Hello everybody This message applies to those of you who have purchased Take Control books via Mac Access. Important: If you have purchased books on our 80% discount promotion, but you purchased via Travis Siegal at SoftCon.com, this does not apply to you unless you notified us of your request for an online bookshelf to be hosted here.
I am sorry to have to report that we have, at some point in the not too distant past, suffered from a catastrophic systemic failure at one of our power supply units. This unit appears to have gone over-voltage before it finally expired, taking two large capacity hard drives with it. The net result of this failure was that our file transfer service and all of the Take Control Books data have disappeared into oblivion. The server itself can be, and is in the process of being restored. That will come back on line later today. But the Take Control books issue is somewhat more serious. Our databases are backed up in 3 places or, should I say, they were backed up in three places. Sadly though, it appears that I somehow neglected my usually rigid policy of total isolation once the backup is made. The only time it usually comes back on stream is when the databases have changed radically, and are, therefore, obsolete at the backup point of presence. However, it appears that as a result of my current workload, I neglected to take them off line and so the backups have also disappeared into oblivion. Therefore, I would request that if you have purchased books from us, and assuming you still have documentation to that effect, would you please be so kind as to forward any appropriate information to the support address, so that I can rebuild the database and, therefore, restore your service. Server passwords are not necessary, we do not require that information as the server’s database itself is currently in the process of being restored. As for me, I can only apologise for my sheer negligence on this occasion. I’m aware of the impact that this could have regarding the confidence of our clients. However, rest assured that nothing of a confidential nature has been affected by this blunder, for want of a better word. I have already been severely reprimanded by my better half, but feel free to repeat the exercise off list if you wish. I would, however, request that any such reprimands be dealt using socially acceptable language. I never respond to verbal abuse if it contains fowl language. Indeed, that only gets my back up further. :) On a serious note, however, by way of an apology for any inconvenience, I have been authorised by Lynne to make available any updated versions of books which you have purchased, purely at our expense. This in itself is going to cost us quite a lot of money I would think, but I wish to ensure that all of our clients know just how seriously we view this issue, and that they are aware of our intention to make reparation for any lost confidence which has ensued as a result of this issue. If you don’t contact the support address, I will have to assume that either you no longer require this service, or else you have obtained replacements elsewhere. And finally, I would request that you contact us as quickly as possible. Once the new academic term begins on 22 April, I simply won’t have the time to action this for you immediately, so you’ll then have to wait until my next available free time slot. Kindest regards <--- Gordon Smith ---> <[email protected]> <--- Mac Access At Mac Access Dot Net ---> To reply to this post, please address your message to [email protected] You can find an archive of all messages posted to the Mac-Access forum at either the list's own dedicated web archive: <http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/pipermail/mac-access/index.html> or at the public Mail Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/>. Subscribe to the list's RSS feed from: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.xml> As the Mac Access Dot Net administrators, we do our very best to ensure that the Mac-Access E-Mal list remains malware, spyware, Trojan, virus and worm-free. However, this should in no way replace your own security strategy. We assume neither liability nor responsibility should something unpredictable happen. Please remember to update your membership preferences periodically by visiting the list website at: <http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/mac-access/options/>
