Walter, isn't it a shame the way our little world has changed?

[austin_dern]

So, now, the good news: I have a fresh round of evidence that I am not a monster of vanity and arrogance and can accept with tranquility people not finding every thought that pops into my head being as interesting as I think it is. The bad news: none of my Usenet postings have actually gotten off the local server and to the outside world since the start of the month and it took me this long to realize that people weren't responding to me not because I was dull but because as best they could tell I wasn't there at all.

So, the good news: when I e-mailed the parties nominally responsible for overseeing Usenet at my preferred providing source, they were not (at least in their response) confused about what Usenet was or whether they had a Usenet server or whether I shouldn't be talking with the Usenet Company instead of them. The bad news: my streak of never having a problem report believed in my first time around continues unbroken (they insist that as far as they can tell, there's no problems with it).

So, the good news: they haven't used a specific problem report that forced someone to look at the Usenet server as the pretext to discontinue Usenet service altogether as too much work for too little use. The bad news: they admitted that yeah, Usenet is no longer really supported by them anymore and they won't be putting any particular effort into maintaining or repairing it.

So, the good news: this is the chance to finally prod me into getting my own source of Usenet, possibly through news.individual.net, possibly through Panix as I like being awash in the comforts of a worldwide accessible Unix shell. The bad news: change bad scary want Usenet like it was in 1998 only with fewer jerks beat savagely YouTube comments stop being stupid world don't want don't want don't want do different thing from fifteen years ago stop.

Trivia: Jack Kilby's first ``solid circuit'', making all components out of a single 1/16-inch by 7/16-inch germanium wafer with god wiree gold wires to connect the components, was an oscillator built in September 1958. Its patent, applied for in 1959, was granted in 1964. Source: A History Of Modern Computing, Paul E Ceruzzi.

Currently Reading: The Apollo Guidance Computer: Architecture and Operation, Frank O'Brien.

Comments

[bunny-hugger.livejournal.com]

MT-Newswatcher is a perfectly nice multi-threaded Mac newsreader.

http://www.smfr.org/mtnw/

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I remember disliking MT-Newswatcher back in the day, when the day was 1996 and the competition was (romantic, longing sigh) Cyberdog. I may give it a fresh try. Another leading candidate will be Unison, since the same company's Transmit is so wonderfully More Mac Than Mac an FTP client and I like that design style.

[bunny-hugger.livejournal.com]

Oh, I used to use that when it was still called Transit.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

That's the one. I sometime slip up on the name too and end up fumbling between ``Transit'', ``Transmit'', and ``That FTP thing'', which makes it better that I don't have to talk too much about it to anyone.

[mondhasen.livejournal.com]

change bad scary

Drop me off in '96 if you find a way back ;o)

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

You'd think there'd at least be room enough for a Usenet feed. Certainly communicants from the distant future would be the least weird thing about Usenet In Its Prime. We strongly suspected they were there anyway, where ``distant future'' means ``weird, badly broken alternate reality''.

[lexomatic.livejournal.com]

::: The bad news: none of my Usenet postings have actually gotten off the local server and to the outside world

So did you actually join Jack Bohn(?) and myself on rec.arts.startrek.tech evaluating the designs submitted to the Star Trek Online Design The Next Enterprise (http://www.startrekonline.com/enterprise) contest? Submissions and public voting ended on January 15, but the gallery is still open.

::: Usenet is no longer really supported by them anymore

I use Eternal-September.org (formerly Motzarella). They have a strangely (savagely, despotically) abbreviated retention policy on rec.arts.startrek.tech as opposed to rec.arts.sf.written or alt.toys.transformers.

::: germanium wafer with god wiree

I know modern terminology hadn't been invented in 1959, when they were still talking about "words" of storage and FORTRAN programs were "codes," but what's a "god wiree" when it's at home? It sounds interesting. (Go, God Wiring Mandrel-Force!)

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I did indeed join the discussion and thought it odd that my definitive proclamations about non-rounded saucer sections didn't draw any response, but I assumed that just reflected me not being interesting enough to answer. I also posted something about yet another round of metal-based ``glass'' that I expected would result in this half-year's Transparent Aluminum story, but no takers for that and no apparent round of Transparent Aluminum stories in the usual haunts.

Ah, retention ... that's going to be the hardest thing to give up. My mute server has a retention of about ten months, which means when I fire up nn and look at the earliest posts seen in the group even those I wrote are wonderfully original.

``god wiree'' is a blasted typo, of the kind that's been turning up more often lately. I know it's cheap to blame the keyboard instead of my failing eyes, but I definitely make more of these kinds of typos on my nearly five-year-old laptop than I do on newer keyboards, which doesn't excuse my failure to catch them in proofreading. (Plus, yeah, sometimes these typos turn out to be interesting enough to deserve lives of their own.)

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking of ``wiree'' now as some kind of fairground-type snack, maybe like by taking fine strands of taro, deep-frying it, and powdering it with confectioner's sugar. The ``god'' part would be either something in the prep or maybe a flavor agent. Maybe there's some slim enough concentration of (I hate to say this) durian that adds excitement to the flavor without making it unspeakably awful, the way tiny enough concentrations of musk make for interesting perfumes, and with durian's durian-promoter promoted reputation as king of horrible, horrible, horrible smells fruits the terms come together, king transmuting effortlessly to god in this context.

[chefmongoose.livejournal.com]

don't want do different thing from fifteen years ago stop.

well, this is why I still run Trebuchet.

..except on Ubuntu where it's failed me and I need use KildClient for the two times a year I'm jumping online from there. I mean, if there's ever a situation where Trebuchet should run nicely on the first install, I'd figure it'd be Ubuntu. :P