-- Start log: Wednesday, March 20, 2002 8:59:18 pm ASI Meeting Server time-- 

Greg says, "It's not in my grb folder." Severy says, "Date: Wed, 20 Mar
2002 18:21:48 -0500" Severy says, "To: "Gregory R. Bennett" <grb@asi.org>"
Severy says, "From: Randall Severy <severy@cyberteams.com>" Severy says,
"Subject: Re: simshost.com domain?" irs says, "I'm here, but I can't be
here late tonight. Gotta get up at 5am." dcarson says, "yuck"
Greg says, "There's the probablem with reading my mail at the office and
leaving it on the server. Sometimes I overlook things because they've been
marked as read when I download them." Severy says, "My sympathies, Ian, I
had to do that yesterday :-(" irs says, "Yeah, it's an acting gig, so it
might be fun." Greg says, "Aha! I figured it out!"
saavik says, "more fun than Randall's gig" Greg says, "I have a filter set
to look for "simshost"" saavik says, "has the meeting started, btw?" saavik
smiles.
Greg says, "Ian, do you have anything we need to act on right away that you
want to bring up?" Greg says, "(Sheesh. What a sentence.)" Scottyg has
arrived.
Scottyg says, "Good evening all!"
irs says, "Don't think so. Where are we tonight?" Severy says, "Yeah, I
definitely can't recommend what I got up at 4:30 yesterday for :-(" Greg
says, "Aha! I see it. So simshost is a top-level domain of its own now."
saavik says, "I was going to bring up the list of $10K ideas tonight" Greg
says, "So whatever we build in there ought to be transportable to a new QS"
saavik says, "but other than that, let me check last meeting's notes..."
saavik says, "and ask ?"
Severy says, "And a good evening it is, Scotty!" irs says, "Oh, yeah, one
big thing. Anyone who hasn't yet gotten in their Hugo nominating ballot but
is eligible to (member of last year's WorldCon, or joined this year's
before 31 January): GET IT IN NOW! And remember to nominate Artemis for
Best Semiprozine." saavik says, "laugh, ok, my notes say that the following
os on the table:" saavik says, "* 501c3 application status " saavik says, "*
$10K project ideas (Everyone!)" Greg says, "Let's see ... irons in the
fire: 501c3, the $10K list, end-of-year taxes, the new begging campaign,
ASI site redesign." irs says, "Less rush, but still important, is that the
next issue of the magazine is going to the printer in a couple weeks. If
someone is planning to write up something on the Moon Society for me, the
time to do it is now." Greg says, "Heh. Great minds."
saavik says, "yeah, I intended to talk about the money (aka begging) later
but I guess it happened sooner :-) and with a decent result, I think"
saavik says, "let me add greg's new items to the list" Greg says, "Ian,
duh... where was last year's worldcon?" dcarson says, "Philly"
dcarson says, "the Millenium Philcon"
irs says, "Philadelphia last year. San Jose this year." Greg says, "I was a
member of that one, so I think I *should* have received a ballot." irs
says, "(Toronto next year; Boston the year after that.)" Greg says, "Where
is this year's worldcon?" saavik says, "btw, if I should disappear all of a
sudden, blame the snowstorm, we lost power about 30 min ago and part of my
isp rebooted. we have UPSs in the house so it was fine... ironic, eh?" irs
says, "You should go to www.conjose.org, follow the link to the Hugos, and
print out a nominating ballot." irs says, "Snow!? Lucky you. Although we've
had welcome rain all day." saavik says, "yeah, we got about 3 inches. been
snowing all day but lightly" saavik says, "I love snow :-)"
saavik says, "it's spring break - and we've had 4+ inches of snow in 3
days" Scottyg says, "We got drenched the last two days. 6+ inches." Greg
says, "OK, I'm sending myself a reminder at the office, where I have a
working printer." Greg says, "Snow, Scotty?"
Scottyg says, "Rain."
Greg says, "That's more like Texas, yup." saavik says, "rain would be good
- we have a drought. but snow helps too - and it's prettier!" Scottyg says,
"At least for a while. Not very pretty when it gets old." Greg says, "I
guess I shouldn't mention what the weather in Las Vegas has been like."
dcarson says, "if somwone does write something Ian can probably be talked
into lots of comp copies easily :-)" saavik says, "laugh, I won't be
jealous. I like the snow and have missed it this winter" Greg says, "Well,
I *did* have to wear a sweater this morning. It was chilly." irs says,
"I've heard of snow. Ain't seen none in like three years, but I've heard of
it." Greg says, "I know what snow is. I can see it on the mountains."
Scottyg says, "we had a little bit here about 3 weeks ago. Mostly sleet,
but a little snow." Greg says, "Geez, the dogs are raising a ruckus." irs
says, "#xconnect commons"
irs says, "Sorry. typo."
irs says, "Dogs? Plural?"
Greg says, "Two dogs. Dachshunds. Artemis and Vienna." irs says, "Hah.
Vienna?"
Greg says, "Alex's idea."
irs says, "Ah. Vienna sausage. I get it. Cute." Greg says, "Now, I suppose
since we're the Moon Society Leadership Council, we should seriously
consider doing some leadership kinds of things tonight. :)" irs says, "I
had an e-mail from a fellow last week about possibly holding a meeting in
the New York City area. I responded, and haven't heard a thing from him
since. I may have to plan something (if I can find a free day)." Greg says,
"Randall, do I need to do something to point simshost.com to right place?"
Scottyg says, "Greg, it should be pointed to /virtual/simshost/etc" Greg
says, "Right, but it needs to be updated in the DNS." Greg says, "
http://www.simhost.com/ returns "not found" or somesuch." Greg says, "Oh.
It might help if I spelled it right." Scottyg says, "When I access it, I
get a successful access to an empty server. (No index.html)" Greg says,
"Ah, *there* it is!"
Greg says, "Yeah, I can fix dat."
saavik says, "grr... power outages wedged machines" saavik says, "brb..."
Greg says, "I think a nice news page would be good." Greg says, "With an
email address or two." saavik says, "grr... why can't we have a building
wide UPS? GRR" saavik says, "anyway, I'm mostly back.... rebooting machines
here and there" saavik says, "Ian, there was a guy... Arthur who was
talking about a New York/New England meeting" saavik says, "he was talking
about having it in Hartford?" saavik says, "was this the same guy?"
irs says, "Arthur. Yeah, I think that was the guy. A combined northeast
meeting is a nice idea, but I don't think it'll work too well without ever
having had any local meetings, so I'm thinking of planning something
local." saavik says, "hmm, sounds like an idea also. yeah, the problem was
he was worried there were too few people in the area so he thought of
combining" saavik says, "he talked about it on the moo a few days ago" irs
says, "If you and/or he want to plan something regional, I'll support it.
Let me know." saavik says, "ok, it was all him doing the planning and me
listening. I'm a bit nuts right now with thesis defense" irs says, "Gotcha.
If he wants to run with it, I'm willing to backstop." saavik says, "but it
would be cool. and heck, I come to NYC occasionally - maybe this will
provide the next excuse" saavik says, "ok, I'll tell him next time I see
him online. he comes fairly often" saavik says, "or I guess your email told
him :-)" saavik says, "so - the list is now grown to:" saavik says, "*
501c3 application status " saavik says, "* $10K project ideas (Everyone!)"
saavik says, "
* end-of-year taxes" saavik says, "* asking for money"
saavik says, "* asi site redesign"
saavik waits for the discussion to start Scottyg says, "501c3 - No
progress. I plan to ping the IRS next week if nothing shows up in this
week's mail." saavik says, "noted"
Scottyg says, "End of year taxes - The Moon Society has filed Form 1120A
(on time) and paid $208.09 Income Tax." Scottyg says, "Which we should be
able to get back when we get 501c3 recognition." Greg says, "Yay!"
dcarson says, "good work Scotty"
Scottyg says, "We paid a similiar amount of tax for 2000, so we *should* be
able to get back over $400.00" Scottyg says, "The advice I'm passing along
is from reading the docs that came with MySQL." Scottyg says, "ACK - Ignore
that - wrong window!" Scottyg says, "(I'm multi-tasking, not very
successfully.)" saavik laughs.
Scottyg says, "Ok, I think that covers my items from the list." saavik
says, "almost - what about the money discussion on the main list?" saavik
says, "do we have all the ways to collect it in place? paypal, credit
cards, etc?" Scottyg says, "I don't subscribe to artemis-list, so I don't
have a clue." irs says, "Oh, I sent a check for a membership renewal to
you, Scotty. Took cash at Lunacon. You're the right place, right?" Scottyg
says, "Yep, I'm the man Ian."
irs says, "Good. It's on its way."
saavik hopes Greg will explain th emoney idea to Scotty then dcarson says,
"did the posters arrive Scotty?" Scottyg says, "We presently process credit
cards, but not paypal. Setting up paypal is not difficult if its needed."
Scottyg says, "Yes Dana. A little damage, but not too bad." DaveW says, "
http://paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=p/gen/fees-outside link for paypal
rate schedule" Scottyg says, "Paypal fees are quite reasonable. A little
below what we pay on our merchant account." Greg says, "Sounds like a
winner then." Greg says, "And apparently very easy to get wired into our
system." Greg says, "The downside of PayPal is that it's really only
available in the United States." Greg says, "And Canada, I think."
Scottyg says, "Yeah, takes two or three scripts, but no biggie." DaveW
says, "they list international payments on that page" Scottyg says, "BTW,
we pay 2.35% plus $0.30 on our merchant account." Greg says, "For every
transaction?"
Scottyg says, "Yes Greg."
saavik says, "ok, cool. someone needs to talk to Rod (the guy who
volunteered for this)" Greg says, "Rod? Volunteered? For what?" saavik
says, "for the "begging" campaign" saavik says, "I think it was rod..."
Greg says, "Matt Barnes"
Greg says, "I've been swapping notes with him. " DaveW says, "rod
volunteered to head the whole outreach fund" Greg says, "Oops... no, Matt
brought it up, but hasn't volunteered to do anything." Greg says, "Yeah."
saavik says, "yes, exactly"
Greg says, "Do we know Rod? Is he a member?" DaveW says, "he even renewed
his membership" saavik says, "yes"
Greg says, "Placeholder: http://www.simshost.com/ Whaddyathink?" Greg says,
"I must be a little behind on artemis-list" Greg says, "assuming that's
where he volunteered" DaveW says, "yeah rod sent a message on the 17th
about that" DaveW says, "simshost looks good"
Greg says, "Oh, holy merde. I overlooked that one; hadn't read it yet."
Greg says, "And it's been 3 days."
saavik says, "you ought to :-)"
saavik says, "he wrote a good message"
Greg says, "Sure did."
saavik says, "I mean, he volunteered for heaven's sake" saavik says, "not
that it was well written :-)" Greg says, "Rod was the guy who was puzzling
over movie revenues a while back." Greg says, "Volunteering is good."
Greg says, "And, he's a technonerd."
Greg says, "C++ programmer by trade."
Greg says, "That seems to help, though Ghu knows why." Greg says, "So, can
anyone think of a good reason not to have Rod take a shot at this?" saavik
says, "can you really threathen people with court (reading the simshost
thing)" saavik says, "and no, let him at it"
saavik says, "the more people helping, the better" saavik says, "denying
him would be very bad publicity right now" Greg says, "For violating
copyrights? Sure, happens all the time." Greg says, "Except I wouldn't
threaten. I'd do it." Greg says, "Amy, yup, unless there were a good
reason. I do not know of a good reason." Greg says, "Or even an un-good
reason." irs says, "Yes, I can think og a good reason to not let him do
it." saavik says, "ok, otherwise the simhosts looks cool" saavik says,
"just wanted to make sure that was a kosher thing to say" saavik says, "and
cool - Greg you should answer Rod and encourage him" Greg says, "This has
become a major concern. I'd say it's the number 2 threat to Sims fandom."
Scottyg says, "So, has this reached the point of being a reasonably
well-defined task with a person willing to take it on?" Greg says, "Yes,
I'll do that. I'm just dithering over whether to do it privately or
publicly." dcarson says, "what reason Ian?"
Greg says, "On artemis-list first, I think." irs says, "Rubbing people the
wrong way while "begging" for money is infinitely worse than rubbing them
the wrong way while begging them to participate in the Project. The latter
merely turns them off; the former sends them out into the world with a
jones on for us. As long as he knows the damage he can do if he screws up,
thoughh, he ought to be OK. But we'll have to keep an eye on him." Greg
says, "And then we drag him kicking and screaming into the Leadership
Council." saavik says, "pubic..."
saavik says, "err public!"
saavik says, "that was a BAD typoe"
saavik says, "grrrrrrrrrr"
saavik says, "laptop keyboards are bad sometimes" Greg says, "Ian, your
fear is that he might be a bit caustic?" dcarson says, "it is the most
profitable part of the Web Amy" Greg says, "Darn keyboards. My makes typos
all the time." saavik says, "I got lost - what is the most profitable part
of the web? Sims?" irs says, "I don't know. I don't know him at all, other
than reading a few messages. As long as you can impress upon him the damage
he could do if he screws up, he should be OK." Greg says, "Amy, it could be
worse. I once told one of the SimGoddesses, "There, I kissed you in
public." And the first person to read that note misread it." saavik laughs.
dcarson says, "porn sites "
saavik says, "oh"
Greg says, "Ian, yeah, that's a concern." saavik says, "yeah, well"
saavik says, "do we want to discuss the $10K stuff tonight? just wondering
:-)" dcarson says, "if we have time"
Greg says, "I'll admit I'm hesitant to think about starting any new
projects right now." saavik says, "ok, I'm getting sleepy which is why I am
asking :-)" Greg says, "But maybe Rod can sweep some new blood in on his
coattails." irs says, "I'm not saying don't do it. All I'm saying is, "yes,
there is a potential downside" and the way to avoid that is to impress upon
the volunteer his power to do ill if he forgets. As long as he's careful to
not be too strident or nasty, he should be fine." Scottyg says, "I've given
a fair amount of thought to the $10K project idea, but don't have any good
ideas. $10K isn't much money when you're talking about real projects."
saavik says, "yeah, I know... maybe Rod can raise more" saavik says, "but
it seemed like a feasible start" saavik says, "and I have the following
list of ideas that have come in:" saavik says, "* Low-cost moonbase mockup
that can travel (be used for" saavik says, "publicity and to drum up more
money)" saavik says, "* a mini-X prize for rockets (first person to hit
100,000 feet)" saavik says, "* Business plan prize (i.e. seed funding for a
new business)" saavik says, "* hydroponic garden experiments" saavik says, "
* robot regolith mover" saavik says, "* beer"
saavik says, "* publicity - e.g. Moon badges for boy scouts, etc" saavik
says, "* lunar rover design contest" irs says, "*I* could do some nice
things with $10K (couple of subscription mailings; start a new magazine),
but I don't think those were what we were looking for." saavik laughs.
Greg says, "Rod hasn't been extremely strident, even when he has been
extremely frustrated. I can tell he's struggling to be reasonable." Scottyg
says, "Should we invite Rod to our next meeting?" Greg says, "There's my
problem. I can't think of things that cost less than a million bucks."
dcarson says, "sure invite him"
Greg says, "I think so, Scotty."
DaveW says, "sounds good to me"
Scottyg says, "Ok, who has the action item to do that?" saavik says, "I
just take notes around here ;-)" irs says, "Sure, invite him. And if we
want to turn him loose on his begging campaign, with a proper warning, go
for it." Scottyg says, "BTW, Dana and I are working on getting live credit
card processing running, so we should be in better shape soon to handle a
larger number of transactions." Scottyg says, "(I process the cards
mannually right now.)" saavik says, "so who is inviting him? Scotty brought
it up ;-)" Greg says, "Scotty, that's terrific!"
Greg says, "I'm writing a note to Rod right now." Greg says, "Already sent
one to artemis-list." saavik says, "oh good"
Scottyg says, "Ok, cool."
saavik says, "noted"
Greg says, "I think we want to get him entangled in the tar baby before he
comes to his senses. :)" Scottyg says, "Ok, now are all my items done?"
dcarson says, "looks like it"
saavik says, "laugh, my list has only the $10K items left" Scottyg says,
"In that case, I pass the gavel to whomever is next. Dana?" saavik looks
for the gave
saavik says, "err gavel"
saavik rolls 1d5 = 4.
irs says, "Oh man, I haven't seen a comment like that since college."
saavik says, "laugh... I noticed there were dice in the room so I rolled
them" dcarson says, "whats on my list?"
irs says, "My dice bag is still packed in a box." Greg says, "Ah, the rare
5-sided die."
Greg says, "Dana, for the Moon Society, I think it's just the news feed
thing." Greg says, "And it looks like moreover is still feeding us" dcarson
says, "OK new one is ready, just need to edit the template to add them"
Greg says, "What the heck is the mailing list for this august body?" Greg
says, "Edit the template?"
Scottyg says, "board@moonsociety.org"
Greg says, "Don't we have a separate leadership council list?" Scottyg
says, "No, leaders@moonsociety.org" Greg says, "Aha! Yeah, *there* it is!"
Greg says, "Silly me. I was looking in my ASI folder." Greg says, "Let's
see... I think everyone on the leadership council is here tonight. Are we
missing anyone?" Greg says, "I'm giving Rod a rundown of whozoo." Scottyg
says, "Tim?"
Greg says, "Oh, right. Haven't seen Tim in a long time, but he's supposed
to be either membership chairman or chapters coordinator." irs says,
"Talked with him Sunday night. He's still alive." Scottyg says, "Chapters
coordinator fer sure. I'm not sure we ever appointed him membership
chairman." Greg says, "But he hasn't been in the MOO since December 18,
2001." Greg says, "Who is listowner for leaders@moonsociety.org?" Greg
says, "I just told Rod that with his permission I'd add him to that list."
Scottyg says, "Ummm...Me?"
Greg says, "But I don't think I even know the password for that list." Greg
says, "Heh. I could send a message that's guaranteed to bounce, and then
you'd know if it bounced to you, Scotty. :)" Scottyg says, "Its set up in
Moon Society Team Director." Greg says, "Ah, so adding Rod would be easy."
Scottyg says, "Just add him to the Team." Greg says, "great minds"
Greg says, "I cc'd the note that I just sent to Rod to
leaders@moonsociety.org." Greg says, "Golly, I hope I didn't leave anyone
out." Greg says, "That's why I hate to make lists of folks." Greg says,
"So, what else do we need to do tonight." Greg says, "Do you need some help
with SimsHost stuff, Scotty?" Greg says, "I think the software spec ball is
in your court." Greg says, "And since I don't know what a software spec
really looks like, I can't help much with that." Greg says, "But I did just
recruit a volunteer to help think up what the SimsHost web pages ought to
look like." Greg says, "It's a gal who is working on her own Sims site."
Greg says, "She is very enthusiastic about simsHost." Scottyg says, "I'm
working on the spec, but had a glitch in my schedule. Had to put my wife
back in the hospital for a few days, so I lost most of that time." Greg
says, "And speaking of which, we will need to figure out how to send money
to and from South Africa because one of the largest sites that will be
there upon initial deployment is Sim Snobs. The webmaster is a goal in
South Africa." Greg says, "Aw, darn. Is she still in the hospital?" Scottyg
says, "She came home today. It wasn't a major problem, but still required
an unplanned hospital stay." Greg says, "Good to hear she's home now."
Scottyg says, "And unplanned schedule disruption." Greg says, "Nobody else
is allowed to get sick until we have a first-class hospital set up in Luna
City and can walk to it." Severy says, "Give her my sympathies, Scotty, I
now have new respect for hospital-stay victims :-(" Greg says, "Is there
anything I can do to help with that thing?" Greg says, "I really, really
hate hospitals." Greg says, "Though I have never stayed overnight in one."
Greg says, "And haven't been in one as a patient since I was a kid."
Scottyg says, "What would help most is a final decision what we're doing
with WSD." Severy says, "I hadn't before, and the things I thought would be
bad (the food, the bed, etc.) were all fine, it was the #@$()* wires and
tubes that drove me up the wall" DaveW will visiting the hospital
soon....but for a planned addition to the family Greg says, "Oops... yeah,
I forgot. We still need to figure out the price scheme for WSD Express."
Severy says, "Aha! But that's a *good* reason to go to the hospital, Dave!"
Greg says, "Congratulations, Dave!"
DaveW says, "thanks"
Greg says, "I was unaware you were fragrant!" DaveW says, "I will be glad
when little ann-marie is here...the preperations are driving me nuts" DaveW
says, "she is due may 14th"
Scottyg says, "Your first Dave?"
irs says, "Congratulations, dude."
DaveW says, "my second, melissa's first" Greg says, "Wow. You're past the
point where there's nothing you can do to prevent medical technology from
expanding your family." Scottyg says, "Ah, then it won't be such an upset
in your life." Greg says, "How is Melissa doing?"
DaveW says, "doing good but the "nesting" is hell on me" Scottyg says,
"BTW: Jan - Mar 2002 MMM is now online." DaveW says, "cool"
Greg says, "Heh. I can imagine Melissa in nesting mode. :)" Greg says,
"hmmm... we were talking about WSD pricing a moment ago." Greg says, "Is
that a good thing to talk about now?" Greg says, "I think we're pretty much
agreed that technically, TeamWSDExpress + mySQL is the way to go." Greg
says, "Yes?"
dcarson says, "if we're done Society stuff maybe Amy can stop the recorder
and go to sleep" Greg says, "Oh, right."
Greg says, "I was beginning to wonder if I'm all alone here." irs says,
"Hmm, me too (to sleep, I mean). 5am comes awfully early." saavik says,
"I'm here"
saavik says, "got tired and gave up on other discussions"

-- End log: Wednesday, March 20, 2002 10:50:21 pm ASI Meeting Server time-- 

-- Start log: Wednesday, March 20, 2002 10:51:27 pm ASI Meeting Server time-- 

Scottyg says, "I've been fretting about getting the Moon Society and ASI
databases in sync, and sending proper instructions to users about getting
an account(s)." Greg says, "Team Director accounts"
Scottyg says, "Why not set up user names and passwords for new users when
we record them in the database, and email them the access info?" Scottyg
says, "(They can change it later if they don't like our choices.)" irs
says, "g'night, then."
dcarson says, "and that gives better passwords" irs has disconnected.
Scottyg says, "Instead of requiring them to request an account." Greg says,
"Yeah, and it's really kind of what I would expect as a member joining the
club." Greg says, "It eliminates some delays and labor steps. Assures all
members have accounts." Greg says, "All for the cost of adding some stuff
to existing scripts." saavik says, "I'm too tired folks... I'm sending out
the notes and you all can update me on this" saavik says, "sorry"

-- End log: Wednesday, March 20, 2002 10:56:03 pm ASI Meeting Server time--