Thanks Gary. That message indicates a file-locking conflict--somebody else is trying to post at the same time. I need to replace those cryptic diagnostic messages with human-friendly ones. This one would translate into "The system is currently busy. Please refresh this page to resubmit your message."

I expect the likelihood of this conflict to be reduced a couple of orders of magnitude when I compile the scripts to binary. I'm using scripts right now because they're easier to modify and tweak than compiled code; but once the scripts are stable it makes sense to compile them to get the performance advantage.

Have you considered using an Apache based webserver code rather than the Microsoft garbage?

Have you considered trading in that piece of crap Netscrape Nagivator 4.7 for a modern, non-obsolete, non-buggy browser? The fact that you're clinging to the thing despite its obvious and deep flaws is ample evidence that your hatred of Microsoft is based entirely on emotion and has nothing to do with technical realities. After you've spent six years designing and building Web sites, then maybe we should talk more about it.

In point of fact, as a professional, I use whatever technology is appropriate. When I designed a server farm for a dot-com a year ago, it was split 50/50 between Sun UNIX boxes running Apache, for heavy-duty file serving; and HP Win2K boxes for the interactive features that required server-side programming. My opinion of Apache is an informed one. Microsoft's server is part of an integrated product line that includes development tools that make it relatively simple to add sophisticated features to a site. With Apache, on the other hand, you have to return to the bygone days of hacking the source and recompiling the entire damn thing, followed by an extended period of regression-testing to determine what else you've broken in the process. That antiquated and unproductive approach has been superseded by object-oriented and modular software approaches that have been standard in the industry for a couple of decades. I've been hearing for almost 3 decades that UNIX is the operating system of the future, and I believe it--it's as true today as it was in the '70s. I'm still waiting.

Glad you asked?

--Robert