INFO-VAX Thu, 03 Apr 2008 Volume 2008 : Issue 188 Contents: Authentication for outgoing mail - PMDF DBMS Record Storage problem - Excessive "pages checked" Re: Does POWER_OFF really work ? Re: Longtime VMS system manager/programmer available Re: Longtime VMS system manager/programmer available Re: Longtime VMS system manager/programmer available Request for DCL improvement (say) VMS Audio Update - Episode #17 - Special "Endeavour" Edition (Part 1/4) 1/4)1/4) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 3 Apr 2008 16:43:45 +0000 (UTC) From: david20@alpha2.mdx.ac.uk Subject: Authentication for outgoing mail - PMDF Message-ID: Over the years there have been a few discussions of ISP's who require outgoing mail to be sent through their mailservers and require that mail to be authenticated by the client providing a username and password. Someone running their own mailserver would be required to set it up so that outgoing mail was similarly sent through the ISP's central mailserver and authenticated. Unfortunately although numerous public domain Unix mailservers could do this none of the VMS mailservers could. See for instance http://groups.google.com/group/comp.os.vms/msg/14af034868f75111 It looks like this is about to change. Process is now looking for beta testers for PMDF 6.4 which looks like it will provide this functionality. " Process Software is seeking beta testers for PMDF v6.4. The test will begin in late April and will last approximately 8 weeks. The major features being introduced are SPF, disclaimer channel, LDAP over TLS, web interface for changing user passwords, SMTP authentication for outgoing mail, and other customer-driven enhancements. If you would like to participate in the beta program, please complete the sign-up form at the URI below. http://www.process.com/tcpip/pmdf64beta.asp " The PMDF mailserver is a commercial product but is free for VMS hobbyist use. David Webb Security team leader CCSS Middlesex University ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 3 Apr 2008 00:01:28 -0700 (PDT) From: markdiaz@aol.com Subject: DBMS Record Storage problem - Excessive "pages checked" Message-ID: <99ffce2d-7af5-4f08-aef5-21c4cec888a9@d45g2000hsc.googlegroups.com> I have a client using DBMS V6.1-2 on VMS 6.2 with a curious record storage problem. In the middle of the day, the number of pages checked to records stored ratio goes to about 370 to 1. Normally it is about 1.2 to 1. On this node of the two VAX cluster, a single application is running and storing only one type of record to a single area. The problem goes away when most of the users log off the other VAX, which may be coincidental. Normally, an excessive number of pages checked for each record stored indicates the Space Area Management (SPAM) Thresholds are not set properly. I think they are set to appropriate values, and have been working well for years. What has me stumped is how the behavior changes. If you are familiar with MANMAN, the application is storing material transaction records (MATREC). The storage placement is SYSTEM DEFAULT, area size 300,000 pages, page size 12 blocks, SPAM interval 24,488 (13 SPAM pages). All three thresholds are set to 79%. The static record size is 624 bytes and the record has no dynamic elements. The area does not have snapshots. Any ideas would be much appreciated. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 3 Apr 2008 08:28:41 -0700 (PDT) From: DaveG Subject: Re: Does POWER_OFF really work ? Message-ID: <45895c6b-18be-41d4-889a-a0ec935aa3d1@u69g2000hse.googlegroups.com> On Apr 2, 10:43=A0pm, Michael Austin wrote: > BobH wrote: > > VAXman- =A0@SendSpamHere.ORG wrote in > >news:47f22222$0$5615$607ed4bc@cv.net: > > >> In article , BobH writes:= > >>> VAXman- =A0@SendSpamHere.ORG wrote in > >>>news:47f16c09$0$5615$607ed4bc@cv.net: > > >>>> In article <47f15559$0$3857$c3e8...@news.astraweb.com>, JF Mezei > >>>> writes: > >>>>> VAXman- @SendSpamHere.ORG wrote: > > >>>>>> 'Twould be fine with me too but the power-hour wasn't about light > >>>>>> pollution, it was a gesture about conserving energy. =A0Power > >>>>>> companies generate electric based on average demands. =A0I really > >>>>>> doubt that they made any fuel consumption changes based on a minor > >>>>>> brief hour dip on the grid. > >>>>> Not sure how authoritative, but I heard the city of Toronto noticed > >>>>> an 8% drop in electrical consumption during that hour. > >>>> Could be but the generators were still turning! > >>> They may well be spinning, but the amount of energy they use is > >>> proportional to the amount of power they are outputting. =A0The wheels= > >>> on a car may turn at the same speed down hill and uphill, but downhill= > >>> the engine may be near idle, while uphill it is consuming gasoline at > >>> a much greater rate, even theough it is turning, along with the > >>> wheels, at the same speed. > >> Gas turbines aren't enormously efficient! =A060% at most. =A0A 7% dip i= n > >> the grid for an hour didn't affect anything significantly! > > Except for the fact a large majority of the generating plants are > actually coal-fired and you have to keep them coals hot. And in the case > of hydro or nuclear, you can't even shut the spillways or do whatever it > takes to cool down a nuclear plant for 1 hr... Again, a 1hr 7% reduction > did very little to conserve any real energy. =A0When you think about it, > electricity is only uses real energy at the point at which it is > generated. =A0Once AC is generated, it cannot be stored for "a rainy day".= > =A0 It is used as it is generated and only as it is generated - well maybe= > a few seconds to cross the grid... =A0 Having visited many power plants > during my days as a DEC Field service eng, trust me, 7% was not even > worth it... =A0The only way to make it worth it is 7% permanent reduction.= > > And IIRC, POWER_OFF did work on the 8800's...- Hide quoted text - > > - Show quoted text - While what you and others have said is no doubt true, I think the purpose of the earth day excercise was more a public awareness thing than coal Vs nuke Vs hydro and thermodynamics, etc. If it got people thinking about not leaving a light on when not needed or similar, then it accomplished something. As I mentioned earlier in this thread it's a start. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 3 Apr 2008 08:38:58 -0700 (PDT) From: Galen Subject: Re: Longtime VMS system manager/programmer available Message-ID: <2a11e299-bf40-4bc2-980f-b993ef41d0d1@8g2000hsu.googlegroups.com> Thank you, everyone, for your encouragement and advice. Jobs within Booz Allen will clearly be my first choice. They're consistently ranked among the 100, 50, or even 25 best employers in the nation or region. I think they've even made the top 10 in the DC area for IT jobs. However, I've also spotted a couple of (non-VMS) jobs closer to home, including one within an easy bicycle ride of my home. I don't know how good the chances are, but I sent them a resume. I have seen some VMS work in the greater geographical area with a health care system or two in Maryland or Delaware, and in the financial sector in Pennsylvania. The job descriptions for these are pretty close fits except for the industry-specific tech. Though these would require a move, it is good to know that they're there. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 03 Apr 2008 12:39:08 -0400 From: JF Mezei Subject: Re: Longtime VMS system manager/programmer available Message-ID: <47f508b7$0$3886$c3e8da3@news.astraweb.com> Galen wrote: > I have seen some VMS work in the greater geographical area with a > health care system or two in Maryland or Delaware, Health care VMS jobs will soon be gone now that HP told Cerner it was OK to abandon VMS. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 3 Apr 2008 13:02:17 -0400 From: "Ken Robinson" Subject: Re: Longtime VMS system manager/programmer available Message-ID: <7dd80f60804031002s4471c00qb352e921e57d9f79@mail.gmail.com> On Thu, Apr 3, 2008 at 12:39 PM, JF Mezei wrote: > Galen wrote: > > > I have seen some VMS work in the greater geographical area with a > > health care system or two in Maryland or Delaware, > > Health care VMS jobs will soon be gone now that HP told Cerner it was OK > to abandon VMS. > Stop generalizing... Not all healthcare jobs in VMS are using Cerner. Ken ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 03 Apr 2008 11:21:37 -0400 From: JF Mezei Subject: Request for DCL improvement (say) Message-ID: <47f4f682$0$23901$c3e8da3@news.astraweb.com> Why doesn't VMS have a "SAY" command ? My Mac has one. > SAY(1) Speech Synthesis Manager SAY(1) > > NAME > say - Convert text to audible speech > > SYNOPSIS > say [-v voice] [-o out.aiff] [-f file | string ...] > > DESCRIPTION > This tool uses the Speech Synthesis manager to convert input text to > audible speech and either play it through the sound output device cho- > sen in System Preferences or save it to an AIFF file. > > OPTIONS > string > Specify the text to speak on the command line. This can consist of > multiple arguments, which are considered to be separated by spaces. > > -f file > Specify a file to be spoken. If file is - or neither this parameter > nor a message is specified, read from standard input. > > -v voice > Specify the voice to be used. Default is the voice selected in Sys- > tem Preferences. > > -o out.aiff > Specify an AIFF file to be written. > > If the input is a TTY, text is spoken line by line, and the output > file, if specified, will only contain audio for the last line of the > input. Otherwise, text is spoken all at once. > > ERRORS > say returns 0 if the text was spoken successfully, otherwise non-zero. > Diagnostic messages will be printed to standard error. > > 1.0 2003-05-23 SAY(1) > Oh, I forgot, they dropped all support for sound on VMS. It is a shame because there are interesting uses for this with web servers dynamically geneaing audible responses to and AIFF file streamed to the remote users for instance. (See, even in a "server only" mode which VMS has been relegated/restricted to, such a command owuld have some uses) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 3 Apr 2008 06:02:21 -0700 (PDT) From: IanMiller Subject: VMS Audio Update - Episode #17 - Special "Endeavour" Edition (Part 1/4) 1/4)1/4) Message-ID: <8e8b4890-880a-4f84-abae-d2c334a2fa62@s8g2000prg.googlegroups.com> n addition to our standard coverage of OpenVMS news, we're excited to present our listeners an exclusive interview with Nina Buik (President of Encompass US). This is the first episode of a four (4) part series detailing the consolidation of HP's primary user group communities, code named "Endeavour". Covered in this interview: The Endeavour consolidation 1. What is Endeavour? 2. Why did the user groups consolidate? 3. What are the new membership benefits, rates or programs for Endeavour? 4. Why is Endeavour better suited to meet member needs than having separate user groups? 5. How will OpenVMS education and resources be incorporated into the new organization's offerings? More info and the link to download the MP3 http://www.openvms.org/pages.php?page=VAU-2008-03-31_17 Subscribe via http://feeds.feedburner.com/openvms ------------------------------ End of INFO-VAX 2008.188 ************************