View 197 March 18

THE VIEW FROM CHAOS MANOR

View 197 March 18 - 24, 2002

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This is a day book. It's not all that well edited. I try to keep this up daily, but sometimes I can't. I'll keep trying. See also the monthly COMPUTING AT CHAOS MANOR column, 4,000 - 7,000 words, depending. (Older columns here.) For more on what this page is about, please go to the VIEW PAGE. If you have never read the explanatory material on that page, please do so.

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If you want to PAY FOR THIS there are problems, but I keep the latest HERE. I'm trying. MY THANKS to all of you who sent money. Some of you went to a lot of trouble to send money from overseas. Thank you! There are also some new payment methods. I am preparing a special (electronic) mailing to all those who paid: there will be a couple of these. I am also toying with the notion of a subscriber section of the page. LET ME KNOW your thoughts.
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Monday March 18, 2002

Very odd. All was well when I went to bed. This morning I can connect by ftp, but my mail accounts are all dead, and attempts to ping anything outside Chaos Manor get no response. This happens on both the dialup and satellite connection, so I suppose there is some massive problem with the Internet. (Only there wasn't.)

BUT I CANNOT GET EMAIL! So I can't email to find out what is happening...

I can get to web sites and I believe this will post.

It did post. I have uploaded this and I can see it. But I cannot connect to any mail server nor can I ping anything outside Chaos Manor. The attempt is made so the address resolves but beyond that we are DEAD

Interestingly I can get NEWS. But no email at all. So if you are expecting email from me you will not see it, and if you send me email I won't get it.

OK it is fixed. It was internal in that it was fixed by RESTARTING the machines. But exactly what was going on I do not know. Nothing seemed to be wrong, but I couldn't ping anything outside the system and could not connect to any mail server --

And the problem is back again. POP is just not working properly. I got a bunch of mail and in the middle of it all died again --

Now it is more weird than ever. I can send mail. I can't receive any. What in the heck is happening here?

And it has fixed itself. Long story. But mail works now.

Longer story later.

I'm off to work. I'll update the pages and figure out what happened later. If it's fixed at all. There are still some POP problems. Odd.

I did 5,000 words of fiction today so my mind is mostly oatmeal. I don't really know what happened this morning: couldn't get msn.com, I couldn't connect to mail POP to receive mail, but it was able to send mail. After a while the problem stopped. It may have been internal, it may not have been. Anyway that difficulty is over, and I don't have to make it happen again.

I intended to write an essay on self-esteem and the parable of the talents. Another time.

I have been looking for what I think is a Stephen Vincent Benet story entitled "The Last Of The Legions." I recall the story, which is in its essence also told in Kipling's The Roman Centurion's Song. I can't find the Benet story, in any index of his work, which makes me wonder if I have the wrong author or the wrong title. It nags me.

In the search I ran across several of Benet's other works, including the science fiction story By The Waters of Babylon, which has been repeated by a dozen other writers since. And the Litany for Dictatorships, and Nightmare Number Three... I read a lot of Benet when I was young. Including of course The Devil and Daniel Webster, and Old Doc Mellhorn and the Pearly Gates. I don't think I am the worse for it.

Apparently The Last of The Legions is by Conan Doyle. I am astonished; to this moment I can't recall it being by him, and still think it is a Benet tale. I will have to go find the Doyle story, which seems not to exist on line, and read to see if it is the one I recall. I don't remember reading many Doyle stories other than Holmes, and of course The White Company.

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Tuesday, March 19, 2002

This should be a work day. I'm up early having got to bed early. Healthy, wealthy, and wise and all that.

Niven will be over shortly. No time to do much here.

And this just in from Frances L. Cole:

I am looking at my copy of Stephen Vincent Benet's book, Tales Before Midnight' published by Farrar & Rinehart Inc published in 1935. The last story in it is 'The Last of the Legion'. Hope you can find a copy. The book along with 'John Brown's Body' are among my favorites. Hope this of of value to you. Yours truly.

Aha! I knew it! Thanks...

Now to see if I can find it, but Amazon is intended for those with fast bandwidth. I have the dialup on. I suspect I'll have to wait until I can get the satellite going.

Aargh. Amazon never heard of it. I'll have to try Hunter's or some other book store. But I knew it existed, and by Benet. Vindication...

AND I have found a copy and ordered it. Thanks to all who helped.

It has been a good day, and Niven and I worked through the morning, had lunch, and worked through the afternoon. The book is moving well now.

I have my copy of the Benet book on order. Thanks to all

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Wednesday, March 20, 2002

Spring Fever at Chaos Manor

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Thursday, March 21, 2002

Niven will be over later. I have ordered the Benet book. Thanks to everyone who helped.

I'll try to get a bunch of mail up today. It's a lazy day. But I have a lot of work to do.

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Friday, March 22, 2002

This from Ed Hume:

I don't think a comment is needed.

I am beginning to believe these things study when you are in a bit of a hurry and choose that time to get wonky. Why not. Computers are smart but about as domesticated as cats.

As Roland says,

PANIC

http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,51274,00.html

and

http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,51275,00.html

--

Roland Dobbins

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