• even if I started a blog..

    From Ogg@21:4/106.21 to Warpslide on Tue Jun 23 01:28:00 2020
    Hello Warpslide!

    ** On Monday 22.06.20 - 20:05, Warpslide wrote to Adept:

    Problem is, even if I started a blog like that today nobody I know
    would read it (because it's not Facebook) and it would just get filled
    up with spambots & hacking attempts.


    Here's an idea. Create a blog that bears a strong resemblance to the
    basic FB. Promote it as your personal FB but without the ads! LOL

    Then.. as more people discover it and comment, adjust the colours, and
    layout gradually to fit your preferences!

    Even if you just start out with the same color, that might be enough to satisfy those that complain that "it's not Facebook".

    There are more than enough WP themes out there that could be made to look like FB. Infact, the more recent themes all bear the long-toilet-paper- roll-and-scroll-one-page approach.

    If you lock down your site/pages to just registered users, spam is quite minimal and easy to delete.


    --- OpenXP 5.0.45
    * Origin: (} Pointy McPointFace (21:4/106.21)
  • From Ogg@21:4/106.21 to Warpslide on Wed Jun 24 02:09:00 2020
    Hello Warpslide!

    ** On Tuesday 23.06.20 - 08:48, Warpslide wrote to Adept:

    I like the Christmas letter analogy, maybe instead of a blog I should
    just spam my mom, aunt & grandparents every-so-often.

    A few families I knew would do that - send end-of-year updates of their family exploits. I liked receiving those. That was pre-facebook pre-blog days.


    My Dad _still_ doesn't have a computer, the internet or a cell phone,
    so I have to call his landline to keep in touch.

    Maybe he could warm up to a tablet device?

    I have an aunt who simply refused to sit in front of a CRT monitor because
    of "the bad radiation those things emit". I was poised to show her the
    magic of bbsing, echomail, modest searches with gopher, etc. Today, she
    is quite home-bound, arthritic, and can't operate many things with buttons
    or levers. But a tablet or a device like Alexa could afford some options
    - if she still didn't think that computers were evil! :)

    She *is* on the phone (nevertheless a cordless one next to her head) many hours of the day though, and often on speaker-phone. Hence an Alexa-
    device could be a good solution, but her immediate family is not as
    excited about the possibilities as I am.


    Funny story with my Dad: Up until recently he still wrote cheques &
    mailed them to pay all of his bills. When he ran out of cheques, he
    called the bank to order more & wanted to charge him for the cheques,
    which used to be free with his account. How he goes into the bank to
    pay all of his bills in person at the Teller (he still refuses to use
    the ATM). He's also disabled tap on his debit card.

    I thought most banks have special senior accounts that provide free
    chequeing and/or free supplies.

    Maybe he hasn't seen how to use the ATM and doesn't know how to ask for a demo or something.

    Nevertheless, with all the social-engineering tricks at an ATM still at
    play, dealing directly with a teller is not necessarily a bad thing.



    --- OpenXP 5.0.45
    * Origin: (} Pointy McPointFace (21:4/106.21)
  • From Warpslide@21:3/110 to Ogg on Wed Jun 24 19:22:38 2020
    On 23 Jun 2020, Ogg said the following...

    Maybe he could warm up to a tablet device?

    Possibly, but then he'd have to get & pay for internet.

    I thought most banks have special senior accounts that provide free chequeing and/or free supplies.

    I should probably look into that for him, but I'd much rather he update his ways than encourage his stone-age behaviours... ;)

    Maybe he hasn't seen how to use the ATM and doesn't know how to ask for
    a demo or something.

    He does need glasses, but often forgets to wear them.

    Jay

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  • From Mickey@21:1/156.1 to Ogg on Thu Jun 25 01:50:42 2020
    On Mon 22-Jun-2020 9:28p, Ogg@21:4/106.21 said to Warpslide:


    --- OpenXP 5.0.45
    * Origin: (} Pointy McPointFace (21:4/106.21)

    Just finally deleted Facebook from everything here. Been on there for 15 years and plugged at 5000 'friends'. It had became a hornet's nest and a scourge on civilization. It was a musician's best friend but holy shit...

    sorry...

    (Should have started a new thread)

    Mick

    *<<<--- Tradewars 2002 - CentralOntarioRemote.com:2002 --->>>*
    *\\\--- C.O.R. IRC - CentralOntarioRemote.com 6667 ---///*
    --- CNet/5
    * Origin: Central Ontario Remote BBS (21:1/156.1)
  • From Ogg@21:4/106.21 to Warpslide on Fri Jun 26 03:06:00 2020
    Hello Warpslide!

    ** On Wednesday 24.06.20 - 15:22, Warpslide wrote to Ogg:

    Maybe he could warm up to a tablet device?

    Possibly, but then he'd have to get & pay for internet.

    Maybe you could gift him a subscription for a trial period? ;)

    At first, my mom was a bit averse to using a computer for writing letters. But a brief introduction to WordPerfect was a game changer. She was 55
    yrs old at the time. Then, not much later, I configured a pc for her to
    use as a point to dial up to my bbs system into another province. She
    warmed up to echomail and inter bbs games quite quickly


    I thought most banks have special senior accounts that provide free
    chequeing and/or free supplies.

    I should probably look into that for him, but I'd much rather he
    update his ways than encourage his stone-age behaviours... ;)

    Or.. it could be for the better as things are. I believe that some people shouldn't even have access to a computer. The person claims to have
    dozens of pen pals (in the true letter writing sense) ..but in email, the person has nothing to say. The subject is always "hi" or "hello", and
    just one or two lines. When sending a photo, the person takes the
    original photo with a digital camera, prints the image on paper, scans it, and then sends THAT resultant scan to me! Sheesh. I've tried to show
    that printing and scanning is not necessary, but THEY insist it is. :(


    Maybe he hasn't seen how to use the ATM and doesn't know how to ask
    for a demo or something.

    He does need glasses, but often forgets to wear them.

    Ah.. that could be the root. He probably would feel unfortable pecking at
    a keypad and get something wrong.


    --- OpenXP 5.0.45
    * Origin: (} Pointy McPointFace (21:4/106.21)
  • From Adept@21:2/108 to Ogg on Fri Jun 26 07:59:18 2020
    have dozens of pen pals (in the true letter writing sense) ..but in
    email, the person has nothing to say. The subject is always "hi" or "hello", and just one or two lines. When sending a photo, the person

    To be fair, if you send a card with one or two handwritten lines, it's
    probably fairly normal.

    It horrifies me, but I'm more likely to have a prompt of, "how's the weather today?" and go off on a multipage tangent on Jeff Goldblum (weather, so hurricanes, so butterfly effect, so chaos theory, and nature, uh, finds a way.).

    But I imagine that the, "I write letters all the time!" (that take roughly
    five minutes from choosing to adding a postage stamp) crowd is just one of
    the many types of human beings I don't understand.

    Though, come to think of it, it has kinda been my dad's style from time to time.

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A45 2020/02/18 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Storm BBS (21:2/108)
  • From Ogg@21:4/106.21 to Avon on Fri Jun 26 13:37:00 2020
    Hello Avon!

    ** On Friday 26.06.20 - 19:46, Avon wrote to Adept:

    ISBN-10 of 9781594744426

    Thanks :)
    ISBN nice... having worked in libraries I can relate to this.


    These may be an equally good laugh:


    The Meowmorphosis : 9781594745034

    Android Karenina : 9781594744600

    Jane Slayer : 9781439191187

    Emma and the Vampires : 9781402241345

    But, I'd say it would be best to be familiar with the original classic inspirations before delving into these so that you can get the joke.



    --- OpenXP 5.0.45
    * Origin: (} Pointy McPointFace (21:4/106.21)
  • From The Godfather@21:1/165 to Mickey on Sun Jun 28 11:37:48 2020
    Just finally deleted Facebook from everything here. Been on there for 15 years and plugged at 5000 'friends'. It had became a hornet's nest and a scourge on civilization. It was a musician's best friend but holy shit...

    Hows life without facebook? I lasted 3 months after deleting mine, but my family made it difficult to not start a new account. So .. I created a new one, closed it up to not be visible to the public, and applied just about all privacy settings. I think I now have just under or over 30 friends on there. It's more peaceful now. I do like my BMX and BBS pages that I follow,
    and a couple of prank jokers on there. But I only look at my notifications now, to see if anything has been posted that I may need to read, then move on with my day.

    It is a hornets next of negativity and advertising for sure.
    Ads within the middle of a video I'm watching, made me stop watching videos. So ... I wonder how that is working out for Facebook?

    Anway, congrats on pulling the plug on Facebook!

    tG

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A45 2020/02/18 (Windows/32)
    * Origin: The Underground [@] theunderground.us:10023 <-port (21:1/165)
  • From Warpslide@21:3/110 to The Godfather on Sun Jun 28 12:38:49 2020
    On 28 Jun 2020, The Godfather said the following...

    Hows life without facebook? I lasted 3 months after deleting mine, but
    my family made it difficult to not start a new account.

    I was the same. I deleted my original account a long time ago, but got pressure from family & co-workers to make a new one.

    I created a new one, closed it up to not be visible to the public, and applied just about all privacy settings. I think I now have just under
    or over 30 friends on there. It's more peaceful now.

    Like you, I created a new one but I'm not searchable & you can't send me a friend request. If I know you, and you ask, I'll add you. I don't post much of anything on my Facebook anymore, mostly just a Garfield or Calvin & Hobbes comic I found amusing.

    The big thing for me is I no longer have it on my phone. If I feel the need
    to check it (mostly to "check-in" to a theatre for a movie I'm about to
    watch) I'll log in with Safari and then log out when I'm done. I don't need the app or even a shortcut on my home screen.

    Jay

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  • From Arelor@21:2/138 to The Godfather on Sun Jun 28 12:36:09 2020
    Re: Re: even if I started a blog..
    By: The Godfather to Mickey on Sun Jun 28 2020 07:37 am

    Hows life without facebook? I lasted 3 months after deleting mine, but my

    Facebook never did anything for me. I think my facebooklñess life is as social as it was while facebook enabled. I find more interesting people in BBS and IRC.

    What gets hard is a life without popular mobile instant messengers. I am one of those, and having no popular messenger system really teaches you who are your real friends. A lot of people won't acknowledge you exist at all if you are not in their platform of choise. They can't just be bothered to email or phone you.

    "Why didn't you invite me to the party?"
    "You weren't in $mobile_messaging_platform."

    If they can't be my friends unless I use the software their want they can **** themselves.

    --
    gopher://gopher.operationalsecurity.es
    --- SBBSecho 3.11-Linux
    * Origin: Palantir * palantirbbs.ddns.net * Pensacola, FL * (21:2/138)
  • From Ogg@21:4/106.21 to Arelor on Sun Jun 28 18:14:00 2020
    Hello Arelor!

    ** On Sunday 28.06.20 - 08:36, Arelor wrote to The Godfather:

    Hows life without facebook? I lasted 3 months after deleting mine,
    but my

    Facebook never did anything for me. I think my facebookl├▒ess life is
    as social as it was while facebook enabled. I find more interesting
    people in BBS and IRC.

    Most people probably want to remain emotionally distant, not opening themselves up to getting "involved" in someone's life. BUT.. they want
    you to see a picture of the food on their plate every night, too many pictures of flowers in their garden, where they are having a pedicure, the restaurant they are currently visiting, etc. So sad.


    What gets hard is a life without popular mobile instant messengers. I am one of those, and having no popular messenger system really teaches you
    who are your real friends. A lot of people won't acknowledge you exist at all if you are not in their platform of choise. They can't just be
    bothered to email or phone you.

    Like I said, it's probably the fear of getting emotionally attached.


    "Why didn't you invite me to the party?"
    "You weren't in $mobile_messaging_platform."

    If they can't be my friends unless I use the software their want they can **** themselves.

    The whole social networking environment has become so fragmented with so
    many different platforms. We can't be expected to be on all of them, but then there are people wondering why aren't are we on the "their" preferred platforms. Nothing wrong with picking and choosing the ones we want.


    --- OpenXP 5.0.45
    * Origin: (} Pointy McPointFace (21:4/106.21)
  • From Adept@21:2/108 to The Godfather on Sun Jun 28 23:53:29 2020
    It is a hornets next of negativity and advertising for sure.
    Ads within the middle of a video I'm watching, made me stop watching videos. So ... I wonder how that is working out for Facebook?

    While I'm currently taking a Facebook break, I'd point out that Fluff-Busting Purity (fbpurity.com, I think, but also FBP) tends to be pretty good about filtering out sponsored posts. And, heck, if you hate seeing posts about a certain topic, you can have it never show you posts with certain words in
    them.

    And that's just scratching the surface. I think it's more important than an
    an blocker for the rest of the internet. Facebook is kinda intolerable
    without it.

    Kinda intolerable _with_ it, but that's just digressing back to the original topic.

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A45 2020/02/18 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Storm BBS (21:2/108)
  • From Warpslide@21:3/110 to Ogg on Sun Jun 28 20:48:36 2020
    On 28 Jun 2020, Ogg said the following...

    We can't be expected to be on all of them, but then there are people Wondering why aren't are we on the "their" preferred platforms. Nothing wrong with picking and choosing the ones we want.

    That's why I'd like to have something that's "mine", whether it's a free Wordpress blog, a self-hosted static site or something like that. They want
    to know what I'm up to? Go there, but don't expect to find out what I ate
    for dinner last night.

    Jay

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/06/11 (Windows/32)
    * Origin: Northern Realms BBS | bbs.nrbbs.net | Binbrook, ON (21:3/110)
  • From Arelor@21:2/138 to Warpslide on Sun Jun 28 21:50:12 2020
    Re: Re: even if I started a blog..
    By: Warpslide to Ogg on Sun Jun 28 2020 04:48 pm

    That's why I'd like to have something that's "mine", whether it's a free Wordpress blog, a self-hosted static site or something like that. They want to know what I'm up to? Go there, but don't expect to find out what I ate for dinner last night.

    The problem is a lot of people won't go visit your place, because they are too busy in their own social media walled garden.

    See what I said about people not getting invited to a party because they aren't on platform X.

    I have Email, phone, can be reached via BBS, I am active on IRC. Yet a lot of my so-called friends won't bother to tell me about important events because I am not on a platform they are in. You are not in their ecosystem, you don't exist, period, unless they REALLY need you.

    --
    gopher://gopher.operationalsecurity.es
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  • From Adept@21:2/108 to Ogg on Mon Jun 29 04:16:32 2020
    themselves up to getting "involved" in someone's life. BUT.. they want you to see a picture of the food on their plate every night, too many pictures of flowers in their garden, where they are having a pedicure,
    the restaurant they are currently visiting, etc. So sad.

    Oddly, I'd be fine with that, even if I don't think all that highly of it. Kinda meaningless, but kinda, "this is important to this person".

    But my Facebook feed is a constant string of enraging political articles, sometimes questionable facts, and tons and tons of non-personal memes.

    I actively welcome pictures of friends' chickens, cats, or other pets.

    (And not that the political things are unimportant -- it's just slactivism,
    and does little for me besides challenge my mental health.)

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A45 2020/02/18 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Storm BBS (21:2/108)
  • From Warpslide@21:3/110 to Arelor on Mon Jun 29 00:22:28 2020
    On 28 Jun 2020, Arelor said the following...

    See what I said about people not getting invited to a party because they aren't on platform X.

    Yeah, that's true as well. Damned if you do...

    events because I am not on a platform they are in. You are not in their ecosystem, you don't exist, period, unless they REALLY need you.

    I have people come out of the woodwork all the time, but ONLY when they need computer help. Really grinds my gears that I don't exist unless they need something. When I deliberately don't answer because of that, they even try going through my other half which pisses me off even more. >:(

    Jay

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/06/11 (Windows/32)
    * Origin: Northern Realms BBS | bbs.nrbbs.net | Binbrook, ON (21:3/110)
  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to The Godfather on Sun Jun 28 14:30:00 2020
    The Godfather wrote to Mickey <=-

    Hows life without facebook? I lasted 3 months after deleting mine, but
    my family made it difficult to not start a new account. So .. I
    created a new one, closed it up to not be visible to the public, and applied just about all privacy settings.

    That sounds like a good idea; if there was a way to stop the process
    of people forwarding political links and sharing them it would make
    FB tolerable again.



    ... Do something boring
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  • From The Godfather@21:1/165 to poindexter FORTRAN on Mon Jun 29 06:08:55 2020
    That sounds like a good idea; if there was a way to stop the process
    of people forwarding political links and sharing them it would make
    FB tolerable again.


    You definitely discover who your real friends are, as some will seek you back out to send a friend request -- most you'll realize were past co-workers, or friends of friends, you really forgot all about. And, for those who
    constantly forward political posts that annoy you? Just ignore the friend request. Also, shutting down public view (I think, maybe Adept knows more
    than I regarding this) eliminates ex partners, employers/potential or
    current, among others from stalking you facebook profile. Buuuuuuuttttt ... then you have to have self control not to subscribe to political sites :)

    -tG

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A45 2020/02/18 (Windows/32)
    * Origin: The Underground [@] theunderground.us:10023 <-port (21:1/165)
  • From Vk3jed@21:1/109 to The Godfather on Mon Jun 29 23:32:00 2020
    On 06-29-20 02:08, The Godfather wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-

    You definitely discover who your real friends are, as some will seek
    you back out to send a friend request -- most you'll realize were past co-workers, or friends of friends, you really forgot all about. And,

    I have had some good reconnections on Facebook, so I don't mind getting friend requests, but I only accept the ones that make sense.

    for those who constantly forward political posts that annoy you? Just ignore the friend request. Also, shutting down public view (I think,

    I ignore those most friend requests, because I can't identify who they are.

    maybe Adept knows more than I regarding this) eliminates ex partners, employers/potential or current, among others from stalking you facebook

    Haha I'd need an Ouija add-on for my first partnet to contact me (though that's someone who I would let contact me, if it was possible). :)

    profile. Buuuuuuuttttt ... then you have to have self control not to subscribe to political sites :)

    Haha I tend to avoid those, and these days I really try to avoid American politics, it's just got too toxic for my liking.


    ... Real Programmers Practice Safe HEX
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  • From Warpslide@21:3/110 to The Godfather on Mon Jun 29 11:44:47 2020
    On 29 Jun 2020, The Godfather said the following...

    most you'll realize were past co-workers, or friends of friends, you really forgot all about.

    Other than family, the rest of my Facebook is mostly current/past co-workers.

    Not too long ago I got a friend request from some random stranger, or so I thought, but it turns out we had a few classes together back in high school...

    *shrugs*

    Jay

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/06/11 (Windows/32)
    * Origin: Northern Realms BBS | bbs.nrbbs.net | Binbrook, ON (21:3/110)
  • From The Godfather@21:1/165 to Vk3jed on Mon Jun 29 14:54:24 2020
    I have had some good reconnections on Facebook, so I don't mind getting friend requests, but I only accept the ones that make sense.

    I shut mine down and have to be the one to initiate friend requests. Too
    many ex coworkers or employees I'd prefer not interacting with now that I no longer work with them, were trying to "reconnect" when I changed my account. Not to mention ex girlfriends that finally figure out facebook exists and search me out to rekindle things and or snoop around. Lastly, I'm looking
    for employment, and I do subscribe to Fox Financial news, and Anonymous (For fun) and wouldn't want a perception of political affiliation to get in the
    way of a job. Not to mention the many Jack Kale (I think thats his last
    name) farting pranks he does (candid camera style). SO .. I keep it on lock down. But then again, I literally don't use it anymore other then to communicate with my dad uses facebook as the family communication tool and scheduling tool; that and my wife seems to think it's easier to send a
    facebook message from the other room then to walk to the room I'm in and say what she needs to (rolling eyes).

    Haha I'd need an Ouija add-on for my first partnet to contact me (though that's someone who I would let contact me, if it was possible). :)


    Yikes, I'm sorry to hear that.

    Haha I tend to avoid those, and these days I really try to avoid American politics, it's just got too toxic for my liking.


    Agreed, try living here :) (If you don't already,) I only leave the TV on
    fox financial news as background noise, to keep track of the stock ticker
    while in my online classes, and if something BIG happens thats news worthy, it'll catch my attention and I may watch.

    tG

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A45 2020/02/18 (Windows/32)
    * Origin: The Underground [@] theunderground.us:10023 <-port (21:1/165)
  • From The Godfather@21:1/165 to Warpslide on Mon Jun 29 15:00:27 2020
    Other than family, the rest of my Facebook is mostly current/past co-workers.

    Not too long ago I got a friend request from some random stranger, or so
    I thought, but it turns out we had a few classes together back in high school...

    I've had a few of those I had to go to a year book to recall who the heck
    they were, then realized, "Oh yeah, I didn't like you then, probably
    shouldn't try to now." Besides, I went to high school in a different state so it's not like I'm going to meet up for a beer. I also would get these random people from countries known to be somewhat "Scammers" facebook messaging me stating "hi, how are you?" Since locking my FB down, I don't get those.

    The ad tracking and data collector is what bothers me the most. I know it doesn't others on here, and thats ok, but when a small business owner, I
    would get so many "Start your own amazon store" videos within my newsfeed
    that I couldn't keep up on turning them off. I don't know if true, but I
    have heard their data can also tell when you walk into select stores, or what web pages you surf. SO ... I might be overly "acting like my 74 year old paranoid dad" here but .. well .. I guess it's within the genes.

    tG

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A45 2020/02/18 (Windows/32)
    * Origin: The Underground [@] theunderground.us:10023 <-port (21:1/165)
  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to The Godfather on Mon Jun 29 14:31:00 2020
    The Godfather wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-

    That sounds like a good idea; if there was a way to stop the process
    of people forwarding political links and sharing them it would make
    FB tolerable again.


    You definitely discover who your real friends are, as some will seek
    you back out to send a friend request -- most you'll realize were past co-workers, or friends of friends, you really forgot all about.

    I'm finding, much to my consternation that they're forgetting about
    me more than the other way around. I guess I'm more sentimental about
    work relationships than others.

    for those who constantly forward political posts that annoy you? Just ignore the friend request. Also, shutting down public view (I think, maybe Adept knows more than I regarding this) eliminates ex partners, employers/potential or current, among others from stalking you facebook profile. Buuuuuuuttttt ... then you have to have self control not to subscribe to political sites

    It looks like you can filter forwarded posts, so when that friend of
    yours posts the political ad, you can mute the ad maker, your friend
    or both. It's helped quite a bit with those family members who watch
    too much Fox News.



    -tG

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    (21:1/165)

    ... Lost in useless territory
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  • From Adept@21:2/108 to The Godfather on Mon Jun 29 23:11:04 2020
    (candid camera style). SO .. I keep it on lock down. But then again, I literally don't use it anymore other then to communicate with my dad
    uses facebook as the family communication tool and scheduling tool; that

    I guess it's hard to avoid Facebook if people are using it as a scheduling tool, though I've been perfectly fine continuing to use Messenger Lite for Facebook messaging. It's nice -- you can even suspend your Facebook account
    and still use it.

    But I tend to communicate with my parents mostly through post cards. They generally communicate through e-mail. But I don't think my situation and preferences are at all normal, on that count. I'm also generally far away.

    and my wife seems to think it's easier to send a facebook message from
    the other room then to walk to the room I'm in and say what she needs to

    I found it odd when I learned that my brother and his wife will call each
    other on the phone to do that sort of thing.

    Then again, I've never been a phone person. I guess BBSs hit early enough in
    my life that it never seemed normal to _talk_ to people.

    ticker while in my online classes, and if something BIG happens thats
    news worthy, it'll catch my attention and I may watch.

    Why not watch a Twitch stream or something, then?

    I guess it's not news, then, but still...

    Oh, thinking of news things that I tend not to watch, I've enjoyed that Last Week Tonight with John Oliver is sponsoring Marble League 2020. Go Raspberry Racers and Team Galactic! It's the sporting event of the summer.

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A45 2020/02/18 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Storm BBS (21:2/108)
  • From Adept@21:2/108 to The Godfather on Mon Jun 29 23:16:43 2020
    select stores, or what web pages you surf. SO ... I might be overly "acting like my 74 year old paranoid dad" here but .. well .. I guess
    it's within the genes.

    It's interesting that it's no longer a tech issue on those things. As in, Google is doing constant surveillance on maybe a billion or two people.

    Harder if you're not Google or Apple, but if Facebook has location
    tracking as one of its app permissions, it'd be well within their power, too, for most people with phones.

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A45 2020/02/18 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Storm BBS (21:2/108)
  • From The Godfather@21:1/165 to poindexter FORTRAN on Mon Jun 29 21:59:30 2020
    I'm finding, much to my consternation that they're forgetting about
    me more than the other way around. I guess I'm more sentimental about
    work relationships than others.


    I used to get that way regarding old working relationships, until I owned a business for 7 years. After disconnecting from the industry I had been in at the time (consumer electronics,) I found an equal disconnection with those I used to associate with.

    It looks like you can filter forwarded posts, so when that friend of
    yours posts the political ad, you can mute the ad maker, your friend
    or both. It's helped quite a bit with those family members who watch
    too much Fox News.


    I had to laugh when you said Fox News, as I watch the channel, however I learned in 2016 a quick way to lose 1/3 of your friends -- forward fox news posts during an election.

    I am aware of all of the privacy settings. It's a bit time consuming with everything on my plate, the faster way was to just "mute" the friend for a period of time if not indefinetly, however that was more of a "soft approach" of un-friending them. It would be nice if they simplified the work to filter content then their system currently allow.

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A45 2020/02/18 (Windows/32)
    * Origin: The Underground [@] theunderground.us:10023 <-port (21:1/165)
  • From The Godfather@21:1/165 to Adept on Mon Jun 29 22:05:34 2020
    I guess it's hard to avoid Facebook if people are using it as a
    scheduling tool, though I've been perfectly fine continuing to use Messenger Lite for Facebook messaging. It's nice -- you can even suspend your Facebook account and still use it.

    But I tend to communicate with my parents mostly through post cards. They generally communicate through e-mail. But I don't think my situation and preferences are at all normal, on that count. I'm also generally far
    away.


    Post cards and pen pals were the good ol' days. That is how I always communicated with my cousins. Now that it's much easier, I hear from them
    less often. I do miss those days of receiving a photo in the mail and a hand written letter. My Grandma on my Dads side was the last to do that. My wife is excellent at writing thank you letters and sending out cards for every occasion. I had forgotten about post cards, I may have to revisit those.

    Why not watch a Twitch stream or something, then?

    I guess it's not news, then, but still...

    Oh, thinking of news things that I tend not to watch, I've enjoyed that Last Week Tonight with John Oliver is sponsoring Marble League 2020. Go Raspberry Racers and Team Galactic! It's the sporting event of the
    summer.


    Hahahaha! Marble OMG, you're hilarious, but so true. Not much going on that doesn't require a significant period of my time in front of a TV these days. SO I just don't watch it, unless it's a good show I follow, which are many as is: Ozark, Yellowstone, now the Americans, and many past "others." Remind me what twitch is? I suppose I could google it .. but I'd love your thoughts on the quality of it's content.

    -tG

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A45 2020/02/18 (Windows/32)
    * Origin: The Underground [@] theunderground.us:10023 <-port (21:1/165)
  • From Vk3jed@21:1/109 to The Godfather on Tue Jun 30 15:38:00 2020
    On 06-29-20 10:54, The Godfather wrote to Vk3jed <=-

    I shut mine down and have to be the one to initiate friend requests.
    Too many ex coworkers or employees I'd prefer not interacting with now that I no longer work with them, were trying to "reconnect" when I
    changed my account. Not to mention ex girlfriends that finally figure
    out facebook exists and search me out to rekindle things and or snoop

    I don't have too many that I'd prefer not to interact with, so meffectively a non issue, and I discussed previous relationships before, with the Ouija protocol not supported by Facebook, that's a non issue! ;)

    around. Lastly, I'm looking for employment, and I do subscribe to Fox Financial news, and Anonymous (For fun) and wouldn't want a perception
    of political affiliation to get in the way of a job. Not to mention

    I prefer to take an approach of "managing" my social media presence. I have had to "untag" myself from inappropriate posts on the odd occasion. Lately, that's only been spam from hacked accounts.

    the many Jack Kale (I think thats his last name) farting pranks he does (candid camera style). SO .. I keep it on lock down. But then again,

    I generally don't follow that sort of content.

    I literally don't use it anymore other then to communicate with my dad uses facebook as the family communication tool and scheduling tool;
    that and my wife seems to think it's easier to send a facebook message from the other room then to walk to the room I'm in and say what she
    needs to (rolling eyes).

    Haha that reminds me of the time in a local wifi experimenters group, where we had around 15 people in the same house on IRC, and people were sending messages like "Hey XXXX, can you grab a can from the fridge for me?" :D

    Haha I'd need an Ouija add-on for my first partnet to contact me (though that's someone who I would let contact me, if it was possible). :)


    Yikes, I'm sorry to hear that.

    It was 15 years ago, so I've processed it. But I did lose a very close friend last year too. :( That's one Facebook contact I really miss.

    Haha I tend to avoid those, and these days I really try to avoid American politics, it's just got too toxic for my liking.


    Agreed, try living here :) (If you don't already,) I only leave the TV

    LOL thankfully, I don't, it's bad enough with a planet in between!



    ... I'm only paranoid because everyone's against me.
    === MultiMail/Win v0.51
    --- SBBSecho 3.10-Linux
    * Origin: Freeway BBS Bendigo,Australia freeway.apana.org.au (21:1/109)
  • From Vk3jed@21:1/109 to Adept on Tue Jun 30 16:23:00 2020
    On 06-29-20 19:11, Adept wrote to The Godfather <=-

    Then again, I've never been a phone person. I guess BBSs hit early
    enough in my life that it never seemed normal to _talk_ to people.

    When I was single, I used to enjoy long phone conversations with friends, but once I started living with partners, phone calls became intrusive, and text based communication became much more efficient 99% of the time, which is still true today.


    ... I'm afraid to die. I just don't want to be there when it happens.
    === MultiMail/Win v0.51
    --- SBBSecho 3.10-Linux
    * Origin: Freeway BBS Bendigo,Australia freeway.apana.org.au (21:1/109)
  • From Adept@21:2/108 to The Godfather on Tue Jun 30 07:30:09 2020
    a "soft approach" of un-friending them. It would be nice if they simplified the work to filter content then their system currently allow.

    My conspiracy theory is that they don't do this sort of thing, because
    they're trying to actively encourage engagement with posts, and all the enraging posts are the ones that lead to the highest engagement.

    So it's a negative feedback cycle, where Facebook delves further into the radicalizing content because it's what gets people to engage.

    But maybe that's just what people want to post, and it's unavoidable. *shrug*.

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A45 2020/02/18 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Storm BBS (21:2/108)
  • From The Godfather@21:1/165 to Adept on Tue Jun 30 04:21:14 2020
    My conspiracy theory is that they don't do this sort of thing, because they're trying to actively encourage engagement with posts, and all the enraging posts are the ones that lead to the highest engagement.

    So it's a negative feedback cycle, where Facebook delves further into the radicalizing content because it's what gets people to engage.

    But maybe that's just what people want to post, and it's unavoidable. *shrug*.


    No, your conspiracy theory is likely correct from what I've seen. I've read many comments of various popular news or social related posts (local, national, or global), and often times it appears obvious that a BOT started the conversation. The BOT never replies, as it would appear the goal was to orchestrate the proverbial snowball effect of strangers engaging within a typo-thon of insults toward one another. My conspiracy theory is that many powerful institutions do the aforementioned to promote agendas they'd like fulfilled.

    This is an interesting topic in that I feel social media contributes to a lot of the craziness we see and or read about these days.

    I'm sure I've brought up 'Marco Polo' on here before. It's a great ap my family, close friends, and I have adopted. If not, it's like texting, except video based. It's nice to see the person and hear their voice, especially those long distance. Facetime never clicked with me, as I'm never on the same schedule as those who Facetime, Skype, schedule zoom parties, or call. Marco Polo allows for it to occur as time is convenient for everyone involved, just like texting.

    I think you had mentioned BBS'ing shifting you more toward a texting format
    of communication. Heck, I remember being on the phone with my highschool girl friend all night while coding in basic or waiting 2 hours for a game to download at 300 baud :)

    -tG

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A45 2020/02/18 (Windows/32)
    * Origin: The Underground [@] theunderground.us:10023 <-port (21:1/165)
  • From The Godfather@21:1/165 to Vk3jed on Tue Jun 30 04:36:12 2020
    I don't have too many that I'd prefer not to interact with, so meffectively a non issue, and I discussed previous relationships before, with the Ouija protocol not supported by Facebook, that's a non issue! ;)


    Thats good. I as not nearly as selective when I first engaged in facebook.
    My wife had to tap me on the shoulder and let me know that everyone could see all of the political posts I had been "liking" and I was rather embarrassed I had not known that my friends, and their friends, could see them. I was initially turned off by Facebook as my wife and mother in law would play farmville daily, to the point of one calling the other to state they were out grocery shopping and would ask the other to harvest their crops (sigh). So I was a late adopter to the format. To me, a "like" to the author. Most of
    the time it wasn't the subject discussed but a comment and or the content of the article I agreed with and or liked, so I'd "like" the post to let "them" know. Little did I know that "them," was several hundred of my "friends." Whoops.

    I generally don't follow that sort of content.


    I love shows like Impractical Jokers, the old Candid Camera shows, etc. My grandma watched them all of the time; my mom lived in New York prior to her passing, and she would call to watch Impractical Jokers together. I suppose watching them reminds me of their laughs. But yes, prank videos do require a rather unique sense of humor (for better or worse).

    Haha that reminds me of the time in a local wifi experimenters group, where we had around 15 people in the same house on IRC, and people were sending messages like "Hey XXXX, can you grab a can from the fridge for me?" :D


    I'd go insane .... however ... my mom worked for the phone company when I
    was in k-12, and when she finally added a second corded line for me, I'd call her to ask her to bring me chocolate milk ... I imagine she's making me pay
    for it now lol!

    It was 15 years ago, so I've processed it. But I did lose a very close friend last year too. :( That's one Facebook contact I really miss.


    I'm sorry to hear that; it's amazing what one remembers, misses, and desires, when someone close to us is lost. There are so many times I almost subconsciously wish I could reach out to those long passed, that I have to shake off. It's painful, friend or family member aside.

    LOL thankfully, I don't, it's bad enough with a planet in between!

    Lucky you! I'd love to visit Australia some day. One of my best friends
    moved there and loves it. My oldest boy (12) races BMX and from the emails I get from the BMX association, it's a big deal in Australia and Japan,
    compared to here. And, lots of BBS'ers too! We need a pause button in the states :)

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A45 2020/02/18 (Windows/32)
    * Origin: The Underground [@] theunderground.us:10023 <-port (21:1/165)
  • From Vk3jed@21:1/109 to The Godfather on Wed Jul 1 00:48:00 2020
    On 06-30-20 00:36, The Godfather wrote to Vk3jed <=-

    Thats good. I as not nearly as selective when I first engaged in facebook. My wife had to tap me on the shoulder and let me know that everyone could see all of the political posts I had been "liking" and I

    I figured that out pretty early on. :) But I've had a policy of treating all online media as "public", unless proven otherwise. That dates back to the BBS days. :)

    was rather embarrassed I had not known that my friends, and their
    friends, could see them. I was initially turned off by Facebook as my wife and mother in law would play farmville daily, to the point of one calling the other to state they were out grocery shopping and would ask the other to harvest their crops (sigh). So I was a late adopter to
    the format. To me, a "like" to the author. Most of the time it wasn't

    I think I managed to block most of the games - well, I don't get game requests anymore, after a period of blocking any games that requests came from. :)

    the subject discussed but a comment and or the content of the article I agreed with and or liked, so I'd "like" the post to let "them" know. Little did I know that "them," was several hundred of my "friends." Whoops.

    As I said, I caught on, but much of my online time has been spent "playing to the audience", because that's where debates are won and lost. Used to have some big debates in local Fidonet echos (not politics though! :D ).

    I love shows like Impractical Jokers, the old Candid Camera shows, etc.

    Camdid Camera was very well done, I used to like that as well. The pranks they did were very clever.

    My grandma watched them all of the time; my mom lived in New York
    prior to her passing, and she would call to watch Impractical Jokers together. I suppose watching them reminds me of their laughs. But
    yes, prank videos do require a rather unique sense of humor (for better
    or worse).

    With me, it depends on the prank, some are clever, some are just degrading.

    I'd go insane .... however ... my mom worked for the phone company
    when I was in k-12, and when she finally added a second corded line for me, I'd call her to ask her to bring me chocolate milk ... I imagine
    she's making me pay for it now lol!

    Haha that's even worse than the IRC one! :D

    I'm sorry to hear that; it's amazing what one remembers, misses, and desires, when someone close to us is lost. There are so many times I almost subconsciously wish I could reach out to those long passed, that
    I have to shake off. It's painful, friend or family member aside.

    Yes, those things that stay with you. :)

    LOL thankfully, I don't, it's bad enough with a planet in between!

    Lucky you! I'd love to visit Australia some day. One of my best
    friends moved there and loves it. My oldest boy (12) races BMX and
    from the emails I get from the BMX association, it's a big deal in Australia and Japan, compared to here. And, lots of BBS'ers too! We
    need a pause button in the states :)

    Cool. When I was at high school, I had a friend who was into BMX and he was quite good at it too. I think it still is quite popular here, though I haven't had any connection to the sport since the mid 80s, and even that was indirect.

    For me, a good athletics track will fit the bill. :D


    ... A jury -- twelve persons chosen to decide who has the better lawyer.
    === MultiMail/Win v0.51
    --- SBBSecho 3.10-Linux
    * Origin: Freeway BBS Bendigo,Australia freeway.apana.org.au (21:1/109)
  • From Vk3jed@21:1/109 to The Godfather on Wed Jul 1 01:11:00 2020
    On 06-30-20 00:21, The Godfather wrote to Adept <=-

    No, your conspiracy theory is likely correct from what I've seen. I've read many comments of various popular news or social related posts
    (local, national, or global), and often times it appears obvious that a BOT started the conversation. The BOT never replies, as it would
    appear the goal was to orchestrate the proverbial snowball effect of strangers engaging within a typo-thon of insults toward one another.
    My conspiracy theory is that many powerful institutions do the aforementioned to promote agendas they'd like fulfilled.

    I wouldn't be surprised. So many people thrive on bad news and negativity, and it gets people to engage - well most people, I tend to be disinterested in it.

    I'm sure I've brought up 'Marco Polo' on here before. It's a great ap
    my family, close friends, and I have adopted. If not, it's like
    texting, except video based. It's nice to see the person and hear
    their voice, especially those long distance. Facetime never clicked
    with me, as I'm never on the same schedule as those who Facetime,
    Skype, schedule zoom parties, or call. Marco Polo allows for it to
    occur as time is convenient for everyone involved, just like texting.

    Interesting concept, though for me, even that wouldn't work, because there's so little "free airtime" when there's nothing else playing to send or receive video messages. Text mode is much more efficient, because it can continue in the background. BBSing s a great medium for me. :)

    I think you had mentioned BBS'ing shifting you more toward a texting format of communication. Heck, I remember being on the phone with my highschool girl friend all night while coding in basic or waiting 2
    hours for a game to download at 300 baud :)

    Haha me phone calls were often BBS related, with a modem session happening on the other line. Sometimes I was actually working remotely on the BBS, while chatting to the actual sysop (I was the tech co sysop at the time) about what I was doing. :)


    ... Very funny Scotty, now beam down my clothes!
    === MultiMail/Win v0.51
    --- SBBSecho 3.10-Linux
    * Origin: Freeway BBS Bendigo,Australia freeway.apana.org.au (21:1/109)
  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to Vk3jed on Tue Jun 30 11:23:00 2020
    Vk3jed wrote to The Godfather <=-

    Haha that reminds me of the time in a local wifi experimenters group, where we had around 15 people in the same house on IRC, and people were sending messages like "Hey XXXX, can you grab a can from the fridge for me?" :D

    I went to college before home internet, and before the internet was
    really covered at all; I remember hearing about group houses where
    they had a house domain with a web server and home pages, ethernet
    run in the house, a shared laser printer and IRC.

    I'm sure some group houses now have a shared media server.






    ... Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.
    --- MultiMail/XT v0.52
    * Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)
  • From Vk3jed@21:1/109 to poindexter FORTRAN on Thu Jul 2 01:18:00 2020
    On 06-30-20 07:23, poindexter FORTRAN wrote to Vk3jed <=-

    I went to college before home internet, and before the internet was

    The Internet hadn't come to Australia when I started university, but later in my course, we did study IP and the LAN was running RFC1918 addresses, while waiting for an actual connection and address assignments.

    really covered at all; I remember hearing about group houses where
    they had a house domain with a web server and home pages, ethernet
    run in the house, a shared laser printer and IRC.

    On campus accommodation was already being phased out here by the mid 80s.

    I'm sure some group houses now have a shared media server.

    I'm sure they would.


    ... The one question you've always wanted clarified. What did she say?
    === MultiMail/Win v0.51
    --- SBBSecho 3.10-Linux
    * Origin: Freeway BBS Bendigo,Australia freeway.apana.org.au (21:1/109)
  • From Spectre@21:3/101 to The Godfather on Mon Jun 29 14:55:00 2020
    It is a hornets next of negativity and advertising for sure. Ads
    within the middle of a video I'm watching, made me stop watching

    Ponder, I don't get a truckload of advertising.... in fact I rarely see ìany... which is apparently no normal... wonder how that happens... I don't ìtrundle in without ABP+ and Privacy Badger doing their thing, PB in ìparticular seems to have a field day with FB.

    Maybe its the limited interactions I have don't fall into anyones advertising ìrange... shrug.. whatever it is I don't get much.. When I do get the odd ìone, I keep flagging them as inappropriate, I also started to push all the ìfinancial ones as scams... :) People trying to scam bitcoin was all the rage ìat one stage... All dried up after that....

    Spec


    *** THE READER V4.50 [freeware]
    --- SuperBBS v1.17-3 (Eval)
    * Origin: Scrawled in haste at The Lower Planes (21:3/101)
  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to Vk3jed on Wed Jul 1 11:26:00 2020
    Vk3jed wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-

    The Internet hadn't come to Australia when I started university, but
    later in my course, we did study IP and the LAN was running RFC1918 addresses, while waiting for an actual connection and address
    assignments.

    It wasn't until my second job after college, in 1993 or so, that I
    first got an internet connection. I was responsible for a 56k (!)
    leased line and a Cisco router, with 3 class C networks. I learned IP
    networking from a book, then took a Cisco class at the University.

    Networking was just text-based email, gopher and NNTP, so we did OK
    with 50 people using that circuit.

    Later on, had to build DNS from scratch, using Cricket Liu's DNS and
    BIND book from O'Reilly over a weekend. I started in the morning with
    a spare PC and a BSD/OS CD, and had a working resolver after lunch.

    Those were good times, learning a ton of new crap.


    ... Is something missing?
    --- MultiMail/XT v0.52
    * Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)
  • From Vk3jed@21:1/109 to poindexter FORTRAN on Sun Jul 5 22:36:00 2020
    On 07-01-20 07:26, poindexter FORTRAN wrote to Vk3jed <=-

    It wasn't until my second job after college, in 1993 or so, that I
    first got an internet connection. I was responsible for a 56k (!)
    leased line and a Cisco router, with 3 class C networks. I learned IP
    networking from a book, then took a Cisco class at the University.

    I studied IP at university, and coincidentally, at the same time, I was running IP at home on packet radio (this was in 1991). So, I'd be doing the theory in class, then come home and see IP in action. At 1200bps on a simplex channel, things happened slow enough to follow in real time, and ham radio packet software defaults to "monitor mode "(basically a packet sniffer on air) when not connected to anything. :)

    Networking was just text-based email, gopher and NNTP, so we did OK
    with 50 people using that circuit.

    My circuit back then was more congested - 1200 bps is a LOT slower, especially when it's not full duplex! ;)

    Later on, had to build DNS from scratch, using Cricket Liu's DNS and
    BIND book from O'Reilly over a weekend. I started in the morning with
    a spare PC and a BSD/OS CD, and had a working resolver after lunch.

    I went through the same process when I was working for an IT training company. I literally put them on the Internet, and built authoritative DNS servers on Linux, before it became popular, and also a separate caching resolver, along with NAT and screening routers (we had a real DMZ).

    Those were good times, learning a ton of new crap.

    I agree, hands on learning was awesome. I am going through a similar period now, getting SDR based transceivers to work, using a Raspberry Pi. :)


    ... All true wisdom is found in taglines. :)
    === MultiMail/Win v0.51
    --- SBBSecho 3.10-Linux
    * Origin: Freeway BBS Bendigo,Australia freeway.apana.org.au (21:1/109)