I don't know if it's my setup or if there has been a disturbance in the Force. A.F.C is the only newsgroup I subscribe to that usually has significant traffic, but the last week or so there has only been a few
posts on the "General Thoughts" thread. I use Eternal September as a news server and I just installed a new system and switched to Pan as a newsreader. Is Usenet finally dying?
On 2025-04-28, Peter Flass (Iron Spring Software) <Peter@Iron-Spring.com> wrote:
I don't know if it's my setup or if there has been a disturbance in the Force. A.F.C is the only newsgroup I subscribe to that usually has significant traffic, but the last week or so there has only been a few posts on the "General Thoughts" thread. I use Eternal September as a news server and I just installed a new system and switched to Pan as a newsreader. Is Usenet finally dying?
I am also on eternal-september. I started the "General Thoughts" thread, because it had been weeks since I saw any traffic, and I missed the
company. USEnet has been near death for years ... but it does not have
to be, unless we want it to be.
Is Usenet finally dying?
I don't know if it's my setup or if there has been a disturbance in the Force. A.F.C is the only newsgroup I subscribe to that usually has significant traffic, but the last week or so there has only been a few
posts on the "General Thoughts" thread. I use Eternal September as a news server and I just installed a new system and switched to Pan as a newsreader. Is Usenet finally dying?
I don't know if it's my setup or if there has been a disturbance in the Force. A.F.C is the only newsgroup I subscribe to that usually has significant traffic, but the last week or so there has only been a few
posts on the "General Thoughts" thread. I use Eternal September as a news server and I just installed a new system and switched to Pan as a newsreader. Is Usenet finally dying?
I am also on eternal-september. I started the "General Thoughts" thread, because it had been weeks since I saw any traffic, and I missed the company. USEnet has been near death for years ... but it does not have
to be, unless we want it to be.
Quite.
Or Quiet, if that's what people want.
A.F.C is the only newsgroup I subscribe to that usually has
significant traffic, but the last week or so there has only been a few
posts on the "General Thoughts" thread.
spring for me means getting outside more and catching up
on all the things i need to get done.
i'll often read along here but not have anything specific
to write.
many fine groups from days of yore are mere whispers of
themselves.
songbird
Peter Flass -- Iron Spring Software <Peter@Iron-Spring.com> writes:
I don't know if it's my setup or if there has been a disturbance in the
Force. A.F.C is the only newsgroup I subscribe to that usually has
significant traffic, but the last week or so there has only been a few
posts on the "General Thoughts" thread. I use Eternal September as a news
server and I just installed a new system and switched to Pan as a
newsreader. Is Usenet finally dying?
Nah, no more than a decade ago, two decades ago. I'm also on Eternal September.
Ob-AFC: Remember when when SMTP just, yew know, worked? Now, in
addition to several standardized additions to SMTP -- DKIM, SPF inter
alia -- too technical for my pay grade [1], MTA operators are now
inserting a mixed bag of DNSBLs, filter bots that make discriminatory inferences from RDNS and whois etc. MTA operators contract with third parties to insert these filter services or email admins roll their own version or combinations.
That leaves a humble user such as I to negotiate with my own ISP's
possibly impenetrable "support" or to hunt down individual ISP admins
or contracting filterbot admins and persuade them to install a
whitelist entry or otherwise find a workaround for email that evokes a
5xx bounce.
[1] I'm not an IT pro, just a retired artist blacksmith. It's
happenstance and personal idiosyncrasy that I know enough about
IP, SMTP etc. to write this. I suppose less fortuitously informed
people just hit and become embedded in a wall of penc?
I don't know if it's my setup or if there has been a disturbance in the Force. A.F.C is the only newsgroup I subscribe to that usually has significant traffic, but the last week or so there has only been a few
posts on the "General Thoughts" thread. I use Eternal September as a news server and I just installed a new system and switched to Pan as a
newsreader. Is Usenet finally dying?
There are some posters that pester technical groups with USAian
political posts. There are those that love certain orange haired guy,
and some that hate him. And they air their duels on a group
supposedly dedicated to computers or electronics.
Always surprised me that so many oldtimers did not use an actual news
client.
Pan keeps chugging on but I'm not sure KDE has a stand-alone NNTP client since the demise of KNode. I use slrn on the Fedora KDE spin box.
On Mon, 28 Apr 2025 19:00:37 -0600, Retrograde wrote:
Always surprised me that so many oldtimers did not use an actual
news client.
On 2025-04-29, rbowman <bowman@montana.com> wrote:
Pan keeps chugging on but I'm not sure KDE has a stand-alone NNTP
client since the demise of KNode. I use slrn on the Fedora KDE spin
box.
Thunderbird contains a fairly nice news client.
Thunderbird contains a fairly nice news client.
On Mon, 28 Apr 2025 19:00:37 -0600, Retrograde wrote:
Always surprised me that so many oldtimers did not use an actual news
client.
On 2025-04-29, rbowman <bowman@montana.com> wrote:
Pan keeps chugging on but I'm not sure KDE has a stand-alone NNTP
client since the demise of KNode. I use slrn on the Fedora KDE spin
box.
Thunderbird contains a fairly nice news client.
On 2025-04-28 23:17, Mike Spencer wrote:
Peter Flass -- Iron Spring Software <Peter@Iron-Spring.com> writes:
I don't know if it's my setup or if there has been a disturbance in
the Force. A.F.C is the only newsgroup I subscribe to that usually has
significant traffic, but the last week or so there has only been a few
posts on the "General Thoughts" thread. I use Eternal September as a
news server and I just installed a new system and switched to Pan as a
newsreader. Is Usenet finally dying?
Nah, no more than a decade ago, two decades ago. I'm also on Eternal
September.
Ob-AFC: Remember when when SMTP just, yew know, worked? Now, in
addition to several standardized additions to SMTP -- DKIM, SPF inter
alia -- too technical for my pay grade [1], MTA operators are now
inserting a mixed bag of DNSBLs, filter bots that make discriminatory
inferences from RDNS and whois etc. MTA operators contract with third
parties to insert these filter services or email admins roll their own
version or combinations.
That leaves a humble user such as I to negotiate with my own ISP's
possibly impenetrable "support" or to hunt down individual ISP admins
or contracting filterbot admins and persuade them to install a
whitelist entry or otherwise find a workaround for email that evokes a
5xx bounce.
[1] I'm not an IT pro, just a retired artist blacksmith. It's
happenstance and personal idiosyncrasy that I know enough about
IP, SMTP etc. to write this. I suppose less fortuitously informed
people just hit and become embedded in a wall of penc?
People just give up and embrace Google mail.
On 2025-04-28 16:59, Peter Flass -- Iron Spring Software wrote:
I don't know if it's my setup or if there has been a disturbance in the
Force. A.F.C is the only newsgroup I subscribe to that usually has
significant traffic, but the last week or so there has only been a few
posts on the "General Thoughts" thread. I use Eternal September as a
news server and I just installed a new system and switched to Pan as a
newsreader. Is Usenet finally dying?
Depends on the group.
There are some posters that pester technical groups with USAian
political posts. There are those that love certain orange haired guy,
and some that hate him. And they air their duels on a group supposedly dedicated to computers or electronics.
On Tue, 29 Apr 2025 20:14:55 +0200, Carlos E.R. wrote:
There are some posters that pester technical groups with USAian
political posts. There are those that love certain orange haired guy,
and some that hate him. And they air their duels on a group supposedly
dedicated to computers or electronics.
Apropos of nothing I assume the 'black start' went okay? If the whole US
went dark I doubt anyone would be online by now.
On Tue, 29 Apr 2025 20:14:55 +0200, Carlos E.R. wrote:
There are some posters that pester technical groups with USAian
political posts. There are those that love certain orange haired guy,
and some that hate him. And they air their duels on a group supposedly
dedicated to computers or electronics.
Apropos of nothing I assume the 'black start' went okay? If the whole US
went dark I doubt anyone would be online by now.
On Tue, 29 Apr 2025 19:24:26 -0000 (UTC), Lars Poulsen wrote:
On Mon, 28 Apr 2025 19:00:37 -0600, Retrograde wrote:
Always surprised me that so many oldtimers did not use an actual news
client.
On 2025-04-29, rbowman <bowman@montana.com> wrote:
Pan keeps chugging on but I'm not sure KDE has a stand-alone NNTP
client since the demise of KNode. I use slrn on the Fedora KDE spin
box.
Thunderbird contains a fairly nice news client.
I did use it for a long time and still use it for my SMTP client on both Linux and Windows and the NNTP client on Windows. Then on Linux the news
part got a little weird with text formatting issues, dialog size
changes,
and other annoyances so I switched to Pan.
That was a while back but Pan is working well.
On Wed, 30 Apr 2025 01:22:27 +0000, rbowman wrote:
On Tue, 29 Apr 2025 20:14:55 +0200, Carlos E.R. wrote:
There are some posters that pester technical groups with USAian
political posts. There are those that love certain orange haired guy,
and some that hate him. And they air their duels on a group supposedly
dedicated to computers or electronics.
Apropos of nothing I assume the 'black start' went okay? If the whole US
went dark I doubt anyone would be online by now.
I think they took power from France, which may have helped.
On Tue, 29 Apr 2025 19:24:26 -0000 (UTC), Lars Poulsen wrote:
On Mon, 28 Apr 2025 19:00:37 -0600, Retrograde wrote:
Always surprised me that so many oldtimers did not use an actual news
client.
On 2025-04-29, rbowman <bowman@montana.com> wrote:
Pan keeps chugging on but I'm not sure KDE has a stand-alone NNTP
client since the demise of KNode. I use slrn on the Fedora KDE spin
box.
Thunderbird contains a fairly nice news client.
I did use it for a long time and still use it for my SMTP client on both >Linux and Windows and the NNTP client on Windows. Then on Linux the news >part got a little weird with text formatting issues, dialog size changes, >and other annoyances so I switched to Pan.
Yes, I've neen using Pan for years. For email, Claws Mail as the MUA, and postfix as the MTA.
Bob Eager wrote:
...usenet, email, etc...
Yes, I've neen using Pan for years. For email, Claws Mail as the MUA,
and postfix as the MTA.
for usenet i've been using slrn and leafnode for quite a long
time. many years ago rn and tin were used,
Claws Mail is nothing fancy, but functional and broadly available.
It's been my go-to for mail/news since Google killed both GG and
the old, non-hateful GMail design.
What's hateful? I haven't looked at it in a long time. I do get
traffic through gmail.com but it's automatically sent to montana.com.
xrn - perfect for text use. PAN doesn't handle groups with
large article counts very well, due to the rather inefficient
methods used to store the headers locally.
On 2025-04-30, Scott Lurndal <scott@slp53.sl.home> wrote:
xrn - perfect for text use. PAN doesn't handle groups with
large article counts very well, due to the rather inefficient
methods used to store the headers locally.
Pan might be inefficient, but it does handle large binaries
groups well aside from that. I use slrn for text groups.
Thunderbird contains a fairly nice news client.I did use it for a long time and still use it for my SMTP client on both Linux and Windows and the NNTP client on Windows. Then on Linux the news
part got a little weird with text formatting issues, dialog size changes,
and other annoyances so I switched to Pan.
Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> writes:
On 2025-04-30, Scott Lurndal <scott@slp53.sl.home> wrote:
xrn - perfect for text use. PAN doesn't handle groups with
large article counts very well, due to the rather inefficient
methods used to store the headers locally.
Pan might be inefficient, but it does handle large binaries
groups well aside from that. I use slrn for text groups.
The pan algorithms scale exponentially. It can take upwards
of 10 to load or save the in-memory copy of the on-disk
database, which is stored as free-form text.
For one binary group, the on-disk database is 2.4GB
(76 million ASCII lines).
Winter would have been a problem but I have a gas stove that doesn't need electricity so I wouldn't freeze. It still was a lesson in how dependent
we are on electricity.
On 2025-04-28 23:17, Mike Spencer wrote:
Peter Flass -- Iron Spring Software <Peter@Iron-Spring.com> writes:
I don't know if it's my setup or if there has been a disturbance in the
Force. A.F.C is the only newsgroup I subscribe to that usually has
significant traffic, but the last week or so there has only been a few
posts on the "General Thoughts" thread. I use Eternal September as a news >>> server and I just installed a new system and switched to Pan as a
newsreader. Is Usenet finally dying?
Nah, no more than a decade ago, two decades ago. I'm also on Eternal
September.
Ob-AFC: Remember when when SMTP just, yew know, worked? Now, in
addition to several standardized additions to SMTP -- DKIM, SPF inter
alia -- too technical for my pay grade [1], MTA operators are now
inserting a mixed bag of DNSBLs, filter bots that make discriminatory
inferences from RDNS and whois etc. MTA operators contract with third
parties to insert these filter services or email admins roll their own
version or combinations.
That leaves a humble user such as I to negotiate with my own ISP's
possibly impenetrable "support" or to hunt down individual ISP admins
or contracting filterbot admins and persuade them to install a
whitelist entry or otherwise find a workaround for email that evokes a
5xx bounce.
[1] I'm not an IT pro, just a retired artist blacksmith. It's
happenstance and personal idiosyncrasy that I know enough about
IP, SMTP etc. to write this. I suppose less fortuitously informed
people just hit and become embedded in a wall of penc?
People just give up and embrace Google mail.
On Tue, 29 Apr 2025 20:14:55 +0200, Carlos E.R. wrote:
Apropos of nothing I assume the 'black start' went okay? If the whole US went dark I doubt anyone would be online by now.
I don't know how often they test-run that little single-banger to ensure
that it still goes. The crank looked like it hadn't been unbolted for
years.
In a corner of a lower-yet deck, there's a (possibly antique?) vertical-single-cylinder diesel. Bolted to the bulkhead is a hand crank.
You unbolt the crank, crank up the single-banger which generates enough power to start the "small" diesel which starts the big diesels which...
I don't know how often they test-run that little single-banger to ensure
that it still goes. The crank looked like it hadn't been unbolted for
years.
Bob Eager <news0009@eager.cx> writes:
On Wed, 30 Apr 2025 01:22:27 +0000, rbowman wrote:
On Tue, 29 Apr 2025 20:14:55 +0200, Carlos E.R. wrote:
There are some posters that pester technical groups with USAian
political posts. There are those that love certain orange haired guy,
and some that hate him. And they air their duels on a group supposedly >>>> dedicated to computers or electronics.
Apropos of nothing I assume the 'black start' went okay? If the whole US >>> went dark I doubt anyone would be online by now.
I think they took power from France, which may have helped.
And from north africa. The Iberian peninsula is interconnected
with both, in much the same way that California is with Arizona
and the Pac NW.
On 2025-04-30, Scott Lurndal wrote:
Bob Eager <news0009@eager.cx> writes:
On Wed, 30 Apr 2025 01:22:27 +0000, rbowman wrote:
On Tue, 29 Apr 2025 20:14:55 +0200, Carlos E.R. wrote:
There are some posters that pester technical groups with USAian
political posts. There are those that love certain orange haired guy, >>>>> and some that hate him. And they air their duels on a group supposedly >>>>> dedicated to computers or electronics.
Apropos of nothing I assume the 'black start' went okay? If the whole US >>>> went dark I doubt anyone would be online by now.
I think they took power from France, which may have helped.
And from north africa. The Iberian peninsula is interconnected
with both, in much the same way that California is with Arizona
and the Pac NW.
What I've seen said in news outlets and by REN so far is that REE
(Spain) took power from France and Morocco, REN (Portugal) bootstrapped
with a dam and one thermal plant.
Winter would have been a problem but I have a gas stove that doesn't need electricity so I wouldn't freeze. It still was a lesson in how dependent
we are on electricity.
On 2025-04-30 03:22, rbowman wrote:
On Tue, 29 Apr 2025 20:14:55 +0200, Carlos E.R. wrote:
There are some posters that pester technical groups with USAian
political posts. There are those that love certain orange haired guy,
and some that hate him. And they air their duels on a group supposedly
dedicated to computers or electronics.
Apropos of nothing I assume the 'black start' went okay? If the whole US
went dark I doubt anyone would be online by now.
Power failed at 12:30. The north of Spain got service soon, coming from France. Some places got service at about 17 hours. By 22 hours about
half of the country was up. Mine was back at 22:55. Some friends of mine
at 00:30.
rbowman <bowman@montana.com> writes:
On Tue, 29 Apr 2025 20:14:55 +0200, Carlos E.R. wrote:
Apropos of nothing I assume the 'black start' went okay? If the whole US
went dark I doubt anyone would be online by now.
I have a lovely image as a metaphor for what a chore that must be.
I once was given a tour of a Canadian Navy supply ship. Bridge full of
high tech electronics. Below, the engine control room full of both electronic and vacuum line (? I forget) controls overlooking the huge
main turbine and ancillary turbine. Aft, a large room filled by two
huge 12-cylinder (IIRC) diesel engines. These can supply power to run everything needed to get the whole ship up and running.
Near by, a "small" 8-cylinder diesel, about the size that would drive a
40' highway tractor-trailer rig, running a compressor that can make
enough compressed air to get the big diesels started.
What do you do if you have a cold ship, nothing running at all, no
shore power, no electricity, no steam?
In a corner of a lower-yet deck, there's a (possibly antique?) vertical-single-cylinder diesel. Bolted to the bulkhead is a hand
crank. You unbolt the crank, crank up the single-banger which generates enough power to start the "small" diesel which starts the big diesels which...
I don't know how often they test-run that little single-banger to
ensure that it still goes. The crank looked like it hadn't been
unbolted for years.
I don't know how often they test-run that little single-banger to ensure
that it still goes. The crank looked like it hadn't been unbolted for
years.
And then you find you don't have a spanner for the bolt.
Candles are an engineering feat. The plainest issue, 2 cm diameter, 18
cm long, made by IKEA (Jubla), are perfect, they never drip or bend.
Seem they have an outer layer with a higher melting point. And they sell
a perfect ceramic candle support (Godtagbar). The same type of candle
sold by a supermarket, they drip and are unreliable.
On Thu, 1 May 2025 21:37:34 +0200, Carlos E.R. wrote:
Recently I started watching a TV SciFi serial on Amazon, Spanish made:
Punto Nemo. I could make a list of the things they do that the Navy
would never do, but I forget, there are so many. One of them, is they
start a generator in an abandoned island by just turning some big
switches labelled in Russian. Later we learn that they use geothermal
energy and that's why it still works. (!)
Hey, it's Hollywood. Or wherever the Spanish film industry lives.
On Thu, 1 May 2025 21:12:17 +0200, Carlos E.R. wrote:
City was silent, except for some cars. And very dark when the night
came, we could see the stars.
Except for clouds I'm far enough from the city that I can see stars.
When the lights went out and didn't come back for a while I walked
up a hill where I could see most of the valley for a look. I could
see lights in one of the outlying villages so I knew it wasn't a
complete failure.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_blackout_of_1965
When the lights went out that time my father and I drove to a place that overlooked the Hudson Valley and when we saw all the cities like Troy and Albany were dark we knew it was bad.
I don't know if was indicative of the changing culture but there was very little looting in NYC in '65. Not so in '77.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City_blackout_of_1977
On Fri, 2 May 2025 23:10:06 +0200, Carlos E.R. wrote:
The Expanse is a wonderful job, for instance. In Spain I don't remember
right now, Sci-Fi is not usual. I have a mental image of one SciFi movie
that was good, but no idea of the title. But this particular serial they
do wrong even naval/navy things, not yet SciFi.
I watched a couple of episodes but didn't get interested. Perhaps I should try again.
For instance, at some point they do apnoea diving. The diver goes down
by moving her fins, while I understand they go down with a weight, that
they release at the bottom. Much faster, does not use muscular effort.
She needed to go down some 75 meters, I think.
Synchronicity. I'd never heard free diving referred to that way but a
couple of weeks ago I read a murder mystery that used it and explained how
it wasn't related to sleep apnea. A young girl went missing and when the divers search the lake they found an old skeleton. She was apnea diving,
had found the skeleton, and informed the wrong person about her find. It didn't turn out well for her but started a chain of events to find out why
a 20 year old skeleton was there in the first place.
There are movies out there where the science is so bad that it is even
funny and entertaining to watch them. Past the cringing point.
Have you seen 'Mr. Robot' ? Some of the plot twists are a little bizarre
but at least the hacking scenes are believable compared to most of the
shows.
On 2025-05-03 07:47, rbowman wrote:
On Fri, 2 May 2025 23:10:06 +0200, Carlos E.R. wrote:
The Expanse is a wonderful job, for instance. In Spain I don't
remember right now, Sci-Fi is not usual. I have a mental image of one
SciFi movie that was good, but no idea of the title. But this
particular serial they do wrong even naval/navy things, not yet SciFi.
I watched a couple of episodes but didn't get interested. Perhaps I
should try again.
Aside from the plot, the space parts are realistic.
For instance, at some point they do apnoea diving. The diver goes down
by moving her fins, while I understand they go down with a weight,
that they release at the bottom. Much faster, does not use muscular
effort. She needed to go down some 75 meters, I think.
Synchronicity. I'd never heard free diving referred to that way but a
couple of weeks ago I read a murder mystery that used it and explained
how it wasn't related to sleep apnea. A young girl went missing and
when the divers search the lake they found an old skeleton. She was
apnea diving, had found the skeleton, and informed the wrong person
about her find. It didn't turn out well for her but started a chain of
events to find out why a 20 year old skeleton was there in the first
place.
There are movies out there where the science is so bad that it is even
funny and entertaining to watch them. Past the cringing point.
Have you seen 'Mr. Robot' ? Some of the plot twists are a little
bizarre but at least the hacking scenes are believable compared to most
of the shows.
Not complete, I think. I stopped for some reason, and it is gone from my "currently watching" list.
On 2025-05-02 03:27, rbowman wrote:
On Thu, 1 May 2025 21:37:34 +0200, Carlos E.R. wrote:
Recently I started watching a TV SciFi serial on Amazon, Spanish made:
Punto Nemo. I could make a list of the things they do that the Navy
would never do, but I forget, there are so many. One of them, is they
start a generator in an abandoned island by just turning some big
switches labelled in Russian. Later we learn that they use geothermal
energy and that's why it still works. (!)
Hey, it's Hollywood. Or wherever the Spanish film industry lives.
Of course, but there are serials that do a wonderful job, and others
that do a terrible job.
The Expanse is a wonderful job, for instance. In Spain I don't remember right now, Sci-Fi is not usual. I have a mental image of one SciFi movie that was good, but no idea of the title. But this particular serial they
do wrong even naval/navy things, not yet SciFi.
For instance, at some point they do apnoea diving. The diver goes down
by moving her fins, while I understand they go down with a weight, that
they release at the bottom. Much faster, does not use muscular effort.
She needed to go down some 75 meters, I think.
There are movies out there where the science is so bad that it is even
funny and entertaining to watch them. Past the cringing point.
This one I want to watch to the end. Pity that Amazon Prime Video app doesn't accept criticism or votes. So I watch half an episode at a time. Instead I watch "The Rig".
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