v6.50b18 b3071

[andy]

Somehow I hit the button to install this. First it ignored my folder and started me with no groups, no filters, wrong download disk, totally wrong. I got that straightened out thanks to your helping me fix earlier blowouts. But for one problem:
(1) files seem to be downloading according to filters, OK when checked manually. However my "Downloading Files" tab chunks along merrily, but NO FILES are shown on the other tabs "Failed Files", "Files List" even though both should be registering a lot of activity. Also, no thumbnails at all. My configs are normal (correct).

Did I latch onto some mondo beta as I dozed prior to bedtime? Or is this, of course, my fault, or most likely you have never heard of such an error. Help, please.

[Quade]

B18 has been superceded by the 6.50 release. It's really pretty old at this point.

I have no answer for your issues. I'd say the first step is to upgrade to the release.

[andy]

OK, Quade I installed the new 6.50 and have the same problem. Functional downloading but no activity on info tabs, no thumbnails. Please-- I can't be the only user thus. No hardware failure could cause this. Some internal flags ain't right. Merry Christmas, amigo!

[dexter]

What messages are in the Logging tab while files are queued for download in the Download List? When downloads complete, they have to either go into the Failed Files or the Files tab unless there is other user intervention and the posts are manually removed from the Download list.

[andy]

Sorry. I am one of the oldest users around (10 years) and I really do know if I've cleared the downloads and the failed lists — duh. No thumbnails for the last 50,000 images. No lists being populated. It seems from checking the hard drives that the files are downloading OK. I use movies to check this, and the last dozen or so these last few days are good.

Let me now offer a very sincere kudo for your amazing software. No other newsreader is worth a bluray dripping with spit compared to the stellar way NewsBin bangs away and assembles rars and uses pars to make it work. Amazing.

But I'm reporting to you what's happening. I can tell an alien from NASA easily. I'll try to post a snippet of log here. The current count is 117 queued for downloading (about 4 movies), with about 28 of the 50mb rars downloaded (none show on the files list, reads zero). I'm running the 50 connecions allowed by my Giganews Diamond account. The "Logging if I can ...):

[23:34:14] HIGH Failed to retrieve Article from Server:GigaNews ARTICLE <vKpwU51RoorOQNzURldD@JBinUp.local>
| 430 no such article
[23:34:14] HIGH Failed to retrieve Article from Server:GigaNews ARTICLE <JlsjR4gXAiPTwZUKhCN@JBinUp.local>
| 430 no such article
[23:34:14] HIGH Failed to retrieve Article from Server:GigaNews ARTICLE <CvsxhIdeb4xA2BhqXka1@JBinUp.local>
| 430 no such article

((( andy deletes thousands of similar lines to prevent message from excessive bloat )))


| 430 no such article
[23:42:51] HIGH Failed to retrieve Article from Server:GigaNews ARTICLE <WN5KwKuFqbpJuxcTQuT@JBinUp.local>
| 430 no such article
[23:42:51] HIGH Failed to retrieve Article from Server:GigaNews ARTICLE <IjMr0U7AuwB013eAmyeN1@JBinUp.local>
| 430 no such article
[23:42:51] HIGH Failed to retrieve Article from Server:GigaNews ARTICLE <s5BzQjErXFdeJs1ii9aF@JBinUp.local>
| 430 no such article
[23:42:51] HIGH Failed to retrieve Article from Server:GigaNews ARTICLE <VmCgfVhCfW492HLVRInQ@JBinUp.local>
| 430 no such article
[23:42:51] HIGH Failed to retrieve Article from Server:GigaNews ARTICLE <O1eOpctXqy1zRCGzFca6@JBinUp.local>
| 430 no such article

[23:46:24] HIGH Failed to retrieve Article from Server:GigaNews ARTICLE <KaFdIo72jgUB5OxXKhKe@JBinUp.local>
| 430 no such article
[23:46:24] HIGH Failed to retrieve Article from Server:GigaNews ARTICLE <73LeEtjbQkw2xErTK21m@JBinUp.local>
| 430 no such article
[23:46:24] HIGH Failed to retrieve Article from Server:GigaNews ARTICLE <5PiYtLqOwYyuA7yNNIBM@JBinUp.local>
| 430 no such article
[23:46:25] HIGH Failed to retrieve Article from Server:GigaNews ARTICLE <Bw5Zn48iLjz2DnUQLf2S1@JBinUp.local>
| 430 no such article
[23:46:25] HIGH Failed to retrieve Article from Server:GigaNews ARTICLE <u2OE8m0RxgJW3qoWHXsH@JBinUp.local>
| 430 no such article
[23:46:26] HIGH Failed to retrieve Article from Server:GigaNews ARTICLE <TZO6Rn7chqMiw1E9Eaq6@JBinUp.local>
| 430 no such article
[23:46:35] HIGH Failed to retrieve Article from Server:GigaNews ARTICLE <ySuC371ywaSRIs93DuN6@JBinUp.local>
| 430 no such article
[23:46:36] HIGH Failed to retrieve Article from Server:GigaNews ARTICLE <PERZfT4SrpkbbAlyUnuj@JBinUp.local>
| 430 no such article
[23:46:36] HIGH Failed to retrieve Article from Server:GigaNews ARTICLE <3zTQ93MedVkSH5hC0PXf@JBinUp.local>
| 430 no such article
[23:46:37] HIGH Failed to retrieve Article from Server:GigaNews ARTICLE <uvewDe7xBd4jr7h6eEcB@JBinUp.local>
| 430 no such article
[23:46:43] HIGH Failed to retrieve Article from Server:GigaNews ARTICLE <wDkHRPneUymyakQuRWv4@JBinUp.local>
| 430 no such article
[23:46:43] HIGH Failed to retrieve Article from Server:GigaNews ARTICLE <PRaUdgKiQay7YU8ldP78@JBinUp.local>
| 430 no such article
[23:46:47] HIGH Failed to retrieve Article from Server:GigaNews ARTICLE <VDa2OZEvMp0tQqj62rIx@JBinUp.local>
| 430 no such article
[23:46:48] HIGH Failed to retrieve Article from Server:GigaNews ARTICLE <VNTjpWmqGqXgaaiJQUr3@JBinUp.local>
| 430 no such article
[23:46:49] HIGH Failed to retrieve Article from Server:GigaNews ARTICLE <Jvb3jia8tmhFrMQ1cN86@JBinUp.local>
| 430 no such article

[00:18:16] ERROR DG - Connection Failed: GigaNews Server Index:1 481 (remote) (aucl:gn;gn193741) exceeded maximum number of connections per user
[00:18:34] ERROR Error: Unable to Convert Server Name to Internet Address: news.giganews.com Port:563 11001 No such host is known.

[00:18:34] ERROR DG - Connection Failed: GigaNews Server Index:1 220 0 <a001c$5252f622$bc7a5d71$28219@abuse.newsxs.nl> No such host is known.

[00:18:46] ERROR DG - Connection Failed: GigaNews Server Index:1 481 (remote) (aucl:gn;gn193741) exceeded maximum number of connections per user
[00:18:53] ERROR DG - Connection Failed: GigaNews Server Index:1 481 (remote) (aucl:gn;gn193741) exceeded maximum number of connections per user
[00:18:56] ERROR DG - Connection Failed: GigaNews Server Index:1
[00:19:09] ERROR DG - Connection Failed: GigaNews Server Index:1 481 (remote) (aucl:gn;gn193741) exceeded maximum number of connections per user
[00:19:29] ERROR DG - Connection Failed: GigaNews Server Index:1 481 (remote) (aucl:gn;gn193741) exceeded maximum number of connections per user
[00:19:42] ERROR DG - Connection Failed: GigaNews Server Index:1 481 (remote) (aucl:gn;gn193741) exceeded maximum number of connections per user
[00:20:03] ERROR DG - Connection Failed: GigaNews Server Index:1 481 (remote) (aucl:gn;gn193741) exceeded maximum number of connections per user
[00:20:03] ERROR DG - Connection Failed: GigaNews Server Index:1 481 (remote) (aucl:gn;gn193741) exceeded maximum number of connections per user
[00:20:03] ERROR DG - Connection Failed: GigaNews Server Index:1 481 (remote) (aucl:gn;gn193741) exceeded maximum number of connections per user
[00:20:06] ERROR DG - Connection Failed: GigaNews Server Index:1 481 (remote) (aucl:gn;gn193741) exceeded maximum number of connections per user
[00:20:54] ERROR DG - Connection Failed: GigaNews Server Index:1 481 (remote) (aucl:gn;gn193741) exceeded maximum number of connections per user
[00:20:55] ERROR DG - Connection Failed: GigaNews Server Index:1 481 (remote) (aucl:gn;gn193741) exceeded maximum number of connections per user
[00:21:02] ERROR DG - Connection Failed: GigaNews Server Index:1 481 (remote) (aucl:gn;gn193741) exceeded maximum number of connections per user
[00:21:05] ERROR DG - Connection Failed: GigaNews Server Index:1 481 (remote) (aucl:gn;gn193741) exceeded maximum number of connections per user
[00:21:23] ERROR DG - Connection Failed: GigaNews Server Index:1 481 (remote) (aucl:gn;gn193741) exceeded maximum number of connections per user
[00:21:46] ERROR DG - Connection Failed: GigaNews Server Index:1 481 (remote) (aucl:gn;gn193741) exceeded maximum number of connections per user A connection attempt failed because the connected party did not properly respond after a period of time, or established connection failed because connected host has failed to respond.

[00:22:25] HIGH Failed to retrieve Article from Server:GigaNews ARTICLE <43fc$5252f670$bc7a5d71$28219@abuse.newsxs.nl>
| 430 no such article
[00:22:35] HIGH Failed to retrieve Article from Server:GigaNews ARTICLE <a7ca4$5252f671$bc7a5d71$28219@abuse.newsxs.nl>
| 430 no such article
[00:23:04] ERROR DG - Connection Failed: GigaNews Server Index:1
[00:23:05] ERROR DG - Connection Failed: GigaNews Server Index:1
[00:23:46] ERROR DG - Connection Failed: GigaNews Server Index:1
[00:24:26] ERROR DG - Connection Failed: GigaNews Server Index:1 481 (remote) (aucl:gn;gn193741) exceeded maximum number of connections per user



Thanks & regards and please be a genius, eh?

[itimpi]

The 430 errors indicate that the items you are trying to download are not on the server.

The errors about exceeding the number of connections are probably because you have configured Newsbin to use all the connections allowed by your account. Under error conditions Newsbin will often close a connection and then attempt to open a new one. Often the server end is slow to release connections so the re-open fails if there are no spares. You should therefore configure Newsbin to use less connections than the max allowed. In fact to optimize performance Newsbin should be configured for the smallest number of connections that can saturate your download link. Unless you have a very fast connection this is likely to be something more like 5-10 than the 50 you say are currently set.

[andy]

My dear Elbonian royal, with all respect, I agree mostly with what you say, but this is all 100% beside the point. I do have a connection that will support my 50 little chubbies, and I will not play "show me yours" with you. I can handle hundreds of little errors like that per second with no problem. It maximizes my utilization of my bandwidth. YOU set your computer to anything you like. Sure, you're a week more elite than I am after ten years. I thought we got past this point months ago — you MUST realize that your comments were 100% specious and useless nonsense. How many times must I write this??

My thumbnail function does not work.
My "Files List" and "Failed Files" lists are not being populated, even though I have 20,000 to 50,000 images daily and a dozen or so movies daily.
My problem, again, is no list population and no thumbnails.

This is the problem. Nothing you nattered about has any relevancy. You and I don't get along very well, and you know why. Offer me a peppermint candy, or a kiss (need I direct you where?), but skip the advice. How in the name of sanity could you have posted so many messages? Maybe you should put your wisdom in a book. I'll buy a copy.

[andy]

Someone tell me what I could have set in my options to cause this problem. That would solve the problem. Best running theory now is that someone is playing a cool joke on me. Toggle a couple or three bits in my download and let old andy squirm. Ok, that's highly unlikely, but why not offer me a download that works. Should I use a registry crawler to erase all traces before I install the working copy??

It's really nonsense to say I'm the only user experiencing these problems. I didn't program this giant bucket'o'bits.

[Quade]

The 430 errors indicate that the items you are trying to download are not on the server.

The errors about exceeding the number of connections are probably because you have configured Newsbin to use all the connections allowed by your account. Under error conditions Newsbin will often close a connection and then attempt to open a new one. Often the server end is slow to release connections so the re-open fails if there are no spares. You should therefore configure Newsbin to use less connections than the max allowed. In fact to optimize performance Newsbin should be configured for the smallest number of connections that can saturate your download link. Unless you have a very fast connection this is likely to be something more like 5-10 than the 50 you say are currently set.

Here. This is your answer. It's 100% on target and your issues with it seem to show you don't know how news servers work.

but this is all 100% beside the point. I do have a connection that will support my 50 little chubbies, and I will not play "show me yours" with you.

Your connection to the internet has nothing to do with how many connections you can run. Well other if it's shitty this problem will happen more often. The server determines how many connections you can use and in this case it thinks you're using too many.

What I really need to do and will in the future is set the connection retry interval based on the number of connections. Maybe 1 minute per connection when you have more than 20 connections or something. Then people with reasonable connections will get fast retries and people with excessive connections will get a safe, non-erroring interval. News servers might take 5-15 minutes to free up a dead connection. So, long retries will avoid errors when people run it at the max.

[andy]

Quade, amigo, whatever retry errors, etc, I downloaded a vast amount of stuff in the day, and my thumbnails did not work, and the two lists failed to populate — THAT is my problem, and no hint at a solution. If my bandwidth makes you mad, why not tell GigaNews to not offer me 50 connections. The suggestion to deliberately screw me up if I didn't cut my number of connections, that doesn't seem like a fair or a nice approach. Does anyone actually use NewsBin to read newsgroups? C'mon, we all use it to scrape binaries off the hull. The days of BBSs and Newsgroups are pretty well behind us (well, I suppose somebody buys Playboy for the articles ...).

Where can I get a copy of Newsbin that doesn't contain the three errors under discussion?

It's not fair, right or nice to propose to penalize me because I have the ultimate Comcast business class connection. Remember waiting and waiting for the first 300b modem? Let's go back, eh. Problem is, with baby-sitting high schools and joke college that gives degrees to illiterates, there wouldn't be much point in a flame war with a can of beans.

[DThor]

Since you're fond of pithy metaphors, you're acting like someone who bought a lambourghini and doesn't understand why the rules of the road still apply to them. This isn't about a bug, nor is it about a perceived jealousy of your connection, it's a real world fact that the way usenet farms work they require a period of time in order to pass on to all it's nodes that someone has disconnected from a connection. It's not a lot, but that time varies not only with provider but with half a dozen other variables such as load and time of day. Quade has already said he would think about a timing hack for those that actually, tangibly get faster download speeds with 50 connections over 30 or 40(by far the exception due to thrashing your packet stream) , so why doesn't that end it?

The solution to your issue is to drop the connection count down a bit to allow the server to catch up. There is no older version of newsbin that magically makes that go away. Your other issue is exactly what it's told you : what you want isn't on the server. No purple prose required.

DT

[Quade]

It's not fair, right or nice to propose to penalize me because I have the ultimate Comcast business class connection. Remember waiting and waiting for the first 300b modem? Let's go back, eh. Problem is, with baby-sitting high schools and joke college that gives degrees to illiterates, there wouldn't be much point in a flame war with a can of beans

I'm trying to be nice. You clearly don't understand the difference between the connection to the internet (Comcast) and the number of connections your server permits (Giganews). I have the same service you do. 100 Mbps and I get full speed with 10-20 connections to the server. You understand that driving at 100 MPH is the same whether it's a 4 cylinder or 8 right? That's what we're talking about here, you can't EVER get faster than what you're paying Comcast for. It doesn't matter how many connections you run to Giga. You can't get more than 100%.

My proposed solution is a way to protect people from themselves. Most of the time, people back off the connections to 40 or fewer, get the same speed and the problem goes away. You're pushing back without any understanding of what's actually happening.

For the 430 errors, you either find another server or give up on those downloads. Giganews is aggressive about pulling files. I don't ever see them pulling legal pics but, they will pull other files at the request of the copyright holder.

[andy]

OK, guys, I wither, a slow pupil. I think I understand your explanations, and really do appreciate your education. I will immediately set my connections to twenty in hopes fo regaining my thumbnails and the population of two lists I need. The downloading errors have never concerned me at all, unless I'm three blocks short to fix a bluray. When I get 1900 of 2000 images of the Spanish Grand Prix (for instance) it doesn't concern me. With my connection, I just download everything and try to sort it out on the overnight.

Thank you for the "pithy metaphor" — I sit at the feet of my teachers.

[dexter]

Keep in mind that whenever you see error number 430 in the Logging tab, it means the server doesn't have the post. I have a feeling that's the issue you are having when you say you aren't getting thumbnails although I haven't noticed images being removed from the servers before. If you have some doubts, PM me a couple of sample images that are not showing downloads so I can try myself. Maybe they are some format that Newsbin doesn't support.

Also, there is a good thread here discussing number of connections and a user's experience testing 30 vs. 10. Scroll down to a post by nbwul62.

[andy]

Read it all. Many of those guys are more sophisticated than me, and maybe half of them have computers I must envy. Thanks.
As far as images removed, most of the big-name photographers have photo spreads uploaded and then taken down within days. If you want Patrick Demarchelier's latest Vogue spread at full 6000+ resolution you might have a 48h window of opportunity. For Miss January, they will be up forever.
Many if not most really "watch 'em" movies have a 48h lifetime to trigger a RIAA response, a day for the lawyer, a day for FedEx, a day for Giganews legal eagle and a couple of days to cripple it into un-recoverability. Then you can sift through reposts as the malware content staarts to rise. After 300 days it's all a joke. Who but a few posts 20% pars under a filename too cryptic for fools to decipher? The old guys, of course. A whole generation of soon-to-be-blind fools are watching movies on their I-gollies, even as we speak. All is missing is a 30tb memory for the little hot-pocket-commander.

The digression has reached epic proportion: where are my thumbnails? Missing for 50,000 images downloaded on unpopulated lists. My filters fail about 200 images out of every 5,000. Whether or not they have been taken down, etceteras, is beside the point. Where are my g'd'd thumbnails??

[dexter]

Are you saying the thumbnails in the thumbnails tab aren't displaying as you download images? I can't imagine sitting there watching 50,000 thumbnails render so I'm wondering if you are referring to something else. Are you expecting thumbnail images to be saved to your hard drive along with the full size image or something?

If you are getting blank thumbnails, I wonder if you are downloading some set that Newsbin isn't processing correclty. If you can send me an example, I can try to recreate it. Don't post any example subjects here, PM them or use our Technical Support Form

[andy]

Sir, you are close to my plea. I have a set of about 50 newsgroups that are disguinished for being near 100% binaries. The rare textual post is either some arcane fact of how the poster got the images or somesuch, never an attempt at conversation. I've beeen covering these groups for ten years. Let me say once more, clearly: I get zero thumbnails on the thumbnails tab. If that worked, every thumbnail would be tagged with the filename. I know full well the thumbnails are not stored (anywhere I know).

I cleaned out everything so I could run a scientific test. Opened a virginal 1tb disk for the downloads. Signed onto a dozen brand new groups. Set it up. Let her rip. Now, once again, this test was to verify the inexplicable behavior occasioned by installing the v6.5 series. OK??

So the downloading files" tab churned along for a good deal until the little counter (the one in redundant parenthesis after the colon) read just over 50,000 files. let's say 1-3mb on average. I let 'er run. NO incrementing the "Files List", NO thumbnails displayed, NO "Failed Files" counted. As I said, my filters reject 1% or more, on average, and none tallied. I reject pars and all movie files on pictures groups, and my filters start rejecting them after the first handful. No mistakes. No operational screwups. Only the code can cause two unpopulated lists and no thumbnails. I should have gotten 35,000 or more thumbnails flash by (hi-res) as the almost 40,000 files made it into the virgin HDD. The dozen movies had been decoded (10 of 12), and the images were there. Pardon me, but the groups and the filenames are my private business. I set aa newsgroup and download all eight or all 80,000 new ones every week. I don't know what filenames are there. With my bandwidth I can download a thousand 1080p images with less trouble than I can look at a few (non-existant) pages of thumbnails or read the filenames in newsbin. Dear god i hope this iteration explains things. I have tried.

I'd like a copy of Newsbin that does not contain this behavior. I have reinstalled it three times, the last time using a registry crawler to eliminate all traces. It ain't me. of course, never mind that such behavior can only be caused by Newsbin, I will wait patiently while you ridicule me. You see my avatar? That's so I never wish to be taken in too pushy a light. Have a good laugh. Fix my problem. If somehow (hah, thats just bait!) I'm not clearly understood, then please email me at
l.o.n. @ 7.a.v.7. dot com
and i will recommend a good teacher of the language, specializing in contused Elbonians.

[andy]

OK, I lied — all you Elbonians are confused, and nobody has ever taught one English. But do email me, please. I will not reply to cutout boxes at hotmail, gmail or the like. Only a real domain.

[dexter]

Ok, wait, you are saying your cache display in the Status Bar at the bottom of Newsbin reads something like "Cache: 90/100 (50000)"????

The numbers in the parenthesis are very meaningful, they reflect the number of Newsbin header files backlogged awaiting for processing into the database. Until this number goes to 0, you won't be able to load all the headers, much less queue them for download to view images.

We've been finding that, while we've been optimizing Newsbin to work best for large RAR/PAR sets, it has been at the sacrifice of processing the picture groups. Until we look into this further, you would be better off running an older version that works better for you. We've got many of these versions still available for download here.

[andy]

Good idea. I know the meanings of the display items pretty well. The "Downloading Files" reads, say, 50,000 files in the queue. When I start the download the files download one or a few at a time until the list shrinks to zero. Not ONE file of the 40,000+ actually downloaded is listed on the "Files List" (would be best named "Downloaded", and not one of the several hundred rejected files is listed in the "Failed Files" list. NOT ONE SINGLE thumbnail out of say 40,000 is ever shown on the thumbnails. All this bad behavior came about under 6.50. I described this all correctly a dozen times now, using the same words as now.

Sure, why shouldn't I be happy that while you saved some clumsy teens the astounding intellectual challange of handling their own rar+par sets, that you have blown the functionality and utility of the NewsBin GUI. Just like I said. And you have not distinguished yourselves intellectually while you feign ignorance until I brave your withering denials for a week until it, all of a sudden, "Oh, you're right — maybe you should use an older version." So tell me where I can download a 6.4 version? Specifically? Where?

[dexter]

So tell me where I can download a 6.4 version? Specifically? Where?

If you put as much energy reading my posts as attacking us, you would see the link pointing you to the list of previous releases.

You know you are the only one reporting this specific problem right? Do you see a flock of people coming out supporting you saying "Yeah, me too"??? My response is a punt because I don't know what your issue is.

[Quade]

Sure, why shouldn't I be happy that while you saved some clumsy teens the astounding intellectual challange of handling their own rar+par sets, that you have blown the functionality and utility of the NewsBin GUI. Just like I said. And you have not distinguished yourselves intellectually while you feign ignorance until I brave your withering denials for a week until it, all of a sudden, "Oh, you're right — maybe you should use an older version." So tell me where I can download a 6.4 version? Specifically? Where?

Tone it down or be banned. I almost banned you for giving Itimpi shit when he was correct and you were hopelessly wrong. I'm happy to answer you questions but, If you're going to be difficult, you don't have to come back.


If you download files you've already downloaded, even before the signature check, Newsbin will check the file on disk and if the file is already there, it just abandons the download. No thumbnails, no failed entry, no files list entries. I probably should log something but, don't in 6.50. Newsbin checks both the filename and the contents of the file to determine if it's a duplicate file. It's actually more reliable than the signature cache. Easy way to test this. Exit Newsbin, rename the download folder, restart and add your images to download. If you see them, it's probably what you're seeing. Rename the download folder back.

[andy]

Thank you. The signature catch works best for me, because it retains a sig of the files downloaded. After downloading, usually within hours, the files are offline; so they can't be checked in the new existential manner. J.P. Sartre would be proud of you, though. Another problem, if I understand you, is when I download everything before culling, there is a vast majority that I don't wish to download again and again after I've tossed their original incarnation.

When downloading a song, for instance, my collection has several variables that defy a casual sort: song title, and variations; artist, and accompanists; date and venue of performance; acoustic or orchestral; format such as ape, flac, mp3 or wav; sampling from 16k (spoken) through 1800k (cymbals & piccolo); language of the performance. etcetera. Somewhat the same for movies: CAM, DVD5, DVD9, BluRay with extras, subtitles, languages.

As an example, you will download many, many examples of <some shit we don't speak of in this forum>. Collecting the art, winnowing the chaff is where NewsBin and GigaNews and the search service comes in handy. We just need another automation layer on top to make it all less manual and tiresome.You guys have done a commendable job of crunching rars & pars — time to automate the search function to work from lists with multiple sieve variables per line item. Go west, young man.

[Quade]

I'm not sure what you're saying here. I mean I understand the words but, don't understand how it relates to no thumbnails and no files in the files list when you download your 50K images. Did you try the experiment?

The mechanism I explained is in addition to the signature cache. Signature cache hasn't gone away.

[andy]

My error in using your sage comments to vector off on a related topic. I have done your experiments with enthusiasm and trepidation, and still cannot get logging to the download and failed files, or thumbnails, in v6.50. I reported this problem, again and again, and only used sarcasm when my pretty good English was ignored and misinterpreted so. The problems have nothing to do with the 1-5% of images that don't make it past my filters, or fail to the other many usenet problems, for instance NewsBin fails files where there are nested encrypted files, etc.

Gee, I said it again. To summarize in linguistically brutal terms (plain stinkin' English), 50 thousand images screaming down into the little virgin HDD with no logging and no thumbnails. Often the 8-thumbnail wide display (hi-res thumbs) seems to scream by like a crazed pinball machine when it works (on v6.40), and when there are no thumbs (v6.50) there are no thumbs, eh.

When I uninstalled it and went back to v6.40 b2059 the logging and thumbnails re-appeared to my great relief, and I'll chug along for a while without the more advanced rar+par developments. I reported the problems as best I could. One person suggested my reports were in error because I was the first or only report thus. I will let that rest, hoping that studies in logic and epistemology might save his intellectual soul.

Problem solved. Have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2014. Rest, warm-up, greet a real human friend and don't forget your meds — I take mine with a nice old Laphroaig. Whatever you might celebrate, good spirit and glad tidings to you.

[Quade]

I have numerous groups in auto-download mode and download images. I see the thumbs too.

If you decide to try again. I'd try a couple instead of 50,000. Make sure "Use Image DB" isn't set in the options. Then when they download, assuming there are no 430 errors, look in the "data folder\chunks" folder. If nothing is there, click "Help/About" which flushes the chunk cache to disk. I'd like to know if you get chunks from the files that download but, no files. If yes, that suggests there's a problem assembling the files. If no, it suggests the chunks didn't download at all.

You might need to clean this folder out first if there are already a bunch of chunks there. I know you like external drives, I might try some internal drive downloads too.

[andy]

During the time I noticed the problem, about 50,000 images were downloaded flawlessly. That is, they showed in my PaintShopPro v8 thumbnailer (a classic). I really don't know about "chunks" except to surmise that those are the maybe 384k binary attachments to the text messages, on which this whole miracle is based? Never ran into chunks very often. My own software polices my HDD farm and tosses the dead chickens over the wall without my seeing them. Since I only have two 2tb drives internally I really try to not download there, but I will try to do your test before 2013 shimmers into memory.

The horror of Bill Gates trying to store my vast online documents in "My Documents", to hardly mention "My Images" etcetera scared me off of letting people and plans into my box. Pray — what do "chunks" have to do with my problem, which is not files failing to download, but downloads failing to register? "Fishing" is what's in the creel, not what's in the stream — the moving finger writes, and having writ, moves on.

[Quade]

During the time I noticed the problem, about 50,000 images were downloaded flawlessly.

I'm not really getting the sense of the issue then. Here you seem to say it's working. If you're getting 430 errors and some files fail to download then that's expected. 430 errors are the server saying "don't have it". There's nothing Newsbin can do about that. The way the thumbnails works, the files are saved to disk, then the GUI loads the image from disk and displays it. If you have something else opening the files or moving the files at the same time that Newsbin is downloading and trying to display the thumbs, it's possible that there's nothing to show by the time the thumbnail is supposed to be displayed.

[andy]

Please understand: v6.50 does not show any thumbnails at all as I download the images. Classic behavior was to show 7-wide thumbnails of 1-5mb images spinning by like a slot machine on steroids. Wherever they are stored, retrieved, etc I do not care. My reinstall of v6.40 works as it should. This must be sufficient description, n'th time, of the problem I'm reporting.

Sorry about the sarcasm — I should not resort to humor. Nothing funny about this.

So seriously, have a good new year. You are worthy of microsoft's highest award for killing features while experimenting with new bugs. Reporting a problem reminds me of the time our helicopter, over Seattle, was clamped into a heavy fog. The pilot, having no IFR instruments, uses his hearing to edge slowly to nearby a tall office building, where the workers sensed our plight and came to the window. I wrote on the back of a manual with my marker— "Where are we??" in bold letters, and held it up for them to read.

Quickly one of the workers, apparently a leader, wrote back — "In a helicopter!"

To my horror the pilot stomps a rudder pedal, pushes the throttle and twists the collective, and our helicopter dove into the thick clouds. He jinked a few times and slowed to a textbook VFR landing at a nearby airport. When we recovered our speech we all asked how the pilot accomplished the feat.

He replied, "They gave me a technically correct but total BS answer, so I knew that was the microsoft building, and the airport is close by and the way known to me."

[Rakuray]

I read all of the threads on this post and don't understand any (ANY) of andy's text. Is there a question here or is this just for his amusement?

[andy]

I started with a question, and after a bit of thrashing around I understood the answer I got from the admins. I also read a lot of posts, many I do not understand— so I appreciate your comment, and am humbled that this is the first time you've posted. Apparently my attempts at humor have had an unexpected effect, and brought you into the fray (uh ... woke you up?) Yo, bubba.