This is just a short note to explain that the NATIVE-L list has been out
of operation since the middle of last week due to some hardware problems
with the computer that is used to track and relay articles submitted by
subscribers. Though I am unable to effect complete repairs at this time,
due to an earlier failure of a tape drive used for file system backups,
I have managed to patch things together well enough to resume operation
for the time being. The system is, however, subject to failing completely
at any time, so if you stop receiving articles for an extended period, you
can assume that it is due to another hardware failure.
I would like to be able to replace the computer used to operate NativeNet
one of these days (it's a ten year old UNIX pc - a fairly powerful machine
for the mid-eighties, but a dinosaur by today's standards - I'd like to be
able to replace it with a 486 or Pentium-based machine running the Linux
operating system one of these days, though the process of converting all
the processing software might take a while). But being able to afford to
do so depends on spending less time on maintaining the list for a while.
In fact, I have been gradually moving toward a much lower volume and more
selective kind of list management over the course of the past couple of
years, partly to give myself more time to work on other things that are
important to me, one of these being an attempt to re-connect with the
kind of ideals that led me to create the NativeNet mailing lists back in
1989 and the Web resources more recently.
I have some ideas for how to better satisfy my original goals than is
permitted by the operation of electronic mailing lists, and I want to
gradually articulate to you and to move in some new directions. I also
want to be able to take advantage of what I know to be the willingness
of many people in our electronic community to assist in one way or
another. I expect to have more to say on this subject as time permits
over the course of the rest of this year.
For now, though, I'll content myself with getting out what seem to be the
most important articles submitted over the course of the past several
weeks, some of which have languished in my system queues due to needing
one sort of attention or another (often articles arrive that require some
amount of textual reformatting for one reason or another, which means that
they cannot be relayed as quickly as any of us might like).
Thanks to all of you for your patience and your ongoing interest and
support.
Gary
--
Gary S. Trujillo gst@gnosys.svle.ma.us
Somerville, Massachusetts {bu.edu,spdcc,cdp}!gnosys!gst