NOTE: This is a reply to several accumulated comments/complaints about
delays in mail from the Anglican list.  It is NOT directed to any one
person.  The technical details described may be slightly incomplete
or inaccurate, but the PRINCIPLES are what count here.
 
Anglican's listserv provider is American University in Washington DC.  They
provide this for free, out of the goodness of their hearts, as a public
service.  The university has no affiliation with our churches.
 
With that said, I'll inform you all that there have indeed been problems
with the new setup.  I can also assure you that the headaches that have
been caused to us are nothing compared to those that have been caused to
the American University Computer Center folks, and that they, and the
authors of listserv, are working on as hard as they can.  One specific
problem is in the C language compiler that IBM wrote.  It has a bug that
IBM seems unwilling or unable to fix in a timely manner.  It gave, for
example, the problem we saw some time ago, of messages coming with some
totally weird date on them.  At this point, the bug is in the optimizer
section of the software.  Which means they have to run the program without
optimization, which slows it down.  It also means they occasionally have
to try various patches or fixes, which means it is down for a while, with
then a backlog to try to catch up in unoptimized mode.  So things get
behind.
 
My personal feeling, and NOT speaking for the vestry, is that we all need
to practice some Christian love, tolerance, and forbearance.  Or, in the
words my non-Anglican father would have used, in the vernacular:
 
"kwitcherbitchin"     o-)
 
I've worked in computers and information systems in seven state universities
and know that none of the, including this one, would handle this list because
of fears of criticism and//or violation of policies related to "separation
of church and state".  Finding a place to host the list could be hard.  Moving
it would be a real hassle even if a place could be found.
 
I'm confident that Eric, one of the true geniuses of the nets, and Jim,
one of the great computer center managers, will get this worked out, and
meanwhile I've found out how to make mail make more sense:
 
Read the mail a day or two behind.   Seriously.
 
After all, nothing we're discussing here REQUIRES up to the minute access
like flying a space shuttle.  Seriously.
 
With what I hope is really understood as forbearance and NOT as any anger
to the people are complaining,
 
I remain full of love and hope,
and my best efforts at patience,
 
yours truly,
 
cyclops (part of the listowner team of [log in to unmask])
 
  Dan Lester                          Internet: [log in to unmask]
  Network Information Coordinator     WWW: http://cyclops.idbsu.edu
  Boise State University Library
  Boise, Idaho  83725                 In the kingdom of the blind, the
  208-385-1235                        one-eyed man is king.  Erasmus. 1523