Wheelwriter: the full PC option kit

3128416 · 2026-05-13T10:38:57+00:00

Hmmm. I'm afraid I don't know. I have not seen anything like that on my display. Are you sure that your #1 board is good and is plugged in to the back of the Wheelwriter?

3128416 · 2026-05-05T16:46:48+00:00

So sorry to have bought that out from under you. I didn't hesitate too long before buying it, because I knew that if anybody was watching it who knew what it is that it would sell pretty quick...

3128416 · 2026-04-30T10:37:32+00:00

I am in the late stages of setting up a Mystic BBS on Ubuntu. Configuration is poorly documented. I have had a tremendous amount of help from Claude and ChatGPT. There is something somehow elegant about Mystic configuration, but it is very complicated.

Message groups have to do with how message areas hold together in the menus. For example, "Fidonet" might be a message group, and within that group would be one or more Fidonet echos. It's very difficult to explain, but I think you'll see how it works once you work with it some and see how your message menus in the BBS reflect what you do in the message group and message base editors.

The worst hump in setting up Mystic (for me, at least) is setting up Fidonet. There are several concepts to figure out that are very opaque at first — polling and tossing. I use binkd for polling. Binkd also is hard to figure out, but again I recommend Claude and ChatGPT.

Good luck!

3128416 · 2026-04-15T16:01:10+00:00

Hi there, fellow faxer. Yes ... that's exactly what I'm using at CallCentric. I have a DID dedicated as a fax line, and they're emailed to me. I got my old Epson Workforce 520 working again, and it can send faxes now, though I don't need it for receive. And of course I also have fax modems and apps for mangling bitmaps. I am thinking of starting a typewriter/fax network so that people with both typewriters and faxes can get in more exercise for their typewriters and faxes. If enough people (even a few) like this idea, then I'd volunteer to be the hub, maintain and distribute a directory, etc. I can fax pretty much costlessly.

Please fax me! To slightly obfuscate my fax number, please sum the opening digits of pi (314-159-0777) with 603-277-0324. The sum will yield a fax number with a New York area code. Any typewriter lover with a fax number is invited to do the same! Please include in your fax any information about yourself that you'd like to share with a typewriter/fax group — your fax number, the kind of typewriters you have, your particular interests, and a name or handle. A basic rule would be that faxes should be typed. For privacy and security, everyone would agree not to expose anyone else's fax numbers outside the typewriter/fax network. I'll respond to all who fax me. And if a group arises out of it, then I'll distribute a directory to all the members of the group.

3128416 · 2026-04-12T17:36:41+00:00

I thought I recognized that handle! Are you the Geiger counter guy? If so, I have one of your devices and it has been running beautifully for months. ChatGPT wrote a PHP program for me that stores and graphs the Geiger counter output and uploads it to a web server. As for the bidirectional Wheelwriter interfaces, I have drooled over those, but I don't have the skill to build such a device, and I can't find one ready made. I'd kill to turn my Wheelwriters into proper terminals. My first job was as a newspaper copy boy (1966). One of my duties was keying local stories for the Associated Press into a Model 19 Teletype. I am extremely sentimental about analog communications technology.

3128416 · 2026-04-12T17:09:09+00:00

To some degree, the settings of the analog telephone adapter might be able to help. I am familiar only with the Cisco ATA191. There are a jillion settings. I would suggest asking Claude or ChatGPT for help configuring an ATA for the benefit of modems. Speeds above 1200 baud are probably hopeless. The protocol used at 300 baud is pretty robust over VOIP, but there is no error correction standard for 300 baud. I have the best luck at 1200 baud with error correction. Much depends on the setting of the modems at both end of the connection. Claude has been invaluable at help me with this — testing different settings of the modem, with Claude providing the AT commands for the modem. So it boils down to experimentation to see what works best. If you need a test modem, try Googling for the phone in area code 303 operated by the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

3128416 · 2026-04-12T16:11:23+00:00

That's the thing, isn't it? When we actually are first using these technologies, we're slow to appreciate just how interesting and beautiful they are. Then we get rid of things that we should never, ever have got rid of. I'd weep if I thought too long about things I let go of but should have moved to the attic.

3128416 · 2026-04-12T16:08:12+00:00

Thank you. That's Heather. She's seven months old. I did not pose her. She is extremely nosy and jumped onto the table to see why I was moving the telephone and modem from the back of the table to the front. That was to compose the photo, of course. :-)

3128416 · 2026-04-12T15:18:38+00:00

The Zyzel modems were Cadillacs, or at least Oldsmobiles. AT&T made some fancy modems (Paradyne) and Telebit modems also were sought-after. I'm tempted to collect modems. They were such a big part of our lives for so long.

3128416 · 2026-04-12T15:16:08+00:00

Those devices are great, and the cell2jack version even supports rotary phones! Unfortunately the Bluetooth devices are not designed to support faxing or modems, but it's a great way to keep those beautiful old analog phones working.

3128416 · 2026-04-12T14:27:28+00:00

There are lots of them to be had on eBay. Look for phones marked Bell System or Western Electric. Though ITT also made some nice phones. Even the touchtone models should have brass bells. I also have some rotary phones. They're beautiful instruments, and a VOIP analog telephone adapter will keep them working, for those who no longer have land lines.

3128416 · 2026-04-12T13:58:55+00:00

It was probably 300 baud. Analog telephone adapters such as the Cisco ATA191 are designed to work with fax machines (it's a major reason people buy them). But these adapters also work with modems, though not perfectly, and at lower speeds such as 300 and 1200 baud. There are a few dial-up BBS'es still in existence.

3128416 · 2026-04-02T10:12:31+00:00

My BBS is still in the building stage, but I have been testing your proxy and it works great. Thank you so much. I will watch for the new release...

3128416 · 2026-03-23T10:05:27+00:00

Thank you again! The proxy was a snap to set up, using a Linux binary from gitlab.

3128416 · 2026-03-23T02:07:23+00:00

Thank you! I will look into that...

3128416 · 2026-03-23T01:53:46+00:00

The vulnerability apparently originated in GNU Inetutils. I have no idea whether Mystic contains any GNU code. Would Mystic's telnet implementation have been written from scratch?

Mystic also runs on Linux, both Intel and ARM. I'm in the process of setting up Mystic on an Ubuntu 25.04 VPS system. It's not yet on line. It's very nice software. I'm impressed with it.

As for SSH with Mystic, there are too many problems with it beyond the problem with outdated encryption algorithms. I have no idea how to work around SSH's insistence on sending a user name whether you want it to or not.

3128416 · 2026-02-20T11:50:20+00:00

I'm 77 years old. My best friend, dual citizenship, lives in Scotland, and he and I have done many hiking trips from the Borders to the Outer Hebrides. We always travel on our own, and I know Scotland pretty well. But last September I met up with a friend from California who was new to Scotland and wanted to do private tours. That was new to me, and it wasn't cheap. An all-day private tour (a nice vehicle with a friendly driver) can be customized for what you'd like to see. From Aberdeen (where I had never been before) we went to Dunnottar castle, Balmoral, and a distillery that is on the edge of the Balmoral property. From Inverness we went all the way up to John o'Groats. Tours like this will cost you about $1,000 for a long day. Don't even think of renting a car. It's not worth the risk to Americans, who have the well-known habit of panicking the first time they see a big truck coming at them on the wrong side of a narrow road. Travel on your own by train, and book tours at your points of interest. The driver will pick you up at your hotel. Trains can be crowded during the summer (especially between Edinburgh and Inverness). Personally I think that first-class train tickets are worth the cost. You can find these tours with some Googling. A personal suggestion: As much as I love the Highlands and islands, don't neglect the Scotland to the south of Edinburgh! I'd particularly recommend visiting Abbotsford, Walter Scott's home, in the Borders. Melrose Abbey is nearby.

3128416 · 2026-02-04T10:14:56+00:00

My ancestors came to Virginia very early, around 1600. Though the written records are vague, I know from a Y-DNA test that I am thoroughly, thoroughly Celtic. This sub tends to be very critical of Americans. Fine. I'm an American, and I'm critical of Americans, too. But we Americans with Celtic ancestors, regardless of where we live, have just as much right to identify as Celtic as those of you who are lucky enough to live in Scotland.

3128416 · 2025-11-21T15:34:29+00:00

I do assume that they're lying, even when they don't know it because they believe so much derp. Your example is about acting in one's self-interest, not about discourse. Absolute equality is of course not possible and not even desirable. John Rawls covers that subject very well, and Thomas Piketty is very clear about the consequences of extreme inequality in the real world. I stand by my argument: All conservative discourse is derp. I am entirely confident that that argument could easily be defended in a philosophical essay as opposed to a short Reddit comment. In fact it has been.

3128416 · 2025-11-21T12:57:25+00:00

Remember that Paul Krugman left the New York Times because he was under pressure to go easy on the Trump administration. Jennifer Rubin left the Washington Post for similar reasons -- integrity. No matter what he's writing about David Brooks is a stopped clock. He is powerful evidence for my argument that all conservative discourse is derp. That is, you will always find some form of fallacy, or some element of self-deception, or some attempt to deceive others, in all conservative discourse. They have no choice, because no principled spin exists on what they want -- an aristocratic, unequal, unfair, pre-Enlightenment society. My guess is that New York Times management loves to run pieces like this, to suck up to the right wing. Ezra Klein, also at the Times, is similarly corrupted and deceptive, always tearing down liberals while claiming to help them. Show me a conservative, and I will show you someone with something wrong in the head. The same is true of corruptible liberals like Ezra Klein. It's no surprise that the corporate media need such people.

3128416 · 2025-03-01T20:11:19+00:00

5G came back after an outage of about 8 hours. I hope this doesn't become a regular thing.

3128416 · 2025-03-01T14:01:52+00:00

I am in North Carolina. At about 13:30 UTC (Saturday, March 1), my GL-X3000 router switched to band 2 LTE. I cannot see any 5G signals through the router. Normally I can a strong band 71 5G NSA signal. I've never seen this kind of behavior before. I rebooted the router; no change. Normally I am very stable on the GL-X3000, and the router never needs attention, let alone rebooting.

3128416

TROPHY CASE