NPJ: /private/9702/

9:11 am - "Mozart in the Morning"

Shawn,

After I received your Photo ID, and the e-mail that went along with it, I felt like absolute hell. I've been more unfair to you than to anyone else, and I can only blame myself. I was trying to pass the blame off on the other people who kept hounding me to get your story and prove it. I wasn't paying attention to the consequences of that, or where it would lead us. I don't like disasters in my life, and I'm afraid that is what I've turned our love for each other into.

I went to the florist that morning, and had them call the shop in Santa Ana. We spoke with Judy, and I told them what flowers I wanted to send you ... If you can get back, I'm certain that they're still very fresh. There are two all white Stargazer lilies, one anthurium, and several stems of purple dendrobium orchids wrapped with water source and green filer. =) I'll paint a picture. The anthurium looks like a deep red wax leaf, somewhat larger than the size of a CD case but oval in shape, with a bright gold phallic stem that comes out from the center -- I picked it to symbolize love because of the color, and the protruding center stem (I won't explain the significance of that stem, ... =). I joined this with the two all-white Stargazer lilies, one represents you, and the other me. A Stargazer lily has five petals, and they look like a starfish, normal ones have a light red or pink color bursting from the center that fills the middle of each petal -- except I had them use the more rare all-white Stargazer lily instead. Finally, the stems of dendrobium orchids - the perfect offspring to the union of the anthurium with the two lilies ... each bloom is a little bigger than a silver dollar, they contain the striking white and deep red to purple tones of the other flowers, but there are many blossoms on each stem. I wanted these flowers to show the progression of the union between you and I through love and the beauty of the result. I apologize that I wasn't there to personally select the flowers myself, but I was quite insistent in their design.

I was dreaming about you last night ... It was a strange dream, and now that I think back on it, it makes me almost sick to my stomach. I was racing through the airport with the flowers that I sent you, a ticket in my hand and a set of those metal baggage rollers in my back pocket. I ran past Gate 12, which is where the flight to Puerto Rico was about to leave. I could hear them calling your name over the intercom, and when I got off the moving walkway and headed from Gate 22 to Gate 12. There were people rushing all around me. I saw our names listed on a large mechanical black board, with white block letters -- suspended above the check-in counter of Gate 12. Mine was the last name on the list of six, yours was 5th. Mine said Nathan Johansen, and yours said "Wpolo" ... Following our names to the right of the board, I saw that I was already checked in and my seat assignment was 2A, but you were still not checked-in. I rushed up to the ticket counter and gave them my passport. They welcomed me aboard in the First Class cabin, and told me to hurry as the jetway was about to be moved. I asked about you, and they typed on the computer, and said that you had not arrived. I refused to get on the plane without you. Finally the doors were closing, and I told them, "His name is Shawn Kimble, not Wpolo and when he shows up, give him these," placing the flowers on the counter. At that instant, the dream ended and Kimber called me to the telephone. That was how I woke up this morning. Sick to my stomach about what I've done to you, and listening to Mozart fill the air with his prodigy.

Thank you for writing me back, and also for being mad at me -- it's the only way for you to forgive me. :) I hope that you will continue to let me share in your life, and I will keep my promise of being an unconditional friend. The posts are still up there, but I think that we should re-write them and post them again. I'm not concerned about what the AIDS Healthcare Foundation is interested in me for; if I wanted to receive an award I wouldn't do it by expecting them to give it to me because I put up a posting, I'd do it because I cared about the person that I was doing it for and was able to benefit them because of what I did. If someone else thought that was rewardable, then fine -- I think of it as a selfish interest to see that someone I'm concerned about is okay.

How are you doing health-wise? Have you thought about telling your parents? What about your counselor and Jenn and Tad? Surely these people are concerned and able to help you all they can, if you only let them. You don't need to think that you're all alone in this, Shawn. And you don't need to keep anything from me -- no matter what it is. Things will work out, they always do. Also, I like (read: enjoy, look forward to, thrive on) hearing from you often, even if you think that I'm an asshole for asking you to tell me the things that I did. It's still okay to call, but I'll leave that up to you.

Keep that smile of yours, and don't let the love go out of your eyes.

Nate

*smile*

10:07 am - "HTTP Environment Variables"

Morning,

I'm writing some navigational Perl scripts that make use of the HTTP Environment Variables, but it looks as though some are not configured to work on this server.

I have a test script at:

http://www.gaycafe.com/cafe/refer.cgi

Of the Environment Variables that it displays, it doesn't show the HTTP_REFERER one or the HTTP_FROM. I'm at a loss to explain why, but this is a common variable and should be supported. I've spent time at the Apache site and couldn't find any useful documentation to explain why it wouldn't be working. I've also toyed with removing the group and other write permissions on the cgi script, and that didn't have an effect. Any insight would be appreciated.

Also, I requested a MIME type be added for MIDI (*.mid) and MPEG (*.mpg) files. It doesn't look like these are active yet. Can I expect them sometime soon?

Thanks,

Nathan

11:18 am - "Picture Delivery System"

Ann,

Last night I received word that the new merchant account was set-up, and it is active today. I still have to wait for the terminal programming, which will occur either tomorrow or Monday, just in time for Tuesday the 25th when the other account is being shut off. Then I'll have to re-program ICVerify with the new DSF codes. I have to pay off Vince tomorrow at lunch (which I'm borrowing the money from my parents again) since he was able to establish this new account so quickly. I will try to pay you and John the balance owing soon.

I'm getting by, but as you have guessed, I'm not to thrilled with life.

My Perl "programming skills" are progressing. I'm confident with the syntax now, but still rely on other people's programs for examples, and have been learning based on trial and error. You mentioned something about looking into the dbslurp script, as well as the Villa Photo database getting overly large.

Teri has invited me back to RI and NY again in mid-March, every six weeks he likes to get together, I also want to go back to Germany in late March to early April to keep Foerster on our team, and T has offered to pay for the airfare on both segments. It is *important* to get this site turned around and generating money again. I've made several mistakes in how I advertise the site, keep updates, and manage the appearance. I'm addressing those things, and am confident that they will be good ingredients. It's frustrating that revenue hasn't increased, and these magazines aren't selling well - partly due to confusion about what they are and how Cafe Coins work, and also that people are annoyed that the photos cost anything at all. There is still work to do, and I want to touch on some of the things that I'm counting on.

First, the system that tracks what people have purchased needs to be "beefed" up as John has suggested. Each user will have several thousand photographs in their collection, and possibly a lot more. I don't know what structure to suggest, so I'll rely on your and John's decision for that. What I do know is that we need to establish a simple system to get photos on-line with regular updates. I've mentioned updates every six hours, as well as tagging a certain pool of images that will have a "Free" tag associated with them, so that people can at least take some photos for free (they're paying $5.00 a month, and they expect that all the photos need to be free, which we can't do for them, but we can make special deals where as long as they're checking in often, they'll be able to grab some free photos (these won't be added to their collection, when the tag is "Free" but rather they'll just be able to view the larger sized photos.)) I know that being able to paste the words "www.gaycafe.com" on every photo is important, but if it turns into a hassle, then let's forget it. What needs to happen is new content being dumped on to the user's head every day, and encouraging them to take the free photos (that change daily or every six hours) as well as encourage them to buy more Cafe Coins. I think that it is only fair to drop the coin price to ten cents -- we still bring in the revenue at the same coins levels, but they're more likely to spend money if they know they're able to get more coins. I haven't been able to change their perception of value of the photos, so we have to give them what they want if this is to survive. We;ll make our money on abundance, while not sacrificing quality. As a megabyte of data "costs" about one cent to transfer, we're still in the black with a ten cent coin (as most files are about 5/100ths of a megabyte or 50K).

I thank you for all the work on the Cafe Coins group -- and I know that it will be easy to change the coin price (just change the config plan files) -- But getting a system to present new content, and letting them either buy the photos in a "group" one by one or buy all of them at once.

Please stay in touch, as time is getting to be of the essence, and I will be unable to stay here at the bottom for another month. Also, I don't want to go on these next trips at Teri's expense if there isn't any progress with the site making money. (I'll quit now, and make lunch).

Nathan

2:09 pm

At 12:25 AM 2/21/97 -0800, you wrote:
>you may want to look at this site for you web site. I did some research for
>you. and this is suppose to be the other site that gives you the most
>competition.
>
>www.manhole.com
>
>take care
>
>Shawn

I looked at it. What shocked me was the price tag. $14.95 for one month, $69.96 for six months, and about $149.95 for a year, with a "LifeTime" as some $349.95 -- how can you sell someone a LifeTime membership? How do you measure that? My Three years for $100 is, if not affordable, at least measurable, I mean, I can look and SEE that I've provided them with Three Years of access. I couldn't do the same to know that someone had invested a LifeTime membership in me, because I'd let that mean the duration of *their* life, not the life of the web site. Also, it gave the apperance of a pure sex site and nothing else. Visiting it made me feel like I was doing something trashy almost -- however I understand now that *that* type of site is what attracts more people. I suppose that if anything, I'll have to find a way to keep what I've got of interest to the people who want it.

=) Thanks for writing me. I miss you.

Nate

2:09 pm - "Verification of Cafe Account"

Hi Jon,

I believe you phoned this afternoon to tell me that you were having problems with your username and password. Following are your account details:

Expires: Wed Apr 16 17:55:49 1997

It is important that you type your username and password exactly as they appear here. This means that lowercase letters must be typed in _lowercase_ and uppercase letters typed in UPPERCASE. If you don't type them correctly, it won't work. :)

I also noticed that you have another account at the site, with the username "" and the password of "" -- it would appear that you registered twice. What I have done, is transferred the balance of the "" account to your "" account and deactivated the "" account - meaning that your "" account now has over 4 months (120 days) of access time, and I've given you 60 Cafe Coins (instead of the standard 20) to make up for the confusion. :)

Thank you for taking a moment to call, and I hope that you enjoy the site.

Nathan Johansen
International Cafe, Inc.

2:27 pm - "Re: what did i get for my five bucks?"

At 02:15 AM 2/21/97 -0500, you wrote:
>I always try to enter my user name: ----
>and my password: ----
>Why does it not work?!
>I have been trying for weeks, ever since my credit card was charged in the
>beginning of February.
>Please respond to this and my earlier e-mail request.
>Thanks

At 02:06 AM 2/21/97 -0500, you wrote:
>I was charged five bucks on my credit card statement.
>I have tried for weeks to figure out what I recieved.
>I would like to view some xxx pics before deciding on my yearly subscription.
>The only thing I can find will cost me another five bucks.
>Where will my payment take me that I could not go before?
>Have I been defrauded to increase your personal wealth?
>My friends and I are awaiting your reply before they also pay you their five
>bucks.

Hi Michael,

Thank you for your notes. I know what your problem is, and I have a solution. I always find it amusing when people don't pay attention to instructions. Your account is active with the following details:

Expires: Sat Mar 1 00:24:34 1997

It is *IMPORTANT* that you type your username and password exactly as they are shown here. That means type the username in all _lowercase_ letters and don't put in your e-mail address instead (that's FtHampton@aol.com if you're not sure what an e-mail address is.) Typing the numbers for the password shouldn't pose much confusion.

Additionally, I have advanced the expiration date to thirty days from today as it appears that you have been unable to enjoy the account since you registered it. I've also added 40 Cafe Coins to your account as well. Keep in mind that you can find free photos in the Regular Gallery, while photos from Hadrian's Villa and the FoersterMedia Magazines require you to exchange in some of your Cafe Coins.

I appreciate the well structured comments on your registration, "trial subscription, 1 month, do not fuck with me." It tells me that you have obviously been taken in the past, so I hope that your experience at The Cafe will be more enjoyable.

Should you encounter any further difficulties, please let me know. Thanks for taking a moment to write, and I apologize for the delay in responding.

Nathan Johansen
International Cafe, Inc.

P.S. I'm flattered that you think that your five dollars was defrauded from you to add to my personal wealth. I suppose this means that I'll be able to use it to go to the grocery store and purchase the 9 ounce boxes of Stouffer's Creamed Spinach (three for Five bucks!) that I've been wanting. ~:) I hope that your friends enjoy the site as well.

2:32 pm - "Re: foerstermedia/homoh"

At 10:04 PM 2/20/97 -0600, you wrote:
>When I try to link to foerstermedia or homoh from the cafe, the result
>is a message that the URL is not available. Suggestions?

Perhaps you can try this URL instead as it sounds like you've found a bad link (which I would appreciate knowing about if you could tell me which page it was that you were finding this error on):

http://www.gaycafe.com/foerster/index.html
OR http://www.gaycafe.com/homoh/index.html

The error could also be due to a recent move of data that I completed. It is possible that DNS records were not updated correctly, so you were being pointed to the old location of the information, rather than the new location.

In any case, thank you for taking a moment to write, and I apologize for the delay in responding to your message.

Nathan Johansen
International Cafe, Inc.

2:32 pm - "Re: Greeting"

At 04:34 PM 2/21/97 -0800, you wrote:
>Hello,
>
>I was just hanging in your cafe and I really enjoyed the menu. Keep up
>the good work. Bye.
>
><Binky>
>
>PS. I think you're cute.

Hello <Binky>,

I'm happy that you're enjoying yourself at The Cafe, and appreciate your comments that the effort is good. :)

Take care,

Nathan Johansen
International Cafe, Inc.

p.s. Five out of four people think the same thing. :p

3:04 pm - "Re: Merlot in the Morning"

At 02:46 PM 2/20/97 -0800, you wrote:
>Nathan.
>
>I did here that I got something at that house. I guess I can assume it is
>from you now. Thank you for it, whatever it maybe.
>
>I would be kidding myself if I said what you have done has not hurt me very
>deeply nathan. I know I will get over it. But, that does not mean it hurts
>any less now. When you love someone and they assume things about you, and
>force you to do things tend to hurt. Especially when you love them as much
>as i loved you man.
>
>As for now, I am looking for a 3rd job to help me pay this past bill of school.
>
>I got a note from the AHF or the Aids Healthcare Foundation. They said that
>they could not get a verification of the post you put up? I guess you still
>had it down, which is fine and I understand. I just wanted to let you know
>what was up. I would want to know if someone was investagating me for some
>reason.
>
>Thank you again
>Shawn

Shawn,

Your post is still there, but I think that we should re-write it to fit the specific situation rather than keep it as it is now. Since you didn't receive what I sent you, is there a better address that I should send you things at? Perhaps you could let me know what your schedule is like a little better so that I can plan to get things to you at the right location.

I know that I hurt you, and I apologize. I was being an ass because I didn't want to end up getting hurt myself. Dating on the Internet, or even meeting people period, is so unlike actually meeting them face to face. Expecially when the conversation turns to money. It is better that we don't have any secrets from each other than to leave one guessing for the answers. And now I think that we are at a point that this isn't a problem anymore.

Does that mean that the interview didn't turn out well? What are the time requirements of the two jobs you have now (ABC and Modeling, I assume?). I'll think of some people that I know in LA and see if they can get you a good job, if you're interested. Do you have a resume or something that you're distributing if the ask? Or I can just give you their names and numbers and let you contact them if you want.

And again, about the AHF. I don't care about nor am interested in receiving an award -- I've yet to do anything that I think is WORTH getting an award for. Even so, I would prefer that I'm left alone to get to know you more and do what I can to help you. If you're willing to let me do that anymore.

Thank you, dear.

Nathan

3:04 pm - "Renewal Error?"

Ann,

I was looking at this person's account: ----

He renewed at the ValueMan level on Feb 19th and it has him expiring seven days later on the 26th. I checked the renew.config plan files, and they contain the correct information (365 days) so I'm at a loss to explain why this happened.

I've adjusted it so that he has 365 days from today.

Nathan

p.s. I'm visiting Aaron this afternoon. He may be able to help "rescue" my desktop machine.

3:04 pm - "Re: Cafe Account Status"

At 10:03 AM 2/19/97 -0500, you wrote:
>Hello Mr. Nathan Johansen,
>
>thanks a lot for your quick response.... ....I favour your second
>solution. It would be pleased to receive the coins on my account in a
>credited manner. Thanks a lot for your help,
>
>Peter
>
>PS: I have tried to renew a account, but I allways get the message
>
>"File Not found
>The requested URL /renew/index.html was not found on this server."
>
>Can you renew my account for one year (USD 50,--) and charge my creditcard?
>
>Peter

Hi Peter,

I've credited 60 coins to your account, bringing your current total to some 100 coins. I also notice that you already renewed your account on Feb. 19th, so you are all set for another year (and it is only $35 for a renewal, not $50). I apologize for the delay in responding to your message.

Thank you, and I hope that you enjoy the site.

Nathan Johansen
International Cafe, Inc.

3:04 pm - "Re: Password is not working and from what movie did gallery/g6/pic23.jpb come?"

At 02:04 AM 2/17/97 -0500, you wrote:
>Dear Nathan
>
>I just got netscape on my computer and now my password does not
>function. Kindly advise. In addition, please direct me to the proper
>place for the above referenced pictures.
>
>Note that my street address is ---, in -- and I
>paid for my registration on my Discover Card.
>
>Thanks for your time!
>
>Best regards,
>Joe

Hi Joe,

Can you take a moment to give me some more specific information about your account? I wasn't able to find it based on the e-mail address that you are using now. Any idea of when your registered, or what your username or password may have been (or better yet, your "old" e-mail address or your Cafe Customer Number?) I don't keep the physical address of my customers, so that piece of information wasn't of any help.

As to the photo, I wasn't able to put a name to the face, but if you're a fan of video I recommend that you pick up a copy of the 1997 Adam Gay Video Directory. It's about $10.95 and is replete with color photos as well as detailed reviews of almost every video produced since the 70's. Your local bookstore should have a copy.

I apologize for the delay in responding to your note, and hope that you will be able to respond soon.

Nathan Johansen
International Cafe, Inc.

6:51 pm - Your personal ad for "Wpolo"

>Date: Fri, 21 Feb 1997 12:38:01 -0800
>To: webmaster@gaycafe.com
>Subject: Your personal ad for "Wpolo"
>
>Wpolo's real name is Shawn Kimble, and he is a liar.
>All of the descriptive statistics he has provided in his
>profile are lies, but more importantly, the picture he has provided you is
>NOT him (He is african-american, not caucasian). He has maintained the
>fasade of being a blonde haired/blue eyed/buff model for years and he
>messes with peoples minds. I suggest that if you want to protect the
>integrity of your service, you consider investigating what I have told you.
>
>USC Alum

Shawn,

I received this today, any thoughts on it?

Nathan

6:51 pm - Re: Your personal ad for "Wpolo"

At 12:38 PM 2/21/97 -0800, you wrote:
>Wpolo's real name is Shawn Kimble, and he is a liar.
>All of the descriptive statistics he has provided in his
>profile are lies, but more importantly, the picture he has provided you is
>NOT him (He is african-american, not caucasian). He has maintained the
>fasade of being a blonde haired/blue eyed/buff model for years and he
>messes with peoples minds. I suggest that if you want to protect the
>integrity of your service, you consider investigating what I have told you.
>
>-Shane
>USC Alum

Shane,

I've had reason to believe that you are quite correct, but I can't confirm it. I've been to LA several times, and haven't been able to meet him. I'm a really nice guy and I guess that I'm also naive --- he's sent me a photo of some black guy (who he has told me is named Elliot) with the white guy in all the photos that's he's sent me standing next to him with his arm around his shoulder. I don't know what to think anymore -- but I don't want to be taken advantage of again.

I welcome, and am in desperate need of, any information that you can provide which would put this to rest. I've had friends on the USC campus try to identify him with no success, and I've also had the photos passed to contacts in the fashion industry which I'm still waiting to get replies from.

If you're correct, and can give me access to the proof that I need, then I'll be forever in your debt. (This means that I'll create an account for you at The Gay Cafe and see to it that everything you get there is free for as long as it is around.)

Please respond, as I am very ready to know just what the hell has been going on with this. I'm curious how you know that his username was Wpolo, and that the personal ads he placed were from him.

Nathan Johansen
International Cafe, Inc.

Toll Free: (1-888-GAY-CAFE) or in Colorado: (303) 456-5425

P.O. Box 746044
Arvada, CO 80006-6044

6:51 pm

At 04:04 PM 2/21/97 -0500, you wrote:
>On Fri, 21 Feb 1997, Nathan Johansen wrote:
>
>> I'm sending all eight pages to your e-mail address. You may try the web
>> site URL again, as I recently moved to a different server, so DNS records
>> may have been outdated at the time:
>
>Thank you very much.. When I finally get my webpage finished (which won't
>be until after April I'm afraid with classes and all) I'd likee to either
>have a link to your story or have a copy on my page... Which is most
>permissible?
>
>Jason

Either is fine with me. If you wish to use it, please see that I get a link back to my page, or that I am associated with it as the author. :)

Nathan

7:01 pm - Re: intresting letter

At 01:47 PM 2/21/97 -1000, you wrote:
>Hey Nathan
>No Problem It was my pleasure reading your letter. Im glad everything is
>going well dude Take Care.
>Robbie

=) Take Care,

Nathan

7:01 pm -

At 03:35 PM 2/21/97 -0500, you wrote:
>Hi Nathan: Did you receive the magazines I sent you? Did you like the
>content?
>
>How have you been? How are things going?
>
>Regards
>
>Brad

Hi Brad,

I did receive your magazines and I was quite impressed with the packaging. I haven't had time to go through them as of yet (I was gone for almost four weeks, so I've got to get all the alligators out of the pond first.)

I'll curl up with them when I go to bed tonight and read them. :) Thank you ever so much for sending them. It is rare that anyone sends me something as wonderful as those through the postal mail, so thank you!

Nathan Johansen

p.s. Things have been better, I hope they improve again soon.

7:01 pm - Re: Exchange Registration Gay Airline & Travel Club

At 12:59 PM 2/21/97 -0800, you wrote:
>You said you would exchange memberships with me for The Gay Airline &
>Travel Club newsletters. My id should be ---- and password
>----. Please let me know when you've registered me & your mailing
>address to send your newsleters to.

I sent a registration form, which I never received back. I'll attach another one to this e-mail in the hope that you can complete it and send it back to my personal address: nathan@npj.com

Nathan Johansen
International Cafe, Inc.

7:01 pm - Re: Picture Delivery System

At 04:18 PM 2/21/97 -0500, you wrote:
>Yet agian, I will study this carefully when I get home, but congratualtions
>on getting the new merchant account set up!

Thanks. Hopefully Visa and Mastercard will come on-line tomorrow, and then I'll have to set-up a new Amex account.

NPJ

7:01 pm - Re: Selling Rights

At 04:15 PM 2/21/97 -0500, you wrote:
>Nathan:
>
>I will relpy to this in greater detail later, too, but, for the moment, I
>urge you to abandon the idea of dropping the cost of a picture to a dime.
> People instinctively think in terms of "you get what you play for", and I do
>not want th eimages to be so inexpensive that it becomes easy for people to
>buy them and use them to compete aginst us.
>
>BTW, where to we stand on the use of the cyberspace watermark that you and
>Jeff were telling me about?

Jeff got his computer back today, and Ann is working on a system to visually paste the URL of gaycafe.com on each photo.

NPJ

7:01 pm - Re: Your service

At 04:11 PM 2/21/97 -0500, you wrote:
>Nathan:
>
>I will deal with his interests when I return tomorrow night.

Thanks, I don't know where to direct him for that type of content.

NPJ

7:10 pm - Re: Mozart in the Morning

At 09:24 AM 2/21/97 -0800, you wrote:
>I just log on.. and.. I do not really know why.. I guess in time. .I will
>learn to deal with what happened to me with you. I guess to me it is a big
>deal becaue I did love you too much. And.. sorta felt like it was my
>abrusive father forcing me to do things I am not ready for. and a lot of
>other things rolled up into one. It hurt more than I can say. I have no clue
>why you loved me. I thought that it was unconditional. that I was i was so
>into you. I have never ever seen anything like that. That is what we all
>look for. I do not care what you look like, how much money you have and what
>you can do nathan. I cared about you. tht is all.. I cared that you were a
>great man. a real man.. someone who cared. But. I think that that is too
>much to look for in most people. I say most people because I know that I
>feel that I am like that. you asked if Jennifer and Thaddeus know about
>this. no.. they do not. YOu do.. and some people at school as in the staff.
>that is it.. No one else does. I am battling this on my own. that is what I
>choose. I did want your help but I wanted to be on my feet too.. I want to
>be myself. But.. you wanted something that I was not ready to give. it hurt
>more than you will ever know. Not the fact, only, that I had to tell you. It
>was the fact you were not the person I thought you were. I love you more
>than you will ever in your life realize. for nothing more than who I thought
>you were on the inside. the loving man, that I thought just loved me for
>what was on the inside not the out. I guess it really did matter... I would
>be lying if I said I did not still love you man. But.. there is a lot of
>hurt. I also can not say that the letter you sent did not make me cry, it
>did, I did a lot. why? because again I was in love with you. someone or the
>man that I thought I always wanted... .. and I do not know what to do ..
>just think i guess man.. just think,,,
>
>Shawn

Shawn,

I do think. Every waking moment of my life I'm thinking. I know that I will continue to invest myself into you, but I'll warn you now, that if I come to find out that I've been investing in something that wasn't what I thought it was, then I'll stop doing it -- It's happened too many times to me already, and if it's going to happen again, then this is the last time.

My future rests in your hands now. I may be in LA during the first week of March. If I happen to show up on your door step, don't be surprised.

Take Care,

Nathan

9:11 pm - Re: Fw: virus alert

At 06:58 PM 2/21/97 -0800, you wrote:
>: Subject: virus alert
>: Date: Thursday, February 20, 1997 12:47 PM
>: Please take note:

Duff,

This is a hoax, which was reported as such in The Wall Street Journal. I suggest that you pass along a "cease concern" message to everyone. :) It isn't possible to get a virus by reading your e-mail messages.

I shake my head in disgust every time I see something like this being passed around. It has the intellectual significance of debating what color the little green men on Mars are.

Nathan Johansen
International Cafe, Inc.

9:11 pm - Cafe Renewal

From: Nathan Johansen <nathan@npj.com>
Subject: Cafe Renewal
Renewal: US$35.00 ValueMan Renewal - 1 Year
Comments: Excellent taste. Civilized. Not pushy.
Villa's own picture library could be more daring.

Ann,

This one renewed THREE times, and each time it kept his "days to expiration" at zero. Something is the matter.

Nathan

11:30 pm - "Re: foerstermedia/homoh"

At 10:34 PM 2/21/97 -0500, you wrote:
>Problem solved - using the URLs you supplied successfully linked me. The
>unsuccessful attempts were from http://www2.gaycafe.com/main.html - it's an
>old bookmark I have been using without problem until this occurence.
>
>Thanks for the help - and keep up the good work!

That would explain it -- the www2 server is the secure server, and it isn't set up to serve photos -- just to handle sensitive transactions, like for your personal information or credit card details. :)

I'm happy that you found a solution.

Nathan Johansen
International Cafe, Inc.

11:30 pm - Re: New magazine series

At 12:39 AM 2/22/97 -0500, you wrote:
>I think the guys really suck, and I don't mean that in the good way. I feel
>like I wasted my money paying to access the photos.

I'll be happy to give you double your coins back if you'd like to tell me what your Cafe Username is and which Magazine it was that you purchased and were not happy with.

Thanks,

Nathan Johansen
International Cafe, Inc.

11:58 pm - Re: Picture Delivery System

At 12:14 PM 2/21/97 -0700, you wrote:
>> First, the system that tracks what people have purchased needs to be
>> "beefed" up as John has suggested. Each user will have several thousand
>> photographs in their collection, and possibly a lot more. I don't know what
>> structure to suggest, so I'll rely on your and John's decision for that.
>
> I've settled on an overflow record system that looks like it will work
>well. Programming is more than half-way completed on it and is under
>good control.

I asked you about a week ago about the total number of Cafe users in the database, which you replied to -- and then adjusted due to people's accounts being expired. I see no need to keep accounts around if they are more than 180 days expired. Also, I would like to force a standard of *all* lowercase usernames and passwords. It would do a lot to save me headaches. A nice method would be to code the database to always convert the incoming username and password (this can't be done, really, as the password is already encrypted by the time the script would get it for authentication) on the fly -- but at least we can impose the standard at the time of registration and make it known that it is always ALL lowercase no matter what. It will also be useful if and when we ever install a site e-mail system for the guests to use (all lowercase usernames means that there aren't any duplicates.)

Hopefully purging the expired "180 days plus" acocunts will free up some space and computing resources. I don't see a need to keep those people around for that long. They can come back if they wish.

>> What I do know is that we need to establish a simple system to get photos
>> on-line with regular updates...
>
>Yep. I'm saving this and your other notes from our last meeting and
>hope to come up with detailed descriptions of all the steps as I see
>them soon, so we can hammer out how it all fits together, and fill any
>gaps, or you can correct me, and so on. I think it is pretty far along,
>at this point...

What I would like to see is just a "pool" that I can place images into, and the scripts will draw photos out of there, and archive them page by page every six hours to start. We'll worry about the model codes, and other foo foo later. I can always put together a detailed list of who is who based on the image number from the photo CD. This would just let me convert images from the piles of PhotoCDs that I have here, and FTP them to the server. I would probably only give attention to limited details, like who gets the royalty from the images, and the orientation (portrait, landscape, square).

>> ...I know that being
>> able to paste the words "www.gaycafe.com" on every photo is important, but
>> if it turns into a hassle, then let's forget it...
>
> I think this won't be a problem, though I might not initially be able to
>produce the nice format we were talking about. I expect the basic tag will
>work fine, though.

Sounds great. This way when people exploit the images and we'll still get some credit for it.

>> I thank you for all the work on the Cafe Coins group -- and I know that it
>> will be easy to change the coin price (just change the config plan files) --
>> But getting a system to present new content, and letting them either buy the
>> photos in a "group" one by one or buy all of them at once.
>>
> You're welcome. I hope you don't find it too expensive.

Nothing is to expensive if you can find a way to pay for it. :)

Take care,

Nathan

11:58 pm - Re: HTTP Environment Variables

At 11:38 AM 2/21/97 -0700, you wrote:
> Hi Nathan and Aaron,
>
> I have a script to print all server environment variables. I just now
>put it in the wwwdocs/admin directory, where it's called test.cgi. Here is
>its output:
> - clip -
> No, referrer is not there. As I understand it, it is the browser's
>responsibility to send the REFERER, ACCEPT and FROM environment variables.
>Lynx is not providing it here. I checked with Netscape and it wasn't
>sending it either. Does this seem right to you, Aaron, or is there
>anything the needs setting on the server side?
>
> Ann

I agree with Ann that these variables are passed by the browser, but I've tested similar scripts on other servers today, and they've worked quite well. It is something that needs to be configured on the server I believe, so that these environment variables are passed along to the CGI module.

Hopefully Aaron or John will discover the secret way of turning this on.

Nathan

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Last updated: 1:13 MST 3/1/97
Nathan Johansen - nathan@npj.com