Hey Nancy!

Dec 17 18:36 05, Nancy Backus wrote to Maurice Kinal:

 NB> to the batch file, and, as that is less of a deal as the larger qwk
 NB> packets (users not complaining about), just hasn't been taken care 
 NB> of. 
 NB> The sysop has been particularly busy lately on non-bbs stuff.  

Understood.  I think a more universal format would be the way to go and
then users, points, nodes, etc. would more or less be on the same page. 
Easier said then done though.

 NB> I understand that a large part of it is that new computer users are
 NB> taught, and given software, for getting onto the Inet.

Right.  I've noticed that.  Thus things like MSN automagically become the
path of least resistance and are assured of users, despite them
understanding or not what it is they are actually doing.

 NB> BBS's aren't
 NB> even mentioned.

I don't think they ever were, or at least from what I saw.  I stumbled upon
them 'accidently' and noticed there might be something useful in them. 
Originially I wrote a online databasing BBS to facillate transfers of data
to my home computer from a network which was wordly connected.  That was
running on a 386 with DOS and a C compiler so I could hack DOS to do
something constructive for a change.  :-)

Linux is more suited to what I do with computers.  I don't miss DOS and
just for the record I didn't ditch it because of Y2K, I ditched it because
it was getting in the way too much.  I also scrapped alot of personal work
done there, mostly fortran.  I don't miss any of it.

 NB> Once upon a time, you bought a computer, you might 
 NB> well
 NB> be given a list of access numbers for local bbs's, and shown how to 
 NB> get
 NB> on at least one of them...  And most of the "net" talk was of bbs 
 NB> nets,
 NB> not the Internet...

Neither when I bought my first PC.  I stumbled across BBS's whereas the
internet I already was using long before ISP's due to paying work so I
learned while I had the opportunity.  Later with the www I decided there
wan't any real personal need anywhere there so I never did anything
meaningful with it.  However I do have a site but am not happy with it but
everyone else seems to think it is good so I leave it alone and hope for
the best.  It hasn't done anything meaningful to me personally.

 NB> To some extent, it's just a little piece of a much wider practice of
 NB> decentralizing, of the break-down of community. 

For sure.  Whether that was intentional is a highly debatable point.

Life is good,
Maurice

--- Msged/LNX 6.1.2