Hello Minh,

Minh Van Le wrote in a message to Richard Webb:


 MVL> Man you mean you haven't hooked up NetFOSS or Netserial - 
 MVL> what have you been DOING.

 RW> Nope, not on a dial-up internet connection on one line.

MVL> It still would have worked. Heh.

Maybe but I don't have reason to on a dial-up for numerous reasons.

 RW> VOlunteers is more the right word, I object to the "hobby" 
 RW> designation myself. SHall we just say for volunteer 
 RW> emergency communicators .

MVL> That would be more sensible.

 RW> I'll give it some study then, see what happens, but looks
 RW> like i'll be running the lnux executables ,g>.

MVL> The problem with the Linux version of Maximus is that it's more
MVL> flakey, less tested and unsupported.

SO I"ve herad, which ws one reason my thinking went toward the 16 or
32 bit versions.

 RW> True enough, but staying with plain text for most displays, 
 RW> it's about the info, and it's about being able to connect 
 RW> to it with just about anything. IF all you've got is an old 
 RW> 1200 baud modem it has a landline.  No slow to load 
 RW> graphics, no hassles with what plug-ins your browser has.

MVL> You don't need plugins for HTML.

NO you don't for straight html, but part of the reason for doing it this
way is both accessibility for those with the web access etc. and field
accessibility even if all you've got is an old 8088 with a 1200 baud modem
. IN the case of the antique I can still provide such a user with
a point setup that will run and let him automate retrieving the information
he wants/needs.

MVL> There's nothing a BBS can't display that can't be done with HTML. 

tHe main focus of this system is the mmessages, and some files for
retrieval.  Hence the form in which it's displayed is not as important as
just getting it to the end user. INtent is to have different flavors of
access for a variety of users.

otoh the business will have full blown web portal, no bbs at all.  wE'll
also hire that out. wE'll house it physically ourselves but an associate of
mine will be contracted to maintain and update business web site.

MVL> In an emergency I personally would prefer point'n'click interfaces
MVL> when browsing for information instead of telnet.

MVL> Up to you.

NOt as much "browsing" as just retrieve it to your local machine.
 Also this old blind geezer detests point and click and wading through a
bunch of information. An example might be tropical storm bulletins.  LEt
the user retrieve it, print it if he/she chooses, read it from the screen,
however. Even with aforementioned antique he can send it online to grab it
while he goes into the other room to finish fixing his dinner.  HE can also
do this on a computer that somebody else threw away as it's not fast
enough.  IF he wants the satellite pictures and all that, let him buy a
modern machine and pay for an internet connection .

Otoh for the guy with all the connectivity at his fingertips, he can telnet
or use www to get in.

 RW> I think option 3 sounds like the way to go here .  Have
 RW> one linux box anyway that will be networked but have other 
 RW> plans for it.

MVL> Just dump everything on one box. 

Numerous reasons I don't wish to do that.  tHe linux box will be used at
times with its usb card to  transfer from audio and other devices using
flash cards for such items as voice-overs for clients; audio transcriptions
for dissemination on a radio network for those who aren't comfortable
presenting this material, and at times large archival projects.  THis will
happen on the linux box because of my dislike of anything gui. tHe wife
otoh likes her gui a bit.

Meanwhile, for every day work in my office, notetaking, radio logging and
other chores I'm still rather fond of plain vanilla ms dos. i get around
quite well in its batch language, I like its screen access best of screen
access for all the other operating systems out there I've been acquainted
with. Hence we network the machines and have one trick ponies doing what
they do best.

oNe machine will handle router/firewall and all connections among the
different machines.  TOo many jobs to do, and a couple of them are going to
be cpu intensive no matter which os we run.  I also am a bit leery of
multiple os bootups on one machine. i sort of like the kiss principle, i.e.
keep it simple stupid .

Regards,
           Richard
--- timEd 1.10.y2k+