Approaching the problem...

[Alex Martelli]

<mothra1774 at my-deja.com> wrote in message
news:8v1nr8$6d8$1 at nnrp1.deja.com...
> Hello,
>
>    I work in a "managed environment" where we are
> prevented from reading newsgroups (other than by
> using a website such as dejanews). Using the web
> to read newsgroups can be a little bit tedious at
> times. =]

Indeed.  So what do the powers in charge of this
'managed environment' think they're accomplishing
by blocking NNTP newsfeeds and allowing clumsy,
inefficient HTTP ones?  The same information will
be available to the inmates (I assume this IS a
prison, right?-) -- it will just be less productive
(less convenient, more time-consuming, tedious)
for them to access such information.

Oh well.  Maybe they have their reasons to sabotage
inmates' productivity in accessing information.  Or,
one might be in a similar situation if no free good
NNTP newsfeed was available for some group but one
WAS available via HTTP instead.


>    i.) How would you approach a problem such as
> this one? What kind of thought processes would
> you go through to come up with a solution to a
> problem like this?

Once I'm convinced that a technical solution is
appropriate, I would start looking for "the simplest
thing that can possibly work".  Basically, I want
a newsfeed, and I can grab the information to make
one up, but that information starts in the wrong
format -- I just have to massage it into the right
one.  Clearly, if I can install a real netnews
management system, and just feed it from my own
'artificial/synthesized' stream rather than via
UUCP, NNTP or whatever (and similarly process
'outgoing posts' back into whatever form will in
fact allow them to go out), I'm done.

So, can I install C-News, INN, or whatever else
on some box to which I can pump suitably massaged
data, and to which I can attach whatever newsreader
I like to read and post news?  E.g. on Windows NT,
http://www.ensta.fr/internet/windows/news/NNS.html
could work.  On Unix-like platforms, I may have a
news-server already, and it's just an issue of
having it run and figuring out how to pump posts
to it and get 'outgoing posts' for further special
massaging/processing/routing.  Ditto, if you have
MS Exchange Server installed (5 or later), that
also includes INS (Internet News Server).  Etc.

That part should be easy, I hope.  I would *NOT*
want to reinvent the wheel -- *that* is just about
never 'the simplest thing':-).

Next, what's the simplest way to pump data into
it and get outgoing posts back out -- probably
UUCP'ish, since that's based on having data in
suitable directories.  But maybe I should fake
up a NNTP 'peer' daemon; investigate that a bit.

Once that is settled, and I can 'manually pump'
artificial posts into my server, read them with
my favourite newsreaders, extract 'outgoing
posts' similarly, then it's time to see how to
interact with deja or similar services to make
the 'artificial posts', and then to turn outgoing
posts back into web-page interactions (the latter
probably being the most-delicate issue -- we do
NOT want a bug in our SW to spam the net!-).


Alex