The creators of WebBlitz, the internet form of BlitzMail, have moved the program to a newer, faster Kiewit server, but they are still awaiting permission to move the program to a server that is completely College sponsored.
WebBlitz was created last year by Dan Scholnick '00 and David Latham '01 as a means to access BlitzMail from UNIX computers. As the creators realized the mass appeal of their program, it was moved to a server in Latham's room and began to be used by students and alumni on and off campus.
Computing Services is dedicated to placing WebBlitz on a College server which would be secure, but there are concerns from within Kiewit over the security issues, Computer Services Manager of Special Projects Richard Brown said.
According to Scholnick, the College has been extremely helpful and encouraging in the development and implementation stages of the project, but several "serious" policy issues still stand in the way of WebBlitz moving to a College server.
To be moved to a College server, Computing Services must first examine the programming code of WebBlitz. Although unlikely, there could be lines of code which would provide "trapdoors" for the programmers to gain access to users passwords and messages, Brown said.
Guidelines must also be established in order for operators at Kiewit to run the program efficiently, Brown said.
Currently, the student operators of WebBlitz -- Scholnick, Latham, Stephen Clifton '01, Abram White '00 and Jason Hsiao '98 -- are concerned that having Kiewit examine every line of code in the program and on every future change could slow down the response rate for dealing with bugs and implementing system upgrades.
Upgrades could also be slowed down considerably by forcing the developers to have their code examined, Scholnick said.
Currently, some Computing Service engineers are on vacation, and the program review is delayed until they return to campus.
Despite disclaimers on WebBlitz that indicate that the program is in no way serviced by the College, students and alumni continue to rely on the program, Brown said.
On a regular day, WebBlitz receives between 1,500 and 2,000 hits a day, increasing to 3,000 a day during interim periods. Over 3,300 different students have logged onto WebBlitz since its creation, and the site has received over 80,000 hits since December 1.
