Messages

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Community / Is Macintosh BBS'ing Dead?

« on: November 06, 2008, 06:02:40 AM »

Hello Again Everyone,

Well, I am happy to announce that membership on the Armageddon BBS is now up to 50 unique accounts, and still slowly growing day by day. I hope to see some of you visiting us soon.

Oh, and by the way, for those of you care, here's a link to an interesting article called "Obama, McCain And The Bush Legacy".

Take care!

[spelling/pronunciation note]

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Community / Is Macintosh BBS'ing Dead?

« on: October 25, 2008, 06:28:23 PM »

QUOTE(Xairbusdriver @ Oct 26 2008, 05:11 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Post some pictures of that sub! Does it have a nice big bubble window for watching the fish? Is it peddle-powered or Nucular <spelling/pronunciation note>?

Actually, it utilizes an eco-friendly technology as old as the Earth itself...squid ink jet powered...silent, very evasive and guaranteed to leave any potential pursuers in a cloud of confusion.

[Jeff]

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Community / Is Macintosh BBS'ing Dead?

« on: October 24, 2008, 06:33:56 AM »

QUOTE(krissel @ Oct 24 2008, 07:46 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Here in NJ we've had drought, flood, blizzard, tornado and hurricane experiences.  Granted most have not been of the high category stage but I did have a tree blown down onto my house in a hurricane. Does that count?  

Hmmm...you might qualify.

Although my impression is that by the time a hurricane gets that far north, it has pretty much run out of steam due to the cooler climate, and cooler ocean water. There is simply no energy to maintain its strength.

Over here where I live, we are at the 13 degree latitude mark, and right in the tropics, so we are right in the center of typhoon alley. Some typhoons can begin their development as far away as over 1,000 miles to the southeast of us, down near Majuro, Kosrae, Pohnpei and Chuuk. When that happens, by the time they reach our area, they are often at the height of their strength.

At other times, they begin forming as tropical depressions, and then develop into tropical storms, in our immediate area, and don't become full-fledged typhoons until after passing us by. During the past six years, since Pongsona, this has been the case. We have typhoons around us every single year, but we've just been spared a direct hit during this time...and nobody misses it.

QUOTE

But no, I don't want to go through a serious weather event of any kind however it seems that no matter where you live you are bound to be threatened by something or other.  

Yes, that seems to be the case.

QUOTE

Jim, don't think Jeff has undergone a change of that kind.  

Ha! I saw that, but chose not to make an issue out of it...but since you did...I assure you that I have never undergone, and have never contemplated undergoing, such an operation. And I think I had better leave it at that before we really get off topic here.

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Community / Is Macintosh BBS'ing Dead?

« on: October 24, 2008, 06:15:07 AM »

QUOTE(kimmer @ Oct 24 2008, 04:22 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'm very late, but welcome MakTekniko. I remember the "old" BBS'es. Used to visit loads of them.

Thanks for the welcome Kimmer. Well, as you can see, I've got my BBS running again, using Hermes II software, so feel free to stop by and post a message or two, or play a game of Leech, or fill out my "Get-To-Know-You" external. Even one message a week would certainly help to keep the BBS alive...well...barely.  

[said]

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Community / Is Macintosh BBS'ing Dead?

« on: October 24, 2008, 06:10:00 AM »

QUOTE(Xairbusdriver @ Oct 24 2008, 10:32 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I know you said you'd read the Forum Rules and our Etiquette Statement, however, you seem to have missed the one that says,"The author of a thread has absolutely no right to attempt a 'high-jacking' of her own thread. That is solely and exclusively the privilege and right of any and or all all other members." Please refrain from further attempts. Just a friendly word of warning, if you know what I mean. The TS Admins know what island you call home! How many places can there be to hide?!!!

Oh gosh...did I neglect to mention the nice little personal submarine that I have. Ben Linus would be jealous! If any of you admin types come after me, well, I'll be gone in a flash! No sweating here folks!  

BTW, while I heard from the Zone 1 Coordinator regarding re-connecting to FidoNet after an absence of ten+ years, I am still waiting to hear from the Region 10 Coordinator, who is directly responsible for issuing me a  node number so that I can start bringing in FidoNet echoes on the Armageddon BBS. I've narrowed it down to about 15 echoes, and will probably narrow it down further to 9 echoes...or maybe 12 at the most.

6

Community / Is Macintosh BBS'ing Dead?

« on: October 22, 2008, 05:24:13 AM »

QUOTE(krissel @ Oct 22 2008, 06:55 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 Ohhh boy. When's the next ship leaving for Guam?  

I think I can deal with a typhoon now and then.

Have you ever been through a strong hurricane or typhoon? Once you have been, you hope that  you never have to go through that experience again. That's how we all felt after Pongsona.

QUOTE

Downloaded SyncTerm but haven't gotten to it as yet.  Time is precious these days and my parents come first. Will let you know if I'm successful in getting it going, though I'm not really sure how often I can visit as TS takes up most of my 'spare' time

Looking at  your computer types, I am guessing that you downloaded the PPC version of SyncTERM. If  you run into any trouble, just look at the Help File that I included in the DMG.

Concerning your personal situation, quite understandable. I can appreciate and admire your dedication to your parents. An occasional visit, and message post, to the Armageddon BBS will be appreciated.

QUOTE

In any case I do sympathize with your goal.  But you do have an upward struggle since you are dealing with mostly post-luddites who now probably fear going 'back to the old days' of computing. It may take a new generation to appreciate what you are doing, much like those who find Pong refreshingly fun.  

Well, I am under no illusion that this is ever going to turn into something big; but if I can at least get a small community of regular posters going, I'll be satisfied...particularly if they are Macintosh users. Windows users are of course welcome too, but they already have hundreds of Windows-based BBSes, many of them using Synchronet, and associated with DOVE-NET. My main goal here is to revive the Macintosh BBS'ing community.

[UNITE]

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Community / Is Macintosh BBS'ing Dead?

« on: October 21, 2008, 08:59:40 PM »

QUOTE(gunug @ Oct 22 2008, 01:42 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I used to do a lot of this stuff in pre-PC days on my Kaypro CP/M computers; this was state of the art then.  Now, not so much; I guess it would be fun but maybe not as immediate as TS is right now!

Gunug, I regret to inform you that your present attitude reveals that you have fallen into the trap of those vile conspirators.

Yes folks; I have figured it out! I have had a wonderful revelation!

You know what is going on? This demise of the Macintosh BBS world is just another facet of the "Dumb Down Americans" campaign!

Ah yes! I knew that I smelled a rat!

WHAT?! You doubt my words???

You see, they just want kids today to mindlessly and robotically point and click. Any effort, mental or physical, to type in letter and numbers, and to repeatedly hit the return key, is viewed by these conspiring thugs as taboo.

We must unite and turn this situation around!

BBS'ers loyal, one and all, UNITE!

It is time to revisit those bygone days of Macintosh BBS'ing, before the art of BBS'ing is lost entirely. The writing is already on the wall, and we Macintosh SysOps are already an endangered species!

So hop on over to the Armageddon BBS and see what I've managed to do with this old software. You can still smell the paint on the walls! It's not big and fancy, but I am doing what I can with what I've got.

In fact, since yesterday, I've been in touch with Janis Kracht, who is the FidoNet Zone 1 coordinator. I am hoping to rejoin FidoNet, after over a ten-year absence, and pull in a few echoes. It might make the Armageddon BBS a bit more interesting...if there is any real traffic, that is.

The bottom line is, if a few of us don't keep our BBSes up, then BBS'ing will in fact soon be forgotten.

Jeff Snyder
Self-Appointed Macintosh BBS Crusader

[did]

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Community / Is Macintosh BBS'ing Dead?

« on: October 21, 2008, 08:35:00 PM »

QUOTE(Xairbusdriver @ Oct 22 2008, 12:32 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Like so many American's, I 'assumed' "Lipton's was a mostly US brand! Of course, anything made with tea should always be associated with our history and our ancestors across the pond. It was even once associated with that icon of Mac support called Pepsico (well they did send one of their Mac 'supporters' to Apple a few years ago...)! Apparently, Sir Lipton was from Scotland, which may or may not be considered "British!" But surely one would not confuse "Lipton's" and "British tea" in many parts of the world. (How about that NASCAR licensed tea pitcher for your Lipton's?) Earl Grey, anyone? Maybe something from Davison Newman and Co.? Some of their imports may still be found in the Boston harbor area... Might be a great way to test those snorkeling skills...

Believe it or not, but I am such a dedicated Lipton's Tea drinker, that I was in fact disappointed when I recently noticed that they had almost completely removed sir Lipton's image which used to be prominently displayed on the box packaging. Now it is just this tiny image about the size of a US dime. I mean, oh my gosh...what is Lipton's Tea without that famous mustached image displayed in all its glory? And I ought to know, because whenever we do our monthly food shopping, I purchase three 100-count boxes of tea. No, I don't actually drink that much in a month's time. Gosh...that would be 10 cups a day! But without that image, something important is now missing in my life!

Now isn't that interesting...You learn something new everyday. "Moustache" is correct, but when you use it as an adjective, according to OSX's built-in dictionay app, the letter "o" is dropped from the word. See that...you can even learn new things from talking about Lipton's Tea!

Snorkeling for tea? Nah...it probably decayed long ago. Maybe the fish and crustaceans had a little Boston tea party of their own.  

Okay, that is my unanticipated rant regarding Lipton's Tea, in a forum, and message thread, supposedly about BBS'ing and the Armageddon BBS.

[MakTekniko steps down from his soapbox...or tea box...or whatever.]

[REALLY]

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Community / Is Macintosh BBS'ing Dead?

« on: October 21, 2008, 05:18:33 AM »

QUOTE(krissel @ Oct 21 2008, 07:17 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That's my problem.  I spend so much effort trying to understand the accent.  The canned laughter makes me realize I must have missed something.  Then again most sitcoms have a lot of 'laughter' for stuff that just isn't funny anyway.

Personally, I don't even waste my time on sitcoms anymore. Well, there is one that my daughter really likes..."Pushing Daisies". But most sitcoms are just too nonsensical, or too morally liberal, for my conservative taste. WHAT?! Is my age showing again?!

QUOTE

Jeff, I dropped by your BBS and took a quick look but I'll have to get better glasses to read the small text in the input box or change the monitor resolution. When I'm more awake I'll give it another shot.  

Great! I don't know what kind of a computer you are using, or what monitor resolution you are using, or even what telnet client you are using, but I would suggest the following:

1. Anything tighter than 1024x768, and yes, you probably will go blind.

2. If you are on OSX, use SyncTERM. You can get my latest official build for PPC here.

3. If, on the other hand, you are on an Intel Mac, then you will have to go here to get the UB version.

4. If you happen to be using a Classic Mac, then I have a special stripped down version of Public Address, which you can get here.

I've included Read Me/Help Files in both the SyncTERM PPC and Public Address archives.

QUOTE

I'm sooo jealous of your environment. I'm sitting here with a heavy sweater trying to stay warm without turning up the thermostat. I try to swim at the local Y in the evenings but coming out into 40º night air is not much fun. I envy my tropical (freshwater) fish because they are living in warm water year round and are not feeling cold like I am.

Ha! Well, I guess it is time to make you REALLY jealous. It never ever goes below the mid-seventies here. Well, it might dip to the very low seventies during a typhoon, (hurricane), but only then. The hottest it gets is probably in the low 90's during our dry season.

When I arrived here from northern-most Japan over 20 years ago, it was like 45 degrees during the daytime in April. We arrived here at night, and it was like 76 degrees. What a mind-blower that was!

Thankfully, our last big SuperTyphoon was in 2002. That was the monster of monsters...and I have lived here for over 22 years now, so I know. It was called Pongsona, a Korean name, as I recall. In our home, we were without power for 32 days. Others suffered even longer. Our water came back quicker. Again, others suffered longer. It took our landlord five months to replace the two windows in my bedroom, because there was an island-wide glass shortage due to so much damage. Cement telephone poles were knocked down like toothpicks in a row. Those 40' heavy shipping containers were thrown hundreds of yards through the air. I have never seen so much destruction as what resulted from Pongsona, and I've been through some powerful typhoons here.

The fact that we have not had a single typhoon in six years now makes one nervous. It means that the odds are growing against us.  

[do]

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Community / Is Macintosh BBS'ing Dead?

« on: October 21, 2008, 03:19:48 AM »

QUOTE(Highmac @ Oct 21 2008, 05:22 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You'll get used to Jim's humour  

Oh, I don't mind his humor at all. The kind that I do mind, is when I don't understand it. A lot of British humor is like that for me. My daughter seems to understand it all, and enjoys British shows a lot. Me? I have to listen intently just to understand what they are saying, because I am not used to the British accent as much as she is. So obviously, a lot of British humor goes right over my head. I imagine that some of you Brits feel the exact same way about American humor. You probably go "Huh?!" half the time.

QUOTE

Surely, Jim, Al in Hawaii is closer than New Zealand, although I had a heck of a job finding Guam on Google maps - by the time it closed in enough to see the island, you couldn't see ANY neighbours, so it was difficult to work out the relationship with other parts of the region

Well, as I was just writing to Janis Kracht of FidoNet, you can get a grasp of our location this way:

We are about seven hours by air west of Hawaii, about three hours by air south of Japan, about three hours by air east of the Philippines, and I think about 5 to 7 hours by air northeast of Australia. I am not exactly sure of that last one. At any rate, we share a time zone with Japan and easternmost Australia.

QUOTE

I'd HEARD of Guam, of course - have a feeling John Wayne may have mentioned it once or twice in films - but had to go to Wikipedia to learn more about it.

Oh gosh...relying on John Wayne for a geography lesson?  

QUOTE

PS - Glad you came in on community, MacTekniko; I would have felt more guilty going off topic in Tech

Well, when I first joined this board, I very carefully read the descriptions for each forum, and then decided that this one seemed like the most appropriate...Kind of a little looser, with a bit more room for wandering.

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Community / Is Macintosh BBS'ing Dead?

« on: October 20, 2008, 11:14:35 PM »

Hello there Xairbusdriver. Thanks for the welcome and the humor. Actually, the kind of boat one would use is called a proa. It's sort of like a double canoe, you might say. I've never been in one myself. About ten to fifteen years ago though, I was into some very serious snorkeling. Our assortment of marine fish here is wonderful, and only bested by places like Indonesia the Great Barrier Reef, which are far larger, and more pristine, than the fringing reefs which surround our island. In fact, I was a local pet store manager, and then started my own aquarium design and maintenance business for a while. Sometimes I would go out snorkeling 3 to 5 times a week. What tropical fish hobbyists in the States would pay big money for, I used to catch for free...butterflyfishes, several varieties of angelfishes, such the Emperor Angel, Lemonpeel, and many other varieties of fish, eels, crabs, octopus, etc...all in 1 to 6 feet of water, mind you!

But getting back to BBS'ing...One thing I never liked about Mac BBS suites like FirstClass, TeleFinder, etc., is that you were required to use a particular proprietary client to connect to the BBS, which sometimes was not free. This created a real clickish BBS environment. With other BBS packages, such as what I have used, (Hermes II and Pubic Address), anyone can connect to the BBS, without the need for a special client, regardless of whether they are a Mac user, Windows user, Linux user, Unix user, or whatever. All you have to know how to do is to use a telnet client or terminal emulator.

Well, it is 2:12 PM Tuesday here, and my cup of Lipton's tea is done steeping, so I am off to stick some gobs of honey in it. I just l-o-o-v-e my Lipton's tea, and I am not British!

Anyway, I hope that some of you folks will stop by my BBS, as I have been working on it really hard the past few days, creating new help screens, and other such things, to make it as user-friendly, and as Mac-friendly, as possible, even though it is very much text and typing letter and number commands.

Take care fellows,

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Community / Is Macintosh BBS'ing Dead?

« on: October 20, 2008, 11:33:15 AM »

QUOTE(Highmac @ Oct 20 2008, 10:42 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Welcome from me too.
FYI - There are a few Brits on here - as you can see, your post shows a time here of Monday 11.49am, so there's usually somebody awake besides Kris...  

Hello Highmac. Thanks for the welcome. I am on my computer at all odd hours of the day. For example, I went to bed around five and a half hours ago, or around 9:00 PM Monday, our time, and here it is just after 2:30 AM early Tuesday morning, and I am up again. It's kind of hot here, and I couldn't sleep, so I figured I'd check to see if I had any email notifications from any of the boards that I visit. Sure enough, I already had four waiting for me, including this one.

Jeff

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Community / Is Macintosh BBS'ing Dead?

« on: October 20, 2008, 05:49:38 AM »

QUOTE(krissel @ Oct 20 2008, 07:28 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Gotcha.  Actually it kind of mirrors a bit the texting of today's youth. Some time in the future they will be telling their kids of the 'way it used to be'.  

Ha! Now THAT'S funny!

QUOTE

The flashing banners, ads, spam, etc. are the reasons we keep TS clear of that stuff. We do change our welcome banner about once a week to give our members a chance to contribute to the community but there is no commercialism here.

I hear you. I am the same way with all of the sites and messageboards that I run. I absolutely detest commercial banners and the like, and I have absolutely none of that junk on my server. I pay everything out of my own pocket, as I have done for years. If I can't afford it, I just don't do. Man, I don't even own any credit cards, and never have!

QUOTE

Hope you stop by often. I see you will be visiting when many of us are asleep. Though I'm often the exception...

Well, I hope that you will return the favor in kind and join the Armageddon BBS, and post on occasion.

Concerning the hours, yes, you need to remember that we are GMT+10 here. That puts us 14 hours ahead of US EST time, and 17 hours ahead of US PCT time, or whatever they call it in California. For example, right now it is Monday 8:47 PM here, which means that it is Monday 6:47 AM on the US East Coast.

Sleep? What's that?  

[still]

14

Community / Is Macintosh BBS'ing Dead?

« on: October 20, 2008, 03:26:55 AM »

QUOTE(krissel @ Oct 20 2008, 05:58 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

to TS, Jeff.


Nice to see someone keeping some of the old stuff alive for nostalgia sake. But for me our BB software makes communication so easy I don't see the benefit to using the old method.  

Hello Krissel. Thanks for your response.

Actually, it's not about finding any particular benefit to using BBS software, as most people today would say that there is none. As you noted, setting up a BBS like the Armageddon BBS is more of a nostalgia thing, and just reminding the younger generation of the roots, and where the current technology all came from. It's just taking a cool blast to the past, and seeing how mom and pop did it before we all became so immersed in the current online world, which, at times, can be quite daunting with its sites, sounds, movement and colors.

In fact, I have read where some BBS'ers have stated that they still prefer the world of BBS'ing for this very reason. It is more of a personal, intimate affair, without all of the blaring banners, and buy-me ads, and spam and potentially dangerous download warnings, etc. It's just you, and your friends and text for the most part. Some people still like that. Each has its place, I suppose.

15

Community / Is Macintosh BBS'ing Dead?

« on: October 19, 2008, 04:09:48 PM »

If you are around 18 or younger, there is a good chance that you've never heard about this old thing called BBS'ing. Believe or not, there was life on the Internet prior to the arrival of the World Wide Web with all of its fancy graphics, flash animations, cool audio, etc.; and it's quite possible that your mom or dad spent hours engaged in the PC-ANSI graphics world of BBSing.

PC-ANSI graphics? What the heck is that? Well, if you look at my avatar over there, the computer part of the image was made with PC-ANSI characters using BBS software, and then converted into an avatar using PhotoShop. ANSI graphics usually had kind of a blocky style to it, but there were some really good ANSI artists back in the day.

On the other hand, maybe you have heard a little about BBS'ing, and your kind of curious about it, and wondering what it was like for dear old mom or dad...well...maybe not so old.

Well, guess what? If you've got a spare Macintosh sitting around that isn't serving any particular purpose at the moment, wouldn't it be cool if you could take a blast into the past and set up your own BBS?

"Well, sure! How do I get started?" you might say. There's only one problem...where do you find Macintosh BBS software? You've looked around a bit, but have for the most part come up empty-handed.

Well, maybe I can help. You see, I ran a Macintosh FidoNet-connected BBS during the early 1990's. Not only that, but just recently, I set up my BBS again. Over time, I've collected just about every BBS program that was ever written for the Mac. If you have a look at it, who knows...maybe you'll decide to take the plunge and set up your own Macintosh BBS...at least that is what I am hoping. Check out what I've got. You may not recognize it, but mom or dad will:

ANSI & ASCII Related
BBS'ing Info Documents
bbs100 3.0 OSX
FirstClass
Hermes External Writing
Hermes Externals
Hermes Program & Docs
Hermes Utilities
MacCitadel 1.3b 68K
Mailers Offline QWK Readers
Mansion BBS 9.5.6 68K
Misc. BBS Utilities
Modem Tools
MUBBS
Nally 1.2 Leopard
Novalink - NovaTerm
Pancake
Public Address
Red Ryder
Second Sight
StarBase7 1.3b 68K
TeleFinder
Telnet Clients
Terminal Emulators - ZTerm, GLterm, etc.
WWIV 3.0 - July 1988
Zonch

So, if you're interested in, and need, any of this hard-to-find software in order to start your own BBS, please consider logging on to my BBS, the Armageddon BBS, using your favorite telnet client. If you're a Mac OSX user, you definitely want to use the latest version of SyncTERM. Yeah, it's Windowish-looking, but it's the best telnet client out there for displaying real BBS ANSI graphics.

If you're still using Classic Mac, then the best deal is using the Public Address BBS software in telnet mode. If you don't have it, I have a special stripped down version available on our BBS.

If you stop by, I'll do all I can to help you to set up your own BBS. And while you're visiting us, please consider posting a few messages, or play an old game of LEECH 2000, or check out my icebreaker external called "Get-To-Know-You". If you know Python and/or Jython, I could REALLY use your help writing some new externals for the Hermes II BBS software. To access the Armageddon BBS, just use port 23 and telnet to: endtimeprophecy.org

In the words of the Beatles, "You say you wanna re-vo-lu-shu-un, oh well, you kno-o-w..." How about a BBS revolution?

Boy, are mom and dad ever gonna to be jealous!

Hope to see you soon!