Just got home after flying back down country, it's coming up 10pm and I have been up since 4am. Time for a shower and bed, work again tomorrow.
Just got home after flying back down country, it's coming up 10pm and have been up since 4am. Time for a shower and bed, work again tomorro
Sorry you had to come home after a long day like that and had to find problems that needed your attention.. :(
Just got home after flying back down country, it's coming up 10pm and I have been up since 4am. Time for a shower and bed, work again tomorrow.
Sorry you had to come home after a long day like that and had to find problems that needed your attention.. :(
Isn't that how it always goes, though?
emails etc. etc. it's been all rather fun and the time after dinner
went poof!
I'm day 3 back into my working year after taking some time off over Christmas and the new year for a holiday. Got to around 2pm today and
Anywho, quick post and 'hey' to all reading, hope life's treating you OK and if not I hope the tough bit passes you by soon enough and you get to have some better days too.
OK best I get some zzz, and the amazon clock will bong at 7am before I know it...
Same thing here! Although caught a cold (fortunately not something
worse) the past weekend but all OK again now.
Same thing here! Although caught a cold (fortunately not something worse) the past weekend but all OK again now.
That's one positive from all this isolation. I haven't caught a cold in three years! (^_^)
That's one positive from all this isolation. I haven't caught a cold in three years! (^_^)
It's nearly 11pm I should be in bed asleep now (or trying) but I've been responding to echomails, reading messages, replying to BBS related
emails etc. etc. it's been all rather fun and the time after dinner
went poof!
I'm day 3 back into my working year after taking some time off over Christmas and the new year for a holiday. Got to around 2pm today and
the brain hit the wall... total mush, felt super tired... guess that's kinda normal when you come back to the demands of a 8.30am - 5pm day... but still - meh.
Anywho, quick post and 'hey' to all reading, hope life's treating you OK and if not I hope the tough bit passes you by soon enough and you get to have some better days too.
I don't know about you but these days do feel more unsettled and a bit more stressy with pandemic, work security, thinking about welbeing of family members etc... lordy I sound old ...
But that all said, I do try to stay grounded, remind myself of things to be greatful for that happened to me during the day I have just had and
if feeling so so make a point of going for a walk. walking and the act
of moving really helps... well it does for me anyways :)
OK best I get some zzz, and the amazon clock will bong at 7am before I know it...
Best, Paul
Will be getting my 3rd jab this Friday, hopefully all goes well with that...
Greetings! I've just come back from holiday myself! I was able to
browse this BSS using Putty on my old Blackberry style Nokia, though without CP437 support, or being able to get screen dimensions of 80x25, things came through garbled.
On top of that, I had to SSH to my Raspberry Pi at home then telnet from there to a BBS.
Yes, even though I was on a break, I need to keep my mind active and one project is learning if it is possible set up "private" nets like this, which can be for closed groups, encrypted. Learning how all this works has been difficult due to the lack of material out there.
Will be getting my 3rd jab this Friday, hopefully all goes well with that...
Hope it went well Zip. I have kids that are due t get theirs early next month also. Can't come soon enough.
Anywho, quick post and 'hey' to all reading, hope life's treating you OK and if not I hope the tough bit passes you by soon enough and you get to have some better days too.
I don't know about you but these days do feel more unsettled and a bit more stressy with pandemic, work security, thinking about welbeing of family members etc... lordy I sound old ...
But that all said, I do try to stay grounded, remind myself of things to be greatful for that happened to me during the day I have just had and
if feeling so so make a point of going for a walk. walking and the act
of moving really helps... well it does for me anyways :)
I wouldn't say this one is 'private' in any real sense but it's certainly possible to set up FTN networks such as this, and encryption / security
has been an interest of mine for some time also.
I'm not a security expert but when the subject as come up before, those who know way more about it then I often talk about where lines of
'secure' comms can be enforced etc.
I've always like the idea of secure encrypted FTN networks, but the
devil is in the implementation details it seems.
There are other ways to achieve the same thing, or something similar. Such as Matrix, which it seems you can create your own private set up, though I'm not too keen on an Electron based client and I'm not quite
sure how you can federate with others, while keeping that federation itself quarantined. FTN networks can do this (provided people
cooperate). It does appear that Mystic is easier to get up and running.
My children on holiday befriended some other children who were staying in th same apartment complex. They wanted to keep in communication after the holi ended, but my wife and I, as well as their parents, are reticent
about allowing them onto things like "Kids Messenger" which is a Facebook "service". Sure, they can e-mail, and that is OK, but this distrust highlighted a major problem. The problem isn't that we don't want children communicating electronically, the problem is privacy. Can you trust the app Do you want them on Social Media (No!!) I thought of how cool it would be f them to just be able to log into my BBS, chat, message there. Or play "Food Fight" against each other. None of these privacy issues, or concerns about w someone might do with the data exist. Sure, the Sysop (me) can see, but you want parental oversight, so that is a good, not bad thing. You can even lim their online time by simply setting a suitable allowable amount of time per day.
There are other ways to achieve the same thing, or something similar. Such Matrix, which it seems you can create your own private set up, though I'm no too keen on an Electron based client and I'm not quite sure how you can federate with others, while keeping that federation itself quarantined. FTN networks can do this (provided people cooperate). It does appear that Mysti is easier to get up and running.
Most people kind of have accepted as a given that if you want to talk to oth online, you must do it on someone elses territory, to their rule and whims, subject to their exploitation of everything you do and say.
Doesn't have to be that way.
We've got a "family" timesharing box down in the basement; it's
a SiFive unmatched board running OpenBSD-current. The kids like
to login and play "robots" and "rogue".
How did you install Rogue, and which version did you install? THe typical bsdgames rogue is actually Rogue Clone III, and is not available on OpenBSD base due to license reasons.
On 24 Jan 2022 at 08:46a, Arelor pondered and said...
How did you install Rogue, and which version did you install? THe typic bsdgames rogue is actually Rogue Clone III, and is not available on OpenBSD base due to license reasons.
I compiled it from source. The version I have appears to be
5.3; I don't recall where I got it from. I mentioned to Ken
Arnold that my kids when I saw him in November and he got a
kick out of that.
Did you get the source from the Rogue Restoration Project?
Nowadays the best source for Rogue and other early Roguelikes is the
Early Roguelike Collection, which is a continuation of the Rogue Restoration Project. It fixes a bunch of bugs while staying historically accurate, and it is what my private ports are based on.
My private version of Rogue 5 has unveil and pledge support and it is
what run on my public facing roguelikes server :-)
I trust the security of Element a lot more than I trust the
security of Mystic, but anyway, there are command-line Matrix
clients; why not use one of them? Or even a private IRC server
for that matter? IRC over TLS has pretty decent support.
For kids, a private timesharing Unix machine would be a lot
more interesting than a BBS: you can provide all the traditional
BBS functionality but a whole lot more, too. And with a modern
Unix variant, it can be approximately as secure as anything else
out there.
We've got a "family" timesharing box down in the basement; it's
a SiFive unmatched board running OpenBSD-current. The kids like
to login and play "robots" and "rogue".
When it comes to children, I am more concerned with Internet predators
and scammers than I am about private data harvesting. Not that private data harvesting is harmless, but classical criminals are a couple of
steps up in the threat scale.
I don't think it applies to your use case, but I am organizing a
brithday party for my group so I have set a Mumble server for voice chat and a FOSS game server for playing Terraforming Mars online. In theory
you could set a web interface for Mumble so everykid would be able to
chat online from it. My friends and I use dedicated clients instead.
If you want to get regular kids to use the service you need something simple. A mailing list would do. FluxBB would do. You need something
they can use with tools they are already familiar with or they won't get to use it. The only reason why somebody installs a client for some odd protocol they don't use anywhere else is because they absoñlutely need
it (such as, none of my friends uses gopher, but some have installed a gopher client because of some content I offer which is not available
under other protocols).
As you are interested in friend-to-friend networks, I will say that Retroshare deserves an honorable mention. It is resource hungry and not trivial to use, but it offers filesharing, chat and forum-like features
in a distributed manner. It is intended so each node connects only to nodes designated as trustworthy friends.
Also, setting an IRC server with a web interface and a ZNC is an option :-)
Is the server self contained on your own hardware? I'm not too worried about using
services hosted elsewhere, but Big Tech and the way they carry on has left a bad ta
in my mouth. There are many good companies that don't act this way though.
I suppose Mystic is dependent on the crypto library it uses. But access is done by SSH, and SSH IS secure.
A timesharing Unix machine is
interesting, I have used public access Unixes which comprise the "Smolnet". Exposing children to Unix and how to use it is worthwhile,
but I think if they just want to message and chat, it should be through
a program designed to do just that.
Access to Matrix from e.g. Element is via TLS-protected connections,
which is similarly secure, if not more so because one uses certificate authentication and those certs are signed, unlike the n^2 key
distribution problem of SSH, no?
Your choice, of course, but I think exposing them to the more general
tool is useful in itself.
On 01-25-22 08:15, Arelor wrote to boraxman <=-
A forum such as Flux BB you could host in your own wer server. If you don't like
FLuxBB then you have many other forum packages to pick from. Simple Machines, PHPBB...
the list is endless.
A mailing list is doable with your own server and it is not that hard
to pull off. You
On 01-26-22 03:22, tenser wrote to boraxman <=-
On 25 Jan 2022 at 10:40p, boraxman pondered and said...
I suppose Mystic is dependent on the crypto library it uses. But access is done by SSH, and SSH IS secure.
Access to Matrix from e.g. Element is via TLS-protected connections,
which is similarly secure, if not more so because one uses certificate authentication and those certs are signed, unlike the n^2 key
distribution problem of SSH, no?
But I was referring to the implementation of mystic itself. The access method is one facet, sure, but if there are bugs in the program itself,
it doesn't much matter.
A timesharing Unix machine is
interesting, I have used public access Unixes which comprise the "Smolnet". Exposing children to Unix and how to use it is worthwhile,
but I think if they just want to message and chat, it should be through
a program designed to do just that.
My first Internet account was a shell account on a shared Unix machine (running BSDi, IIRC). Did the job at the time, and I had Internet
access using traditional text based clients.
Eww @ web forums, though at least self hosting eliminstes a number of performance issues (related to load and latency). I'm still not a fan
of the navigation on web forums, but at least a self hosted one doesn't feel like surfing in treacle. :)
Vorlon wrote to Vk3jed <=-
My first Internet account was a shell account on a shared Unix machine (running BSDi, IIRC). Did the job at the time, and I had Internet
access using traditional text based clients.
Same here, but it wasn't mine! It was a good friend's at the time.
Two hour time limit though. #(
I used it to download my first linux install on something like 18-24
3.5" floppies @ 14.4K or was it 9600bps.... Too long ago. How times
have changed....
I used it to download my first linux install on something like
18-24 3.5" floppies @ 14.4K or was it 9600bps.... Too long ago.
How times have changed....
BSDi for the win! That was my first "real" UNIX, following a couple of years supporting SCO Xenix.
Have you played with tildes? People are setting up single box unix
systems with public_html spaces, gemini spaces, IRC channels federated with the other boxes, and a slew of console apps. It's like going back
in time in a lot of ways.
Some modern vbulletin web forums are nice. What is your preferred
"forum" format?
Some modern vbulletin web forums are nice. What is your preferred "forum" format?
I actually like Discord's UI, at least in the native desktop app. Quick
and easy access to channels, people, but no real way to read by "thread"
-- everything is just attached to the channel's top, like a BBS!
|04a|12LPHA
|03Alpha Complex |15- |11alphacomplex.us:2323
--- Talisman v0.35-dev (Linux/x86_64)(21:4/158.1
* Origin: aLPHA cOMPLEX: You are in Error. No one is screaming.
Wanted to play with Talisman under Windows for a bit, but when I went
to run the Windows installer, I got a message saying that the
installer
was not a valid Win32 application. Will it not install under 2003?
was not a valid Win32 application. Will it not install under 2003?
Dunno. I do think some people here run the Win32 version, but Apam
would be the one to ask...
Wanted to play with Talisman under Windows for a bit, but when I went
to run the Windows installer, I got a message saying that the
installer
was not a valid Win32 application. Will it not install under 2003?
Dunno. I do think some people here run the Win32 version, but Apam would
be the one to ask...
I actually like Discord's UI, at least in the native desktop app. Quick and easy access to channels, people, but no real way to read by "thread" -- everything is just attached to the channel's top, like a BBS!
This is no longer true. Discord has added a "thread" function to
better sort
messages within a channel.
On 01-27-22 10:59, Vorlon wrote to Vk3jed <=-
Hello Vk3jed!
27 Jan 22 09:58, you wrote to tenser:
My first Internet account was a shell account on a shared Unix machine (running BSDi, IIRC). Did the job at the time, and I had Internet
access using traditional text based clients.
Same here, but it wasn't mine! It was a good friend's at the time.
Two hour time limit though. #(
I used it to download my first linux install on something like 18-24
3.5" floppies @ 14.4K or was it 9600bps.... Too long
ago. How times have changed....
On 01-27-22 22:10, boraxman wrote to Vk3jed <=-
Eww @ web forums, though at least self hosting eliminstes a number of performance issues (related to load and latency). I'm still not a fan
of the navigation on web forums, but at least a self hosted one doesn't feel like surfing in treacle. :)
Some modern vbulletin web forums are nice. What is your preferred
"forum" format?
I like web forums because you can scroll through the entire forum very easily.
I prefer dedicated clients that aren't subject to the limitations of web browsers. And isolation from the network can help with responsiveness too.
I dislike their sluggishness and convoluted navigation (I _really_
dislike having to go in and back out constantly - offline readers allow auto advance to the next group).
I dislike their sluggishness and convoluted navigation (I _really_ dislike having to go in and back out constantly - offline readers allow auto advan the next group).
Are the offline readers the dedicated clients you were
referring to? Offline readers are fast, but at least the
one I use, you only ever have access to new messages, not
the entire history. Threads disappear if no one has posted
to them.
OPICRON(21:3/126) wrote to Vk3jed <=-
I ask because I released a first version of an outlook style message reader for Mystic boards. So far the response has been good.That is very promising, because many people have a fear of the command line interface which is rather sad.
Eventually this solution is to grow into a IOS (later android) app
which will connect to any (but first a dedicated) Mystic board to read
a users email.
My first Internet account was a shell account on a shared Unix
machine (running BSDi, IIRC). Did the job at the time, and I had
Internet access using traditional text based clients.
Same here, but it wasn't mine! It was a good friend's at the
time.
Haha OK, I had to do a more conventional ISP subscription.
Two hour time limit though. #(
I used it to download my first linux install on something like
18-24 3.5" floppies @ 14.4K or was it 9600bps.... Too long ago.
How times have changed....
Ouch, long download times. Been there. :D
On 01-30-22 23:44, boraxman wrote to Vk3jed <=-
Are the offline readers the dedicated clients you were referring to? Offline readers are fast, but at least the one I use, you only ever
have access to new messages, not the entire history. Threads disappear
if no one has posted to them.
Haven't come across any other dedicated client for forums.
On 01-30-22 11:10, opicron wrote to Vk3jed <=-
I dislike their sluggishness and convoluted navigation (I _really_ dislike having to go in and back out constantly - offline readers allow auto advan the next group).
Is this valid for your echomail reading too? What are you using to read/respond to echomails now?
I ask because I released a first version of an outlook style message reader for Mystic boards. So far the response has been good.
Eventually this solution is to grow into a IOS (later android) app
which will connect to any (but first a dedicated) Mystic board to read
a users email.
On 01-31-22 10:39, Vorlon wrote to Vk3jed <=-
Haha OK, I had to do a more conventional ISP subscription.
It was a uni connection for the students. (shhh, I didn't go to uni).
Ouch, long download times. Been there. :D
It was only a local call, so didn't really matter... Just spread it
over a few days... Back then modem call's was all jo public
could do. UP grading to the ISDN setup in the late 90's was a god
send! Esp when we bonded the channel's to either 128k or 256k.
Vorlon wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-
Have you played with tildes? People are setting up single box unix
systems with public_html spaces, gemini spaces, IRC channels federated with the other boxes, and a slew of console apps. It's like going back
in time in a lot of ways.
No I've not. I've gotten so used to having multiple
windows/consols/apps running, that it's like looking at a forest! Plus
at times there could be 5 pc's running that I'm doing things with. &-/
Ouch, long download times. Been there. :D
It was only a local call, so didn't really matter... Just spread
it
And hope it didn't drop too many times (zmodem resume is nice). :)
UP grading to the ISDN setup in the late 90's was a
god send! Esp when we bonded the channel's to either 128k or
256k.
ISDN worked well, and the line rental wasn't too bad, but the call
costs were a killer. :( At least we have NBN these days. :)
No I've not. I've gotten so used to having multiple
windows/consols/apps running, that it's like looking at a forest!
Plus at times there could be 5 pc's running that I'm doing things
with. &-/
With my tilde, I've been experimenting with tmux and multiple windows
in one SSH session. Reminds me of the old Desqview days.
On 02-01-22 09:18, Vorlon wrote to Vk3jed <=-
And hope it didn't drop too many times (zmodem resume is nice). :)
Yeah, mostly. Some times it would start from scratch again, but only 1
in ten...
Telscam, had deals going if you only called one number (In this case
the internet pop), that the call costs
stayed at a fixed charge! It also helped that I was involved with a
small ISP! %-)
Vorlon wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-
I don't know if that's a good thing or not, as interfaces are meant to
be easer to use as technology progresses. But then I've still got a
love for the Amiga's workbench interface!
I used to run a Amiga based theme on my linux mint system, but then it stopped working as updates for the rest of the system changed things to much.
Vorlon wrote to Vk3jed <=-
Telscam, had deals going if you only called one number (In this case
the internet pop), that the call costs stayed at a fixed charge! It
also helped that I was involved with a small ISP! %-)
As a sysadmin, things like screen and tmux are very helpful. I can SSH into my jumpbox, then use tmux to create different labeled screens for multiple destination systems.
I keep wanting to go back to Litestep. I ran it back when I had 1GB, single core laptops, and had a simple NeXtStep-looking theme for it. It was nice, but required hand-hacking .ini files instead of dragging and dropping items.
I ask because I released a first version of an outlook style message reader for Mystic boards. So far the response has been good.
My main board is Synchronet, though I can test on the Mystic board. Is it completely online? Or cached/offline as well?
*That* Scott Adams. The creator of Dilbert. He'd set up the Pac Bell
ISDN Help BBS.
Once I called him and got a rambling message that he was out of the
office and his pager was in his desk, so call Wally at 415-XXX-XXXX. We did, explained our dilemma, and a geeky, nasally voice responded "Uh,
how did you get this number? Customers aren't supposed to have this number?"
He sounded exactly like Wally from the Dilbert cartoon on TV.
Don't forget the best feature - disconnect and reattach from/to tmux, leaving all the 'windows' in place. I've been doing this with Screen for
a decade and a half, leaving windows open with things like ssh
connections to servers. It's actually saved my ass a few times (like
when a rogue script deleted /usr and nobody could log in).
I miss *step so bad. One of these days I'm going to switch to AfterStep and lead the side of the screen with tons of those little square widget applets. That'll look amazing on a widescreen monitor.
Sporathan wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-
As a sysadmin, things like screen and tmux are very helpful. I can SSH into my jumpbox, then use tmux to create different labeled screens for multiple destination systems.
Don't forget the best feature - disconnect and reattach from/to tmux, leaving all the 'windows' in place. I've been doing this with Screen
for a decade and a half, leaving windows open with things like ssh connections to servers. It's actually saved my ass a few times (like
when a rogue script deleted /usr and nobody could log in).
I keep wanting to go back to Litestep. I ran it back when I had 1GB, single core laptops, and had a simple NeXtStep-looking theme for it. It was nice, but required hand-hacking .ini files instead of dragging and dropping items.
I miss *step so bad. One of these days I'm going to switch to AfterStep and lead the side of the screen with tons of those little square widget applets. That'll look amazing on a widescreen monitor.
On 02-02-22 20:12, opicron wrote to Vk3jed <=-
I ask because I released a first version of an outlook style message reader for Mystic boards. So far the response has been good.
My main board is Synchronet, though I can test on the Mystic board. Is it completely online? Or cached/offline as well?
Ah its for mystic. Completely online. But this is the prelude to an ios/android app ^^.
Telscam, had deals going if you only called one number (In this
case the internet pop), that the call costs stayed at a fixed
charge! It also helped that I was involved with a small ISP! %-)
I never knew about that, would have been handy!
I used to run a Amiga based theme on my linux mint system, but
then it stopped working as updates for the rest of the system
changed things to much.
I keep wanting to go back to Litestep. I ran it back when I had 1GB, single core laptops, and had a simple NeXtStep-looking theme for it.
It was nice, but required hand-hacking .ini files instead of dragging
and dropping items.
[...]Telscam, had deals going if you only called one number (In this
case the internet pop), that the call costs stayed at a fixed
charge! It also helped that I was involved with a small ISP! %-)
We had something called Centrex, it was a way of defining a "virtual
PBX" before the internet. Calls within your Centrex group could go anywhere within your local area and calls were billed at a flat rate. There was an ISDN offering that lowered the cost dramatically between
two dedicated numbers.
ISDN was a fun time for me, I was a telecom manager in a former life
who knew networking. There were lots of tricks of the trade available
if you knew what to do.
On 02-07-22 11:38, Vorlon wrote to Vk3jed <=-
Yes, as this was when ADSL hadn't even come around yet and was one of
the few cheaper ways of getting high speed (in those days) net
access...
Yes, as this was when ADSL hadn't even come around yet and was
one of the few cheaper ways of getting high speed (in those days)
net access...
Yeah I'd never heard of that plan. Only ISDN I knew was the expensive
per minute stuff with a rather high cap.
On 02-08-22 12:34, Vorlon wrote to Vk3jed <=-
Yeah I'd never heard of that plan. Only ISDN I knew was the expensive
per minute stuff with a rather high cap.
It was offered with the "Bigpond Direct" system, so a commercial offering....
Sysop: | echicken |
---|---|
Location: | Toronto, Ontario |
Users: | 2,224 |
Nodes: | 6 (0 / 6) |
Uptime: | 05:09:00 |
Calls: | 14,143 |
Files: | 295 |
Messages: | 551,233 |