On 7/24/2018 9:21 PM, Bald Eagle wrote:
> Chris Cason <del### [at] deletethistoopovrayorg> wrote:
> 
>> I try not to touch that code too much as it's legacy (though it works
>> currently of course) and wasn't written by me. I do fix things from time
>> to time if it's important, but at some point we will have to face
>> changing it completely. The NNTP server we are using is a long
>> discontinued commercial product and I don't feel confident that it will
>> still work (or even be re-installable) when this server is finally
>> retired (the hardware is over ten years old now).
> 
> Just out of curiosity, what type of machine is it running on?
> You're in Australia, correct?
> 
> 
>> What I'm saying basically is that when this machine eventually has to be
>> replaced and I replace the OS and everything with shiny new bits, it's
>> likely the NNTP server will not be part of it and we'll migrate
>> everything to some sort of standard forum software (or just keep the
>> existing one without the NNTP link).
> 
> What would you like to replace it with?   What would be the cost?
> Also - how is the server and the electrical cost financed?
> 
> I'm asking because we routinely get retired equipment in at work - everything
> from loose memory sticks to entire server racks and all the goodies inside.  I
> doubt shipping to the other side of the globe is cost-effective, but maybe
> something could be set up on this side of the sphere{}.
> I'd certainly love to set up something more than a laptop to run something
> massively CPU and memory intensive on.
> 
> 
> 
> Perhaps something to consider for the future is for some of the POV-Ray
> development and newsgroup operating costs could be financed with paid accounts,
> and access to a server / cloud for intensive supercomputer-level rendering.
> 
> 8 Xeon processors and 256 GB of memory might just make that thing you've been
> wanting to render for the last 5 years feasible....   ;)
> Not to mention we have Mr. Balaska.  {cough} #hardcorerenderjunkie {cough}
> 
> I really am just curious about the behind-the-scenes info.
> 
> 

If he's starting over from scratch, he could set up a virtual server in 
the cloud. Then he wouldn't need to worry about hardware failure. And if 
someone were to take over his job, all that person would need is a login 
versus the machine itself.


Mike

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