distributed mailing list? (Was Re: [SunRescue] Question...)

[Brian Dunbar]

>I used to work on a project (DoD) that actually did that.  We sent and 
received HUGE amounts of database updates via uuencoded email.

The dilbert you are describing came out on a Sunday while I was assigned to 
the project.  It's STILL framed and hanging in my office.<

I suddenly remembered why that triggered a bell.  We had an app in the
Marines (early '90s) that would take message traffic and distribute it via
the (banyan) LAN to staff mailboxes in the command element.  Good only for
unclas traffic, but much better than sending joe marine up to the message
center every damn morning just for routine bs.  Not in the same league as
-database- updates via email, but, given the networks we had to work with,
not too bad either.

Thing was, the message center guys probably hated it.  The message traffic
came off the radio onto punch tape.  Some poor sole had to feed the tape
into a reader, which formatted the messages via *another* program and then
the mail system took over.  Some morning there were heaps and heaps of used
strings of punched tape all OVER the place.  My gawd, what a kludge it seems
now.

brian