[vox] Hello from my Atari

[Bill Kendrick]

Not _particularly_ Linux-related, except the fact that I'm taking advantage
of numerous Linux tools here...  I recently picked up a Lantronix UDS-10,
a device for connecting devices with serial ports to a network -- i.e.,
serial port on one end, ethernet jack on other; to the device on one side,
it looks like an old dialup modem, and to the device on the other site, it
looks like a telnet client.

So right now, I'm typing this email into my old Atari 8-bit computer (the
one I grew up with, over 30 years ago).  I installed "telnetd" on my Linux
laptop, and fired up a VT-102 capable 80 column terminal program on my
Atari, and "dialed" my laptop with, basically, "ATDT <ip address>"

>From there, I'm doing my standard habit of ssh'ing to Sonic.net's shell
server and running Mutt to check my email! :)  At 19.2Kbps, it's a little
slow, but ncurses-based programs like Mutt & Links are pretty efficient,
so it's not too bad.  Definitely way better than the 1200bps I used to have
to deal with, back in my BBSing days (20 years ago)!

"screen" is a blessing, too.  I was even able to update LUGOD's website
from my Atari the other day, using screen's copy/paste features to grab Eric's
talk description from Mutt @ Sonic, and paste it into Vim @ LUGOD.org! :)
I also hopped on the #lugod IRC channel, to show off. :)

There was some initial confusion over whether I was running an IRC client
locally on the Atari, with a TCP/IP stack. Nope... it's just like dialing up
the old Solaris box at school in the 90s.  Nothing fancy!  (There ARE some
full-on networking clients for 8-bit computers, though mostly I see all the
cool fancy stuff on the Commodore 64. (Boo!)  See also: Contiki)

So, yay Linux (well, Unix in general)!  Heck, I was even able to send a
tweet over on Twitter (via their mobile site) via Links browser.  I haven't
had as much luck using Facebook.

Oh, and as an aside, these old computers (Atari & otherwise) can, of course,
talk to each other.  There are apparently 100s of BBSes that you can connect
to via telnet these days.  (The friend I bought this gear from lives up in
Woodland, and has an Atari 8-bit online via this configuration; you can
telnet to it from an Atari (or emulator), or just from a modern computer,
since it's just Telnet!)

Back in the 90s, I tried writing BBSes & games that people could connect
to on my Atari... I'm kinda thinking about finally making a fancy little
"web browser" that runs on the Atari, but utilizes a Linux box to do some
of the heavy lifting (e.g., converting & scaling JPGs, etc.) -- back in the
90s when I thought of this, it would've been my school's $10Ks Solaris box;
these days, one could do this on a cheap $10(!) Raspberry Pi) ;-)

Good times. Gotta love nostalgia!

PS - Photo I posted on Twitter of part of my setup the other day:
https://m.twitter.com/billkendrick/status/830359988681838592

<yes, I had to manually type that URL; no cut-n-paste from my Android phone
to my Atari... yet?>

-- 
-bill!
Sent from my computer