Goodbye

[Brian Kantor]

Two things are happening that lead me to bid farewell to this
September Froup:

1. I'm retiring from UCSD, after 46 years on campus. They say they'll
let me keep my mail alias so maybe I'll still be reachable, but I won't
be working here anymore. Yay! (I haven't scheduled my last day here
yet, but it'll be in the next few months. Maybe Halloween - that would
somehow seem appropriate.) I'm CEO of a small non-profit, Amateur Radio
Digital Communications, and so I'll be keeping busy for a few years longer
at least.

2. The 'ihnp4' news server here at UCSD is failing, and without me around
to maintain it, it's going to go tits-up and be sent to scrap. If it lasts
until Halloween, I'll be somewhat surprised, as the mainboard is getting
hardware errors, but on the other hand, it's over 10 years old (closer to
15, if my memory is working still) so it's shown an amazing degree of
stubborness in just keeping working.

Maybe I'll sign up to eternal-september.org to keep up with Usenet. We'll
see.

Do you realize it's been 31 years since we invented NNTP and wrote RFC977?
That's a pretty long run for an Internet protocol.

So farewell everyone, it's been a fun time. Love and kisses!

I'm going to go to the zoo, and feed the ducks. To the lions.

- Brian

[Gallian]

Post by Brian Kantor
So farewell everyone, it's been a fun time. Love and kisses!

I remember lurking here and reading your posts when I was still a lowly
support tech. Has it really been that long?

Enjoy your retirement!

Mart

[c***@mail.netunix.com]

Post by Brian Kantor
Two things are happening that lead me to bid farewell to this
1. I'm retiring from UCSD, after 46 years on campus. They say they'll
let me keep my mail alias so maybe I'll still be reachable, but I won't
be working here anymore. Yay! (I haven't scheduled my last day here
yet, but it'll be in the next few months. Maybe Halloween - that would
somehow seem appropriate.) I'm CEO of a small non-profit, Amateur Radio
Digital Communications, and so I'll be keeping busy for a few years longer
at least.
2. The 'ihnp4' news server here at UCSD is failing, and without me around
to maintain it, it's going to go tits-up and be sent to scrap. If it lasts
until Halloween, I'll be somewhat surprised, as the mainboard is getting
hardware errors, but on the other hand, it's over 10 years old (closer to
15, if my memory is working still) so it's shown an amazing degree of
stubborness in just keeping working.
Maybe I'll sign up to eternal-september.org to keep up with Usenet. We'll
see.
Do you realize it's been 31 years since we invented NNTP and wrote RFC977?
That's a pretty long run for an Internet protocol.
So farewell everyone, it's been a fun time. Love and kisses!

There are other free news servers such as albasani.net. If you ask they
will allow you to wave the chicken.
It has been deadly quiet around here for ages, where y'all gone ?

Old sysadmins never die, they only smell that way.

[Garrett Wollman]

Post by c***@mail.netunix.com
It has been deadly quiet around here for ages, where y'all gone ?

I am still here. Sadly it seems like not many monks have much to
say. I see most monkish content these days on Twitter, which is not
really the most effective medium for the purpose, and there isn't
really much of it there, either. And let's face it -- many of us who
are of the Usenet Generation have either recovered or found ourselves
with very different responsibilities, herding cattle rather than
scooping up users' pet droppings.

-GAWollman

[Steve VanDevender]

Post by Garrett Wollman

Post by c***@mail.netunix.com
It has been deadly quiet around here for ages, where y'all gone ?

I am not sure whether the lack of articles here is something about the
news server I am using or an actual lack of articles, but Brian's
posting is the first in long time to come through.

Post by Garrett Wollman
I am still here. Sadly it seems like not many monks have much to
say. I see most monkish content these days on Twitter, which is not
really the most effective medium for the purpose, and there isn't
really much of it there, either. And let's face it -- many of us who
are of the Usenet Generation have either recovered or found ourselves
with very different responsibilities, herding cattle rather than
scooping up users' pet droppings.

There is quite a bit more activity in The Other Place (the NNTP server I
am using is primarily run for access to The Other Place but also happens
to carry a.s.r and maybe a couple other Outer USENET newgroups). Many
of the people who were once active here are still active Over There.

If anyone is interested there are several people running news servers
for The Other Place, many of whom you would probably recognize, and I
could put you in touch with them for (either for a feed or just NNTP
reader access) if you don't already know who they are.

[Richard Bos]

Post by Steve VanDevender

Post by Garrett Wollman

Post by c***@mail.netunix.com
It has been deadly quiet around here for ages, where y'all gone ?

I am not sure whether the lack of articles here is something about the
news server I am using or an actual lack of articles, but Brian's
posting is the first in long time to come through.

Nope, for me, too.

Post by Steve VanDevender

Post by Garrett Wollman
I am still here. Sadly it seems like not many monks have much to
say. I see most monkish content these days on Twitter, which is not
really the most effective medium for the purpose, and there isn't
really much of it there, either. And let's face it -- many of us who
are of the Usenet Generation have either recovered or found ourselves
with very different responsibilities, herding cattle rather than
scooping up users' pet droppings.

That's true for me, at least. I've spent some time involuntarily
recovered, and have now found unrecovery again (provisionally, at
least), but it's programming and occasionally support, not adminning.
What I do now would fit in better in a.t-s.r, but that place is deader
than this one.
One the one hand, not having to tell lusers that no, they can not remove
that ugly cable from their hard drive (read: computer) and not having to
convince the mail server that no, mail from this address is _not_ spam,
is good. On the other hand, having to kick a JbeqCerff plugin into doing
something safe, sane and consensual with financial data (when the main
site is built by someone else) is interesting in its own, special way.

Post by Steve VanDevender
There is quite a bit more activity in The Other Place (the NNTP server I
am using is primarily run for access to The Other Place but also happens
to carry a.s.r and maybe a couple other Outer USENET newgroups). Many
of the people who were once active here are still active Over There.
If anyone is interested there are several people running news servers
for The Other Place, many of whom you would probably recognize, and I
could put you in touch with them for (either for a feed or just NNTP
reader access) if you don't already know who they are.

I have no idea, and I might be interested in an NNTP account - a full
feed would not be much use to me - though what with the above, I don't
know how much I'd have to say myself.

Richard

[hymie!]

In our last episode, the evil Dr. Lacto had captured our hero,

Post by c***@mail.netunix.com

Post by Brian Kantor
Two things are happening that lead me to bid farewell to this

It has been deadly quiet around here for ages, where y'all gone ?

I'm still here. I read regularly.

The biggest reason I don't post anymore is that I'm trying to separate
my "hymie!" on-line persona from my real-world persona, so I don't
like to post job-related issues. I can post my wife-related tech-
support frustrations I guess.

(Related -- I think there's a member of this group who works at the same
place I work at. (It may be a different group, I don't remember.) I'm
not sure if he recognizes my nickname, but again, I want to keep the two
separate.)

--hymie! http://lactose.homelinux.net/~hymie ***@lactose.homelinux.net

[AdB]

Post by hymie!
(Related -- I think there's a member of this group who works at the same
place I work at. (It may be a different group, I don't remember.) I'm
not sure if he recognizes my nickname, but again, I want to keep the two
separate.)

Back in the golden age of this august froup, a fellow-BOFH handed me a
business card over pints; I noted it was the second one I'd seen recently
with that logo, still having the other one in the back of my wallet.
That earned an exclamation of "What? He works for us?!? Um, and I'm the
corporate postmaster and didn't twig on his name going by..."

[Roger Bell_West]

Post by AdB
Back in the golden age of this august froup, a fellow-BOFH handed me a
business card over pints; I noted it was the second one I'd seen recently
with that logo, still having the other one in the back of my wallet.
That earned an exclamation of "What? He works for us?!? Um, and I'm the
corporate postmaster and didn't twig on his name going by..."

At an SF convention, I was privileged to observe two civil servants
trying to work out whether they worked in the same mildly-secret
organisation without ever actually identifying it.

[Tom Yates]

Post by hymie!
In our last episode, the evil Dr. Lacto had captured our hero,

Post by c***@mail.netunix.com
It has been deadly quiet around here for ages, where y'all gone ?

I'm still here. I read regularly.

I'm still here as well. Stopped reading for a couple of weeks
while eternal september fixed their HDD problem. But back now.
Still unrecovered, though through my own tiny consultancy company,
which means my boss is no more of a twat than I am.

[Mans Nilsson]

Post by Brian Kantor
Maybe I'll sign up to eternal-september.org to keep up with Usenet. We'll
see.

Eternal September just replaced its reading machine. Much improved.

Post by Brian Kantor
Do you realize it's been 31 years since we invented NNTP and wrote RFC977?
That's a pretty long run for an Internet protocol.
So farewell everyone, it's been a fun time. Love and kisses!

May your recovery be long and prosperous.

[AdB]

Post by Brian Kantor
1. I'm retiring from UCSD, after 46 years on campus.

Congratulations on the Recovery!

Post by Brian Kantor
... I'm CEO of a small non-profit, Amateur Radio
Digital Communications, and so I'll be keeping busy for a few years longer
at least.

No rest for the wicked.

Post by Brian Kantor
... I'll be somewhat surprised, as the mainboard is getting
hardware errors, but on the other hand, it's over 10 years old (closer to
15, if my memory is working still) so it's shown an amazing degree of
stubborness in just keeping working.

'Tis an eternal truism that nothing they're building today has been that
well tested. Shiny-new, well-tested, subject to causality, pick any two.

Post by Brian Kantor
So farewell everyone, it's been a fun time. Love and kisses!

But still no TTTSNBN in the Monastery.

[c***@mail.netunix.com]

Post by AdB
'Tis an eternal truism that nothing they're building today has been that
well tested. Shiny-new, well-tested, subject to causality, pick any two.

Post by Brian Kantor
So farewell everyone, it's been a fun time. Love and kisses!

But still no TTTSNBN in the Monastery.

Sadly many are now recovered, at 0x48 and counting I have not even seen
a Stun box for many a year. The years are thinning us out a bit
I wonder if Mikea is still extant, ISTR he is about the same age as me
and was having a few health problems the last I heard.

[The Horny Goat]

Post by c***@mail.netunix.com

Post by AdB
'Tis an eternal truism that nothing they're building today has been that
well tested. Shiny-new, well-tested, subject to causality, pick any two.

Post by Brian Kantor
So farewell everyone, it's been a fun time. Love and kisses!

But still no TTTSNBN in the Monastery.

Sadly many are now recovered, at 0x48 and counting I have not even seen
a Stun box for many a year. The years are thinning us out a bit
I wonder if Mikea is still extant, ISTR he is about the same age as me
and was having a few health problems the last I heard.

I've been reading this newsgroup with pleasure for 20+ years and am
distressed at the sharp decline in message volume in the last year.
One assumes it's the changing nature of the business and that many of
the newer prospective monks don't have a clue about usenet.

I'm just an old fart who gave up sysadminning for the family business
(which has been a mixed success) but have all kinds of war stories
like being on a customer remote site and pulling a 37 hour shift
restoring a crashed medical records database or the time I was
consulting in a hospital and was installing equipment and got caught
in a forensic psychiatric ward during a lockdown. Forensic as in
inmates got sent there by a judge not a doctor. (Some inmate was off
his medication and 'acting out') I headed for the nursing station,
grabbed a magazine and pretended to read it while keeping my wits
about me. It was a real life "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" with no
Jack Nicholson or anything funny.

I miss it but was spending about 35-40% of my time out of town and
with children (now grown) coming it was a good time to go.

[Gallian]

Post by The Horny Goat

Post by c***@mail.netunix.com

Post by AdB
'Tis an eternal truism that nothing they're building today has been that
well tested. Shiny-new, well-tested, subject to causality, pick any two.

Post by Brian Kantor
So farewell everyone, it's been a fun time. Love and kisses!

But still no TTTSNBN in the Monastery.

Sadly many are now recovered, at 0x48 and counting I have not even seen
a Stun box for many a year. The years are thinning us out a bit
I wonder if Mikea is still extant, ISTR he is about the same age as me
and was having a few health problems the last I heard.

I've been reading this newsgroup with pleasure for 20+ years and am
distressed at the sharp decline in message volume in the last year.

So was I. Despite feeling like a bit of a junior member, this always
felt like a nice place to read, to vent, to see others vent. Reading
here has often kept me from my bad habits of engaging in pointless
flamewars elsewhere during my depressive episodes; knowing that other
people struggle with the life's issues *and* stupid lusers/customers
really helped.

I wouldn't mind seeing the posting volume go up. Sadly, all I can add
right now is venting about my personal life, and that will stray a bit
too close to TTTSNBN.

Mart

[Steve VanDevender]

Post by c***@mail.netunix.com
I wonder if Mikea is still extant, ISTR he is about the same age as me
and was having a few health problems the last I heard.

MikeA is still around, although I mostly see him posting on Facebook,
and more occasionally The Other Place.

[The Horny Goat]

On Sun, 10 Sep 2017 23:17:35 -0700, Steve VanDevender

Post by Steve VanDevender

Post by c***@mail.netunix.com
I wonder if Mikea is still extant, ISTR he is about the same age as me
and was having a few health problems the last I heard.

MikeA is still around, although I mostly see him posting on Facebook,
and more occasionally The Other Place.

Pardon my ignorance but what's "The Other Place"?

[Julian Macassey]

Post by The Horny Goat
On Sun, 10 Sep 2017 23:17:35 -0700, Steve VanDevender

Post by Steve VanDevender
MikeA is still around, although I mostly see him posting on Facebook,
and more occasionally The Other Place.

Pardon my ignorance but what's "The Other Place"?

Plus, what is this Facebook of which you speak?

[Gallian]

Post by Julian Macassey

Post by The Horny Goat
On Sun, 10 Sep 2017 23:17:35 -0700, Steve VanDevender

Post by Steve VanDevender
MikeA is still around, although I mostly see him posting on Facebook,
and more occasionally The Other Place.

Pardon my ignorance but what's "The Other Place"?

Plus, what is this Facebook of which you speak?

Argh. I've been avoiding Farcebook as long as I could; I hate its
invasive tracking everywhere, and her persistently hanging out in its
many black holes of negativity is part of the breakup with
SW-no-longerMBO.

However, all my friends, including one who is a bit more interesting
than *just* a friend, use it as their primary communications
channel. Good news is they use it lightly, for direct communication
mainly. Bad news is that I am getting to that point where the network
effect is almost forcing me to sign up.

I *hate* network effects. We hates them, yes precious, we do. It's ZFA
Zrffratre all over again.

Mart

[Steve VanDevender]

Post by Gallian
I *hate* network effects. We hates them, yes precious, we do. It's ZFA
Zrffratre all over again.

Which is why their messaging app is called Snprobbx Zrffratre? (But
even if I had a "smart"phone I wouldn't install it.)

[Gallian]

Post by Steve VanDevender

Post by Gallian
I *hate* network effects. We hates them, yes precious, we do. It's ZFA
Zrffratre all over again.

Which is why their messaging app is called Snprobbx Zrffratre?

Wouldn't surprise me one bit. It's a catchy name that's already
associated with IM in the general public's mind.

And yeah, I don't *want* to install it either. At least the bastards
won't be able to track me beyond their own site and servers; that much
control I do have over my network traffic.

Mart

[Michele]

Post by Steve VanDevender

Post by Gallian
I *hate* network effects. We hates them, yes precious, we do. It's ZFA
Zrffratre all over again.

Which is why their messaging app is called Snprobbx Zrffratre? (But
even if I had a "smart"phone I wouldn't install it.)

I have a "smart"phone but I'll never install their app, or for what is
matter Whatsapp. If you want to send me a message, use an sms, or if you
have to to talk to me you can actually call me either on my landline
number or my cellphone number.
Or you know, email.

Unfortunately a lot of people nowadays are usin only these app an
whonder whi I recharge the phone ververy four days and theirs ha to be
recharged twice a day.

Mike
(testing asr agauin...)

[Firesong]

Post by Michele

Post by Steve VanDevender

Post by Gallian
I *hate* network effects. We hates them, yes precious, we do. It's ZFA
Zrffratre all over again.

Which is why their messaging app is called Snprobbx Zrffratre? (But
even if I had a "smart"phone I wouldn't install it.)

I have a "smart"phone but I'll never install their app, or for what is
matter Whatsapp. If you want to send me a message, use an sms, or if you
have to to talk to me you can actually call me either on my landline
number or my cellphone number.
Or you know, email.
Unfortunately a lot of people nowadays are usin only these app an
whonder whi I recharge the phone ververy four days and theirs ha to be
recharged twice a day.
Mike
(testing asr agauin...)

I work the other way around, SMS is too limited, phone calls are too
intrusive, both require me to have my phone near/on/charged and are
therefore single point of failure.

That app is available from desktop, laptop, phone, tablet and MP3
player, requires no telephone number, allows for conference
conversations which SMS doesn't, has a two way protocol showing if the
message has been recieved, has a transferrable history from device to
device and is therefore generally more fit for purpose than the old
methods by a long chalk. (Where purpose is assumed to be making it
easy to communicate with me personally.)

Iain

[Julian Macassey]

Post by Firesong
I work the other way around, SMS is too limited, phone calls are too
intrusive, both require me to have my phone near/on/charged and are
therefore single point of failure.
That app is available from desktop, laptop, phone, tablet and MP3
player, requires no telephone number, allows for conference
conversations which SMS doesn't, has a two way protocol showing if the
message has been recieved, has a transferrable history from device to
device and is therefore generally more fit for purpose than the old
methods by a long chalk. (Where purpose is assumed to be making it
easy to communicate with me personally.)

If you want secure messaging and phone calls, there is
Signal.

Yes, even available on the desktop. Yes, an ack that the
signal has been received.

https://www.signal.org/

This isn't UI, everyone knows this already.

[brian]

Post by Julian Macassey
If you want secure messaging and phone calls, there is
Signal.
Yes, even available on the desktop. Yes, an ack that the
signal has been received.
https://www.signal.org/
This isn't UI, everyone knows this already.

Unfortunately, for the desktop (I do not own a smartphone), it
requires installing and using Google Chrome, which I do not trust.
- Brian

[Julian Macassey]

Post by brian

Post by Julian Macassey
If you want secure messaging and phone calls, there is
Signal.
Yes, even available on the desktop. Yes, an ack that the
signal has been received.
https://www.signal.org/

Unfortunately, for the desktop (I do not own a smartphone), it
requires installing and using Google Chrome, which I do not trust.

I also do not trust the browser from the goggle monster.

I thought I was alone in this belief. I have worked with
people in the computer security and penetration testing business
who use it as their primary browser. Rather than question their
intellect, skill and credentials, I held my tongue which is
unusual for me.

[Juergen Nieveler]

Post by Julian Macassey

Post by brian
Unfortunately, for the desktop (I do not own a smartphone), it
requires installing and using Google Chrome, which I do not trust.

I also do not trust the browser from the goggle monster.
I thought I was alone in this belief. I have worked with
people in the computer security and penetration testing business
who use it as their primary browser. Rather than question their
intellect, skill and credentials, I held my tongue which is
unusual for me.

Well, you have to use ONE browser... and it's not as if there's any better
alternatives out there.

Sure, you could use Opera (who frequently try to get users to use their
own proxy for the greater good), or Firefox (using Google Analytics to
track your usage...). Internet Exploder and Edge aren't as insecure as
they once were, but still suck... and Safari of course doesn't even
deserve consideration (https://googleprojectzero.blogspot.de/2017/09/the-
great-dom-fuzz-off-of-2017.html - 17 holes found... FURFFU!)

[The Horny Goat]

Post by brian
Unfortunately, for the desktop (I do not own a smartphone), it
requires installing and using Google Chrome, which I do not trust.
- Brian

Not sure why you don't trust them as much as the other browsers out
there - and there are dozens beside Chrome, Firefox and whatever
Redmond is calling their current browser.

I don't own a smartphone either and the only thing pushing me that way
is that I've heard talking inappropriately to Siri can be fun.

[Julian Macassey]

Post by Gallian

Post by Julian Macassey
Plus, what is this Facebook of which you speak?

Argh. I've been avoiding Farcebook as long as I could; I hate its
invasive tracking everywhere, and her persistently hanging out in its
many black holes of negativity is part of the breakup with
SW-no-longerMBO.

SWMBO and I both avoid it. We both think that is really
is the bastard child of Eternal September.

I do get tired of having to tell lusers that a certain
item from face book is either something that happened years ago
(including obits), or is complete bullshit.

Post by Gallian
However, all my friends, including one who is a bit more interesting
than *just* a friend, use it as their primary communications
channel.

I do have friends that use it and I let them know I
don't and I am still reachable via various Internet protocols.

[Gallian]

Post by Julian Macassey

Post by Gallian
However, all my friends, including one who is a bit more interesting
than *just* a friend, use [Facebook] as their primary communications
channel.

I do have friends that use it and I let them know I
don't and I am still reachable via various Internet protocols.

So do I.

I even got someone to use email to contact me. With a 'how quaint'
attitude, for sure, but I can still avoid Farcebook. For now.

Mart

[The Horny Goat]

Post by Gallian
I even got someone to use email to contact me. With a 'how quaint'
attitude, for sure, but I can still avoid Farcebook. For now.

My family got involved with FB when my daughter attended a language
course in St Petersburg (Russia not Florida) and was posting her
photos there.

Other than that a big part of my recovery is online games and I use FB
to keep in contact with my alliance. Some of my American cousins have
been linking up again that way - these are folks I haven't seen in 30
years but mostly I use FB for my games much to the annoyance of the
rest of the household...am pretty sure Mark Zuckerberg would be
annoyed with me (evil grin)

[Richard Bos]

Post by Julian Macassey

Post by Gallian
However, all my friends, including one who is a bit more interesting
than *just* a friend, use it as their primary communications
channel.

I do have friends that use it and I let them know I
don't and I am still reachable via various Internet protocols.

Ditto. The same thing goes for Wazzaaaaap, which I had to use for a
while for unrecovery reasons until both its update process and that
unrecovery went tits-up. Frankly, I grieved about neither's demise.

Richard

[Michel]

Post by Gallian
However, all my friends, including one who is a bit more interesting
than *just* a friend, use it as their primary communications
channel. Good news is they use it lightly, for direct communication
mainly. Bad news is that I am getting to that point where the network
effect is almost forcing me to sign up.

Yes, that.

People *might* go out of their way to contact you using your preferred
methods, email or smoke signals or whatever, when they need to reach you
specifically.

But you're likely to miss all the broadcast chatter. Which is partly a
blessing with the S/N ratio being what it usually is, but being "that guy
who only does email" has some significant downsides if you're the sort to
whom making/keeping friends doesn't necessarily come natural.

So yes, aaarrrrrrrrghhh and all that, but I find myself more and more just
giving up on it all, holding my nose and going along with it. Partly because
Jungfncc and the Book of Feces do make keeping vaguely in touch with friends
and family a LOT easier. And partly because I have come to appreciate that
the internet deck is stacked so firmly against us all that me using 'sup or
not really doesn't make any sodding difference whatsoever and the only safe
thing is to turn everything off and go live in a cave somewhere.

It's tempting, some days...

I'm really getting to hate what the internet has become and enabled.

Pity I make a living off the thing.

[The Horny Goat]

Post by Michel
But you're likely to miss all the broadcast chatter. Which is partly a
blessing with the S/N ratio being what it usually is, but being "that guy
who only does email" has some significant downsides if you're the sort to
whom making/keeping friends doesn't necessarily come natural.

Actually the S/N ratio is reasonable here - sure there are regular
"metas" like your message and mine but they at least deal with the
topic of wanting to make this newsgroup a better place.

Post by Michel
So yes, aaarrrrrrrrghhh and all that, but I find myself more and more just
giving up on it all, holding my nose and going along with it. Partly because
Jungfncc and the Book of Feces do make keeping vaguely in touch with friends
and family a LOT easier. And partly because I have come to appreciate that
the internet deck is stacked so firmly against us all that me using 'sup or
not really doesn't make any sodding difference whatsoever and the only safe
thing is to turn everything off and go live in a cave somewhere.
It's tempting, some days...

I had a week off 3 weeks ago and was starting to mentally say
"Dracarys!!!" to a lot of situations. For non-Game of Thrones fans
that is the word of attack for a dragon which when given usually turns
the person pointed at into a ball of flame with fatal results.

The ultimate LART if you will.

(The fact that I was mentally saying it 4-5 times a day the week
before my break told me it was coming at a good time!)

Post by Michel
I'm really getting to hate what the internet has become and enabled.
Pity I make a living off the thing.

Know the feeling - the missus who knows what I do for a living thinks
I'm crazy as I'm so fond of a couple of online games. She thinks I'm
"hacking" when I'm actually playing a game or watching a video. I
collect videos so you can reasonably assume my personal machine would
make a more than decent corporate file server.

[AdB]

Post by The Horny Goat
I had a week off 3 weeks ago and was starting to mentally say
"Dracarys!!!" to a lot of situations. For non-Game of Thrones fans
that is the word of attack for a dragon ...

YKYBHTLW you mentally ebg13 the term and decide that doesn't parse and
that the plaintext form, though not a word in my vocabulary, may have
actually been meant, before reading the following verbiage.

[Michel]

Post by AdB

Post by The Horny Goat
I had a week off 3 weeks ago and was starting to mentally say
"Dracarys!!!" to a lot of situations. For non-Game of Thrones fans
that is the word of attack for a dragon ...

YKYBHTLW you mentally ebg13 the term and decide that doesn't parse and
that the plaintext form, though not a word in my vocabulary, may have
actually been meant, before reading the following verbiage.

YKYBHTLW you mentally start to write something very much like that
but check the replies first out of habit and well there you go.

[Michel]

Post by The Horny Goat

Post by Michel
But you're likely to miss all the broadcast chatter. Which is partly a
blessing with the S/N ratio being what it usually is, but being "that guy
who only does email" has some significant downsides if you're the sort to
whom making/keeping friends doesn't necessarily come natural.

Actually the S/N ratio is reasonable here - sure there are regular
"metas" like your message and mine but they at least deal with the
topic of wanting to make this newsgroup a better place.

I meant with "normal" people, such as non-IT friends and family,
the sort of people who are all on social media, some of whom don't
even really do email. They app, or they inbox, whatever that means.

This place and its inhabitants aren't exactly the norm nowadays.

[The Horny Goat]

Post by Michel

Post by The Horny Goat

Post by Michel
But you're likely to miss all the broadcast chatter. Which is partly a
blessing with the S/N ratio being what it usually is, but being "that guy
who only does email" has some significant downsides if you're the sort to
whom making/keeping friends doesn't necessarily come natural.

Actually the S/N ratio is reasonable here - sure there are regular
"metas" like your message and mine but they at least deal with the
topic of wanting to make this newsgroup a better place.

I meant with "normal" people, such as non-IT friends and family,
the sort of people who are all on social media, some of whom don't
even really do email. They app, or they inbox, whatever that means.
This place and its inhabitants aren't exactly the norm nowadays.

My form of recovery is collecting videos. This demands the sort of
disk space typical of large file servers.

And SWMBO (aka 'She Who Must Be Obeyed' aka 'the significant other'
aka Milady) thinks I'm hacking and am a terrible guy as I can't be
bothered to set up a working network connection to give her access to
my archives.....

[Lawns 'R' Us]

Post by The Horny Goat
My form of recovery is collecting videos. This demands the sort of
disk space typical of large file servers.

You are me, and I claim the hardware necessary to build up the
external array of disks that I need to, uh, offload some of the bigger
items that I don't actually need regularly, but I still want to keep
Just In Case. (Said array will be 15 6 TB disks, with three redundant
disks for 72 TB [decimal] of storage. The main array is 11 6 TB disks,
with three redundant disks for 48 TB [decimal] of storage. More detail
would be UI.)

Though I must concede that there is much to be said for the Flicks of
Net. I'm rather enjoying a certain JMS collaboration with the
Wachowski sisters (yes, yes, I know; I only got access to the service
in question a couple of days ago.)

Post by The Horny Goat
And SWMBO (aka 'She Who Must Be Obeyed' aka 'the significant other'
aka Milady) thinks I'm hacking and am a terrible guy as I can't be
bothered to set up a working network connection to give her access to
my archives.....

It's not a question of being bothered. It's a question of the Security
Implications of potentially allowing the Entire World to have access
to those archives. They're important historical documents,
don'cha'no.

[The Horny Goat]

Post by Lawns 'R' Us
You are me, and I claim the hardware necessary to build up the
external array of disks that I need to, uh, offload some of the bigger
items that I don't actually need regularly, but I still want to keep
Just In Case. (Said array will be 15 6 TB disks, with three redundant
disks for 72 TB [decimal] of storage. The main array is 11 6 TB disks,
with three redundant disks for 48 TB [decimal] of storage. More detail
would be UI.)

I have 10 Tb internal and mostly just start looking for sales on
external drives when I start running low. In last year's post
Christmas sales I scored an 8Tb external for $200 Cdn (that would be
about 140-150 US$) and am still transferring happily away.

[Wojciech Derechowski]

On Tue, 03 Oct 2017 16:23:45 +0000, The Horny Goat wrote:
[...]

Post by The Horny Goat
And SWMBO (aka 'She Who Must Be Obeyed' aka 'the significant other'
aka Milady) thinks I'm hacking and am a terrible guy as I can't be
bothered to set up a working network connection to give her access to
my archives.....

I did exactly that and soon after my SO asked for access to several TV
channels instead. As these were from abroad I had to defeat geo-blocking
or geoblocage as they say in .fr which is painful if your SO won't spend
a penny on VPN. But now she knows I have been hacking...

--
WD

Who is Entscheidungs and what is his problem?

[The Horny Goat]

On Sat, 07 Oct 2017 16:50:00 -0000, Wojciech Derechowski

Post by Wojciech Derechowski

Post by The Horny Goat
And SWMBO (aka 'She Who Must Be Obeyed' aka 'the significant other'
aka Milady) thinks I'm hacking and am a terrible guy as I can't be
bothered to set up a working network connection to give her access to
my archives.....

I did exactly that and soon after my SO asked for access to several TV
channels instead. As these were from abroad I had to defeat geo-blocking
or geoblocage as they say in .fr which is painful if your SO won't spend
a penny on VPN. But now she knows I have been hacking...

You misunderstand.... right now I'm watching a downloaded video Amazon
would probably not prefer I be watching. That's as "out there" as my
life gets these days.

Not like the old days when I routinely did hex editting on files to
make them do what I wanted rather than what they were intended to do.

[Julian Macassey]

Post by Michel
I meant with "normal" people, such as non-IT friends and family,
the sort of people who are all on social media, some of whom don't
even really do email. They app, or they inbox, whatever that means.
This place and its inhabitants aren't exactly the norm nowadays.

I have made it my mission to show these people how to use
the net most efficiently. I have some converts, I have a lot of
clueless users who are sceptical that there actually are other
ways to do things.

[Gallian]

Post by Julian Macassey

Post by Michel
I meant with "normal" people, such as non-IT friends and family,
the sort of people who are all on social media, some of whom don't
even really do email. They app, or they inbox, whatever that means.
This place and its inhabitants aren't exactly the norm nowadays.

I have made it my mission to show these people how to use
the net most efficiently. I have some converts, I have a lot of
clueless users who are sceptical that there actually are other
ways to do things.

SWNoLongerMBO was actually kind of a luser that way. Even if the
instructions on what to do were printed on screen right in front of her
she persisted in calling me over for help.

Yeah, OK, she had at least some sense to use software that sucks less to
access the net; OTOH, learned helplessness and FB addiction? Not
helping.

Mart

[The Horny Goat]

Post by Gallian

Post by Julian Macassey
Plus, what is this Facebook of which you speak?

Argh. I've been avoiding Farcebook as long as I could; I hate its
invasive tracking everywhere, and her persistently hanging out in its
many black holes of negativity is part of the breakup with
SW-no-longerMBO.
However, all my friends, including one who is a bit more interesting
than *just* a friend, use it as their primary communications
channel. Good news is they use it lightly, for direct communication
mainly. Bad news is that I am getting to that point where the network
effect is almost forcing me to sign up.
I *hate* network effects. We hates them, yes precious, we do. It's ZFA
Zrffratre all over again.

I feel the same way but our eldest did a language course in Russia in
2008 and was uploading her photos by that method so we had to sign in
to view her photos.

Since then I've played various online games where FB has been used as
a means for my playing group to discuss strategy etc.

I'm pretty sure I'm not using it for any purpose Mark Zuckerberg would
approve of.....

[Gallian]

Post by The Horny Goat

Post by Gallian

Post by Julian Macassey
Plus, what is this Facebook of which you speak?

Argh. I've been avoiding Farcebook as long as I could; I hate its
invasive tracking everywhere, and her persistently hanging out in its
many black holes of negativity is part of the breakup with
SW-no-longerMBO.
However, all my friends, including one who is a bit more interesting
than *just* a friend, use it as their primary communications
channel. Good news is they use it lightly, for direct communication
mainly. Bad news is that I am getting to that point where the network
effect is almost forcing me to sign up.
I *hate* network effects. We hates them, yes precious, we do. It's ZFA
Zrffratre all over again.

I feel the same way but our eldest did a language course in Russia in
2008 and was uploading her photos by that method so we had to sign in
to view her photos.
Since then I've played various online games where FB has been used as
a means for my playing group to discuss strategy etc.
I'm pretty sure I'm not using it for any purpose Mark Zuckerberg would
approve of.....

I won't either, but the pressure to actually do so is mounting. $FRIEND
and her friends finally convinced me to engage in cosplay when visiting
a fantasy fair this weekend.

Turns out all of the photographers there, including the ones who shot
pictures of us, use FB to post their pics and allow you to order
high-quality ones.

$FRIEND posted me the actual photographs in JungfNcc, she's considerate
like that, but being able to actually share the gallery among our group
of friends and talk about it on the same medium? As I said, the network
effect is effecting its pressure.

Mart

[The Horny Goat]

Post by Gallian
I won't either, but the pressure to actually do so is mounting. $FRIEND
and her friends finally convinced me to engage in cosplay when visiting
a fantasy fair this weekend.
Turns out all of the photographers there, including the ones who shot
pictures of us, use FB to post their pics and allow you to order
high-quality ones.
$FRIEND posted me the actual photographs in JungfNcc, she's considerate
like that, but being able to actually share the gallery among our group
of friends and talk about it on the same medium? As I said, the network
effect is effecting its pressure.

Heh heh - my firstborn has gotten heavily into the SCA. I like the
history and the pun-play but am totally not into camping which is a
lot of what they do between swordplay and medieval arts.

[Gallian]

Post by The Horny Goat

Post by Gallian
I won't either, but the pressure to actually do so is mounting. $FRIEND
and her friends finally convinced me to engage in cosplay when visiting
a fantasy fair this weekend.

<snip>

Post by The Horny Goat
Heh heh - my firstborn has gotten heavily into the SCA. I like the
history and the pun-play but am totally not into camping which is a
lot of what they do between swordplay and medieval arts.

Hah. I've never cared one way or the other about cosplay. I did like
making photographs (and I've always asked nicely!), but actually
engaging in it? I could see the fun, but it wasn't something I'd imagine
doing.

And then the new circle of friends went: "Well, this is a small
festival, only in its third year, and going non-costumed will actually
make you stand out. You do have a nice three-piece suit, we have some
accessories, you'll be quite the Victorian gentleman".

As it turned out, they were right. And I had a lot of fun. Although to
be fair, I would have had a lot of fun regardless, the company was good.

Mart

[David Cameron Staples]

Post by The Horny Goat
Heh heh - my firstborn has gotten heavily into the SCA. I like the
history and the pun-play but am totally not into camping which is a
lot of what they do between swordplay and medieval arts.

If you like the history and research and puns, but not so much the
camping, may I suggest the SCA College of Heralds?

Because, as everyone knows, Heralds don't pun; they cant.


Brían dorcha ua Conaill, Herald, Scribe, soon to be Laurel, and Baron of
Stormhold in Lochac.

[c***@mail.netunix.com]

Post by David Cameron Staples

Post by The Horny Goat
Heh heh - my firstborn has gotten heavily into the SCA. I like the
history and the pun-play but am totally not into camping which is a
lot of what they do between swordplay and medieval arts.

If you like the history and research and puns, but not so much the
camping, may I suggest the SCA College of Heralds?
Because, as everyone knows, Heralds don't pun; they cant.

<grone>

[The Horny Goat]

On Wed, 4 Oct 2017 10:33:34 +1100, David Cameron Staples

Post by David Cameron Staples

Post by The Horny Goat
Heh heh - my firstborn has gotten heavily into the SCA. I like the
history and the pun-play but am totally not into camping which is a
lot of what they do between swordplay and medieval arts.

If you like the history and research and puns, but not so much the
camping, may I suggest the SCA College of Heralds?
Because, as everyone knows, Heralds don't pun; they cant.

She and I have joined some of the same things through the years -
Toastmasters, various online games etc but I don't think she'd
appreciate me horning in on "her" things even though back in my
undergraduate days I was big in the UBC Wargames club several of whose
members were instrumental in the founding of the Barony of Lions Gate
part of the Principality of An Tir (have I got that right?) some 35-40
years ago so while I do know a lot of the language have lost track of
all of them and since I remember their 'mundane' names she can't tell
me if any of them are still active. She was Barony Master of Arts two
years ago and is thinking of competing for the Principality title in
the coming year.

[David Cameron Staples]

Post by The Horny Goat
Principality of An Tir (have I got that right?)

*Kingdom* of An Tir, since 1981.

[The Horny Goat]

On Wed, 4 Oct 2017 21:51:59 -0000 (UTC), David Cameron Staples

Post by David Cameron Staples

Post by The Horny Goat
Principality of An Tir (have I got that right?)

*Kingdom* of An Tir, since 1981.

Hmmm. In 1981 I was in business school 3000 miles east of the Pacific
Northwest which I presume you know where An Tir is.

2 years later I met her mother and 4 years later the future Master of
Arts entered this vale of tears.

[Satya]

Post by The Horny Goat
Heh heh - my firstborn has gotten heavily into the SCA. I like the
history and the pun-play but am totally not into camping which is a
lot of what they do between swordplay and medieval arts.

Huh... wonder if I can convince the BSA to do a SCA-themed outing.

[Satya]

I thought my feed was dead. I'd pretty much given up on ASR and usenet in
general.

ObASR: You can't just write any old SQL with multiple joins against multiple
large tables and expect
/bin/bash: /usr/games/rot13: No such file or directory
to keep up.

... umm, balls.

I'll be back.

[Gallian]

Post by Satya
I thought my feed was dead. I'd pretty much given up on ASR and usenet in
general.

Old feeds never die?

[Mans Nilsson]

Post by Gallian

Post by Satya
I thought my feed was dead. I'd pretty much given up on ASR and usenet in
general.

Old feeds never die?

I was delighted in a depressing way when I discovered
Eternal-Septmeber. a.s.r is something necessary yet at times horrible,
at times most entertaining (assuming posts are being written). I had no
organization-associated news server for a long time. eternal-september
is a good safety valve.

ObASR:

Lusers. PHBen. Organisational fallacies.

*sigh*

[Lawns 'R' Us]

Post by c***@mail.netunix.com
Sadly many are now recovered, at 0x48 and counting I have not even seen
a Stun box for many a year. The years are thinning us out a bit
I wonder if Mikea is still extant, ISTR he is about the same age as me
and was having a few health problems the last I heard.

He's still around, still having a few health problems alas. I'm in
contact with him via the Book of Faces. Which I dislike immensely, but
alas, I don't really have much choice - I'm in a sporting club, and
training sessions are organised there. Not so much a problem for those
sessions that have a regular time and venue, but a rather big problem
for the weekly thingy that can start from various different locations.

Grumble.

[m***@att.net]

Post by Brian Kantor
1. I'm retiring from UCSD, after 46 years on campus.

Dancing rodents!

Post by Brian Kantor
2. The 'ihnp4' news server here at UCSD is failing, and without me
around to maintain it, it's going to go tits-up and be sent to scrap.

FWIW, the earliest reply I have here that mentions that box is from
December 2006.

Post by Brian Kantor
Maybe I'll sign up to eternal-september.org to keep up with Usenet.

They do support the configuration required for this froup. A few months
ago, all of the older articles here mysteriously disappeared from their
server, but that may be related to the new machine that Mans says they
got.

Before this post, the last time I posted to Usenet was in August 2016.
Nobody has paid me money to do anything with software since late 2015,
for a variety of reasons. In 2016, I bought another house, and after a
lot of work and a learning curve, rented it out earlier this year. It's
sort of nice to *be* the idiot that runs the place, rather than working
*for* him or her.

Post by Brian Kantor
RFC977? That's a pretty long run for an Internet protocol.

It is! Although High Tech Toilet Paper is only 5 years newer...

Some things just stick around. I have a little board that has a
microcontroller and a 3G cell phone on it. When I want it to do
something with the phone, all the commands start with "AT".

Matt Roberds

[Mans Nilsson]

Post by m***@att.net
They do support the configuration required for this froup. A few months
ago, all of the older articles here mysteriously disappeared from their
server, but that may be related to the new machine that Mans says they
got.

Probably not; these events do not match in time. The swap was 1993-09-8781.

ObASR: Lusers, bosses. VGVY.

[Steve VanDevender]

Post by m***@att.net

Post by Brian Kantor
2. The 'ihnp4' news server here at UCSD is failing, and without me
around to maintain it, it's going to go tits-up and be sent to scrap.

FWIW, the earliest reply I have here that mentions that box is from
December 2006.

I remember ihnp4 being a common node in UUCP bang-path addresses in the
mid-1980s.

[Garrett Wollman]

Post by Steve VanDevender
I remember ihnp4 being a common node in UUCP bang-path addresses in the
mid-1980s.

That was AT&T in, um, Indianapolis? A Bell Labs or (ex-)Western
Electroc installation, at any rate.

-GAWollman

[brian]

Post by Steve VanDevender

Post by m***@att.net

Post by Brian Kantor
2. The 'ihnp4' news server here at UCSD is failing, and without me
around to maintain it, it's going to go tits-up and be sent to scrap.

FWIW, the earliest reply I have here that mentions that box is from
December 2006.

I remember ihnp4 being a common node in UUCP bang-path addresses in the
mid-1980s.

Yes, that was AT&T's Indian Hill Network Processor 4, which ihnp4.ucsd.edu
was named after in honor of the original IHNP4's many years of service to
Usenet.
- Brian

[David Gersic]

Post by Brian Kantor
Two things are happening that lead me to bid farewell to this
1. I'm retiring from UCSD, after 46 years on campus.

Congratulations!