• Re: Hey there

    From Carol Shenkenberger@21:1/104 to Avon on Sun Oct 7 14:06:48 2018
    Re: Re: Hey there
    By: Avon to apam on Wed Oct 03 2018 09:46 pm

    you have been busy. I've been looking a source code for the gateway software I use. Trying to suss if it can be modded to do some tweaks to time zone information being parsed from FTN packets to Usenet. It's all in C so it's somewhat greek or should that be geek to me :)

    Maurice Kinal might be helpful there. Fidonet ASIAN_LINK is easiest way to find him. Welcome to talk tech there BTW.

    xxcarol
    --- SBBSecho 2.12-Win32
    * Origin: Shenk's Express, shenks.synchro.net (21:1/104)
  • From Avon@21:1/101 to All on Mon Jun 22 00:56:24 2020
    Well after a few days home I am slowly catching up on stuff. Went into work
    on Friday for a few hours, the first time I had been back in our office since the lockdown had been eased and life in NZ has pretty much returned to normal.

    This coming week I think I will likely work a couple of days at home and the other in the office.

    Just my daughter and I at home right now, my wife is still away staying at
    her mums house trying to sort out family estate matters with her brothers. I think it will be another week or so before she gets back home here and is talking of needing to go back to her mums place in a few weeks time to sort more stuff out. I feel for her, it's not an easy time.

    My daughter was away for 3 days on a school field trip and for the time it
    was just me and the house pets... very strange feeling and awfully quiet.
    Still I got stuff done around the house and started back at work last
    Thursday.

    I think work will be busy for a few weeks while I catch up on some projects that I have had to park due to absence.

    There may be a job vacancy opening up soon that I am thinking I'll try for,
    if it does, I'll likely be quieter on the BBS scene for a few weeks while I
    try and pursue that. Did a bit of work on LinkedIn today as a fist step.

    What else, watched some Marvel films, re-watched Tron Legacy with my daughter (we both love the film) and also re-watched Shawshank Redemption which I
    still think is a great film.

    Best, Paul

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/05/28 (Windows/32)
    * Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)
  • From apam@21:1/126 to Avon on Sun Jun 21 23:37:55 2020
    Hey

    There may be a job vacancy opening up soon that I am thinking I'll
    try for, if it does, I'll likely be quieter on the BBS scene for a
    few weeks while I try and pursue that. Did a bit of work on
    LinkedIn today as a fist step.

    Is the new job at the same place you are now?

    I think I made a Linked in account once, I didn't really understand what
    it was all about though so left it.

    What else, watched some Marvel films, re-watched Tron Legacy with
    my daughter (we both love the film) and also re-watched Shawshank Redemption which I still think is a great film.

    Cool. My wife likes the shawshank redemption too. I don't mind it, but I
    don't watch it every time it comes on TV haha.

    I've been working on stuff, Magicka now has enough knobs and buttons to
    run an FTN network, I was just testing file hatching the other day. I've
    made up a little info pack for happynet so hopefully I can lure some
    people to join in and add it to their list of networks to see just how
    well it holds together.

    At present it's tiny, rushfan, deon and me, and it's holding together
    with 7 nodes (rushfan, deon and me have 2 nodes each). I am expecting
    bugs to surface if it grows larger, but we'll see :)

    My mum is still in Queensland, she's going home July 5th. South
    Australia just reopened their border to Queensland so she wont have to
    isolate when she gets home which she's happy about.

    Hope you're well. Have been thinking of you guys a bit.

    Andrew

    --- MagickaBBS v0.15alpha (Linux/x86_64)
    * Origin: HappyLand - telnet://happylandbbs.com:2023/ (21:1/126)
  • From Al@21:4/106.1 to Avon on Sun Jun 21 07:55:36 2020
    Well after a few days home I am slowly catching up on stuff. Went into work on Friday for a few hours, the first time I had been back in our office since
    the lockdown had been eased and life in NZ has pretty much returned to normal.

    I'm glad things are going well there.

    We are doing quite well here although COVID19 still hasn't been solved. We went 5 days without a death related to the coronavirus but we are seing an increase in new cases. Not a large spike but a large increase in new cases.

    Something we have to keep an eye out for.

    This coming week I think I will likely work a couple of days at home and the other in the office.

    I just had my surgery on Monday so after 4 - 6 weeks I should be heading back to work. That's about 10 months off work. I thought I would be off work for a month or two. I might need some retraining. :)

    --- BBBS/Li6 v4.10 Toy-4
    * Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (21:4/106.1)
  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to Avon on Sun Jun 21 11:47:00 2020
    Avon wrote to All <=-

    What else, watched some Marvel films, re-watched Tron Legacy with my daughter (we both love the film) and also re-watched Shawshank
    Redemption which I still think is a great film.

    My son is 16, we watched Shawshank Redemption a few weeks ago for his
    film appreciation class homework. I listened to a podcast where they
    talked about the 3 possible endings:

    1. End with Red looking out the bus window talking about hope.

    2. The theatrical ending where they zoom out from the beach.

    3. An ending where they talk and have a drink at Andy's inn on the
    beach.

    #3 would be interesting.



    ... Don't avoid what is easy
    --- MultiMail/XT v0.52
    * Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)
  • From Black Panther@21:1/186 to Avon on Sun Jun 21 15:58:34 2020
    On 21 Jun 2020, Avon said the following...

    Well after a few days home I am slowly catching up on stuff. Went into work on Friday for a few hours, the first time I had been back in our office since the lockdown had been eased and life in NZ has pretty much returned to normal.

    After all this time, I'm wondering what normal is...

    There may be a job vacancy opening up soon that I am thinking I'll try for, if it does, I'll likely be quieter on the BBS scene for a few weeks while I try and pursue that. Did a bit of work on LinkedIn today as a
    fist step.

    Good luck! I'm still getting settled into my new position. So far, it has
    been going well. I'm working on writing unofficial reviews on my employees,
    and having them fill out self-evaluations. Within the next week or so, I want to be able to sit down with each of them and find out where they would like
    to go within the company, and set expectations for them.

    Week 1 was only 53 hours. Week 2 was down to about 50 hours, with another 20
    at home... If only I got overtime for the extra work. ;)

    What else, watched some Marvel films, re-watched Tron Legacy with my daughter (we both love the film) and also re-watched Shawshank
    Redemption which I still think is a great film.

    Shawshank Redemption is a good movie. I still find it amazing that it was
    based on a short story. Of course the short story was better, but the movie
    is good. ;)


    ---

    Black Panther(RCS)
    Castle Rock BBS

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A45 2020/02/18 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Castle Rock BBS - bbs.castlerockbbs.com (21:1/186)
  • From Black Panther@21:1/186 to apam on Sun Jun 21 16:00:00 2020
    On 21 Jun 2020, apam said the following...

    I think I made a Linked in account once, I didn't really understand what it was all about though so left it.

    I made one as well, but wasn't able to do much with it. Everything needed you to be a paid member in order to access. I got frustrated with it and left it.


    ---

    Black Panther(RCS)
    Castle Rock BBS

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A45 2020/02/18 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Castle Rock BBS - bbs.castlerockbbs.com (21:1/186)
  • From Zip@21:1/202 to Avon on Mon Jun 22 00:56:16 2020
    Hello Avon,

    On 21 Jun 2020, Avon said the following...
    home here and is talking of needing to go back to her mums place in a
    few weeks time to sort more stuff out. I feel for her, it's not an easy time.

    My belated condolences -- this certainly can't be easy. :(

    There may be a job vacancy opening up soon that I am thinking I'll try for, if it does, I'll likely be quieter on the BBS scene for a few weeks while I try and pursue that. Did a bit of work on LinkedIn today as a

    Good luck, and keeping my fingers crossed here then! :)

    Best regards
    Zip

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/06/11 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Star Collision BBS, Uppsala, Sweden (21:1/202)
  • From Vk3jed@21:1/109 to Avon on Mon Jun 22 19:37:00 2020
    On 06-21-20 20:56, Avon wrote to All <=-

    Well after a few days home I am slowly catching up on stuff. Went into work on Friday for a few hours, the first time I had been back in our office since the lockdown had been eased and life in NZ has pretty much returned to normal.

    Werlcome back. :)


    ... Fear is no great respecter of reason.
    === MultiMail/Win v0.51
    --- SBBSecho 3.10-Linux
    * Origin: Freeway BBS Bendigo,Australia freeway.apana.org.au (21:1/109)
  • From Avon@21:1/101 to apam on Mon Jun 22 22:37:15 2020
    On 21 Jun 2020 at 07:37p, apam pondered and said...

    Is the new job at the same place you are now?

    Yes, in the same general team, it's yet to come up though but hopefully next month I can apply for it.

    I think I made a Linked in account once, I didn't really understand what it was all about though so left it.

    It's a social network platform for business, think of it as a place to
    put your online CV with forums etc.

    Cool. My wife likes the shawshank redemption too. I don't mind it, but I don't watch it every time it comes on TV haha.

    Only seen it twice now, first time in the 90s and then just the other day. That's probably enough but the plot is solid.

    I've been working on stuff, Magicka now has enough knobs and buttons to run an FTN network, I was just testing file hatching the other day. I've made up a little info pack for happynet so hopefully I can lure some people to join in and add it to their list of networks to see just how well it holds together.

    At present it's tiny, rushfan, deon and me, and it's holding together
    with 7 nodes (rushfan, deon and me have 2 nodes each). I am expecting
    bugs to surface if it grows larger, but we'll see :)

    cool. when I feel I can come up for air, I'll be looking to get involved too.

    My mum is still in Queensland, she's going home July 5th. South
    Australia just reopened their border to Queensland so she wont have to isolate when she gets home which she's happy about.

    It sounds like covid is still kicking in Australia, we're up to 9 cases in NZ again but all coming in from o/seas and in border quarantine.

    Hope you're well. Have been thinking of you guys a bit.

    Honestly feeling mentally tired and still juggling family stuff and a slow
    but measured return to the workplace office environment also which is also taxing mentally after 2-3 months of working from home and being told to stay home and save lives...

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/05/28 (Windows/32)
    * Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)
  • From Avon@21:1/101 to Al on Mon Jun 22 22:38:45 2020
    On 21 Jun 2020 at 03:55a, Al pondered and said...

    I just had my surgery on Monday so after 4 - 6 weeks I should be heading back to work. That's about 10 months off work. I thought I would be off work for a month or two. I might need some retraining. :)


    good to hear surgery has occurred and went well, not sure I follow 4-6 weeks back to work, and 10 months? So you were off for 8 or so months waiting for
    the surgery?

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/05/28 (Windows/32)
    * Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)
  • From Avon@21:1/101 to poindexter FORTRAN on Mon Jun 22 22:40:56 2020
    On 21 Jun 2020 at 07:47a, poindexter FORTRAN pondered and said...

    talked about the 3 possible endings:
    1. End with Red looking out the bus window talking about hope.

    2. The theatrical ending where they zoom out from the beach.

    3. An ending where they talk and have a drink at Andy's inn on the
    beach.

    I wasn't aware those were options? Were there alternatives mooted by the director/writer?

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/05/28 (Windows/32)
    * Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)
  • From Avon@21:1/101 to Black Panther on Mon Jun 22 22:43:40 2020
    On 21 Jun 2020 at 11:58a, Black Panther pondered and said...

    There may be a job vacancy opening up soon that I am thinking I'll tr for, if it does, I'll likely be quieter on the BBS scene for a few we while I try and pursue that. Did a bit of work on LinkedIn today as a fist step.

    Good luck! I'm still getting settled into my new position. So far, it has been going well. I'm working on writing unofficial reviews on my employees, and having them fill out self-evaluations. Within the next
    week or so, I want to be able to sit down with each of them and find out where they would like to go within the company, and set expectations for them.

    Good man, you're doing great. Thanks for the good luck. I am nervous. It's
    all still to kick off but I started tweaking my Linkedin profile the other
    day and will do some revision and reading in the lounge with the fire on tonight just to get the candidate prep juices flowing again. It's cold here
    we had a solid frost this morning the heaviest it's been so far this winter.
    I was out with the ice scraper for a while before I could drive :)

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/05/28 (Windows/32)
    * Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)
  • From Avon@21:1/101 to Zip on Mon Jun 22 22:45:02 2020
    On 21 Jun 2020 at 08:56p, Zip pondered and said...

    My belated condolences -- this certainly can't be easy. :(

    Cheers, it's what it is but I do appreciate the kind vibes :)


    while I try and pursue that. Did a bit of work on LinkedIn today as a

    Good luck, and keeping my fingers crossed here then! :)

    Thanks too. Will keep you posted as/when I get anywhere with this :)

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/05/28 (Windows/32)
    * Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)
  • From Avon@21:1/101 to Vk3jed on Mon Jun 22 22:45:16 2020
    On 22 Jun 2020 at 03:37p, Vk3jed pondered and said...

    Werlcome back. :)

    Nice to be back :)

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/05/28 (Windows/32)
    * Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)
  • From apam@21:1/126 to Avon on Mon Jun 22 21:53:28 2020
    On 21 Jun 2020 at 07:37p, apam pondered and said...

    Is the new job at the same place you are now?

    Yes, in the same general team, it's yet to come up though but
    hopefully next month I can apply for it.

    Cool

    Cool. My wife likes the shawshank redemption too. I don't mind
    it, but I don't watch it every time it comes on TV haha.

    Only seen it twice now, first time in the 90s and then just the
    other day. That's probably enough but the plot is solid.

    Yeah it's a good one. We have it on DVD, but it tends to be on free tv
    fairly often here, and the wife always watches it when it's on.

    cool. when I feel I can come up for air, I'll be looking to get
    involved too.

    Sure thing.

    It sounds like covid is still kicking in Australia, we're up to 9
    cases in NZ again but all coming in from o/seas and in border
    quarantine.

    Yeah, mostly in victoria now it seems. Though I do wonder if we'll ever
    be totally rid of it.

    Honestly feeling mentally tired and still juggling family stuff and
    a slow but measured return to the workplace office environment also
    which is also taxing mentally after 2-3 months of working from home
    and being told to stay home and save lives...

    I can imagine. It's been a tough year all round.

    Andrew

    --- MagickaBBS v0.15alpha (Linux/x86_64)
    * Origin: HappyLand - telnet://happylandbbs.com:2023/ (21:1/126)
  • From Al@21:4/106.1 to Avon on Mon Jun 22 05:37:34 2020
    I just had my surgery on Monday so after 4 - 6 weeks I should be heading
    back to work. That's about 10 months off work. I thought I would be off
    work for a month or two. I might need some retraining. :)

    good to hear surgery has occurred and went well, not sure I follow 4-6 weeks back to work,

    Yes, that's the expected recovery period before I can go back to work. I need a doctors note that I am OK to resume.

    and 10 months? So you were off for 8 or so months waiting for the surgery?

    I have been off since the end of August or early part of September. They told me at the time that I would be called by the hospital and they would give me instructions and a time to be there. They never gave me an ETA but I thought it would take a month or two.

    In March I was at the doctors office and I was told my surgery (well, all surgeries) had been cancelled because of the caronavirus. Thankfully that surgery was rebooked and it's done now.

    I am going to head up to the foundry one day this week and let them know I will soon be able to return. I don't know if caronavirus has changed things at the foundry. It might have. We have a very small changeroom there and at shift change everyone is in close quarters, someone sitting at your right and left. There is no way to do any social distancing at all there. Also with so many places closed there may not be a big demand currently. I am hoping to be back to work and in a good place soon but we'll see.

    I'll leave all that for a few more days. ;)

    --- BBBS/Li6 v4.10 Toy-4
    * Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (21:4/106.1)
  • From Vk3jed@21:1/109 to Avon on Tue Jun 23 02:01:00 2020
    On 06-22-20 18:45, Avon wrote to Vk3jed <=-

    On 22 Jun 2020 at 03:37p, Vk3jed pondered and said...

    Werlcome back. :)

    Nice to be back :)

    Cool. :)


    ... ^ô^ <- Viking Tribble
    === MultiMail/Win v0.51
    --- SBBSecho 3.10-Linux
    * Origin: Freeway BBS Bendigo,Australia freeway.apana.org.au (21:1/109)
  • From Adept@21:1/102 to apam on Mon Jun 22 21:15:54 2020
    I've been working on stuff, Magicka now has enough knobs and buttons to run an FTN network, I was just testing file hatching the other day. I've made up a little info pack for happynet so hopefully I can lure some

    This comment made it occur to me that I have a better idea on what's going on in people's lives in FSXnet-land than I do with pretty much all of my friends on Facebook, where I am treated to a variety of memes and political judgments.

    It's nice to know what you and Avon are up to, though. I guess it's both a, "this is a neat thing" and a, "This is literally what Facebook is supposed to be for, but isn't."

    Makes me kinda want to do a life-update bulletin section or something.

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/03/02 (Windows/64)
    * Origin: Error 404 BBS ! (21:1/102)
  • From Adept@21:1/102 to Black Panther on Mon Jun 22 21:32:38 2020
    After all this time, I'm wondering what normal is...

    Probably a different normal in New Zealand (with no known current community spread of COVID19) than it is elsewhere.

    Shawshank Redemption is a good movie. I still find it amazing that it was based on a short story. Of course the short story was better, but the movie is good. ;)

    With an hour and a half to three hours (ugh) to tell a story, it seems like a short story would be better than a novel.

    I watched Pride and Prejudice and Zombies after reading Pride and Prejudice, and it felt so... hurried. And missing giant chunks that seemed important for the storyline, even without the needed addition of zombies.

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/03/02 (Windows/64)
    * Origin: Error 404 BBS ! (21:1/102)
  • From Warpslide@21:3/110 to Adept on Tue Jun 23 00:05:25 2020
    On 22 Jun 2020, Adept said the following...

    Makes me kinda want to do a life-update bulletin section or something.

    I used to have a personal blog way back in the day. I wrote about almost anything & everything on there, including rantings about work before "tales from tech support" was a thing.

    That was when the internet seemed a whole lot smaller than it is today (and before grandparents knew what the internet was). I even converted .mp3 files to .asf so you could listen to music on my blog, there wasn't much risk of getting sued back then. Or at least I didn't think there was...

    I believe I was using Movable Type for my blog, this was before WordPress took over the world.

    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.

    Jay

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/06/11 (Windows/32)
    * Origin: Northern Realms BBS | bbs.nrbbs.net | Binbrook, ON (21:3/110)
  • From apam@21:1/126 to Warpslide on Tue Jun 23 16:51:46 2020
    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.

    I use hugo for my blog.. it's a static site generator. I just write my
    post in markdown, save it in the posts directory, run hugo and upload
    the output.

    Comments is done via disqus, though you can use other services.

    Saves processing power on the server for something like wordpress, and
    no need to worry about wordpress vulnerabilities.

    I have no idea if anyone reads my blog, I guess someone must because
    there are occasionally reactions to posts.

    Andrew

    --- MagickaBBS v0.15alpha (Linux/x86_64)
    * Origin: HappyLand - telnet://happylandbbs.com:2023/ (21:1/126)
  • From Adept@21:1/102 to Warpslide on Tue Jun 23 05:28:13 2020
    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.

    Yeah, that's the problem, isn't it? You can produce the interesting content that people are theoretically after, but they won't see it, and Facebook,
    where everyone will see it, is a platform without the interesting content.

    But, eh, I'm probably a weird techie because I happily had lots of RSS feeds for friends' livejournal pages. I'd be happy to go back to that, too, but I guess, realistically, friends are those who are worth the time to contact directly.

    I used to have a personal blog way back in the day. I wrote about almost anything & everything on there, including rantings about work before "tales from tech support" was a thing.

    It sounds like it could be interesting, though it sounds like it could also
    be extremely self-important, navel-gazing, etc.

    Though I guess I was kind of imagining, "And here's the monthly update for
    me". But, eh, I guess it becomes a bit like writing a Christmas letter. Personally, I like those (though don't live in one place long enough to _get_ them, but I digress), though I have opinions on how people should write them.

    But not _that_ strong of opinions. Biggest opinion would be that, when
    sending a card, if it doesn't include a personal message of at least a
    sentence or two, it should include money. 'cause I don't understand the point otherwise.

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/03/02 (Windows/64)
    * Origin: Error 404 BBS ! (21:1/102)
  • From Warpslide@21:3/110 to apam on Tue Jun 23 12:28:42 2020
    On 23 Jun 2020, apam said the following...

    I use hugo for my blog.. it's a static site generator. I just write my post in markdown, save it in the posts directory, run hugo and upload
    the output.

    I'll check hugo out. I like the idea of a static generated site, it seems
    like Wordpress is too big for it's britches now-a-days and you're just one plug-in away from getting your site owned.

    I have no idea if anyone reads my blog, I guess someone must because
    there are occasionally reactions to posts.

    What's the link to your blog?

    My problem is I doubt I would have very much interesting to write about anymore. Last time I had a blog I was in my early 20's & thought I was way more deep & interesting than I actually was. ;)

    Today, there's only so much I can post about my cats & work... lol

    Jay

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/06/11 (Windows/32)
    * Origin: Northern Realms BBS | bbs.nrbbs.net | Binbrook, ON (21:3/110)
  • From Warpslide@21:3/110 to Adept on Tue Jun 23 12:48:18 2020
    On 23 Jun 2020, Adept said the following...

    But, eh, I'm probably a weird techie because I happily had lots of RSS feeds for friends' livejournal pages.

    I still use RSS for news today. One of my Pi's has a ttrss install on it.

    It sounds like it could be interesting, though it sounds like it could also be extremely self-important, navel-gazing, etc.

    Yeah, it was pretty much exactly that. "Here's what I think about this &
    about that" - Probably the kind of stuff that would be the reason one doesn't get a job they've applied for today. I should see if I can find it on the way-back-machine to see how cringe-worthy it is.

    Though I guess I was kind of imagining, "And here's the monthly update
    for me". But, eh, I guess it becomes a bit like writing a Christmas letter. Personally, I like those (though don't live in one place long enough to _get_ them, but I digress), though I have opinions on how
    people should write them.

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

    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.

    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 Avon on Mon Jun 22 11:17:00 2020
    Avon wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-

    On 21 Jun 2020 at 07:47a, poindexter FORTRAN pondered and said...

    talked about the 3 possible endings:
    1. End with Red looking out the bus window talking about hope.

    2. The theatrical ending where they zoom out from the beach.

    3. An ending where they talk and have a drink at Andy's inn on the
    beach.

    I wasn't aware those were options? Were there alternatives mooted by
    the director/writer?

    Apparently so. I think they filmed #3 and vetoed it before it got to
    an audience. I think the book ended with Red's voiceover on the bus.



    ... Disciplined self-indulgence
    --- MultiMail/XT v0.52
    * Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)
  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to Warpslide on Tue Jun 23 11:51:00 2020
    Warpslide wrote to Adept <=-

    I used to have a personal blog way back in the day. I wrote about
    almost anything & everything on there, including rantings about work before "tales from tech support" was a thing.

    Same here. I had a lot of personal content on my site, as I'd come
    from LiveJournal and was using it as a semi-sanitized journal. When I
    went through a divorce, I cleaned out all of the personal content and
    left photos and reference materials I wanted Google to capture for
    posterity's sake.

    Now, it's a mix of old outdated references and photos. I'm
    considering taking all of the reference content, moving it to a
    separate blog, and setting up a simple, static photoblog for the home
    page.

    That was when the internet seemed a whole lot smaller than it is today (and before grandparents knew what the internet was). I even converted .mp3 files to .asf so you could listen to music on my blog, there
    wasn't much risk of getting sued back then. Or at least I didn't think there was...

    Good times, those...

    I believe I was using Movable Type for my blog, this was before
    WordPress took over the world.

    The early 2000s were a high point for blogging. I remember Six Apart
    and Livejournal having offices within walking distance of my office
    in San Francisco, and blogging being much more personal. And less
    spammy.



    ... Go outside. Shut the door.
    --- MultiMail/XT v0.52
    * Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)
  • From Adept@21:1/102 to Warpslide on Tue Jun 23 18:46:03 2020
    I still use RSS for news today. One of my Pi's has a ttrss install on

    Oh, me too -- though I think my primary use is for web comics.

    doesn't get a job they've applied for today. I should see if I can find it on the way-back-machine to see how cringe-worthy it is.

    Yeah. There are many times when I'm glad that various BBS postings didn't
    make it onto the Internet.

    Yet I'm still sad that I lost most of the messages on my board because of autodelete over time, because of wanting to look at some of those conversations.

    At least, though, I wrote a fair bit about the general scene at the time, so
    I get to get some entertainment of past writing. E.g., talking about the "INTERnet".

    But I'm content not particularly knowing whatever political viewpoints I held at the time, even if I know that my views have vastly changed since then.

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/03/02 (Windows/64)
    * Origin: Error 404 BBS ! (21:1/102)
  • From apam@21:1/126 to Warpslide on Wed Jun 24 14:53:04 2020
    What's the link to your blog?

    http://andrew.pamment.id.au/

    My problem is I doubt I would have very much interesting to write
    about anymore. Last time I had a blog I was in my early 20's &
    thought I was way more deep & interesting than I actually was. ;)

    Haha, sounds like my 20s too :) I probably don't have much interesting
    to write either, I've mainly used mine to write about what I've been
    doing with the Z80 computers.

    Today, there's only so much I can post about my cats & work... lol

    Haha true.

    Andrew

    --- MagickaBBS v0.15alpha (Linux/x86_64)
    * Origin: HappyLand - telnet://happylandbbs.com:2023/ (21:1/126)
  • From Avon@21:1/101 to Adept on Wed Jun 24 23:16:39 2020
    On 22 Jun 2020 at 05:15p, Adept pondered and said...

    This comment made it occur to me that I have a better idea on what's
    going on in people's lives in FSXnet-land than I do with pretty much all of my friends on Facebook, where I am treated to a variety of memes and political judgments.

    It's nice to know what you and Avon are up to, though. I guess it's both a, "this is a neat thing" and a, "This is literally what Facebook is supposed to be for, but isn't."

    :)

    I think FB feels so algorithmically controlled. People have freely given their metadata to FB and with that a behemoth of a system chugs along working to
    make the FB shareholders $$ under a guise of offer it's users a better place
    to spend their digital time in. Do I kinda sound cynical :) Hahahah.

    I too really like being able to just chat and share stuff I am comfortable sharing in this space. There are folks here that I have got to know quite
    well over several years now and consider really good friends.

    Today it's been cold here (well cold for Dunedin) we're in the middle of our winter so the high was about 12 celcius and the low tonight is down to 3. I'm burning firewood each night and enjoy using a log burner.

    Back in the office tomorrow but working from home on Friday. It's kinda nice
    to mix things up and since the COVID-19 lockdown started and ended here it's been a learning exercise in what can be done in the way of remote working.

    I think most of the folks I work alongside are all trying to work things out too. The trick is trying to suss how often we should be in the same room together and why along with the benefits that brings vs doing stuff at home
    but keep in touch using online tools. Interesting times :)

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/05/28 (Windows/32)
    * Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)
  • From Avon@21:1/101 to Adept on Wed Jun 24 23:19:24 2020
    On 22 Jun 2020 at 05:32p, Adept pondered and said...

    Probably a different normal in New Zealand (with no known current community spread of COVID19) than it is elsewhere.

    We have had over the last 7-10 days about the same number of cases all picked up at the border as folks arrive and go into managed isolation for 14 days.
    So the processes seem to be working well.

    In my community life is pretty much back to normal with no major issues
    related to the virus now. There has been an economic impact on the country
    but one I think was worth it.

    I watched Pride and Prejudice and Zombies after reading Pride and

    Now that sounds like an interesting mix :)

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/05/28 (Windows/32)
    * Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)
  • From Avon@21:1/101 to apam on Wed Jun 24 23:21:09 2020
    On 23 Jun 2020 at 12:51p, apam pondered and said...

    I use hugo for my blog.. it's a static site generator. I just write my post in markdown, save it in the posts directory, run hugo and upload
    the output.

    I've been playing with that too, it's cool but needs a bit of time to suss
    the markup etc.

    I have no idea if anyone reads my blog, I guess someone must because
    there are occasionally reactions to posts.

    :)

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/05/28 (Windows/32)
    * Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)
  • From Avon@21:1/101 to Warpslide on Wed Jun 24 23:22:41 2020
    On 23 Jun 2020 at 08:48a, Warpslide pondered and said...

    But, eh, I'm probably a weird techie because I happily had lots of RS feeds for friends' livejournal pages.

    I still use RSS for news today. One of my Pi's has a ttrss install on
    it.

    I wake up each day now and ask Alexa what's the latest news. I admit it kinda tickles my fancy to do that. I have it set up to play back audio from our national broadcaster - Radio New Zealand or RNZ news along with BBC News
    which I enjoy.

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/05/28 (Windows/32)
    * Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)
  • From Phoobar@21:2/147 to Black Panther on Wed Jun 24 05:17:56 2020
    Shawshank Redemption is a good movie. I still find it amazing that it was based on a short story. Of course the short story was better, but the movie is good. ;)

    Both are fantastic...but way different. The main thing about the movie is you get to see some type of justice handed out at the end...while in the book...they scumbags are rewarded by moving up in the system...just like in real life. That 1 scene where the warden blows his brains out with Freeman describing it as the law moves in to arrest him was probably one of most rewarding scenes...then Hadley getting his was lesser so. Almost plays out
    like a Western where good does win in the end.

    Who am I to say...I thought Mad Max was a modern day version of The Searchers or some other Western...only Max wasn't going to drive off into the sunset
    with Grace Kelly like in High Noon.

    ACME BBS-Member of fsxNet/WWIVNet/SciNet/AmigaNet/VKRadio/FidoNet/MicroNet.

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/04/21 (Windows/32)
    * Origin: ACME BBS-I taut I taw a puddy tat! (21:2/147)
  • From Nodoka Hanamura@21:2/106 to Avon on Wed Jun 24 11:04:37 2020
    On 21 Jun 2020, Avon said the following...

    Well after a few days home I am slowly catching up on stuff. Went into work on Friday for a few hours, the first time I had been back in our office since the lockdown had been eased and life in NZ has pretty much returned to normal.

    This coming week I think I will likely work a couple of days at home and the other in the office.

    Just my daughter and I at home right now, my wife is still away staying
    at her mums house trying to sort out family estate matters with her brothers. I think it will be another week or so before she gets back
    home here and is talking of needing to go back to her mums place in a
    few weeks time to sort more stuff out. I feel for her, it's not an easy time.

    My daughter was away for 3 days on a school field trip and for the time
    it was just me and the house pets... very strange feeling and awfully quiet. Still I got stuff done around the house and started back at work last Thursday.

    I think work will be busy for a few weeks while I catch up on some projects that I have had to park due to absence.

    There may be a job vacancy opening up soon that I am thinking I'll try for, if it does, I'll likely be quieter on the BBS scene for a few weeks while I try and pursue that. Did a bit of work on LinkedIn today as a
    fist step.

    What else, watched some Marvel films, re-watched Tron Legacy with my daughter (we both love the film) and also re-watched Shawshank
    Redemption which I still think is a great film.

    Best, Paul

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/05/28 (Windows/32)
    * Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)

    That's good.

    Meanwhile I've decided to leave Twitter because of how hostile it's gotten in recent months. I just can't bring myself to let that kind of aura corrupt me, you know?

    I've got my PC back and running again, and my Laptop's back to doing Folding and server stuff - I still have the BBS running on the imac, though I'll probably begin quarterly backups to the server since I'm probably going to implement NAS functionality to it.

    Other than that, Stimulus check came in at the start of the month and I've
    been frugal with it, saving 100 for next month on my birthday and 500 for a
    PC i'm building come Black Friday, and the remaining 400-500 I got for this month I've spent about half on a few things, with the remainder still in the bank, though that'll change come the Steam Summer Sale tommorow - got quite a few games in mind to buy come the 25th.

    Other than that, nothing much to report.

    Born too late to experience the scene.
    Born just in time to see it come back.
    Nodoka Hanamura - NeoCincinnati BBS SYSOP - neocinci.bbs.io

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A44 2020/02/04 (Linux/32)
    * Origin: NeoCincinnati BBS - neocinci.bbs.io:23 (21:2/106)
  • From Warpslide@21:3/110 to Avon on Wed Jun 24 19:47:58 2020
    On 24 Jun 2020, Avon said the following...

    I wake up each day now and ask Alexa what's the latest news. I admit it kinda tickles my fancy to do that. I have it set up to play back audio from our national broadcaster - Radio New Zealand or RNZ news along with BBC News which I enjoy.

    I remember watching Star Trek: TNG as a kid and thinking it would be so cool
    to talk to computers.

    Now that we can, it does seem cool when it works. I used to have Google assistants all over the house.

    I would just say "Ok Google, Good Morning" and get my morning "Flash Briefing" or whatever it was called. It would go through the news, weather & a few
    other things. I quite liked it until they somehow got more dumb.

    I had one in almost every room of the house. They used to work together and
    if I said something in the living room it would only respond/play in the
    living room.

    Near the end I would say something in the living room & it would start playing in the living room, but also play 1/2 a second behind at the front door and 2 seconds behind upstairs. Or I would say something in the living room and
    only the front door would respond while the one I'm standing beside did nothing.

    Now I have three Alexa's, one downstairs, one as a alarm clock in the bedroom and one in my office. I should maybe give news a try on those.

    Jay

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/06/11 (Windows/32)
    * Origin: Northern Realms BBS | bbs.nrbbs.net | Binbrook, ON (21:3/110)
  • From Adept@21:2/108 to Avon on Thu Jun 25 00:02:18 2020
    In my community life is pretty much back to normal with no major issues related to the virus now. There has been an economic impact on the
    country but one I think was worth it.

    Probably better than the economic impact on the country where case numbers
    keep going up.

    ...but I'm probably just being bitter on that, at this point. I begin to
    doubt that I'll be able to get a visa to Germany at any point over the next
    six months, and probably longer.

    I watched Pride and Prejudice and Zombies after reading Pride and
    Now that sounds like an interesting mix :)

    Indeed it is. :)

    Admittedly, not entirely how I expected it to go, but I do wonder how
    different the book is from the movie.

    And if they'll ever make a movie of Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters.

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A45 2020/02/18 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Storm BBS (21:2/108)
  • From Adept@21:2/108 to Warpslide on Thu Jun 25 06:23:10 2020
    Now I have three Alexa's, one downstairs, one as a alarm clock in the bedroom and one in my office. I should maybe give news a try on those.

    I don't currently have an Echo, but when there was one around I enjoyed
    playing Jeopardy with it. Kinda fun as a group activity, and saying,
    "repeat" as you stalled for time.

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A45 2020/02/18 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Storm BBS (21:2/108)
  • From Jikey@21:3/108 to Warpslide on Thu Jun 25 00:54:49 2020

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

    hahaha. bless him!

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A45 2020/02/18 (Windows/32)
    * Origin: Buckeye Telegraph (21:3/108)
  • From Avon@21:1/101 to Adept on Thu Jun 25 23:09:48 2020
    On 24 Jun 2020 at 08:02p, Adept pondered and said...

    Probably better than the economic impact on the country where case
    numbers keep going up.

    I agree and I think that was the view of the NZ government at the time also.

    I watched Pride and Prejudice and Zombies after reading Pride an
    Now that sounds like an interesting mix :)

    Indeed it is. :)

    Admittedly, not entirely how I expected it to go, but I do wonder how different the book is from the movie.

    And if they'll ever make a movie of Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters.

    Is that a real thing? :)

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/05/28 (Windows/32)
    * Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)
  • From Adept@21:2/108 to Avon on Thu Jun 25 22:31:16 2020
    And if they'll ever make a movie of Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters.

    Is that a real thing? :)

    ISBN-10 of 9781594744426

    This reminds me of how my brother once talked about how, "If it's not in the internet, it doesn't exist.". This is probably a step further.

    Probably better than the economic impact on the country where case numbers keep going up.
    I agree and I think that was the view of the NZ government at the time

    I'm getting fairly bitter about the virus response in the US. Not even
    because of safety or economy -- just that I got a job in Germany, and it's looking increasingly like I won't be able to go because the virus response
    has been so abysmal.

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A45 2020/02/18 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Storm BBS (21:2/108)
  • From Al@21:4/106.1 to Adept on Thu Jun 25 18:02:20 2020
    I'm getting fairly bitter about the virus response in the US. Not even because of safety or economy -- just that I got a job in Germany, and it's looking increasingly like I won't be able to go because the virus response has been so abysmal.

    That's a real bummer. I hope you can manage to somehow get to Germany and your new job.

    I don't know why the resurgence of caronavirus now. It was devastating but it looked like it was starting to get under control and now here we go again. :(

    --- BBBS/Li6 v4.10 Toy-4
    * Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (21:4/106.1)
  • From Warpslide@21:3/110 to Al on Thu Jun 25 22:22:03 2020
    On 25 Jun 2020, Al said the following...

    I don't know why the resurgence of caronavirus now. It was devastating
    but it looked like it was starting to get under control and now here we
    go again. :(

    I had been working from home since March but stared going into the office
    again on Monday. Yesterday I get a call from the other half that one of his co-workers tested positive for covid.

    So he's sent home & told to get tested. I can no longer be in the office & I have to go get tested. Got my test done this afternoon. Results in 3-7 days (but probably sooner). The test wasn't painful or anything, though unpleasant would be an appropriate word to describe it.

    I'm not worried or anything, neither of us are displaying symptoms & are feeling fine.

    Jay

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/06/11 (Windows/32)
    * Origin: Northern Realms BBS | bbs.nrbbs.net | Binbrook, ON (21:3/110)
  • From Adept@21:2/108 to Al on Fri Jun 26 05:51:41 2020
    That's a real bummer. I hope you can manage to somehow get to Germany
    and your new job.

    Thank you. I've been trying for a long time to get a decent job -- I'm not the best at applying to things, and don't have experience, but I still have a masters and some amount of projects.

    So having the job offer in Germany was definitely a high for me, as it ticked most of the boxes for what I was looking for -- Junior developer, in Germany, embedded systems... It might end up being mostly travel to places and take bug reports while having to dress for the factory floor rather than an office, but that's still most of the boxes.

    And solid chance I would've been in Germany for all of this if any number of minor changes had happened.

    *sigh*. Not quite sure what I should do. Honestly, looking for work in New Zealand was also on the list, though I think it'd still be third or fourth on my preferred-country-to-work-in list, due to it not being foreign enough.

    But, again, not like that's going to be an option for a while.

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A45 2020/02/18 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Storm BBS (21:2/108)
  • From Avon@21:1/101 to Adept on Fri Jun 26 23:46:08 2020
    On 25 Jun 2020 at 06:31p, Adept pondered and said...

    ISBN-10 of 9781594744426

    Thanks :)

    This reminds me of how my brother once talked about how, "If it's not in the internet, it doesn't exist.". This is probably a step further.

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

    I'm getting fairly bitter about the virus response in the US. Not even because of safety or economy -- just that I got a job in Germany, and
    it's looking increasingly like I won't be able to go because the virus response has been so abysmal.

    I hope you manage to get there sooner than later but yeah the virus has
    stymied a lot of things for many people right now.

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/05/28 (Windows/32)
    * Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)
  • From Vk3jed@21:1/109 to Warpslide on Sat Jun 27 01:51:00 2020
    On 06-25-20 18:22, Warpslide wrote to Al <=-

    I had been working from home since March but stared going into the
    office again on Monday. Yesterday I get a call from the other half
    that one of his co-workers tested positive for covid.

    Bummer, hope it all works out fine. I had the test last month when I picked up a mild throat bug. The worst part was the mandatory isolation, until the result came through.


    ... The time to relax is when you don't have time for it.
    === 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 Warpslide on Wed Jun 24 05:03:00 2020
    I still use RSS for news today. One of my Pi's has a ttrss install on it.

    You can play Tetris on your pi? :)

    Spec


    *** THE READER V4.50 [freeware]
    --- SuperBBS v1.17-3 (Eval)
    * Origin: Scrawled in haste at The Lower Planes (21:3/101)
  • From Spectre@21:3/101 to Al on Fri Jun 26 20:52:00 2020
    I don't know why the resurgence of caronavirus now. It was devastating but it looked like it was starting to get under control and now here we go again. :(

    It was always going to happen. We had the mad flapping panic for round one ìwhen nobody knew whether they were arthur or marther... so we shut up shop, ìbut as soon as it opened up we were opening up for round 2, unless everyone ìstays locked down long enough for it to run its course completely before ìre-emerging then rounds 2, 3, and onwards are inevitable.. fingers crossed ìwith decreasing severity as more and more people have had it recently enough ìto be covered in the short term.

    Spec


    *** THE READER V4.50 [freeware]
    --- SuperBBS v1.17-3 (Eval)
    * Origin: Scrawled in haste at The Lower Planes (21:3/101)
  • From Warpslide@21:3/110 to Spectre on Sat Jun 27 21:14:43 2020
    On 24 Jun 2020, Spectre said the following...

    You can play Tetris on your pi? :)

    On the RetroPi I can... :P

    Jay

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/06/11 (Windows/32)
    * Origin: Northern Realms BBS | bbs.nrbbs.net | Binbrook, ON (21:3/110)