Happy Memorial Day weekend - with a hearty thanks to all the freeware Usenet server admins & clients around the world!

Thank you all, for providing what we all love & enjoy, which allows us to
anonymously communicate, as best we can, on the Internet, via Usenet!

My off-the-cuff history with Usenet... (please add your experiences so
that, as always, all benefit from your every action on the Internet).

When I joined a Silicon Valley startup, just out of grad school, decades
ago, the IT guy eventually implemented this "new" free communication
system, called "Usenet" where we could discuss technical things on this
thing called the "Internet" using our DEC, Masscomp, SunOS, and eventually
Solaris machines (well before Linux took off I think).

We installed this freeware thing called "rn" and then later, "tin", and it
just worked fine, where we even used our real names, and real email
addresses (by then we didn't even need to bang the path through the net to
our smtp mail servers).

Over time, Mac & Windows PC's arrived (where we were forced to use Samba
and CAP just so that they could all read the same files as PCs did) as did
graphical newsreaders like Pan or Dialog, where, at some point, we even had
this "Internet" at home, via ISDN the phone company, which the company paid
for because it was a "business need" to be connected at all times.

Moving onward, at some point, AT&T had sbcglobal Usenet server settings,
which was the first time our Usenet was divorced from the company servers
(in those days, you didn't worry about what you said on the net, even at
work as the IT guy, maybe two guys by now, was a rebel like the rest of us
were).

This weird thing called 'spam' showed up one day, out of the blue, where we
actually _responded_ to it telling people to stop it, and even complained
to their admin about them sending unwanted advertisements in our email
(where we started with 'mail -s "subject" body' but now we
had graphical MUAs such as "Eudora").

At some point, we were forced to implement procmail filters (this is before
Google existed), and even mailbombs to stop what we began calling
"spammers" at some point in time.

At some point Usenet became politicized, where Mario Cuomo and AT&T decided
to kill it once and for all, one for purely political gain, while the other
for cost shaving reasons... and they ended "free Usenet" via your local
phone company (at least via mine).

At that point, I needed a Usenet server, where Paolo Amoroso instantly came
to our rescue, and then, over time (I don't remember the order), Ray
Bananna, Alexander Bartolich & Sabine Schultz, and then Roman Racine, Alex
de Joode, Steve Crook, Jessie Rehmer, Daniel & Monika Weber & Benjamin
Gufler, Neodome Admin, & Steen Jensen, et al. (whom did I miss?)

Thank you all, for providing what we all love & enjoy, which allows us to
anonymously communicate, as best we can, on the Internet, via Usenet!
--
Usenet is one of the last free bastions of public polite discussion!

Arlen Holder wrote:

Thank you all, for providing what we all love & enjoy, which allows
us to anonymously communicate, as best we can, on the Internet, via
Usenet!

And big thanks to Lance for inventing Mixmaster and Steve for inventing
YAMN and also big thanks to Peter for continuing the development of
Bitmessage, as an alternative to Usenet and email.

Regards
Stefan

--
https://keybase.io/stefan_claas

In article ,
Stefan Claas wrote:
Arlen Holder wrote:

Thank you all, for providing what we all love & enjoy, which allows
us to anonymously communicate, as best we can, on the Internet, via
Usenet!

And big thanks to Lance for inventing Mixmaster and Steve for inventing
YAMN and also big thanks to Peter for continuing the development of
Bitmessage, as an alternative to Usenet and email.

And thanks to Tom Edison for the light bulb.

And Al Gore for the Internet.

And Leonardo for the airplane.

--
The randomly chosen signature file that would have appeared here is more than 4
lines long. As such, it violates one or more Usenet RFCs. In order to remain
in compliance with said RFCs, the actual sig can be found at the following URL:
http://user.xmission.com/~gazelle/Sigs/Pedantic

Stefan Claas wrote:

Arlen Holder wrote:

Thank you all, for providing what we all love & enjoy, which allows
us to anonymously communicate, as best we can, on the Internet, via
Usenet!

And big thanks to Lance for inventing Mixmaster and Steve for
inventing YAMN and also big thanks to Peter for continuing the
development of Bitmessage, as an alternative to Usenet and email.

And last but not least big thanks to the folks from NRL for releasing
the Onion Routing stuff, thus allowing us to use Usenet with Tor. :-)

Regards
Stefan

--
https://keybase.io/stefan_claas

Kenny McCormack wrote:

In article ,
Stefan Claas wrote:
Arlen Holder wrote:

Thank you all, for providing what we all love & enjoy, which allows
us to anonymously communicate, as best we can, on the Internet, via
Usenet!

And big thanks to Lance for inventing Mixmaster and Steve for
inventing YAMN and also big thanks to Peter for continuing the
development of Bitmessage, as an alternative to Usenet and email.

And thanks to Tom Edison for the light bulb.

And Al Gore for the Internet.

I used Usenet before Al Gore 'invented' the Internet, so no thanks
from me. :-D

Regards
Stefan

--
https://keybase.io/stefan_claas

Arlen Holder wrote:

My off-the-cuff history with Usenet... (please add your experiences so
that, as always, all benefit from your every action on the Internet).

[...]

One episode I remember was when one kind person fired up PGPfone for
the Macintosh in the mid 90s, via hacktick. :-D

And before that it was also pretty cool from Julf to run anon.penet.fi

Regards
Stefan

--
https://keybase.io/stefan_claas

Stefan Claas wrote:

Arlen Holder wrote:

My off-the-cuff history with Usenet... (please add your experiences
so that, as always, all benefit from your every action on the
Internet).

[...]

One episode I remember was when one kind person fired up PGPfone for
the Macintosh in the mid 90s, via hacktick. :-D

Typo ... hacktic.

Regards
Stefan

--
https://keybase.io/stefan_claas

In article ,
Stefan Claas wrote:
Kenny McCormack wrote:

In article ,
Stefan Claas wrote:
Arlen Holder wrote:

Thank you all, for providing what we all love & enjoy, which allows
us to anonymously communicate, as best we can, on the Internet, via
Usenet!

And big thanks to Lance for inventing Mixmaster and Steve for
inventing YAMN and also big thanks to Peter for continuing the
development of Bitmessage, as an alternative to Usenet and email.

And thanks to Tom Edison for the light bulb.

And Al Gore for the Internet.

I used Usenet before Al Gore 'invented' the Internet, so no thanks
from me. :-D

And thanks to G.W. Carver for the peanut.

And to Henry Ford for the automobile.

And Mark Z. for the basic idea of people communicating with each other online.

--
The randomly chosen signature file that would have appeared here is more than 4
lines long. As such, it violates one or more Usenet RFCs. In order to remain
in compliance with said RFCs, the actual sig can be found at the following URL:
http://user.xmission.com/~gazelle/Sigs/GodDelusion

Kenny McCormack wrote:

In article ,
Stefan Claas wrote:
Kenny McCormack wrote:

In article ,
Stefan Claas wrote:
Arlen Holder wrote:

Thank you all, for providing what we all love & enjoy, which
allows us to anonymously communicate, as best we can, on the
Internet, via Usenet!

And big thanks to Lance for inventing Mixmaster and Steve for
inventing YAMN and also big thanks to Peter for continuing the
development of Bitmessage, as an alternative to Usenet and email.

And thanks to Tom Edison for the light bulb.

And Al Gore for the Internet.

I used Usenet before Al Gore 'invented' the Internet, so no thanks
from me. :-D

And thanks to G.W. Carver for the peanut.

And to Henry Ford for the automobile.

And Mark Z. for the basic idea of people communicating with each
other online.


*Absolutely not* Mark Z.!!! Before Al Gore 'invented' the Internet
we had such fine (global) services like CompuServe etc.

Regards
Stefan

--
https://keybase.io/stefan_claas

Arlen Holder wrote:


Thank you all, for providing what we all love & enjoy, which allows
us to anonymously communicate, as best we can, on the Internet, via
Usenet!

And big thanks to Lance for inventing Mixmaster and Steve for inventing
YAMN and also big thanks to Peter for continuing the development of
Bitmessage, as an alternative to Usenet and email.


And thanks for the democratic party to show everyone what evil genuine is.

On 5/25/20 1:15 PM, this is what Arlen Holder wrote:
Thank you all, for providing what we all love & enjoy, which allows us to
anonymously communicate, as best we can, on the Internet, via Usenet!

My off-the-cuff history with Usenet... (please add your experiences so
that, as always, all benefit from your every action on the Internet).

I think my communication history started with running a BBS in my house. I belonged to a Commodore 64 club and was running some packaged
BBS software with 2 Commodore's hard drives and a 14.4k Modem.

It was a lot of fun and provided that conversation between people. Granted most liked to trade files/programs, but there were a fair # of
messages etc.

After a while being a self taught programmer I learned the 8086 machine code, and converted the basic BBS software to my own version of a
BBS in machine code. Took me a while to get that Punter protocol working. (written by Steve Punter I think in Canada).

It was only possible to write after I got a Commodore 128 computer and a 8086 compiler for it. That sure hooked me into writing code and
tinkering in computers.

Later one of the guys in the club who worked for the county school system invited us over to his Internet lab to see this crazy new Netscape
and internet. "Hey you could talk to people in Australia", and "files could be anywhere in the world, you didn't know where". It was a
far cry from people calling my BBS that had to be within a local phone call to people and files all over the world at my reach. I just
never thought it would go so far as it has today.

Al

Big Al wrote:
On 5/25/20 1:15 PM, this is what Arlen Holder wrote:
Thank you all, for providing what we all love & enjoy, which allows
us to
anonymously communicate, as best we can, on the Internet, via Usenet!

My off-the-cuff history with Usenet... (please add your experiences so
that, as always, all benefit from your every action on the Internet).

I think my communication history started with running a BBS in my
house.Â* I belonged to a Commodore 64 club and was running some
packaged BBS software with 2 Commodore's hard drives and a 14.4k Modem.

It was a lot of fun and provided that conversation between people.
Granted most liked to trade files/programs, but there were a fair #
of messages etc.

After a while being a self taught programmer I learned the 8086
machine code, and converted the basic BBS software to my own version
of a BBS in machine code.Â*Â* Took me a while to get that Punter
protocol working.Â* (written by Steve Punter I think in Canada).

It was only possible to write after I got a Commodore 128 computer
and a 8086 compiler for it.Â* That sure hooked me into writing code
and tinkering in computers.

Later one of the guys in the club who worked for the county school
system invited us over to his Internet lab to see this crazy new
Netscape and internet.Â*Â* "Hey you could talk to people in Australia",
and "files could be anywhere in the world, you didn't know where".
It was a far cry from people calling my BBS that had to be within a
local phone call to people and files all over the world at my reach.
I just never thought it would go so far as it has today.

Al

I think you're misremembering some details. C64 had a 6502. C128 had
that + Z80. Original IBM PC was 8086. Admittedly that was a long time
ago.

Big Al wrote:
On 5/25/20 1:15 PM, this is what Arlen Holder wrote:
Thank you all, for providing what we all love & enjoy, which allows
us to
anonymously communicate, as best we can, on the Internet, via Usenet!

My off-the-cuff history with Usenet... (please add your experiences so
that, as always, all benefit from your every action on the Internet).

I think my communication history started with running a BBS in my
house.Â* I belonged to a Commodore 64 club and was running some
packaged BBS software with 2 Commodore's hard drives and a 14.4k Modem.

It was a lot of fun and provided that conversation between people.
Granted most liked to trade files/programs, but there were a fair #
of messages etc.

After a while being a self taught programmer I learned the 8086
machine code, and converted the basic BBS software to my own version
of a BBS in machine code.Â*Â* Took me a while to get that Punter
protocol working.Â* (written by Steve Punter I think in Canada).

It was only possible to write after I got a Commodore 128 computer
and a 8086 compiler for it.Â* That sure hooked me into writing code
and tinkering in computers.

Later one of the guys in the club who worked for the county school
system invited us over to his Internet lab to see this crazy new
Netscape and internet.Â*Â* "Hey you could talk to people in Australia",
and "files could be anywhere in the world, you didn't know where".
It was a far cry from people calling my BBS that had to be within a
local phone call to people and files all over the world at my reach.
I just never thought it would go so far as it has today.

Al

I think you're misremembering some details. C64 had a 6502. C128 had
that + Z80. Original IBM PC was 8086. Admittedly that was a long time
ago.

In article , Carl
Kaufmann wrote:

Original IBM PC was 8086.

8088

Admittedly that was a long time
ago.

clearly.

On 5/25/20 4:48 PM, this is what Carl Kaufmann wrote:
Big Al wrote:
On 5/25/20 1:15 PM, this is what Arlen Holder wrote:
Thank you all, for providing what we all love & enjoy, which allows us to
anonymously communicate, as best we can, on the Internet, via Usenet!

My off-the-cuff history with Usenet... (please add your experiences so
that, as always, all benefit from your every action on the Internet).

I think my communication history started with running a BBS in my house.Â* I belonged to a Commodore 64 club and was running some packaged
BBS software with 2 Commodore's hard drives and a 14.4k Modem.

It was a lot of fun and provided that conversation between people. Granted most liked to trade files/programs, but there were a fair # of
messages etc.

After a while being a self taught programmer I learned the 8086 machine code, and converted the basic BBS software to my own version of a
BBS in machine code.Â*Â* Took me a while to get that Punter protocol working.Â* (written by Steve Punter I think in Canada).

It was only possible to write after I got a Commodore 128 computer and a 8086 compiler for it.Â* That sure hooked me into writing code and
tinkering in computers.

Later one of the guys in the club who worked for the county school system invited us over to his Internet lab to see this crazy new
Netscape and internet.Â*Â* "Hey you could talk to people in Australia", and "files could be anywhere in the world, you didn't know where".
It was a far cry from people calling my BBS that had to be within a local phone call to people and files all over the world at my reach. I
just never thought it would go so far as it has today.

Al

I think you're misremembering some details. C64 had a 6502. C128 had that + Z80. Original IBM PC was 8086. Admittedly that was a long time ago.

Well I never said my memory wasn't fading a bit, but you're so right, 6502, a much smaller list of commands and easier to grasp than 808*.

Al