o How the SunFlash and FlashBack distribution works o New Multi-Media SunFlash and FlashBack list o US prices in SunFlash articles o World Wide Web (www) version of SunFlash Now on draco.nova.edu o Vendor contact articles o How the SunFlash and FlashBack distribution works --------------------------------------------------- SunFlash and FlashBack articles are usually posted to groups of email addresses. Many of those addresses are local redistribution aliases at Sun offices or customers sites. This makes it hard to determine how SunFlash or FlashBack gets to a particular email address. This message is being posted to each address so that you can see exactly how SunFlash or FlashBack get to you. I have moved a number of subscibers from redistribution lists at certain Sun offices to the main alias database. Those subscribers can now unsubscribe and subscribe with ease. sunflash@calypso.oit.unc.edu is subscribed to the following lists: flashback sunflash If you want to be dropped, and sunflash@calypso.oit.unc.edu is your personal email address (not an alias) send email to Majordomo@FlashBack.com with a message body: mailx Majordomo@FlashBack.com unsubscribe flashback sunflash@calypso.oit.unc.edu unsubscribe sunflash sunflash@calypso.oit.unc.edu ^D for each of list that you want to be removed from. If sunflash@calypso.oit.unc.edu is not your address, then majordomo will send the list manager - me - a copy of your request to approve or disapprove. If sunflash@calypso.oit.unc.edu is a local redistribution alias (e.g. sunflash@sunvice.east.sun.com) then requests should be sent to the owner of that alias instead. (e.g. owner-sunflash@sunvice.east.sun.com) or your local postmaster. If sunflash@calypso.oit.unc.edu looks like an alias (e.g sunflash@....) then send change requests to flash@flashback.com, not majordomo. o New Multi-Media SunFlash and FlashBack list --------------------------------------------- I have created four new mailing lists: mt-sunflash mt-flashback mime-sunflash mime-flashback If I post more that one article to either of the sunflash-f or the flashback-f lists, then the subscribers to these new lists will get just one article. The message body will have a description for each of the articles posted that day and all of the articles will be attached as Mailtool (mt) or MIME attachements. In the future I would like to offer more attachment types (e.g screenshot, postscript, audio clips). To subscribe to these new lists, send email to majordomo@flashback.com with and unsubscribe and subscribe commands. E.g. mailx majordomo@flashback.com Subject: unsubscribe flashback sunflash@calypso.oit.unc.edu unsubscribe sunflash sunflash@calypso.oit.unc.edu subscribe mt-sunflash sunflash@calypso.oit.unc.edu subscribe mt-flashback sunflash@calypso.oit.unc.edu ^D If you read your email in a mailtool, I strongly suggest moving to the mt-sunflash/mt-flashback or mt-sunflash-w/mt-flashback lists. o US prices in SunFlash articles -------------------------------- Sun policy prohibits me from posting US prices outside the US. Local prices are determined by a large number of factors including currency fluctuations, import fees, cost of local sales and support, demand and supply, etc. As I now make all my files available via ftp and the World Wide Web, I have to make them appropriate for an international audience. Many people in the US have contacted me to say that they miss having US prices. Here is my solution. The autoresponder, flashback@flashback.com, will send back articles with US prices but only to those people registered in the US. How do you register ? Send email to majordomo@flashback.com and subscribe to the list 'usa'. Note the extra 'end' followed by an explicit statement from you stating your name, location, company and phone number: %mailx majordomo@flashback.com Subject: subscribe usa sunflash@calypso.oit.unc.edu end Your Name Your Company , Your Phone# (the end command tells majordomo to stop processing. I will see the requests and read the entry and end.) For the sunflash-f subscribers, there is a new list called sunflash-f-usa. If you want the US prices, unsubscribe from sunflash-f and subscribe to sunflash-f-usa with a request like the one above. NOTE: I will not have the US prices in place for SunFlash articles until January, 1995. There will be no US prices for any article posted before 1995 even for those people who join the usa list! NOTE: No article will be posted to the usa list. You should be on one of the other lists too! NOTE: If you forward the US prices outside of the US I will have to terminate this service for everyone. o World Wide Web (www) version of SunFlash Now on draco.nova.edu ---------------------------------------------------------------- ** www.update.04.tar.Z available on draco now !! ** I now produce SunFlash and FlashBack in HTML, the markup language of the World Wide Web (WWW). I have placed these HTML files on draco.nova.edu in a group of compressed tar files (see below). The directory pub/sunflash/www contains all the up-to-date HTML files too. You can browse the files on nova.edu by using the URL ftp://draco.nova.edu/pub/sunflash/www/welcome.html A few of sites have installed my HTML files into their own Web server for improved local access. Please feel free to copy them to your Web server. How to Install the SunFlash and FlashBack HTML files: copy each of these files from draco.nova.edu/pub/sunflash/www to your WWW server: www.tar.Z (870k) www.update.01.tar.Z (1.46Mb) www.update.02.tar.Z (244k) www.update.03.tar.Z (762k) www.update.04.tar.Z (726k) zcat < www.tar.Z | tar xf - zcat < www.update.01.tar.Z | tar xf - zcat < www.update.02.tar.Z | tar xf - zcat < www.update.03.tar.Z | tar xf - zcat < www.update.04.tar.Z | tar xf - Now www/index.html is your starting point! Please send me your URL inf you install these files! -johnj o Vendor Contact articles ------------------------- Future FlashBack articles will not contain vendor contact information. A new set of artices, 7xxx, will be created, one per vendor. The vendor articles will contain up-to-date contact information for each of the vendors that have I have posted FlashBack articles for, As people are now accessing SunFlash and FlashBack articles that are over 2 years old, it is easy to imagine that the contact information will change over the life of an article. I hope to include lots of information about the vendors in thier vendor articles. E.g. o Contact names for all key locations (US and non-US) o email, phone, fax, mailing information o www URLS, ftp and gopher o list of all SunFlash/FlashBack articles The only drawback that I see is that there may be an extra step for some readers: > read daily or weekly summary > send for article xyz from vendor pqr > read article, determine that you want to contact pqr > send for article abc - vendor pqr's contact page If you use the new multimedia lists, then the first two steps become one. When I provide an email search facility, I will permit searches against just the vendor database or vendor and article database. As this is a new idea for SunFlash/FlashBack, please tell me what you think. o Sign-up your friends! ----------------------- If you find SunFlash and/or FlashBack to be of value, please encourage your Sun-using colleagues to subscribe too! With their permission, you can send the request to have them subscribed by adding their name to the subscribe lines in mail to majordomo. e.g. say you tell fred@school.edu about the mailtool sunflash and flashback lists and fred says that he wants to subscribe. You can send email thus: % mailx majordomo@flashback.com subscribe mt-sunflash fred@school.edu subscribe mt-flashback fred@school.edu ^D You will get email from majordomo saying your request has been forwarded to the list owner - me - for approval. If you have any problems with SunFlash or FlashBack, send me email. -johnj John J. Mclaughlin Publisher/Editor SunFlash & FlashBack 1981 NW 38th Terrace Coconut Creek FL 33309 USA (305) 351 4909 FAX (305) 776 7963 flash@Flashback.COM flash@Sun.COM