BOREAS Bulletin Boards
January 23, 1995
To: All BOREAS Investigators and Staff
From: Jeff Newcomer, BOREAS Information Scientist
[(301) 286-7858] [newcomer@ltpmail.gsfc.nasa.gov]
Subject: Miscellaneous Items, Establishment of Bulletin Board Facilities,
and Introductory Help Information
Based on some feedback from staff, the BOR_CORD software was modified to output
the coordinate values in the same order that it requests them for input. This
modification should ease manipulations of output coordinates for use as
subsequent input. The new version (2.2) is available under the on-line
software directories.
We are compiling lists of e-mail addresses that can be useful for group mailings.
The current plan is to establish mail groups for the currently defined AFM,
HYD, RSS, TE, TF, and TGB groups. I am sure that we will not have e-mail
addresses for everyone who is working within these groups; especially graduate
assistants. In the next week or so, we will use the compiled lists to make a
group mailing. We will include all the names in the list as part of the test
message. If you discover that someone is missing from the list or has an
incorrect e-mail address, please contact me. If there are other e-mail groups
you would like to have created, please contact me.
We have established a basic service to receive small data sets via network
transfer. Our current definition of small is 10 Mbytes or less. We can be
flexible but decided on 10 Mbytes as a good starting figure. This will be a
supervised sort of activity with: 1) you letting us know that you want to
transfer some data and describing it to your BORIS contact, 2) Setting up of a
directory by BORIS staff to receive the data, 3) Informing you of the account,
password, and directory in which to put the data, 4) your login and transfer of
the data, and 5) Checking of the transferred files by your BORIS contact. If
you want to make use of this, contact your BORIS rep.
In response to several requests, BORIS staff have implemented bulletin boards
on the BOREAS system. Currently the following bulletin boards are in place:
GENERAL, BORIS, AFM, HYD, RSS, TE, TF, and TGB. Any messages posted to the
established bulletin boards will have a default life of 90 days. If other
bulletin boards are desired, please let us know and we will work with you to
implement them.
You access the bulletin boards by entering 'BULL' at the prompt in the main
BORIS menu as shown below.
BORIS DATA ACCESS AND COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM
Enter one of the following at the prompt
BORIS FUNCTIONS
---------------
BORIS Access to BOREAS Data and Software
BULL Read BOREAS bulletin boards
HELP Additional information on the commands
NAME Directory of BOREAS personnel
MAIL Send or receive email
Other Data Bases
----------------
ANON General Anonymous FTP site
FIFE Access FIFE data base
CCRS Access Canadian Global Change Data Base
SNF Access Superior National Forest Data Sets
EXIT Exit BOREAS Comm to DCL '$' prompt
LOGF End session and exit BOREAS
BORISCOMM> BULL
After you enter BULL, the following general information will be displayed:
*** BORIS ELECTRONIC BULLETIN BOARD SYSTEM ****
This function acts as a bulletin board allowing users
to read or post messages. The BULLETIN utility is
divided into a number of folders each holding messages
on specific topics. For a detailed description of a
particular function within the BULLETIN utility type
HELP, the name of the function, and press .
Some of the commonly used functions are described below.
The MAIL utility can also be accessed through BULLETIN
to correspond with other users directly.
Enter a return to continue:
QUICK REFERENCE OF COMMON BULLETIN COMMANDS:
DIR/FOLDERS (directory of all folders)
SELECT (selects a folder of messages)
DIR (directory of messages in current folder)
READ (read messages)
REPLY (reply to a message w/another BB message)
RESPOND (to reply to a message via the VAX MAIL utility)
DELETE (delete a message)
UNDELETE (undelete a message)
ADD (add a new message to the current folder)
Ctrl-Z (exits & adds typed message)
Ctrl-C (aborts the execution of any command)
EXIT (exit Bulletin facility)
HELP (invokes help)
Additional help may be obtained by typing HELP at the BULLETIN prompt
A "FOLDER" in BULLETIN is the same as a 'bulletin board'. For example, to see the
names of the various bulletin boards/folders, enter DIR/FOLDERS and you will see
the following:
Folder Last message Messages Owner
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*AFM 12-JAN-1995 15:43 1 SYSTEM
*GENERAL 9-JAN-1992 17:03 2 SYSTEM
*HYD 12-JAN-1995 16:09 1 SYSTEM
*RSS 12-JAN-1995 16:10 1 SYSTEM
*TE 12-JAN-1995 15:57 1 SYSTEM
*TF 12-JAN-1995 16:00 1 SYSTEM
*TGB 12-JAN-1995 16:04 1 SYSTEM
Any bulletin boards that contain messages you have not read will be marked with
an asterisk (*) to the left of the name.
To select the AFM bulletin board as your active one, enter SEL AFM.
BULLETIN> SEL AFM
Folder has been set to AFM.
BULLETIN>
To see the messages contained in the active folder, enter DIR.
BULLETIN> dir
AFM
# Description From Date
1 Start of AFM bulletin board SYSTEM 12-JAN-95
2 Test AFM Message OPER 13-JAN-95
To read a particular message, enter READ #.
BULLETIN> READ 1
#1 of 2 AFM
Date: 12-JAN-1995 15:43 Expires: 10-JAN-2010 00:00
From: BOREAS::SYSTEM
Subj: Start of AFM bulletin board
Start of AFM bulletin board
BULLETIN> READ 2
#2 of 2 AFM
Date: 13-JAN-1995 09:35 Expires: 27-JAN-1995 00:00
From: BOREAS::OPER
Subj: Test AFM Message
To All BOREAS Staff:
This is meant to be an example of posting a message to one
of the bulletin boards.
Jeff Newcomer
BULLETIN>
To add a message to a bulletin board, you must first select the desired bulletin board and then enter the ADD command.
BULLETIN> SEL BORIS
Folder has been set to BOREAS.
BULLETIN> ADD
It is 13-JAN-1995 13:08. Specify when message expires. Default is 90 days.
Enter absolute time: [dd-mmm-yyyy] hh:mm:ss or delta time: dddd hh:mm:ss
Expiration date will be 14-APR-1995 00:00:00.00.
Enter description header.
Example of adding a message to a bulletin board
Enter message: End with ctrl-z, cancel with ctrl-c
This is meant to show what is required to enter a new message
to a bulletin board.
Jeff
BULLETIN> dir
BORIS
# Description From Date
1 Start of BORIS Bulletin Board OPER 13-JAN-95
2 Example of adding a message to a bulletin board NEWCOMER 13-JAN-95
BULLETIN>
To reply to a posted message, you must first make the message be your active message by reading it. Then you enter the REPLY command.
BULLETIN> dir
BORIS
# Description From Date
1 Start of BORIS Bulletin Board OPER 13-JAN-95
2 Example of adding a message to a bulletin board NEWCOMER 13-JAN-95
BULLETIN> read 2
#2 of 2 BORIS
Date: 13-JAN-1995 13:10 Expires: 14-APR-1995 00:00
From: BOREAS::NEWCOMER
Subj: Example of adding a message to a bulletin board
This is meant to show what is required to enter a new message
to a bulletin board.
Jeff
BULLETIN> reply
Adding REPLY message with the subject:
RE: Example of adding a message to a bulletin board
It is 13-JAN-1995 13:16. Specify when message expires. Default is 90 days.
Enter absolute time: [dd-mmm-yyyy] hh:mm:ss or delta time: dddd hh:mm:ss
Expiration date will be 14-APR-1995 00:00:00.00.
Enter message: End with ctrl-z, cancel with ctrl-c
Jeff ... I think your example of adding a message to the bulletin
board is much too simplistic. It cannot be as easy as you indicate.
Alter-Ego
BULLETIN> dir
BORIS
# Description From Date
1 Start of BORIS Bulletin Board OPER 13-JAN-95
2 Example of adding a message to a bulletin board NEWCOMER 13-JAN-95
3 RE: Example of adding a message to a bulletin board NEWCOMER 13-JAN-95
BULLETIN>
To delete a message that you posted, enter DEL or DEL/IMM #. If you enter 'DEL',
the message will be marked for deletion 15 minutes from the time you issue the
delete command. This allows you to UNDELETE the message if you change your mind.
Entering DEL/IMM causes immediate deletion.
BULLETIN> SEL AFM
Folder has been set to AFM.
BULLETIN> DIR
AFM
# Description From Date
1 Start of AFM bulletin board SYSTEM 12-JAN-95
2 Test AFM Message OPER 13-JAN-95
BULLETIN> DEL/IMM 2
BULLETIN> DIR
AFM
# Description From Date
1 Start of AFM bulletin board SYSTEM 12-JAN-95
If you get in a bind that cannot be solved by the available HELP command, please
contact me.
E-Mail a comment on this page to the curator 
Return to the BORIS Mailings Page
Return to the BOREAS Home Page
Last Updated: January 3, 1996
