Re: More Active Newsgroups?

From: CWO4 Dave Mann (misterfixit_at_loveable.com)
Date: 07/18/05 

Date: Sun, 17 Jul 2005 20:16:30 -0500

Moe Trin wrotethe> In the Usenet newsgroup comp.os.linux, in article
> <2337362.ignrTtGhBP@linux.user.and.happy>, CWO4 Dave Mann wthethe
>>I notice that the misc group has 75K articles (and I am still wading
>>through them reading each thread that looks interesting).
>
> That sounds as if your news server has excellent retention, or doesn't
> drop garbage posts (ponzi scams, really gross cross-posting, or spam).
> For 'giganews' thus far this year, the article counts per month look like
> this (figures to 17 July 1500UTC):
>
> 2005 c.o.l.hardware c.o.l.m c.o.l.n c.o.l.setup c.o.l c.o.l.help
> Jan 645 3064 2383 1110 162 69
> Feb 754 2270 1145 1029 270 52
> Mar 837 2090 1176 745 841 154
> Apr 614 2179 1073 601 439 69
> May 699 3053 1030 488 120 90
> Jun 628 2433 852 567 163 67
> Jul 343 1191 478 320 53 28
>
> c.o.l.security alt.linux alt.os.linux a.o.l.mandrake a.o.l.suse
> Jan 427 579 1789 5253 3428
> Feb 274 506 1310 4850 3773
> Mar 417 444 1484 5049 4625
> Apr 442 605 1141 4212 3645
> May 496 369 1205 4324 2993
> Jun 209 380 1711 3091 2322
> Jul 200 244 1017 1506 1547
>
> This is before my killfile kicks in. (Don't know what caused the blips in
> March and April in c.o.l - my killfile hit 122/847 and 31/439). c.o.l.m
> and a.o.l have been subject to some light to moderate trolling this year,
> while the a.o.l.m and a.o.l.s groups seem to have more than their fair
> share of childish posts year round. I scan those groups only, and may only
> actually read less than one _thread_ in 50 in both groups. Red Hat (being
> one of the more dominant distributions for a long time) has two
> hierarchies (linux.redhat.* which were mirrors of Red Hat mailing lists,
> and redhat.*) in addition to alt.linux.redhat, alt.os.linux.redhat, and
> the bogus group comp.os.linux.redhat, so articles are scattered (thinly)
> over a large number of groups.
>
>>Bottom line I want a "continuing education". My books and box building
>>will only go so far before I run into some dumbass mistake that I can't
>>figure out that 100's have already fixed.
>
> That's what http://groups.google.com is for. If you need answers or hints,
> like the old Ronzoni spaghetti sauce commercials "It's in there".
>
>>This group we are on seems like a nice sedate group for old geezers with
>>some technical expertise who like to share. That's comfortable.
>
> The reason this (c.o.l or c.o.l.help) is sedate is because not that many
> servers carry it. Compare the servers listed in the Path: headers here
> verses in c.o.l.misc, and you'd see quite a difference. The 'alt' groups
> have similar problems, in that there is no "requirement" to carry any of
> them, and each news admin decides on his own which if any will be carried
> on his system.
>
>>And don't forget the set the card punch to actually punch the cards rather
>>than simulate as I have done a couple of times and discovered after a half
>>a rack of cards later. Ah yes, Honeywell JCL.
>
> I've still got a number of yellow plastic bins about 4 x 4 x 17 inch that
> would hold up to about 2000 cards in one convenient dropable container,
> but haven't seen a working (production use) punch or reader in a while.
> I know several (US) state election commissions still have them, but that's
> about it.
>
> Old guy

Thanks for the info,

I noticed after reading through the misc 75K+ posts that probably half of
them were the usual flames and rants. I unsubscribed from the group. Too
much BS.

I agree about the Google idea. That is what I just did with a question I
had about blocking ICMP ECHO. Got the answer, cut and pasted it.

Tennessee still has at least one working Model 526 at the state election HQ.
I saw it a couple of years ago when I was doing a voting registration
project with my students (I was teaching HS at the time). The local
functionary explained it was used to examine the output from questioned
cards coming from the one county in Tennessee still using the manual punch
board system.

Thanks again!

Cheers,

Dave

-----------------

Study History - Know the Future

http://misterfixit.blogspot.com
http://daves928.blogspot.com
http://carondelet.blogspot.com

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