Subj : Re: In the future..
To : August Abolins
From : Dan Richter
Date : Sun Jun 07 2020 09:57 pm
On 07 Jun 2020, August Abolins said the following...
AA> AA>> Not fair. You can't answer a question with another question!
AA>
AA> BP> Actually, I answered it with 2 questions. ;)
AA>
AA> That's even worse! LOL
Why do you say that? (sorry, had to be done...) :)
AA> BP> As we, as Sysops, are shutting down our systems for whatever reasons.
AA>
AA> I haven't been monitoring the growth or decline of systems, but
AA> ipingthereforiam purports to report over 1800 telnettable systems.
I haven't been keeping track of the numbers either. It just seems like there
are a lot of systems that will appear and be active for awhile, then they
disappear. At least it seems that way in some of the othernets.
AA> Surely you don't mean that FTN systems should have a tworking echo that
AA> supports video clips? LOL
I hope not... ;)
AA> The underpinning tech, the part the moves the messages around from
AA> system to system is not really a problem. The structure of messages and
AA> all of its FTSC documented components is not necessarily the problem
AA> either. But as you pointed out, traditional FTN presentation lacks the
AA> visual punch that people are accustomed to on their tablets and
AA> smartphones.
For the most part, yes, some type of truly user friendly 'app' that someone
could download and interact with FTN message echos would be a good start. I
believe the structure of FTN technology is a very viable use for transporting
messages, with some updates...
I won't get into the FTSC documents yet.
AA> Other than some really old references like 300 baud in the nodelist,
AA> what legacy elements would you be referring to?
Try hatching out a file that has a long filename. See how many Sysops start
screaming about how it messed up their file database.
How many 'users' when connecting to a BBS, are actually using 80x24 screen
size? I know there are some BBS programs, Synchronet comes to mind, that is
scalable, but as far as I know that is the only one.
We are still limited to creating screens/menus in ANSI or ascii. ANSI is
limited to 16 colors, although our monitors can now handle over 16 million
colors.
Very few door games or other utilities compiled for 64 or even 32 bit
systems. Abandonware from the 80s and 90s is being used.
