> Alain : Because of the recent incident with my G3 server, and the
> observation that despite the theft of the mail-archive we will
> nonetheless be able to recover them, I got the following idea :
>
> Alain : Distribute our collaboration infrastructure by networking
> several Mac servers together. For instance, one server for the UI,
> another for the Programming, and a third for the collaborative aspects.
> Or mirror the site and its downloadable contents on more than one
> server at a time, to speed download time and to remain available if one
> of the servers goes down.
Adrian: I like the idea of having different servers for each "department" of
OpenCard. This would allow us the possibility of giving limited access
rights to new members so that they can work on UI uninhibited but don't have
write access to the Programming server. At the moment we probably don't
need to do this, but in time we might so it's worth planning for.
Adrian: It also makes checking the web pages for updates easier since the
departments will be separate, you only need to check the web pages you're
interested in, but the sites would still be interlinked so that it doesn't
look disjoint. Perhaps we should maintain a web site for "advertising"
which give a general overview of how the project is going and is designed
for people who aren't in the project group but are interested in it as well
as possible customers after the first release is out.
> Alain : Technically, it would be a cinch. A stable IP, a Mac, and
> Personal WebSharing (bundled). With the latter, we can mount each
> others' volumes, share files and programs, send and receive
> AppleEvents, run remote AppleScripts, and so on.
Adrian: I've found Personal WebSharing to be fairly unstable with OS8.5,
but the choice of web server software shouldn't matter anyway.
Adrian: There are plenty of uses for program linking as well, on the
servers HyperCard could periodically request verification of links to a web
site and then notify someone of any broken links. We could run a HC stack
on our client computers that notifies the server that we are online and
available to receive information about UFP, then the server could notify us
of any broken links, or we could request all kinds of information. There's
obviously security risks and other obstacles in this kind of thing, but you
can see that this functionality (that we've had all along) could provide any
number of new ways of collaborating.
> Alain : It is an important security breach, however. Thus, this
> networking should only take place between TRUSTED servers, with
> security measures and a secure methodology for preventing and weeding
> out problems.
>
> Alain : What do you think of the idea ?
Adrian: Sounds like a good idea to me.
> Alain : Anyone else with a Mac-server with a stable IP address that
> wants to join in ?
Adrian: I have a stable IP address and a Mac which is capable of running as
a server, but I can't act as a web server just yet. Perhaps in a month or
two I will be able to, but I'm not sure.
