Hello All,

I just hatched out GETWX.ARJ via my CH-WARE filebone. This is for Linux. From the FILE_ID.DIZ:

GET_WEATHER: a script for bash that pulls
down the latest forecast for a US or
Canadian location from the Weather
Underground telnet server and puts it into
a text file. Requires expect (part of
TCL package). Written for Linux but could
possibly ported to other OSes. A Cheepware
production! Written by Sean Dennis.
This product is released under the Cheepware
License. (C) 2018 Sean Dennis.
http://outpostbbs.net/cheepware.html

It requires sed also but that's normally part of a Linux distro.

Later,
Sean

... Idle folks have the least leisure. - John Ray
--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20170303
* Origin: Outpost BBS * Limestone, TN, USA (1:18/200)

Very Cool Sean,

I just hatched out GETWX.ARJ via my CH-WARE filebone. This is for
Linux.
From the FILE_ID.DIZ:

GET_WEATHER: a script for bash that pulls
down the latest forecast for a US or
Canadian location from the Weather
Underground telnet server and puts it into

I remember a very cool PowerBBS door that did something similiar to this & I thought it was the coolest thing going. I will certainly be checking this out. What is the maddness behind this? The Why & What?

Phil

--- Msged/LNX 6.1.2
* Origin: Bayhaus.net - Colorado Springs - Serving the FrontRange (1:128/2)

Hello Phil,

06 May 18 01:09 at you wrote to me:

I remember a very cool PowerBBS door that did something similiar to
this & I thought it was the coolest thing going. I will certainly be checking this out. What is the maddness behind this? The Why & What?

I wrote this at a user's request is the main reason. It also taught me a little about using sed and a few other utilities under Linux.

Later,
Sean

... Never before have we had so little time in which to do so much. - FDR
--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20170303
* Origin: Outpost BBS * Limestone, TN, USA (1:18/200)

On May 06, 2018 11:09am, Sean Dennis wrote to Phil Kimble:

Hello Phil,

06 May 18 01:09 at you wrote to me:

I remember a very cool PowerBBS door that did something similiar to
this & I thought it was the coolest thing going. I will certainly be
checking this out. What is the maddness behind this? The Why & What?

I wrote this at a user's request is the main reason. It also taught me
a little about using sed and a few other utilities under Linux.

My question is is how does it work? :)

... Platinum Xpress & Wildcat!..... Nice!!!!
--- Platinum Xpress/Win/WINServer v3.0pr5
* Origin: Omicron Theta (1:116/17)

Hello Robert,

06 May 18 11:31 at you wrote to me:

My question is is how does it work? :)

You can download it and look at the scripts to find out.

In a nutshell, the "program" uses an expect script to pull down the actual information from rainmaker.wunderground.com, capturing the text in a file. I then use sed and another utility to format the text file properly. It's really not hard to do.

Later,
Sean

... Qui trop embrasse mal entreint. (Grab much, gain little.)
--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20170303
* Origin: Outpost BBS * Limestone, TN, USA (1:18/200)

On May 06, 2018 02:49pm, Sean Dennis wrote to Robert Wolfe:

In a nutshell, the "program" uses an expect script to pull down the
actual information from rainmaker.wunderground.com, capturing the text
in a file. I then use sed and another utility to format the text file properly. It's really not hard to do.

Yeah, unfortunately, the way I was hoping to do this wouldn't be able to utilize an expect script. I was hoping to be able to do this with a simple wget function in wcCODE.

... Platinum Xpress & Wildcat!..... Nice!!!!
--- Platinum Xpress/Win/WINServer v3.0pr5
* Origin: Omicron Theta (1:116/17)

Robert Wolfe wrote to Sean Dennis:

Yeah, unfortunately, the way I was hoping to do this wouldn't be able to utilize an expect script. I was hoping to be able to do this with a simple
wget function in wcCODE.

No, it won't work right and I just discovered that for some reason, I'm
having the expect script prematurely exit and it's missing a few more days' worth of forecast. I'll have to work on that when I get time.

--Sean



--- MBSE BBS v1.0.7.6 (GNU/Linux-x86_64)
* Origin: Outpost BBS * Limestone, TN, USA (1:18/200)

On 05/06/18, Robert Wolfe said the following...

Yeah, unfortunately, the way I was hoping to do this wouldn't be able to utilize an expect script. I was hoping to be able to do this with a simple wget function in wcCODE.

I'm doing something similar using a python script. I'm using a python module that interacts with the Open Weather API and it makes it very simple to pull down weather info. I have a cron job that generates the text file from the script.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A39 2018/04/21 (Raspberry Pi/32)
* Origin: Alcoholiday / Est. 1995 / alco.bbs.io (1:123/525)

Hello Andrew,

06 May 18 21:55 at you wrote to Robert Wolfe:

I'm doing something similar using a python script. I'm using a python module that interacts with the Open Weather API and it makes it very simple to pull down weather info. I have a cron job that generates the text file from the script.

Somewhere around here someone wrote a nice little script in something (I suspect Python) that pulled info out of a RSS feed and converted it to text. I'd known about the expect program for Tcl but had never worked with it. It was the interesting use of sed (and its "in-place" capability) that I had to dig for.

My user is happy with it and that's good enough for me. I do a lot of other small jobs with bash scripts and such. It's fun for me to do. I got into doing batch files, specifically REXX scripts, when I ran OS/2. With Linux, bash, and other bundled programs, there's always something I can whip up to make my sysoping life easier.

I even wrote one of my doors as a bash script as a "proof of concept" to myself. Not a huge deal but it was fun researching how to do it.

Later,
Sean

... When a man's best friend is his dog, that dog has a problem.
--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20170303
* Origin: Outpost BBS * Limestone, TN, USA (1:18/200)

On 05/07/18, Sean Dennis said the following...

I even wrote one of my doors as a bash script as a "proof of concept" to myself. Not a huge deal but it was fun researching how to do it.

Later,

That sounds really cool. What did the game do?

I wanted to mention that I was messing around with OS/2 and the SIO drivers recently and could not for the life of me get the door games to work in a Telegard BBS. The connection was dropping as soon as the door loaded.

I discovered the fix in a document that you wrote probably 20+ years ago. It was something as simple as placing an underscore at the end of the line that setup the virtual port. I saw NOTHING in the docs about this!

Anyway, I recognized your name on the file and wanted to say that it was helpful even so many years after the fact!

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A39 2018/04/21 (Raspberry Pi/32)
* Origin: Alcoholiday / Est. 1995 / alco.bbs.io (1:123/525)

Hi Sean,

I wrote this at a user's request is the main reason. It also taught
me a
little about using sed and a few other utilities under Linux.

sed is the one tool/utility that has dodged me for years. Never a first time go
with it. If you can wrestle it & come out on the good side, you are doing much
better than I.

--- Msged/LNX 6.1.2
* Origin: Bayhaus.net - Colorado Springs - Serving the FrontRange (1:128/2)

Hello Andrew,

07 May 18 18:13 at you wrote to me:

Anyway, I recognized your name on the file and wanted to say that it
was helpful even so many years after the fact!

Thank you. I am mentioned in the TG docs; I'm 'hausmaus'. :) I was much more of a spitfire back then. Now, I'm more curmudgeonly...

I still have a fully functioning OS/2 BBS sitting right next to me. If you have any more questions about setting up an OS/2-native BBS, just let me know.
I know several tricks for your CONFIG.SYS that will help speed up and improve performance of a OS/2 Warp box. These tricks work on newer third-party versions of OS/2, such as eComStation and Arca Noae.

(What I really need to do is get a IDE/SATA-to-USB converter and image that drive. That way, if I ever need any files, I can mount the ISO as a VFS under Linux and have everything oh-so-handy...)

Later,
Sean

... WinErr 013: Unexpected error - Huh?
--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20170303
* Origin: Outpost BBS * Limestone, TN, USA (1:18/200)

Hello Andrew,

07 May 18 18:13 at you wrote to me:

That sounds really cool. What did the game do?

Check out http://outpostbbs.net/cheepware.html -- look for "The Magic Oracle".

All of my doors are DOS right now. However, when the dust settles for me personally (I am in the middle of a ninety-day probation period in a new job), I'm very close to finishing up a working Linux-based Pascal doorkit. I have released doors that run under Linux in a beta form but they are not true doors as they don't monitor time online nor use a FOSSIL but instead use stdio under Linux.

Here's the "door" if you're wondering. The ANSWERS.DAT file is just a simple text files with a single line per answer.

The codes in the output lines are just ANSI color codes that are "bash-ified".

=== Cut ===
#!/bin/bash
FILE=answers.dat
if [ ! -f "$FILE" ]
then
echo "ANSWERS.DAT not found!"
echo "Program aborting."
exit 1
fi

clear
echo -e "\e[92mThe Magic Oracle/BASH"
echo -e "\e[36mWritten by and (C)2017 Sean Dennis."
echo
echo -e "\e[96mWhat is your question for the Oracle?\e[37m"
read QUESTION
echo
echo -e "\e[92mYour question was:"
echo -e "\e[37m$QUESTION"
echo
echo -e "\e[95mAfter consulting the Oracle, his answer is...\e[33m"

# Pick and display a random line in ANSWERS.DAT.
sort --random-sort $FILE | head -n 1
echo -e "\e[39m"
=== Cut ===

The real trick is in the second to the last line. ;)

Later,
Sean

... A verbal contract isn't worth the paper it's written on.
--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20170303
* Origin: Outpost BBS * Limestone, TN, USA (1:18/200)

Hello Phil,

07 May 18 12:42 at you wrote to me:

sed is the one tool/utility that has dodged me for years. Never a
first time go with it. If you can wrestle it & come out on the good
side, you are doing much better than I.

Nothing that Google couldn't help me solve. What was the trick is using the "-i" or "--in-place" switch with sed.

So here's the bash script that does the dirty work. The expect script is called and then sed does some of the work here.

For some reason, I screwed up and in the expect script, I cut off the last few lines of the output and that's something I will fix soon and release a fix.

=== Cut ===
#!/bin/bash
cd /opt/mbse/bin
## It's a "noisy" script so send any output to /dev/null
expect weather.expect > /dev/null 2>&1
## Trim off the first and last lines
sed -i '1d;$d' weather.txt
## Add a blank line to the top
sed -i '1i \\n' weather.txt
## Add a blank line at the bottom
sed -i '$a \\n' weather.txt
## Dump the extra prompt in the text file
sed -i '/ Press Return to continue, M to return to menu, X to exit: /d' weather.txt
## Get rid of the control codes (^M)
cat weather.txt | col -b > weather.asc
## Put the textfile in my BBS' textfiles directory
rm --force /opt/mbse/share/int/txtfiles/en/weather.asc
mv weather.asc /opt/mbse/share/int/txtfiles/en/weather.asc
rm weather*.txt
=== Cut ===

Here's the expect script:

=== Cut ===
spawn telnet rainmaker.wunderground.com
expect "Press Return to continue:"
send "\r"
expect "or enter 3 letter forecast city code-- "
send "TRI\r"
log_file "weather.txt"
expect "Press Return to continue, M to return to menu, X to exit: "
send "\r"
log_file
expect "Selection:"
send "x\r"
expect eof
=== Cut ===

Later,
Sean

... Nothing is free. Even age. Age is the fee God charges for life.
--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20170303
* Origin: Outpost BBS * Limestone, TN, USA (1:18/200)

Hello Kurt,

07 May 18 14:43 at you wrote to me:

sed has been on my list to rediscover for some time. I think "Sed and
Awk" was the first O'Reilly book I ever bought...

I know very little about either, honestly. But I do scour Google for information. Once I have my own place and a dedicated computer room, I'd like to get a few books on things like sed and awk because I know how terribly handy they are.

I've wanted to edit the argus.txt file to change Janis's uplink entry
in a batch file, she's listed on the bink port, but feeding me on
24555. Any nodelist changes involve me updating the file by hand, and
I used to be able to do that kind of scripting in my sleep. All I need
now is more sleep. :(

I know sed and awk could do it. I hear you on the sleep. I am getting eight hours of sleep but still feeling worse than I did when I went to bed earlier...

Later,
Sean

... The nice thing about standards is, there are so many to choose from.
--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20170303
* Origin: Outpost BBS * Limestone, TN, USA (1:18/200)

On May 07, 2018 07:03am, Sean Dennis wrote to Andrew Haworth:

Somewhere around here someone wrote a nice little script in something (I suspect Python) that pulled info out of a RSS feed and converted it to text. I'd known about the expect program for Tcl but had never worked
with it. It was the interesting use of sed (and its "in-place" capability) that I had to dig for.

Yeah, they were CNN and Fox News RSS feed pullers for Mystic written in
Python. I took the same script and converted it so that it generates the bulletins in Wildcat! @-code format vs Mystic pipe code colors. Works quite well, too. I need to put that back on my WINServer rebuild :)

... Platinum Xpress & Wildcat!..... Nice!!!!
--- Platinum Xpress/Win/WINServer v3.0pr5
* Origin: Omicron Theta (1:116/17)

On May 07, 2018 12:48pm, Phil Kimble wrote to Sean Dennis:

Hi Sean,

I wrote this at a user's request is the main reason. It also taught
me a
little about using sed and a few other utilities under Linux.

sed is the one tool/utility that has dodged me for years. Never a first time go with it. If you can wrestle it & come out on the good side,
you are doing much better than I.

Sounds like me :) Never used sed or even awk for that matter.

... Live 24x7x365 Smooth Jazz - Listen at http://radio.rivernet.us today!
--- Platinum Xpress/Win/WINServer v3.0pr5
* Origin: Omicron Theta (1:116/17)

Re: A new project
By: Sean Dennis to Phil Kimble on Sun May 06 2018 11:05 am

I wrote this at a user's request is the main reason. It also taught me a little about using sed and a few other utilities under Linux.

sed has been on my list to rediscover for some time. I think "Sed and Awk" was the first O'Reilly book I ever bought...

I've wanted to edit the argus.txt file to change Janis's uplink entry in
a batch file, she's listed on the bink port, but feeding me on 24555. Any nodelist changes involve me updating the file by hand, and I used to be able to do that kind of scripting in my sleep. All I need now is more sleep. :(

--- SBBSecho 3.03-Win32
* Origin: http://realitycheckbbs.org | tomorrow's retro tech (1:218/700)

On 05/07/18, Sean Dennis said the following...

I still have a fully functioning OS/2 BBS sitting right next to me. If you have any more questions about setting up an OS/2-native BBS, just
let me know. I know several tricks for your CONFIG.SYS that will help speed up and improve performance of a OS/2 Warp box. These tricks work
on newer third-party versions of OS/2, such as eComStation and Arca Noae.

I don't have any real hardware to run OS/2, but I've discovered it
virtualizes pretty well. I have Warp 4 in a VM on my Macintosh, and on my PC
I have eComStation virtualized. They both work great. It's fun running a
native OS/2 BBS package, with OS/2 native mailer/tossers. Seems just as good
as any software out there now.

I'll definitely take you up on the config.sys tricks!

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A39 2018/04/21 (Raspberry Pi/32)
* Origin: Alcoholiday / Est. 1995 / alco.bbs.io (1:123/525)

On 05/07/18, Sean Dennis said the following...

Check out http://outpostbbs.net/cheepware.html -- look for "The Magic Oracle".

Thanks, this looks fun! I enjoyed reading over the code.

All of my doors are DOS right now. However, when the dust settles for
me personally (I am in the middle of a ninety-day probation period in a new job), I'm very close to finishing up a working Linux-based Pascal doorkit. I have released doors that run under Linux in a beta form but

I'll look forward to the release of this doorkit! Sounds like a good resource that people will find useful and perhaps we'll see more linux-based doors. Apam, the author of Magicka BBS, has coded some doors (in C I think) and I've been able to compile and run them on my Raspberry Pi board. It's been a lot
of fun working with the doors at the source level.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A39 2018/04/21 (Raspberry Pi/32)
* Origin: Alcoholiday / Est. 1995 / alco.bbs.io (1:123/525)

Yeah, they were CNN and Fox News RSS feed pullers for Mystic written in Python. I took the same script and converted it so that it generates the bulletins in Wildcat! @-code format vs Mystic pipe code colors. Works quite well, too. I need to put that back on my WINServer rebuild :)

Robert, if are willing to share that, I would love to put it on my Winserver. Got my wcbasic app, been playing with it, but without some documentation, I
am going to have a very long haul getting a handle on this.

I've got a brother who programs for a living, he said he would look at it.

Ruben Figueroa aka Zazz
Mystic Prison Board Sysop
telnet://pb.darktech.org:24
Web: www.rdfig.net

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A39 2018/04/21 (Windows/32)
* Origin: Mystic Prison Board*Mesquite Tx*pb.darktech.org:24 (1:124/5014)

Hello Andrew,

08 May 18 00:01 at you wrote to me:

I don't have any real hardware to run OS/2, but I've discovered it virtualizes pretty well. I have Warp 4 in a VM on my Macintosh, and on
my PC I have eComStation virtualized. They both work great. It's fun running a native OS/2 BBS package, with OS/2 native mailer/tossers.
Seems just as good as any software out there now.

I ran OS/2 for almost 20 years. The reasons why I took it down was my personal situation will not allow me to put up an edge firewall device to block script kiddies and I absolutely have to have SSH capability because I travel a lot (in fact, I'm connected to my system via SSH right now). That and I can run the BBS on more powerful hardware as I prefer real hardware for the BBS.

I'll definitely take you up on the config.sys tricks!

Most of mine I've picked up over the years...they're little things but they help.

Later,
Sean

... No matter how much you do, you'll never do enough.
--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20170303
* Origin: Outpost BBS * Limestone, TN, USA (1:18/200)

Hello Andrew,

08 May 18 00:05 at you wrote to me:

Thanks, this looks fun! I enjoyed reading over the code.

It's a simple door but I still enjoy tinkering with it. All of my software I wrote for myself and I release it publicly in hopes others can use it, enjoy it, and in this day and age, extend and port it.

I'll look forward to the release of this doorkit! Sounds like a good resource that people will find useful and perhaps we'll see more linux-based doors. Apam, the author of Magicka BBS, has coded some
doors (in C I think) and I've been able to compile and run them on my Raspberry Pi board. It's been a lot of fun working with the doors at
the source level.

I'm actually using Rick Manning's RMDoor doorkit and have extended it and added a lot of my own code to it. I'm no professional programmer by any means but I do enjoy writing my doors.

Later,
Sean

... Criminals love gun control; it makes their jobs safer.
--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20170303
* Origin: Outpost BBS * Limestone, TN, USA (1:18/200)

Ruben,

I've got a brother who programs for a living, he said he would look at it.

I've been trying to reach you on the issue with 2 doorgame keys from
the Shining Star Software doors, that were done by Nannette Thacker. The
keys for Punchline and Leviathan's Reef don't work.

Daryl

===
■ OLX 1.53 ■ Dime: A dollar with all taxes taken out.
--- SBBSecho 3.04-Win32
* Origin: FIDONet: The Thunderbolt BBS - wx1der.dyndns.org (1:19/33)

Sean,

I ran OS/2 for almost 20 years. The reasons why I took it down was my SD>personal situation will not allow me to put up an edge firewall device to SD>block script kiddies and I absolutely have to have SSH capability because I SD>travel a lot (in fact, I'm connected to my system via SSH right now). That SD>and I can run the BBS on more powerful hardware as I prefer real hardware fo SD>the BBS.

If I knew a better way to work SSH to "block the script kiddies", I'd re-enable it over on Synchronet. But, I was getting slammed by that, and
I got tired of it.

Daryl

===
■ OLX 1.53 ■ Disinformation is not as good as datinformation.
--- SBBSecho 3.04-Win32
* Origin: FIDONet: The Thunderbolt BBS - wx1der.dyndns.org (1:19/33)

Hello Kurt,

08 May 18 06:41 at you wrote to me:

That brings back flashbacks - I ran OS/2 Warp 3, Maximus and
BinkleyTerm for a couple of years, and I'd forgotten about all of the tweaking that went into the the config.sys file, loading the "right"
comm drivers, and re-ordering lines.

That's what I have sitting on the IBM NetVista in my office. Max/2, BT/2, Squish/2...all of the usual suspects.

I have a copy of OS/2 Warp sitting here, one day I'll go ahead and
load it into a VM.

I'd love to be able to make my current install into a VM but alas I don't think that can be done. It'd run nicely in a VM on the Linux server (I bet certain people are fainting from hearing me say that :) ).

Later,
Sean

... Stop the violins!
--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20170303
* Origin: Outpost BBS * Limestone, TN, USA (1:18/200)

Hello Kurt,

08 May 18 06:46 at you wrote to me:

That got me started administering UNIX boxes for some time until
Windows 2000 and Exchange came out. Learning about Exchange and
Windows was much more difficult.

We have a hybrid Exchange setup at work and while I do have admin access to it, I work with it as little as possible. Give me a *NIX box any day. I'm hoping that when I get my own place and can get a stable and large enough Internet connection, I'd like to completely host outpostbbs.net at home to include my own DNS and bind servers. I've got everything else running on that box...even sendmail (queue ominious music)...

Later,
Sean

... We can draw lessons from the past, but we cannot live in it. -Lyndon B. Johnso
--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20170303
* Origin: Outpost BBS * Limestone, TN, USA (1:18/200)

Hello Daryl,

08 May 18 10:12 at you wrote to me:

If I knew a better way to work SSH to "block the script kiddies",
I'd re-enable it over on Synchronet. But, I was getting slammed by
that, and I got tired of it.

There is a port of fail2ban for Windows (the name escapes me now). However, if you're going to do it right, you'd use an edge firewall appliance and block the script kiddies that way. I'm working on setting up an IPfire box (ipfire.org) to do just that when I have time. Now that I'm traveling for one week out of every four, that doesn't leave me a lot of time to tinker anymore with my current work schedule. Supporting factories all over the US requires a good bit of travel.

So I'm using that as an excuse to buy a 17" mobile workstation laptop to bring with me on my travels so I can spend evenings working on my computers via remote. :D

Later,
Sean

... A lie in time saves nine.
--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20170303
* Origin: Outpost BBS * Limestone, TN, USA (1:18/200)

Hey Kurt,

a batch file, she's listed on the bink port, but feeding me on 24555.
Any nodelist changes involve me updating the file by hand, and I used to be able to do that kind of scripting in my sleep. All I need now is more

sleep.

:(

I know the feeling all too well. This getting old thing is interferring with my
thoughts! I find myself spending too much time relearning what I once knew but have since forgotten.

Phil

--- Msged/LNX 6.1.2
* Origin: Bayhaus.net - Colorado Springs - Serving the FrontRange (1:128/2)

Hello Daryl,

Hi, Sean...

There is a port of fail2ban for Windows (the name escapes me now). However, SD>if you're going to do it right, you'd use an edge firewall appliance and blo SD>the script kiddies that way. I'm working on setting up an IPfire box SD>(ipfire.org) to do just that when I have time. Now that I'm traveling for o SD>week out of every four, that doesn't leave me a lot of time to tinker anymor SD>with my current work schedule. Supporting factories all over the US require SD>a good bit of travel.

I would say so. I'd appreciate any other comments on this at your convenience.

So I'm using that as an excuse to buy a 17" mobile workstation laptop to bri SD>with me on my travels so I can spend evenings working on my computers via SD>remote. :D

There you go.

Daryl

===
■ OLX 1.53 ■ Dominoes: =======/////////////////////|||||||||||||||||||
--- SBBSecho 3.04-Win32
* Origin: FIDONet: The Thunderbolt BBS - wx1der.dyndns.org (1:19/33)

Re: A new project
By: Sean Dennis to Andrew Haworth on Mon May 07 2018 06:24 pm

I know several tricks for your CONFIG.SYS that will help speed up and improve performance of a OS/2 Warp box. These tricks work on newer third-party versions of OS/2, such as eComStation and Arca Noae.

That brings back flashbacks - I ran OS/2 Warp 3, Maximus and BinkleyTerm for a couple of years, and I'd forgotten about all of the tweaking that went into the the config.sys file, loading the "right" comm drivers, and re-ordering lines.

I have a copy of OS/2 Warp sitting here, one day I'll go ahead and load it into a VM.
--- SBBSecho 3.03-Win32
* Origin: http://realitycheckbbs.org | tomorrow's retro tech (1:218/700)

Re: A new project
By: Sean Dennis to Kurt Weiske on Mon May 07 2018 07:05 pm

I know very little about either, honestly. But I do scour Google for information. Once I have my own place and a dedicated computer room, I'd like to get a few books on things like sed and awk because I know how terribly handy they are.

As much as I love physical books (especially the O'Reilly books, I jumpstarted a couple of stages in my career with them) the Safari membership I have through work is nice - the entire ORA catalog available on the web, and loadable on demand. Have a new project? Check out the book and scour it.

DNS and BIND, by Cricket Liu was one of those books that changed my career. I'd putzed around with UNIX and could do shell admin stuff, but hadn't gotten much deeper than that. My company's DNS server was on loan from the local university and had to go back. My PFY and I bought the book, took an unused desktop, booted it with PC/BSD, installed the OS, and started reading the book front to back. By 2pm we had finished the book and had a working DNS server.

We did the same thing to replace a SMTP gateway a few weekends later.

That got me started administering UNIX boxes for some time until Windows 2000 and Exchange came out. Learning about Exchange and Windows was much more difficult.
--- SBBSecho 3.03-Win32
* Origin: http://realitycheckbbs.org | tomorrow's retro tech (1:218/700)

Re: A new project
By: Sean Dennis to Kurt Weiske on Tue May 08 2018 01:06 pm

it, I work with it as little as possible. Give me a *NIX box any day. I'm hoping that when I get my own place and can get a stable and large enough Internet connection, I'd like to completely host outpostbbs.net at home to include my own DNS and bind servers. I've got everything else running on that box...even sendmail (queue ominious music)...

The great thing about console Linux is that it runs in such little CPU/memory. Get a $12/year VPS and you could host everything on it.

I'm sorta hooked on Windows right now, but would love to move the BBS to
Linux, throw it on a VPS and close off my home network.
--- SBBSecho 3.03-Win32
* Origin: http://realitycheckbbs.org | tomorrow's retro tech (1:218/700)

On May 08, 2018 08:26am, Zazz wrote to Robert Wolfe:

Yeah, they were CNN and Fox News RSS feed pullers for Mystic written in
Python. I took the same script and converted it so that it generates
the
bulletins in Wildcat! @-code format vs Mystic pipe code colors. Works
quite well, too. I need to put that back on my WINServer rebuild :)

Robert, if are willing to share that, I would love to put it on my Winserver. Got my wcbasic app, been playing with it, but without some documentation, I am going to have a very long haul getting a handle on this.

I've got a brother who programs for a living, he said he would look at
it.

Ruben, it will take a little while as I am in the middle of rebuilding my WINServer system from scratch here as for some reason wcMail in WINS 7 keeps crashing, so working bit by bit in getting things reverted to WINS 6.4 here on my end.

If he codes, he should run a BBS then as well ;)

... Live 24x7x365 Smooth Jazz - Listen at http://radio.rivernet.us today!
--- Platinum Xpress/Win/WINServer v3.0pr5
* Origin: Omicron Theta (1:116/17)

Hello Kurt,

08 May 18 22:17 at you wrote to me:

The great thing about console Linux is that it runs in such little CPU/memory. Get a $12/year VPS and you could host everything on it.

Yes, one can do the remote hosting, but to me, I enjoy the hands-on work.

I'm sorta hooked on Windows right now, but would love to move the BBS
to Linux, throw it on a VPS and close off my home network.

I'm hoping to do that with IPFire soon. It comes pre-configured with different colored "zones" (networks) for the home, such as red for anything public-facing like a web server or a BBS, a green zone which is your LAN, and a blue zone for WiFi (allowing you to offer public WiFi if you want). The distro also will do full country blocks by using GeoIP and auto-updating IP tables.

I've just not had the time nor energy to do it, unfortunately, but I'm hoping I will be able to get to this soon.

Later,
Sean

... !retupmoc siht edisni deppart ma I !pleH
--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20170303
* Origin: Outpost BBS * Limestone, TN, USA (1:18/200)

I've been trying to reach you on the issue with 2 doorgame keys from the Shining Star Software doors, that were done by Nannette Thacker. The keys for Punchline and Leviathan's Reef don't work.

Daryl

How can I help you?

--- PCBoard (R) v15.4/250 Beta
* Origin: PCB Prison BBS, Mesquite, Tx pb.darktech.org:1023 (1:124/5015)

I've been trying to reach you on the issue with 2 doorgame keys from the Z>-> Shining Star Software doors, that were done by Nannette Thacker. The keys Z>-> for Punchline and Leviathan's Reef don't work.

How can I help you?

I was under the impression that you created the keys for the doors,
for Shining Star Doors and Enjoy! as the BBS Name and Sysop -- since her
system was 64-bit, her key generator no longer worked.

However, the keys in the files for Punchline and Leviathan's Reef
would not work...and I was wondering if you had a way to check that.

Daryl

===
■ OLX 1.53 ■ Press any key to continue or any other key to quit...
--- SBBSecho 3.04-Win32
* Origin: FIDONet: The Thunderbolt BBS - wx1der.dyndns.org (1:19/33)

How can I help you?

I was under the impression that you created the keys for the doors,
for Shining Star Doors and Enjoy! as the BBS Name and Sysop -- since her system was 64-bit, her key generator no longer worked.

However, the keys in the files for Punchline and Leviathan's Reef
would not work...and I was wondering if you had a way to check that.

Daryl

Give me an email address and I will send you her key generator. She gave
this to me around May of 2016. I am sure it is alright to give this to you also.

Ruben Figueroa aka Zazz
Mystic Prison Board Sysop
telnet://pb.darktech.org:24
Web: www.rdfig.net

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A39 2018/04/21 (Windows/32)
* Origin: Mystic Prison Board*Mesquite Tx*pb.darktech.org:24 (1:124/5014)