31 Aug
2018
31 Aug
'18
7:09 a.m.
I'm playing with the idea of hooking up a modem to my wireline phone.
I'd like to keep an eye on my late mother-in-law's place remotely. Best
I can get out there is DSL, and it ain't snappy, so one idea is to get
two Telebit Trailblazer modems, one here, one out there, dial into the
place, pull imagery via UUCP. Trailies spoof UUCP natively, and they
deal nicely with bad connectivity. One could take that one step further
and bring back a bit of Usenet.
Grant Taylor via TUHS wrote:
On 08/30/2018 11:54 AM, Michael Kjörling wrote:
This sounds interesting, but I'm not sure if
I'd be eligible.
I bet that you do.
What would be the entry criteria? 20 years
professional experience as
sysadmin on 4.3BSD? Physical PDP-11/780 running in the closet?
Valid question.
I'm of the opinion that the entry criteria are a client that can talk to
the RetroNet network (more on that in a moment) and a desire to
participate.
I'll also say that a healthy interest / curiosity in anything that runs
over / through RetroNet would be beneficial. But if you want to use
RetroNet to play Doom across IPX with buddies across town, then you
should be able to do so. (Assuming that you and your buddies are
RetroNet members.)
As for client, I'm initially targeting something like a Raspberry Pi or
any SOHO router that will run OpenWRT / DD-WRT / Tomato. Ideally I'd
like to re-use existing images (possibly with a different kernel) and
add on packages. I'd like those to be the almost-turn-key
installations. Almost as in you start with that and do some things on top.
If you want to roll your own Linux install that supports the documented
specifications, then more power to you.
One of the purposes of RetroNet is to enable members to be able to
participate and use the RetroNet for what ever they want (as long as
it's legal and does not adversely effect RetroNet or members). Another
purpose for RetroNet is to provide a network that we can provide a safe
environment for people that want to learn things and help /
encouragement to do so. Sort of like a mentor in a sandbox.
Aside: I've been using the term "member". I don't want that to
convey
any meaning other than someone that has signed up and has a RetroNet
account. I'm not anticipating any membership fees or anything like
that. Down the road we may set up something like a tip jar to help
cover costs like domain name subscription or other nominal costs.
In short, if you want to play in the sand box and you play well with
others, come on down. Let's have fun, learn, play.