PaleoNet Blank Message Bug

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Obviously PaleoNet is still experiencing some problems with the Sendmail
program that distributes e-mail for the Berkeley listserver. The bad news
is that this latest round of textless messages was (in part) due to the
fact that all the key PaleoNet technical personnel were in Frankfurt last
week for the Paleo21 meeting. The good news is that several conferences
among these principles were held during that meeting and we have resolved
to do whatever it takes to fix the problem.

Once again, this is not just a PaleoNet problem, but a UC Museum of
Paleontology e-mail server problem. Many of you will recall that a year ago
or so the UC MOP was hit by a serious hacker attack. In order to close the
back door through which the hacker gained entry into the Berkeley server
the Berkeley network staff upgraded their server's system software to a
more advanced version. This solved the hacker problem (apparently), but
ever since the upgrade Berkeley's Listproc and Sendmail routines have been
intermittently malfunctioning. These bugs undoubtedly stem from the
operating system upgrade. Both mail programs were originally designed to
operate under the older system software. I'm sure all of you who have been
using PC's through operating system upgrades (e.g., Windows 3.1 -> Windows
95, Mac OS 6.x -> Mac OS -> 7.x -> Mac OS 8.0) have experienced similar
software glitches.

That's the problem and the reason for it. As for the solution, you probably
already have an idea of what that is as well. Continued experimentation
and, if budgets allow, acquisition of new software. I'm sorry it's taking
so long. However, neither PaleoNet nor the UC MOP has unlimited resources.
We are working on it. As an interim work-around, if you receive a blank
posting that seems especially interesting to you, please consider
contacting the author directly and requesting another copy. The nature of
the blank message bug is such that a variable number (often only a few)
blank posts are sent out at any one time.

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation. Given the amout of time
all of us behind the scenes have already spent on trying to solve this
problem, no one wants to see the end of it more than we do.


Norm MacLeod





___________________________________________________________________

Dr. Norman MacLeod
Micropalaeontological Research
N.MacLeod@nhm.ac.uk (E-mail)

Department of Palaeontology, The Natural History Museum,
Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD

Office Phone: 0171-938-9006
Dept. FAX: 0171-938-9277
E-mail: N.MacLeod@nhm.ac.uk
___________________________________________________________________