Polverone - 1-4-2004 at 19:58
Bravidio, the company that provides hosting for Sciencemadness, has apparently grown a lot since I first signed up with them. This is
probably good for their bottom line, but bad for customer service. For example, I cannot put all the content in the Library that I would like, as fast
as I like, because the physical hard drive that the site sits on is almost full. My quota says I have more than 300 megabytes left, but there's
really about 15 megabytes of space left on /home.
Also, I received a message from directNIC on 2/25 warning that the sciencemadness.org domain name expires in 15 days. Unfortunately, an employee of
Bravidio has the password to the directNIC account, so even though the warning mail was sent to me, I can't log in and renew it myself. I have
e-mailed Bravidio support and asked that they attend to this soon, but I haven't yet received a response.
In case the domain name should go away for a while, be aware that you should still be able to reach Sciencemadness by pointing your browser at http://www.bravidio.com/~sciencem/.
Oh, also one of our members recently had some trouble with Official People about chloropicrin, and I was asked to warn Sciencemadness members. So I am
warning you: kids, just say no to chloropicrin! It'll make you cry once when you make it and cry once more when the government gets involved.
[Edited on 4-2-2004 by Polverone]
Fuckery.
Hermes_Trismegistus - 1-4-2004 at 20:36
Quantum - 2-4-2004 at 08:35
We better tighten our belts and gird our loins; stormy seas are ahead. I hope the hosting company will not do some PR crap and forget about our DIY
chemistry.
t_Pyro - 2-4-2004 at 09:00
Trouble with chloropicrin? I'm sure nobody would have been making it in large enough quantities to be a cause for concern! Are they trying to
suppress the spirit of scientific curiosity? Yet another case of the "officials" diverting their attention to lesser problems when there are
far more pressing problems at hand, I say. Outrageous!
[Edited on 2-4-2004 by t_Pyro]
chemoleo - 2-4-2004 at 10:35
Sorry if I sound completely naive about this, but wouldnt it be possible to find a different, better webhost, that ensures better customer service?
I am asking because you seem to continue to have trouble with them.
I am surprised you haven't signed up the sciencemadness.org domain name independent from Bravidio - unless of course it is one of those
package deals that come with a 'free' domain name including in your package...
As to chloropicrin - is that our first instance taht someone got in trouble with the 'authorities' by synth. a substance? I am quite
surprised by it, I would have thought they would have picked people from E&W and the Hive ...
Mephisto - 2-4-2004 at 11:44
How was this particular user identified? And how is it possible to prevent that in future (login via proxy, no visible email-adress,…)?
I am a fish - 2-4-2004 at 12:44
Which "official people"? Police? FBI? RIAA? Did they warn you themselves, or were you warned by the person who got in trouble? If the
former, was the warning official or unofficial?
Also, is the identity of the user in question being kept a secret? If so why? (I'm not challenging the decision, I'm just interested).
Polverone - 2-4-2004 at 13:27
I haven't yet changed hosts because 1) in the past, disk space hasn't been an issue. It's only with the increased storage demands of
the growing Library that I've noticed this. 2) It might be a real pain to migrate everything over. "If it ain't broke, don't fix
it." So far things aren't broken enough to demand fixing. 3) What guarantee would I have that the new host wouldn't give me similar
trouble? Bravidio was wonderfully responsive when I first signed up, then they grew.
Yes, I did get the domain name "free" when I signed up for a year of hosting. I suspect that if I ask really nicely or really un-nicely,
they'll let me handle it myself, but it's hard to tell when e-mail isn't answered.
I have been privately contacted by a member who is planning on setting up his own dedicated server and who is willing to host Sciencemadness at a
reasonable cost. However, since only the Library needs a lot of space, and it'd be easier to migrate than the board, I am considering hosting the
Library files on his site, with the links staying on Sciencemadness.org in their current locations.
I don't think Sciencemadness is in any sort of trouble. This person who is having chloropicrin trouble right now is having it because he
foolishly (as he can see with utmost clarity in hindsight) gave some to an unreliable individual. That person had the chloropicrin at school, where it
was released in a classroom and a few people were exposed (I'm not sure if the release was an accident or not). Now both Mr. Unreliable and the
foolish Sciencemadness member are in trouble. The member is feeling panicky. I'm not naming him since I don't want to add to his anxiety any
more.
I don't know if the real world persons investigating this incident even know or care about the member's online identity. If they know his
identity, it's either because they examined a computer he was using or he told them. My original message named the 3-letter agency in question,
but even that much information raised the member's anxiety level, so I changed it to "government."
I was first contacted by a third party on his behalf, but the member talked to me last night on AIM and confirmed/explained the original warning. I
have been asked to remove threads about chloropicrin from the board, but that strikes me as pointless. Google has those threads cached anyway.
I'd just be depriving future users of information.
PHILOU Zrealone - 20-5-2004 at 02:14
Ok we all quit chloropicrin and we go for
trichloronitromethan 
.
Aside of chloropicrin there are many other interesting molecules of the same family...
Fluoropicrin (non toxic and high energy oxydiser) when admixed with reducers.
Bromopicrin (lower volatility...stil lacrymatory and more reactive (unstable in the time).
Iodopicrin (worst volatility, even more reactive and unstable chemically)
Dichloronitrometane and monochloronitromethane
Bromo and iodo brothers...very lacrymatory but this also means good synthons and of course very interesting energetic HE.
Dimers of chloropicrin like tetrachloro-1,2-dinitroethane...same kind of properties but less volatile.
Of course synthetising chems is a big responsability and giving chems (potentially hazardous) is really really silly and stupid.
Let's just hope he won't pay that mistake his entire life.
