SHOP TALK

Some strange things have been happening around here. Last night some of our readers trying to check in our main page, got our Down East edition, Coastal Packet, instead. The other day, they were sent to our ecology news archives. We've fixed both problems but want you not to be surprised at this sort of thing happening again over the next month and half. Just let us know when you find it.

What's happened is that Google, as part of its campaign to take over the world, has decided that it no longer likes the venerated file transfer protocol, or FTP. We don't know why it feels this way, but who are we to argue with a corporation that even scares the Chinese?

Although many readers may not know it, a few of the pages that seem to just ordinary subsidiaries of prorev.com are, in fact, produced by the Google subsidiary, Blogger.Com. By March 26, these pages must be free of FTP association or they will end up as uneditable files on our site, which has been served to the world for years by the ever-wonderful Turnpike.Net.

We have already converted two pages to the Bloggercentric paradigm. These are:

Flotsam & Jetsam is now at http://prorevflotsam.blogspot.com


Sam Smith's Essays archives is now at http://samsmithessays.blogspot.com

What is pending, however, is that our main Undernews page and our Coastal Packet page will both have to change as well. We are awaiting further instructions but, it might help if you printed this post out for future reference. Should you be unable to reach either of these sites, try the new links which will be:


http://prorevnews.com for Undernews
http://coastalpacket.com for Coastal Packet

Don't try them now; they won't work. And in the best of all worlds - remember those days? - you'll have a clear announcement that the change is occurring.

Finally, there is the unresolved problem of the RSS feeds for the above. If the current ones stop working, try loading the sites above into your reader. They should work after the change is made.