Vanagon EuroVan
Previous messageNext messagePrevious in topicNext in topicPrevious by same authorNext by same authorPrevious page (August 2001, week 5)Back to main VANAGON pageJoin or leave VANAGON (or change settings)ReplyPost a new messageSearchProportional fontNon-proportional font
Date:         Thu, 30 Aug 2001 21:49:04 -0400
Reply-To:     Derek Drew <derekdrew@RCN.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Derek Drew <derekdrew@RCN.COM>
Subject:      Re: Where is Gerry Now?
Comments: To: Tim McDermott <h2oboxer@OPTONLINE.NET>
In-Reply-To:  <3B8EE10A.82DCB136@optonline.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed

At 08:57 PM 8/30/01 -0400, you wrote: >Reading the Washington post article brought back memories of our first >newspaper story(Newsday). >That was quite a few years ago. >Is that article available anywhere? > >What is Gerry up to nowadays? Anyone have an update?

Believe it or not, the first newspaper article in Newsday you refer to was written by my wife!!!

And of all coincidences, she now happens to be an assistant managing editor of the Washington Post so she knows Dan Ogdenburg!

As for Gerry, he visited my house for a week about a year ago. He insists that he is still on the list but he doesn't post any more. Like many old timers, he composes many posts to the list but then hits the delete key before sending them, thinking that the answer is already in the archives. So he said that while it appears that he has utterly disappeared, he is actually here with us.

Here is the original text of Jill's original Newsday article, written at the dawn of the Internet revolution:

>Ok folks. My wife wrote the article. She interviewed Gerry because she was >so amused about my >obsession with the list. -- Derek Drew, 1995 > >JILL DUTT'S 1995 ARTICLE ABOUT THE VANAGON LIST FOR NEW YORK NEWSDAY > >Now, this article is copyright Newsday/New York Newsday so...so.. > >...ah, what the heck, here is the text. > > Gerry loves his Volkswagen bus. He talks about it at parties, reads >articles about it at >night, and works on it in his driveway on the weekends. > He talks about it at work, too -- with more than 300 other owners > who love >their VW >busses in eight countries and 32 states. > Gerry, a computer system administrator at a state university in the >Midwest, operates >what's known on the Internet as a "list server.'' In plain terms, he uses >some of the extra disk >space on the university's powerful Sun Microsystem computer network to run >an interactive >mailing list. > More than 12,000 messages have been sent to the list in the past nine >months. Each >message, which is "posted'' by a list member via computer modem, goes into >Gerry's central list >program, gets copied 300-plus times and then gets distributed into the >e-mailboxes of every >other list member. Some of them then choose to respond to the "post,'' so >they send their own >messages to Gerry's computer and the process repeats. > It's loads of fun, like being connected to a giant telephone > party line. >Somebody's paying >for it. But it's not Gerry or any of his 300 e-mail correspondents. > "When I think about the ethical issues, I know it's not 100 percent >kosher,'' he says, >referring to his use of state property for a hobby. "But it's just sort of >leftover stuff. And the >people [at universities] who connect to the Internet pay a fixed cost. It >doesn't make a difference >how many processors are running.'' > There are hundreds of others "list server'' operators just like > Gerry, who >didn't want his >full name nor the university's used in this article. They appropriate tiny >chunks of unused disk >space and what's called "bandwidth," which is like a radio frequency over >which online >information is sent, to maintain discussion groups on every imaginable >topic. They are part of >what gives the global maze of computers its charm and its sense of >community. They are also a >source of detailed information and first-hand experience that can be found >nowhere else. > "I was on a list for Mercedes owners and it became quickly a Mercedes >diesel list," says >Joel Walker, a list afficianado who works as a computer technician at the >University of Alabama >at Tuscaloosa. "These guys needed more handholding because the [auto] >dealers don't want to >help them. They really have no choice but to help each other." > The same is true for VW busses, Walker adds. "There's a [VW] > Rabbit list, >but it gets >almost no traffic. I assume they get all their problems solved at the >dealer,'' he says. > One person who's not on the list, but wants to be, is Dennis > Haynes, who >fixes cars in >Bohemia. Haynes specializes in VW bus repair and owns two Vanagons himself. > Trouble is, Haynes doesn't own a computer. He says he has friends > on the >list, however, >and recently was able to drum up some business after word circulated about a >custom-made >trailer hitch he designed for the VW Vanagon. He's already gotten one order >from a list member, >and has had several other inquiries. > That kind of information -- newfangled trailer hitches or a cheap > supply of >propane vent >covers or ingenious ways to fix an electrical hiccup caused by the bus' >wiring harnass -- is the >meat of the list. Members, many of whom are engineers or others technically >inclined, are >advised to incorporate hard information in their posts. Friday posts are an >exception, though. List >members have some fun that day posting poems, personal stories and jokes. >And, if they can't >control themselves midweek, they=FF20can submit nontechnical post to the= > list >so long as there's >an (f), denoting "just for fun,'' after the subject line. > Gerry started the VW bus list at Joel's behest last April. The > two had met >online after >Gerry's month-old VW Vanagon developed a problem the dealer couldn't solve. >He described his >problem in a post to another Internet form of discussion forum, called a >newsgroup, entitled: >rec.autos.vw. Joel responded, and the two became friends. > Joel wanted to start a mailing list among other bus owners he had > met= > through >rec.autos.vw, but he didn't have direct access to his university's mainframe >computer. "There's a >guy here who runs a homemade beer list on state government time and is >part-owner of a >homemade beer supply store downtown," Joel says, gruffly. "Now some might >call that a conflict >of interest using state funds, but nobody cares. He can do it because he's >in system >administration." > Gerry, though, asked his boss, an associate dean, if it would be > okay to >run the VW bus >list on his university system and got the okay. "He knew very little about >computers or anything I >was doing," Gerry says. Later on, Gerry did get a boss who was more closely >associated with the >computer department, and he got his okay, too. "I try not to hide it," he= > says. > Gerry tries also not to let administration work for the VW list > get in the >way of his job. "I >try not to read list mail during work," Gerry says. "But on my break I'll >get some coffee and spend >the next 30 minutes reading Vanagon mail." > Gerry says he spends only about 30 minutes a day on list > administration, >dealing with >such things as undeliverable e-mail and new subscribers. "I only have to do >things if the mail >goes wrong," he says. > One day last fall, the mail went very wrong. List members had > started a >"posting >sweepstakes," to see which member could rack up the largest number of >messages sent. Traffic >on the list soared. The overload succeeded in crashing the university's >computer. > "I had to shut the list down," Gerry says, sheepishly. After he > fixed the >problem, he re- >started the list with a plea to members to stop their games. > The little disaster had a bright side, too. "That forced me to > figure out >how the 'sendmail' >program works," Gerry says. He reconfigured the university system to run >more efficiently and, >with that knowledge, was also able to start managing complicated >communications projects for >professors. For example, he conducted a survey of more than 2,000 >biologists, and was able to >invent a database to post the survey and collect the results. "It would have >been very expensive >to hire out for someone to do that," Gerry notes. "I just used the van list >as a guinea pig." > The list has another benefit, too. Says Gerry, "If I wasn't > running the >list, I might get >really bored with my job."

_______________________________________________ Derek Drew CEO & Co-Founder http://www.ConsumerSearch.com/ New York, NY =========================== "Best Expert Review Site" for product reviews on the Internet Jan. 2001, PC World Magazine ========================== derekdrew@rcn.com 212-580-6486

Alternate numbers for the industrious phone caller that wants to try every avenue: 212-580-6486 (best), 917-848-6425 (cell); 202-966-7907 (Work), 212-580-4459 (Home), 202-966-0938 (Home), 978-359-8533 (fax [efax]), 212-269-3188 (New York Seaport office).


Back to: Top of message | Previous page | Main VANAGON page

Please note - During the past 17 years of operation, several gigabytes of Vanagon mail messages have been archived. Searching the entire collection will take up to five minutes to complete. Please be patient!


Return to the archives @ gerry.vanagon.com


The vanagon mailing list archives are copyright (c) 1994-2011, and may not be reproduced without the express written permission of the list administrators. Posting messages to this mailing list grants a license to the mailing list administrators to reproduce the message in a compilation, either printed or electronic. All compilations will be not-for-profit, with any excess proceeds going to the Vanagon mailing list.

Any profits from list compilations go exclusively towards the management and operation of the Vanagon mailing list and vanagon mailing list web site.