• hello! :DD

    From mary4@21:1/102 to All on Monday, April 15, 2024 09:33:30
    hii!! how u doing?
    i am commie autistic insane transwoman xD
    it is a pleaure to meet you all!
    i am typing this on my 286!! :DD
    i swear i am not a spam bot!
    my 286 was at 25mHz with 16 mb of ram
    but that mobo gone bad. the solder on the chipset chip is not good and it breaks. i sent it to my friend to get it fixed! because my hands shake and i have no space for a workspace >.<
    i am proud of this system! <3
    again thank you for reading this

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Windows/64)
    * Origin: Error 404 BBS ! (21:1/102)
  • From Ben Collver@21:1/149 to mary4 on Monday, April 15, 2024 09:39:49
    Re: hello! :DD
    By: mary4 to All on Mon Apr 15 2024 09:33 am

    Welcome!

    I remember running a 286 system ages ago. It was an Orchid upgrade board.

    Which OS are you running?

    Which software is capable of utilizing that 16 mb of memory?

    I would be proud of that system too if i were maintaining it.

    I went through a phase of scaling down and getting rid of all my old h/w.

    Relatively recently i acquired a pentium desktop and a pentium M laptop,
    both running FreeDOS. The desktop has 32 mb memory, and the laptop has
    a gargantuan 512 mb, which DJGPP will cheerfully consume all of.

    My daily driver is a laptop running Slackware64 15.0. Most of the time
    i use cross-compilers and VM's to get my DOS fix.

    Do you have an online presence? (gopher hole, web site, mastodon, etc)
    --- SBBSecho 3.14-Win32
    * Origin: The Fool's Quarter, fqbbs.synchro.net (21:1/149)
  • From AKAcastor@21:1/162 to Mary4 on Monday, April 15, 2024 10:03:28
    Hi! Welcome!

    i am typing this on my 286!! :DD
    i swear i am not a spam bot!

    Online on a 286, sounds like you fit in here. :)

    my 286 was at 25mHz with 16 mb of ram

    Nice 286! That sounds pretty beefy on a 286. What kind of software are you running?

    but that mobo gone bad. the solder on the chipset chip
    is not good and it breaks. i sent it to my friend to get
    it fixed! because my hands shake and i have no space for a workspace >.<

    It definitely helps to have someone with some practice to do that kind of work - the learning process can be frustrating when soldering, usually we all break some things before we are able to actually fix things. Even with soldering experience, I still have a friend with more expertise who I can pass the really tough jobs off to.

    i am proud of this system! <3

    Great to hear of a 286 system running and actually being used too! I have a 486DX4-100 here as a BBS-era machine, but to be honest I rarely use it and just call in with Syncterm on my laptop like a lamer. ;)


    Chris/akacastor

    --- Maximus 3.01
    * Origin: Another Millennium - Canada - another.tel (21:1/162)
  • From Digital Man to AKAcastor on Monday, April 15, 2024 12:54:44
    Re: hello! :DD
    By: AKAcastor to Mary4 on Mon Apr 15 2024 10:03 am

    Great to hear of a 286 system running and actually being used too! I have a 486DX4-100 here as a BBS-era machine, but to be honest I rarely use it and just call in with Syncterm on my laptop like a lamer. ;)

    What's funny, a user used to be a lamer if they had a computer older than the current generation or a modem slower than the fastest speeds the BBS could accept, but nowadays it's reversed: Nobody is impressed by your terabytes of disk space, hundreds of gigs of RAM, and dozens of processor cores at gigahertz speeds. You have to run some old piece of crap from the 1980's to really impress us! ;-)
    --
    digital man (rob)

    This Is Spinal Tap quote #37:
    David St. Hubbins: We are Spinal Tap from the UK - you must be the USA!
    Norco, CA WX: 62.4°F, 54.0% humidity, 6 mph W wind, 0.03 inches rain/24hrs
  • From AKAcastor@21:1/162 to Digital Man on Monday, April 15, 2024 13:39:14
    What's funny, a user used to be a lamer if they had a
    computer older than the current generation or a modem
    slower than the fastest speeds the BBS could accept,
    but nowadays it's reversed: Nobody is impressed by your
    terabytes of disk space, hundreds of gigs of RAM, and
    dozens of processor cores at gigahertz speeds. You have
    to run some old piece of crap from the 1980's to really
    impress us! ;-)

    Haha! You're right, a dozen cores running at gigahertz speeds sounds downright boring these days. On the other hand, I have a Pocket 386 ordered and en route to me and that is pretty exciting! Pocket 386 is a small notebook-form factor 386 machine sold on AliExpress, from the same place as the Book 8088 that you may have seen 'around' the past year or so. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005542582463.html

    Back to the "nowadays it's reversed" - I also chuckled at the option in BBS software (Maximus specifically, but I think this was common in the 90s) to not allow calls from modems less than 1200 or 2400 bps. Meanwhile today, I am still so excited to have recently gotten an acoustic coupler 300 bps modem! (woodgrain stickers on the side and everything - it's beautiful hehe)


    Chris/akacastor

    --- Maximus 3.01
    * Origin: Another Millennium - Canada - another.tel (21:1/162)
  • From n2qfd@21:1/154 to mary4 on Monday, April 15, 2024 17:02:45
    Welcome aboard Mary!

    --------------------------------
    ][ de N2QFD ][
    ][ Queen City BBS ][
    ][ queencitybbs.ddns.net:607 ][

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Raspberry Pi/32)
    * Origin: Queen City BBS (21:1/154)
  • From niter3@21:1/199 to Digital Man on Monday, April 15, 2024 20:12:06
    processor cores at gigahertz speeds. You have to run some old piece of crap from the 1980's to really impress us! ;-)

    HAHA! So true.. :>

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2023/04/30 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Clutch BBS * telnet://clutchbbs.com (21:1/199)
  • From Skylar to Ben Collver on Monday, April 15, 2024 19:07:23
    Re: hello! :DD
    By: Ben Collver to mary4 on Mon Apr 15 2024 09:39 am

    Re: hello! :DD
    By: mary4 to All on Mon Apr 15 2024 09:33 am

    I remember running a 286 system ages ago. It was an Orchid upgrade board.

    mary4 & Ben, my first full-time programming job started in 1991 and my dev machine was a 286, I think either 10 or 12mhz. It was a startup company and I worked from home the first couple of months, decades before work from home was, hm, a fad I guess?

    I had a couple short contracts before that. The full-time job started as part-time. I was 19 and *thrilled* to be paid $6/hr to write code. :D (Min wage in my state was $3.35 at the time.)

    All of my paid coding was in C/C++ until 1996, starting with Turbo C and then Borland C++. But my "coding for fun" was almost always using Turbo Pascal. Or BASIC (and a *very* little 6502 assembler) on a C64 and C128.
  • From Skylar to Digital Man on Monday, April 15, 2024 19:13:19
    Re: hello! :DD
    By: Digital Man to AKAcastor on Mon Apr 15 2024 12:54 pm

    You have to run some old piece of crap from the
    1980's to really impress us! ;-)

    Perhaps I should take a pic of my 8-bit closet. It is fairly full of Commodores, including 64s, 64Cs, 2 SX-64s, and various 8-bit gaming consoles or handhelds. I also have an Amiga 2000HD that I haven't booted in a couple of years.

    I still have a passion for 8-bit tech, but it comes and goes. Oddly, I feel it coming on again. :D
  • From mary4@21:1/166 to Ben Collver on Tuesday, April 16, 2024 22:04:08
    Which OS are you running?
    FreeDOS 1.3
    Which software is capable of utilizing that 16 mb of memory?
    nothing uses the entire 16mb! xD
    I would be proud of that system too if i were maintaining it.
    yes!!
    Do you have an online presence? (gopher hole, web site, mastodon, etc)
    yes https://4ch.mooo.com transfem.social/mary4
    i also have a spacehey account named mary4
    my github is sparky4
    my irc is ircs://4ch.mooo.com/yotsubanome i am sparky4 there

    nice main systems that pentium m system is powerful!
    i daily drive a debian 12 thinkpad p53

    i have an email too
    ill write it in l33t speek
    $p4R|<y4 <at> j0h/\/r33Dc3/\/t3R./\/3T
    yes theere is a 4 before the at

    --mary4 the 286 enthusiast

    ... This virus requires Microsoft Windows 3.x

    --- 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 AKAcastor on Tuesday, April 16, 2024 22:08:23
    Online on a 286, sounds like you fit in here. :)
    :DDDDD <3
    Nice 286! That sounds pretty beefy on a 286. What kind of software are you running?
    FreeDOS 1.3 i play mod master XT on it and play some games and test software i develop on it xD

    It definitely helps to have someone with some practice to do that kind
    of work - the learning process can be frustrating when soldering,
    usually we all break some things before we are able to actually fix things. Even with soldering experience, I still have a friend with more expertise who I can pass the really tough jobs off to.
    i am a through hole master i cant do surface mount which is what that chip is :S

    Great to hear of a 286 system running and actually being used too! I
    use it and just call in with Syncterm on my laptop like a lamer. ;)
    have a 486DX4-100 here as a BBS-era machine, but to be honest I rarely
    lol use the vintage pc! xD
    yeah my 286 is so cool!

    --mary4 the 286 enthusiast

    ... Error, no Keyboard - Press F1 to Continue.

    --- 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 Digital Man on Tuesday, April 16, 2024 22:09:54
    YES!~!!!! A 286 IS PEAK COOL! 8)

    --mary4 the 286 enthusiast

    ... You can learn many things from children... like how much patience you have

    --- 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 AKAcastor on Tuesday, April 16, 2024 22:12:05
    Haha! You're right, a dozen cores running at gigahertz speeds sounds downright boring these days. On the other hand, I have a Pocket 386 ordered and en route to me and that is pretty exciting! Pocket 386 is a small notebook-form factor 386 machine sold on AliExpress, from the same place as the Book 8088 that you may have seen 'around' the past year or so. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005542582463.html

    yooooo i have a 4:3 ratio vga book 8088!! :DDDD
    i should get the 386 version... but i feel that the 386 is modern to me :P i am only 33 so i am as old as a 286!! :D

    --mary4 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 mary4@21:1/166 to n2qfd on Tuesday, April 16, 2024 22:12:44
    thanks!

    --mary4 the 286 enthusiast

    ... Help! I can't find the "ANY" key.

    --- 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 Skylar on Tuesday, April 16, 2024 22:15:53
    Perhaps I should take a pic of my 8-bit closet. It is fairly full of Commodores, including 64s, 64Cs, 2 SX-64s, and various 8-bit gaming consoles or handhelds. I also have an Amiga 2000HD that I haven't booted in a couple of years.
    I still have a passion for 8-bit tech, but it comes and goes. Oddly, I feel it coming on again. :D

    yooooooooo!!!! i also have a c64~!! i am actually just an PCgirl but old tech is super cool!! i am more of a 16 bit girl XD

    --mary4 the 286 enthusiast

    ... Fer sell cheep: BBS spel chekker. Wurks grate.

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/24 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Datanet BBS | telnet://datanetbbs.net:23 (21:1/166)
  • From Blue White@21:4/134 to AKAcastor on Tuesday, April 16, 2024 09:03:12
    Great to hear of a 286 system running and actually being used too! I
    have a 486DX4-100 here as a BBS-era machine, but to be honest I rarely
    use it and just call in with Syncterm on my laptop like a lamer. ;)

    I started with an 8088 XT (well, actually a TI 99/4A, but the XT was my
    first PC clone), skipped over the 286 era to a 386-40, then skipped over
    the 486 era to a used Pentium-120.

    The 386 is still my favorite computer. ;) It was the first one I ran a
    BBS on. The BBSes now all run on single board Pis and PCs.



    --- Talisman v0.53-dev (Linux/armv7l)
    * Origin: possumso.fsxnet.nz * telnet:24/ssh:2122/ftelnet:80 (21:4/134)
  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to Ben Collver on Tuesday, April 16, 2024 06:53:00
    Ben Collver wrote to mary4 <=-

    I remember running a 286 system ages ago. It was an Orchid upgrade
    board.

    I was bored at a company I worked at back in the late '90s. I was
    in charge of telecom and wanted to play with *nix systems again.

    I was in one of their storerooms looking for phones that had been
    pulled from the floors after a remodeling, and found a 286 system with
    3 mb of RAM. I pulled it, wanting something that wouldn't be needed.
    (this was the Pentium 1 era...)

    I put MINIX on it, installed an SMTP server, POP3 server and a web
    server and create a mini-presence on our company LAN. I forwarded mail
    to it, used it as a DNS forwarder, and created some web pages to share information inside the company.

    All on a system that was obsolete by several generations. I wish I'd
    taken that box with me when I left. :)




    ... Do you understand now, what the center represents?
    --- MultiMail/Win v0.52
    * Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)
  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to AKAcastor on Tuesday, April 16, 2024 06:56:00
    AKAcastor wrote to Mary4 <=-

    It definitely helps to have someone with some practice to do that kind
    of work - the learning process can be frustrating when soldering,
    usually we all break some things before we are able to actually fix things. Even with soldering experience, I still have a friend with
    more expertise who I can pass the really tough jobs off to.

    When I was a dumb kid, running a homebuilt 286 for my CS classes, I
    noticed a clock crystal on the motherboard. Figured that if I bought a
    faster chip, my system would run faster. I had a 16 mhz 286 for a
    while, but it kept crashing. Went to 12 mhz and it ran fine.

    Those solder jobs were embarassing at best. I'm surprised it still ran.
    There's a special kind of fortune that shines on people who don't know
    what they're doing shouldn't work.


    ... Did you find what you were looking for?
    --- MultiMail/Win v0.52
    * Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)
  • From mary4@21:1/166 to Blue White on Wednesday, April 17, 2024 00:53:35
    I started with an 8088 XT (well, actually a TI 99/4A, but the XT was my first PC clone), skipped over the 286 era to a 386-40, then skipped over the 486 era to a used Pentium-120.
    The 386 is still my favorite computer. ;) It was the first one I ran a BBS on. The BBSes now all run on single board Pis and PCs.

    yooo the 286 is an awesome, vintage, forgotten, and cool system! you should get one! :D

    --mary4 the 286 enthusiast

    ... System halted - Press all keys at once to continue

    --- 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 poindexter FORTRAN on Wednesday, April 17, 2024 00:55:46
    now a [286 mobo is work 100us$ constantly even for older boards! X_X
    damn it ebay!
    i should try my hand at amibay

    --mary4 the 286 enthusiast

    ... That's not a bug, it's an undocumented feature

    --- 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 poindexter FORTRAN on Wednesday, April 17, 2024 00:58:27
    lol yeah. fortunately i have spare 286 boards and this one is one of those router mobos from ebay for like 50$ too bad it has no proper bios (mine is from another mobo with same chipset) but this mobo is REALLY good! just slower than my beefy mobo

    --mary4 the 286 enthusiast

    ... Back up my hard drive? I can't find the reverse switch!

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/24 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Datanet BBS | telnet://datanetbbs.net:23 (21:1/166)
  • From niter3@21:1/199 to poindexter FORTRAN on Tuesday, April 16, 2024 11:02:41
    I put MINIX on it, installed an SMTP server, POP3 server and a web
    server and create a mini-presence on our company LAN. I forwarded mail
    to it, used it as a DNS forwarder, and created some web pages to share information inside the company.

    I'm not up to speed with minix, but is that a currently active OS? Meaning, is it getting constant patches?

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2023/04/30 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Clutch BBS * telnet://clutchbbs.com (21:1/199)
  • From mary4@21:1/166 to niter3 on Wednesday, April 17, 2024 01:19:21
    not a version of minix for the 286
    there is a good os in deep development called ELKS
    it works on XTs and 286s

    --mary4 the 286 enthusiast

    ... Redundant book title: DOS For Dummies

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/24 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Datanet BBS | telnet://datanetbbs.net:23 (21:1/166)
  • From niter3@21:1/199 to mary4 on Tuesday, April 16, 2024 12:30:47
    not a version of minix for the 286
    there is a good os in deep development called ELKS
    it works on XTs and 286s

    Very interting... I'll check it out.

    ... THE fIRST sTEP iS tO tAKE oFF tHE cAPS lOCK

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2023/04/30 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Clutch BBS * telnet://clutchbbs.com (21:1/199)
  • From Ben Collver@21:1/149 to Skylar on Tuesday, April 16, 2024 09:42:21
    Re: hello! :DD
    By: Skylar to Ben Collver on Mon Apr 15 2024 07:07 pm

    How cool that your first dev work was in 1991!

    What were you developing?

    One of my first paid gigs was writing an accounting system in BASIC.
    If i recall correctly, the old one was in BASIC too, but they wanted
    it to do more.

    Later, i wrote a production planning system in Paradox PAL. It used
    a relational database and recursive code to explode the BOM. It way outperformed its predecessor, which was written in C on a Xenix sys,
    but the C version was entirely home-made where my version utilized a
    lot of functionality built-in to Paradox.

    I used list.com hex dumps to reverse engineer the database format, &
    the shareware Desmet-C PCC compiler to write a program to export the
    data to plain text, which i imported into Paradox. I remember using
    Borland grep.exe and i also remember using list.com multi-file views
    to flip back and forth between old/new code listings page by page to
    spot differences. I didn't have a diff command at that time.

    This was all within the confines of conventional memory and no mouse
    pointer.
    --- SBBSecho 3.14-Win32
    * Origin: The Fool's Quarter, fqbbs.synchro.net (21:1/149)
  • From mary4@21:1/166 to niter3 on Wednesday, April 17, 2024 02:43:23
    Very interting... I'll check it out.


    https://github.com/ghaerr/elks
    is the repo

    --mary4 (Victoria Crenshaw) the 286 enthusiast

    ... Redundant book title: DOS For Dummies

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/24 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Datanet BBS | telnet://datanetbbs.net:23 (21:1/166)
  • From Ben Collver@21:1/149 to mary4 on Tuesday, April 16, 2024 09:54:13
    Re: Re: hello! :DD
    By: mary4 to Ben Collver on Tue Apr 16 2024 10:04 pm

    I took a look at your github site and files. How cool that you are
    running your own BIOS! I didn't realize that the Impulse Tracker
    source code had become available. I'll be looking at that for sure.

    I was unable to view your Mastodon profile.

    Chromium-ungoogled says:

    No page corresponding to this URL could be found.

    Palemoon says:

    Failed to load
    ERROR CODE: APP_IMPORT

    I've been spending more time in FreeDOS 1.3 lately myself.

    I've been asking myself philosophical questions like: Which is simpler,
    ASCII or UTF-8? There is no right answer. :>

    What part of the world do you hail from? I am on the USA west coast.
    I thought i saw Japanese characters on your Mastodon page. Are you
    in Asia?

    Once upon a time i was interested in game development. A friend asked
    for help making a PlayStation game, back before the PlayStation 2 came
    out. I read online that Sony's development kit used a DJGPP cross-
    compiler on MS-DOS, so that motivated me to check out DJGPP. I only
    had slow dial-up Internet at home, so i downloaded the bits at the
    office and at the University computer lab and brought them home on
    floppies. I was proficient at splitting and re-joining files. I used
    screen captures of SNES emulators to rip sprites and then i coded a
    fully functional local multi-player party game with VGA graphics and
    MOD music. I was pleased with how it turned out, but by that time the PlayStation game project fizzled out. It did give me a lot of practice
    reading GNU TexInfo documentation and using GDB.
    --- SBBSecho 3.14-Win32
    * Origin: The Fool's Quarter, fqbbs.synchro.net (21:1/149)
  • From mary4@21:1/166 to Ben Collver on Wednesday, April 17, 2024 03:10:40
    you made some cool software back in the day! XD
    i started to program in 2008 in php..... yeah i know i know then i switched to C in 2012. i want to make a dos game but i am too busy with school (uni) to really work on it. ill pick it up when i start my career! and i need all the help i can get!
    it is https://github.com/sparky4/16

    --mary4 (Victoria Crenshaw) the 286 enthusiast

    ... Message encrypted: Press ALT-F4 to read encoded message

    --- 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 Ben Collver on Wednesday, April 17, 2024 03:19:46
    I took a look at your github site and files. How cool that you are running your own BIOS! I didn't realize that the Impulse Tracker
    source code had become available. I'll be looking at that for sure.

    i am hosting a bios there xD i am not that skilled... yet :P
    yes it released the sauce!after 20 years !
    i actually want an 8088 real mode version of Impulse Tracker

    I was unable to view your Mastodon profile.

    Chromium-ungoogled says:

    No page corresponding to this URL could be found.

    Palemoon says:

    Failed to load
    ERROR CODE: APP_IMPORT

    hmmm let me what it is...
    https://transfem.social/@mary4 ... try this
    I've been spending more time in FreeDOS 1.3 lately myself.

    B A S E D !!! AND FREEDOS PILLS! :DDDDDD
    I've been asking myself philosophical questions like: Which is simpler, ASCII or UTF-8? There is no right answer. :>

    both are complex
    but code page 437? is simple

    What part of the world do you hail from? I am on the USA west coast.
    I thought i saw Japanese characters on your Mastodon page. Are you
    in Asia?

    wwww no im in like the worst part of USA. The Deep South. Northern Louisiana
    Once upon a time i was interested in game development. A friend asked
    for help making a PlayStation game, back before the PlayStation 2 came out. I read online that Sony's development kit used a DJGPP cross- compiler on MS-DOS, so that motivated me to check out DJGPP. I only
    had slow dial-up Internet at home, so i downloaded the bits at the
    office and at the University computer lab and brought them home on floppies. I was proficient at splitting and re-joining files. I used screen captures of SNES emulators to rip sprites and then i coded a
    fully functional local multi-player party game with VGA graphics and
    MOD music. I was pleased with how it turned out, but by that time the PlayStation game project fizzled out. It did give me a lot of practice reading GNU TexInfo documentation and using GDB.
    YO THATS SICK!!! :DDDDDD

    --mary4 (Victoria Crenshaw) the 286 enthusiast

    ... Error, no Keyboard - Press F1 to Continue.

    --- 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 Ben Collver on Wednesday, April 17, 2024 03:39:46
    What part of the world do you hail from? I am on the USA west coast.
    I thought i saw Japanese characters on your Mastodon page. Are you
    in Asia?

    let me explain how bad.
    my own step dad is transphobic to shit and always shit on me for minor things. i've experienced heavy neuro divergancy discrimination since 1991. only recently it's been eased down. i've experienced white supremacist princapal and heavy discrimination everywhere. i fucking hate it here. drove me crazy.
    i developed Bipolar 1 with Psychotic Features or F31.64 because of the abuse online and offline i endured! </3

    --mary4 (Victoria Crenshaw) the 286 enthusiast

    ... There are three kinds of people: Those who can count, and those who can't

    --- 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 mary4 on Wednesday, April 17, 2024 03:41:05
    sorry for the heavy subject. i am light hearted and friendly like Mary from Ib

    --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 AKAcastor@21:1/162 to Ben Collver on Tuesday, April 16, 2024 10:57:54
    I used list.com hex dumps to reverse engineer the database format, &
    the shareware Desmet-C PCC compiler to write a program to export the
    data to plain text, which i imported into Paradox. I remember using Borland grep.exe and i also remember using list.com multi-file views
    to flip back and forth between old/new code listings page by page to
    spot differences. I didn't have a diff command at that time.

    LIST.COM! Such a great text file viewer. And - as I learned JUST NOW - it also has hex view! Geez, I should have read the help screen before now, been using list.com for years and never realized that.

    Thanks for the tip. :)


    Chris/akacastor


    --- Maximus 3.01
    * Origin: Another Millennium - Canada - another.tel (21:1/162)
  • From AKAcastor@21:1/162 to Mary4 on Tuesday, April 16, 2024 11:05:46
    yooooo i have a 4:3 ratio vga book 8088!! :DDDD
    i should get the 386 version... but i feel that the 386
    is modern to me :P i am only 33 so i am as old as a 286!! :D

    Honestly I feel like the Pocket 386 might be a bit awkward of a system. It's a 386 SX so entry-level as far as 32-bit systems, but 40 MHz so maybe not TOO sluggish? Just sort of an odd duck.

    I think a 486DX2-66 or similar would open more options up for DOS gaming and probably more 32-bit DOS software in general. So I'm still holding out hope for something like that. But meanwhile, it's super cool that someone is producing this type of retro-but-new machine at all! (though I gotta admit, I'm not sure what to do with the Book8088 after setting it up and playing for an evening)


    Chris/akacastor

    --- Maximus 3.01
    * Origin: Another Millennium - Canada - another.tel (21:1/162)
  • From AKAcastor@21:1/162 to Blue White on Tuesday, April 16, 2024 11:16:50
    I started with an 8088 XT (well, actually a TI 99/4A, but the XT was my first PC clone), skipped over the 286 era to a 386-40, then skipped over the 486 era to a used Pentium-120.

    The 386 is still my favorite computer. ;) It was the first one I ran a BBS on. The BBSes now all run on single board Pis and PCs.

    I started on an XT-era machine also, a Tandy 1000 HX. Single 720KB 3.5" floppy drive, but MS-DOS 2.11 in ROM meant no need for a boot disk - Tandy slipped some nice features into their computers in the 80s.

    Got stuck on with the Tandy a long time, then finally got a 486DLC-40 with 4 megs of RAM - what a machine! :) After the Tandy 1000 it was amazing to have a 486, and I got it at a time when my friends were on 386's so it was pretty badass. I started reading the documentation for BBS software (Maximus) on the Tandy while I waited for my new 486 to come in - I remember I had to ask my friend to unzip the files onto double density floppies for me because I couldn't read the high density floppies my friend had given me. I was determined that when I got that 486 I was going ONLINE!


    Chris/akacastor

    --- Maximus 3.01
    * Origin: Another Millennium - Canada - another.tel (21:1/162)
  • From AKAcastor@21:1/162 to Poindexter Fortran on Tuesday, April 16, 2024 11:33:14
    When I was a dumb kid, running a homebuilt 286 for my CS classes, I
    noticed a clock crystal on the motherboard. Figured that if I bought a
    faster chip, my system would run faster. I had a 16 mhz 286 for a
    while, but it kept crashing. Went to 12 mhz and it ran fine.

    Those solder jobs were embarassing at best. I'm surprised it still ran.
    There's a special kind of fortune that shines on people who don't know
    what they're doing shouldn't work.

    Great story of ignorance succeeding against unknown odds! :) Good logical process - this part controls the speed, so maybe I can replace it to go faster,let's try!

    You're definitely right about there being a special kind of fortune that shines on people who don't know better, I think significant parts of my life are built on that same principle.


    Chris/akacastor

    --- Maximus 3.01
    * Origin: Another Millennium - Canada - another.tel (21:1/162)
  • From Nightfox@21:1/137 to mary4 on Tuesday, April 16, 2024 12:52:13
    Re: Re: hello! :DD
    By: mary4 to AKAcastor on Tue Apr 16 2024 10:12 pm

    version... but i feel that the 386 is modern to me :P i am only 33 so i am as old as a 286!! :D

    The 286 was introduced in 1982, which would make it 42 years old.. ?

    Nightfox
    --- SBBSecho 3.20-Linux
    * Origin: Digital Distortion: digdist.synchro.net (21:1/137)
  • From Nightfox@21:1/137 to poindexter FORTRAN on Tuesday, April 16, 2024 12:57:09
    Re: Re: hello! :DD
    By: poindexter FORTRAN to AKAcastor on Tue Apr 16 2024 06:56 am

    When I was a dumb kid, running a homebuilt 286 for my CS classes, I noticed a clock crystal on the motherboard. Figured that if I bought a faster chip, my system would run faster. I had a 16 mhz 286 for a while, but it kept crashing. Went to 12 mhz and it ran fine.

    Those solder jobs were embarassing at best. I'm surprised it still ran. There's a special kind of fortune that shines on people who don't know what they're doing shouldn't work.

    :) That's cool.
    In the mid-90s (maybe 1994 or 1995), I got a hand-me-down 386DX-33 motherboard. The CPU itself said it was 40mhz (it was an AMD), but for some reason it had a 33mhz clock chip on the board. My older brother had access to a soldering station (maybe at work), and he helped replace the clock chip with a 40mhz one, and also put a socket there so the clock chip could easily be swapped if it proved unstable. It worked fine at 40mhz though.

    Nightfox
    --- SBBSecho 3.20-Linux
    * Origin: Digital Distortion: digdist.synchro.net (21:1/137)
  • From mary4@21:1/166 to AKAcastor on Wednesday, April 17, 2024 07:32:15
    let us get that bad boi on a bbs! >:3

    --mary4 (Victoria Crenshaw) the 286 enthusiast

    --- 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 AKAcastor on Wednesday, April 17, 2024 07:33:13
    Honestly I feel like the Pocket 386 might be a bit awkward of a system. It's a 386 SX so entry-level as far as 32-bit systems, but 40 MHz so
    maybe not TOO sluggish? Just sort of an odd duck.

    I think a 486DX2-66 or similar would open more options up for DOS gaming and probably more 32-bit DOS software in general. So I'm still holding out hope for something like that. But meanwhile, it's super cool that someone is producing this type of retro-but-new machine at all! (though
    I gotta admit, I'm not sure what to do with the Book8088 after setting
    it up and playing for an evening)


    lets get theat bad boi online! (book8088) >:3

    --mary4 (Victoria Crenshaw) the 286 enthusiast

    ... BREAKFAST.COM Halted... Cereal port not responding.

    --- 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 AKAcastor on Wednesday, April 17, 2024 07:35:13
    thats fuckin badass!
    Tandy 1000! and 486! <3

    --mary4 (Victoria Crenshaw) the 286 enthusiast

    ... When cheese gets its picture taken, what does it say?

    --- 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 Nightfox on Wednesday, April 17, 2024 07:36:57
    The 286 was introduced in 1982, which would make it 42 years old.. ?


    yeah techincally!
    i ment manufactured 286 mobos

    --mary4 (Victoria Crenshaw) the 286 enthusiast

    ... This virus requires Microsoft Windows 3.x

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/24 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Datanet BBS | telnet://datanetbbs.net:23 (21:1/166)
  • From AKAcastor@21:1/162 to Mary4 on Tuesday, April 16, 2024 15:40:56
    I gotta admit, I'm not sure what to do with the Book8088 after setting
    it up and playing for an evening)

    lets get theat bad boi online! (book8088) >:3

    Telix was the first priority when I got the Book8088, downloading at 115.2kbps didn't go so well but with a more reasonable baud rate it's.. not bad!

    https://imgur.com/a/JKq6XAy

    Using one of the little wifi RS232 modems, it really is slick to be able to call into BBSes from an XT on wifi while I recline in the living room. :)


    Chris/akacastor

    --- Maximus 3.01
    * Origin: Another Millennium - Canada - another.tel (21:1/162)
  • From Skylar to Ben Collver on Tuesday, April 16, 2024 16:01:30
    Re: hello! :DD
    By: Ben Collver to Skylar on Tue Apr 16 2024 09:42 am

    How cool that your first dev work was in 1991!
    What were you developing?

    I started programming in BASIC in 1982. My first paid work was in 1990, writing educational "courses" on health topics. One of my college buddies was doing it and at one point had more contracts than he could complete as timely as requested. He had a system "templated", if you will. So each course was not written from scratch but did require custom/new coding. I did two of those projects using Turbo C (1.0, I think).

    My first full-time dev job was creating an educational courseware authoring and playback system. Content creators would write material in WP, which we then imported into "screens". The authoring side created chapters/lessons/pages of content, which could have scrollable regions, pictures, limited animation (think animated GIFs), and sound. We hired local voice talent to narrate each course, which could be turned on or off. Each lesson had a test at the end that varied each time, as it randomly chose questions from a larger pool.

    We started with MS C, switched to Turbo C, then Borland C++. Our biggest issue was memory, as both applications were GUI, complete with menus, buttons, mouse support, etc. But the C-Scape library we used to build the GUI was huge. We used RT-Link to implement "virtual memory" for our apps, where they would swap memory to disk the way modern OSes do. Even that had limits though. After I left, they switched to Watcom C and a DOS Extender.

    About 16 months after I left, they hired me back to port the whole shabang to Win32 using Borland C++ Builder.

    I've also worked on apps for county goverment and healthcare (practice management and insurance stuff). Those are the three primary fields of my professional experience.
  • From mary4@21:1/166 to AKAcastor on Wednesday, April 17, 2024 09:30:20
    Telix was the first priority when I got the Book8088, downloading at 115.2kbps didn't go so well but with a more reasonable baud rate it's.. not bad!

    https://imgur.com/a/JKq6XAy

    Using one of the little wifi RS232 modems, it really is slick to be able to call into BBSes from an XT on wifi while I recline in the living
    room. :)


    YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO THATS COOOL!!!!! :DDDDDDDDDD :3

    --mary4 (Victoria Crenshaw) the 286 enthusiast

    ... This virus requires Microsoft Windows 3.x

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/24 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Datanet BBS | telnet://datanetbbs.net:23 (21:1/166)
  • From Ed Vance@21:1/175 to AKAcastor on Tuesday, April 16, 2024 18:39:31
    LIST.com written by (IIRC) Vernon Berg.
    Fell in love with it and have a BAT file on XP box called L.bat since I use it regularly.
    Alt-h is the On/Off toggle that You found.

    Sometimes I look at html code to see and learn about how to write html.

    Ed
    --- SBBSecho 3.20-Linux
    * Origin: capitolcityonline.net * Telnet/SSH:2022/HTTP (21:1/175)
  • From apam@21:1/182 to niter3 on Wednesday, April 17, 2024 09:47:03
    I'm not up to speed with minix, but is that a currently active OS?
    Meaning, is it getting constant patches?

    Not really. Minix 3.3.0 is the most recent version, and they have a
    snapshot of 3.4.0 but it hasn't been updated in 5 years.

    Andrew


    --- Talisman v0.53-dev (FreeBSD/amd64)
    * Origin: Smuggler's Cove - scove.talismanbbs.com:2323 (21:1/182)
  • From AKAcastor@21:1/162 to Ed Vance on Tuesday, April 16, 2024 16:46:08
    LIST.com written by (IIRC) Vernon Berg.
    Fell in love with it and have a BAT file on XP box
    called L.bat since I use it regularly.

    The batch file is a nice idea, I think besides 'cd' and 'dir' probably 'list' is typed more than anything else. Big efficiency win by cutting it from 4 down to 1 keypress. :)

    Alt-h is the On/Off toggle that You found.

    It's such an obvious hotkey too, I am surprised I didn't find it even without reading the help screen! I am pretty good at being oblivious to things.

    Sometimes I look at html code to see and learn about how to write html.

    Peeking inside all kinds of files is such a great way to learn how things work! I'm surprised by how many people who are longtime computer users don't realize you can open files up in different applications, and that plain text editors or hex viewers exist. (ok the last part doesn't surprise me quite as much, but the genuine lack of knowledge that it's POSSIBLE does surprise me sometimes.)

    Do you have a favourite text editor? I usually use QEdit, but to be honest I lost the muscle memory for all the hotkeys so it's not really easier for me than any other text editor these days. I got spoiled by the GUIs over the years.


    Chris/akacastor

    --- Maximus 3.01
    * Origin: Another Millennium - Canada - another.tel (21:1/162)
  • From mary4@21:1/166 to Ed Vance on Wednesday, April 17, 2024 10:11:38
    4dos has it built in list.com that is

    --mary4 (Victoria Crenshaw) the 286 enthusiast

    ... This virus requires Microsoft Windows 3.x

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/24 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Datanet BBS | telnet://datanetbbs.net:23 (21:1/166)
  • From Skylar to mary4 on Tuesday, April 16, 2024 17:13:57
    Re: Re: hello! :DD
    By: mary4 to Nightfox on Wed Apr 17 2024 07:36 am

    yeah techincally!
    i ment manufactured 286 mobos

    Ah, 1984 then.

    http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/intel/iSBC/147532-001_iSBC_286_10A_Hardware_Reference_Manual_Oct84.pdf
  • From Skylar to apam on Tuesday, April 16, 2024 17:20:40
    Re: hello! :DD
    By: apam to niter3 on Wed Apr 17 2024 09:47 am

    I'm not up to speed with minix, but is that a currently active OS? Meaning, is it getting constant patches?

    Not really. Minix 3.3.0 is the most recent version, and they have a
    snapshot of 3.4.0 but it hasn't been updated in 5 years.

    Minix was created by a professor (Andrew Stuart Tanenbaum) as an educational tool for his classes/students. It was not intended to be an OS used daily by anyone who would want or need "constant patches". ;)

    Probably meant more for someone who would get their hands in the code and fix it themself.
  • From Skylar to AKAcastor on Tuesday, April 16, 2024 17:26:15
    Re: list.com
    By: AKAcastor to Ed Vance on Tue Apr 16 2024 04:46 pm

    Peeking inside all kinds of files is such a great way to learn how things work! I'm surprised by how many people who are longtime computer users don't realize you can open files up in different applications, and that plain text editors or hex viewers exist.

    I remember discovering disk/sector editors, and that I could change strings in executables. MSDOS became JRDOS (my initials are JR). Many DOS commands in my command.com did not "work" because I had changed the "name" of the command. PC Tools and Norton Utilities were a lot of fun for me in the mid to late 80s.

    Not as much fun for my computer teacher, though...
  • From mary4@21:1/166 to AKAcastor on Wednesday, April 17, 2024 10:28:36
    On 16 Apr 2024, AKAcastor said the following...

    LIST.com written by (IIRC) Vernon Berg.
    Fell in love with it and have a BAT file on XP box
    called L.bat since I use it regularly.

    The batch file is a nice idea, I think besides 'cd' and 'dir' probably 'list' is typed more than anything else. Big efficiency win by cutting
    it from 4 down to 1 keypress. :)

    fancy
    Alt-h is the On/Off toggle that You found.

    It's such an obvious hotkey too, I am surprised I didn't find it even without reading the help screen! I am pretty good at being oblivious to things.

    interesting!
    Sometimes I look at html code to see and learn about how to write htm

    Peeking inside all kinds of files is such a great way to learn how
    things work! I'm surprised by how many people who are longtime computer users don't realize you can open files up in different applications, and that plain text editors or hex viewers exist. (ok the last part doesn't surprise me quite as much, but the genuine lack of knowledge that it's POSSIBLE does surprise me sometimes.)

    yeah we more computer knowledge!
    Do you have a favourite text editor? I usually use QEdit, but to be honest I lost the muscle memory for all the hotkeys so it's not really easier for me than any other text editor these days. I got spoiled by
    the GUIs over the years.


    i love nano and FreeDOS edit.com i use kate for large projects with many files xD i really hate the bloated m$ code! xD

    --mary4 (Victoria Crenshaw) the 286 enthusiast

    ... A SQL query walks into a bar and sees two tables. Asks: 'Can I join you?'

    --- 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 Skylar on Wednesday, April 17, 2024 10:31:15
    Ah, 1984 then.

    http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/intel/iSBC/147532-001_iSBC_286_10A_Hardware_R ce_Manual_Oct84.pdf

    dang.... xD

    --mary4 (Victoria Crenshaw) the 286 enthusiast

    ... A Meteor is an example of a rock star.

    --- 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 Skylar on Wednesday, April 17, 2024 10:33:10
    I remember discovering disk/sector editors, and that I could change strings in executables. MSDOS became JRDOS (my initials are JR). Many
    DOS commands in my command.com did not "work" because I had changed the "name" of the command. PC Tools and Norton Utilities were a lot of fun
    for me in the mid to late 80s.

    Not as much fun for my computer teacher, though...

    thats so cool! and funny xD i wish i had stories like this to share but my delve into vintage PCS happened in 2008-2011

    --mary4 (Victoria Crenshaw) the 286 enthusiast

    ... The caterpillar does all the work but the butterfly gets all the publicity

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/24 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Datanet BBS | telnet://datanetbbs.net:23 (21:1/166)
  • From AKAcastor@21:1/162 to Skylar on Tuesday, April 16, 2024 17:36:48
    I remember discovering disk/sector editors, and that I
    could change strings in executables. MSDOS became JRDOS
    (my initials are JR). Many DOS commands in my
    command.com did not "work" because I had changed the
    "name" of the command. PC Tools and Norton Utilities
    were a lot of fun for me in the mid to late 80s.

    Hex editing strings in executables is the foundation upon which my hacking career is based. :)

    Sector editors, that really was like opening a door to a new level of magic! (and then.. oops! haha)

    I was going to say I never used PC Tools much, but then I saw a screenshot and remembered that it was definitely something I had around. The name Central Point Software brought back some memories.

    Norton Utilities was such an incredible product. The quality and usefulness of those utilities!! Good enough that they could bank on the name "Norton" selling software for years, no matter how terrible they eventually made it after the sale to Symantec.

    Between Norton Utilities and his book The Programmer's Guide to the IBM PC, how would we have survived using PCs in the 1980s without Peter Norton?! Huge impact when it came to "making things work".

    Not as much fun for my computer teacher, though...

    Some of our teachers must have been saints to put up with us without expulsion. :)


    Chris/akacastor

    --- Maximus 3.01
    * Origin: Another Millennium - Canada - another.tel (21:1/162)
  • From niter3@21:1/199 to AKAcastor on Tuesday, April 16, 2024 20:49:51
    Telix was the first priority when I got the Book8088, downloading at 115.2kbps didn't go so well but with a more reasonable baud rate it's.. not bad!

    https://imgur.com/a/JKq6XAy

    Using one of the little wifi RS232 modems, it really is slick to be able to call into BBSes from an XT on wifi while I recline in the living
    room. :)

    Nice...

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2023/04/30 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Clutch BBS * telnet://clutchbbs.com (21:1/199)
  • From apam@21:1/182.1 to Skylar on Wednesday, April 17, 2024 11:15:28
    By: Skylar to apam on Tue Apr 16 2024 05:20 pm

    Not really. Minix 3.3.0 is the most recent version, and they have a
    snapshot of 3.4.0 but it hasn't been updated in 5 years.

    Minix was created by a professor (Andrew Stuart Tanenbaum) as an educational tool for his classes/students. It was not intended to be an OS used daily by anyone who would want or need "constant patches". ;)

    It's an opensource operating system that anyone can participate in. Sure originally it might have been exclusivley an educational tool, but it's more than that these days. Infact I believe that intel use minix in their Management Engine.

    Probably meant more for someone who would get their hands in the code and fix it themself.

    I'm not really talking about constant patches, I'm talking about the 3.4.0 branch hasn't been touched in 5 years. So, it's not getting ANY patches, and still missing things like USB support.

    It's a nice operating system and can do lots of things, especially now it has netbsd compatibility and can use pkgsrc, however it seems that interest in it has waned.

    Andrew
    --- SBBSecho 3.20-Linux
    * Origin: HappyLand - happylnd.synchro.net (21:1/182.1)
  • From Skylar to apam on Tuesday, April 16, 2024 18:28:21
    Re: Minix
    By: apam to Skylar on Wed Apr 17 2024 11:15 am

    I'm not really talking about constant patches, I'm talking about the 3.4.0 branch hasn't been touched in 5 years.

    I was responding to niter3 asking whether Minix was getting constant patches. ;)
  • From Ed Vance@21:1/175 to AKAcastor on Tuesday, April 16, 2024 21:18:10
    Before Logging on again, I turned the XP box on to see the L.bat file that I put in a sub-directory actually is: list/w .

    At a cmd prompt I typed set and the sub-directory is located in the path= statement.
    I looked, but I can't find where or when or how XP put my location for l.bat in the path. PC=1. Ed=0. again.

    The list help file has a .doc extension , XP thinks it is a Wordpad Document instead of a text file.
    At a cmd prompt I use EDIT.EXE , occasionally.
    I use WordPad for most of what I write.

    Often I go to a Admin cmd prompt and make.txt files of all files on the HDD.
    AT C:\ I type dir /s/-p >> 'place to put the text file' .
    And a second time I add /b ahead of the /s/-p portion of the command.

    I mostly will look at the file made with the /b when I am wondering where on the C: Drive is a file I want to find, since the /b option shows the Full Path also.

    Ages ago I read an article saying .rtf files can contain problem code, but since I am writing text I don't think any .rtf file I ever shared with others would harm their system.

    You wrote the word 'oblivious' .

    40 years ago when I bought the Commodore C=64 , 1541 and VIC Modem 300 I also purchased a pack of two 5 1/4" floppy disks for $2.00 USD.

    I read in the 1541 manual the Command new was used to format a disk.
    I tried over and over typing new the disk name Comma two letters.
    Never could make the floppy drive format one of the disks.

    The 1541 drive had a Utilities Disk and I saw a PRG (Program) with the title of "Test Disk", so I ran it, was asked to insert a blank disk in the slot and press Return.
    When the test finished I learned the blank disk had been formatted.

    I used that PRG to format the other disk I had and began typing in and saving BASIC code in Popular Electronics mags and other books I had.
    I'd say that first formatted disk was made when the C=64 System was two weeks old.
    Much later in reading, I learned the Command on PAGE 1 of the book called 'open' was suppose to be typed first, then some numbers and then I could type 'new' on the command line and my 1541 would format a disk for me.

    OBLIVIOUS ???, It wasn't to me. and I am still that way.

    No one needs to make up stories about Me, telling it as You saw me do it is bad enuf.

    Here is another one:
    Late one night I accidentally touched the mouse button as I had Windows Explorer open and saw a sub-directory disappear.
    It was bed time so I shut the PC off.
    The next morning at a cmd prompt I typed dir *. /s to look for the missing folder.
    I had remembered the name.
    I found that I had dragged the sub-directory down to the next one shown in Windows Explorer, so I moved it back where it originally had been.

    THEN I told on myself in the FIDO Windows echo.
    The next day a reply message mentioned all I needed to do after the sub-directory disappeared was to press CTRL z (which I knew was Undo).
    DUH

    Is there anyone reading remember when Tom Walker wrote to me about
    CTRL z years ago?
    --- SBBSecho 3.20-Linux
    * Origin: capitolcityonline.net * Telnet/SSH:2022/HTTP (21:1/175)
  • From Ben Collver@21:1/149 to mary4 on Tuesday, April 16, 2024 19:42:29
    Re: Re: hello! :DD
    By: mary4 to Ben Collver on Wed Apr 17 2024 03:19 am

    https://transfem.social/@mary4

    Thanks, that link worked for me.

    How did you become interested in retrocomputing? What got you started
    on 286's?
    --- SBBSecho 3.14-Win32
    * Origin: The Fool's Quarter, fqbbs.synchro.net (21:1/149)
  • From Ben Collver@21:1/149 to AKAcastor on Tuesday, April 16, 2024 19:45:08
    Re: hello! :DD
    By: AKAcastor to Ben Collver on Tue Apr 16 2024 10:57 am

    You are welcome for the list.com Alt-H tip.

    The documentation tells how to customize the key mapping.

    I use less so much that my muscle memory types 'b' to go back a page.

    In list.com it goes back to the beginning.

    So i remapped 'b' to go back a page.

    <gopher://tilde.pink/1/~bencollver/files/dos/util/list/>

    <https://gopher.tildeverse.org/tilde.pink/1/~bencollver/files/dos/util/list/> --- SBBSecho 3.14-Win32
    * Origin: The Fool's Quarter, fqbbs.synchro.net (21:1/149)
  • From Ben Collver@21:1/149 to Skylar on Tuesday, April 16, 2024 19:46:22
    Re: hello! :DD
    By: Skylar to Ben Collver on Tue Apr 16 2024 04:01 pm

    Wow, developing multi-media educational apps back in the DOS days.
    That was cutting edge...
    --- SBBSecho 3.14-Win32
    * Origin: The Fool's Quarter, fqbbs.synchro.net (21:1/149)
  • From Ben Collver@21:1/149 to AKAcastor on Tuesday, April 16, 2024 19:53:53
    Re: list.com
    By: AKAcastor to Ed Vance on Tue Apr 16 2024 04:46 pm

    I've been working on porting OpenBSD ed(1) to DOS. The DJGPP port was a breeze, but the 16-bit port has been a fun challenge and i am not finished
    yet. :-)

    When i developed code on DOS in the mid 90's, I used Q.EXE now known as
    the Semware editor, i think.

    These days i tend to use calvin in DOS. It's a lean vi clone that may be
    too minimal for most folks. XVI is another nice one and i think it has a
    nice balance between features and minimalism. IIRC, xvi is descended
    from stevie. Someone told me elvis 1.8 on simtelnet is decent, and it is real-mode.

    I recently tried svared and i think they did a fine job making that editor.
    --- SBBSecho 3.14-Win32
    * Origin: The Fool's Quarter, fqbbs.synchro.net (21:1/149)
  • From Lynx769@21:1/158 to AKAcastor on Wednesday, April 17, 2024 12:36:24
    Norton Utilities was such an incredible product. The quality and usefulness of those utilities!! Good enough that they could bank on the name "Norton" selling software for years, no matter how terrible they eventually made it after the sale to Symantec.

    Between Norton Utilities and his book The Programmer's Guide to the IBM PC, how would we have survived using PCs in the 1980s without Peter Norton?! Huge impact when it came to "making things work".

    That name brought back some memories. In high school, there was a group of us that completed the two computer science classes which had state-provided curriculum, but we were still seniors and wanted a "CS3" elective. The CS teacher was a brand-new teacher, who just graduated with a CS degress herself and only a few years older than us, agreed to teach the class.

    The only problem was that they scheduled our class in the same room and time as the CS2 class. So, guess where the teacher spent her time? She would give us projects to work on, but we were seniors and not all that motivated to complete them.

    Anyway, for one of her "projects," she handed us Peter Norton's book and told us to read it. That one I completed and thoroughly enjoyed.


    -- Lachlan

    ... A PC a day keeps the Apple away!

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2023/04/30 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: thE qUAntUm wOrmhOlE, rAmsgAtE, uK. bbs.erb.pw (21:1/158)
  • From Blue White@21:4/134 to mary4 on Wednesday, April 17, 2024 08:06:10
    I started with an 8088 XT (well, actually a TI 99/4A, but the XT
    was my
    first PC clone), skipped over the 286 era to a 386-40, then
    skipped over
    the 486 era to a used Pentium-120.
    yooo the 286 is an awesome, vintage, forgotten, and cool system! you
    should get one! :D

    I still have the XT and the TI, as well as the 386 and P-120. I think I
    am covered in the vintage department. ;)



    --- Talisman v0.53-dev (Linux/armv7l)
    * Origin: possumso.fsxnet.nz * telnet:24/ssh:2122/ftelnet:80 (21:4/134)
  • From Blue White@21:4/134 to AKAcastor on Wednesday, April 17, 2024 08:12:08
    Honestly I feel like the Pocket 386 might be a bit awkward of a
    system. It's a 386 SX so entry-level as far as 32-bit systems, but 40
    MHz so maybe not TOO sluggish? Just sort of an odd duck.

    I think a 486DX2-66 or similar would open more options up for DOS
    gaming and probably more 32-bit DOS software in general. So I'm still

    IIRC, if it is an SX it is not completely 32-bit. I think that meant 32
    bit processor on a 16 bit bus. I suspect you are correct re: a 486 or
    even a proper 386DX.



    --- Talisman v0.53-dev (Linux/armv7l)
    * Origin: possumso.fsxnet.nz * telnet:24/ssh:2122/ftelnet:80 (21:4/134)
  • From Blue White@21:4/134 to Ed Vance on Wednesday, April 17, 2024 08:15:26
    LIST.com written by (IIRC) Vernon Berg.

    Yep, that is the one. I still use it often in my DOSemu sessions.


    --- Talisman v0.53-dev (Linux/armv7l)
    * Origin: possumso.fsxnet.nz * telnet:24/ssh:2122/ftelnet:80 (21:4/134)
  • From mary4@21:1/166 to Ben Collver on Wednesday, April 17, 2024 23:46:30
    How did you become interested in retrocomputing? What got you started
    on 286's?

    beleive it or not my 1st computer i ever owned is a game boy color back in 1998 the 1st computer i ever used was a 16 bit snes back in 1996
    i had so much fun on such limited hardware. i got my own system from y2k at 2007 and by 2008 rolling around i got a pentium
    in 2011 i got a 486. at this time i knew what an XT and 286 is and really wanted them. so for my 22 birthday i ordered them and fell in love. they are so neat and people think they are junk but you can do SO MUCH on them! thats why i love them because of my fond childhood memories in the mist of heavy turama. because such limited systems made me be able to make friends and socialize like the 8 bit game boy color! so i love 16-bit systems because of the cool factor! :D

    --mary4 (Victoria Crenshaw) the 286 enthusiast

    ... I don't have the time for a hobby. I have a computer.

    --- 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 Ben Collver on Wednesday, April 17, 2024 23:50:27
    I've been working on porting OpenBSD ed(1) to DOS. The DJGPP port was a breeze, but the 16-bit port has been a fun challenge and i am not
    finished yet. :-)

    yoooooooooo
    thats COOOL!!! 16 BIT POWER!!!!!!!!!!! <33 lol

    --mary4 (Victoria Crenshaw) the 286 enthusiast

    ... Help! I can't find the "ANY" key.

    --- 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 Blue White on Wednesday, April 17, 2024 23:55:37
    I still have the XT and the TI, as well as the 386 and P-120. I think I am covered in the vintage department. ;)


    based!!! and retro pilled! <3

    --mary4 (Victoria Crenshaw) the 286 enthusiast

    ... A black cat crossing your path signifies that the animal is going somewhere

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/24 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Datanet BBS | telnet://datanetbbs.net:23 (21:1/166)
  • From tenser@21:1/101 to Skylar on Thursday, April 18, 2024 01:56:43
    On 16 Apr 2024 at 05:20p, Skylar pondered and said...

    Minix was created by a professor (Andrew Stuart Tanenbaum) as an educational tool for his classes/students. It was not intended to be an
    OS used daily by anyone who would want or need "constant patches". ;)

    Probably meant more for someone who would get their hands in the code
    and fix it themself.

    Tell that to Intel. :-D

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)
  • From Ben Collver@21:1/149 to Lynx769 on Wednesday, April 17, 2024 09:04:34
    Re: Re: list.com
    By: Lynx769 to AKAcastor on Wed Apr 17 2024 12:36 pm

    I enjoyed reading about your CS3 experience in high school.

    I had a similar experience, except for me they called it
    "Reading & Conference". Only a handful of us were in it.
    We could do whatever we wanted and our entire grade would
    be the result of a final project.

    My project was to write a game called "Battle Checkers"
    inspired by two other games: Scorched Earth and Battle Chess.
    These systems were running DOS 3 and had Hercules Graphics.
    I was using Borland Turbo Basic, which did not have built-in
    support for Hercules. My teacher gave me a book with the PC
    memory map and i disassembled programs to figure out how to
    drive it. Then i wrote graphics routines in ASM that i
    called from BASIC. I also wrote a keyboard-based pixel art
    drawing program. The teacher and my class mates were
    impressed with how the game turned out. My teacher said
    that he was relieved that i didn't choose to make a
    D&D character generator, because he had seen so many that
    it had become a cliche.

    Unfortunately, though i was proud of this, i had backed it up
    on floppies, and those floppies were destroyed while in
    storage. I no longer have any of that code.
    --- SBBSecho 3.14-Win32
    * Origin: The Fool's Quarter, fqbbs.synchro.net (21:1/149)
  • From Zip@21:1/202 to mary4 on Wednesday, April 17, 2024 19:51:29
    Hello mary4!

    On 17 Apr 2024, mary4 said the following...

    sorry for the heavy subject. i am light hearted and friendly like Mary from Ib

    A belated welcome to you, Victoria, and I'm sure you'll enjoy yourself here in fsxNet -- there are lots of very friendly people here!

    Speaking of 286s, I used to have an IBM AT with an original EGA monitor (I remember this took up quite some space on the desk!). The power switch had to be replaced in due time as it wore down... =)

    That chassis was later on used to fit a 386SX/40 (boy, was that MB tiny compared to the chassis!) and later on a 486DX4/100, before I switched to Pentium and AMD K6-2 in a mini tower.

    Best regards
    Zip (Björn)

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2023/04/30 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Star Collision BBS, Uppsala, Sweden (21:1/202)
  • From Digital Man to AKAcastor on Wednesday, April 17, 2024 11:37:02
    Re: Re: hello! :DD
    By: AKAcastor to Mary4 on Tue Apr 16 2024 11:05 am

    Honestly I feel like the Pocket 386 might be a bit awkward of a system.
    It's a 386 SX so entry-level as far as 32-bit systems, but 40 MHz so maybe not TOO sluggish? Just sort of an odd duck.

    As I recall, 40MHz was a (the most?) popular/common clock speed for the AMD variant of the 386 SX CPUs/boards. With it's 16-bit data bus, it was a bit of a crippled processor, but not an odd duck for the time.

    I wouldn't want to use one today! :-)
    --
    digital man (rob)

    Synchronet/BBS Terminology Definition #87:
    UART = Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter
    Norco, CA WX: 74.0°F, 36.0% humidity, 1 mph SW wind, 0.00 inches rain/24hrs
  • From Digital Man to Skylar on Wednesday, April 17, 2024 11:39:53
    Re: hello! :DD
    By: Skylar to Ben Collver on Tue Apr 16 2024 04:01 pm

    I started programming in BASIC in 1982. My first paid work was in 1990,

    Ditto. Same years, same tools too (started with Commodore BASIC, then Turbo C -> Borland C++, etc.).
    --
    digital man (rob)

    This Is Spinal Tap quote #38:
    Artie Fufkin: I'm not asking, I'm telling with this. Kick my ass.
    Norco, CA WX: 74.0°F, 36.0% humidity, 1 mph SW wind, 0.00 inches rain/24hrs
  • From Digital Man to Ed Vance on Wednesday, April 17, 2024 11:43:46
    Re: hello! :DD
    By: Ed Vance to AKAcastor on Tue Apr 16 2024 06:39 pm

    LIST.com written by (IIRC) Vernon Berg.
    Fell in love with it and have a BAT file on XP box called L.bat since I use it regularly.
    Alt-h is the On/Off toggle that You found.

    Yup, big list.com here here too. I used SemWare's QEdit (q.exe) for editing plain-text files in those days.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_SemWare_Editor
    --
    digital man (rob)

    Steven Wright quote #19:
    I intend to live forever ... So far, so good.
    Norco, CA WX: 74.0°F, 36.0% humidity, 1 mph SW wind, 0.00 inches rain/24hrs
  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to mary4 on Wednesday, April 17, 2024 06:52:00
    mary4 wrote to niter3 <=-

    not a version of minix for the 286
    there is a good os in deep development called ELKS
    it works on XTs and 286s

    MINIX2 runs on XT and 286 - https://minix1.woodhull.com

    I've done it!



    ... Always the first steps
    --- MultiMail/Win v0.52
    * Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)
  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to Ben Collver on Wednesday, April 17, 2024 06:55:00
    Ben Collver wrote to Skylar <=-

    I used list.com hex dumps to reverse engineer the database format, &
    the shareware Desmet-C PCC compiler to write a program to export the
    data to plain text, which i imported into Paradox. I remember using Borland grep.exe and i also remember using list.com multi-file views
    to flip back and forth between old/new code listings page by page to
    spot differences. I didn't have a diff command at that time.

    I remember collecting all sorts of *nix utilities for DOS, trying to
    make my DOS machine look unix-ey, I don't recall how compatible they
    were, but do recall using *nix find, cut, and grep.




    ... Always the first steps
    --- MultiMail/Win v0.52
    * Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)
  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to AKAcastor on Wednesday, April 17, 2024 07:01:00
    AKAcastor wrote to Blue White <=-

    Got stuck on with the Tandy a long time, then finally got a 486DLC-40
    with 4 megs of RAM - what a machine! :)

    That was a wild time - 1993 to 1995 or so. 486es came out, then EISA
    versus VLB versus SCSI wars, then wars over clock-doubling - was a
    486DX50 a better choice than a 486DX2/66?

    Then came the clones - AMD, Cyrix, IBM, and others I've forgotten about
    all came up with their down 486-esque designs. We had problems with
    Windows 3.1 and the Cyrix chips, so the users would trade them for
    Intel 486 boxes and we'd run BSD/OS in the server room on them just
    fine.

    Then, the first Pentium/66s showed up and blew them all away. The 486
    era was gone, just like >that<.



    ... Most deaths on Mount Everest are caused by goats.
    --- MultiMail/Win v0.52
    * Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)
  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to AKAcastor on Wednesday, April 17, 2024 07:03:00
    AKAcastor wrote to Mary4 <=-

    Telix was the first priority when I got the Book8088, downloading at 115.2kbps didn't go so well but with a more reasonable baud rate it's.. not bad!

    https://imgur.com/a/JKq6XAy

    Using one of the little wifi RS232 modems, it really is slick to be
    able to call into BBSes from an XT on wifi while I recline in the
    living room. :)

    DOSBOX-X allows you to redirect a TCP/IP port to a serial port. Redirect
    port 23 to COM1, fire up telix, enter the hostname as the phone number,
    and it "dials" out.

    Just like the old days, except... no busy signals! :)



    ... Superman's only weakness is graphite.
    --- MultiMail/Win v0.52
    * Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)
  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to Ben Collver on Wednesday, April 17, 2024 07:09:00
    Ben Collver wrote to AKAcastor <=-

    When i developed code on DOS in the mid 90's, I used Q.EXE now known as the Semware editor, i think.

    Qedit was my goto editor throughout the DOS days up until Windows 2000.
    W2K had an OS/2 subsystem and could run OS/2 console apps. Qedit for
    OS/2 dealt with long file names (if memory serves) and ran better than
    the DOS version in Windows.

    The Semware editor released a free version a while ago, I'm using it
    now. It's a nice progression from Qedit.

    After tolerating vi all these years, I'm trying to use it more. I have
    a blog on my tilde that I'm writing with vim, trying to recover muscle
    memory long gone from writing code under xenix. I'll still find myself
    hitting "ctrl-K X" to exit instead of ":wq". :)




    ... YORGAMAK HAS ARRIVED AND WILL INITIATE DESTRUCTIMATION.
    --- MultiMail/Win v0.52
    * Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)
  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to niter3 on Wednesday, April 17, 2024 07:16:00
    niter3 wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-

    I put MINIX on it, installed an SMTP server, POP3 server and a web
    server and create a mini-presence on our company LAN. I forwarded mail
    to it, used it as a DNS forwarder, and created some web pages to share information inside the company.

    I'm not up to speed with minix, but is that a currently active OS? Meaning, is it getting constant patches?

    MINIX is a "teaching" OS, not really meant for production. Andy
    Tanenbaum designed it for an OS class years ago. I wouldn't want to run
    it on the internet, though.

    It runs on an old emulator called bochs, but also runs natively and
    with modern hypervisors. It ran (sort of) on 8088s, but was intended for
    a 286 with a little more memory to play with, and later versions
    supported 386's memory model and included an X server.

    What's great about it is that the source code is available and it's
    designed to be walked through and understood as part of the class.

    https://minix3.org for Version 3 info
    https://minix1.woodhull.com for Version 2 info



    ... Always the first steps
    --- MultiMail/Win v0.52
    * Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)
  • From tenser@21:1/101 to poindexter FORTRAN on Thursday, April 18, 2024 07:31:02
    On 17 Apr 2024 at 07:16a, poindexter FORTRAN pondered and said...

    niter3 wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-

    I put MINIX on it, installed an SMTP server, POP3 server and a web server and create a mini-presence on our company LAN. I forwarded mai to it, used it as a DNS forwarder, and created some web pages to shar information inside the company.

    I'm not up to speed with minix, but is that a currently active OS? Meaning, is it getting constant patches?

    MINIX is a "teaching" OS, not really meant for production. Andy
    Tanenbaum designed it for an OS class years ago. I wouldn't want to run
    it on the internet, though.

    It runs on an old emulator called bochs, but also runs natively and
    with modern hypervisors. It ran (sort of) on 8088s, but was intended for
    a 286 with a little more memory to play with, and later versions
    supported 386's memory model and included an X server.

    What's great about it is that the source code is available and it's designed to be walked through and understood as part of the class.

    You're mixing versions a bit here.

    Minix 1 was certainly a teaching OS, and ran on the 8088
    (it was designed to run from a floppy on a student's PC).

    Minix 1.5 and Minix 2 were ported more widely. The former
    ran on a bunch of obscure machines that are just memories
    now, but 2 ran on x86 and SPARC.

    Minix 3 runs on x86 and ARM, and as mentioned, is the embedded
    OS for the Intel management engine, which is in pretty much
    every x86 processor post 2015. Minix 3 is very much a
    production system, as well as serving its original teaching
    goal. At various times, it's been used in a variety of
    research projects.

    I kind of doubt Andy will do another version, but perhaps
    someone else will take it up.

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)
  • From mary4@21:1/166 to Zip on Thursday, April 18, 2024 07:03:18
    Hello mary4!

    hihi! <3
    A belated welcome to you, Victoria, and I'm sure you'll enjoy yourself here in fsxNet -- there are lots of very friendly people here!

    <3 <3 <3 <3 thankyou! :3
    Speaking of 286s, I used to have an IBM AT with an original EGA monitor
    (I remember this took up quite some space on the desk!). The power
    switch had to be replaced in due time as it wore down... =)

    HOLY SHIT SO COOL!!!!
    That chassis was later on used to fit a 386SX/40 (boy, was that MB tiny compared to the chassis!) and later on a 486DX4/100, before I switched to Pentium and AMD K6-2 in a mini tower.

    i love the 286 systems! make it a 286 again!
    Best regards
    Zip (Björn)

    <3

    --mary4 (Victoria Crenshaw) the 286 enthusiast

    ... No honey, I can't eat with the family. My computer gets lonely!

    --- 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 Digital Man on Thursday, April 18, 2024 07:07:32
    As I recall, 40MHz was a (the most?) popular/common clock speed for the AMD variant of the 386 SX CPUs/boards. With it's 16-bit data bus, it was
    a bit of a crippled processor, but not an odd duck for the time.
    i want 16 bit power!!!!!!!!!!
    I wouldn't want to use one today! :-)
    i am using a 286 right now!

    --mary4 (Victoria Crenshaw) the 286 enthusiast

    ... A social life? Where can I download that!?

    --- 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 poindexter FORTRAN on Thursday, April 18, 2024 07:09:15
    MINIX2 runs on XT and 286 - https://minix1.woodhull.com

    oh yeah i ment to say not a recent and maintained version of minix ^^;;

    --mary4 (Victoria Crenshaw) the 286 enthusiast

    ... A SQL query walks into a bar and sees two tables. Asks: 'Can I join you?'

    --- 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 poindexter FORTRAN on Thursday, April 18, 2024 07:16:18
    I remember collecting all sorts of *nix utilities for DOS, trying to
    make my DOS machine look unix-ey, I don't recall how compatible they
    were, but do recall using *nix find, cut, and grep.

    there is a bunch of them in freedos!

    --mary4 (Victoria Crenshaw) the 286 enthusiast

    ... A book in the hand is worth two on the shelf!

    --- 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 poindexter FORTRAN on Thursday, April 18, 2024 08:51:20
    That was a wild time - 1993 to 1995 or so. 486es came out, then EISA
    versus VLB versus SCSI wars, then wars over clock-doubling - was a
    486DX50 a better choice than a 486DX2/66?

    i have a 286 dx1 @ 33mHz xD
    Then came the clones - AMD, Cyrix, IBM, and
    others I've forgotten about
    all came up with their down 486-esque designs. We had problems with
    Windows 3.1 and the Cyrix chips, so the users would trade them for
    Intel 486 boxes and we'd run BSD/OS in the server room on them just
    fine.

    nice!!
    Then, the first Pentium/66s showed up and blew them all away.
    the 486
    era was gone, just like >that<.

    fug

    --mary4 (Victoria Crenshaw) the 286 enthusiast

    ... A social life? Where can I download that!?

    --- 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 poindexter FORTRAN on Thursday, April 18, 2024 08:53:17
    DOSBOX-X allows you to redirect a TCP/IP port to a serial port. Redirect port 23 to COM1, fire up telix, enter the hostname as the phone number, and it "dials" out.

    i prefer real hardware! xD

    --mary4 (Victoria Crenshaw) the 286 enthusiast

    ... This virus requires Microsoft Windows 3.x

    --- 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 poindexter FORTRAN on Thursday, April 18, 2024 09:26:52
    Qedit was my goto editor throughout the DOS days up until Windows 2000.
    W2K had an OS/2 subsystem and could run OS/2 console apps. Qedit for
    OS/2 dealt with long file names (if memory serves) and ran better than
    the DOS version in Windows.

    qedit works on 16 bit dos?0
    The Semware editor released a free version a while ago, I'm using it
    now. It's a nice progression from Qedit.

    ?
    After tolerating vi all these years, I'm trying to use it more. I have
    a blog on my tilde that I'm writing with vim, trying to recover muscle
    memory long gone from writing code under xenix. I'll still find myself
    hitting "ctrl-K X" to exit instead of ":wq". :)

    wwww vim 7 on 286

    --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 AKAcastor@21:1/162 to Ed Vance on Wednesday, April 17, 2024 17:40:54
    Before Logging on again, I turned the XP box on to see
    the L.bat file that I
    put in a sub-directory actually is: list/w .

    Oh yeah, "list /w ." is a great way to view a directory and inspect files, I tried it out here and it has a real "power user" feeling (in a good way).

    At a cmd prompt I typed set and the sub-directory is located in the path= statement.
    I looked, but I can't find where or when or how XP put
    my location for l.bat in
    the path. PC=1. Ed=0. again.

    You might find that in the 'System Properties' window (If you right click on 'My Computer' and select 'Properties' it will open). In the 'Advanced' tab there is an 'Environment Variables' button.

    At a cmd prompt I use EDIT.EXE , occasionally.
    I use WordPad for most of what I write.

    I don't mind EDIT.EXE, I also use it sometimes - a lot better than using EDLIN! I never did really learn how to use EDLIN but I think I stumbled through a couple edits with it over the years.

    Often I go to a Admin cmd prompt and make.txt files of
    all files on the HDD.
    AT C:\ I type dir /s/-p >> 'place to put the text file' .
    And a second time I add /b ahead of the /s/-p portion of the command.

    I find the /b switch useful too, a nice way to make a quick list of files in a directory (or subdirectories).

    Ages ago I read an article saying .rtf files can contain problem code, but since I am writing text I don't think any .rtf file I ever shared with others would harm their system.

    I think RTF (and other rich documents) are only a danger if you are opening files that were created by someone malicious. I don't think I've ever heard of any accidental problems.
    40 years ago when I bought the Commodore C=64 , 1541 and VIC Modem 300 EV> I also purchased a pack of two 5 1/4" floppy disks for $2.00 USD.

    This still sounds like an exciting purchase! Did you buy them all the same day? Big box of Commodore goodies.

    I read in the 1541 manual the Command new was used to format a disk.
    I tried over and over typing new the disk name Comma two letters.
    Never could make the floppy drive format one of the disks.

    The 1541 drive had a Utilities Disk and I saw a PRG (Program) with the EV> title of "Test Disk", so I ran it, was asked to insert a blank disk in EV> the slot and press Return.
    When the test finished I learned the blank disk had been formatted.

    This spirit of experimentation is familiar to me, I can't count how many times over the years I didn't know what I was doing and just TRIED THINGS and stumbled onto a solution for a problem. Sometimes the solution is only a side-effect of whatever action I took, but if it works then it works and I consider it a success!

    Much later in reading, I learned the Command on PAGE 1 of the book called 'open' was suppose to be typed first, then some numbers and then I could EV> type 'new' on the command line and my 1541 would format a disk for me.

    You gotta know the secret incantations! :) And they HID them on page 1! When we just got new hardware there's too much excitement in the air to just sit down and read carefully. I bet we've all missed the instructions that were right in front of us at least once (I like it so much I do it often).

    No one needs to make up stories about Me, telling it as
    You saw me do it is bad enuf.

    Your telling of the stories is always wonderful, Ed, and I really appreciate you sharing these stories. I always smile when I see a message from you.

    Late one night I accidentally touched the mouse button as I had Windows Explorer open and saw a sub-directory disappear.
    It was bed time so I shut the PC off.
    The next morning at a cmd prompt I typed dir *. /s
    to look for the missing folder.

    Hey there's another old DOS trick! Using DIR *. to list directories, in versions of DOS before the /ad switch was supported. I remember reading about this trick in a magazine in the early 90s - maybe DOS Resource Guide.

    It usually works great because we rarely use extensions on directory names, and almost always use extensions on filenames. I like the trick because "list everything without an extension" isn't exactly the same as "list all directories", but it still works most of the time.

    I found that I had dragged the sub-directory down to the next one shown in Windows Explorer, so I moved it back where it originally had been.

    At least you realized you had done it! More than once I've looked through a directory I hadn't been in for a while, and found another directory tucked away inside that was dropped there accidentally at some time in the past and gotten lost. Oops!

    THEN I told on myself in the FIDO Windows echo.
    The next day a reply message mentioned all I needed to do after the sub-directory disappeared was to press CTRL z (which I knew was Undo).
    DUH

    Maybe doing things "the hard way" sometimes builds character, you do seem to have plenty of that! :)


    Chris/akacastor


    --- Maximus 3.01
    * Origin: Another Millennium - Canada - another.tel (21:1/162)
  • From AKAcastor@21:1/162 to Ben Collver on Wednesday, April 17, 2024 18:20:34
    I use less so much that my muscle memory types 'b' to go back a page.
    In list.com it goes back to the beginning.
    So i remapped 'b' to go back a page.

    Ben, you keep showing me obvious things that I didn't realize I should be doing, like configuring list and less to have the same behaviour.

    I keep catching myself typing 'list' in Linux shells and had thought about creating an alias to 'less', but my slow brain hadn't gotten as far as making them have similar hotkeys. Brilliant!


    Chris/akacastor


    --- Maximus 3.01
    * Origin: Another Millennium - Canada - another.tel (21:1/162)
  • From AKAcastor@21:1/162 to Ben Collver on Wednesday, April 17, 2024 18:25:22
    I've been working on porting OpenBSD ed(1) to DOS. The DJGPP port was a breeze, but the 16-bit port has been a fun challenge and i am not finished yet. :-)

    When i developed code on DOS in the mid 90's, I used Q.EXE now known as the Semware editor, i think.

    These days i tend to use calvin in DOS. It's a lean vi clone that may be too minimal for most folks. XVI is another nice one and i think it has a nice balance between features and minimalism. IIRC, xvi is descended
    from stevie. Someone told me elvis 1.8 on simtelnet is decent, and it is real-mode.

    I recently tried svared and i think they did a fine job
    making that editor.

    Thanks for the great list of suggestions - the only one I've used is QEdit, I have used vi (but never really learned it - I can insert/edit text and exit the editor) but that's it. So maybe its time to try something new here.

    I've been using an old version of QEdit (3.00 from 1994) but I haven't even memorized the hotkeys, I just go through the menus, so I'm not especially efficient when using it.


    Chris/akacastor

    --- Maximus 3.01
    * Origin: Another Millennium - Canada - another.tel (21:1/162)
  • From AKAcastor@21:1/162 to Lynx769 on Wednesday, April 17, 2024 18:32:32
    The only problem was that they scheduled our class in
    the same room and time as the CS2 class. So, guess where
    the teacher spent her time? She would give us projects
    to work on, but we were seniors and not all that
    motivated to complete them.

    Anyway, for one of her "projects," she handed us Peter
    Norton's book and told us to read it. That one I
    completed and thoroughly enjoyed.

    I haven't actually read the book myself, I just know of it by its massive reputation. Reading that must have been a great foundation to keep developing on. Good idea from teacher!


    Chris/akacastor


    --- Maximus 3.01
    * Origin: Another Millennium - Canada - another.tel (21:1/162)
  • From Skylar to Blue White on Wednesday, April 17, 2024 18:37:42
    Re: Re: hello! :DD
    By: Blue White to mary4 on Wed Apr 17 2024 08:06 am

    I started with an 8088 XT (well, actually a TI 99/4A
    I still have the XT and the TI, as well as the 386 and P-120. I think I
    am covered in the vintage department. ;)

    BW, I never had a TI 99/4A. One of my friends did. Between my friends and myself, we were able to try most 8-bit home computers. But none of us had a "PC".

    I do have a working Timex Sinclair 1000... somewhere around here...
  • From Skylar to tenser on Wednesday, April 17, 2024 18:40:53
    Re: Re: Minix
    By: tenser to Skylar on Thu Apr 18 2024 01:56 am

    Probably meant more for someone who would get their hands in the code and fix it themself.

    Tell that to Intel. :-D

    I suspect folks at Intel already know they can fix it. They don't need me to tell them. :D
  • From AKAcastor@21:1/162 to Blue White on Wednesday, April 17, 2024 18:36:36
    I think a 486DX2-66 or similar would open more options up for DOS
    gaming and probably more 32-bit DOS software in general. So I'm still

    IIRC, if it is an SX it is not completely 32-bit. I think that meant 32 bit processor on a 16 bit bus. I suspect you are correct re: a 486 or even a proper 386DX.

    That's my understanding as well.

    I think the limiting factor in bringing these machines to market is the supply of components available, so if we're lucky maybe the developer will find a crate of 486DX2 chips and related chipset somewhere. And/or an open source design they can clone. (like the Book8088 BIOS)


    Chris/akacastor


    --- Maximus 3.01
    * Origin: Another Millennium - Canada - another.tel (21:1/162)
  • From Skylar to Digital Man on Wednesday, April 17, 2024 18:46:34
    Re: Re: hello! :DD
    By: Digital Man to AKAcastor on Wed Apr 17 2024 11:37 am

    I was not a fan of 386 SX systems. My first "development machine" was a 286. After a couple of years, it was replaced with a 386 SX. I do not recall the rated speed of either machine. I remember the 386 SX had a slightly faster clock.

    But I'd swear at that machine at least once a day. I would have been thrilled to get the 286 back!
  • From AKAcastor@21:1/162 to Digital Man on Wednesday, April 17, 2024 18:46:00
    As I recall, 40MHz was a (the most?) popular/common
    clock speed for the AMD variant of the 386 SX
    CPUs/boards. With it's 16-bit data bus, it was a bit of
    a crippled processor, but not an odd duck for the time.

    Interesting! I remember 386SX-16 and 386SX-33 but somehow I blocked 386SX-40 out of my memory. I do remember 386DX-40, not sure why I thought the 40 MHz 386 was the DX version only. I guess I was just lucky enough to not have dealt with many of the 386SX-40 machines (which makes sense, I was pretty young and didn't have access to a huge variety of hardware).

    I wouldn't want to use one today! :-)

    I'll see how this Pocket 386 feels compared to my Macbook Pro. Maybe it'll be an upgrade. ;)


    Chris/akacastor

    --- Maximus 3.01
    * Origin: Another Millennium - Canada - another.tel (21:1/162)
  • From Skylar to Digital Man on Wednesday, April 17, 2024 18:57:53
    Re: hello! :DD
    By: Digital Man to Skylar on Wed Apr 17 2024 11:39 am

    Ditto. Same years, same tools too (started with Commodore BASIC, then Turbo C -> Borland C++, etc.).

    Nice. I "learned" several variants of BASIC. My friends (or my parents friends) had other computers, like TRS Model II (I think?), TRS-80 CoCo, and a TI-99/4A. There may have been others...

    I took the college PL/I class the summer between freshman and sophmore high school.

    My sophmore year of high school, I took a "business computing" class that covered word processing, spreadsheets, and databases. I quite enjoyed writing small db projects in dBase II. :D

    Our school also had a System 32, donated by our town's utility company after their upgrade. The only thing the school could think to do was offer a RPG/II class, which I took the same year. Although I don't think of RPG/II as a language, but alas...

    I discovered Pascal and C on the college VAX. But it was 1989 before I discovered Turbo Pascal and 1990 for Turbo C.
  • From Skylar to AKAcastor on Wednesday, April 17, 2024 19:10:53
    Re: list.com
    By: AKAcastor to Ed Vance on Wed Apr 17 2024 05:40 pm

    Never could make the floppy drive format one of the disks.
    When the test finished I learned the blank disk had been formatted.

    This spirit of experimentation is familiar to me, I can't count how many times over the years I didn't know what I was doing and just TRIED THINGS and stumbled onto a solution for a problem.

    Wow, this brings back memories.

    My first experience was using a Commodore PET in my school's library to play "educational games". The games were loaded from a casette (or dataset in Commodore speak). But I wanted to learn how to create those games...

    I was able to find a book on BASIC and started bringing a cassette tape with me to school. I have no idea how many days I was confused and disappointed because the code that I wrote the day before would not load from the tape.

    I know it took several days for me to figure out that the SAVE command (and record button) was needed *once I was ready to save*. I was typing SAVE, pressing the record button, and then type type type... expecting my program to be written to the tape as I typed it! :D :D :D

    Oh, the things we laugh at now.
  • From Nightfox@21:1/137 to mary4 on Wednesday, April 17, 2024 19:13:52
    Re: Re: list.com
    By: mary4 to poindexter FORTRAN on Thu Apr 18 2024 09:26 am

    qedit works on 16 bit dos?0

    Yes, they did make a QEdit for DOS. Back when I got my first PC in 1992, it was running DOS, and I used QEdit.

    Nightfox
    --- SBBSecho 3.20-Linux
    * Origin: Digital Distortion: digdist.synchro.net (21:1/137)
  • From Nightfox@21:1/137 to AKAcastor on Wednesday, April 17, 2024 19:14:45
    Re: Re: hello! :DD
    By: AKAcastor to Blue White on Wed Apr 17 2024 06:36 pm

    IIRC, if it is an SX it is not completely 32-bit. I think that meant 32
    bit processor on a 16 bit bus. I suspect you are correct re: a 486 or
    even a proper 386DX.

    That's my understanding as well.

    Yes, I remember that being the case as well.

    Nightfox
    --- SBBSecho 3.20-Linux
    * Origin: Digital Distortion: digdist.synchro.net (21:1/137)
  • From Nightfox@21:1/137 to AKAcastor on Wednesday, April 17, 2024 19:16:13
    Re: Re: hello! :DD
    By: AKAcastor to Digital Man on Wed Apr 17 2024 06:46 pm

    Interesting! I remember 386SX-16 and 386SX-33 but somehow I blocked 386SX-40 out of my memory. I do remember 386DX-40, not sure why I thought the 40 MHz 386 was the DX version only. I guess I was just lucky enough

    I only had two 386 setups in the 90s: One was an Intel 386SX-16 and the other was an AMD 386DX-40. My next PC was an AMD am5x86-133 (which was really a 486), and after a little while, I learned it could be safely overclocked to 160mhz by increasing the bus speed from 33mhz to 40mhz.

    Nightfox
    --- SBBSecho 3.20-Linux
    * Origin: Digital Distortion: digdist.synchro.net (21:1/137)
  • From mary4@21:1/166 to Skylar on Thursday, April 18, 2024 12:15:49
    But I'd swear at that machine at least once a day. I would have been thrilled to get the 286 back!

    286 is great isnt it? <3

    --mary4 (Victoria Crenshaw) the 286 enthusiast

    ... Error, no Keyboard - Press F1 to Continue.

    --- 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 Nightfox on Thursday, April 18, 2024 12:21:58
    Yes, they did make a QEdit for DOS. Back when I got my first PC in
    1992, it was running DOS, and I used QEdit.


    ohh!! i need to see

    --mary4 (Victoria Crenshaw) the 286 enthusiast

    ... 640K ought to be enough for anybody. -Bill Gates, 1981.

    --- 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 Skylar on Thursday, April 18, 2024 12:45:17
    thats a cool story! <3

    --mary4 (Victoria Crenshaw) the 286 enthusiast

    ... I put a dollar in one of those change machines. Nothing changed.

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/24 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Datanet BBS | telnet://datanetbbs.net:23 (21:1/166)
  • From AKAcastor@21:1/162 to Poindexter Fortran on Wednesday, April 17, 2024 19:58:44
    Then came the clones - AMD, Cyrix, IBM, and others I've forgotten about
    all came up with their down 486-esque designs. We had problems with
    Windows 3.1 and the Cyrix chips, so the users would trade them for
    Intel 486 boxes and we'd run BSD/OS in the server room on them just
    fine.

    I had a Cyrix 486DLC-40 and it was always great. I remember reading mixed reviews of some of the others and it always seemed so unusual to me because my 486DLC-40 had been great.

    I remember hearing the IBM 486 SLC stood for "SLow Crap".

    Then, the first Pentium/66s showed up and blew them all away. The 486
    era was gone, just like >that<.

    Yep, time to upgrade! If you can't afford anything else, then at least a Pentium Overdrive chip. :)


    Chris/akacastor

    --- Maximus 3.01
    * Origin: Another Millennium - Canada - another.tel (21:1/162)
  • From AKAcastor@21:1/162 to Skylar on Wednesday, April 17, 2024 20:09:48
    My first experience was using a Commodore PET in my
    school's library to play "educational games". The games
    were loaded from a casette (or dataset in Commodore
    speak). But I wanted to learn how to create those games...

    I can relate to this too - using a computer and almost immediately thinking "I want to create these programs. How do I create these programs? I'm going to do this."

    I know it took several days for me to figure out that
    the SAVE command (and record button) was needed *once I
    was ready to save*. I was typing SAVE, pressing the
    record button, and then type type type... expecting my
    program to be written to the tape as I typed it! :D :D :D

    If you type faster you can fit a longer program on the tape!!

    I love how it is simultaneously silly but also logical. Great story.


    Chris/akacastor

    --- Maximus 3.01
    * Origin: Another Millennium - Canada - another.tel (21:1/162)
  • From AKAcastor@21:1/162 to Nightfox on Wednesday, April 17, 2024 20:20:28
    I only had two 386 setups in the 90s: One was an Intel
    386SX-16 and the other was an AMD 386DX-40. My next PC
    was an AMD am5x86-133 (which was really a 486), and
    after a little while, I learned it could be safely
    overclocked to 160mhz by increasing the bus speed from
    33mhz to 40mhz.

    I never had a 5x86, but a little after that I had a Celeron 300 and that was an insanely overclockable chip. I don't remember the numbers for sure, but I think I had it at 450 MHz. Was it stable? Well, I was running Windows 98 - nothing was REALLY stable. :)


    Chris/akacastor

    --- Maximus 3.01
    * Origin: Another Millennium - Canada - another.tel (21:1/162)
  • From mary4@21:1/166 to Nightfox on Thursday, April 18, 2024 17:57:11
    I only had two 386 setups in the 90s: One was an Intel 386SX-16 and the other was an AMD 386DX-40. My next PC was an AMD am5x86-133 (which was really a 486), and after a little while, I learned it could be safely overclocked to 160mhz by increasing the bus speed from 33mhz to 40mhz.

    i over clocked my 486DX5@133mHz to 166mHz too :D

    --mary4 (Victoria Crenshaw) the 286 enthusiast

    ... There are two types of people; those who finish what they start and

    --- 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 AKAcastor on Thursday, April 18, 2024 18:01:18
    Yep, time to upgrade! If you can't afford anything else, then at least a Pentium Overdrive chip. :)

    pentiums are hella modern to me xD
    thats why i advoid them

    --mary4 (Victoria Crenshaw) the 286 enthusiast

    ... I don't have the time for a hobby. I have a computer.

    --- 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 AKAcastor on Thursday, April 18, 2024 18:15:31
    I never had a 5x86, but a little after that I had a Celeron 300 and that was an insanely overclockable chip. I don't remember the numbers for sure, but I think I had it at 450 MHz. Was it stable? Well, I was running Windows 98 - nothing was REALLY stable. :)

    lol

    --mary4 (Victoria Crenshaw) the 286 enthusiast

    ... BREAKFAST.COM Halted... Cereal port not responding.

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/24 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Datanet BBS | telnet://datanetbbs.net:23 (21:1/166)
  • From Lynx769@21:1/158 to Ben Collver on Thursday, April 18, 2024 11:52:19
    My project was to write a game called "Battle Checkers"
    inspired by two other games: Scorched Earth and Battle Chess.

    I loved Battle Chess and Scorched Earth both. I recently came across a retro DOS game archiving project called "eXoDos" and it had both of those in it. I loaded up Scorched Earth and actually got my kids to play a game with me. I was a lot of fun.

    We played quite a bit of Scorched Earth duing CS3.

    These systems were running DOS 3 and had Hercules Graphics.
    I was using Borland Turbo Basic, which did not have built-in
    support for Hercules. My teacher gave me a book with the PC
    memory map and i disassembled programs to figure out how to
    drive it. Then i wrote graphics routines in ASM that i
    called from BASIC. I also wrote a keyboard-based pixel art

    That's seriously impressive and far beyond what I was able to accomplish, but then I've always been more interested in building the hardware than coding.

    Unfortunately, though i was proud of this, i had backed it up
    on floppies, and those floppies were destroyed while in
    storage. I no longer have any of that code.

    That's a shame. Last year I came across my name on a wiki of OS/2 software. I completely forgot that I wrote a little random tagline generator and the program and the file of taglines were still available on an OS/2 archive site. I was able to download it and put it in my archive.

    It's true that anything you put on the Internet is forever.


    -- Lachlan

    ... THE fIRST sTEP iS tO tAKE oFF tHE cAPS lOCK

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2023/04/30 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: thE qUAntUm wOrmhOlE, rAmsgAtE, uK. bbs.erb.pw (21:1/158)
  • From Skylar to AKAcastor on Thursday, April 18, 2024 05:24:22
    Re: list.com
    By: AKAcastor to Skylar on Wed Apr 17 2024 08:09 pm

    If you type faster you can fit a longer program on the tape!!

    Ha! That never occurred to me. :)
  • From tenser@21:1/101 to Skylar on Friday, April 19, 2024 00:30:46
    On 17 Apr 2024 at 06:40p, Skylar pondered and said...

    I suspect folks at Intel already know they can fix it. They don't need
    me to tell them. :D

    The joke was that there have been several very high-profile
    bugs in the ME; not due to Minix per se, but rather due to
    code that Intel wrote.

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)
  • From Blue White@21:4/134 to Skylar on Thursday, April 18, 2024 08:02:01
    BW, I never had a TI 99/4A. One of my friends did. Between my friends
    and
    myself, we were able to try most 8-bit home computers. But none of us
    had a "PC".

    Yeah, I had the TI. Other friends had the C64 so I got to try both. I
    never got to try any of the more obscure ones, though.



    --- Talisman v0.53-dev (Linux/armv7l)
    * Origin: possumso.fsxnet.nz * telnet:24/ssh:2122/ftelnet:80 (21:4/134)
  • From Blue White@21:4/134 to AKAcastor on Thursday, April 18, 2024 08:05:07
    Interesting! I remember 386SX-16 and 386SX-33 but somehow I blocked 386SX-40 out of my memory. I do remember 386DX-40, not sure why I
    thought the 40 MHz 386 was the DX version only. I guess I was just
    lucky enough to not have dealt with many of the 386SX-40 machines
    (which makes sense, I was pretty young and didn't have access to a
    huge variety of hardware).

    I don't remember the SX-40, either. I do remember the DX-40 as I had
    one. That said, I didn't really pay much attention to what the machines
    were I was using (in college) before the DX era so there could have
    certainly been plenty that I didn't know about then.


    --- Talisman v0.53-dev (Linux/armv7l)
    * Origin: possumso.fsxnet.nz * telnet:24/ssh:2122/ftelnet:80 (21:4/134)
  • From mary4@21:1/166 to Lynx769 on Thursday, April 18, 2024 23:19:07
    My project was to write a game called "Battle Checkers"
    inspired by two other games: Scorched Earth and Battle Chess.

    I loved Battle Chess and Scorched Earth both. I recently came across a retro DOS game archiving project called "eXoDos" and it had both of
    those in it. I loaded up Scorched Earth and actually got my kids to play
    a game with me. I was a lot of fun.

    We played quite a bit of Scorched Earth duing CS3.

    i should get this game and battle chess
    These systems were running DOS 3 and had Hercules Graphics.
    I was using Borland Turbo Basic, which did not have built-in
    support for Hercules. My teacher gave me a book with the PC
    memory map and i disassembled programs to figure out how to
    drive it. Then i wrote graphics routines in ASM that i
    called from BASIC. I also wrote a keyboard-based pixel art

    That's seriously impressive and far beyond what I was able to
    accomplish, but then I've always been more interested in building the hardware than coding.

    i can code too! i just dont have the time right now
    Unfortunately, though i was proud of this, i had backed it up
    on floppies, and those floppies were destroyed while in
    storage. I no longer have any of that code.

    That's a shame. Last year I came across my name on a wiki of OS/2 software. I completely forgot that I wrote a little random tagline generator and the program and the file of taglines were still available
    on an OS/2 archive site. I was able to download it and put it in my archive.

    f
    i use climate controlled storage floppy are sensitive to heat
    It's true that anything you put on the Internet is forever.

    true

    --mary4 (Victoria Crenshaw) the 286 enthusiast

    ... I don't have the time for a hobby. I have a computer.

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/24 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Datanet BBS | telnet://datanetbbs.net:23 (21:1/166)
  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to Blue White on Thursday, April 18, 2024 06:52:00
    Blue White wrote to AKAcastor <=-

    IIRC, if it is an SX it is not completely 32-bit. I think that meant
    32 bit processor on a 16 bit bus. I suspect you are correct re: a 486
    or even a proper 386DX.

    I don't know if this is the case with the new DOS handheld, but Intel
    made a super low power 386sx for mobile back then - of course power
    consumption of any chip pales in comparison to modern systems.

    Interesting note I read while wiki-ing this - Windows 95 and Windows NT
    3.51 supported the 386 line of processors. 98 and NT 4 required a 486.



    ... Don't bite the hand that feeds you WiFi.
    --- MultiMail/Win v0.52
    * Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)
  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to Blue White on Thursday, April 18, 2024 06:52:00
    Blue White wrote to Ed Vance <=-

    LIST.com written by (IIRC) Vernon Berg.

    Yep, that is the one. I still use it often in my DOSemu sessions.

    Yep, list and Xtree were my UI back in the DOS days.




    ... A NEW LIFE AWAITS YOU IN THE OFF-WORLD COLONIES!
    --- MultiMail/Win v0.52
    * Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)
  • From Nightfox@21:1/137 to mary4 on Thursday, April 18, 2024 09:45:35
    Re: Re: hello! :DD
    By: mary4 to Nightfox on Thu Apr 18 2024 05:57 pm

    I only had two 386 setups in the 90s: One was an Intel 386SX-16 and the
    other was an AMD 386DX-40. My next PC was an AMD am5x86-133 (which was
    really a 486), and after a little while, I learned it could be safely
    overclocked to 160mhz by increasing the bus speed from 33mhz to 40mhz.

    i over clocked my 486DX5@133mHz to 166mHz too :D

    It was actually a DX4 (I hadn't heard of a DX5), and it was overclocked to 160, not 166.

    Nightfox
    --- SBBSecho 3.20-Linux
    * Origin: Digital Distortion: digdist.synchro.net (21:1/137)
  • From Nightfox@21:1/137 to tenser on Thursday, April 18, 2024 09:51:36
    Re: Re: Minix
    By: tenser to Skylar on Fri Apr 19 2024 12:30 am

    The joke was that there have been several very high-profile bugs in the ME; not due to Minix per se, but rather due to code that Intel wrote.

    I worked at Intel for a little over 8 years. I was in a team working on security software, and one component of the first project I worked on with them used the Intel ME. It was interesting to learn about that stuff.. Later, the team worked on some software using Intel's SGX (Software Guard Extensions), which I heard also had some security flaws and was later discontinued.

    Nightfox
    --- SBBSecho 3.20-Linux
    * Origin: Digital Distortion: digdist.synchro.net (21:1/137)
  • From Ben Collver@21:1/149 to AKAcastor on Thursday, April 18, 2024 10:34:55
    Re: hello! :DD
    By: AKAcastor to Ben Collver on Wed Apr 17 2024 06:20 pm

    Ben, you keep showing me obvious things that I didn't realize I should
    be doing, like configuring list and less to have the same behaviour.

    :-) Thanks for writing so.

    I was stuck home sick one time, and kept getting annoyed by the 'b'
    thing in list.com, so i had a go at it.

    Seek and destroy all annoyances ;)
    --- SBBSecho 3.14-Win32
    * Origin: The Fool's Quarter, fqbbs.synchro.net (21:1/149)
  • From AKAcastor@21:1/162 to Poindexter Fortran on Thursday, April 18, 2024 11:29:16
    I don't know if this is the case with the new DOS handheld, but Intel
    made a super low power 386sx for mobile back then - of course power consumption of any chip pales in comparison to modern systems.

    I don't know to what extent its designed for low power (if that was the main goal, or just a side effect), but the ALi M6117 386SX does claim to be low power. ("The internal structure of this core is 32-bit data and address bus with very low supply current, 116 mA in the conditions of 5.0V, 20MHz, room temperature.")

    The M6117D is a highly integrated, low voltage, single-chip mplementation of Intel 386SX compatible microprocessor plus ALi M1217B chipset.

    specs from: https://theretroweb.com/chip/documentation/m6117d-6454b7cbef102095220558.pdf

    I haven't gone through a full battery charge in the Pocket 386 yet so I can't speak to its battery life.

    Interesting note I read while wiki-ing this - Windows 95 and Windows NT 3.51 supported the 386 line of processors. 98 and NT 4 required a 486.

    That is interesting - I had no idea that Windows 98 or NT 4 required a 486+. Although I guess I wouldn't have wanted to try them on a 386 back in the day anyway - painful enough on the 486.


    Chris/akacastor

    --- Maximus 3.01
    * Origin: Another Millennium - Canada - another.tel (21:1/162)
  • From tenser@21:1/101 to Nightfox on Friday, April 19, 2024 08:19:12
    On 18 Apr 2024 at 09:51a, Nightfox pondered and said...

    Re: Re: Minix
    By: tenser to Skylar on Fri Apr 19 2024 12:30 am

    The joke was that there have been several very high-profile bugs in t ME; not due to Minix per se, but rather due to code that Intel wrote.

    I worked at Intel for a little over 8 years. I was in a team working on security software, and one component of the first project I worked on
    with them used the Intel ME. It was interesting to learn about that stuff.. Later, the team worked on some software using Intel's SGX (Software Guard Extensions), which I heard also had some security flaws and was later discontinued.

    The bug I was thinking of was rather pedestrian, and was in
    the built-in web server. It validated a user-supplied password
    against one that was stored somewhere (presumably flash or some
    kind of NVRAM). The code was basically,

    if (strncmp(pass, userpass, strlen(userpass)) == 0) {
    return SUCCESS;
    } else {
    return FAILURE;
    }

    The bug, of course, is constraining to the length of the user
    supplied password; the effect was that entering _no_ password
    automatically authenticated the password (empty strings always
    compare equal). The fix is to read the user password into a
    pre-zeroed buffer the same size as `pass` and then compare.

    The issue with SGX was that it was easy to break out of the
    enclave. Whoops.

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)
  • From Digital Man to Nightfox on Thursday, April 18, 2024 13:20:40
    Re: Re: Minix
    By: Nightfox to tenser on Thu Apr 18 2024 09:51 am

    Re: Re: Minix
    By: tenser to Skylar on Fri Apr 19 2024 12:30 am

    The joke was that there have been several very high-profile bugs in the ME; not due to Minix per se, but rather due to code that Intel wrote.

    I worked at Intel for a little over 8 years. I was in a team working on security software, and one component of the first project I worked on with them used the Intel ME. It was interesting to learn about that stuff.. Later, the team worked on some software using Intel's SGX (Software Guard Extensions), which I heard also had some security flaws and was later discontinued.

    I worked at Broadcom for 16 years and a large part of that time was in charge of the TruManage (Deuce is actually the one that came up with that name) project that competed with Intel AMT/vPro for embedded system management solutions (i.e. ASF, DASH, SMASH, IPMI/DCMI, etc.) for client systems and low-end servers. Intel was our biggest competitor and they were able to use system main memory and hide their die-cost in the rest of the chipset, so we were at a disadvantage on Intel platforms, but had virtually all the AMD platform marketshare for a long time. Intel also played dirty in the standards body (DMTF), using their position of power over their customers to win votes and vote-down enhancements to management standards they had abandoned. The Broadcom system management controller (AKA "BMC") was integrated into our network controllers (BCM57xxx) and was a very fun embedded supervisory system with a lot of power and control over the entire system.
    --
    digital man (rob)

    This Is Spinal Tap quote #18:
    Sustain, listen to it. Don't hear anything. You would though were it playing. Norco, CA WX: 75.1°F, 31.0% humidity, 1 mph SSW wind, 0.00 inches rain/24hrs
  • From Nightfox@21:1/137 to tenser on Thursday, April 18, 2024 14:58:41
    Re: Re: Minix
    By: tenser to Nightfox on Fri Apr 19 2024 08:19 am

    The bug I was thinking of was rather pedestrian, and was in the built-in web server. It validated a user-supplied password against one that was stored somewhere (presumably flash or some kind of NVRAM). The code was basically,

    if (strncmp(pass, userpass, strlen(userpass)) == 0) {
    return SUCCESS;
    } else {
    return FAILURE;
    }

    The bug, of course, is constraining to the length of the user supplied password; the effect was that entering _no_ password automatically authenticated the password (empty strings always compare equal). The fix is to read the user password into a pre-zeroed buffer the same size as `pass` and then compare.

    Whoops.. Honestly that might be a bug I might miss on first glance. Gotta be careful about that kind of thing sometimes and always be thinking of how the various library functions work and what could go wrong.

    The issue with SGX was that it was easy to break out of the enclave. Whoops.

    Doh!

    On a side note, I know sales of movies & TV shows on blu-rays & such have dropped, and a lot of people aren't playing them on computers these days, but I always thought it was interesting how it was still possible to play blu-ray discs on a PC with certain restrictions - You had to use certain software and have your PC set up correctly with all the drivers working, etc. to enable the copy protection in software when playing optical discs. I was reading into what the requirements were to play 4K blu-ray discs on a PC, and I thought it was a bit crazy - Among other things, you had to be using an Intel PC because the software used SGX, and also using Intel's internal video in order for the copy protection to be fully enabled and allow playback from disc to work. The requirement for Intel internal video meant that if you're using a dedicated video card (Nvidia or AMD), then your PC wouldn't be able to play 4K blu-ray discs. AMD PCs were out of the question. Now that Intel's SGX is discontinued, 4K blu-ray disc playback on a PC just no longer works. Of course, you can still rip the discs on any PC using disc ripping software, and then play the ripped video files.

    Nightfox
    --- SBBSecho 3.20-Linux
    * Origin: Digital Distortion: digdist.synchro.net (21:1/137)
  • From Nightfox@21:1/137 to Digital Man on Thursday, April 18, 2024 15:00:38
    Re: Re: Minix
    By: Digital Man to Nightfox on Thu Apr 18 2024 01:20 pm

    I worked at Broadcom for 16 years and a large part of that time was in charge of the TruManage (Deuce is actually the one that came up with that name) project that competed with Intel AMT/vPro for embedded system management solutions (i.e. ASF, DASH, SMASH, IPMI/DCMI, etc.) for client systems and low-end servers. Intel was our biggest competitor and they were able to use system main memory and hide their die-cost in the rest of the chipset, so we were at a disadvantage on Intel platforms, but had virtually all the AMD platform marketshare for a long time. Intel also played dirty in the standards body (DMTF), using their position of power over their customers to win votes and vote-down enhancements to management standards they had abandoned. The Broadcom system management controller (AKA "BMC") was integrated into our network controllers (BCM57xxx) and was a very fun embedded supervisory system with a lot of power and control over the entire system.

    That's cool about Deuce coming up with that name. And I'm not really surprised about Intel trying to use their position to play dirty with the standards body.

    Nightfox
    --- SBBSecho 3.20-Linux
    * Origin: Digital Distortion: digdist.synchro.net (21:1/137)
  • From Skylar to tenser on Thursday, April 18, 2024 18:14:21
    Re: Re: Minix
    By: tenser to Skylar on Fri Apr 19 2024 12:30 am

    The joke was that there have been several very high-profile
    bugs in the ME; not due to Minix per se, but rather due to
    code that Intel wrote.

    Ah... all news to me. I didn't even know Intel used Minix. ;)
  • From Skylar to Blue White on Thursday, April 18, 2024 18:22:32
    Re: Re: hello! :DD
    By: Blue White to Skylar on Thu Apr 18 2024 08:02 am

    Yeah, I had the TI. Other friends had the C64 so I got to try both. I never got to try any of the more obscure ones, though.

    The summer that I turned 10, I bought my first computer with money I earned that summer. I waited for it to go on sale and got my VIC-20 at K-Mart for $79.

    But I remember walking past a Coleco Adam and thinking it looked a lot "cooler" than the VIC-20. I didn't have enough money for an Adam though. And I'm thankful that I didn't. ;)

    That Christmas, my father bought a Commodore 64 for the "family". Yeah!
  • From Skylar to Ben Collver on Thursday, April 18, 2024 18:37:14
    Re: hello! :DD
    By: Ben Collver to Skylar on Tue Apr 16 2024 07:46 pm

    Wow, developing multi-media educational apps back in the DOS days.
    That was cutting edge...

    It was both fun and frustrating. :D We decided to use C++, before the first ANSI standard was finalized. We had to modify our code each time we upgraded the compiler.

    I got to know the DOS interupts very well. Ralf Brown's Interrupt List was a frequent reference. I implemented code to play music and digital audio (recorded voice work) using Soundblaster cards. I wrote my first software installer. And when we were ready to beta test, we bought a CDR recorder, which were $1,500 US (for a cheap one) at the time.

    Lots of "firsts" for me at that job. ;)
  • From Ed Vance@21:1/175 to AKAcastor on Thursday, April 18, 2024 21:50:53
    I don't have the XP box near me right now
    IIRC "send to" is a right click option.
    I right click a file in Windows Explorer, select send to, then select List to get a looksee at a file I am interested in knowing whats what about it.

    Something else I do is use CTRL u on a Firefox Tab to see the innerds.
    Learned that from a BBS user some time ago.

    Learned lots of stuff from signing on a BBS. THANKS ALL.

    Another thingy I learned is to use the mouse wheel while holding a CTRL key down to change the size of the font on a page.
    CTRL +. and CTRL - does that too, but not in as fine increments as the mouse wheel method.

    It doesn't work in all kinds of files but does for PDF's and in Firefox.

    It makes reading very tiny script easy to read by enlarging what is on the screen.

    Ed
    --- SBBSecho 3.20-Linux
    * Origin: capitolcityonline.net * Telnet/SSH:2022/HTTP (21:1/175)
  • From AKAcastor@21:1/162 to Ed Vance on Thursday, April 18, 2024 20:35:04
    I right click a file in Windows Explorer, select send to, then select EV> List to get a looksee at a file I am interested in knowing whats what EV> about it.

    That's a nice setup, quick and easy way to take a peek and see what the file looks like. Good use of "Send to" - I've rarely made use of that feature myself.

    Another thingy I learned is to use the mouse wheel while holding a CTRL EV> key down to change the size of the font on a page.
    CTRL +. and CTRL - does that too, but not in as fine
    increments as the mouse wheel method.

    I use this ALL THE TIME. It seems like everything opens up either a little too small or waaay to big. Resizing text is maybe the most frequent action I take when using a computer.

    It was simpler in DOS - when we wanted the text a different size we bought a bigger monitor! ;)


    Chris/akacastor


    --- Maximus 3.01
    * Origin: Another Millennium - Canada - another.tel (21:1/162)
  • From mary4@21:1/166 to Skylar on Friday, April 19, 2024 22:49:26
    The summer that I turned 10, I bought my first computer with money I earned that summer. I waited for it to go on sale and got my VIC-20 at K-Mart for $79.

    But I remember walking past a Coleco Adam and thinking it looked a lot "cooler" than the VIC-20. I didn't have enough money for an Adam though. And I'm thankful that I didn't. ;)

    That Christmas, my father bought a Commodore 64 for the "family". Yeah!
    i always lkike your stories! :D

    --mary4 (Victoria Crenshaw) the 286 enthusiast

    ... Help! I can't find the "ANY" key.

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/24 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Datanet BBS | telnet://datanetbbs.net:23 (21:1/166)
  • From Blue White@21:4/134 to Skylar on Friday, April 19, 2024 08:30:00
    Yeah, I had the TI. Other friends had the C64 so I got to try
    both. I
    never got to try any of the more obscure ones, though.

    The summer that I turned 10, I bought my first computer with money I
    earned that summer. I waited for it to go on sale and got my VIC-20 at K-Mart for $79.

    That Christmas, my father bought a Commodore 64 for the "family".
    Yeah!

    That is neat that you had both in the house at the same time. I didn't
    really remember the Adam. It is something I learned about later while
    reading retro computer articles (and probably on the BBS networks!).



    --- Talisman v0.53-dev (Linux/armv7l)
    * Origin: possumso.fsxnet.nz * telnet:24/ssh:2122/ftelnet:80 (21:4/134)
  • From Ed Vance@21:1/175 to AKAcastor on Friday, April 19, 2024 09:46:28
    "Bigger Monitor"
    OUCH!!!!!!!!

    In 1994 when I ordered the 486DX33 built, I asked the Builder to get a 15" MAG Innovation monitor for the system.
    The 15" 'er was priced at $535 USD back then in Computer Shopper's Magazine. MAG's 17" 'er was priced at +$700 bucks then.
    I had seen 17" Monitors at the Service Merchandise store and drooled at the size of the screen.

    The 15" MAG did me just fine though
    Years after I got the XP in (IIRC) 2006, Office Depot store nearby priced a HP 19" LCD (I think LCD not LED) Monitor for $200 USD's I replaced the MAG CRT with the HP.
    I'm satisfied with that monitor.
    It is BIGGER than 17", and cost less than I paid for the MAG 15" .

    The 6 point something inch screen on this phone (Motorola g play 2023) looks to me better than the screens on the smaller Cellphones.
    I turned Auto Rotate on so the image of the Keyboard looks larger.
    The longer span of Keys helps Me not have to tap the <x| Button as often.

    It's tolerable, at least I can Communicate with others on this BBS.
    Ed
    --- SBBSecho 3.20-Linux
    * Origin: capitolcityonline.net * Telnet/SSH:2022/HTTP (21:1/175)
  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to Nightfox on Friday, April 19, 2024 06:31:00
    Nightfox wrote to tenser <=-

    On a side note, I know sales of movies & TV shows on blu-rays & such
    have dropped, and a lot of people aren't playing them on computers
    these days, but I always thought it was interesting how it was still possible to play blu-ray discs on a PC with certain restrictions


    On a side-side note, my family has a cabin without internet access -
    it's up near Lake Tahoe, and we're out in the middle of nowhere.

    We've been carting DVDs back and forth, leaving a few up there.

    I found an LG Blu-Ray player at my local thrift store for $30.
    Interesting. Noted a USB port on the front. I'm listening...

    Did some research at the store on my phone and found out it can play
    movies from a USB stick. The next time I'm going up there, I'm taking a
    half-terabyte of movies and TV shows with me...

    If you don't have access to the internet, bring the internet with you.


    ... Where is the edge?
    --- MultiMail/Win v0.52
    * Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)
  • From AKAcastor@21:1/162 to Ed Vance on Friday, April 19, 2024 10:52:50
    The 15" 'er was priced at $535 USD back then in Computer Shopper's Magazine. MAG's 17" 'er was priced at +$700 bucks then.
    I had seen 17" Monitors at the Service Merchandise store and drooled at the size of the screen.

    Oh boy monitors used to be expensive didn't they! I don't remember for sure if the monitor on my 486 was 15" or 14", I used it for several years though until around 2000 when I got a 17" LCD and never went back to CRT after that. That first LCD was pretty expensive, but they dropped price relatively quickly as far as this stuff goes.

    I currently have a pair of HP 38" widescreen curved monitors on my desk and it's absolutely ridiculous. Sitting at a big desk and the screens stick out past both sides of the desk! One of these screens would be great, but the company I contracted for sent me two screens so I felt the need to set them both up for ultimate overkill. ;)

    The 6 point something inch screen on this phone
    (Motorola g play 2023) looks to
    me better than the screens on the smaller Cellphones.
    I turned Auto Rotate on so the image of the Keyboard looks larger.
    The longer span of Keys helps Me not have to tap the <x| Button as often.

    It's tolerable, at least I can Communicate with others on this BBS.

    We've come a long way, now with communication devices in our pocket that link us to BBSes almost anywhere we go! In the early 90s I thought it would be amazing to have a cellular modem and laptop to connect to BBSes from anywhere -I never did get to dial in over a cell connection, but now I have a terminal app on my phone and don't even need the laptop to connect to BBSes. It's kinda great, but also I miss going out and being disconnected. Access to BBSes from anywhere = great, access to internet from anywhere = too much!


    Chris/akacastor


    --- Maximus 3.01
    * Origin: Another Millennium - Canada - another.tel (21:1/162)
  • From mary4@21:1/166 to AKAcastor on Saturday, April 20, 2024 08:53:49
    i still prefer crts!

    --mary4 (Victoria Crenshaw) the 286 enthusiast

    ... Redundant book title: DOS For Dummies

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/24 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Datanet BBS | telnet://datanetbbs.net:23 (21:1/166)
  • From Skylar to Blue White on Friday, April 19, 2024 18:30:18
    Re: Early 80s Home Computing
    By: Blue White to Skylar on Fri Apr 19 2024 08:30 am

    That is neat that you had both in the house at the same time.

    I didn't actually. My Vic-20 stayed at mom's house. ;-)

    5 years later, mom bought me a C128. By then, most of my friends that were as geeky as I was were buying Amigas. (Most of my friends were older than me.)
  • From Tiny@21:1/700 to POINDEXTER FORTRAN on Saturday, April 20, 2024 07:12:00
    Quoting Poindexter Fortran to Nightfox <=-

    Did some research at the store on my phone and found out it can play movies from a USB stick. The next time I'm going up there, I'm taking
    a half-terabyte of movies and TV shows with me...

    Take a smaller device just in case. Our DVD player with the USB port works great but I have to plug a stick in that's less then 40GB or it won't work.
    We use a 32gb stick and it works great.

    If you don't have access to the internet, bring the internet with
    you.

    Yes! ;)

    Shawn

    ... Forgetfulness is a form of freedom.
    --- SBBSecho 3.20-Linux
    * Origin: _thePharcyde telnet://bbs.pharcyde.org (Wisconsin) (21:1/700)
  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to Tiny on Saturday, April 20, 2024 11:48:00
    Tiny wrote to POINDEXTER FORTRAN <=-

    Quoting Poindexter Fortran to Nightfox <=-

    Did some research at the store on my phone and found out it can play movies from a USB stick. The next time I'm going up there, I'm taking
    a half-terabyte of movies and TV shows with me...

    Take a smaller device just in case. Our DVD player with the USB port works great but I have to plug a stick in that's less then 40GB or it won't work. We use a 32gb stick and it works great.

    I plugged in a 512gb USB stick and a 1TB HDD and both worked great!
    They need to be exfat or FAT32, no NTFS (so no movies over 4gb each)



    ... Onward, to meatspace!
    --- MultiMail/Win v0.52
    * Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)
  • From Tiny@21:1/700 to POINDEXTER FORTRAN on Sunday, April 21, 2024 07:30:00
    Quoting Poindexter Fortran to Tiny <=-

    I plugged in a 512gb USB stick and a 1TB HDD and both worked great!
    They need to be exfat or FAT32, no NTFS (so no movies over 4gb each)

    Nice! This one works good enough for the woods when we go, and Andrea
    still lugs DVD's back and forth for those rainy days or evening when the
    bugs are too bothersome to sit outside.

    Shawn

    ... I'm going doooown! Has anyone seen my upper arrow?
    --- SBBSecho 3.20-Linux
    * Origin: _thePharcyde telnet://bbs.pharcyde.org (Wisconsin) (21:1/700)
  • From Adept@21:2/108 to Digital Man on Tuesday, April 23, 2024 16:12:07
    processor cores at gigahertz speeds. You have to run some old piece of crap from the 1980's to really impress us! ;-)

    It's interesting to think that everything from the last century is now "classic" in antiques terms.

    And, yeah, generally the cheapest stuff is stuff that's somewhat outdated. Thus why computers from 2017 are barely functional and questionable if anyone wants them, but computers from the 1980s and 1990s are something collectible.

    Though not by me, I think. Even my hand held gaming collection ended up at my brother's place, and I went down that route because, sheesh, you can get a _lot_ of systems and games into small spaces that way.

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Storm BBS (21:2/108)
  • From Adept@21:2/108 to AKAcastor on Tuesday, April 23, 2024 16:16:30
    Haha! You're right, a dozen cores running at gigahertz speeds sounds downright boring these days.

    But how else are you going to have maximum particle effects while watching high-end demos?!?!?

    ...of course, it's really the video card that's the impressive thing, these days, given that they're the majority of cost when building a new high-end system.

    On the other hand, I know that most people use these systems for either high-end gaming or cryptocurrency mining, and _that_ sounds boring.

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Storm BBS (21:2/108)
  • From mary4@21:1/166 to Adept on Wednesday, April 24, 2024 03:44:18
    It's interesting to think that everything from the last century is now "classic" in antiques terms.

    fug that means i am classic xD
    And, yeah, generally the cheapest stuff is stuff that's somewhat
    outdated. Thus why computers from 2017 are barely functional and questionable if anyone wants them, but computers from the 1980s and
    1990s are something collectible.

    yes! :3
    Though not by me, I think. Even my hand held gaming collection ended up
    at my brother's place, and I went down that route because, sheesh, you
    can get a _lot_ of systems and games into small spaces that way.


    yeah

    --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 mary4@21:1/166 to Adept on Wednesday, April 24, 2024 03:52:36
    On the other hand, I know that most people use these systems for either high-end gaming or cryptocurrency mining, and _that_ sounds boring.


    that IS boring!

    --mary4 (Victoria Crenshaw) the 286 enthusiast

    ... (A)bort, (R)etry, (I)nfluence with large hammer.

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/24 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Datanet BBS | telnet://datanetbbs.net:23 (21:1/166)
  • From Ed Vance@21:1/175 to Blue White on Tuesday, April 23, 2024 14:40:17
    Where I worked, my section first got a 'hand me down' 8088 XT Clone when our boss got a 286.
    When the boss got a 386, the 286 came our way.

    My section used those PCs to send Morning and Evening reports to another office.
    Myself, I thought the 286 seemed slower saving downloads than the 8088 clone had.
    The 286 had a faster CPU and bigger Harddrive, but to me I wasn't as comfortable using it as I was with the first computer we used.

    Later again, the 386 was put on our desk.

    I was using the Commodore 64 system at home while learning to use DOS at work on those 3 computers.
    My first DOS PC at home had DOS 5.0 , I couldn't get interested in wanting the early release's of DOS 6 .
    But that's Me.

    Ed
    --- SBBSecho 3.20-Linux
    * Origin: capitolcityonline.net * Telnet/SSH:2022/HTTP (21:1/175)
  • From Ed Vance@21:1/175 to apam on Tuesday, April 23, 2024 14:55:42
    K&R BASIC was an Educational Tool until the founders of Micro Soft gave it a (C) and TM and sought Licenses for their BASIC.

    Ed
    --- SBBSecho 3.20-Linux
    * Origin: capitolcityonline.net * Telnet/SSH:2022/HTTP (21:1/175)
  • From Ed Vance@21:1/175 to mary4 on Tuesday, April 23, 2024 14:56:11
    --- SBBSecho 3.20-Linux
    * Origin: capitolcityonline.net * Telnet/SSH:2022/HTTP (21:1/175)
  • From Ed Vance@21:1/175 to mary4 on Tuesday, April 23, 2024 14:58:53
    Sorry, tapped wrong area on this phone.
    Last message to You was same as My I.Q. ZERO.
    Ed
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  • From mary4@21:1/166 to Ed Vance on Wednesday, April 24, 2024 09:15:48
    Where I worked, my section first got a 'hand me down' 8088 XT Clone when our boss got a 286.
    When the boss got a 386, the 286 came our way.

    My section used those PCs to send Morning and Evening reports to another office.
    Myself, I thought the 286 seemed slower saving downloads than the 8088 clone had.
    The 286 had a faster CPU and bigger Harddrive, but to me I wasn't as comfortable using it as I was with the first computer we used.

    Later again, the 386 was put on our desk.

    I was using the Commodore 64 system at home while learning to use DOS at work on those 3 computers.
    My first DOS PC at home had DOS 5.0 , I couldn't get interested in wanting the early release's of DOS 6 .
    But that's Me.

    nice story!
    :DDD what u think of the 286?

    --mary4 (Victoria Crenshaw) the 286 enthusiast

    ... This virus requires Microsoft Windows 3.x

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  • From mary4@21:1/166 to Ed Vance on Wednesday, April 24, 2024 09:17:47
    Sorry, tapped wrong area on this phone.
    Last message to You was same as My I.Q. ZERO.
    Ed

    lol it's a okay! :D :3

    --mary4 (Victoria Crenshaw) the 286 enthusiast

    ... Radioactive cats have 18 half-lives

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  • From Blue White@21:4/134 to Ed Vance on Wednesday, April 24, 2024 08:15:21
    My first DOS PC at home had DOS 5.0 , I couldn't get interested in
    wanting the
    early release's of DOS 6 .
    But that's Me.

    IIRC, the early versions of DOS 6 were not a big improvement over DOS 5.0
    and were actually buggy. I did not make any quick moves to upgrade from
    5 to 6, either, staying with 5 until well after the release of DOS 6.22.
    I had the benefit of upgrading systems where I worked and seeing what the various flavors of DOS 6 did (or didn't) do, and 6.22 seemed fairly
    stable.


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  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to Blue White on Wednesday, April 24, 2024 07:17:00
    Blue White wrote to Ed Vance <=-

    IIRC, the early versions of DOS 6 were not a big improvement over DOS
    5.0 and were actually buggy.

    Buggy in a serious way -- early disk compression software had some
    serious issues and ate filesystems occasionally.

    I remember the AddStor/Stacker/Doublespace/Drivespace days well. Tried
    running the BBS with Superstor for a while, worked OK - especially since
    my co-sysop worked in QA there, so I had top-notch access to tech
    support. :)




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  • From Nightfox@21:1/137 to poindexter FORTRAN on Wednesday, April 24, 2024 09:44:58
    Re: Re: Early PCs
    By: poindexter FORTRAN to Blue White on Wed Apr 24 2024 07:17 am

    IIRC, the early versions of DOS 6 were not a big improvement over DOS 5.0
    and were actually buggy.

    Buggy in a serious way -- early disk compression software had some serious issues and ate filesystems occasionally.

    Also, I remember hearing about a lawsuit against Microsoft because they apparently used code from another product (I believe it was Stacker) for their DoubleSpace disk compression software. Microsoft removed DoubleSpace in MS-DOS 6.21, and then added DriveSpace in MS-DOS 6.22, from what I recall.

    Nightfox
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  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to Nightfox on Wednesday, April 24, 2024 09:57:15
    Re: Re: Early PCs
    By: Nightfox to poindexter FORTRAN on Wed Apr 24 2024 09:44 am

    Also, I remember hearing about a lawsuit against Microsoft because they apparently used code from another product (I believe it was Stacker) for their DoubleSpace disk compression software. Microsoft removed DoubleSpace in MS-DOS 6.21, and then added DriveSpace in MS-DOS 6.22, from what I recall.

    Yep, they did the old brain-drain thing. Start talks to acquire STAC, and while in negotiation, snarf enough data on the product to create your own product.

    If I'm not mistaken, DriveSpace was essentially DoubleSpace 2.0, with improvements and the STAC-suspicious code removed. Microsoft gets a jump on their 1.0 product, pays a slap on the wrist to STAC, then kills the marketplace with their own free product. Sounds Familiar...
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  • From Spectre@21:3/101 to poindexter FORTRAN on Thursday, April 25, 2024 06:54:00
    I remember the AddStor/Stacker/Doublespace/Drivespace days well. Tried running the BBS with Superstor for a while, worked OK - especially since


    We had people here trying to flog systems with "160Mb" HDs in them, which for the most part turned out to be 80Mb MFM's that had compression added. Back
    when 160Mb was still a large drive..

    Spec


    *** THE READER V4.50 [freeware]
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  • From AKAcastor@21:1/162 to Spectre on Wednesday, April 24, 2024 14:44:26
    We had people here trying to flog systems with "160Mb"
    HDs in them, which for
    the most part turned out to be 80Mb MFM's that had compression added. Back when 160Mb was still a large drive..

    There definitely were plenty of PC sellers from the school of used car sales in those times! A heyday for that type.

    The 'big' disks, due to compression, didn't work out so well for making more space for BBS file downloads! (amongst other issues, of course)

    Disk compression was rather ... underwhelming ... when storing a bunch of .ZIP files. :)

    Honestly though, the times I used DriveSpace and it didn't destroy all my data, it did seem like magic - more disk space for FREE!


    Chris/akacastor

    --- Maximus 3.01
    * Origin: Another Millennium - Canada - another.tel (21:1/162)
  • From Nightfox@21:1/137 to AKAcastor on Wednesday, April 24, 2024 15:22:50
    Re: Re: Early PCs
    By: AKAcastor to Spectre on Wed Apr 24 2024 02:44 pm

    The 'big' disks, due to compression, didn't work out so well for making more space for BBS file downloads! (amongst other issues, of course)

    Disk compression was rather ... underwhelming ... when storing a bunch of .ZIP files. :)

    Honestly though, the times I used DriveSpace and it didn't destroy all my data, it did seem like magic - more disk space for FREE!

    Yeah, it all depended on what you were storing on your hard drive. I used Stacker for a while, and later I think I switched to Microsoft's DoubleSpace and DriveSpace. I didn't use it very long though - In 1996, I got my first job and had my own money, and with my first paycheck, I bought parts to build a new PC, including a much larger hard drive and I don't think I used drive compression after that.

    Drive compression has its issues.. It generally slows down the computer, and there was one time for me when DOS booted up and the drive compression driver didn't load for some reason, so I couldn't access my files. I don't remember what I had to do to fix that..

    Nightfox
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  • From Digital Man to Ed Vance on Wednesday, April 24, 2024 16:51:19
    Re: hello! :DD
    By: Ed Vance to Blue White on Tue Apr 23 2024 02:40 pm

    Where I worked, my section first got a 'hand me down' 8088 XT Clone when our boss got a 286.
    When the boss got a 386, the 286 came our way.

    And when your boss left his wife for their secretary... ?
    --
    digital man (rob)

    Sling Blade quote #25:
    Karl: they seen fit to put me in here and here I've been a great long while. Norco, CA WX: 66.5°F, 57.0% humidity, 6 mph NW wind, 0.00 inches rain/24hrs
  • From Blue White@21:4/134 to Nightfox on Thursday, April 25, 2024 08:20:21
    Drive compression has its issues.. It generally slows down the
    computer, and there was one time for me when DOS booted up and the
    drive compression driver didn't load for some reason, so I couldn't
    access my files. I don't remember what I had to do to fix that..

    IIRC, it was suggested (but maybe not by Microsoft and the compression
    vendors) that the boot device, C:, should not be compressed so in the
    event of issues the system was still accessable for troubleshooting.



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  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to Spectre on Thursday, April 25, 2024 06:32:00
    Spectre wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-

    We had people here trying to flog systems with "160Mb" HDs in them,
    which for the most part turned out to be 80Mb MFM's that had
    compression added. Back when 160Mb was still a large drive..

    Were those RLL drives? They used a special controller to write more
    sectors per track on MFM drives.



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  • From Spectre@21:3/101 to poindexter FORTRAN on Friday, April 26, 2024 04:39:00
    Were those RLL drives? They used a special controller to write more sectors per track on MFM drives.

    We had drives of all flavours around back then. There weren't many RLLs or ESDIs for that matter, although they were sprinkled in for flavour and you to beat your head against a wall trying to figure out why they wouldn't run with your MFM controller :) But by far we had more MFMs than anything else, and
    IDE was kinda just arriving. Still had IDE drives with steppers on them, voicecoil was really new and funky if you came across one.

    Spec


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  • From Bob Worm@21:1/205 to tenser on Thursday, May 02, 2024 18:13:09
    Re: Re: Minix
    By: tenser to Nightfox on Fri Apr 19 2024 08:19:12

    Hi, tenser.

    The bug, of course, is constraining to the length of the user
    supplied password; the effect was that entering _no_ password
    automatically authenticated the password (empty strings always
    compare equal).

    That's pretty shocking... a good proportion of people would find that by accident!

    I'm not hugely surprised, though.

    BobW
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  • From tenser@21:1/101 to Bob Worm on Saturday, May 04, 2024 05:38:25
    On 02 May 2024 at 06:13p, Bob Worm pondered and said...

    That's pretty shocking... a good proportion of people would find that by accident!
    The bug, of course, is constraining to the length of the user
    supplied password; the effect was that entering _no_ password automatically authenticated the password (empty strings always
    compare equal).

    That's pretty shocking... a good proportion of people would find that by accident!

    Yup, it wasn't great. :-D

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