Re: Xnews out of memory problem

Frank Slootweg <this@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
news:4421a920$0$17495$dbd41001@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx:

thanatoid <waiting@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
c64fan@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote in
news:1143037247.510952.301450@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx:
[deleted]

No, he's saying that the way he thought xnews worked
required him to store that many so he wouldn't have to
download all ten million each time he visits the group
or as he put it "turning off storage would mean
re-downloading all the headers each time I visit a
newsgroup".

Please do yourself a favor and *try* to understand
c64fan's excellent
summary of the situation (quoted above). I.e. do not try to
attack/ debunk/<whatever> it, but try to *understand* it,
because it's *exactly* what happened.

The summary may or may not be be excellent but it would not
stand up in court since it is based on inferences, not on Mr.
gto's actual words.

Which were (YOU drove me to this!!!):

(WOW, I just noticed it's gta not gto. My apologies to all
involved.)

Post 1:

=start quote=
Subject: Xnews out of memory problem
From: gta@xxxxxx

Thanks to giganews' outstanding completeness and retention,
I'm faced with a new woe: due to the large amount of headers
that I need to download (which sometimes number over 10
million), it becomes fairly often to run into the dreaded
"out of memory" problem. Make no mistake, my system is
decidedely high-end, with AMD dual core 2.6ghz and 2 GB OCZ
dual-channel ram, and the total amount of virtual memory is
set to the max 4GB.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems to me that Xnews makes
no effort to conserve the usage of physical ram, it simply
downloads all headers into ram, before sorting and then
storing the headers. If there are too many headers to fit in
the physical ram, kaboom, because it doesn't even try to make
room by writing freshly-downloaded data to the hard drive.
I've tried to download headers in a piece-meal fashion, sadly
to avail, because Xnews insists on loading old headers into
physical ram before downloading the new ones.

I've become really fond of Xnews, and hope there is a
solution to this problem: ie. a setting in the setup (where
I've failed to find anything relevant so far), or even a
magic statement in the ini file.

Your help would be most appreciated.
=end quote=

thanatoid comment:

"Thanks to giganews' outstanding completeness and retention,
I'm faced with a new woe: due to the large amount of headers
that I need to download (which sometimes number over 10
million), it becomes fairly often to run into the dreaded
"out of memory" problem."

The fact that he is on GN, appears to know the meaning of the
words "completeness" and "retention" and seems to have heard
of the (IMO semi-fictitious) "out of memory" problem,
indicate to me he is not a total newbie. Regrettably, he does
not clarify whether he has bothered to read the manual(s, if
you include all the web resources on XNews). After all, it's
always easier just to ask the same question AGAIN than to
read a few pages or to Google, as I mentioned in my first
reply to him.

"large amount of headers that I need to download
(which sometimes number over 10 million)"

NEED to download, not "XNews requires me to store". Since he
is more-or-less literate, one would think he may have some
reason for NEEDing to DL (AND store) them. SOME reason,
however insane.

Post 2:

=start quote=
Subject: Re: Xnews out of memory problem
From: gta@xxxxxx

Luu Tran <xnews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
news:Xns97845993FAA87luutrangeocities@xxxxxxxxxxxxx:

gta@xxxxxx wrote in
news:uaSdnTOh7qE5konZnZ2dnUVZ_t6dnZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems to me that Xnews
makes no effort to conserve the usage of physical ram, it
simply downloads all headers into ram, before sorting and
then storing the headers. If there are too many headers to
fit in the physical ram, kaboom, because it doesn't even
try to make room by writing freshly-downloaded data to the
hard drive. I've tried to download headers in a piece-meal
fashion, sadly to avail, because Xnews insists on loading
old headers into physical ram before downloading the new
ones.

correct. When I started Xnews, you had like 5000 new
headers a day. Now it's more like 100,000+ on heavy groups.
But I haven't bothered to change memory handling.

Two things you can do: 1) limit # of headers you get at one
time. 2) turn off header storage, or in a crunch just
delete the relevant .hdr and .mbx files in data\


Thank you very much for the reply, and more thanks for the
great work you put into this awesome free news reader.

A quick response to your suggestions: suggestion (1) is all
that I can do right now, and suggestion (2) is not very
practical to me as turning off storage would mean
re-downloading all the headers each time I visit a newsgroup,
with some of more active groups having close to 10 million
total posts, it literally takes close to an hour on my
not-so-shabby cable connectoin.

I've tried quite a few newsgroup readers, Forte's Agent for
example, but I always find Xnews to be far more intuitive,
more user-friendly, and with a much less steep learning
curve. I sincerely hope that some day in the future, Xnews
would be fitted with a more comptemporary memory handling
routine.

Thanks again.
=end quote=

thanatoid comment:
"suggestion (2) is not very practical to me as turning off
storage would mean re-downloading all the headers each time I
visit a newsgroup"

Lack of knowledge OR insanity. Take your pick.

"I've tried quite a few newsgroup readers, Forte's Agent for
example, but I always find Xnews to be far more intuitive,
more user-friendly, and with a much less steep learning
curve. I sincerely hope that some day in the future, Xnews
would be fitted with a more comptemporary memory handling
routine."

IOW:

Will you rewrite your free program just for me because I am a
spoiled moron who is rather good at kissing ass?

And, finally...

"...with a much less steep learning curve..."

Obviously not flat enough.

Post 3:

=start quote=
Subject: Re: Xnews out of memory problem
From: gta@xxxxxx

I certainly don't need a freak offering me his worthless
asinine 2 cents. Seek medical help, please. And I did say
"please". =end quote=

thanatoid comment:

I never said he wasn't polite.

General thanatoid summary based on Mr. gta's EXACT WORDS as
quoted above:

Whether by reason of ignorance or insanity, Mr. gta wants to
store tens and tens of millions of headers on his computer.
He thinks since he has a top-end machine, he should be able
to do anything he wants to. Luu actually answers him and
tells him it can't be done. Mr. gta says that is not
acceptable, and very politely asks Luu to rewrite the program
so that he (Mr. gta) can do what he wants to.

Not XNews, most (if not ALL) nr's. So you at least agree
he is ignorant of the way Usenet works, and very possibly
not that smart in general.

Yes, ignorant in its (correct) meaning of not (yet)
informed/aware/
<whatever>, *not* the, sadly rather common but incorrect,
interpretation "stupid".

That is exactly the meaning I intended. I have a MAJOR issue
with people who call others "ignorant" when they mean "rude"
or "stupid" and with people who "COULD care less".

Which I think you know, because you must realize that I would
be the last person to write, in effect, "stupid of the way
Usenet works".

The fact that you say that he is "very possibly not that
smart in
general" after, 1) *he* *has* been educated and 2) *you*,
after these zillions of responses, *still* fail to
understand what happened/was_said and why, makes you a
prime candidate for a PKB award.

Where the *** do you see his "education" as having taken
place? Read the three posts again if you have to! He wants
Luu to rewrite the program because, since he has a
"deciDEDEly high-end" machine and a "not-so-shabby
cable connectOIN", and wants to do something absurd, he
should be accommodated. When given perfectly good advice
(which he admittedly MAY be incapable of understanding), he
resorts to insults. Some education.

I admit I won't let go until I am either ***PROVEN*** wrong
(or right) or until one of us dies (and that this certainly is
not the healthiest approach to life), but I am not the stupid
and arrogant one here (or at least not the only one).

BTW, AFA acronyms go, it must feel VERY cool to show your
familiarity with something totally irrelevant to, well,
everything, but there has to be a line drawn SOMEWHERE. Are
you trying to communicate or just like to hit keys?

PKB is a three-letter abbreviation that may refer to:
1)Panstwowy Korpus Bezpieczenstwa, a Polish underground
police force during World War II
2)The National Awakening Party of Indonesia, from the
abbreviation for its name in Indonesian
3)Base dissociation constant as pKb or pKB, a chemical compound
descriptive perameter
4)AKT otherwise known as "protein kinase B", an enzyme that
plays a major role in signal transduction
(From Wikipedia)

?????

BTW, PLEASE read my sig, I am getting tired of this
bickering.

Then why do *you* respond?

I have no life and nothing better to do - unfortunately. And
I like to have the last word (see previous paragraph).
Nobody's perfect - and I have NO problem admitting to my
problems.

--

+++
(This post from thanatoid may or may not really exist and
does not postulate a reply of any kind.)
.