-=- still a place where ~ is $HOME -=-
February 6, 2019 1:47 PM Subscribe
This page is anonymous.
These days it's getting hard to have a truly anonymous web page, but at the SDF Public Access UNIX System, you too can have shell access to a wide array of services like INTERNETWORKED EMAIL, GAMES and USENET
Great to see that someone is making an offering like this!
posted by mctsonic at 2:22 PM on February 6, 2019
posted by mctsonic at 2:22 PM on February 6, 2019
alpine A complete recode of pine. Supposed to fix all of
pines problems but probably just makes new ones.Man, I feel you.
posted by gauche at 2:38 PM on February 6, 2019 [11 favorites]
I'm sure I have an old account there bet it never expires. Another source is the tile clubs.
posted by sammyo at 3:04 PM on February 6, 2019
posted by sammyo at 3:04 PM on February 6, 2019
They have a reasonably weird radio station which, among other things, hosts a weekly Choose Your Own Adventure read-along.
also, gopher is good
posted by phooky at 4:08 PM on February 6, 2019 [1 favorite]
also, gopher is good
posted by phooky at 4:08 PM on February 6, 2019 [1 favorite]
(I'm assuming by "tile clubs" sammyo is referring to tilde.club and tilde.town. And now I'm wondering if there are other tildes! tilde.horse appears to be available...)
posted by phooky at 4:10 PM on February 6, 2019
posted by phooky at 4:10 PM on February 6, 2019
I would swear I had a validated account years and years ago but damned if I can remember the creds.
posted by Pope Guilty at 6:19 PM on February 6, 2019
posted by Pope Guilty at 6:19 PM on February 6, 2019
Way cool, remembered password on the first try! Thanks for the reminder. They have a gopher portal!
posted by sammyo at 7:40 PM on February 6, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by sammyo at 7:40 PM on February 6, 2019 [1 favorite]
Why on $PLANET do they still support telnet?
posted by benzenedream at 10:22 PM on February 6, 2019
posted by benzenedream at 10:22 PM on February 6, 2019
Why on $PLANET do they still support telnet?
Who has an extra 664K to waste on a crypto library?
posted by mikelieman at 11:34 PM on February 6, 2019 [2 favorites]
[mike@orion ~]$ ll -h /usr/bin/telnet
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root 110K Oct 10 11:52 /usr/bin/telnet
[mike@orion ~]$ ll -h /usr/bin/ssh
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root 774K Jan 14 10:58 /usr/bin/sshWho has an extra 664K to waste on a crypto library?
posted by mikelieman at 11:34 PM on February 6, 2019 [2 favorites]
Excepting myself, of course...
posted by mikelieman at 11:34 PM on February 6, 2019
posted by mikelieman at 11:34 PM on February 6, 2019
Who has an extra 664K to waste on a crypto library?
Maybe it's running on a PDP-7.
posted by tommasz at 6:30 AM on February 7, 2019
Maybe it's running on a PDP-7.
posted by tommasz at 6:30 AM on February 7, 2019
Why on $PLANET do they still support telnet?
There's a big community of people on SDF who use old hardware as a hobby, and some of those machines don't support SSH. It's kinda up to you if you want to take the risk. They also still have dialup and are basically the last game in town if you want a no-shit dialup Unix shell (with SLIP/PPP internet!) for an authentic early-PC-era experience.
Personally if I had a PDP-10 sitting around, I'd probably stick a Raspberry Pi in there somewhere as a network gateway and let it handle SSH and stuff for me...
As an aside, one of the unique things SDF has is a TOPS-20 instance running on virtualized PDP hardware. So if you are nostalgic for that era or missed it the first time around, and don't have the space (or the three-phase power required for the early ones), you can log into SDF and then Telnet into TWENEX from there.
You could of course emulate your own PDP and TOPS-20 system if you want to, but having it be an actual shared, multiuser system replicates much of the feel of the original which is lost otherwise.
There are a lot of sub-hobbies that have their little corner of SDF. There's an amateur radio group, an internet radio group (that's quite active), telephone hardware enthusiasts (there's a whole virtual phone network of actual hardware connected over VOIP), Gopher users, etc., in addition to the classic/retro computer buffs.
Anyway, it's a neat place and I'm rather fond of it. A lifetime "ARPA" membership for basic services only costs $36. Best deal on the Internet after Metafilter, IMO.
posted by Kadin2048 at 7:04 AM on February 7, 2019 [2 favorites]
There's a big community of people on SDF who use old hardware as a hobby, and some of those machines don't support SSH. It's kinda up to you if you want to take the risk. They also still have dialup and are basically the last game in town if you want a no-shit dialup Unix shell (with SLIP/PPP internet!) for an authentic early-PC-era experience.
Personally if I had a PDP-10 sitting around, I'd probably stick a Raspberry Pi in there somewhere as a network gateway and let it handle SSH and stuff for me...
As an aside, one of the unique things SDF has is a TOPS-20 instance running on virtualized PDP hardware. So if you are nostalgic for that era or missed it the first time around, and don't have the space (or the three-phase power required for the early ones), you can log into SDF and then Telnet into TWENEX from there.
You could of course emulate your own PDP and TOPS-20 system if you want to, but having it be an actual shared, multiuser system replicates much of the feel of the original which is lost otherwise.
There are a lot of sub-hobbies that have their little corner of SDF. There's an amateur radio group, an internet radio group (that's quite active), telephone hardware enthusiasts (there's a whole virtual phone network of actual hardware connected over VOIP), Gopher users, etc., in addition to the classic/retro computer buffs.
Anyway, it's a neat place and I'm rather fond of it. A lifetime "ARPA" membership for basic services only costs $36. Best deal on the Internet after Metafilter, IMO.
posted by Kadin2048 at 7:04 AM on February 7, 2019 [2 favorites]
I used to play greed (https://svnweb.freebsd.org/ports/head/games/greed/) a lot on SDF. Kid bumped me off the top high score spot with a bot for college credit. More power to him or her.
posted by turkeybrain at 7:18 AM on February 7, 2019
posted by turkeybrain at 7:18 AM on February 7, 2019
As an aside, one of the unique things SDF has is a TOPS-20 instance running on virtualized PDP hardware. So if you are nostalgic for that
TOPS-20 was The Bomb...
posted by mikelieman at 8:28 AM on February 7, 2019 [1 favorite]
TOPS-20 was The Bomb...
posted by mikelieman at 8:28 AM on February 7, 2019 [1 favorite]
And now I'm wondering if there are other tildes!
There are.
posted by suetanvil at 8:56 AM on February 7, 2019
There are.
posted by suetanvil at 8:56 AM on February 7, 2019
(I have the perfect domain for a tilde club. I'd set it up if I thought there was interest.)
posted by suetanvil at 8:59 AM on February 7, 2019
posted by suetanvil at 8:59 AM on February 7, 2019
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posted by Alensin at 2:21 PM on February 6, 2019 [1 favorite]