Hey Janis!

> haha.. yeah.. I don't know when I saw a floppy drive last on a
> system

I am not sure either.  I am guesstimating the last time I actually used one
was ~98-ish when I first started playing around with linux distributions -
mostly slackware - OS/2 Warp 3 (I think) as well as FreeBSD version
something-or-other on ye ol' 486.  Due to addressing issues with a 2G HD
and the bios on there linux won since I had to lie to the bios about
geometery which caused grief for OS/2.  Only the linux and freebsd (<- I
recall it working but am not 100% sure) kernels would pick up on that and
set the geometry straight once getting by the bios in the boot process.

> cd/dvd players now of course

Currently not on either of my systems but everyone and their dog's in this
neck of the woods.  They can keep them.  

> Someday all of our old hardware will become valuable "Vintage
> Items" (tm)

More of a curiousity methinks.

> eating bon-bons all day like I do Lol

Why do I doubt that?

> When I ever tested it, the bluewave extension worked

Okay.  Myself I tried an upload from the telnet menu and that froze up the
telnet client at this end but I managed to see that your end was expecting
a "testgrab.hra" whatever that really is.  I haven't tried
anything since.  Before that I tried uploading via ftp of a
"testgrab.rep" and could only successfully write to /tmp in the
chroot jail, aka BBBS. Not seeing a test message on the BBS I assume it was
not formatted properly which isn't surprising.

While I was telnetted there I did notice the online ftp client could
successfully hook up with one of the ftpd servers here.  I found that
amusing since I can already do that from here without logging into a server
across the continent.  :-)

> Most people use Offline reader programs like Multi-Mail, etc.
> to read, reply and create packets

Understood.

> you could look at the source code for Multi-mail if you want
> to roll your own

I have to since it needs to be patched to bring up to date glibc-wise as
well as to make a pure 64 bit capable app.  All my libs are pure 64 bit at
the moment.  Also only have g++ available on a few chrootable partitions
and my current default boot/root is C only.  I am writing some
install/backup/restore utilities for myself and wanted to make sure they
will work without and unwanted leakage from anything other than C. However
it could be done if it needed to be done.  My neighbour Paul who has a user
account on your BBS liked multimail when he saw it here last.

Speaking for myself I prefer the text based idea and am willing to hold out
until that is doable.  That way I don't have to deal with anything other
than 8 bit characters which is compatible with EVERYTHING, including DOS. 
The rest of the formats are corrupt imho.  Pure, unadultered evil that must
die a most horrific death if you prefer. Same can be said for zmodem. 
:::shudder:::

> if you're concerned about "where", you can post and test, etc.
> in the PDNECHO

Sounds like a plan.

I'll get on it as soon as I finish what I started today.  I'll need that to
compile multimail anyhow so that part of compatibilty could work. The ftp
upload part I'll try once everything is in place.

Life is good,
Maurice

--- BBBS/LiI v4.01 Flag