What happened to the stats?

[NeoGen]

They stopped updating on December 30th.

[Mystwalker]

Perhaps problems with the new year?

btw.:
Is there a reason why there is no DNS entry for nfsnet.org (without "www.")?

[Wacky]

Originally Posted by Mystwalker

Is there a reason why there is no DNS entry for nfsnet.org (without "www.")?

[SOAPBOX]
Because "nfsnet.org" is a domain and not a host.

URLs refer to hosts.

I don't understand why so many people assume that the Internet is a web of http speaking sites.

I have an email address "…@nfsnet.org" that works only because there is a provision for "MX" records in the DNS system. If there were also a provision for "WWW" records, or similar records for other services, I might accept the idea that you have a default server assigned to that service at the domain level. But why should http be the only service that commandeers the domain name to use it as if it were a host? I think that VOIP might be a better candidate, if you think that there must be a default host for the domain. And, in all the domains that I administer, the host that provides http service for www.domain.tld does not provide those other services.
[/SOAPBOX]

As for the stats updates, we occasionally run into problems when garbage gets into the stats data. When that happens, the updates to the website are postponed until the problem is manually corrected. I'll get Don to take a look at the problem and, hopefully, get the stats running again.

Richard

[Jushi]

Everything looks OK now, thanks!

By the way: I hope that no data is lost by this "garbage". I wouldn't like it if some of my computations were wasted this way.

[Mystwalker]

Originally Posted by Wacky

Because "nfsnet.org" is a domain and not a host.

I'm totally aware of that.

I don't understand why so many people assume that the Internet is a web of http speaking sites.

But why should http be the only service that commandeers the domain name to use it as if it were a host?

For a lot of domains serving browsable web pages via HTTP, this is the main duty. If it is not, I can understand that the subdomain "www" needn't be the default subdomain. But I'm quite confident that the subdomain that gets manually entered of most websites I navigate to mostly is "www". Hence, it is most efficient to handle it as default in those situations.

One could require that every browsable content has to be on the host of the www subdomain, so that browsers can automatically add it to the entered URL, but I don't think that would work...

I think that VOIP might be a better candidate, if you think that there must be a default host for the domain.

VoIP? I'm not sure whether that's the most often used service (with manually entered address) of a domain nowadays...


But if you think there were more important services for nfsnet.org than getting browsed, then go ahead, I won't hinder you.
It's just that I find it a bit impolite to force the visitor to always enter the subdomain, whereas it's quite common not to have to...

[Wacky]

Originally Posted by Jushi

Everything looks OK now, thanks!

It looks as if Don has gotten in there and cleared the problem.

Thanks, Don.

By the way: I hope that no data is lost by this "garbage". I wouldn't like it if some of my computations were wasted this way.

We sometimes lose a few relations because of communications problems. However, most of the time we are able to salvage almost all of the work.

The collection of relations and the posting of stats are handled by two separate data streams that are derived from the results submitted.

When a problem occurs, it is usually just one submission from one participant that has trouble. But, until it is straightened out, the stats generator has suspended operations to avoid posting some very bogus stats. After Don isolates the problem, he reruns those stats and the good values overwrite anything from the previous processing of the file that had a problem.

[xilman]

Originally Posted by Wacky

I don't understand why so many people assume that the Internet is a web of http speaking sites.

I believe I know.

It's because "so many people" use only a web browser to access other systems. To them, the web is the internet. (I mean explicit access of course. They are using many other components implicitly, such as DNS resolvers.)

Sometimes it's more effective to go with the flow than to hold on to an arguably more correct but outdated model. I have something of a reputation as a pedant in linguistic matters, but even I do not use the English second person singular except in jest or when reciting literature which uses it. That said, my maternal grandparents used "thee" and "thou" in everyday speech, and there are doubtless native English speakers who still do.


Paul

[Mystwalker]

Re-reading my posting, I realize that it could sound harsher than I meant it to be.
It's just that I find it annoying to enter "www."...

Over the day, I thought of something similar to Paul's "Sometimes it's more effective to go with the flow than to hold on to an arguably more correct but outdated model." - I didn't find such good words, though.