Frequently Zephyred Questions...

This document is a collection of questions which appear frequently on and in the context of zephyr, in the opinion of the submitters. The questions are roughly organized by category, and most have answers.

Send better answers and/or more questions to sprite@cs.cmu.edu.

...concerning zephyr itself.

This page contains questions that concern zephyr and the CMU CS zephyr culture.

What is this zephyr thing anyway?

If you aren't familiar with sending and receiving zephyrs, check out the following:

• Intro to Zephyr, how to get started using zephyr via emacs. (This is the most introductory part of the FZQ.)
• the SCS Intro to the Zephyr Notification Service (11/97) and running in (emacs) Zephyr Mode (8/97)
• the zephyr.el page
• also, instructions on how to use zephyr.el ought to be available in "Sample Setups" under the CMU-Help menu of your [lx]emacs.
• If you're adamantly not the emacs type, Zephyr - the fastest way to talk on campus is a decent introduction. Some parts may be outdated.
• Getting a jump-start from someone (e.g. an officemate) is also an option.
• You might also be interested in the introductory document to zephyr at MIT, where it originated. (Its use is somewhat different here, so this document is best used for entertainment.)
• all-new! all-different! jzephyr (java zephyr) - try it out and let honus@cs know how you like it.

If you are new to the local zephyr culture, read spot's Local Zephyr Instances page to get a handle on what instances are used for what, then come back here. You may also want to read the practically-nonexistent companion to the FZQ, the zephyr etiquette page. Or, for an effort-free preview of life on zephyr, you can skim a piece of the zephyr logs.

Getting started

I'm kinda nervous about posting for the first time -- what should I do?

Dive on in. People on zephyr are reasonably gentle to newbies. Usually. :-)

Er, but how do I "dive on in"?

Best answer: See the section above, "What is this zephyr thing anyway?", and/or the most introductory part of the FZQ, Intro to Zephyr.
Shortest answer: If you're using xemacs and just want to know "what do I add to my .emacs file??", add these lines

(load "sample-setups/zephyr-setup")	
(zephyr-personal)
(zephyr-nonpersonal)

- 21 Aug 1998
If you want to find zephyr-setup.el and look at it, try
/usr/local/lib/xemacs/lisp/local-pkgs/sample-setups
/usr/local/lib/xemacs/site-packages/lisp/sample-setups/
or
/afs/cs/misc/xemacs/src/xemacs-20.4/lisp/local-pkgs/sample-setups/
...or in your emacs try (locate-library "sample-setups")
- 28 Nov 2001
Some people want me to warn you about the Scary Zephyr People. Whatever. Here is my skewed perspective: in the steady-state, "everyone" on zephyr has known everyone else for A While (some for far far longer than they care to admit), and they have in-jokes and cryptic abbreviations and they go out to dinner together on Wednesdays and they argue continually and often seem to insult or make fun of each other; and (this is the key point) they forget to resume normal polite conversational behavior when confronted with New People. They would like you to be one of the gang too. And so they will probably treat you like one of the gang, which might be disconcerting until you too forget what is normal polite conversational behavior.
- 22 Aug 2001

Why should I read zephyr?

Zephyr can be helpful if taken in moderation. It embodies the collective wisdom (and silliness and willy-waving, q.v.) of scads of brilliant minds, some of whom are willing to answer questions and a few of whom actually know the answers. Note that, while the help instance is for getting help, "too-easy" questions are deprecated.

Why shouldn't I read zephyr?

Zephyr can be a fantastic and insidious time sink. Many of us say to ourselves "I can quit any time!" but get the shakes after only a few hours away from it. Some people linger on zephyr for years after graduation.

Does anyone know if there is a good citation for zephyr? I want to reference it in a paper.

from /afs/cs/misc/zephyr/src/zephyr-048/048/zephyr-2.0.2/doc/progman/bibliography.tex :

\bibitem{zephyr-design} DellaFera, C. Anthony, {\em et al.\/} {\em
Zephyr Notification Service.\/}  MIT Project Athena Technical Plan,
section E.4.1.

maybe better to cite this: ftp://athena-dist.mit.edu/pub/ATHENA/zephyr/OLD/doc/usenix.ps
- 18 Sep 1998

What minimal zephyr instances should I subscribe to? What are other useful instances?

See spot's Local Zephyr Instances.
[Aug 2001 update: You can be notified of Wednesday dinner trips without using zephyr. Here's how.]

How can I use zephyr without it taking too much time or attention from my true work?

Query the zarchive server when you need to read. Or, use /afs/cs/user/rochberg/src/lisp/zqueue.el. When sending zephyrs don't forget to tag the instance with some indication that you are not reading in realtime, e.g. append ".delayed.landay-style".

What if I want to talk to someone less virtually?

Oh, you throwback. Use 'phone' (phone help, phone <user>), or 'csd' (man csd, csd <user>) or 'finger' (most people have useful .plan files) to get a phone number or office number. Also, "man phones" for a short guide to the CMU phone system.

I asked a question on the help instance, and someone told me to check the...

zephyr log, facilities documentation, man page. This means that your question has been answered before on a logged instance or is answered in standard documentation. These are good places to check before zephyring.

Is an answer starting with "Ummm..." or "Uh..." necessarily meant to be condescending ("You dolt, ...")?

No. The true interpretation depends on who said it. It probably means one of: "I'm not sure of this answer, but since no one's said anything: foo" or "It seems to me that the obvious answer is: foo---but I may not have understood your question correctly." or, from a few people, "You dolt ...".

I got flamed on zephyr. Should I crawl under a rock?

No. Remember that zephyr is a medium of extremely limited expression; figuring out how seriously someone meant a flame is an acquired skill. Zephyr etiquette does not dictate whether to swallow intentional flames or flame back, but either is preferred to crawling under a rock.

Above section was last updated 8 Oct 1996 unless otherwise noted.

Culture

X and Y really lay into each other on zephyr, but then I see them getting drunk together at TG's. Why?

Because they like to argue. Don't take zephyr too seriously.

That's all very well for you to say. By X, I mean a particular person whose name starts with G and ends with usciora, and by Y, I mean that I am ignoring or yowifying him, but other people keep having unpleasant conversations with him, of which I see one side. Can't we just kick him off? Or convince him to act the way I want him to?

We have had this discussion before. There were several points made the last time that perhaps I should note:

• First, for anyone who doesn't know, it is dead easy to ignore or yowify any zephyr sender you personally dislike (see below), or any instance on which a conversation you dislike is occurring. It takes a little effort, but so does responding to bait. However, you may or may not find the result sufficient.
• Some people feel that not acting against him is an implicit declaration that his behavior is acceptable to all, or that being told to "oh, just ignore him" is insulting.
• There also exist people on zephyr who do not find all of his conversations to be entirely without merit.
• Many of us are also, each in our own special way, annoying or scary to newcomers.
• Kicking anyone off zephyr, even if everyone agrees that the boot-ee "deserves" it (not currently the case), will set a disturbing precedent, some say.
• Does unacceptable zephyr behavior exist? Some say yes and some say no. Some say yes and no, just to cover all the bases. (Actually most people say yes but probably don't agree on the line or the appropriate action to take.)
• Some say that zephyr is not about "positive contribution", though often positive contributions are made on zephyr.
• You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make a silk purse out of a metaphor.
• finally: If zpeople really are hurting/offending you, try to make it clear.. with the assumption that they didn't intend to (i.e. "hey, asshole, that offended me" is about as useful as "have you stopped beating your spouse?")

In short: There appears to be no consensus on any point. At least one person intends to "leave" if the status quo continues. At least one person intends to "leave" if anyone is banned. Person X has no stated intention of changing. Me, I think I am trapped in a Cherryh novel with three or four other kinds of aliens (if you agree you should join the club).
- 24 Oct 2000
Somewhat independent of the above (since, I think, it actually was "status quo" at the time):
It's worth noting that person X has "been behaving" of his own volition for several months. I haven't paid attention to the precise rules under which he now operates, but something like "no personal attacks except in retaliation"; so if you like to argue, to maintain civility make sure you don't initiate any name-calling. (Observation suggests that this is more challenging than one might expect. Heh.)
- 7 Feb 2001

What does ".d" mean on an instance name?

As a discussion veers from the original topic, the instance should collect ".d"s proportional to its irrelevance. See Local Zephyr Instances.

When is it ok to zephyr to facilities.discussion? facilities.announce?

See Local Zephyr Instances. Note that facilities.discussion has mutated and is now used only to talk about current problems (aliens landed and stole a server, a backhoe just took out access from cmu to the rest of the planet, etc.)

Is swearing acceptable on zephyr?

"Fuck yes."

Which instances shouldn't I say "fuck" on? Or, which instances are *not* archived for posterity, and hence are safe to say "fuck" on without your future voters knowing about it?

For your convenience in swearing, graffiti is not permanently logged. (A week's worth of graffiti is in the zarchive; any graffiti older than a week disappears.)
NEW: henceforth, zgrams on instances starting with the characters "ephemera" will not be logged. send comments to zarchive@cs. (ephemera is not logged at all.)
- 8 Mar 2001

What is anonymoose, and how can I use it?

It is a way to send zephyrs anonymously. You can use it by sending a zephyr to the user "zbot" on the instance "anon.foo.bar" or "anon-foo.bar", where "foo.bar" is the instance where you want the anonymous zephyr to appear. For example, in emacs

 zbot(anon.mumble)::
 test
      

will appear as

 anonymoose(mumble):: [14:22:38]
 test
      

In zwgc you would use 'zwrite zbot -i "anon.mumble"'.
- 28 Aug 1997
You can also numerically identify your moose by sending to "zbot(anonNUMBER.instance)"... then you will be anonymooseNUMBER
- 3 Apr 1998

``can we turn off the anonymoose yet?''

``Jesus, how many times do we have to go through this discussion? Apparently this needs to go into the FAQ. The answer is "no"''
Some people are annoyed by pointless use of the moose, and don't think it really needs to exist. When this point comes up, some other people point out times when it has enabled rather delicate discussions. Most often it *is* just used to make stupid remarks, which most everyone would like to discourage.
- 13 Aug 1998

What is -L18 (and why isn't the confession booth labeled by it?)

This is a reference to censorship stuff and is now used somewhat facetiously on zephyr to indicate Things What Minors Oughtn't Read, e.g. "Fuck yes."

Does my advisor really read zephyr? Which faculty members read zephyr?

Maybe. Some read and write.. you can check the archive for specific names, e.g. your advisor, if I haven't got around to making a list yet.
- 10 Oct 1996

My advisor wants to read zephyr -- what should I tell him/her?

You could point him/her at some introductory document. Which document depends on whether you approve of this idea or not. (Sorry, I don't know of an Obfuscated Zephyr doc.)
- 10 Oct 1996

What is a bot / zbot?

A program that sends zephyrs, periodically (fortune, zippy) or in response to some subset of zephyrs (rtfm, cube). A listing of some bots is available from

 zwrite -i service-query -m ""
      

What does SDDD mean?

Sucks dead donkey dick. This is an instance for brief yet bitter complaints, e.g. about frame or LaTeX.
"!sddd", of course, is for things that don't sddd.

Is it reasonable to ...

See zephyr etiquette. Not that it exists or anything. Or assume the lotus position and contemplate the Reasonable Person Principle.

What is this really bizarre instance <your-bizarre-instance-here> for?

See below for: cube, infobot.
- 14 Apr 1998

Does the "chat" instance have any significance beyond zephyr? Do chat posts get grokked by some daemon somewhere?

Depending on who you talk to..

• "The "chat.*" posts are used as input to a NLP project that that parser guy is running. ... we do the guy a favour by providing him with more-or-less correct examples of modern colloquial English. Nothing more."
• (in reality) "It's just like "graffiti", only logged." Useful for graffiti-esque discussions that you don't feel a need to have non-logged.

- 8 Apr 1997

what is "filk"? a dirty word?

http://www.hooked.net/~kirib/filkfaq.html
- 6 May 1997

What is q-encoding? How do I do it?

q-encoding is the usual zephyr way to encode "spoilers" (like rot13 in news.) You alternate q's in words like this: qTqhqiqsq qiqsq qaq qpqlqoqtq qsquqmqmqaqrqyq. (Some people also capitalize Q before a capital letter.)

Summary:
  encode:           M-% RET q RET !
  lossy decode:     M-% q RET RET !
  non-lossy decode: M-% q\(.\) RET \1 RET !
                or: M-% \(.\)q RET \1 RET !
  depending on the sender.
Note: M-% has been rebound to query-replace-regexp.
      

- 13 Nov 1997
zephyr-q-decode-this-zephyr from ~mthomas/elisp/zephyr-rot.el
- 2 Dec 1998

I want to buck the q-encoding trend and use rot13 instead. What are my options?

Depending on your emacs, M-x rot13-other-window
(Just make sure to C-x 0 the right one...) rot13-other-window has some niceness to it, since it rot13's the whole buffer by changing the display-table (basically, it makes a window that does rot13 magically on whatever buffer it's viewing.) If you don't have it, "M-x load-library rot13" might or might not help.
or

 M-x load-file /afs/cs/user/mthomas/elisp/zephyr-rot.el
M-x zephyr-rot13-this-zephyr

or you might prefer to create ~/bin/rot13:

 #!/bin/sh
 tr a-zN-ZA-M n-za-mA-Z

Also, `M-x toggle-rot13-mode' works by default on "pure" emacsen. It does the whole buffer, but very fast.
- 16 Nov 1998

What does "eit" mean?

source: mit
- 16 Apr 1998

What does "IHNPH, IJLS" mean? What does "I,I" mean?

These are abbreviations for "I have no point here, I just like saying." You may also see IHNJH (s/point/joke/). Other acronym sightings include (usually sarcastic) "HTH, HAND" -- hope this helps. have a nice day -- and (sometimes sarcastic) "ITYM foo" -- I think you mean 'foo'.
source: usenet
- 16 Apr 1998

What is "rfw"?

Radio Free Wean.
To find out what is currently playing, subscribe to the "rfw" class.
- 26 Feb 1999

What is "tts"?

Text To Speech.
To find out where it is currently streaming, subscribe to the "rfw" class.
- 11 Dec 2000

What's with these people who send zephyrs composed solely of WRONG or STALE?

This is just their little shorthand system. Do not take it personally. (STALE is usually seen when someone sends a news url that was already sent earlier.. You can translate WRONG as "I would tend to disagree with that.")
Some other people would like to see a trend away from this sort of abrupt "speech", in favor of more artistic and subtle invective. Consider the following semipoetic form found on instance sddd.

dear <application>,
<I do indeed mind your abject and utter failure to perform in a
reasonable and sensible way.>
love,
<me>
      

And remember that haiku are always in season.
- 11 May 1998

What does "Ob<Foo>" mean?

"Obligatory Foo" originally from rec.humor years ago (right?)... people making a non-joke post would include an "obligatory joke" at the end of their post so as not to annoy people who wanted all posts to be humorous. these jokes came to be labelled "ObJoke".
- 14 May 1998

What is a "kurl"?

A kurl is a URL (the "k" is because they're usually zephyred by kosak) sent with intent to shock any unsuspecting zephyr denizen who actually follows it. I would describe an example, but I'm not unsuspecting (one suggested heuristic is "at least 80% of photo content is flesh-colored".)
- 18 Aug 1999

So-and-so works at McDonalds? I'm confused.

It's spelled McDonalds, but it's pronounced g o o g l e.
- 19 Mar 2001

Above section was last updated 8 Oct 1996 unless otherwise noted.

Mechanics

Notification of mail delivery

To get a zephyr when new mail arrives, put this in your .maildelivery:

 *    -    pipe    R    "/usr/local/bin/zrcvalert $(size)"
      

Non-notification of spam?

"there's no need to write your own zrcvalert, unless you also want to track down what address spammers are using for you...

 default	-	pipe	R	/usr/local/bin/zrcvalert $(size)
      

has the same effect as

 *	-	pipe	?	myfunkyzrcvalert $(size)
      

where myfunkyzrcvalert returns an error (the trick is default vs *)."
- 23 Apr 1997

I just set up zephyr in emacs, how can I stop pop up windows for personal messages from occuring?

Try "zctl wg_shutdown". Or kill -HUP the "zwgc" process if you're feeling violent.
For the future, you'll also want to comment out these lines in ~/.xinitrc:

# Start up zephyr service
if [ -f /usr/local/bin/zstart ]
then
    /usr/local/bin/zstart
elif [ -f /usr/misc/.zephyr/etc/zwgc ]
then
    /usr/misc/.zephyr/etc/zwgc  &
fi
      

- 11 Sep 1997

How can I get rid of sports.* (cube.*, etc) How do I filter out those damn zbots? Why does Bennet Yee keep sending me goofy quotes? I don't even know him!

Look through the zephyr.el sample setup for ways to filter instance patterns. This is more difficult (maybe impossible) with zwgc. The goofy quotes are from the fortune bot.

I use zwgc. How can I punt instances like "randomlanguage/anotherrandomlanguage.xlate"?

blk@andrew wrote a sub that does substring matching to punt instances for zwgc.

it takes a .zephyr.vars variable, "ignore-instance"
you can put a list of instances behind it, separated by spaces
(similar to ignore-list users)
it will ignore instances containing that string. 

        /* filter of unwanted instances */
        set ignore_inst = zvar("ignore-instance")
        while ($ignore_inst != "") do
            set ignore_temp = lbreak($ignore_inst, " ")
            set dummy = lany($ignore_inst, " ")
            if ($ignore_temp == "") then
                set ignore_temp = lbreak($ignore_inst, "\n")
            endif
            if ($instance =~ $ignore_temp) then
                exit
            endif
        endwhile

- 29 Jun 2000

Why is it a really bad idea to send to message instance PERSONAL? (i.e. class = message, instance = PERSONAL.)

Some people's zephyr setups can't distinguish between broadcast zephyrgrams on the "PERSONAL" instance and real person-to-person zgrams. They will get confused or annoyed when they see your apparently-personal zgram.
- 10 Oct 1996
Also, regardless of the class you are on, it is a good idea for the instance to indicate the topic of your thread (or at least to start out that way). If you don't have a topic per se, just use instance "chat" or "graffiti". If you just use "PERSONAL" instead, basically people will think you are clueless.
- 14 Jun 2000

How do I send to an instance with a colon (:) in it? like "foo:bar"

use message:foo:bar as your instance (that specifies that you are sending to the class "message" and not to the class "foo".
- 21 Apr 1999

How do I turn off all the PINGs in my minibuffer when I use zephyr mode? Also, can I disable the "received <foo> zgram from <bar>" notices for broadcast (non-personal) zgrams?

To do both, try this:

; to disable both pings and non-personal notification
(setq zephyr-notify-with-message-p 'bovik::znotify-p)
(defun bovik::znotify-p (msg)
  (let ((is-ping (string-equal "PING" 
                  (zephyr-make-string (cdr (assq 'opcode msg)))))
	(is-personal  (zephyr-personal-msg-p msg)))
    (and is-personal (not is-ping))))

- 26 Oct 1998
If you just want to disable the messages for broadcast zgrams, you can do this:

(setq zephyr-notify-with-message-p 'zephyr-personal-msg-p)

Adding ((opcode . "PING") nil) to zephyr-filters is another way of getting rid of pings, as long you don't want personal pings.
- 23 Jun 1999

How can I make zephyr.el refuse to send empty zephyrs?

(setq zephyr-warn-empty-message t)
- 28 Oct 1996

I'd like to kill the following bot. Any opposed?

  Warning: you just broadcast a zephyrgram on instance
  "sprite", which is a userid.  (This is a recording.)
   [Send any comments on this service to zarchive.]

you can be added to its list of "people I should never warn". (send mail to zarchive.)
(The purpose of the bot is to prevent embarassment, except that it doesn't, being retroactive, so it's actually to notify you of embarassment.)
- 13 Apr 1999

What do I load to make zephyr.el include zephyr faces? How do I publish my face?

Look at /afs/cs/user/andrzej/emacs/zface.el[c]; once you have loaded it, you do "M-x zf::enable-faces" to activate face support. You can put your face in your AFS home directory as .zface.xpm , .face.gif , or .face ; zface caches images, so if you are already running it use "M-x zf::flush-cache" to make it find your new face.
If you prefer the Digital Face Board faces, you can use those instead:

 (setq zf::face-sources '(server))
      

- 10 Feb 1997

instead of zephyr faces, I just get [?] what's that mean?

means the face conversion is probably failing. if you're using a linux machine, probably because netpbm stuff isn't installed. it's a package of image-conversion utilities.

  mkdir /mnt/redhat
  mount -o intr i.gp.cs.cmu.edu:/home/mirror /mnt/redhat
  rpm -Uvh /mnt/redhat/redhat-4.2/i386/RedHat/RPMS/netpbm-1mar1994-15.i386.rpm

- 18 Sep 1998

ooh, now that I'm running xemacs 19.15 I can see those automatic smiley emoticons. How do I enable them again? :-)

M-x load-library zephyr-smiley
or alternatively,
(require 'zephyr-smiley)
- 26 Oct 1998

What does this mean: "Someone at host [your host] tried an unauthorized change to your login information" ?

"That zephyr message is actually telling you that your client (zwgc, or whatever) tried to update the location db using an "invalid" ticket. This could be an expired kerberos ticket, or it could simply be a "different" ticket than the one the zephyr server expects to see from that client. One simple way this can happen is if you start zwgc, run for a while, then kinit again. The new kinit will get you a new TGT. The next time to zwrite or whatever, it will get you a new zephyr ticket, which won't match the one zwgc is using."

Why do I sometimes see zephyrs repeated minutes or hours later, with the original date in the header? It is usually followed by a zephyr to the sddd instance, with the text "sun4_413.zhm--".

Short answer: It's a Bug (as opposed to the sender hitting ^C^C in the wrong emacs window, which is a Feature.) There is a fix.
Long answer: The zhm (Zephyr Host Manager) program runs on your workstation and acts as an intermediary between your zephyr client and the zephyr servers when you send zgrams. It takes care of retransmitting the message after a timeout if the server hasn't acknowledged it. An old version of zhm has a bug under SunOS that causes it to forget to retransmit the zgram until some point in the future when it gets jolted into action, usually by another outgoing zgram. The current version does not have this bug, so maybe I can remove this question and answer soon.
- 31 Jan 1997

When using 'zlocate' on myself, I see an extra entry from a previous login. How do I get rid of it?

Try doing 'zctl flush_locs' and then restart your zephyr clients.
- 28 Jan 1997

Anyone know if zephyr runs on macos? Wasn't pdinda working on something?

"There's a macos client. I think I decided that it sucked when I first used it, but I can't remember why at the moment." "the MacOS client kinda sucks and is fairly buggy... I could never get it to work reliably without crashing a lot."
pdinda: "There is a non-pdinda macos client. It kind of sucks. I wrote a zephyr proxy in hopes of doing a windows zephyr, but I never found the time to do the windows hacking. Anyone?"
- 13 May 1997

How do I change my zephyr personal name [signature] to some other clever thing, like an anagram of it?

emacs: (setq zephyr-signature "clever anagram")
zwgc: zctl set zwrite-signature "clever anagram"
zwgc this-time-only: zwrite -i test -s "clever anagram"
- 25 Jun 1997

Does anyone have a zephyr-randomize-signature-and-send-and-compose function, or at least something close?

check out magus-zephyr-change-zephyr-sig in /afs/cs/user/magus/lib/emacs/magus-zephyr.el
- 7 Sep 1999

Can zephyrs arrive out of order?

Yes, out-of-order delivery is not uncommon.
- 28 Aug 1997

My zephyr died, what do I do? restart emacs?

(1) C-c C-r should restart zephyr in XEmacs
(2) If that doesn't work, restart the zephyr host manager by typing zstart -h at a shell prompt, then try (1) again
(3) If that doesn't work, find the tzc process (via ps), kill it, and then try (1) again
If nothing works, the servers might be down. You will have to use phone or in-person communication techniques.
- 5 Sep 1997

Hi, does anyone knows how to set up zephyr in NT? Thanks.

Two options:

1. zephyr-remote
2. run zephyr-mode inside an Emacs, running via X or in curses mode inside a telnet/teraterm window

of course you could also run an X server and do zwgc, if you like that
- 6 Mar 1998
"I have been using the eXceed X server on my NT box and using it as a display server for a Sun host. I then run zephyr on the Sun (through emacs) with the display set to my NT box's display. I've been doing this for a couple of years now and this setup seems to work quite well for me (though it is not recommended if you're concerned about finishing the Ph.D. program quickly :-)"
"If you are using a dialup to CMU, or you aren't worried about your kerberos password going out in the clear, or you have ssh on your NT machine, you might want to consider an NTEmacs/zephyr.el/zephyr-remote.el combination."
also, mja@cs posted "Computing Services is working on a NT Zephyr port. Send me mail if you are interested in helping to test this and I can provide further details."
- 23 Sep 1998

Emacs has started beeping at me on every incoming zephyr. How do I stop this?

things to try:
what's your zephyr-lazy-beep-time ? try evaluating it from your *zephyr* buffer.
you might like (setq zephyr-beep-personal-only 't)
restart your emacs? [semi-serious]
try (setq visible-bell 't) and see if that makes any difference.
are you sure it's this emacs doing the beeping? "aha!"
- 24 Mar 1998

Okay, what the hell is the .zephyr.subs syntax to get all instances starting with a certain string? The zctl man page is sucking me to my doom.

"IIRC, zwgc doesn't let you do that. Everyone I've talked to who uses zwgc has filters in their .desc file if they want anything except literal subscriptions."
"I don't think you can do that in your subs file; you may need to do something evil in your .zwgc.desc."
- 30 Jun 1998

What are our zephyr servers, or alternatively, how do I get zctl to tell me them?

"ps auwwwwx | grep zhm" will reveal many things. as will 'zstat'. (As it happens, they are zephyr1.srv and zephyr2.srv. Also known, to zstat, as cyan and magenta.)
- 23 Jul 1998

I think there is a problem with the zephyr logs. How should I report it?

The "new" policy is: Send email to zarchive@cs. This will result in it being fixed. (In contrast to sending a zephyr to some random instance saying "i think the zephyr archive is down", which will not result in it being fixed.)
- 2 Mar 1998

It is August 31. I entered "six months ago" as a zarchive search and I got 'Error. Your query was malformed: bad date: "six months ago"'. Should I report this?

This is an exciting but "well-known" little feature of parsedate:

 a month ago means exactly one month before the current date (not 30
days ago). On 15th March 1984, that would be 15th February 1984.

So, zarchive is unhappy because there was no 31st in last February (or in fact any other February I've encountered, but that isn't immediately relevant.) You should try e.g. "200 days ago" instead.
- 31 Aug 1999

I want to read the zephyr archives remotely. What username/password do I use?

Send a request to zarchive@cs to get a username/password for the archives.
Do not, ever, ever send your kerberos password over a connection unless you know it is secure (web forms generally are not.)
If you're muttering "bit late to be telling me this", this might be a good time to change your kerberos password (like maybe over a secure ssh session on a machine you're confident hasn't been compromised.)
- 31 Aug 1998

Usually I subscribe to all the zephyr traffic. But, there is this really gross thread on newsbites.prez today that I want to avoid.

"M-x zephyr-ignore-instance-temporarily" will keep you from seeing new zephyrs on the instance you specify. (There is an equivalent for annoying people if you replace "instance" with "sender".)
Also, if you are feeling particularly appalled, "C-c C-d" (zephyr-delete-messages-from) will delete from your buffer the zephyrs that have already arrived on the instance you specify.
- 11 Sep 1998

I know how to ignore-sender. But I would rather "REDACT" the sender.

Soon (if someone is bored enough) we may have a general zephyr-redact-sender. "you'd have an alist of users and functions to use to redact them with. that way you could use static text, some sort of filter, or random generated text or whatever."
In the meantime, see mthomas's yowifier: http://zarchive.srv.cs.cmu.edu/prog/zquery?zid=1139936
here is the multi-redacter version http://zarchive.srv.cs.cmu.edu/prog/zquery?zid=1148614
- 10 Aug 1999
(this comes up enough that I might as well include the code).
"I use this [it came from mthomas originally]"

(defun magus-zephyr-george-redact (msg)
  "Munge George Gusciora's zephyrs so that the body of the zephyr is
replaced with a harmless string."
  ;; check the sender of the zephyr; if not george, send it on;
  ;; if it is a ping, send it on
  (if (or (eq 'PING (cdr (assq 'opcode msg)))
	  (not (string= "gusciora" (cdr (assq 'sender msg)))))
      msg
    ;; otherwise, delete the print-as field and replace it with one
    ;; that contains an amusing message
    (cons (cons 'print-as (yow))
          (remassq 'print-as msg))))  
(setq zephyr-insert-hook-list
      (cons 'magus-zephyr-george-redact zephyr-insert-hook-list))

other versions also available e.g. /afs/ece/usr/allbery/.elisp/zredact.el
Dissenting opinions: "George is underappreciated. Zephyr would be much more boring without him." To turn it off again, try this:

(setq zephyr-insert-hook-list
      (delq 'magus-zephyr-george-redact zephyr-insert-hook-list))

- 22 Nov 1999

I want to do something funky, like gateway certain personal zephyrs to email. Does someone have an elementary zephyr bot that I can look at?

check out /afs/cs/user/scottd/public/zbot
(also see /afs/cs/user/pane/.zwgc.mailpersonal)
- 29 Sep 1998

gee, that zephyr has a lot of ^H^H^H (control-H) in it

someone needs to type
stty erase ^H
- 29 Sep 1998

New! jzephyr (java zephyr), if you don't want to use emacs or zwgc. How do you give it a try?

New version at http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~honus/jzephyr
grab all the jars, add them to your classpath, run something like java com.forbesfield.zephyr.client.Client zimbs4.srv.cs.cmu.edu
(where the something means adjust to do classpath however you like to do it).
Be sure to use j2se 1.4, which on CS machines is in /usr/local/libexec.j2re1.4.0_01/bin
- 3 Oct 2002

Zephyr and the web

How do I view zephyr from the web? How do I view the web from zephyr?

You can view zephyr from the web via the zephyr logs, also known as the zephyr archive or zarchive. As noted above, all instances except "graffiti.*" are archived forever; "graffiti.*" zephyrgrams are logged for 1 week only.
To report a problem with the zarchive, or to make a request (e.g. for a username/password so you can access it outside CMU), send email to zarchive@cs.
You can view the web from zephyr, sorta, using hot urls. See below.
- 8 Dec 1998

How do I use and configure hot urls? What are hot urls?

Hot urls allow you, when someone has zephyred a URL, to load it directly from your emacs zephyr buffer. The text of a hot url will highlight under the mouse. Click with middle button to load the url.
You don't have to mess with hook-lists. Just load zephyr-url and it should insert things where they belong.
You will want to configure which browser is used to view the hot url, e.g.

  (hot-url-use-netscape)

(you can see the other alternatives by typing M-x hot-url-use-[TAB].) Equivalently,

  (setq hot-url-fetch-url-function 'netscape-fetch-url)

Or use the equivalent option in the zephyr menu, but that won't persist across sessions.
If you configure hot-url to use netscape, it will indeed talk to your running netscape process and have it pop up a new window; if you would rather have it use its existing window, you can

(setq netscape-use-new-window nil)

- 23 Nov 1998
Soon, hot-urls will be cached/archived locally to save you time. See the "bumbot" entry below.
- 8 Dec 1998

This hot-url thing is great! How did I ever live without it? There wouldn't also be a way to make gnus "do the right thing" with hot news urls, would there? I don't want to use netscape news.

Until we hunt up someone who understands gnus, you may find raw-fetch-url pleasing, e.g.

(defun myveryown-fetch-url (&optional buf b e pfx url)
  (interactive)
  (if (and url (string-match "^news" url))
      (raw-fetch-url buf b e pfx url)
    (netscape-fetch-url buf b e pfx url)))
(setq hot-url-fetch-url-function 'myveryown-fetch-url)

raw-fetch-url will pop up a buffer and spew 'lynx -dump' results into it. (Really. But you must be patient.)
If you habitually have gnus running in the same emacs that your zephyrs are in, AND have an active Summary buffer, you may have a better solution in

(defun ilovegnus-fetch-url (&optional buf b e pfx url)
  (interactive)
  (if (and url (string-match "^news:" url))
      (progn 
        (unless (gnus-alive-p)
          (gnus-no-server))
        (gnus-summary-refer-article (substring url 5)))
    (netscape-fetch-url buf b e pfx url)))
(setq hot-url-fetch-url-function 'ilovegnus-fetch-url)

(You may need a gruesome-chunk-o-elisp to switch you to the Summary buffer before using gnus-summary-refer-article.)
- 23 Nov 1998 Here's another suggestion:

I am able to do (url-news "news:") with the following
setup:
(require 'url)
(require 'url-news)
(setq url-news-use-article-mode t)
(setq url-news-server "dnntp.srv.cs.cmu.edu")
   
This should be fairly easy to incorperate into the hot-url stuff.

Users of Pterodactyl Gnus will need to have a (very) slightly updated
url-news.el for this to work.

What is the bumbot?

It is short for "bumba's bot." The bumbot will fetch and archive all URLs zephyred out, so that zarchive and hot-url users can access local "snapshots" of the documents. This is interesting both for the caching/efficiency aspect and the archival aspect, e.g. for news stories that eventually disappear from their original server.
- 8 Dec 1998

So when anyone posts a URL, bumbot will download the web page at that URL and everything in that web page and store it forever? Won't this eat up lots of disk?

It currently won't make snapshots larger than 10MB. We may in the future have to do some pruning, but we don't anticipate having to remove any snapshots under 1MB, and any "text" documents should be assumed to be permanently archived. (Storing forever is a "feature". Archiving the news items will be a big win, and they're pretty short.)
- 8 Dec 1998

How do I access the bumbot snapshots from the zephyr logs?

A zephyr with a URL in it appears in the zephyr logs with the URL-text linked to the URL, wherever in the world that might be. In addition, there is now a small "camera" image immediately following the URL-text, which is linked to the local snapshot. (If no snapshot is available, there will be no image.)
To access the original document, click on the URL-text as usual. To access the bumbot snapshot, click on the little image.
- 8 Dec 1998

So I send a zephyr with a URL in it. Where does the snapshot URL come from for me to hot-url on?

hot-url will magically know how to find the snapshot. this is not your concern.
possibly-working hot-url bumbot support available.
to beta-test:

  M-x load-file RET /afs/cs/user/dkindred/tmp/bumbot-hoturl-test.el

it'll fetch snapshots by default. no bypass mechanism (to fetch the original) yet.
- 8 Dec 1998

Can I zephyr a URL and not have it snapshotted?

Yes. To tell the bot not to fetch-and-cache your URL, prefix it with a "*", as in *http://www.cnn.com/ or *file:/dev/cdrom. (The URL-text will still be clickable, and linked to the original site.)
- 8 Dec 1998

How can I send zephyrs without logging in to kerberos-land?

Get a zarchive account...

How can I send personal zephyrs to somone who is logged in to the zarchive web-zephyr stuff?

"zarchive(Z:userid)" ...send to user zarchive, instance Z:userid where userid is the userid of your intended recipient.
- 30 Oct 2002

Timesinks

What is this ++/-- business? What is plusplus inflation?

Incrementation is a virtual pat on the back for someone/thing who has been particularly helpful (or amusing), from a recipient of the help (or amusement.) Decrementing someone/thing is the inverse of this operation. There is now a bot that keeps track, which may or may not be causing people to dwell too much upon their rating and the value thereof.

Are there other operators? What does bovik~~ mean? What does "==bovik" mean? What on earth does "`,^" mean?

"~~" is an ambivalence operator (it could be considered equivalent to bovik++ bovik--). Once in a while you may see plus/minus instead of twiddle "±±".
how to make a ±... in xemacs, you can:
(load-library "x-compose") (global-set-key "\C-\M-c" compose-map)
Then "C-M-c + -".
in gnu-emacs, do C-Q M-1.
- 21 Nov 1997
"==bovik" means "yeah, I agree with what bovik said". Also, some people use "`,foo" to ask "what is the definition of foo" (and even "`,^" to ask "explain what you just said" or "what is the definition of the non-obvious word you just used".)
- 9 Jun 1998
It may interest you to know that currently "==" binds tighter than "++" (that is, "==bovik++" will plusplus "==bovik".)
- 21 Jul 1998

How do I look up my plusplus score?

You can send to the 'user' "zarchive" on instance "plusplus" to see the current ++ tally. The message body, if any, should be a regular expression matching the items you want listed. (If none, you will get a really big zephyr back.)
The plusplus bot also sends updates to the class "plusplus".
- 13 Jun 1997

Why do people send ++ messages to instances with random city/country/place names, like "botswana"?

These are ++'s to people for "services rendered" outside zephyr. "I use random cities when they do something for me not on public zephyr, but I wish to reward them. Look for the earliest instance of the 'france' instance, which is where this started."
- 21 Aug 1997

Why does plusplus show two numbers now?

On the first anniversary of the creation of the plusplus bot, it was suggested that scores should decay exponentially. The smaller number is the decaying score, which has a half-life of one year, and the larger is the raw score.
"figured it gives new arrivals some hope ... and we have a constant source of amusement in keeping 42 and pi at their natural values (42++)"
- 7 Apr 1997

How do I make a plusplus alias, e.g. foo = bar ?

send the zgram "alias foo bar" to zarchive on instance plusplus.
- 14 Apr 1998

Are there other zephyr statistics available?

See dkindred's Zephyr statistics for 8/93 through 1/97. (Unless you are someone's advisor.)
There are also some cube statistics available via zephyrbot; for zephyring directions, see the cube homepage.
For yesterday's or today's zephyr stats, see /afs/cs/user/jch/scripts/countzephyrs. Read comments for options.
- 15 Mar 1997

I'm sure there is a way to trick tfm's bot to loop on itself. How can I do this? Or, I want to write a zephyr bot. What are the ways I can really embarass myself by having it wedge into infinite loops?

Reasonable bots, including the RTFM bot, (1) ignore non-authenticated zephyrs, and (2) send only unauthenticated zephyrs. This prevents loops.

What is the cube instance for?

ghn's explanation: "It's a simulation of a toy from a Robert Silverberg novel (_Tower_of_Glass_). The story itself is about a revolt by genetically manufactured androids (a little like Blade Runner, I suppose, but a very different plot). The cube itself is a little toy that people put on the coffee table, or whatever. It listens to conversations going on around it, and responds to things by doing some sort of fuzzy match on things it is hearing on other parts of the network."
scottd's addendum: "Actually, I am hoping to add some information-retrieval hacks eventually to get some sort of correlation -- once I get a round tuit. In any case, it's certainly not intended to be anything other than a mildly surrealistic distraction."
- 27 Jan 1997

Where does cube get its supply of quotes?

Just stuff sent to instance cube. The fuzzy matching is not yet (or probably ever) implemented, though sometimes you'd think it is.
- 27 Jan 1997

What other things can I do with the cube?

See the cube homepage for all cube-related questions.
- 27 Jan 1997

How do I put a random cubism on my web page?

Use http://gs72.sp.cs.cmu.edu/cgi-bin/cube.gif:

You might like to do it like this:

<HR WIDTH = 30% SIZE = 4 NOSHADE>
<CENTER>
<A HREF = "http://gs72.sp.cs.cmu.edu/cgi-bin/cube.gif"><IMG
ALT = "Herein is a witticism"
SRC = "http://gs72.sp.cs.cmu.edu/cgi-bin/cube.gif"
BORDER = 1></A>
</CENTER>
<HR WIDTH = 30% SIZE = 4 NOSHADE>

---

---

(and remember to flush your image cache between reloads.)
- 6 May 1997
in other cube news, "Java applet that lets you whack a button like a demented little hamster to get all the cubisms you want is now at http://gs72.sp.cs.cmu.edu/CubeReader.html"
- 4 Sep 1997

I see people making "top ten" lists (many of which run longer than ten items) on zephyr frequently. Are they recorded somewhere?

Yes, here, by the topbot (when it is ordered to do so.) See that page for any topbot-related questions.
(there also exists a longer version of the top 666 list.)
- 15 Apr 1997
topbot moved?
- 4 Nov 2002

I see people making what might be a top ten list, except it doesn't make any sense, on instance "q". Huh?

This list is also being archived (when people remember to restart it, after time-outs) by the top-ten bot. Various descriptions of the "q" instance:

• Yet Another Zephyr Art-Form
• more dada, less cube[ism]
• Jackson Pollock zephyring
• not funny enough for the cube
• Once designed to stress the topten-bot and annoy scottd, the Q instance has since mutated into a cube-esque repository for randomness.

- 26 May 1998

Are there any "q" aesthetics I should know about?

It's been proposed that submissions should be noun-phrases, "since it is a top-ten list after all."
- 21 Jul 1998

How do I reopen the "q" list after it has timed-out?

Send a message to "q.topbot.reopen" with a body of "list00147".
- 2 Jun 1998

What is the "bumbot"?

See entry above.
- 8 Dec 1998

What is the "mathbot"?

There is now a mathematica bot courtesy of andrej.
If you send Mathematica code to any instance on class "MATH", a Mathematica will be fired up and give you an answer. Alternatively, you can send a private zephyr to andrej on instance "math". Instances ending in ".d" are ignored by the mathbot.
Here are some hints on how to use Mathematica:
+ Do not put a semicolon at the end of the expression, because that means "suppress output".
+ Use square brackets [ ] for function application, i.e., "Sin[Pi/6]" instead of "Sin(Pi/6)"
+ All Mathematica predefined functions and variables start with a capital letter: Sin, Solve, I, E, ...
+ To get a numerical result, use the function "N", for example, "N[Sin[Pi/6]]" and "N[Pi, 1000]"
+ You can get help on a function by typing "??FunctionName". You can even use "*" to match substring, e.g., "?*Solve*" lists all functions containing string "Solve".
- 27 Jan 1999
you can do mathbot personals to andrej(math)
- 20 Oct 2000

what is the quotebot / definebot?

The definebot listens on all instances for strings like `,[word] and then it responds to both the sender and the instance with the definition of [word].
(For example, try zephyring `,`, to the "test" instance. It will define backquote comma for you.)
To add a definition to its database, send (to any logged instance) a zephyrgram of the form:

define [word] [your new definition]

Later definitions overwrite earlier definitions. Please observe the RPP and do not engage in gratuitous ZURL-like silliness ("I'll redefine everything to "rhinoceros").
- 6 Dec 1999

What is the xlate bot?

The xlate bot does babelfish translation for you, on class xlate. You don't need to subscribe because it also sends personals. Just send on class xlate, instance "<lang1>/<lang2>/<lang3>/...". E.g. instance "english/german" will translate from english language to german.
For each language pair, one member must be english (i.e babelfish only knows how to translate x into english or english into x.)
- 19 Jun 2000
Clamoring fans have moved xlate back to class message (class xlate should still work too) for those (all too frequent) times when they want to share a result. If you do not want to be shared with, ignoring some regular expression like ".*xlate$" should work just dandy, unless you use zwgc, in which case you will have to do something more complicated.
- 26 Jun 2000

What is "tts"?

"text to speech"
Until the public lynching, which has not yet been scheduled, zephyrs sent to instance tts (or tts.<anything>) will be read aloud and streamed to any zephyrati who care to listen.
currently at http://gs73.sp.cs.cmu.edu:8900/ subject to change.
multicast should be available as well at 224.2.1.8:6677 subject to change.
(tts now announces its current location on class rfw.)
documentation at /afs/cs/user/kw/pub/zephyr-tts/tts.pdf
- 11 Dec 2000

so is someone going to write a filter for us non-tts-enabled folks to take out the tones?

untested:

(defun zephyr-strip-tts-tags (msg)
  "Do something about those silly text-to-speech tags."
  (if (eq (cdr (assq 'opcode msg)) 'PING)
      msg
    (let* ((mtxt (assq 'print-as msg))
	   (ntxt (cdr mtxt)))
      (while (string-match "\\([^`]*\\)`\\S +\\s +\\(.*\\)" ntxt)
	 (setq ntxt (concat (match-string 1 ntxt) (match-string 3 ntxt))))
      (setcdr mtxt ntxt)))
  msg)
(setq zephyr-insert-hook-list
      (cons 'zephyr-strip-tts-tags zephyr-insert-hook-list))

- 11 Dec 2000

Do I have to do anything special in emacs buffer to send to class "foo", instance "some-random-instance"?

just use (foo:some-random-instance)
- 18 Feb 1997

How do I subscribe to a zephyr class (other than "message")?

  zwgc:           zctl add foo '*' '*'
  zwgc under AIX: zctl add foo '*' '*@CS.CMU.EDU'
  emacs zephyr-mode:  
    put this in .emacs before the point where zephyr gets started:

  (setq zephyr-extra-subscriptions
         (cons '("foo" "*" "*")
	  (and (boundp 'zephyr-extra-subscriptions)
	       zephyr-extra-subscriptions)))

  To temporarily subscribe to it in the current emacs session, do
    M-x zephyr-add-class-and-restart
  and answer the prompts, "foo", "*", and "CS.CMU.EDU".
      

- 18 Feb 1997

I did that add-class-and-restart but now I want to undo it without exiting xemacs. How do I UNSUBSCRIBE from a class?

There isn't a zephyr-remove-class-and-restart in the default zephyr-setup. You can evaluate this in elisp buffer (or add it to your zephyr-setup.el) and then do M-x zephyr-remove-class-and-restart

 (defun zephyr-remove-class-and-restart (class instance realm)
  "Remove (CLASS INSTANCE \"*@REALM\") from zephyr-extra-subscriptions,
and restart tzc (instance \"*\" is wildcard)."
  (interactive 
   (list
     (read-from-minibuffer "Stop listening to which class? [MESSAGE] ")
     (read-from-minibuffer "Which instance? [*] ")
     (read-from-minibuffer 
      (format "Which realm? [%s] " zephyr-realm))))
  (let ((class    (if (string-equal class "")
		      "MESSAGE"
		    class))
	(instance (if (string-equal instance "")
		      "*" 
		    instance))
	(realm    (if (string-equal realm "")
		      zephyr-realm
		    realm))
	(subs     zephyr-extra-subscriptions))
    (setq zephyr-extra-subscriptions nil)
    (while subs
      (if (and (string= (upcase (car (car subs))) (upcase class))
	       (string= (car (cdr (car subs))) instance)
	       (string= (car (cdr (cdr (car subs)))) (concat "*@" realm)))
	  ()
	(setq zephyr-extra-subscriptions
	      (cons (car subs) zephyr-extra-subscriptions)))
      (setq subs (cdr subs)))
    (message "Restarting receiver...")
    (zephyr-restart-receiver)))

- 12 Sep 2001

How do I subscribe to a class and segregate all of its messages in a new emacs buffer?

M-x load-file RET /afs/cs/user/dkindred/emacs/zephyr-add-class-new-buffer.el
M-x zephyr-add-class-new-buffer
- 14 Sep 2002

How do I join the cool crowd on the "global" class?

The "global" class is a space open to 'local' people and to people in the MIT zephyr realm. If it develops a culture of its own, we will document it in the fzq (or maybe put it in the sterilizer). Follow the instructions above to subscribe and send to that class.
(note also that we can "see" the MIT zephyr realm now too. instructions for that are the same as for andrew zephyr, below; I will not try to document their culture here.)
- 14 Jun 2000

CS zephyr is not enough of a waste of my time. How can I listen to andrew zephyr also?

I don't remember how to do it in zwgc. In emacs zephyr, do "M-x zephyr-add-class-and-restart". To listen to andrew *,* you want the default class [MESSAGE], then the default instance [*], then "andrew.cmu.edu" instead of the default "cs.cmu.edu". To listen to some specific class/instance, substitute it for the default(s).
- 11 Mar 1997

CS zephyr is not enough of a waste of my time. How can I listen to the "wayback" stream of zephyr from a year ago today?

Subscribe to class wayback-1 (or wayback-nyears where nyears is 1 to 9).
- 14 Sep 2002

How do I send personal zephyr to someone in andyland?

send to bovik@ANDREW, where bovik is your someone. (lowercase andrew works too with newer zephyr clients.)
- 9 Dec 1997

What is Gale?

Something Zephyr-like as you might guess from the name. TCP-based, public-key-based encryption/signing. See http://www.ofb.net/~egnor/gale.
"gale<->zephyr gateway exists; you just have to subscribe to class GALE."
- 23 Sep 1997
Don't know if the gale-zephyr gateway is still around or removed from lack of interest.

So what are the useful "instances" on gale?

"finger gale@ugcs.caltech.edu and translate pub/* to class gale, inst *" i.e. * is something like

   comp/             Technical computer-related issues only
   meow/             Cute kitties, awwwwww
   rfc/              Gale category discussions
   nois{e,y}/        random mutterings.
      griping/       ...about stuff that sucks.
   me/                   Personal life, etc.
      

It looks to me like '/' is their separator of choice (where we would use '.')
- 24 Sep 1997

I hear there is a new gateway to UCSD?

"Hi all. I've set up a zephyr gateway between CMU and UCSD, so that all zephyr messages with instance names starting with "gw." will be forwarded. This was discuss on zephyr itself and people seem to think this is reasonable safe, so that people won't accidentally have their zgrams forwarded to people they don't know. (Andrew people can already listen in, but at least they're local to CMU.)
My purpose in setting this up is to try to bootstrap the mutual-help culture here / community building. We'll see. (I'm hoping for more mutual-help than flamage, anyway.) I'm posting to make sure that this is archived somewhere other than the zephyr archives, and that everybody in the CMUCS community knows what's going on. If there are serious objections to this gateway, please let me know.
-bsy"
- 4 Mar 1998
(this was tried for a little while, then removed.)

What is this opinion bboard and why is it so dead? Zephyr really killed it?

One zephyrer's opinion: "The big myth is that zephyr killed opinion bboard. Don't believe it. Opinion died long before zephyr. And, I could resurrect it in a week if I wanted to."

"What is this bit about waiving weanies?" (or willy-waving)

Some zephyr discussions could be reduced to the repeated statement "my willy is longer than yours". This is willy-waving. (Note that participants need not actually have one to wave it.)

"Woof?"

Oliver's Woofing Theorem (bnoble's paraphrase):

Take two opposing views.  Let "woofing by W" be the sum total of
bragging and factless assertion undertaken by proponents of view W.
Then it is true that:
MAX(W_1,W_2) is sure to lose.

That is, if you gloat that <sports team of your choice> will win some upcoming event, you have uttered a woof and angered the Woofing God[s], who will probably see to it that the team in question loses. Unless, of course, the opposition has been even more flagrant in their gloating.
- 10 Oct 1996

When is the first day of the next [Mayan] epoch?

Dec 23 2012
- 13 Mar 1997

Above section was last updated 8 Oct 1996 unless otherwise noted.

service-query

The following answers are available from:

zwrite -i service-query -m ""

(class, instance, recipient)

MESSAGE, plusplus, zarchive

Send to "zarchive" on instance "plusplus" to see the current ++ tally. The message body, if any, should be a regular expression matching the items you want listed, or "top N" or "bottom N" where N is an integer. You can also send "alias foo bar" or "unalias foo" commands to create and destroy plusplus aliases. Play nice.

MESSAGE, zephyr-history, zarchive

body: a query as specified in http://zarchive/zarchive/zlog-details.html#query
You will be sent a copy of all zephyrs arriving since 6am that match your query. The response will be sent to you personally, on the "zephyr-history-response" instance. To retrieve zephyrs arriving since some time, append, e.g., "since 4pm" to your query.
To get more recent zgrams matching your previous query, send an empty message on the "zephyr-history-more" instance.
A fancier search interface is available at http://zarchive.srv.cs.cmu.edu/prog/zquery

MESSAGE, cube, * (sender: silverberg)

Replies with a randomly selected previous zephyrgram to the same instance. (Does not respond to unauthenticated zephyrs.) Yes, this is just as silly and pointless as it sounds. See http://gs72.sp.cs.cmu.edu/cgi-bin/cube.cgi for details. Phone, zephyr or send mail to scottd if it goes berserk.

MESSAGE, "...topbot...", * (sender: topbot)

The Top-N List Bot. See http://gs72.sp.cs.cmu.edu/cgi-bin/topbot-doc.html for details. Phone, zephyr or send mail to scottd if it goes berserk.

MESSAGE, anon.<foo>, zbot (sender: anonymoose)

anonymoose: anonymously forwards zephyrgrams.
To forward an anonymized zephyrgram to instance "foo", send a zephyrgram to user zbot, instance "anon.foo". The body of your zephyrgram to zbot will be used as the body of the anonymized zephyrgram to the instance "foo".
You may include a positive number immediately after the "anon", in which case this number will be appended to the anonymoose's apparent userid.
Contact scottd if something goes awry.

Interrealm Argument

The current status is that people are arguing about whether interrealm with mit is a good thing or not, and how much of our "space" should be "visible". If you are at cmu, you should subscribe to the cmu.cs.discussion newsgroup to find out more about this. If you are at mit, keep your hair on, it's nothing personal. Our mommies told us not to zephyr to strangers (even nice ones who tell us that they have candy for us in their car.)

If you are at cmu and want to be a part of the hard-drinking all-partying class "cmu-only", which is not subject to interrealm distribution, check out /afs/cs/user/berez/zephyr/zephyr.el. It adds a new variable "zephyr-class-conversion-alist" and the ability to send zephyrs to a different class than "MESSAGE" by default... e.g., to the "cmu-only" class instead. Thus you can without breaking a sweat move to cmu-only and never be affected by cross-realm stuff again, or even notice that you have moved. I recommend that everyone subscribe to the cmu-only class and, if you feel invaded, move there until the rest of us come to our senses.

Another alternative that is not currently implemented is to invert this and have only one class "GLOBAL" that is cross-realm. The drawback to this is that cross-realm personal zephyrs become a little irritating: you would

  add global,*,* to your subscription list
  get my-external-friend to do the same
  use zwrite -c global my-external-friend

If you have an opinion on which of these two alternatives is "the right thing to do", or if you have a third opinion, please express it on cmu.cs.discussion. Thank you.