Military News outage

[bossi]

Unfortunately, the Canadian Forces College "Spotlight On Military News" has taken a hit.

As a result, it's no longer available on weekends or holidays, and is only being updated during "normal" office hours (i.e. previously, it was manually updated in the wee hours of the morning, which enabled us to see the news headlines before breakfast - all times EST).

If you're unfamiliar with the superb level of service provided previously, I'd encourage you to go back and compare a few dates from last fiscal year - the sections under Canadian News and Commentary were always well-stocked, and the International Commentary and News were a cornucopia of reference material for whatever turns your crank (... and the icing on the cake was the History section).

I hope this invaluable Internet service is restored, soon
(i.e. it's not enough to pretend the DWAN Intranet is adequate ... because it's not, IMHO).

http://www.cfc.forces.gc.ca/spotnews_e.html

 

[tomahawk6]

I agree, its been a great news summary for me for several years now. I hope they can restore full service.

 

[Sam69]

I love the service, it's been a great morning friend to me for a long time. But it is important to realize that exists solely because the webmaster at CFC does it as a hobby. CFC has no mandate to provide this service and so the Webmaster has been doing it on his own time for years (even taking a laptop on vacation so he could keep the site updated). I suspect that he simply got tired of working 24/7 and is giving himself a well-deserved break.

Sam

 

[jmacleod]

Agreed a great site, have been reading it daily for years. Did not realize it was a voluntary effort
however, DND PR shoud be requested to allocate some of their resources and ensure the site
is restored and adequately funded. The US site, "Military.com" very informative is in fact a
commercial enterprise, which might be funded in part by combined DOD funds. In the UK, PR
is considered very imporant to MOD and has a high profile right up to their Minister.
I do not believe "all good things must come to an end" - MacLeod

 

[Gobsmacked]

I love the service, it's been a great morning friend to me for a long time. But it is important to realize that exists solely because the webmaster at CFC does it as a hobby. CFC has no mandate to provide this service and so the Webmaster has been doing it on his own time for years (even taking a laptop on vacation so he could keep the site updated). I suspect that he simply got tired of working 24/7 and is giving himself a well-deserved break.

Sam

Sam,
As advised by CFC Webmaster below, also a contract issue.
From my reading of his reply it looks like we may actually lose this fine service as of 30 June 2005. 
As I replied back on Apr 4:
Sorry to hear that CFC did not renew, I wonder if they realize what a Heavily Used EXTREMELY USEFULL site this Truly is!!!  If there was an Online Petition I'd sign it.

"The College did not renew my contract when it expired on 31 March, and I am now a casual Public Service employee until 30 June. My hours are are now limited to the standard PS five-day week.

We're hoping that the College will restore the necessary funding, so that we can provide the same level of service that many have enjoyed since I began posting SOMNIA in December 1995.

Sincerely,
Mike
--
M.D. Pollard, Major (Retired)
Webmaster, Canadian Forces College"

 

[Sam69]

Bad news indeed - thanks for the update Gobsmacked. Let's hope that we don't lose this service... I pretty much depend on it.

Sam