#Avalon CD halted
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this public trust; it's not worth tarnishing our reputation. We've made some
mistakes over the last couple of days that were undeniable proof of this.
Thanks for letting us know. See below for our responses.
2) Will Avalon access always be free? As long as we administer the site, we
will allow anyone to access the public archive without charge.
3) How will Viewpoint improve the Avalon site? We're improving the site by
removing the reverse address registration requirements that the Navy
required, increasing the number of simultaneous access allowed (PS: if any
of you have not been able to get in, e-mail ftpadmin@viewpoint.com),
building an improved index, on-line 3D viewing, and improving documentation
of the models. Many of these improvements in the archive services will be
available through our home page.
4) Will ftp access to the site continue? Yes. At first we thought we would
transition quickly to web only access, but that was based upon 2 erroneous
assumptions. 1) That the vast majority of Avalon users had web browser net
access and 2) That people wouldn't want vanilla ftp access with all the
improvements available through the web page. Well, we were wrong. Ftp
access will continue. Sorry for the false alarm.
5) Will there be mirrors of the site? Why did Viewpoint initially
discontinue mirroring of the site? The wuarchive and POV-Ray sites provided
a much appreciated service in mirroring China Lake's site. Again we made the
incorrect assumption that with our increased bandwidth, these mirrors would
be unnessesary. We also wanted to be sure that this service which would now
be associated with Viewpoint was maintained with our standards. At the root
of this decision was the most profoundly wrong assumption of all: That more
goodwill for Viewpoint would be created if we required people to access the
site through us. Well, we were wrong again and unfortunately gave many of
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