Date:         Thu, 24 May 2001 10:52:49 -0400
Reply-To:     Tom Carrington <tcarrington@RELITECH.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Tom Carrington <tcarrington@RELITECH.COM>
Subject:      Vanagon list donation status - New server?
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Howdy all,

I just updated the Vanagon list donations page at

http://gerry.vanagon.com/info/donations.html

to include all the people that sent in money during 2001. Thanks to
everybody for helping out!!

Many of you may remember back in December of January when David Marshall
generously offered to donate some hardware to upgrade Gerry, the list
server. At the time, I had to decline because I simply didn't have the time
to rebuild Gerry on a new hardware platform - I new I was going to be
swamped with work. This also explains why my http://volksweb.relitech.com
website hasn't seen an update for months, and my reduced participation on
the list.

Well, just as I had thought, my schedule will finally be getting easier
starting about the 1st of July. What I am hoping we can do is raise about
$1000 to purchase new hardware to replace Gerry. We have about $300 right
now, and if we had $1300, we could replace Gerry with a brand new, dual
800mhz-1.0Ghz processor server with plenty of RAM. I hope to purchase this
machine in late June.

We really do need to replace Gerry. The system is an older HP P-90 sysyem
with 128M RAM. When the list was smaller, it served us well. But now the
list has over 900 subscribers and many more who browse the list via the web
interface. Under this load, we experience delays in mail delivery and
time-outs in the web interface, especially when web users conduct archive
searches.

So, if you can spare a few extra $$ this or next month, please visit the
list donations page and send a check or money order to the address listed. I
have also set up a PayPal account for vanagon-request@gerry.vanagon.com in
case you would prefer to use a credit card.

Now, I don't want to get in a discussion about what hardware to use, what OS
and what system config changes should be made. As caretaker of the list, I
think I should have the discretion to make these choices. If you want to
discuss what hardware to use, take it to the Vanagon-Unrestricted forum at
Yahoo. :)

I will be sure to update the donations page weekly, so we can all monitor
the progress of the fund raising efforts.

Thanks!!!

Your Vanagon List Admin,
TomC
tcarrington@relitech.com