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From: Hugh Messenger
Date: Wed, 30 Oct 1996 23:40:39 -0600 (CST)
Subject: Another Begging Letter

Dear Harp-L,

This is kinda long, but please hang on in there. Bottom line is I need
some more financial input from the list, you can skip to the end if you
don't want to know the gory details (or just skip it period if you are as
broke as I am!). If you use harp-l for the dissemination of anything with
commercial content, I'd like to think you will stay with me here ... ;)

Over the last few months, running harp-l has been turning into more than a
spare time activity. Anyone familiar with managing networked "info
systems" will know what I mean if I spout off some statistics:

Since Jan 1st this year, the harp-l servers have delivered over 11 million
messages, resolved over 20 million DNS queries, indexed over a million
words into an archive spanning 4 years, and served an average of 2,000 web
pages a day to a total of over 17,000 different hosts. Bounced mail from
the two lists amounts to about 400 messages a day arriving in my mailbox.
Total throughput to/from harp-l averages around 2Kb per second, 24 hours a
day, with a "lunchtime" (relative to me) peak of around 4Kb/s (that's the
equiv. of two 28.8 modems going flat out).

The systems and software required to run harp-l, which must be kept up to
date, comprise Ultrix and Digital UNIX, sendmail (running on three
machines), named (running on two machines), hypermail (produces the web
archives), swish (a WAIS index/search engine), apache (the web server),
majordomo (the list manager itself, on three machines), perl (the
scripting language majordomo and all my add-on scripts are written in),
gcc (the C compiler for building everything that isn't written in perl),
and numerous other utilities and scripts to hang the whole thing together.
A total of about 400,000 lines of code, (obviously not including UNIX
itself), which needs almost constant upgrading, enhancing, patching and
bug fixing.

This isn't the problem, though. The problem is that "real soon now",
harp-l is going to have to move. I know I've been saying that since I
resigned from Net Results (garply.com) about 6 months ago, but now it's
for real.

Which raises the problem. I have to condense everything down onto one
machine *before* I move harp-l. I was going to use my NT box at home, but
it simply isn't robust enough. NT hasn't been around long enough to iron
out the bugs, and also all the UNIX software I use right now is public
domain stuff that simply doesn't exist on NT, or doesn't work right yet.
For instance, I had to port Majordomo (the list manager) myself last
month, in preparation for this move. I will eventually move it all to NT,
but not just yet.

I am therefore arranging to get permanent use of Argon (the Ultrix box
which currently handles most of the mail processing), and have to move all
the components of harp-l currently distributed around three UNIX boxes (of
a different breed) onto that one machine. Even if the argon deal doesn't
come together, once everything is on one UNIX box, it'll be easy to move
it all over to another one (I have several alternatives lined up, and am
making sure that everything I do on Ultrix will work on the other flavors
of UNIX involved (FreeBSD, OSF and Solaris)).

I've been making preparations for this for a while, which is what has
added to the workload. The new Harp-L Web stuff is a side effect of all
this - I've been having to do a lot of software installation (compiling,
debugging, downloading, etc etc) which involves pressing a button and
waiting for ages till I can do the next bit, then moving everything over
to (say) the Solaris machine we *might* use and doing it all over again.

So I've been writing the web stuff as something to do while I wait for
software to compile or file transfers to finish. It started out as some
useful scripts to use when I actually moved all the data, and for me to
use to manage the list(s) with, and grew from there.

>From having done this kind of thing for years, I know that for the next
month, this is going to be a full time job. I've been averaging about 20
hours a week on harp-l for the last few months, and until we move, it's
going to go up to about 40 hours a week. Most of the major software
components are now compiled on Ultrix, but I haven't even started planning
the actual move, which will have to be very tightly managed and scored out
in great detail if it is go smoothly.

To get this done, I'm going to need some financial contributions. I'm
working to a deadline, which I've so far managed to extend by 30 days at a
time, but my extensions are up and all my favors have been called in. We
have 30 days to move, as of tomorrow (Oct 31st, All Hallows Eve). With
the harp-l work and playing in a band, I won't have any time to earn my
rent money (I'm a consultant who does this kind of thing for a living).
I'm already behind on a phone bill, and if my phone gets cut off, we're
stuffed.

I *hate* to be making another appeal, as the last one was only 6 months
ago, and I haven't even published the "honor role" for that one yet (but I
still have that stack of envelopes ...).

This time, rather than relying on me to remember to "upload" your name
from the envelope, please email me if you want to send something. Put the
word DONATION in the Subject, and my email filters will put it in a folder
for safekeeping. I'll reply and give you the details (like my address).
Unless otherwise instructed, I'll put your mail message up on a web page
of contributors when I get the snail mail.

I may investigate establishing a non-profit organization for doing this
kind of stuff, so nobody has to pay tax. Or we could start a religion ...
I don't see anyone arguing about that! The First Reformed Church of
Harmonicology. Any sceptical IRS folk would only need a week or so on the
list to be convinced that it really *is* a religion.

Thanks in advance for any help,

-- hugh