BBSing with your Mobil Device - MuffinTerm and ConnectBot
2023-03-21 15:08:41If you don't want miss out on your BBS experience on the go you will eventualy search on your mobile device for a Terminal App.
Apple user didn't find anything for a long time. There wasn't a App in the store for it.
But with Android on the other hand you've at least Connect Bot. This App wasn't coded with BBSes in mind as a top tier priority. And you can tell that by simply using the App. But you can make it work with the right settings to call a BBS.
The right settings for calling a BBS with ConnectBot
ConnectBot is a very handy App if you aproach modern shells for webserver or other Unix like systems. SSH and a bunch of codepages included.
If you create a BBS as a host you should switch the Encoding to CP437. Another setting that have to be tweaked is DEL Key: Backspace. Any compression should turned off also.
If you use the settings explained above you should at least get a good guess of what the screen of a BBS should look like on the first screen of your BBS call. But things doesn't line up correctly.
The solution is, yes you guessed it already, another setting! Open the menue at the right top corner in your active connection screen and force the size to 80x25. Twice. Because the App will refuse it at the first try. That might be a unnoticed bug in the software.
After you set the size you should see a good Ansi appearance at the next screen that will be drawn. That will left you at least with a usable App to surf your favorite BBS on the go. A major drawback is that ConnectBot misses out on any filetransferprotocol like ZModem or XModem. No Up/Downloads on Android.
ConnectBot received in the last weeks like MuffinTerm an Update.
The Apple Software is written on purpose for BBSes. It's native language is Ansi and you can tell by using the App.
MuffinTerm offers you not only just Ansi it also has a bunch of other terminal emulations under the hood. That results in a terminal look as if you would use an Atari, PET or any other screen emulator there is in the software. It dosen't stop there. Wouldn't it be boring if you couldn't tweak your Videomode? Well you can. And to top it all of you even can emulate the Speed of your connection. Try to read as fast as the characters showing up on your screen and measure your eyes and brain readings BPS.
Now to the more Apple-isch side of things. You can change the App icon and via iCloud you can export your Phonebook or syncronise it between your iPhone, iPad and even macOS. Another major point where iCloud will come in place is the ability to Up/Download files from the AppleCloud to the BBS. Yeah, that's right! You have ZModem in MuffinTerm.
For a long time Android users had the advantage over Apple users that they could reach a BBS. But now it seems that Apple users gained the superior connection tool for the BBS online livestyle.
On the Web ConnectBot is here to find: https://connectbot.org. Of Course MuffinTerm has it's own Web presents: https://muffinterm.app.
They are no more excuses you didn't check your PMs and Netmails frequently ;) If you want more BBS in your pocket you should take a look on HotDogED a Fido Point App.
Quelle: bbsindex / android&apple store / muffinterm.app / connectbot.org
Amiga 38 in October 2023
2023-03-12 23:46:03After the Amiga 30,32 and 34 Events in Neuss, Germany everyone from the Commodore Community was looking forward to the Amiga 36.
But... the Universe had other plans in mind. For health related safety reasons Markus Tillmann, eventcoordinator of the Amiga Events, decided not to launch the Amiga 36 Event.
One year later he surprised Amigafans with the Amiga 37. Not only shifted the event period from two to three years it was also a change made to the location where the event would held. Alongside with some other tweaks like the new afterparty concept or the catering.
The next big event around the Commodore culture and community should fall into the year 2025 with the 40th anniversary of the Amiga. Except this time not the Universe had other plans but Markus Tillmann. On March 5th 2023 he announced the Amiga 38 at the a1k forum. Small hints inside the Amigauniverse could be spotted early. There was the booklet information in the official DVD of the Amiga 34/37 and in Switzerland spilled a Sponsor a little bit of techtea at the Mountainbytes demo party.
What we know so far:
Eventday is October, 7th 2023 (There are plans for a friday afternoon ticket but no details on that are concrete as of writing the article)
Eventlocation is the Kunsterwerk, Mönchengladbach Germany
Tickets will be available someday in April.
There is, at least on the time of writing this article, no word about the Amiga 38 on the offical amigaevent.de website.
BBSindex will meet the Eventcoordinator in April to gather more information about the Amiga 38.
Quelle: Amiga 38 Coordinationteam / a1k forum
Mountainbytes Coverage
2023-02-25 11:23:30Short info for all demoscene fans out there. Alisha is covering the Mountainbytes from Zug in Switzerland today.
There is also a LiveStream about the Mountainbytes!
You can follow some early content on our bandnew Mastadon account.
It's @BlackICEBBS@Oldbytes.Spaces
There will be a bigger content-piece in the future. It's planned for season 05 of the BBSindexLIVE Stream.
Quelle: bbsindex
The BBS turns 46 today! #BBSday
2023-02-16 11:39:13Today, 46 Years ago the first BBS goes online.
On February 16th 1977 in Chicago (IL,USA) Ward Christensen and Randy Suess are about to finishing the last steps before switching the CBBS online.
The CBBS was the first Computerized Bulletin Board System and would not only mark the Milestone for the Onlineage. It also allowed to invent and grow subcultures like the DemoScene. If your computer had a modem attached to it you could explore the world though it, since you're no longer physical bound to a location to do so.
In the upcoming years of BBSing the ANSI char set would spark a whole ArtScene that is still present and activ today. The ANSIart Scene. Even the exchange of text messages and files would break out of the local BBS. Tom Jennings created the FidoNet which was no less than a network that spans the world and allows the communication beyond all borders.
But there is much more to it as old terminal screens and weird sounds from a Modem. Many things that originates from the BBS Scene is still in use today. Emotes. E-Mail, Newsletter. Trolling, BBS Wars, MMORPGs all those possibilities aren't new for BBS veterans. The Internet just wanted you to belive that it was new ;)
The Website BBSday.org focuses more on the Topic around the BBSday and how to explore or even join the BBS Scene today.
Quelle: bbsindex / The BBS Documentary
BBSindex.de Update (Stats)
2023-01-13 12:01:39Current Statistics are available now.
With the latest update at the BBSindex Website we added a menu entry. The BBS Stats are back. You can see all BBS that are a a part of the BBSindex Stats program if they have delivered any numbers at the current month.
Since not all systems are sending data to every category we have to alter our display. At the end you'll only see colums that are fed with numbers from the bbs.
The access speed has improved a lot. We're down from sometimes 120 seconds to just a few when searching the database.
In the next days/weeks you're able to browse the archive to watch any timeframe you'd like to see.
Quelle: bbsindex
ANSI Terminal for iOS
2023-01-09 14:44:32For a long time there was always the ConnectBot App for Android Devices as a Terminal to connect to your favorite ANSI BBS. Now there is finaly a solution for Apple User as well.
The App is called "Muffin Term" and can be found on the offical AppStore. The App is Free, without Ads and it can even emulate several screen looks and retrocomputer fonts. If you're on Mac or iOS you should check it out!
https://apps.apple.com/ch/app/muffinterm/id1583236494
Quelle: bbsindex / apple
Amiga User Group Switzerland is planning a meeting
2023-01-08 22:07:23The Amiga User Group Switzerland is planning a meeting for the first half of the Year 2023. As of now there are not many details around that meeting. But they try to find a Date.
At the moment they have three placeholders in the Schedule. It could be the 25 of March or the 01 respectivly the 29 of April in 2023.
There is a Google-Form where you can sign your preferred dates. That will help to determine a fixed date for the AUGS meeting.
AUGS 2023 Scheduling
Quelle: bbsindex / augs
Wintermute with a new URL
2021-06-14 15:21:42The Wintermute BBS has changed the connection URL.
It's now wintermutebbs.ddns.net or wintermute.bbsindex.de.
Quelle: Lodger / Twitter: @Wintermute_BBS
SyncTERM Version 1.1 is out now!
2020-07-20 13:38:23Today SyncTERM in Version 1.1 was released!
One of the biggest changes in Version 1.1 are the options for the new connectivity. You have the usual old suspects in the list but the new fellow in town is the MBBS GHost option. We also noticed that the SyncTERM windows now scales way better within the Windows desktop environment. It will no longer rescale the desktop resulotion if you force SyncTERM into the fullscreen mode with alt+enter.
SyncTERM is available for Windows 32 Bit. Other variations for MaxOS and Linux are also waiting for your download.
But there is a major feature missing after all there years. It's the BatchUpload. If you love to be the uploader on your favorite board you should use NetRunner. This terminal has an upload-quene where you can pick up to 100 files to perform a batch upload.
Some Links to SyncTERM 1.1
https://sourceforge.net/projects/syncterm/
Quelle: syncterm.bbsdev.net / BBSindex.de
We updated our BBS FileSearch!
2019-11-26 23:29:21Today we updated the BBSindex.de BBS FileSearch. Some Boards that was no longer online are removed from the list. But we added more as we had before. We're now up to 21 Boards and over one Million files!
You can find out more here on BBSindex about the BBS filesearch. Just hit that button in the topmenue of the website.
Quelle: BBSindex