-=> Rick Christian wrote to Tony Langdon <=-   
      
    RC> FD had a nice setup screen, status screen, and there was more it to a   
    RC> the time,   
    RC>  which I don't recall all the details. Alot of it had to do with actual   
    RC> operation of the queue(s) etc, but that is a rough recolection at best.   
      
   Bink was more text driven.  I did pretty up its status screen with some   
   olours.   
      
    TL> especially in the earlier days, when I was running 2400 bps.  Was   
    TL> interesting seeing bot RxD and Txd lights on continuously. :)   
      
    RC> Well I had what Bell of PA at that time called Metro Service, basically   
    RC> I could   
    RC>  call most of the 412 area code prior to the NPA split, for   
    RC> $35-40/month. Slurp   
    RC>  as much as I needed.   
      
   My transfers were local, but they were fairly large for the day, so the   
   bidirectional protocol was a huge time saver.  I'v be like "Cool, this system   
   runs Bink, or "Damn, it's FD, slower transfers! :D   
      
    TL> I was a big fan of GIGO at the time. :)   
      
    RC> I got hooked into the beta testing of it early on, and it was like FD   
    RC> it worked   
    RC>  better than what was the big work horse of this at the time, I think   
    RC> UFGATE??   
    RC>  GIGO was just awesome. I had to be doing this on something for awhile   
    RC> before GIGO came along..hmmm.. I had a uucp account with Telerama for a   
    RC> long time. Matter of fact I think I was like one of the last few they   
    RC> were allowing to keep the damn things! I 'd love to see the code of   
    RC> this revived for Linux.  It won't be me as a I don't touch C.   
      
   I loved GIGO, it did almost everything, but not quite.  It wasn't built to gate   
   netmail from multiple zones, but a handy utility called NetMgr did some fancy   
   rewriting, creating  virtual addresses in each othernet for my gateway.  It   
   won't be me that works on GIGO either, I also stay away from C, never really   
   learned it. :(   
      
    TL> Yeah, all are dead, as are the [amateur|Part 97] packet radio to   
    TL> FTN   
    TL> gating   
    TL> systems   
    TL> that were around in the 90s. :(   
      
    RC> Really??  None of those survived? Hmm I would have thought some of that   
    RC> stuff in the packet world of Amateur radio would continue on. I never   
    RC> got into that as at that time you still needed 5WPM CW, and my brain   
    RC> just didn't then and doesn't know work for CW. I moved on to build much   
    RC> bigger radios sytems in numerous states.   
      
   Packet survived, but not the gateways to Fidonet.   
      
    RC> I'd love to see a phoneix of Gigo on Linux, and I'd test it out, I   
    RC> think Fido, FTN/UseNet/Email gating is till a useful thing. Even if the   
    RC> little whippersnappers don't see the big pixture!   
      
   I would love to see GIGO come back too.  Linux would be my platform of choice   
   as well, since that's what I base my servers on.  Syncronet has some cool   
   capabilities, but it doesn't seem to be able to gate email like GIGO could.   
      
    RC> My lab notes for testing have things like FD, BGFAX under DOSBox on the   
    RC> list, I   
    RC>  just have so many things going on right now the list never seems to   
    RC> shrink!   
      
   Sounds like all of my todo lists. :D   
      
      
   ... Mashed potatoes with skim milk is like a sports car with an automatic.   
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