python.org news

[Guido van Rossum]

There's good news and bad news about python.org.

The good news is that the PSF is now the official, proud owner of the
domain, after a successful transfer from CNRI, which has taken good
care of it for many years.  Nothing will change operationally, with
one exception mentioned below.

The bad news comes in two flavors.  First of all, a glitch during the
transfer (probably my own fault, although I'd like to blame Network
Solutions' confusing UI) temporarily specified the wrong DNS server
for the domain.  This was fixed soon afterwards, but unfortunately the
wrong setting propagated quickly to DNS servers over the world, and
the fix seems to be propagating more slowly.  Therefore mail to and
from python.org has been having a hard time, and you may be having
trouble accessing the python.org webserver.  I hope it'll clear up in
the next 24 fours.

The other bad news is that the Ultraseek-based Python search service
at search.python.org is no longer available.  The machine was operated
by CNRI on an old Sparc, and it was ready for retirement; we've put it
out to pasture to punctuate the domain transfer.  Fortunately, Google
can be used to search the python.org website just as well; the search
page at http://python.org/search/ has had a specialized link to Google
for a long time, and that's now the one to use.  (You can also do this
yourself by simply adding site:python.org to your query on google.com.)

Finally, I'd like to remind everyone of a domain that *does* continue
to work glitch-free: http://pycon.org, the website for PyCon DC 2004.
There are even two specialized subdomains: http://submit.pycon.org/
for speakers (you have until January 15 to submit proposals for
presentations, tutorials, and so on!), and http://dc2004reg.pycon.org/
for registration -- the early bird rate is valid until January 31!

--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)