THE WTO SIT-IN: PHASE 2 STARTS NOW! Friday Dec. 3rd to Saturday Dec. 5th THE THREE MOST IMPORTANT REQUESTS IN THIS EMAIL ARE: 1. PLEASE STOP USING THE WTO SIT-IN WEBSITE BY SATURDAY MIDDAY! 2. DURING FRIDAY AND SATURDAY START EMAILING THE WTO!!! 3. THE EHIPPIES@TESCO.NET EMAIL ADDRESS WILL DISAPPEAR INTO THE ETHER ON MONDAY ALSO - THIS ACTION IS ONLY BEING DISTRIBUTED VIA EMAIL! IF THIS IS GOING TO WORK YOU MUST FORWARD THIS EMAIL TO YOUR FRIENDS SO THEY CAN JOIN IN TOO!! WHERE WE ARE NOW Thanks everyone for your tremendous support. We've been really stretched keeping up with events, especially the media frenzy that's dumped itself down on us! For your information, the hits to the Sit-in sites have been: November 30th: 105,635 December 1st: 137,114 In fact, the pages has been so popular people have had problems getting through (oops, slight backfire there!) and we've had to negotiate with our ISP to change servers in order to keep meting the demand. During Wednesday we also had what could have been an attempted hack of the site. What was most interesting was that the IP address (143.233.73.50 in case anyone's seen it before) does not exist! (a case for the X Files we think). The WTO's main server was unavailable for periods on Tuesday, and the Conference server has been intermittently very slow (as compared to our measurements the previous week). Both servers have been responding slowly and/or stalling requests on Wednesday. In fact, I would love the WTO to give us all a peek at their server logs - and in fact I challenge them to release them, and the previous weeks statistics for comparison, for us all to see! (I presume they'll read this shortly after it goes out, and if they don't then they're slacking). Irrespective of the success rate of the action, we've also learnt some very interesting facts for next time. Of particular interest - it appears that Bill Gates can *really* see into the future. Internet Explorer 5 will not implement the script to run the sit-in. We're currently working on an alternative version that will discriminate IE5, but it won't be ready until the next sit-in action. THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT - WE NEVER BELIEVED THIS ACTION WOULD BE SO POPULAR! HOWEVER!!!!!!! Please note that from 12.00 GMT on Friday December 3rd we are winding down the sit-in. SO, PLEASE, AFTER AROUND MIDDAY GMT ON FRIDAY PLEASE STOP USING THE SIT-IN PAGE. The whole action page will evaporate into the ether on Monday, although there'll be a report page to thank people for taking part put in its place in about two weeks. So, we now move to the final stage of the action...
WHERE WE GO NEXT So far we've demonstrated that the WTO's public information system is not immune from public pressure. Now we move to their private information system - their email. WHAT WE WOULD LIKE PEOPLE TO DO IS EMAIL THE WTO WITH PERSONAL MESSAGES EXPRESSING YOUR OWN REASONS WHY YOU OBJECT TO THEM, AND THE SEATTLE CONFERENCE Of course, sending a short types message will not be that effective - so you'll also need to attach a large file to send with it. However, you should ensure: A. That you type a valid and personal message - illustrating your objection to the WTO and/or the Seattle Conference - in the body of the email; B. That the attachment you send is representative of your views - don't just send any old rubbish. Email systems are basically a high-speed server using standard software. The important aspect of the system is the amount of online data storage capacity. The server is usually organised as a RAID (Random Array of Inexpensive Disks) system to build capacity of a few tens or hundreds of gigabytes. The weak points on this system are therefore: i. The capacity of the incoming Internet connection; ii. The speed of the server in handling incoming data and storing it - but unless the surge in data is extreme this will not be a problem because the source of the emails will queue the data until it can be sent; iii. The capacity of the server/online RAID to accept the data. It is impractical so send large manually-written text emails. Therefore, the only way this action can have effect is with emailed attachments. When sending email attachments these are, as part of the encoding process, compressed. A plain text email would compress by up to 80%. It is also usual to compress the information on the server too. Therefore, although you might send 100 kilobytes of data, you only impact by 20 kilobytes on both the bandwidth of the Internet connection and on disk storage. To counteract compression we have to use files that are not easily compressed. That means using compressed file formats. THERE IS AN APPENDIX AT THE END OF THE EMAIL THAT GIVES MORE INFORMATION, AND THE LOCATION OF SOME LARGE INCOMPRESSIBLE FILES IF YOU'RE STUCK FOR SOMETHING TO SEND. Of course, you need to know where to send it to. After some research we have produced a short list - included in the next section. Note this list also include Mike Moore's address (you might want to use this at a later date - if it's not disconnected!). All you have to do is: 1. Open a new email. Copy the list of addresses from the text of this email and paste it into the 'Bcc:' box of your mail program. 2. Write your personal message in the body of the email, and make up a suitable title for the email; 3. Attach your large incompressible file; 4. Send the email. PLEASE NOTE THERE IS A RISK THAT THE SERVER MIGHT BOUNCE THE EMAIL, AND IN SOME CASES THIS MIGHT INCLUDE THE ATTACHMENT. IF YOU ARE UNSURE DON'T SEND A VERY BIG ATTACHMENT. OR, IF YOU KNOW HOW, SET UP AN UNVERIFIED/UNREGISTERED ADDRESS SO THERE'S NOTHING TO BOUNCE BACK TO. You can, if you wish, send the email more then once. However, in terms of your time, it's just as effective to paste the list of names more then once into the 'Bcc' box. Each extra paste is the equivalent of sending the email again. But beware, if you do multiple postings and the mail bounces you'll be left with lots of emails in your in-tray. If all works, then you should find that the mail bounces with an error report stating that the 'mail could not be sent' or some such message. Happy mailing!
"the electrohippies collective"
THE EMAIL LIST ============== enquiries@wto.org, publications@wto.org, mike.moore@wto.org, patrick.low@wto.org, lidia.carlos@wto.org, aishah.colautti@wto.org, houda.khattabi@wto.org, marc.bacchetta@wto.org, zdenek.drabek@wto.org, michael.finger@wto.org, francois@cvo.few.eur.nl, henrik.horn@wto.org, mukela.luanga@wto.org, hakan.nordstrom@wto.org, ludger.schuknecht@wto.org, media@wto.org, adp.notif@wto.org, ag.notif@wto.org, bop.notif@wto.org, gats.notif@wto.org, idb.notif@wto.org, lic.notif@wto.org, tar.notif@wto.org, qrntm.notif@wto.org, psi.notif@wto.org, reg.notif@wto.org, ro.notif@wto.org, scm.notif@wto.org, sg.notif@wto.org, sps.notif@wto.org, str.notif@wto.org, tbt.notif@wto.org, tex.notif@wto.org, tpr.notif@wto.org, trims.notif@wto.org, trips.notif@wto.org, val.notif@wto.org, serafino.marchese@wto.org, notifications.crn@wto.org, marinette.comte@wto.org
APPENDIX - FINDING YOUR INCOMPRESSIBLE FILE To avoid compression you have to select an attachment that is already compressed. This limits your options to: # Compressed files - files compressed with PKZIP or Stuffit; # High colour images - JPEG/high colour images are very good attachments because they are very well compressed; # Routinely compressed files - perhaps the best example of this is Adobe Acrobat files which are intended for transmission over the Net. As noted above, we'd like you to send personal messages. The best option would be to send a JPEG image of something important to you. Otherwise take some text or report that is important to you, compress it if it is not already compressed, and send that. BUT REMEMBER, THE FILE SIZE NEEDS TO BE AT LEAST 200 KILOBYTES, OR HIGHER IF YOU HAVE THE ABILITY TO SEND IT. If you have an interesting personal image, but it's not very big, you can always enlarge the image with a graphics program until it reaches the right file size. You ability to send a compressed file depends upon your hardware. If you have a slow (<28,800 baud modem) connection then 250 kilobytes is getting to the top limit of what you can comfortably send. If you have a higher speed modem then anything from 250 to 1,000 kilobytes is easily possible. But if you have a fixed line - such as universities or businesses - then you should aim to send a truly weighty attachment, perhaps 1,000 to 3,000 kilobytes. If you cannot find a suitable attachment, below are a list of relevant reports you might like to send the WTO instead. The smallest is 149 kilobytes. The largest weighs in at 2,125 kilobytes. To use a report: 1. DOWNLOAD IT ONTO YOUR OWN COMPUTER. You can open the file at the 'location' given, but I find the most efficient method - particularly with Acrobat file - is to go to the 'index page', press SHIFT on your keyboard, and then click on the link. You can then save directly to disk. If you want to make things more elaborate you could always send more then one file, or send a file more than once. (Attaching the file twice usually results in it being sent twice, although it's better to copy it on your hard disk with a different name and send the two versions). 2. CHANGE THE FILE NAME. This is important to prevent the WTO simply deleting all the files with name 'XXXXXXXX' from the server. 3. ATTACH AND SEND - not forgetting to include your own personal epistle in the body of the email. Here's the list of files:
OECD - "TRANSPARENCY AND CONSULTATION ON TRADE AND
ENVIRONMENT: NATIONAL CASE STUDIES" -
file size - 251 kilobyte Adobe Acrobat file
location -
US EPA SAB - "REVIEW OF THE US EPA'S REPORT TO
CONGRESS ON RESIDUAL RISK" -
UNCED - "AGENDA 21" AND THE "RIO DECLARATION" -
file size - 513 kilobyte PKZIP file
location -
THE KYOTO CONVENTION ON CLIMATE CHANGE -
file size - 632 kilobyte Adobe Acrobat file
location -
THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANISATION'S
"WORLD HEALTH REPORT 1999" -
file size - 2,135 kilobyte Adobe Acrobat file
location - END
from the electrohippies - ehippies@tesco.net
http://www.gn.apc.org/pmhp/ehippies/
|
