On Thu, Nov 13, 2003 at 01:47:10AM -0600, Richard Rauch wrote:
> Back in August, I started a "silly way to waste bits" as a NetBSD user
> database.  The idea was to record: Number of NetBSD systems, latitude,
> longitude, a contact-info field, and what kind of entry is represented.
> Additionally, the first date in which the entry went into the database,

I think the IDEA is great!  And, I even started to enter my own data, but
gave up when I couldn't find the lat/long data for my area in a reasonable
amount of time.  Why not city and country?  When I look at the database
I see a bunch of entries like the following:

20030804, 20041104, 5, 29.71726, -95.48117       ,Richard Rauch,          rkr@o
lib.org          , user

Other than the names, among whom there are so many people contributing to
NetBSD (thank you all), nothing makes any sense to me.  How are you supposed
to view the database?  I'd really prefer just being able to aim my lynx at
it and get a nice clean table of entries, perhaps sorted by continent.

The second problem I have is the contact (e-mail) address being recorded
raw on a public place.  I don't know about the rest of you, but this year,
and particularly the last few months, has seen a HUGE increase in the volume
of spam.  My filter works for about 96% of it, but that still means 1 or 2
spams a day are getting through.  The database wouldn't have much meaning
without a contact address, but those addresses shouldn't be accessible by
just loading a text document.  They need to be at least once removed and
given out only by a cgi request, or some such, and even then ought to be
encrypted in a gif if no password system is put in place.

$0.02  (Really would like to see the idea take off.  [Nothing larger than 6
machines?  In one lan alone, if you include the ancient notebooks being used
as serial consoles, I have more than that.  Also, I'm here in Asia.] :)

h.