From owner-acedb@net.bio.net Wed Jan 03 22:00:00 1996 Path: biosci!CADEV6.INTEL.COM!ptagare From: ptagare@CADEV6.INTEL.COM (Pradeep Tagare) Newsgroups: bionet.software.acedb Subject: Problem with multi-value fields Date: 4 Jan 1996 10:35:06 -0800 Organization: BIOSCI International Newsgroups for Molecular Biology Lines: 61 Sender: daemon@net.bio.net Distribution: world Message-ID: <9601041831.AA14541@cad568.sc.intel.com.intel.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: net.bio.net Hi! I have the following class in the models file: ?Author name text Paper Text Int And the data file is: Author James Paper "JournalA" 1989 Paper "JournalB" 1992 Author John Paper "JournalA" 1992 Paper "JournalB" 1989 If I run a query such as: Find Author where Paper=* AND NEXT=1992, I get back only the author John, not James, which means that the query engine just looks at the first value in the multi-valued Paper field. On the other hand, if I run the query: Find Author where Paper="JournalB" AND NEXT=1992, I get back tha author James, which is correct. I find the same behaviour in the table-maker. If I try to generate a table with 3 columns: Author Journal Year, I get the following table: Author Journal Year James JournalA 1989 James JournalB 1989 John JournalA 1992 John JournalB 1992 The Year value is not right for the 2nd line in each author. Any clues, work-arounds? Thanks, -- pradeep *************************************************************** * Pradeep Tagare ptagare@scdt.intel.com * * Sr. CAD Engineer * * Intel Corp. * * Santa Clara, CA. * * (408) 765-6461 FAX: (408) 765-4716 * *************************************************************** * "It might be in the basement, I'll go upstairs and check..."* * M. C. Escher * * ************************************************************* From owner-acedb@net.bio.net Wed Jan 03 22:00:00 1996 Path: biosci!bcm.tmc.edu!cs.utexas.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!torn!newshost.uwo.ca!jkiernan.anatomy.uwo.ca!jkiernan From: jkiernan@julian.uwo.ca (J. A. Kiernan) Newsgroups: bionet.software.acedb Subject: MOLWT Ver 2.72 Updated utilities for chemical calculations Date: Thu, 4 Jan 1996 19:36:15 GMT Organization: ITS, University of Western Ontario Lines: 61 Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: jkiernan.anatomy.uwo.ca MOLWT Version 2.72 Updated utilities for chemical calculations Do you ever need to do a quick molecular weight calculation from a chemical formula, or want to know how many grams of Na2SO4.10H2O are in 100 ml of a 0.076M solution? You can use MOLWT, a new shareware program, to get instant answers, even at the DOS command-line, and you can redirect the results to a printer or disk file. MOLWT272.ZIP contains utilities for simple chemical calculations There are already some excellent chemical calculation programs, including CHEMCALC and MOLARMAS. MOLWT is not as versatile as these, but it is much faster for what it does do, and it needs a lot less disk space. It will run on any computer that can use DOS. There isn't a Mac version. Color is used for emphasis, but the screens are legible on any kind of monitor. Available by anonymous ftp from simtel.coast.net and from SimTel mirrors, in the /SimTel/msdos/chemstry directory. The file is molwt272.zip. (Note spelling of the directory name!) Also available from garbo.uwasa.fi in the /pc/science directory, as molwt272.zip. Dont forget to enter the "binary" command before downloading! The MOLWT23.ZIP archive contains 5 files: 1. MW.EXE calculates molecular weight from an entered chemical formula. Can be used at the DOS command line, or interactively. Use DOS redirection to send results to a comma-delimited ASCII file. You can build up a database of formulae and their moecular weights. 2. MW.DOC Explains what you do. (Gives more examples etc than the on-line help system of MW.EXE) 3. SOLUTION.EXE gives concentrations in various units in response to an entered formula and concentration. This new version is fully stand-alone, and does not use MW.EXE or make any temporary files. It can be used at the DOS command line, or interactively. DOS redirection sends (or appends) the results to an appropriately formatted text file. 4. SOLUTION.DOC Tells you all about it. (More detail than the self-documentation and help messages of SOLUTION.EXE) Note that DOS redirection of MW or SOLUTION does not prevent the display of results on the screen. These updated versions also have more unofficial symbol-like abbreviations (for radicals etc.) than the earlier shareware releases. They no longer end with messages asking you to pay. The incentive is now the provision of extra utilities for "registered" users. 5. MOLWT.EXE is a self-executing documentation file, which can be read on screen or printed in whole or part. It tells you about the MW and SOLUTION programs, and also about some of the additional utility programs that are sent to users who pay the small "registration" fee. Comments and suggestions John A. Kiernan welcome! Department of Anatomy Univ. of Western Ontario LONDON, Canada N6A 5C1 e-mail: kiernan@uwo.ca From owner-acedb@net.bio.net Thu Jan 04 22:00:00 1996 Path: biosci!GREENGENES.CIT.CORNELL.EDU!matthews From: matthews@GREENGENES.CIT.CORNELL.EDU ("Dave Matthews") Newsgroups: bionet.software.acedb Subject: Re: Strange problem with Ace3.0 Date: 5 Jan 1996 04:32:06 -0800 Organization: BIOSCI International Newsgroups for Molecular Biology Lines: 7 Sender: daemon@net.bio.net Distribution: world Message-ID: <9601051131.AA20248@greengenes.cit.cornell.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: net.bio.net > Please ignore my previous mail. I figured out that the problem > goes away if I use ?Text instead of Text for long strings. Ignore heck. This is very interesting. I thought Text was supposed to be okay for long strings. How long are they? What ace version are you using? - Dave From owner-acedb@net.bio.net Thu Jan 04 22:00:00 1996 Path: biosci!CADEV6.INTEL.COM!ptagare From: ptagare@CADEV6.INTEL.COM (Pradeep Tagare) Newsgroups: bionet.software.acedb Subject: Re: Strange problem with Ace3.0 Date: 4 Jan 1996 19:34:31 -0800 Organization: BIOSCI International Newsgroups for Molecular Biology Lines: 46 Sender: daemon@net.bio.net Distribution: world Message-ID: <9601050331.AA00570@cad568.sc.intel.com.intel.com> References: <9601050230.AA00495@cad568.sc.intel.com.intel.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: net.bio.net Please ignore my previous mail. I figured out that the problem goes away if I use ?Text instead of Text for long strings. Thanks, -- pradeep Pradeep Tagare writes: > Hi! > > I get the following error when trying to add data to an existing > database: > > acedb > !! FATAL ERROR: system error 2 No such file or directory > !! link missing in bsTreeBreakComment > > I get this error while ACE is parsing the file. > > If I increase the CACHE2 size, the file gets parsed correctly, but then > Ace goes into a loop somewhere and the process size grows a lot, and finally > it crashes with the message > > !! FATAL ERROR: system error 12 Not enough memory > !! Memory allocation failure when requesting 117440512 bytes > > > Any clues? > > Thanks, > > -- > pradeep > > *************************************************************** > * Pradeep Tagare ptagare@scdt.intel.com * > * Sr. CAD Engineer * > * Intel Corp. * > * Santa Clara, CA. * > * (408) 765-6461 FAX: (408) 765-4716 * > *************************************************************** > * "It might be in the basement, I'll go upstairs and check..."* > * M. C. Escher * > * ************************************************************* > From owner-acedb@net.bio.net Thu Jan 04 22:00:00 1996 Path: biosci!CADEV6.INTEL.COM!ptagare From: ptagare@CADEV6.INTEL.COM (Pradeep Tagare) Newsgroups: bionet.software.acedb Subject: Strange problem with Ace3.0 Date: 4 Jan 1996 19:22:38 -0800 Organization: BIOSCI International Newsgroups for Molecular Biology Lines: 35 Sender: daemon@net.bio.net Distribution: world Message-ID: <9601050230.AA00495@cad568.sc.intel.com.intel.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: net.bio.net Hi! I get the following error when trying to add data to an existing database: acedb > !! FATAL ERROR: system error 2 No such file or directory !! link missing in bsTreeBreakComment I get this error while ACE is parsing the file. If I increase the CACHE2 size, the file gets parsed correctly, but then Ace goes into a loop somewhere and the process size grows a lot, and finally it crashes with the message !! FATAL ERROR: system error 12 Not enough memory !! Memory allocation failure when requesting 117440512 bytes Any clues? Thanks, -- pradeep *************************************************************** * Pradeep Tagare ptagare@scdt.intel.com * * Sr. CAD Engineer * * Intel Corp. * * Santa Clara, CA. * * (408) 765-6461 FAX: (408) 765-4716 * *************************************************************** * "It might be in the basement, I'll go upstairs and check..."* * M. C. Escher * * ************************************************************* From owner-acedb@net.bio.net Sun Jan 07 22:00:00 1996 Path: biosci!daresbury!not-for-mail From: mieg@kaa.crbm.cnrs-mop.fr (Danielle et Jean Thierry-Mieg) Newsgroups: bionet.software.acedb Subject: log Text Date: 8 Jan 1996 11:32:11 -0000 Lines: 4 Sender: lpddist@mserv1.dl.ac.uk Distribution: bionet Message-ID: <4cqvbr$od@mserv1.dl.ac.uk> Original-To: net@admcnrs.cnrs-mop.fr, ptagare@CADEV6.INTEL.COM please send me the ace file that provoked the bug with a long text this is clearly a bug that i want to fix ASAP jean From owner-acedb@net.bio.net Mon Jan 08 22:00:00 1996 Newsgroups: bionet.software.acedb Path: biosci!bcm.tmc.edu!pendragon!news.msfc.nasa.gov!newsfeed.internetmci.com!howland.reston.ans.net!ix.netcom.com!netcom.com!bks From: bks@netcom.com (Bradley K. Sherman) Subject: When text over ?text Message-ID: Organization: Remote Fusion Reactor Reverse Entropy Associates References: <9601050230.AA00495@cad568.sc.intel.com.intel.com> <9601050331.AA00570@cad568.sc.intel.com.intel.com> Date: Tue, 9 Jan 1996 17:58:14 GMT Lines: 11 Sender: bks@netcom21.netcom.com > >Please ignore my previous mail. I figured out that the problem >goes away if I use ?Text instead of Text for long strings. > Under what circumstances is it better to select ``Text'' over ``?Text''? I'm sure this has come up before but I couldn't find it in a WAIS session. --bks From owner-acedb@net.bio.net Mon Jan 08 22:00:00 1996 Path: biosci!bcm.tmc.edu!news.msfc.nasa.gov!newsfeed.internetmci.com!howland.reston.ans.net!torn!news.bc.net!news.sfu.ca!trog.mbb.sfu.ca!jbryer From: jbryer@trog.mbb.sfu.ca (Jeff Bryer) Newsgroups: bionet.software.acedb,bionet.celegans Subject: ANNOUNCE: Linux ELF binary of Acedb 4.1 Date: 9 Jan 1996 20:47:10 GMT Organization: IMBB, Simon Fraser University Lines: 49 Distribution: world Message-ID: <4cuk8e$ijd@morgoth.sfu.ca> NNTP-Posting-Host: trog.mbb.sfu.ca Xref: biosci bionet.software.acedb:818 bionet.celegans:741 I must apologize for the delay on this. I've actually had it done and available for quite awhile now but I just realized that I had forgotten to announce it on the newsgroup. I have made available an ELF binary of Acedb 4.1 for those of you who run ELF only systems. The a.out binary is and will continue to be available. The archive is available from: ftp://trog.mbb.sfu.ca/pub/acedb/bin.linux.4_1.elf.tar.gz What follows is the Readme file for the port. Jeff jbryer@darwin.mbb.sfu.ca ------- README.LINUX.4_1_ELF October 12, 1995 This is the ELF binary version of ACEDB v4.1 for Linux and can be found at ftp://trog.mbb.sfu.ca/pub/acedb/bin.linux.4_1.elf.tar.Z If your Linux system cannot handle the ELF format, an a.out version is also available. ftp://trob.mbb.sfu.ca/pub/acedb/bin.linux.4_1.tar.Z ftp://ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/repository/acedb/ace4/bin.linux.4_1.tar.Z Linux is a free Unix-like OS available for the Intel [345]86 platform. You can find out more about Linux in the comp.os.linux.* groups on usenet. Acedb runs very well on Linux, but you will need a fairly loaded system. I reccomend at _least_ 16MB of RAM and a 486/33. You will also want a large disk that can accomodate the database's growth. More RAM is much better than a faster processor. A 486/66 with 32MB RAM will blow the doors off a Pentium/100 with 8M. You should have 32MB of swap for updates. You should be running Linux 1.0 or better and either the a.out shared libraries (I am using libc 4.5.26) or the ELF libraries (I am using libc 5.0.9). Other versions should work, but are untested. Jeff Bryer jbryer@darwin.mbb.sfu.ca -- ------- Jeff Bryer | "Maybe VR.12 turns you into Fabio." jbryer@darwin.mbb.sfu.ca | -Duncan in Parallel Lives (VR.5) From owner-acedb@net.bio.net Tue Jan 09 22:00:00 1996 Path: biosci!daresbury!is.bbsrc.ac.uk!news From: Your EMail address (couchman@BBSRC.AC.UK) Matt Newsgroups: bionet.software.acedb Subject: nph-acedb at Moulon? Date: 10 Jan 1996 12:24:01 GMT Organization: John Innes Centre Lines: 10 Message-ID: <4d0b51$9b1@is.bbsrc.ac.uk> Reply-To: couchman@BBSRC.AC.UK NNTP-Posting-Host: pc0559.jic.bbsrc.ac.uk X-Newsreader: WinVN 0.92.1 Hello, Are the nph-acedb binaries and source code still available at moulon.inra.fr? If not are they available anywhere else? Thanks for any help, Matt. (couchman@bbsrc.ac.uk) From owner-acedb@net.bio.net Wed Jan 10 22:00:00 1996 Newsgroups: bionet.software.acedb Path: biosci!rutgers!gatech!newsfeed.internetmci.com!howland.reston.ans.net!ix.netcom.com!netcom.com!bks From: bks@netcom.com (Bradley K. Sherman) Subject: Re: When text over ?text Message-ID: Organization: Remote Fusion Reactor Reverse Entropy Associates References: <9601050230.AA00495@cad568.sc.intel.com.intel.com> <9601050331.AA00570@cad568.sc.intel.com.intel.com> Date: Wed, 10 Jan 1996 23:38:18 GMT Lines: 18 Sender: bks@netcom21.netcom.com In article , Bradley K. Sherman wrote: > >Under what circumstances is it better to select >``Text'' over ``?Text''? I'm sure this has come >up before but I couldn't find it in a WAIS session. > Jean Thierry-Mieg reminds me that the advantage of Text over ?Text is one of RAM usage. Each ?Text object is read into memory on startup which uses the length of the string plus 12 bytes overhead. Additionally, if there are many references to an existing ?Text object (more than 1000) it can create problems for ACEDB. --bks From owner-acedb@net.bio.net Wed Jan 17 22:00:00 1996 Path: biosci!daresbury!bioftp.unibas.ch!infobiogen.fr!jussieu.fr!univ-lille1.fr!ciril.fr!news.imag.fr!univ-lyon1.fr!in2p3.fr!swidir.switch.ch!scsing.switch.ch!news.belwue.de!News.Uni-Marburg.DE!usenet From: Michael Otto Newsgroups: bionet.software.acedb Subject: acedb - igd conversion Date: 18 Jan 1996 12:45:46 GMT Organization: Hochschulrechenzentrum der Universitaet Marburg Lines: 13 Message-ID: <4dlfdq$g9e@surz03fi.HRZ.Uni-Marburg.DE> NNTP-Posting-Host: su2002.humangenetik.humanmedizin.uni-marburg.de hi outside, is there anyone who has got some experiences converting data from the IGD universe into an ACEDB v4.1 database ? we currently try to set up a new database for our lab. our first (few) own datasets are constructed for IGD (ACEDB 3.3) - thanks in advance - Michael Otto From owner-acedb@net.bio.net Wed Jan 17 22:00:00 1996 Path: biosci!rutgers!gatech!newsfeed.internetmci.com!howland.reston.ans.net!nntp.coast.net!torn!newshost.uwo.ca!jkiernan.anatomy.uwo.ca!jkiernan From: jkiernan@julian.uwo.ca (J. A. Kiernan) Newsgroups: bionet.software.acedb Subject: Utilities for chemical calculations Date: Thu, 18 Jan 1996 15:05:18 GMT Organization: ITS, University of Western Ontario Lines: 64 Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: jkiernan.anatomy.uwo.ca MOLWT Version 2.72 Updated utilities for chemical calculations Do you ever need to do a quick molecular weight calculation from a chemical formula, or want to know how many grams of Na2SO4.10H2O are in 100 ml of a 0.076M solution? You can use MOLWT, a new shareware program, to get instant answers, even at the DOS command-line, and you can redirect the results to a printer or disk file. MOLWT272.ZIP contains utilities for simple chemical calculations There are already some excellent chemical calculation programs, including CHEMCALC and MOLARMAS. MOLWT is not as versatile as these, but it is much faster for what it does do, and it needs a lot less disk space. It will run on any computer that can use DOS. There isn't a Mac version. Color is used for emphasis, but the screens are legible on any kind of monitor. Available by anonymous ftp from: simtel.coast.net (and from other SimTel mirrors), in the /SimTel/msdos/chemstry directory: molwt272.zip (Note the spelling ^^^ of the directory name!) Also available from garbo.uwasa.fi in the /pc/science directory: molwt272.zip And from skynet.ul.ie in the /pub/science directory: molwt272.zip And from ftp.ebi.ac.uk in the pub/software/dos directory: molwt272.exe Dont forget to enter the "binary" command before downloading! The MOLWT272.ZIP archive contains 5 files: 1. MW.EXE calculates molecular weight from an entered chemical formula. Can be used at the DOS command line, or interactively. Use DOS redirection to send results to a comma-delimited ASCII file. You can build up a database of formulae and their moecular weights. 2. MW.DOC Explains what you do. (Gives more examples etc than the on-line help system of MW.EXE) 3. SOLUTION.EXE gives concentrations in various units in response to an entered formula and concentration. This new version is fully stand-alone, and does not use MW.EXE or make any temporary files. It can be used at the DOS command line, or interactively. DOS redirection sends (or appends) the results to an appropriately formatted text file. 4. SOLUTION.DOC Tells you all about it. (More detail than the self-documentation and help messages of SOLUTION.EXE) Note that DOS redirection of MW or SOLUTION does not prevent the display of results on the screen. These updated versions also have more unofficial symbol-like abbreviations (for radicals etc.) than the earlier shareware releases. They no longer end with messages asking you to pay. (The incentive to register is now the provision of extra utilities for those who pay.) 5. MOLWT.EXE is a self-executing documentation file, which can be read on screen or printed in whole or part. It tells you about the MW and SOLUTION programs, and also about some of the additional utility programs that are sent to users who pay the small "registration" fee. Comments and suggestions John A. Kiernan welcome! Department of Anatomy Univ. of Western Ontario LONDON, Canada N6A 5C1 e-mail: kiernan@uwo.ca From owner-acedb@net.bio.net Thu Jan 18 22:00:00 1996 Path: biosci!DKFZ-Heidelberg.DE!D.Wolf From: D.Wolf@DKFZ-Heidelberg.DE (Detlef Wolf) Newsgroups: bionet.software.acedb Subject: www-acedb, where? Date: 19 Jan 1996 02:37:43 -0800 Organization: BIOSCI International Newsgroups for Molecular Biology Lines: 7 Sender: daemon@net.bio.net Distribution: world Message-ID: <9601190756.AA02008@mbp-sun5.inet.dkfz-heidelberg.de> NNTP-Posting-Host: net.bio.net Hi, I tried to retrieve ftp://moulon.inra.fr/pub/www-acedb, as described in http://keck.tamu.edu/cgi/staff/ace-mosaic-howto.html but there is no www-acedb on moulon, nor on ncbi's ftp server. What is the status of the www/acedb connection? many greetingds, Detlef From owner-acedb@net.bio.net Thu Jan 25 22:00:00 1996 Path: biosci!rutgers!uwm.edu!vixen.cso.uiuc.edu!newsfeed.internetmci.com!howland.reston.ans.net!Germany.EU.net!Dortmund.Germany.EU.net!nntp.gmd.de!news.ruhr-uni-bochum.de!news.uni-stuttgart.de!news.rhrz.uni-bonn.de!RRZ.Uni-Koeln.DE!news.dfn.de!zrz.TU-Berlin.DE!fu-berlin.de!rag2.rz-berlin.mpg.DE!leser From: leser@rag2.RZ-Berlin.MPG.DE (Ulf Leser) Newsgroups: bionet.software.acedb Subject: looking for ACEDB - tools Date: 26 Jan 1996 15:19:40 GMT Lines: 24 Message-ID: <4earec$7m7@fu-berlin.de> NNTP-Posting-Host: rag2.rz-berlin.mpg.de (141.14.130.102) NNTP-Posting-User: leser X-Access: 16 25 816 Keywords: ACEDB, analysing, tools, ACE-format Hello, we are working a lot with ACEDB 4.1 here administrating and displaying data about different chromosomes. On the scale we are operating, this clearly includes the downloading of data from different sources (IGD, GDB etc.) Even when we are so lucky that we can retrieve data-packages directly in the ACE-format, we still face a lot of consistency-problems. What we really would need are some tools to edit, analyse etc ACE-files. Examples: 1. Which Classes does it contain 2. How many and which objects to each class. 3. Split an ACE-file 4. editing and deleting of particular objects 5. Reconstruction of the model ( as far as possible) and related questions. Does anybody have such tools or know about some ?? We would be delighted.. Thank's in advance, Ulf Leser From owner-acedb@net.bio.net Fri Jan 26 22:00:00 1996 Path: biosci!daresbury!not-for-mail From: mieg@kaa.crbm.cnrs-mop.fr (Danielle et Jean Thierry-Mieg) Newsgroups: bionet.software.acedb Subject: a simple split.c Date: 27 Jan 1996 10:11:40 -0000 Lines: 48 Sender: lpddist@mserv1.dl.ac.uk Distribution: bionet Message-ID: <4ectos$mte@mserv1.dl.ac.uk> Original-To: net@admcnrs.cnrs-mop.fr /* Last edited: Jan 23 18:21 1996 (mieg) */ /* stand alone, will split big ace files in a naive way */ /* @(#)split.c 1.2 1/23/96 */ #include void main (int argc, char **argv) { int i = 0, n = 0, nn = 0, nf = 0 ; char buf[10000], name[120], *cp ; FILE *out = 0 ; if (argc < 2) { fprintf (stderr, "Usage split prefix, splits stdin into n files of max 10^5 lines called prefix.n \n") ; exit(1) ; } strncpy (name, argv[1], 100) ; cp = name + strlen(name) ; sprintf(cp, ".%d", ++nf) ; out = fopen (name, "w") ; if (!out) { fprintf (stderr, "cannot ope output file\n") ; exit(1) ; } while (fgets(buf, 9999, stdin)) { n++ ; nn++ ; if ((i = strlen(buf)) > 9990) { fprintf(stderr, "Input too long: %d bytes in line %d\n", i, n) ; exit(1) ; } if (nn > 500000 && i == 1) { fclose (out) ; sprintf(cp, ".%d", ++nf) ; out = fopen (name, "w") ; if (!out) { fprintf (stderr, "cannot ope output file %s\n", name) ; exit (1) ; } nn = 0 ; } else fputs(buf, out) ; } fprintf (stderr, "done, read %d lines, created %d files upto %s\n", n, nf, name) ; exit (0) ; } From owner-acedb@net.bio.net Wed Jan 31 22:00:00 1996 Path: biosci!internet!biosci!not-for-mail From: biohelp (BIOSCI Administrator) Newsgroups: bionet.software.acedb Subject: BIOSCI miniFAQ, ver. 14-DEC-95 Date: 1 Feb 1996 02:01:17 -0800 Organization: BIOSCI International Newsgroups for Molecular Biology Lines: 199 Sender: daemon@net.bio.net Distribution: world Message-ID: <199602011000.CAA12833@net.bio.net> NNTP-Posting-Host: net.bio.net (LAST REVISION: 14-DEC-95) This BIOSCI "miniFAQ" is designed to answer the questions that come up the *most frequently*. The main BIOSCI FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) is accessible on the World Wide Web at URL http://www.bio.net/. Contents: -------- 1) Using the WWW to access the BIOSCI/bionet newsgroups. 2) What to do about "spams," i.e., junk mail, ads, etc. 3) Examples of subscribing and unsubscribing to the mailing lists. 4) The BIOSCI user address and research interest directory. 1) Using the WWW to access the BIOSCI/bionet newsgroups. -------------------------------------------------------- As of 10 December 1995, all BIOSCI/bionet full newsgroups are accessible through the World Wide Web (WWW) at URL http://www.bio.net. One can read and reply publicly or privately to both recent postings and archived messages through one's Web browser if it is configured properly to send e-mail. Each newsgroup is equipped with its own WAIS index in addition to the master index for the entire set. The main BIOSCI home page also has access to the BIO-JOURNALS Table of Contents database WAIS index and the BIOSCI user address database described in another item further below. 2) What to do about "spams," i.e., junk mail, ads, etc. ------------------------------------------------------- BIOSCI is a set of parallel USENET newsgroups (the "bionet" groups), mailing lists, and a hypermail archive at URL http://www.bio.net/. The same postings are distributed on all media (except for a small number of mailing-list-only groups at net.bio.net). Unfortunately it is becoming a despicable practice on the Internet (by a few people out to make a fast buck) to do automated mass postings to thousands of newsgroups and mailing lists. These attempts to grab free advertising are refered to as "spams" in the usual, somewhat boneheaded, net terminology. USENET is more susceptible to this practice, and many spams originate on the USENET groups and then are passed on to the mailing lists. However, spammers also get lists of mailing addresses and hit these too, so neither medium is immune. What should you do personally if you get junk mail? --------------------------------------------------- Just delete it and move on without reading it further. Filing a protest is becoming increasingly useless because spammers are often disguising the addresses where the messages are sent from. Unless you really understand Internet mail systems, your attempt at protest by sending replies to the message will often end up being sent to the address of an innocent person that the spammer is victimizing. What can BIOSCI/bionet do to protect its newsgroups? ---------------------------------------------------- The only solution currently available is to moderate the newsgroup. If this newsgroup is already moderated, then you are in good shape. Moderation protects the USENET distribution from about 95% of the spams that are being sent to date and protects the mailing lists completely. Moderation means, however, that someone has to take the time to review each message before it goes out. We have set up software here that simply allows the moderator to forward to an address at net.bio.net messages that (s)he wishes to have distributed. This takes no more time than that needed to read the message and pass it on, say about 1 min. per message. Most newsgroups currently have a discussion leader who is responsible for their newsgroup. The discussions leaders and their e-mail addresses are listed in the BIOSCI Information Sheet which is available on the Web at http://www.bio.net/. If a newsgroup is being hit with too many junk postings, please contact the discussion leader for that group and see if there is interest in moderating the group. Please do not assume that by simply posting a complaint to the newsgroup itself, anyone on the BIOSCI staff will act on your complaint. With close to 100 newsgroups to run, the BIOSCI staff has to rely on the discussion leaders of each newsgroup to report problems directly to us at biosci-help@net.bio.net. We will moderate any of our newsgroups if the discussion leader tells us that the readership of the group wishes to do so and if a moderator is willing to do the work. For most BIOSCI/bionet groups, this entails only a few minutes of work each day. Moderating a newsgroup will resolve probably 95% of the junk postings on the USENET distribution. Unfortunately there are easy ways for determined spammers to override the moderation mechanism on USENET, but we can protect our e-mail subscribers from unwanted postings if the newsgroup is moderated. You can also access our newsgroups over the WWW at URL http://www.bio.net. While this Web interface will not stop spammers from trying to post to the groups, this will give you yet another way, besides using USENET news, to keep the junk out of your personal mail files. For those of you with local USENET news systems, the Web interface will also give you faster access to new newsgroups and recent postings. 3) Examples of subscribing and unsubscribing to the mailing lists. ------------------------------------------------------------------ PLEASE NOTE: The BIOSCI management does NOT act on subscription/unsubscription requests that are posted improperly to the newsgroups and mailing lists. People who do this only bother everyone on the lists to no avail. Please be sure to follow the proper procedures below. Gory details are in the BIOSCI Information sheets on the Web at http://www.bio.net. Below we give an example utilizing the METHODS-AND-REAGENTS list at both of our two BIOSCI sites: Users in the Americas and Pacific Rim countries who use the BIOSCI ------------------------------------------------------------------ node at computer net.bio.net: ---------------------------- A) Determine the "listname" which is the <=8 character mail address ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ for the group. These can be found in the BIOSCI Info. Sheet. For the METHODS-AND-REAGENTS group the mailing address is methods@net.bio.net. The listname is the portion of the address to the left of the @ sign, i.e., "methods". The listname is used with the "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" commands illustrated below. B) Mail all commands in the body of a mail message addressed to biosci-server@net.bio.net. Do NOT send commands to the newsgroup posting addresses! Leave the Subject: line blank, any text on it will be ignored. C) In the body of your message put one or more of the following commands with an "end" command on the last line, e.g., subscribe methods unsubscribe methods end Do NOT put your e-mail address or other text on these lines. The server only allows you to cancel your subscription if the address on your mail header matches the address on our mailing list. Please ask for help at biosci-help@net.bio.net if your address has changed, e.g., if you know you are on the list but the server tells you that you are not a member. Users in Europe, Africa, and Central Asia who use the BIOSCI node at -------------------------------------------------------------------- computer daresbury.ac.uk (also known as dl.ac.uk): ------------------------------------------------- To subscribe and unsubscribe to/from the BIOSCI lists, you need to specify the full USENET newsgroup name with "bionet-news." prepended. The USENET newsgroup names are listed in the BIOSCI Information sheet on the Web at http://www.bio.net/. For the METHODS-AND-REAGENTS list the USENET newsgroup name is bionet.molbio.methds-reagnts, thus the appropriate commands are sub bionet-news.bionet.molbio.methds-reagnts unsub bionet-news.bionet.molbio.methds-reagnts These commands are included in a message addressed to mxt@dl.ac.uk, NOT to the newsgroup mailing addresses. As usual, include the text in the body of the message as text on the Subject: line is ignored. To unsubscribe from all the lists at the UK node, use unsub bionet-news Please note that if the address in the list is different than the one in your mail message header, you will not be able to unsubscribe by this method. If you have problems, please mail biosci@daresbury.ac.uk. 4) The BIOSCI user address and research interest directory. ----------------------------------------------------------- Please take this opportunity to add your name, address, and research interest information to the BIOSCI User Address Database if you have not already done so. You can fill out the address form directly through our Web page at URL http://www.bio.net/adrform.html. The address database is reindexed nightly for WWW access (the URL is http://www.bio.net/). If you are not directly on the Internet but can reach it by e-mail, please use our waismail server to access the user directory. waismail use is described above. You can also request a user address form by e-mail from biosci-help@net.bio.net. Please check your database entry from time-to-time to see if your address information is still up-to-date. Because of our limited personnel resources, we ask that you resubmit a *complete* form to revise your entry; we only replace complete entries and do not have resources to edit old forms. Sincerely, Dave Kristofferson BIOSCI/bionet Manager biosci-help@net.bio.net