Whats new in the forum • h********u@***.comnospam 21/11/1999 00:00:000 UTC To answer your question: Alot! The SF4M is undergoing massive amounts of change in the last few months culminating in what we hope to be a two year plan of setting alot of things straight that should have been done a long time ago. The biggest one on this list is the culmination of may years of work by many people, which will be the creation of the forum library database and card catalog which should be web accessable when we are completed. This will allow people to better see what we have in stock and to find out if it is checked out or not. In addition it will automate many of the librarians current tasks thus letting him or her focus on other factes of the job and his/her school work. Also because our assistant librarian has been able to put in many hours of extra work we should have almost all of our hardcovers protected by clear plastic covers by the end of this year. Conservation efforts have been taken to try and preserve some of the older and rarer treasures that we are fortunate to have in our collection and will be ongoing from now on to keep our SF legacy intact. The central main library has offered once we get our library system up and running to allow a link to our system and webpage so that new people who may not be aware of our exsistance will be able to see what holdings we do have and what the SF4M is about. In addition to the great strides in the library that we are hoping to accomplish in the next two years the lounge will be facing renovations as we add two new pentium-class computers with high speed ethernet access to allow forumites to type papers and browse the web while in the forum. The bulk of these machines were created with donations genroulsy given by members of the forum. Because of the task of running such a network is great a new non-signatory position was created, titled the system administrator whos job it will be to manage and change things when needed. This new amended copy of the constitution will be posted on SF4M.org within the next week. Amid all this buzz of activity some things still stay the same, tv night is still after out 8:30 meetings, and movies are still played on thursday nights starting at 8. If your not a regular visitor please come down and see how we are improving your forum for the better. If you have any questions feel free to e-mail me or call the forum. Robert P. Anders President, Science Fiction Forum • Allan Reimer 21/11/1999 00:00:000 UTC Rob, in case you've forgotten, here's the description of Hephaestus: Hephaestus, in Greek mythology, god of fire and metalwork, the son of the god Zeus and the goddess Hera, or sometimes the son of Hera alone. In contrast to the other gods, Hephaestus was lame and awkward. Shortly after his birth, he was cast out of Olympus, either by Hera, who was repelled by his deformity, or by Zeus, because Hephaestus had sided with Hera against him. In most legends, however, he was soon honored again on Olympus and was married to Aphrodite, goddess of love, or to Aglaia, one of the three Graces. As the artisan among the gods, Hephaestus made their armor, weapons, and jewelry. His workshop was believed to lie under Mount Etna, a volcano in Sicily. Hephaestus is often identified with the Roman god of fire, Vulcan. "Hephaestus," Microsoft(R) Encarta(R) 97 Encyclopedia. (c) 1993-1996 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Now, I really don't think you're either as "lame and awkward" or lucky ("soon honored again on Olympus and was married to Aphrodite, goddess of love, or to Aglaia, one of the three Graces") as old Hephaestus, even if you can make "armor, weapons, and jewelry" as the god was reported to be capable. Just trying to ensure that you don't let your head swell TOO much. -Allan- • Stargazer 23/11/1999 00:00:000 UTC Hephaestu wrote in message <1*************.*****.********5@n*-***.***l.com>... >To answer your question: > Alot! The SF4M is undergoing massive amounts of change in the last few months >culminating in what we hope to be a two year plan of setting alot of things >straight that should have been done a long time ago. > The biggest one on this list is the culmination of may years of work by many >people, which will be the creation of the forum library database and card >catalog which should be web accessable when we are completed. This will allow >people to better see what we have in stock and to find out if it is checked out >or not. In addition it will automate many of the librarians current tasks thus >letting him or her focus on other factes of the job and his/her school work. > Also because our assistant librarian has been able to put in many hours of >extra work we should have almost all of our hardcovers protected by clear >plastic covers by the end of this year. Conservation efforts have been taken to >try and preserve some of the older and rarer treasures that we are fortunate to >have in our collection and will be ongoing from now on to keep our SF legacy >intact. Huzzah! I know forumites have been talking about having a web-accessible catalog for years. > The central main library has offered once we get our library system up and >running to allow a link to our system and webpage so that new people who may >not be aware of our exsistance will be able to see what holdings we do have and >what the SF4M is about. That's great...the Library has been of great assistance to the Forum over the years (even provided us with space after the Forum burned down). > In addition to the great strides in the library that we are hoping to >accomplish in the next two years the lounge will be facing renovations as we >add two new pentium-class computers with high speed ethernet access to allow >forumites to type papers and browse the web while in the forum. The bulk of >these machines were created with donations genroulsy given by members of the >forum. > Because of the task of running such a network is great a new non-signatory >position was created, titled the system administrator whos job it will be to >manage and change things when needed. This new amended copy of the constitution >will be posted on SF4M.org within the next week. Cool. > Amid all this buzz of activity some things still stay the same, tv night is >still after out 8:30 meetings, and movies are still played on thursday nights >starting at 8. If your not a regular visitor please come down and see how we >are improving your forum for the better. If you have any questions feel free to >e-mail me or call the forum. Thanks for the update! Kevin "Doc" Conod s********r@a******x.net