Hi Donald,

The following is one reason I have not been saying too much about this lately.

I have a gradually expanding list of groups and individuals around the world who are experts on different parts of the earthquake science and forecasting pictures. That includes two separate groups in different countries which appear to me to be doing some of the most advanced work regarding linking geomagnetic storms, earthquake warning signals, and earthquakes. The main problems at the moment regarding our making faster progress in those areas might be time limitations and communications difficulties. Some of the top researchers appear to have a limited knowledge regarding all of the powerful Internet resources which are available for communications. And one goal is to get some of those communications problems fixed.

Regarding another matter – computer programs,

To do some of the most important forecasting work you need versatile and powerful computer programs. And something I have been working on lately is determining what the capabilities are of a program called “Perl.” It is something like a super version of Basic. One of its most attractive features is the fact that it can be used at Internet Web sites to do things such as collect and process data. The EarthWaves bulletin board management program is I believe a Perl CGI program. Another especially attractive feature is the fact that it is free. So people around the world who have personal computers which are less than say 10 years old can easily use it to develop and exchange programs. It will probably be another week before I know enough about it to recommend if it should or should not be used. At the moment I am trying to see how well it does with managing Windows and DOS programs.