• Re: computers

    From Nightfox@21:1/137 to Spectre on Thu Jul 25 12:50:15 2024
    Re: Re: computers
    By: Spectre to TheNerd on Fri Jul 26 2024 03:26 am

    ways, and having to flip between Nutscrape and Internet Exploiter as they

    Nutscrape *Masturbator

    Nightfox
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  • From Nightfox@21:1/137 to Spectre on Thu Jul 25 12:51:54 2024
    Re: Re: computers
    By: Spectre to TheNerd on Fri Jul 26 2024 03:29 am

    I was in my last year of high school in 1993. The boards in my area were
    still going strong. about a year later I became a FidoNet Hub and the BBS

    Interesting. Where in the world are you? By 93 there wasn't another BBS around to even get Fido from...

    In my area (northwest Oregon in the US), there were still a lot of BBSes in 1993. I started running my own BBS in 1994, and I got a Fido feed in 1998. However, BBS usage was starting to drop off by then, and in 2000, usage was so low that I decided to stop running my BBS at the time.

    Nightfox
    --- SBBSecho 3.20-Linux
    * Origin: Digital Distortion: digdist.synchro.net (21:1/137)
  • From klunk@21:1/124 to Mhansel739 on Thu Jul 25 22:35:41 2024
    Halt and Catch Fire - where are you streaming these seasons from? I am interested in re-watching it, but am hesitant to sign up for another darn streaming service.

    I have access to all 4 seasons ;)

    Klunk

    ... Radioactive cats have 18 half-lives

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Windows/64)
    * Origin: Who Dares Wins Amiga BBS (21:1/124)
  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to Spectre on Thu Jul 25 17:38:13 2024
    Re: Re: computers
    By: Spectre to TheNerd on Fri Jul 26 2024 03:29 am

    Interesting. Where in the world are you? By 93 there wasn't another BBS around to even get Fido from...

    That's odd. In the San Francisco Bay Area there were hundreds of BBSes in the area and a whole echomail distribution system. I was part of that until the late 90s, probably 1998. I got an ISDN line and connection to the internet and started using FTP to get fidonet mail.
    --- SBBSecho 3.20-Win32
    * Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)
  • From Spectre@21:3/101 to Nightfox on Fri Jul 26 12:44:00 2024
    I started using the internet in 1995 with Windows 3.1 and Winsock. I don't think it was a PITA.. It actually seemed fairly easy to set up.

    Never did that.. at that stage, we'd had the baptism of fire running linux
    for the local user group. Always had a linux box doing fileserving and
    routing after that. An odd couple of times I had dialup into that same box
    for internet from other locations.

    Spec


    *** THE READER V4.50 [freeware]
    --- SuperBBS v1.17-3 (Eval)
    * Origin: A camel is a horse designed by a committee. (21:3/101)
  • From Spectre@21:3/101 to poindexter FORTRAN on Fri Jul 26 12:56:00 2024
    That's odd. In the San Francisco Bay Area there were hundreds of BBSes in the area and a whole echomail distribution system. I was part of that until the late 90s, probably 1998. I got an ISDN line and connection to the internet and started using FTP to get fidonet mail.

    Australia generally were early internet adopters, probably why my time scale
    is so different. Its probably mid 93 its well on its way to gone. We had amongst the highest density of BBS in the world here in Melbourne, and Sydney... a lot were smallish single line systems.. I believe a lot of those that were sysops for the sake of being a sysop just shut down and went
    straight to dial-up internet. While anyone that had more than 2 lines
    morphed into a service provider. We had hundreds of ISPs for a while.

    But it all disappeared so fast there was no one to keep in touch with about what nets still functioned even. Even the BBS registry pretty much
    disappears around then. By 95 we were on cable internet. The other long standing problem I had was nothing that we were using leant itself to
    TCP/IP... No serial redirection available, no networking available.. with a vairety of truly antique drivers and shims I was able to get NWLITE to see other stations but it could never talk to another station. So it all went by the wayside. The few I can recall that hung on tended to be Major BBS which had the module for telnet service. They were pretty much just ISPing it
    though, the chat groups were all dead.

    Spec


    *** THE READER V4.50 [freeware]
    --- SuperBBS v1.17-3 (Eval)
    * Origin: A camel is a horse designed by a committee. (21:3/101)
  • From Bf2K+@21:3/171 to Spectre on Thu Jul 25 23:30:10 2024
    On 26 Jul 24 03:29:00 Spectre wrote...

    I was in my last year of high school in 1993. The boards in my ar still going strong. about a year later I became a FidoNet Hub and

    Interesting. Where in the world are you? By 93 there wasn't another BBS around to even get Fido from...

    Spec


    *** THE READER V4.50 [freeware]

    To which Bf2K+ replies...

    I didn't leave FidoNet until 1996 or 97... don't remember for sure
    because I recently looked at some old nodelists and saw my node listed in
    a 97 list.

    I brought my old Atari 8-bit BBS back on the internet in 1999 and it is
    still up and running...

    bfbbs.no-ip.com:8888


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  • From Spectre@21:3/101 to Bf2K+ on Fri Jul 26 21:56:00 2024
    I didn't leave FidoNet until 1996 or 97... don't remember for sure
    because I recently looked at some old nodelists and saw my node listed in a 97 list.

    I brought my old Atari 8-bit BBS back on the internet in 1999 and it is still up and running...

    Back in 93-94 I don't think we had enough ways to migrate a BBS to the internet. Most had already left the building by the time they became
    available.

    I do remember seeing RLFOSSIL back then, but having no way to use it with any of my existing infrastructure.

    Spec


    *** THE READER V4.50 [freeware]
    --- SuperBBS v1.17-3 (Eval)
    * Origin: A camel is a horse designed by a committee. (21:3/101)
  • From Mhansel739@21:3/171 to klunk on Fri Jul 26 06:45:46 2024
    I have access to all 4 seasons ;)

    Klunk
    That is AWESOME! But, where do I get it?
    --Matt

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  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to Spectre on Fri Jul 26 07:11:00 2024
    Spectre wrote to Bf2K+ <=-

    Back in 93-94 I don't think we had enough ways to migrate a BBS to the internet. Most had already left the building by the time they became available.

    I don't think there was a terminal program that could do Telnet and
    Zmodem back then; that was the one show-stopper I kept going back to.
    Between QWK and file transfers, Zmodem was a requirement.

    I do remember seeing RLFOSSIL back then, but having no way to use it
    with any of my existing infrastructure.

    Yeah, by the time I had a DSL line, I was down to one or two callers a
    day. I wonder how many I would have gotten were people able to telnet
    in?


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  • From TheNerd@21:1/230 to Nightfox on Fri Jul 26 12:07:01 2024
    I started using the internet in 1995 with Windows 3.1 and Winsock. I don't think it was a PITA.. It actually seemed fairly easy to set up. You'd just configure Winsock for your ISP and dial in, and you were online. I did that for a while until in 1996, I got my first job and spent my first couple paychecks on parts for a new PC, which I installed Windows 95 on.

    OH gawd I hated Winsock. Early in my career I had to support that for an ISP.. thankfully not for long before it filtered out of the system. Nothing but pain with a 'user' on the other end of the phone.


    --- TheNerd -/- Sysop: NerdRage BBS -/- telnet: nerdragebbs.ddns.net

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  • From TheNerd@21:1/230 to Spectre on Fri Jul 26 12:15:34 2024
    Interesting. Where in the world are you? By 93 there wasn't another BBS around to even get Fido from...


    London Ontario Canada.


    --- TheNerd -/- Sysop: NerdRage BBS -/- telnet: nerdragebbs.ddns.net

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  • From TheNerd@21:1/230 to Nightfox on Fri Jul 26 12:16:36 2024
    I don't remember having such a problem with Netscape. It always seemed like a good browser.

    I never found it to be an especially great browser.. it wasn't horrible but it was early days in the world of WWW. I was very happy when FireFox came out.


    --- TheNerd -/- Sysop: NerdRage BBS -/- telnet: nerdragebbs.ddns.net

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  • From Nightfox@21:1/137 to TheNerd on Fri Jul 26 11:49:03 2024
    Re: Re: computers
    By: TheNerd to Nightfox on Fri Jul 26 2024 12:16 pm

    I don't remember having such a problem with Netscape. It always seemed
    like a good browser.

    I never found it to be an especially great browser.. it wasn't horrible but it was early days in the world of WWW. I was very happy when FireFox came out.

    If Netscape wasn't a great browser, what browser were you comparing Netscape to? I don't think there were very many web browsers available at the time, and they were probably about on par with each other. Firefox didn't come out until 2004..

    Nightfox
    --- SBBSecho 3.20-Linux
    * Origin: Digital Distortion: digdist.synchro.net (21:1/137)
  • From Spectre@21:3/101 to Mhansel739 on Sat Jul 27 06:22:00 2024
    I have access to all 4 seasons ;)

    That is AWESOME! But, where do I get it? --Matt

    Vivaldi or is that too retro? :P


    *** THE READER V4.50 [freeware]
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    * Origin: A camel is a horse designed by a committee. (21:3/101)
  • From Spectre@21:3/101 to poindexter FORTRAN on Sat Jul 27 06:25:00 2024
    I don't think there was a terminal program that could do Telnet and
    Zmodem back then; that was the one show-stopper I kept going back to. Between QWK and file transfers, Zmodem was a requirement.

    Ponder, there was something I was using close to 95... I forget what it was now.. but that was to late for us. Earlier if you wanted telnet you'd need
    to dial a text shell and telnet from there..

    Some of the early telnet clients also didn't cope with ANSI BBS very well either. Sure they could manage some colour and movement.. but BBS pages
    tended to push the envelope in comparrison to what the clients were designed for.

    Spec


    *** THE READER V4.50 [freeware]
    --- SuperBBS v1.17-3 (Eval)
    * Origin: A camel is a horse designed by a committee. (21:3/101)
  • From Mhansel739@21:3/171 to TheNerd on Sat Jul 27 06:45:00 2024
    Netscape, or any of the other browsers out at the beginning of the wild
    west days of the world wide web (WWW), were hit or miss. Web page/site developers had to choose what browser they were developing for. One
    browser rendered one way, the other another way. And each of them had
    their own "special" tags that the others couldn't use or recognize.
    I think back to the days of IE being the "premier" browser with its
    ActiveX controls. Many financial institutions developed their sites for
    that browser and you could only access them with IE.
    While I love that I was part of those days, I am still glad that some
    standards were formed and adhered to by all browsers, making them "semi-universal".
    --Matt

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  • From Nightfox@21:1/137 to Mhansel739 on Sat Jul 27 08:27:18 2024
    Re: Re: computers
    By: Mhansel739 to TheNerd on Sat Jul 27 2024 06:45 am

    their own "special" tags that the others couldn't use or recognize. I think back to the days of IE being the "premier" browser with its ActiveX controls. Many financial institutions developed their sites for that browser and you could only access them with IE.

    That was an example of Microsoft's "embrace, extend, and extinguish" strategy. They'd often take something that was supposed to be standardized and add their own stuff to it and/or make it work a little differently. Because of how many people used Microsoft's stuff, many developers would end up supporting it, and competitors' stuff wouldn't work anymore. Microsoft did that with IE for many years.

    Nightfox
    --- SBBSecho 3.20-Linux
    * Origin: Digital Distortion: digdist.synchro.net (21:1/137)
  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to Mhansel739 on Sat Jul 27 09:01:00 2024
    Mhansel739 wrote to TheNerd <=-

    Netscape, or any of the other browsers out at the beginning of the wild west days of the world wide web (WWW), were hit or miss. Web page/site developers had to choose what browser they were developing for.

    Mostly due to Microsoft making IE intentionally different. Embrace,
    Extend, Engulf...


    What I remember from the early days fondly was Netscape Communicator.
    I used that at a couple of companies for POP3 email, then later IMAP.
    I'd set up an internal NNTP server for collaboration and we'd use it
    for internal teams chat. Pair that with Palm Desktop and you'd hear
    Palms syncing throughout the building. It worked pretty well for the
    time.

    I tried Mozilla SeaMonkey, reminded me a lot of the UI from
    Communicator, but it refuses to load randomly and isn't very well
    updated these days.




    --- MultiMail/Win v0.52
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  • From maple@21:1/215 to Nightfox on Sat Jul 27 18:27:38 2024
    I should probably watch that show.. I watched the first episode (or
    part of it) and for some reason didn't continue watching the show.

    ohhh i SUPER recommend HCF, it's one of my favourite tv shows ever. a lot of people i knew at the time were turned off from it because of how "inaccurate" it is, but something they don't realize is that the show is about the
    people, it's not a documentary!

    "computers aren't the thing. they're the thing that gets us to the thing" :)

    |08- |05maple "|13mavica|05" syrup |07(|10byte/byteself|07 or it/its)
    |09https://maple.pet/

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Windows/64)
    * Origin: Retro32 BBS (21:1/215)
  • From TheNerd@21:1/230 to Nightfox on Sun Jul 28 17:59:35 2024
    On 26 Jul 2024, Nightfox said the following...
    If Netscape wasn't a great browser, what browser were you comparing Netscape to? I don't think there were very many web browsers available
    at the time, and they were probably about on par with each other.
    Firefox didn't come out until 2004..

    There was no comparing.. as I said, it was the early days of WWW. But netscape itself was plagued with all kinds of bugs in the UI or page display and copious crashing. The addon game back then was a pita as well. We did however have Internet Explorer in 95. Which was better, all be it chained to the OS. Then it wasn't better and it just sucked. Off to firefox.


    --- TheNerd -/- Sysop: NerdRage BBS -/- telnet: nerdragebbs.ddns.net

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  • From TheNerd@21:1/230 to Mhansel739 on Sun Jul 28 18:02:54 2024
    developers had to choose what browser they were developing for. One browser rendered one way, the other another way. And each of them had their own "special" tags that the others couldn't use or recognize.
    I think back to the days of IE being the "premier" browser with its

    OMG yes.. This is why my foray into web design as a profession ended. Constant standard changes or stupid extras that where real cool in IE didn't render right or at all in netscape or firefox.. no thanks. Now I look at code for pages and no thanks.

    CSS was pretty cool when it hit wide spread adoption tho... IE needed to f that up a bit as usual of course.


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  • From klunk@21:1/124 to Mhansel739 on Sun Jul 28 17:26:10 2024
    That is AWESOME! But, where do I get it?

    Where are you based?
    Klunk

    ... Operator, give me the number for 911

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Windows/64)
    * Origin: Who Dares Wins Amiga BBS (21:1/124)
  • From Errol Casey@21:1/182 to poindexter FORTRAN on Sun Jul 28 12:28:32 2024
    Re: Re: computers
    By: poindexter FORTRAN to dreamchipper on Tue Jul 23 2024 09:57 am

    I'm re-watching Halt and Catch Fire season 4 now - they captured that early web period well. I think back to that time, I lived in San Francisco and worked at a software company in San Francisco. San Francisco was cool, and the epicenter of multimedia in tech. San Francisco was cool and the rest of the bay area was uncool. I wonder what would have happened if I'd decided to work outside of San Francisco in the uncool valley and gotten a job at Netscape.
    Where are you watching it? streaming service? which one.

    I've heard of the show, but have never found where I could watch it.
    --- SBBSecho 3.20-Linux
    * Origin: Too Lazy BBS - toolazy.ddns.net:2323 (21:1/182)
  • From tenser@21:1/101 to poindexter FORTRAN on Tue Jul 30 02:18:38 2024
    On 25 Jul 2024 at 05:38p, poindexter FORTRAN pondered and said...

    Re: Re: computers
    By: Spectre to TheNerd on Fri Jul 26 2024 03:29 am

    Interesting. Where in the world are you? By 93 there wasn't another BBS around to even get Fido from...

    That's odd. In the San Francisco Bay Area there were hundreds of BBSes
    in the area and a whole echomail distribution system. I was part of that until the late 90s, probably 1998. I got an ISDN line and connection to the internet and started using FTP to get fidonet mail.

    Once I got access to the Internet, I found the technical
    discussion content I'd been looking for, and then I started
    to wonder why anyone would care about the endless flame
    wars and "big personalities" on fight-o-net. The silly
    "rules" imposed by sysops on local BBSes seemed strange once
    I realized they didn't have any content I cared about.

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
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  • From Nightfox@21:1/137 to TheNerd on Mon Jul 29 09:45:21 2024
    Re: Re: computers
    By: TheNerd to Mhansel739 on Sun Jul 28 2024 06:02 pm

    OMG yes.. This is why my foray into web design as a profession ended. Constant standard changes or stupid extras that where real cool in IE didn't render right or at all in netscape or firefox.. no thanks. Now I look at code for pages and no thanks.

    In 2010, I got a job as a "web developer" and was thinking from the job description that it might be more back-end development (with PHP and similar), but the job turned out to be a bit different.. Among other things, they had me doing some front-end web development, which I was a little less familiar with, and wanted me to make some customizations to their Magento setup (Magento is an open-source online store package). Magento ended up being terribly complicated, but as far as the front-end stuff, I didn't like having to support all the different browser standards either, which I suppose is why I've tended to gravitate away from front-end web development. I do like UI development for other things though (such as desktop software, mobile apps, etc.).

    Nightfox
    --- SBBSecho 3.20-Linux
    * Origin: Digital Distortion: digdist.synchro.net (21:1/137)
  • From Mhansel739@21:3/171 to TheNerd on Tue Jul 30 04:53:22 2024
    OMG yes.. This is why my foray into web design as a profession ended. Constant standard changes or stupid extras that where real cool in IE d render right or at all in netscape or firefox.. no thanks. Now I look code for pages and no thanks.

    CSS was pretty cool when it hit wide spread adoption tho... IE needed t that up a bit as usual of course.

    Yes, this is what I was talking about. Browsers rendered things
    "differently" depending on how the developers "interpreted" the HTML or
    CSS code. Yes, CSS was a developing standard, but it was still the WWW
    (wild wild west) on the WWW (world-wide web). My foray into web-dev was similar. I found it silly creating different versions of pages for
    different browsers, or locking someone into a specific browser to look at
    or use a page.
    --Matt

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    * Origin: STar Fleet HQ - Real Atari! bbs.sfhqbbs.org:5983 (21:3/171.0)
  • From Mhansel739@21:3/171 to klunk on Tue Jul 30 04:57:00 2024
    I am in Virginia, US. I see that I can get it via Amazon or an AMC subscription. I am just not ready to sign up for another streaming
    service at this time. At the rate I am going, I am paying almost as much
    as I did for DirectTV with the different services. Ok, that may be a
    slight exaggeration, but you get the point. I will hold off for a bit.
    Plus, fall semester starts up in a couple weeks, so I will not have much
    time to spend as I get acclimated to the class load I am teaching.
    --Matt

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  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to Mhansel739 on Tue Jul 30 06:27:00 2024
    Mhansel739 wrote to TheNerd <=-

    Yes, this is what I was talking about. Browsers rendered things "differently" depending on how the developers "interpreted" the HTML or CSS code. Yes, CSS was a developing standard, but it was still the WWW (wild wild west) on the WWW (world-wide web). My foray into web-dev was similar. I found it silly creating different versions of pages for different browsers, or locking someone into a specific browser to look
    at or use a page.

    The problem from my perspective was extensions and interpretations of
    the HTML standard by Microsoft making IE less compatible. Microsoft
    knew that corporate networks would support IE and intentionally erode
    competitor's market share. Microsoft in the '90s was ruthless and
    should have been broken up.


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  • From Mhansel739@21:3/171 to poindexter FORTRAN on Sun Aug 11 10:10:46 2024
    The problem from my perspective was extensions and interpretations of
    the HTML standard by Microsoft making IE less compatible. Microsoft
    knew that corporate networks would support IE and intentionally erode
    competitor's market share. Microsoft in the '90s was ruthless and
    should have been broken up.

    Yes, MS was ruthless during the 90s. They were looking to have dominance
    and keep their competitors out of the corporate arena. Should they have
    been broken up? Maybe. But, in my opinion, they created what the consumer
    and most of the commercial world wanted - a single platform to work from.
    As much as we love Linux, there are "too many" variations for it to take
    hold. It does well in the server arena, but not the desktop. And Mac, as
    good as it is missed the mark.
    Think about this. Once Microsoft established itself as the OS of choice
    for IBM and the clones, it already created a foothold. Commodore, Atari,
    and other platforms just could not compete with the common platform that software was being created for.
    --Matt

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  • From Malvinas@21:4/167 to Mhansel739 on Sun Aug 11 15:42:59 2024
    As much as we love Linux, there are "too many" variations for it to take hold. It does well in the server arena, but not the desktop. And Mac, as good as it is missed the mark.
    Just recently I saw a conference by Linus Torvalds where he pointed out just that. That MS was succesful because there's only 1 Windows in each cycle, whereas in Linux, each app creator has to release an immense amount of binaries to have their app ready to be used in a myriad of different distros. The Cathedral and the Bazaar, back for blood... Still, Mr. Torvalds pointed out that is yet another huge corporation one that could push this culture and logic into the linux sphere, when Steam would have to standarize binary releases for games compatible with the linux platform

    Think about this. Once Microsoft established itself as the OS of choice for IBM and the clones, it already created a foothold. Commodore, Atari, and other platforms just could not compete with the common platform that software was being created for.
    --Matt

    On this last piece of your post: MS didn't "establish itself"... they did some kind of shady move with IBM to have their OS pre-installed in OEM computers for a good few years, until it was irreversible. I know american folks (coming from "the land of opportunity and the free and brave), see these 'corporate moves' as not so much as "shady", but you gotta give that that's not quite "squeaky clean"...

    Malvinas.

    Islas Malvinas, siempre Argentinas!

    ... Islas Malvinas, siempre Argentinas.

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/25 (Windows/64)
    * Origin: The Vault BBS (21:4/167)
  • From Mhansel739@21:3/171 to Malvinas on Mon Aug 12 04:49:16 2024
    On this last piece of your post: MS didn't "establish itself"... they d some kind of shady move with IBM to have their OS pre-installed in OEM computers for a good few years, until it was irreversible. I know ameri folks (coming from "the land of opportunity and the free and brave), se these 'corporate moves' as not so much as "shady", but you gotta give t that's not quite "squeaky clean"...
    No doubt that MS did some shady stuff to get DOS on the IBM. They have
    done (have been doing) some shady stuff to stay on top. There is no way
    they could have done this and come out squeaky clean. I have used MS
    stuff as long as it has been around, but am not blind to the fact that
    they are just one more corporation out to make money. I see the crud they
    pull with their licensing (both desktop/server licenses and their
    cloud-based offerings).
    I use it because that is where the tools are that I need for work. And to
    me, their tools are pretty good. Yup, there are alternatives that work as
    well, if not better (and cost less).
    --Matt

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  • From mary4@21:1/166 to rubberchicken on Fri Aug 23 04:13:11 2024
    born in the 80's but have been getting back into retro computers again,
    i miss the times when this was primary means of comms.

    i was born in 1991! this is a cooler way to talk! :D

    --mary4 (Victoria Crenshaw) the 286 enthusiast

    ... Radioactive cats have 18 half-lives

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/24 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Datanet BBS | telnet://datanetbbs.net:23 (21:1/166)
  • From mary4@21:1/166 to Newtype Len on Fri Aug 23 04:18:00 2024
    I grew up with dial-up in the 90s and 2000s, but never saw or used a BBS until last year. Using one now has changed my apprecation for using the Internet, and has changed my ideas on how to use it to communicate.

    i got my 1st pc in y2k and we used dailup until 2002 i never saw a bbs until this year! <3
    i compleately understand your views and i hold thre same ones!~

    --mary4 (Victoria Crenshaw) the 286 enthusiast

    ... It said "insert disk #3", but only two will fit...

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/24 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Datanet BBS | telnet://datanetbbs.net:23 (21:1/166)
  • From Rixter@21:1/242 to mary4 on Thu Aug 22 20:42:24 2024


    i was born in 1991! this is a cooler way to talk! :D

    --mary4 (Victoria Crenshaw) the 286 enthusiast

    ... Radioactive cats have 18 half-lives

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/24 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Datanet BBS | telnet://datanetbbs.net:23 (21:1/166)


    I have always thought so.
    --- SBBSecho 3.14-Win32
    * Origin: Ricks BBS - ricksbbs.synchro.net (21:1/242)
  • From Elmer Quinn@21:1/242 to Rixter on Sun Aug 25 04:40:14 2024


    i was born in 1991! this is a cooler way to talk! :D

    --mary4 (Victoria Crenshaw) the 286 enthusiast

    ... Radioactive cats have 18 half-lives

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/24 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Datanet BBS | telnet://datanetbbs.net:23 (21:1/166)


    I have always thought so.
    same here! this is so much better than fb.
    --- SBBSecho 3.14-Win32
    * Origin: Ricks BBS - ricksbbs.synchro.net (21:1/242)
  • From hollowone@21:2/150 to Elmer Quinn on Sat Nov 2 11:56:26 2024
    i was born in 1991! this is a cooler way to talk! :D
    same here! this is so much better than fb.

    You guys still need to learn how to quote without all the personal and server signature crap :) but good to see old-fashioned terminal communication fancy you and at least I can tell you know already that reply comes below not above the original message :)

    -h1

    ... Xerox Alto was the thing. Anything after we use is just a mere copy.

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2024/05/29 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: 2o fOr beeRS bbS>>20ForBeers.com:1337 (21:2/150)
  • From Jimmy Anderson@21:2/127 to Nightfox on Sat May 3 22:44:00 2025
    Nightfox wrote to Malvinas <=-

    Yea, my reply was about that other guy saying that pretty much 'over night', users vaporized into thin air... I thought not seeing that happen here might've been a 'regional' thing... you say it was pretty similar in the US too...

    Yeah.. I was surprised he also said he thought about 90% of BBSes had disappeared in 1993, which seems pretty early to me. The BBS scene was still fairly big here, I think until about 1997 or so when I noticed
    users started to dwindle fairly fast. I didn't even know about the internet in 1993, and I'm not entirely sure how many people did.

    Here, when we moved from Jackson to Memphis, there were still
    SEVERAL BBS's running! I paid for a dial up shell account to
    use for telnet and such, before we migrated to AOL for 'the
    web.' But even then BBS's were still popular. This was 93-94
    or so.



    ... Heisenberg may have slept here.
    === MultiMail/Mac v0.52
    --- SBBSecho 3.11-Win32
    * Origin: Battlestar BBS : battlestarbbs.dyndns.org (21:2/127)
  • From Jimmy Anderson@21:2/127 to Nightfox on Sat May 3 22:52:00 2025
    Nightfox wrote to TheNerd <=-

    I don't remember having such a problem with Netscape. It always seemed like a good browser.

    I used it some, but when I found Communicator, I think it was called,
    that was my 'go to' WYSIWYG html editor. :-)



    ... I before E except after C, huh? Weird!
    === MultiMail/Mac v0.52
    --- SBBSecho 3.11-Win32
    * Origin: Battlestar BBS : battlestarbbs.dyndns.org (21:2/127)
  • From Jimmy Anderson@21:2/127 to TheNerd on Sat May 3 23:22:00 2025
    TheNerd wrote to Nightfox <=-

    I started using the internet in 1995 with Windows 3.1 and Winsock. I don't think it was a PITA.. It actually seemed fairly easy to set up. You'd just configure Winsock for your ISP and dial in, and you were online. I did that for a while until in 1996, I got my first job and spent my first couple paychecks on parts for a new PC, which I installed Windows 95 on.

    OH gawd I hated Winsock. Early in my career I had to support that for
    an ISP.. thankfully not for long before it filtered out of the system. Nothing but pain with a 'user' on the other end of the phone.

    I used Trumpet for Win95. I remember how Microsoft came out with
    Internet Explorer and Netscape sued cause they were incorporating
    it with the OS in Win98, I think it was. I remember telling people
    "the TCP/IP stack made trumpet obsolete, but no one is complaing
    about that!" :-)

    Didn't make any friends that way... ;-)



    ... Two fonts walk into bar. Bartender says "We don't serve your type here." === MultiMail/Mac v0.52
    --- SBBSecho 3.11-Win32
    * Origin: Battlestar BBS : battlestarbbs.dyndns.org (21:2/127)
  • From Jimmy Anderson@21:2/127 to Malvinas on Sat May 3 23:54:00 2025
    Malvinas wrote to Mhansel739 <=-

    On this last piece of your post: MS didn't "establish itself"... they
    did some kind of shady move with IBM to have their OS pre-installed in
    OEM computers for a good few years, until it was irreversible. I know american folks (coming from "the land of opportunity and the free and brave), see these 'corporate moves' as not so much as "shady", but you gotta give that that's not quite "squeaky clean"...

    Remember bloatware? You'd buy that $300 Packard Bell or HP machine,
    and it woud be preinstalled with a TON of stuff that you had to
    delete to get system space and processing back. I found out that
    the companies PAID to have their stuff installed, and that's how
    they could sell the PC's so cheaply.



    ... Who is General Failure and why is he reading my hard drive?!?!
    === MultiMail/Mac v0.52
    --- SBBSecho 3.11-Win32
    * Origin: Battlestar BBS : battlestarbbs.dyndns.org (21:2/127)
  • From Nightfox@21:1/137 to Jimmy Anderson on Sun May 4 08:34:32 2025
    Re: Re: computers
    By: Jimmy Anderson to Nightfox on Sat May 03 2025 10:44 pm

    Yeah.. I was surprised he also said he thought about 90% of BBSes had
    disappeared in 1993, which seems pretty early to me. The BBS scene was

    Here, when we moved from Jackson to Memphis, there were still SEVERAL BBS's running! I paid for a dial up shell account to use for telnet and such, before we migrated to AOL for 'the web.' But even then BBS's were still popular. This was 93-94 or so.

    Where I am, I'd say there were more than just 'several' BBSes still running in 1993. I didn't even start running my BBS until 1994, and I think there were still a lot of BBSes in my area at that time. Mine got plenty of callers.. I think it was around 1997 or so when BBS usage in my area started to drop off, and it seemed to drop off fairly quickly. I took my BBS down in 2000 because it was rarely getting any callers anymore.

    What I think is interesting is that I think my current BBS now gets more use than my original BBS was getting in 2000..

    Nightfox
    --- SBBSecho 3.24-Linux
    * Origin: Digital Distortion: digdist.synchro.net (21:1/137)
  • From Malvinas@21:4/167 to Jimmy Anderson on Sun May 4 13:41:16 2025
    Remember bloatware? You'd buy that $300 Packard Bell or HP machine,
    and it woud be preinstalled with a TON of stuff that you had to
    delete to get system space and processing back. I found out that
    the companies PAID to have their stuff installed, and that's how
    they could sell the PC's so cheaply.


    Thing is, you could delete those "tools and utils", and still be able to use the machine. Talk about the OS... what do you do if you wipe out your HD and have no OS to install, to replace it.
    Having an agreement with the OEMs to have *your* OS pre installed and not let people find whatever OS they'd like... I think it was anything but "nice".

    Pol Malvinas.

    Islas Malvinas, siempre Argentinas!

    ... Islas Malvinas, siempre Argentinas.

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/25 (Windows/64)
    * Origin: The Vault BBS (21:4/167)
  • From Utopian Galt@21:4/108 to Jimmy Anderson on Sun May 4 12:57:58 2025
    JIMMY ANDERSON (21:2/127) wrote to Nightfox <=-

    Here, when we moved from Jackson to Memphis, there were still
    SEVERAL BBS's running! I paid for a dial up shell account to
    use for telnet and such, before we migrated to AOL for 'the
    web.' But even then BBS's were still popular. This was 93-94
    or so.

    They started to die out when I graduated from high school in 1997. People who started to go to college ended up killing off their bbses.
    I was the only long term bbs in my area for another decade before i stopped paying for the modem line.

    ... Backwards and forwards means I know everything about you.
    --- MultiMail/Win v0.52


    --- WWIV 5.9.03748[Windows]
    * Origin: inland utopia * california * iutopia.duckdns.org:2023 (21:4/108)
  • From Jimmy Anderson@21:2/127 to Nightfox on Sun May 4 12:22:00 2025
    Nightfox wrote to Jimmy Anderson <=-

    Where I am, I'd say there were more than just 'several' BBSes still running in 1993. I didn't even start running my BBS until 1994, and I think there were still a lot of BBSes in my area at that time. Mine
    got plenty of callers.. I think it was around 1997 or so when BBS
    usage in my area started to drop off, and it seemed to drop off fairly quickly. I took my BBS down in 2000 because it was rarely getting any callers anymore.

    Understandable.

    What I think is interesting is that I think my current BBS now gets
    more use than my original BBS was getting in 2000..

    LOL - yeah, I can kinda see that though... In Jackson, there were several
    dozen regular callers. In Memphis that was several dozen PER BOARD
    and not a lot of them were power users that were on ALL boards. Heck,
    I was on a few, but ended up gravitating to about three. :-)


    ... Dachshund kennel ad: Get a long little doggie.
    === MultiMail/Mac v0.52
    --- SBBSecho 3.11-Win32
    * Origin: Battlestar BBS : battlestarbbs.dyndns.org (21:2/127)
  • From Jimmy Anderson@21:2/127 to Malvinas on Sun May 4 14:08:00 2025
    Malvinas wrote to Jimmy Anderson <=-

    Remember bloatware? You'd buy that $300 Packard Bell or HP machine,
    and it woud be preinstalled with a TON of stuff that you had to
    delete to get system space and processing back. I found out that
    the companies PAID to have their stuff installed, and that's how
    they could sell the PC's so cheaply.


    Thing is, you could delete those "tools and utils", and still be able
    to use the machine. Talk about the OS... what do you do if you wipe out your HD and have no OS to install, to replace it. Having an agreement
    with the OEMs to have *your* OS pre installed and not let people find whatever OS they'd like... I think it was anything but "nice".

    Agreed... At least now there are usually restore files on the hard
    drive. :)



    ... AAAAA - American Association Against Acronym Abuse
    === MultiMail/Mac v0.52
    --- SBBSecho 3.11-Win32
    * Origin: Battlestar BBS : battlestarbbs.dyndns.org (21:2/127)
  • From Jimmy Anderson@21:2/127 to Utopian Galt on Mon May 5 07:07:00 2025
    Utopian Galt wrote to Jimmy Anderson <=-

    JIMMY ANDERSON (21:2/127) wrote to Nightfox <=-

    Here, when we moved from Jackson to Memphis, there were still
    SEVERAL BBS's running! I paid for a dial up shell account to
    use for telnet and such, before we migrated to AOL for 'the
    web.' But even then BBS's were still popular. This was 93-94
    or so.

    They started to die out when I graduated from high school in 1997.
    People who started to go to college ended up killing off their bbses.
    I was the only long term bbs in my area for another decade before i stopped paying for the modem line.

    That was when Facebook was college only, right? I wonder if that had
    something to do with it too...


    ... Hey, look! A completely new undocumented fea&%$#*@ NO CARRIER
    === MultiMail/Mac v0.52
    --- SBBSecho 3.11-Win32
    * Origin: Battlestar BBS : battlestarbbs.dyndns.org (21:2/127)
  • From Malvinas@21:4/167 to Jimmy Anderson on Mon May 5 22:25:09 2025
    Agreed... At least now there are usually restore files on the hard
    drive. :)


    And "live" pendrive .iso files, that let you "try before install" different OSs and distros... something that was still the stuff of dreams in the first half of the 80s.

    Pol Malvinas.

    Islas Malvinas, siempre Argentinas!

    ... Islas Malvinas, siempre Argentinas.

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/25 (Windows/64)
    * Origin: The Vault BBS (21:4/167)
  • From Jimmy Anderson@21:2/138 to Malvinas on Tue May 6 19:43:36 2025
    Malvinas wrote to Jimmy Anderson <=-

    Agreed... At least now there are usually restore files on the hard
    drive. :)


    And "live" pendrive .iso files, that let you "try before install" different OSs and distros... something that was still the stuff of
    dreams in the first half of the 80s.

    I know! I have some old Gen2 MacBook Airs that are too slow and outdated
    for the staff to get any use out of. Trying a linux install now on one...


    ... Catskill Mountains: The land of dead mice.
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    --- SBBSecho 3.24-Linux
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