Re: Working out cloning logistics

[Philip Gust <gust@NouveauSystems.com>]

Rayleen,

Thanks for creating this detailed list!  There are certainly quite a
number of items to take
care of.  After going through your intro and the list I have a few
questions, and a comment
about the Boeing issue.  First the questions:

1) Can you recommend a good overview concepts & facilities document
that we can all read to
bring us up to speed on the system-level aspects of Augment?  It
would be great if we can all
get to a common basic level of understanding. I know that I always feel a
little foolish asking 
basic questions that I could have answered myself by doing a little
reading ahead of time.

2) That said, could you briefly explain the concept of an ident name in
Augment and how it is 
used?

3) Is this list of tasks something on the order of an afternoon's work,
or several days work to 
accomplish, once Ken clones the BI5 host?

4) What additional tasks are required once the archive made from this
backup is reloaded on a
new system before we have a usable version of Augment running?

5) Could you explain what is embodied in a user template?  I think
Doug has sometime used
'user template" to describe a command set that is tailored for the
abilities of specific kinds of
users.  For example, he described a simple command set suitable for
new users, who graduate
to more advanced ones as they learn the system.  Is this what you
mean by a user template,
or is it a completely different thing dealing with permissions and
such.  What different kinds of
user templates are commonly available in Augment systems?

6) On the 8th item, you're saying that the host name is complied in to
Augment as well as
stored in various configuration files?  Is this a logical host name
that is internal to Augment,
or the actual host name of the virtual TOPS-20 system running
Augment?

7) Also on the 8th item, you mentioned at Doug's party that you rebuild
Augment relatively
often.  It would be interesting to hear about what kinds of changes
make it necessary to rebuild
Augment, what that process is like, whether it's incremental or requires
rebuilding the entire
system, and how that impacts users of a "production" Augment
system.

8) On the 9th item, do you mean that the mail relay host is compiled in
to the SMTP deamon
code, rather than being read from a configuration file?

9) On the 12th item, what has been the practice in Augment with regard to
access privileges
to source code?  Some systems make source code readable by everyone
but modifiable by
a more limited list, while in others it is only available to a select
list.  It a matter of culture,
so I'm interested in the practice within the NLS/Augment culture. 
As an artifact, I'd think 
that we'd want the permissions to reflect that.

On the Boeing issue, we need to resolve the status of Augment with Boeing
ASAP.  I'm
working with John Toole to contact Lou Platt, the Boeing Chairman of the
Board and former
HP CEO.  I've told John that our ideal is to have Boeing release
NLS/Augment to the public
domain, since it is of historical value but no longer of any commercial
value, and that doing
it now would allow us to begin preservation while key members of the team
are still around
to assist us.  I suggested several fall-backs if Boeing balks at
this, including transferring
all rights to CHM, and allowing them to study the issue and decide about
its disposition.
That way, Boeing could avoid endless debates about licensing, and may be
able to take
a tax write-off as well.  Lou Platt will be in town on March 15 to
talk at a HP retiree's 
lunch that I'm attending. I've asked John to contact him ASAP to see if
he can meet while
he's in town.

The museum has had to grapple with the conflict between ownership and the
urgency of 
saving software when the opportunity presents itself. CHM's approach is
to collect software 
whenever and wherever it can, and to investigate ownership and seek
permission from the 
owner as expeditiously as possible.  While it is doing this, the
museum holds the software 
in confidence, but may still initiate a conservation project internally
while it is resolving the 
ownership issue. The important thing is that the software and
confidential information 
derived from conservation is not released publicly until the ownership
issue is resolved and 
the owner grants appropriate permissions. This came up recently when CHM
was offered 
the source code and design artifacts for MacPaint by one of it's authors.
CHM attorneys 
are comfortable with this approach.

I think we can move forward with the initial phase of the project with
Doug's permission,
while John and I work on securing Boeing's permission. As I said, we'd
like to get that 
as soon as possible because making as much information as possible public
will allow
people outside the project to start contributing.


At 03:22 PM 2/26/2005, Raylene Pak wrote:
> I am assuming that Ken would
> supply me with a clone of the current BI5 host. 
>  
> I will need to know the host name that is going to be assigned,
> initially, to this copy of Augment.  We should also agree upon the
> number and type of user templates to be created for this release - e.g.
> do we want to distribute with one user and one programmer 
> template?.  Additionally a general purpose ident name to be assigned
> to any users must be identified.   Past ident names have been
> TYM, MDC, BI, etc. reflecting the organizations using
> Augment.   Likewise, if a journal is to be set up for users to
> experiment with, its name should be selected.
>  
> Once we have permission from Boeing/?? to release the Augment code to the
> public domain, then I will need to do the following:
>  
> . Guest directories created for actual people - remove directories and
> their contents.
> . General-purpose guest/user directories - remove all except standard,
> startup files.  Set their passwords to some generic value.
> . Directories of former programmers/support personnel - identify useful
> subsystems/macros in these directories and copy them to a new directory -
> e.g. prog-subsys.  Subsequently, remove these directories and their
> contents.
> . Discuss disposition of the Bootstrap Institute's directories and
> journal with Doug.  Either remove all or selected contents of these
> directories.
> . Remove all directories containing journals for other companies - DEC,
> MDC.
> . Develop a macro to identify and delete all Augment private journal
> documents from the remaining journals.
> . Update journal configuration files to reflect journals to be released
> to the public domain.
> . Create versions of the Augment executibles that use the new host
> name.  Update various Augment configuration files to reflect the new
> host name.
> . Remove references to the
> www.bootstrap.org host as the mail
> relay host from the SMTP deamon code.
> . Remove all system privileges from all except the operator
> directory.
> . Review the current user groups and their memberships.  Remove any
> groups that are no longer relevant - e.g. those associated with BI
> groups.
> . Review and set access privileges to various source code
> files/directories as deemed appropriate.  Some discussion will be
> required here.
> . Create an ident for public use and make it the default.  Create a
> user that can modify this ident.
> . Remove all Augment deamon and system log files.
>  
> This is my initial cut.  There may be other requirements that
> surface during various discussions.
>
> Raylene

Philip Gust
Nouveau Systems, Inc.

phone: +1 650 961-7992
fax:   +1 520 843-7217


mailto: gust@NouveauSystems.com