From paulc@oldnova.npac.syr.edu Tue Feb 18 17:15:45 1997 Date: Tue, 18 Feb 1997 17:15:16 -0500 (EST) From: Paul Coddington To: Geoffrey Fox Subject: Re: Status of CSN Askari etc. I left a message on Peter Davie's voicemail, but no reply yet. Last time I talked to you about CSN, I had given some people a beta version of the software to test, which had almost all the functionality. Adding the extra stuff took a lot of effort (I had to change some things which introduced bugs, and debugging perl CGI programs is really tough!). I've fixed the bugs and it now works, I just have a couple more things to add, which should be finished tomorrow, and then the basic structure will be done. Next thing to do for CSN is a mechanism for schools to sign up for the service, and automatically create for them a Webboard, LivingPage, and LivingDirectory (a version of LivingPage which allows people in the school district to add their name, email, home page, interests, etc to a directory of users). Gary is also interested in creating a Web sign-in form that interfaces with their Microsoft Access user database, but they don't have any expertise in Web/database stuff. They particularly want this for when the MCI deal comes through, since they are expecting a lot more customers then. Is there anyone at NPAC who knows anything about Access, rather than Oracle, or is Web/database stuff generic enough that the existing database group could work on it? Perhaps we could be able to get a contract out of Gary to pay us for doing this! Gary was on NPR last week on a program about what ex-IBM people are doing, and apparently he's received dozens of calls from people all over the country who listeded to it and are interested in signing up their schools. But the MCI deal is still not finalized, although he is confident it will be signed very soon. I've also done a lot of work on editing Saleh's journal paper, since a lot of stuff has changed since we put together the first draft. This is close to being finished now. I gave Alvin his qualifying exam remotely (via phone, email and fax) last week. I haven't had time to grade it yet, but should have it done by next week.