point, because the costs were beginning to exceed what K >& B could afford from their own pockets. > >In the Fall, Winter, and Spring of 1996-97 RootsWeb continued >growing, adding support for the USGenWeb Archives and for many >USGenWeb counties. > >RootsWeb discovered a call-girl ring was being operated out of >one of the Websites it hosted in January, 1997. The Website was >closed immediately, though there are unconfirmed reports that B >archived the GIFs somewhere at RootsWeb. > >In May of 1997 RootsWeb adopted 1,000 Maiser mailing lists, after >that server was destroyed by a spam attack from the sleazes at >Atlanta's Benchmark Printing. Another 227.7 gallons of coffee >were consumed and 6.38 stomach linings destroyed. > >At the same time the Maiser lists were settling in, RootsWeb had >its final round of attacks by a cracker who had been breaking >into its systems for months. Things culminated in a sort of >surreal exchange of e-mail between the cracker and B, and that >seems to have ended the problem. > >In August of 1997 RootsWeb adopted the dozen or so *large* lists >still being served by eWorld. During the following Fall, Winter, >and Spring RootsWeb continued to grow. > >February of 1998 brought the worst of the El Nino storms, and B >spent most of one week living in a dark, unheated network >operations center as he tended the generator that kept RootsWeb >online. > >In April of 1998 Palladium Interactive, publisher of the >extraordinary Ultimate Family Tree software, became the corporate >sponsor of RootsWeb. Palladium's sponsorship enabled RootsWeb to >continue to grow. > >The RootsWeb Review, edited by Julie Case and Myra Vanderpool >Gormley, published its first edition on 17 June 1998. > >At present, RootsWeb hosts more than 2,700 Websites and 3,600 >mailing lists. RootsWeb now has a dozen servers and five T1s >worth of bandwidth, and handles more than 1,300,000 Web hits and >3,000,000 pieces of e-mail on a typical day. RootsWeb expects to >be adding several more main servers and a sixth (and possibly >seventh) T1 within the next few weeks. > >If you would like to help RootsWeb by becoming a member, sponsor, >donor, or patron, please visit: ><http://www.rootsweb.com/rootsweb/how-to-subscribe.html> > >***************************************************************** > >MAILING LISTS AND WEB SITES: To subscribe or unsubscribe from any >RootsWeb mailing list, send an e-mail message with only the word >SUBSCRIBE (or UNSUBSCRIBE) in the subject and the body of the >message to [name of list]-L-request@rootsweb.com (for mail mode) >or to [name of list]-D-request@rootsweb.com (for digest mode). If >you have an automatic signature file, please be sure to turn it >off before you send the request. For example, if you wish to be >removed from this mailing list, send your UNSUBSCRIBE message to: > > Rootsweb-Review-L-request@rootsweb.com > >NEW SURNAME MAILING LISTS RECENTLY CREATED ON ROOTSWEB: > >Bartlett-Roots (an alternate Bartlett mailing list) >Cales >Cassie >Downing >Fergus >Fowler >Gatewood >Grenfell >Haffey >Koehler/Kohler >Lay >Lund >McClurg >McNeal >Mattingly >Scott (Clan Scott Society) >VanLandingham/Vallandingham > >NEW COUNTY AND STATE GENEALOGICAL SOCIETIES AND GROUPS AT >ROOTSWEB: > >AL--Lowndes County >AZ--Paradise Valley Genealogy Project in Arizona >GA--Madison County >IA--Madison County >LA--Louisiana USGenWeb discussion list; LAGenWeb Archive >coordinators and volunteers >MS--Jefferson Davis County; Montgomery County >NC--North Carolina USGenWeb discussion list >NJ--Morris County >VA--Grayson County; Patrick County; Rockingham County >WI--Marquette County >WV--Calhoun County > >SPOTLIGHT ON WEB SITES FOUND ON ROOTSWEB: > >MAINE OLD CEMETERY ASSOCIATION, M.O.C.A. ><http://www.rootsweb.com/~memoca/moca.htm> is dedicated to the >preservation of Maine's neglected cemeteries. Among the group's >active projects is preparing its county cemetery listings for >publication. The York County Cemetery Records (a 2,976-page tome) >is complete and offered for sale. The next set in this series >will be Kennebec County. M.O.C.A. also publishes a quarterly >newsletter for its members. At its meeting July 11 at Church of >the Good Shepherd Episcopal Church in Rangeley, Maine, the >speaker will be Senator John Benoit whose topic will be "Maine >Cemetery Laws." > >DOWNWARD BOUND: HELP FINDING YOUR ANCESTORS OF GREAT LAKES >SHIPPING <http:www.rootsweb.com/~migls/archives.html> offers help >regarding resources and material pertaining to ancestors who were >involved with shipping on the Great Lakes -- the U.S. and Canada. >Whether they owned or worked on a ship, were dock hands, shipyard >workers, lighthouse keepers, U.S. Lifesaver, Coast Guard >personnel or Merchant Marine, this is a good site to visit. >There's an onsite search engine (if you have Java-capable >browser) for the entire Downward Bound site for surnames, ship >names and place names. This is another excellent site -- part of >the USGenWeb project. > >***************************************************************** > >BACKSTAGE AT ROOTSWEB: EXCERPTS FROM THE STAFF DIARY. > >6/18/98 (B) No joy on the 5th T1. Battled traffic to make it to >the wouldbe Redondo Beach NOC before the DeltaNet tech got here >at 10a. Made it just in time. We installed the new Bay Networks >ARN router on our LAN down here (our first 100 Mb backbone!), but >when we tried to bring up the frame circuit we just got dead air. >So we called GTE, who had finished the install yesterday. So we >thought. Turns out the circuit hadn't worked for them, and the >GTE installer had gone home without sharing that fact with any of >us. Anyway, we provided motivation to GTE and by 3:30 we had a >live frame relay circuit. Still no joy connecting to DeltaNet, >though. So after some phone calls, we find out that the circuit >cuts through Pac Bell territory and Pac Bell hasn't done their >thing yet. So at 5:10p we find the right Pac Bell tech and they >say we'll be up in 10 minutes. I think he was buying time to run >for the door. Anyway, it's 9:15p now and still no circuit, so I'm >starting the 102 mile drive for home. I'll be back down here >tomorrow trying to finish the install. > >6/23/98 (B) There's never a dull moment around here. I get a call >at 4pm from Scott Rosen, the admin I share a NOC with here in >Pine Mountain Club. *All* of his servers have just crashed and >rebooted. So we meet at the NOC, verify that all of his boxes did >simultaneously reboot, and observe that none of RootsWeb's boxes >went down. Since we have separate uninterruptible power supplies, >we immediately suspect something went wrong with his. We run >diagnostics, but everything is fine. Then we hear footsteps >overhead. That is definitely *not* normal, because the NOC is on >the top floor. Looking out the window, we realize the >electricians are here installing the ducting for our new T1 >connections. Following the new ducting down the wall, we realize >they drilled through the wall and neatly into Scott's main power >line. The resulting short and power glitch rebooted all his >boxen. Bet it was pretty exciting for the guy running the drill, >too. As I was saying, never a dull moment. At least it wasn't a >condor roosting on the microwave antenna this time. > >6/24/98 (B) The British Broadcasting Corporation has just brought >down our main mail server. They've got something hopelessly >buggered in their mail handling and it causes mail loops. I've >removed the proximate cause of the mess, and I'm searching for >any other list subscribers from that host. If I find them I'll >kill them. > >***************************************************************** > >TECH HUMOR: I once received a fax with a note on the bottom to >fax the document back to the sender when I was finished with it, >because he needed to keep it. > > > Patti Caldwell Fasy <impattic@mediaone.net> Listmistress "Past experience should be a guidepost not a hitching post".........