StarDestroyer.Net BBS

Talk about a walk down memory lane! I can't believe some of the OSs some of you are still using. Well, I can understand if you're running an archaic machine, for which you would need an archaic OS. But at my office, I am running an ancient Pentium and I have XP Pro running on it. It's only function is to tie my copier into the network so that I can use the copier as a printer from time to time. It's up and running all the time, because it takes half a day to boot up. I'm sure the hard drive would crash if I turned it off. I had that happen to a server that ran non-stop for a couple of years. Turned it off and it decided that was all she wrote. I guess it didn't like forced labor 24/7/365.

aerius wrote:I have a PII-400 which refuses to die, therefore I run Windows 98 on it. If I need a faster computer, I just use my fiancée's.

Mate, just run anything, anything but Win 98. You may as well have said you run ME, which is what Satan copulating with Bill Gates in a virtual world would produce. If Satan existed and, uh, you could make out and have offspring as an operating system.

But the analogy is sound! Don't touch those OSs.

I intend to get Workbench running on this PC soon. Windows XP, Ubuntu 6.10 and Workbench 4.0. Oh yes.

I intend to get Workbench running on this PC soon.

Workbench? Amiga Workbench? I've been meaning to try it if I can find the disc somewhere, but doesn't that run only on an actual Amiga?

I think the problem might be that I'm trying to make the install floppies from XP, and the script probably expects some sort of DOS-based system.

You should be able to create OS/2 boot floppies with XP, I've seen it in install guides (like here). Have you formatted the floppies?

I've replaced IE with something less primitive:



Now if only I could get the sound working I'd dig up my 25th Anniversary disks and finally finish that game...

A pox on thee, Mike - SDN is almost unreadable for us poor souls who use Windows 3.11! (pics forthcoming because Photobucket is beyond what a 13-year-old OS can handle)

Opera 3.62, WFW 3.11 - I wonder how low you can go before internet access becomes impossible?

Internet browsers were written for MS-DOS (most notably, Arachne) but getting networking to work in DOS is not the easiest task in the world.

phongn wrote:Internet browsers were written for MS-DOS (most notably, Arachne) but getting networking to work in DOS is not the easiest task in the world.

Tell me about it. I tried Arachne, but half the terminology in the setup screen sounded like Chinese to me.

WFW 3.11 with internet access and a patched 32-bit 1024x768 display driver, click for full hi-res glory:



While I can now browse somewhat properly, the login at SDN throws up a bizarre "you need to change your password every 2000-odd days" error

Bounty wrote:

I intend to get Workbench running on this PC soon.

Workbench? Amiga Workbench? I've been meaning to try it if I can find the disc somewhere, but doesn't that run only on an actual Amiga?

I think the problem might be that I'm trying to make the install floppies from XP, and the script probably expects some sort of DOS-based system.

You should be able to create OS/2 boot floppies with XP, I've seen it in install guides (like here). Have you formatted the floppies?

I'd been using that install guide, but the process of creating the disks always stops at 99% with the message:

Error while writing the disk data
A problem occured while creating the installation
diskettes. Refer to the README.INS file located in
the root directory on the CD-ROM for additional help.

I got my hands on a Warp 4 disc, I'll see if I have more luck.

Actually, it turns out that you can just copy the image files off the CD and rename them so that they work with qemu, so now I can get through the installation, but the post-installation setup crashed on me. I might try again later.

Ha, I remember talking to a guy in my unit who's about 34 or so. He was saying how back in the MS-DOS proto-internet days when you shared porn on bbs you didn't even see a picture, just the file name. You DL'd it and then accessed it on your computer off-line at a later time.

Is all that true? That's some wanky shit.

SPC Brungardt wrote:Ha, I remember talking to a guy in my unit who's about 34 or so. He was saying how back in the MS-DOS proto-internet days when you shared porn on bbs you didn't even see a picture, just the file name. You DL'd it and then accessed it on your computer off-line at a later time.

Is all that true? That's some wanky shit.

Oh yeah, it's completely true. Back in the day of 14.4k modems you'd dial in to a BBS and they'd have some file areas with games, porn, and utilities such as a viewer for viewing the porn. You'd got some file credits when you sign up and when you upload, and then you leach the porn & games for later use & viewing. And then US Robotics came out with the V.FC and later on the V.34 modems which boosted speed to a stunning 28.8k and 33.4k, that was like awesome fast for downloading porn pics.

aerius wrote:

SPC Brungardt wrote:Ha, I remember talking to a guy in my unit who's about 34 or so. He was saying how back in the MS-DOS proto-internet days when you shared porn on bbs you didn't even see a picture, just the file name. You DL'd it and then accessed it on your computer off-line at a later time.

Is all that true? That's some wanky shit.

Oh yeah, it's completely true. Back in the day of 14.4k modems you'd dial in to a BBS and they'd have some file areas with games, porn, and utilities such as a viewer for viewing the porn. You'd got some file credits when you sign up and when you upload, and then you leach the porn & games for later use & viewing. And then US Robotics came out with the V.FC and later on the V.34 modems which boosted speed to a stunning 28.8k and 33.4k, that was like awesome fast for downloading porn pics.

Hell I remember ascii porn.

Lisa wrote:
Hell I remember ascii porn.

WHAT?

Bounty wrote:WFW 3.11 with internet access and a patched 32-bit 1024x768 display driver, click for full hi-res glory:

You sir - are awseome. I only wish the old laptop I was going to do something similar to was not thrown away by my dad.

Nitram: What's the oldest Window's you remember?
Me: ... Nitram, Think About What You're Saying.
Nit: Huh? Oh..... um.. Right. Well, someone's running SDnet on Win 3.
Me: ......... WTF? *looks*
Me: Ok... now let's see them do it on a Commadore 64, or a Apple II. Somehow I doubt a Trash80 would handle it.
Me: *reading more* 14.4 is SLOW? Stupid kids... I was doing BBS posts in ASCII on a 600baud.

Let it be known that I'm officially challenging anyone who reads this to get Windows 2.0 or lower installed and working, and to access SD.Net with it, and to post a screenshot.

Oh, and this has to be a bare metal install, no cheating with VMWare, Qemu, et al.

If you succeed, you get absolutely nothing!

Let it be known that I'm officially challenging anyone who reads this to get Windows 2.0 or lower installed and working, and to access SD.Net with it, and to post a screenshot.

Oh, and this has to be a bare metal install, no cheating with VMWare, Qemu, et al.

I can't do a bare metal install, XP goes beyond the 1024th cilinder. Well, I could if I redo my partitions and a Windows 2.0 install is theoretically possible if I can find the discs, but the only way I can get internet is through bridging since I doubt you'll find DOS or early Win drivers for a Nintendo USB adaptor.

Ok... now let's see them do it on a Commadore 64, or a Apple II. Somehow I doubt a Trash80 would handle it.

A C64 running Contiki would *theoretically* be able to do it...if the HTML pages fit in memory.

Destructionator XIII wrote:

Master of Cards wrote:

Lisa wrote:Hell I remember ascii porn.

WHAT?

You can see it, and it is kinda funny. For best results, view in lynx on a real 80x25 text terminal, but graphical regular browsers are ok too. It is funny because it is so absurd.

Obviously NSFW: +http://www.asciipr0n.com/

During the last World Cup, you could watch matches via TELNET in ASCII. I didn't really get into the internet until well into the 56k era, but even I know that as long as you have *some* avenue of sending and receiving data, it will be used for pron, even if it's byte-per-byte

LadyTevar wrote:Ok... now let's see them do it on a Commodore 64, or a Apple II. Somehow I doubt a Trash80 would handle it.

Some searching and swearing has shown that yes, a real C64 equipped with an aftermarket ethernet card and a suitable operating system can browser SDN; the VICE emulator, with some packet software, can emulate this behaviour almost perfectly; but compiling the OS (Contiki) has repeatedly failed. Sorry.

An Apple IIe can browse the web, again with Contiki and an ethernet card; video is here.

The TRS-80 didn't have networking.