Xref: utzoo alt.config:3905 alt.hackers:323 Path: utzoo!utgpu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!psuvax1!psuvax1!okunewck From: okunewck@psuvax1.cs.psu.edu (Phil OKunewick) Newsgroups: alt.config,alt.hackers Subject: Re: a thought about alt.hackers and self-moderation Message-ID: <1jGv.4t@cs.psu.edu> Date: 21 Feb 91 21:43:59 GMT References: <23266@well.sf.ca.us> Sender: news@cs.psu.edu (Usenet) Organization: Random, at best Lines: 44 Approved: The Great Yahoo At Rotgers Nntp-Posting-Host: psuvax1.cs.psu.edu In article <23266@well.sf.ca.us> Jef Poskanzer writes: >In retrospect, it's clear that self-moderation version 1.00 is indeed >very fragile with respect to sysadmins... > >If I were to do it over, I think I would make it look to the sysadmins >like a normal moderated group... [ monthly newgroup postings ] I second the nomination for jef to be moderator. And, at the same time, I charge him to moderate the group as he sees fit, allowing people to post directly (pending his approval) and cancelling articles that do not belong, like articles that came through an auto-approving gateway. (I suspect Jef will moderate it the same way he does now. Matter of fact, if he used Jef_Devnull@well.sf.ca.us as the moderator's address, with the mailbox being a soft link to you-know-what, it wouldn't surprise me one bit.) > "Our gatewaying has nothing to do with the problem and you damn well > know it." -- postmaster@rutgers.edu Gatewaying, no. Arrogant postmasters, those big fish in the small pond, though... ObHack: I once fixed a Centronics 781 printer with an off-line problem. After it printed every line, it would deselect and force the user to push "select" to get the next line. So, I ran the "on-line" lamp signal through an inverter, and tied it to the select button. When the lamp would go out, it would trigger the select button, and life would continue as normal. You couldn't deselect the printer, but this was not a problem. The problem later turned out to be a bug in the computer's new operating system revision. In a similar note, I fixed another kind of printer with a paper-motion sensor problem in the same way. It used a photo diode/transistor which shone through the paper holes, watching for the beam to keep breaking. This was a little harder, because tying the signal high or low would indicate a jam to the circuit. The paper-drive stepper motor used phase signals that ran similar to the paper holes, close enough to fool the jam circuit. I connected a wire from one of the phases of the stepper motor logic to the paper jam circuit, and the printer was functional again. (Several days later the replacement part arrived, so I could fix it properly.) Brought to you by Super Global Mega Corp .com