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   
    * Origin: The Pointy Stick Society XV - Linux Point (1:261/38.9)