From: mps@winneshk.hawkeye.com (Michael Snyder)
Newsgroups: news.admin
Subject: Sadistic, Automated, or Rabid map administrator.
Keywords: Belgium maps
Date: 11 Sep 92 15:57:36 GMT
Reply-To: mps@winneshk.hawkeye.com (Michael Snyder)
Followup-To: news.admin
Organization: Hawkeye Software Technologies, Cresco, Iowa, USA

There seems to be an automated (or rabid?) map administrator out there in
Belgium.  I have complained privately via email to the map administrators
concerning repeated unnecessary reception of the Belgium maps, and received
replies from two map administrators indicating:

MA#1: If a map is in a state of change, like when an area is first mapped,
there may be many transmissions of the map file in question.

MA#2: If you don't like it, don't take comp.mail.maps and get the maps
when you like from a tar'd file of all maps.

I can agree totally with MA#1, and understand that if changes are made,
then the map should be put out ASAP.

If I had a problem with ANY changes to the maps, then I *MIGHT* agree with
MA#2.  However, I do not have any problem with changes, and actually do
appreciate getting changes whenever they are available.  What I DON'T
want is to pay for getting the same information over and over and over.

Case in point: I have preserved the last 4 transmissions of the Belgium
maps. The dates for the files in the following ls listing are the times
that my unpackmaps preserved them:

-rw-------  1 mps     users      1072 Sep  7 15:05 0907u.bel.0.Z
-rw-------  1 mps     users     10132 Sep  7 15:05 0907u.bel.1.Z
-rw-------  1 mps     users      1070 Sep  8 08:50 0908u.bel.0.Z
-rw-------  1 mps     users     10095 Sep  8 08:50 0908u.bel.1.Z
-rw-------  1 mps     users      1077 Sep 10 08:27 0910u.bel.0.Z
-rw-------  1 mps     users     10143 Sep 10 08:27 0910u.bel.1.Z
-rw-------  1 mps     users      1084 Sep 11 07:24 0911u.bel.0.Z
-rw-------  1 mps     users     10283 Sep 11 07:24 0911u.bel.1.Z


Now, I have run "diff" on each successive pair of files, and get the
following results (please wade through it and see the text following):

diff of 0907u.bel.0/0908u.bel.0
  2c2
  < #  Sat Sep 5 20:00:04 MET DST 1992
  ---
  > #  Sun Sep 6 20:00:04 MET DST 1992

diff of 0908u.bel.0/0910u.bel.0
  2c2
  < #  Sun Sep 6 20:00:04 MET DST 1992
  ---
  > #  Tue Sep 8 20:00:05 MET DST 1992

diff of 0910u.bel.0/0911u.bel.0
  2c2
  < #  Tue Sep 8 20:00:05 MET DST 1992
  ---
  > #  Wed Sep 9 20:00:05 MET DST 1992
  39,41c39,42
  <     	spaceb(DEMAND), sunbe(DEMAND), sunbim(DEMAND), sydes(DEMAND), 
  <     	systmc(DEMAND), tbl1(DEMAND), telgate(DEMAND), trucha(DEMAND), 
  <     	twgene(DEMAND), uiag(DEMAND), vub(DEMAND)
  ---
  >     	spaceb(DEMAND), sunbe(DEMAND), sunbim(DEMAND), sunland(DEMAND), 
  >     	sydes(DEMAND), systmc(DEMAND), tbl1(DEMAND), telgate(DEMAND), 
  >     	trucha(DEMAND), twgene(DEMAND), uiag(DEMAND), vtm(DEMAND), 
  >     	vub(DEMAND)

diff of 0907u.bel.1/0908u.bel.1
  2c2
  < #  Sat Sep 5 20:00:04 MET DST 1992
  ---
  > #  Sun Sep 6 20:00:04 MET DST 1992

diff of 0908u.bel.1/0910u.bel.1
  2c2
  < #  Sun Sep 6 20:00:04 MET DST 1992
  ---
  > #  Tue Sep 8 20:00:05 MET DST 1992

diff of 0910u.bel.1/0911u.bel.1
  2c2
  < #  Tue Sep 8 20:00:05 MET DST 1992
  ---
  > #  Wed Sep 9 20:00:05 MET DST 1992
  835a836,847
  > #N	sunland
  > #S	Mac II; A/UX 3.0
  > #O	Sun Education Reseller 
  > #C	Dessy Dominique
  > #E	dd@sunland.be
  > #T	+32 2 2300500
  > #P	Rue de la Loi 19, B-1040 Bruxelles, Belgium
  > #L
  > #R
  > #U
  > #W	jean@Belgium.EU.net 920909
  > 
  909a922,933
  > 
  > #N	vtm
  > #S	RS6000	
  > #O	Vlaamse televisie maatschappij
  > #C	Gerrit Cap
  > #E	
  > #T	+32 2 2551953
  > #P	Luchthavenlaan 22 1800 Vilvoorde
  > #L	
  > #R	
  > #U
  > #W	hans@ub4b.buug.be 920709

Now, by my count, 66% of what has been sent by the Belgium map administrator
is sent for the sake of sending it.  No changes are present, except for the
cosmetic change to the Last-updated date line.

At the risk of repeating myself, I DO NOT MIND GETTING MAP UPDATES IF
THERE IS TRULY NEW INFORMATION IN THEM!  Does anyone else see what I'm
complaining about?  Should I track this for a month, and post the results
then?  Does anybody care?

Michael Snyder
Newsgroups: news.admin,news.admin.policy