,,, jmcunx OCC 4
Old Computer Challenge # 4 Notes
For OCC 4, which is a kind of "Roll your own" challenge,
I went with a theme "Back to 1989". That is around the
time I got a UNIX System for use at work. The system (Wang
IN/ix) was a 16 bit UNIX based upon Interactive UNIX.
So, I will setup OpenBSD on my R51e Thinkpad to work kind
of like that system did back then.
This means:
===========
* No X
* use of the original csh(1)
* vi(1) as opposed to vim(1).
* For usenet I will try using nn(1). That is what I
used back then. But I expect I may revert back to
tin(1), will see.
* screen(1) as opposed to tmux(1), tmux did not exist
back then.
* Email I will use mutt(1). I do not know if that
existed back then, but I have no idea how to set
up mail(1) to send/receive email on OpenBSD with my
mail provider.
* lynx for WEB, amfora for gemini and irssi for IRC. I
do not think these existed back then, but will make
an exception to keep up with the challenge as much
as I can.
Links to Solene's Challenge Pages:
==================================
DIR Solene's OCC4 Challenge
OCC 4 main page
http://occ.sdf.org/
System Information, some from neofetch:
=======================================
OS: OpenBSD 7.5 i386
Packages: 274 (pkg_info)
CPU: Intel Pentium M (1) @ 800MHz
Memory: 2G
disk Size: 40G
wireless: Edimax Wi-Fi 4 802.11n USB Adapter USG dongle
Summary:
========
TLDR:
-----
This was a fun one, it was a kind of a repeat of my OCC 3,
except with different hardware and stuck with OpenBSD
base as much as I could. The big difference is I was on
a Laptop, used OpenBSD with wireless.
I can say I enjoyed this more than OCC 3, but only due
to one thing, the 4:3 display the R51e has. I realized
I really do not care for these wide displays.
I chalk that up to the fact 4:3 was all I used for the
first 25 years of programming. I did not encounter these
wide screen monitors until I got a T61p for my work PC
around 14 or so years ago.
But going forward, I can see myself using the R51e in
this mode every so often to keep some of my sanity :)
DIR OCC 3 Notes
Thanks (merci) to Solene for started these so many
years ago!
PROS:
-----
* csh(1) - see below
* Since no GUI type applications, I noticed hardly
any speed difference between the R51e and a much more
modern system.
CONS:
-----
* csh(1) - see below
* I will really miss reading my daily comics.
* There were times I missed the full experience of
the GUI WEB. I believe browsers like Firefox are
the only reason I need to run a GUI.
Day 8: Saturday, July 20, 2024
------------------------------
* Last day of OCC 4.
* Nothing much, just re-visited nn(1) to see if I
could get it going. But I will only mention nn(1)
again if I have success :)
* I think I understand Gopher, the big question,
do I want to use it ?
* It will be a lot of work to convert my Bicycling
Page to gemini. Will wait for bad weather to start.
Day 7: Friday, July 19, 2024
----------------------------
* Reading news about Croudstrike, yet another reason
to use Old Computers :)
* Finally nice weather, got outside without facing
a sun like in the movie Pitch Black "The Chronicles
of Riddick".
Day 6: Thursday, July 18, 2024
------------------------------
* Since nn(1) was a fail, I decided to try trn(1).
Maybe that is what I used ages ago for USENET(?).
I got trn(1) working and it connects fine. It does
not resemble what I thought I used, but close.
I still think it was nn(1), will investigate later.
* Outside of that, a quiet day.
Day 5: Wednesday, July 17, 2024
-------------------------------
* My tech support from yesterday continued on today.
Funny listening to how frustrated a user with little
tech knowledge gets when dealing with the help desk,
and how flustered the tech people gets.
* My relative is a Finance Person, so only knows
excel, email and Oracle ERP, he was upset that
Windows on his new PC from work was 'not the same',
that includes icon placement. For this I blame
Microsoft. He even pasted a screen print into an
excel spreadsheet for email to the tech people.
* I think tech support needs better training on how
to deal with users that have no clue how to fully
run windows. Or better stated, people who use
windows as a dumb terminal for only ERP, excel,
email and browsing.
* But this episode only confirmed my hate for Microsoft
Windows. Maids knew how bad windows where a century
ago before Microsoft existed, many use to say "I do
not do Windows" on interviews :)
* The good news, this "support office" is now closed.
Issues finally resolved.
* From the not try this at home dept. I upgraded
the HDD on my T420 a few months ago. So as I was
using the R51e for OCC, I decided to upgrade the
R51e HDD to use the old T420 disk. Well, I pulled
it out and guess what, the "new" drive will not fit,
plus I dropped one of the small screws on the floor.
The rug is of a color that once something drops on
it, you will never find it. Luckly I had bought
a Thinkpad Extra Screw Kit and it has a screw that
fit exactly. All good, but the moral is never do
this at night when you are exhausted.
Day 4: Tuesday, July 16, 2024
-----------------------------
* Odd day today, a relative was here for tech support
on his work laptop, the old laptop 'broke', so
he need to get a new one active. The tech people
where he works seems to be "weak" when it comes to
external monitors and net issues. So he is here in
case he needs help with tech support. Plus his tech
support stated his internet at home was causing the
issue, weird.
* Fixed some backup scripts to work on this old system,
now I can back it up :)
Day 3: Monday, July 15, 2024
----------------------------
* I gave up on nn(1), revisited it and there is
a config issue with it. It can only see Eternal
September specific groups. Seems it has issues with
sites that need an ID and Password when using tls.
* Just a lazy day, a bit of nethack was about it.
Day 2: Sunday, July 14, 2024
----------------------------
* I guess it is true what the say about muscle memory.
Over the years, I have gotten so use to the new
functions of vim(1), I thought vi(1) would drive
me crazy. Well, my ancient muscle memory came back,
and using vi(1) was not bad. I still miss some
functionality of vim(1), but I can get by quite well
without it.
* When I used nn(1) yesterday, I posted and replied to
group "eternal-september.test". Today I received
an email from each post that states this was
sent because I posted to a test group, the emails
contained the full post, odd.
* I should learn gopher. Maybe I will dig into that
sometime this week.
* Not much else today, I formalized my csh(1) history
setup. I will put this on sdf.org and gitlab after
this challenge. Once there I will add the link to
this document.
Day 1: Saturday, July 13, 2024
------------------------------
* Got screen(1) installed and setup. I had wanted to
use it because tmux did not exist back then.
* After a few hours, I really see no difference between
tmux(1) and screen(1). Since tmux(1) is in base,
I went back to tmux because on OpenBSD, it is best
base whenever possible.
* This did not take long, tried nn(1) but went back
to tin(1). nn(1) does not seem work anywhere near
to what I remember back then. I am even wondering
if what I used was nn(1), I am fairly sure it is
what I used.
* Rest of the day was watching the rain, email,
chatting, minor source changes and looking to see
what it would take to convert my bicycling WEB page
to Gemini.
* Fixed git(1)/gpg(1) signing, that was failing on
this system. But, later on pinentry broke with
git/gpg again. I do not understand why the gnupg
people hate simple pharaphrase prompts, but need
an abortion like pinentry. Anyway, I found a work
around. Kill gpg-agent, sign a file with 'gpg -ab',
then do a git commit. This is nuts.
csh(1)
------
Notes about using the original csh(1) instead of
a more modern shell. What follows deals with the
original BSD csh(1), not tcsh(1).
On my first UNIX at work, we were setup with csh(1).
I hated it, later on as the systems were upgraded,
we were moved to ksh(1), and the universe became well
again. I brought this up because I have had used csh
in the past, so I did remember a little bit about it.
But I ended up a tcsh(1) user because of Coherent OS.
tcsh(1) on Coherent was the only shell available that
had "real" tab completion and could use arrow keys.
But on OpenBSD I use ksh(1) because it is in base.
So here are pros/cons about using the original csh(1):
* con: no arrow keys
* con: no "tab" completion for commands, you do have
"esc" completion for files.
* con: no real command line editing. To edit a
specific command line, you use a non-standard
and simple type sed(1) regular expression
syntax.
* con: when you need to work fast, csh(1) can break
your train of thought. But I think once you
build muscle memory, maybe it will get better.
In a way I kind of doubt it. For example,
if you need to edit an old command, you need
to be conscience of what you are doing.
* neither: you get to really like aliases.
* neither: character '!' becomes your best friend.
* pro: great for your memory. If you think you need
memory exercises, use csh :)
* pro: tiny
* pro: after using it for a while, I can say you
may actually like it. But there is a lot to
learn to get productive. If back then we had
search engines we have now, I may have stuck
with csh(1).
* pro: If someone never saw csh(1) and is watching
you use it for command line editing, they
may think you are l33t instead of an "old
has been" :)
TEXT csh is punk rock
$Id: gophermap,v 1.7 2025/07/23 15:42:10 jmccue Exp $