Re[2]: [AV Media Matters] Email Problems

[Graeme Jaye <gjaye@retemail.es>]

Hi Thomas

Thomas> Reply to the list and Graeme Jaye's post below:

Thomas> I was the person to first contact the Smithsonian IT help desk this morning
Thomas> to alert them to the problem and get it turned off.

... and I'm sure we are all very grateful for your doing this.  Not
quite so easy for me, here in Spain, but I did email them as soon as I
saw what was happening.

Thomas> When I logged on today,
Thomas> I had 647 of these emails from Wford.

:-) Me too

Thomas> I thought a temporary unsubscribe note to the listserve would
Thomas> be a quick way to automatically shut off the flow.  I work in
Thomas> a military operations environment in which precious little
Thomas> network bandwidth is available for non-military uses.  This
Thomas> torrent of emails had the potential to overload the system,
Thomas> and who knew whether it was some kind of virus.

I think it was pretty obvious exactly *what* was causing the problem
and I accept that someone in your position would probably be forced to
unsubscribe while it was goinng on - but I still think that too many
people were too quick off the mark.

Thomas> In fact, the very helpful Smithsonian network administrator I spoke with
Thomas> told me they are utterly baffled by this, as they do not have anyone by the
Thomas> name of Wford who works at the Smithsonian, and that the address subdomain
Thomas> attached to Wford does not exist!  So they are not sure who initiated this,
Thomas> or how it happened, but they are checking.

I suppose it could just be a prank by someone - always a possibility.
No doubt we will find out at some time.

Graeme Jaye

gjaye@retemail.es

Audio Restoration and CD Repair
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