• Still using OS/2?

    From Jean-Claude Dumas@1:249/204 to All on Tue Jul 28 19:30:08 2015
    Out of curiosity, anyone still using OS/2 for... anything?

    This BBS runs the DOS version of Maximus on OS/2, on a Pentium, on my floor. I still like the OS, as useless as it might have become. :)



    --- Maximus 3.01
    * Origin: ModŠs tm (modestm.ddns.net) Valcourt, Qc (1:249/204)
  • From Alan Ianson@1:153/757 to Jean-Claude Dumas on Tue Jul 28 17:48:04 2015
    Hello Jean-Claude,

    Out of curiosity, anyone still using OS/2 for... anything?

    Not anymore, but I have fond memories of OS/2. I was looking at the ecs website
    not long ago wondering if I should do the deal. It's not inexpensive and you have to also pay more for each core.

    This BBS runs the DOS version of Maximus on OS/2, on a Pentium, on my floor. I still like the OS, as useless as it might have become. :)

    Not useless at all, always was and still is good for FTN stuff. I can do all the FTN stuff on my linux box that I ever did on OS/2, but I have lost the ease
    of running dos doors that I had with OS/2.

    Ttyl :-),
    Al

    ... My computer has EMS... Won't you help?
    --- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20150715
    * Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)
  • From Sergey Poziturin@2:5020/2141.3 to Jean-Claude Dumas on Wed Jul 29 09:44:16 2015
    Hello, Jean-Claude Dumas.
    On 28.07.15 19:30 you wrote:

    Out of curiosity, anyone still using OS/2 for... anything?

    Run it sometimes inside virtualbox in my Mac :) Lots of great memories. But no practical usage at the moment.

    This BBS runs the DOS version of Maximus on OS/2, on a Pentium, on
    my floor. I still like the OS, as useless as it might have become.
    :)

    Wow! 15 years ago my BBS was running maximus/2, too.

    --
    Best regards!
    Posted using Hotdoged on Android
    --- Hotdoged/2.12/Android
    * Origin: Android device, Milky Way (2:5020/2141.3)
  • From mark lewis@1:3634/12.73 to Jean-Claude Dumas on Wed Jul 29 05:18:22 2015
    28 Jul 15 19:30, you wrote to All:

    Out of curiosity, anyone still using OS/2 for... anything?

    absolutely! my entire main server still runs OS/2... up until a year or two ago, it was running on Warp 3 Connect but now it is on eCS...

    This BBS runs the DOS version of Maximus on OS/2, on a Pentium, on my floor. I still like the OS, as useless as it might have become. :)

    my original frontdoor/fastecho/remoteaccess multinode system is one of the jobs
    that my main server has... along with apache, ftpserv, weasel for web, ftp and email... there's also binkd, a jamnntpd server and at least 10 AI controllers for my tradewars 2000 v3 gold games ;)

    as for "useless" that depends on what one wants or needs to do... as a multitasking OS it works very well for native OS/2 apps and DOS apps... browsing the internet and stuff like that? i'd rather use another system simply
    because of the possible dangers one might run into... i'd rather reload a workstation than a server, ya know? ;)

    )\/(ark

    ... I'm too sexy for this conference...
    ---
    * Origin: (1:3634/12.73)
  • From Tommi Koivula@2:221/360 to Jean-Claude Dumas on Wed Jul 29 18:39:21 2015
    Tuesday July 28 2015 19:30, Jean-Claude Dumas wrote to All:

    Out of curiosity, anyone still using OS/2 for... anything?

    Of course. :D

    This BBS runs the DOS version of Maximus on OS/2, on a Pentium, on my

    Concord BBS native OS/2 version since the very first alpha, 1994.

    floor. I still like the OS, as useless as it might have become. :)

    OS/2 is not useless. It just runs, no need to update every day.

    'Tommi

    ---
    * Origin: * rbb * f360.n221.z2.binkp.net * (2:221/360)
  • From Bob Seaborn@1:140/12 to Jean-Claude Dumas on Wed Jul 29 09:54:00 2015
    Out of curiosity, anyone still using OS/2 for... anything?

    This BBS runs the DOS version of Maximus on OS/2, on a Pentium, on my
    floor. I still like the OS, as useless as it might have become. :)


    Yes, I use OS/2 for the bulk of my Fidonnet operations. Have been doing so for over 25 years.





    .....Bob

    --- GEcho/32 & IM 2.50
    * Origin: http://www.fidonet.ca (1:140/12)
  • From Jean-Claude Dumas@1:249/204 to Alan Ianson on Wed Jul 29 08:32:54 2015
    Not anymore, but I have fond memories of OS/2. I was
    looking at the ecs website not long ago wondering if I
    should do the deal. It's not inexpensive and you have
    to also pay more for each core.

    Yea, if money was no object, it would be interesting. Makes one wonder why it's
    so expensive...

    Not useless at all, always was and still is good for
    FTN stuff. I can do all the FTN stuff on my linux box
    that I ever did on OS/2, but I have lost the ease of
    running dos doors that I had with OS/2.

    True enought. DOS/Win support have been the strong as well as the weak point of
    OS/2. And I believe that if IBM had released 2.0 with the UI of 1.3 instead of delaying it to get the WPS ready, things might have been different. Windows 3.0
    would may have been seen as a cheap OS/2 knockoff, who knows? Timing is everything and MS did beat IBM.

    It's all so easy in hindsight, isn'it? :)


    JC


    --- Maximus 3.01
    * Origin: ModŠs tm (modestm.ddns.net) Valcourt, Qc (1:249/204)
  • From Alan Ianson@1:153/757 to Jean-Claude Dumas on Wed Jul 29 21:54:40 2015
    On 07/29/15, Jean-Claude Dumas said the following...

    Yea, if money was no object, it would be interesting. Makes one wonder
    why it's so expensive...
    I dunno, I wonder if their customer base is commercial. That price may not be so steep for them. If I could get a copy of OS/2 for about the same price as windows I would probably do it.

    I grabbed the ISO and put it on a disk and ran it. Looked quite good but I
    had no network support to try any web surfing or anything. I was hoping to
    put it through it's paces a bit and maybe try some telnet sites.

    True enought. DOS/Win support have been the strong as well as the weak point of OS/2. And I believe that if IBM had released 2.0 with the UI of 1.3 instead of delaying it to get the WPS ready, things might have been different.

    The first and only version of OS/2 I used was Warp 3 I think it was. I picked up a sealed box somewhere for $20 when I was in some store so someone else could go shopping. I think that's the best deal I ever got. I ran that
    version happily for years.

    different. Windows 3.0 would may have been seen as a cheap OS/2
    knockoff, who knows? Timing is everything and MS did beat IBM.

    I did run windows 3.1 in OS/2. Looking back I had the best of all worlds at
    the time.. :) Marketing. The Windows marketing crew must be the best in the world. I don't know how they did it but they did. If IBM had of stayed the course I likely would have to but maybe there just wasn't enough in it for
    them to continue.

    It's all so easy in hindsight, isn'it? :)

    That is so true.. :)

    Ttyl :-),
    Al

    --- Mystic BBS v1.10 (Linux)
    * Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)
  • From Bryan Handfield@1:275/89 to Jean-Claude Dumas on Tue Jul 28 21:56:00 2015
    On 07-28-15 19:30, Jean-Claude Dumas wrote to All below:

    Hello Jean-Claude Dumas,

    Out of curiosity, anyone still using OS/2 for... anything?
    This BBS runs the DOS version of Maximus on OS/2, on a Pentium, on my floor. I still like the OS, as useless as it might have become. :)
    I have eComStaion 2.2 in a virtual system using Parallels Desktop for Mac. I run Winblows for the two games I play and it does a decent job of it I might add :). Way back when I used OS/2 Warp 4 (Merlin as it was codenamed) for my BBS'ing when I was in my mid-20's... now when I look in the mirror I see a scruffy, well seasoned face staring back at me ;)

    Cheers,

    Bryan
    Email: bhandfield(at)me(dot)com

    ... Little boats should keep near the shore.

    --- MultiMail/Darwin v0.49
    --- SBBSecho 2.26-Win32
    * Origin: Diamond Mine Online bbs.dmine.net (1:275/89)
  • From Mike Luther@1:117/100 to Jean-Claude Dumas on Thu Jul 30 08:02:54 2015
    Yes JD!

    Out of curiosity, anyone still using OS/2 for... anything?

    This BBS runs the DOS version of Maximus on OS/2, on a
    Pentium, on my floor. I still like the OS, as useless
    as it might have become. :)

    Absolutely still solid with OS/2 here. Have been part of a major group design operation still solidly based on OS/2 since even before there was an Internet when I was even part of the FidoNet development doggie pack, grin. I was the key part to the creation of 'private' telephone numbers for FidoNet as I was the creator of the original underground telephone lines that might survive the Russian whop on the US back in the days of the Cold War. So that if Net 117 here in College Station, Texas and Texas A&M College got hit I could still show
    folks how buried phone service could be bridged to even ham radio sites miles away where it was abolutely able to merge the data even to CW and other digital
    HF and VHF bands. I proved in the ARRL Field Day contests that this whole technique could even be used back then to even move encrypted HF digital signals, for example, from here even to Perth, Australia and even be shared with reception data for thousands of needed receptors at the right time of the day or night with even only a few hundred watts or less power. I even still have the US ARRL's letter thanking me as W5WQN for the contribution to humanity.

    Right or wrong, I've got about 16 actual nodes, mostly private, to update every
    week still for the FidoNet Nodelist update. And I'm still hugely required to support massive over one and a half million lines of my own source code which is absolutely main-pointed to OS/2. I will note that the focus here which is on the old OS/2 source level code is far better useable on the much later Warp 4.5 level code. However you absolutely must be of focus to a huge amount of updated device driver and other support that now is heavilyu related to even ECS stuff. I absolutely understand how most folks that are BBS oriented or such would be very much lower in the factoids and heavy IT and telecommunications technology skills level of today to keep up with even OS/2 at this time.

    And everything is getting worse and worse as man in the middle and nasty actvity keeps romping higher and higher on all humanity that really poses a problem for all us humans. But still I try to carry all of us up even in FidoNet for as long as I can look upward into the heavans and do what I think is the real purpose of all humanity,


    Mike Luther as N117C at 1:117/100


    ---
    * Origin: BV HUB CLL(979)696-3600 (1:117/100)
  • From Sergey Poziturin@2:5020/2141.3 to Mike Luther on Thu Jul 30 19:31:13 2015
    Hello, Mike Luther.
    On 30.07.15 8:02 you wrote:

    I was the key part to the creation of 'private' telephone numbers
    for FidoNet as I was the creator of the original underground
    telephone lines that might survive the Russian whop on the US back
    in the days of the Cold War.

    Mua-ha-ha, now we've got your name. :)

    --
    Best regards!
    Posted using Hotdoged on Android
    --- Hotdoged/2.12/Android
    * Origin: Android device, Milky Way (2:5020/2141.3)
  • From Jean-Claude Dumas@1:249/204 to Sergey Poziturin on Thu Jul 30 12:28:04 2015
    Wow! 15 years ago my BBS was running maximus/2, too.

    We were many back then. :)



    --- Maximus 3.01
    * Origin: ModŠs tm (modestm.ddns.net) Valcourt, Qc (1:249/204)
  • From Jean-Claude Dumas@1:249/204 to Mark Lewis on Thu Jul 30 12:30:34 2015
    my original frontdoor/fastecho/remoteaccess multinode
    system is one of the jobs that my main server has...
    along with apache, ftpserv, weasel for web, ftp and
    email... there's also binkd, a jamnntpd server and at
    least 10 AI controllers for my tradewars 2000 v3 gold
    games ;)

    Quite impressive, I wish I had the will to put up and maintain such a system.

    as for "useless" that depends on what one wants or
    needs to do... as a multitasking OS it works very well
    for native OS/2 apps and DOS apps... browsing the

    I always had. :)

    internet and stuff like that? i'd rather use another
    system simply because of the possible dangers one might
    run into... i'd rather reload a workstation than a
    server, ya know? ;)

    Wise enought, yes. :)


    --- Maximus 3.01
    * Origin: ModŠs tm (modestm.ddns.net) Valcourt, Qc (1:249/204)
  • From Jean-Claude Dumas@1:249/204 to Bob Seaborn on Thu Jul 30 12:36:12 2015
    Yes, I use OS/2 for the bulk of my Fidonnet
    operations. Have been doing
    so for over 25 years.

    In a VM now or still on it's own physical machine?




    --- Maximus 3.01
    * Origin: ModŠs tm (modestm.ddns.net) Valcourt, Qc (1:249/204)
  • From mark lewis@1:3634/12.73 to Jean-Claude Dumas on Thu Jul 30 13:10:54 2015
    29 Jul 15 08:32, you wrote to Alan Ianson:

    Not anymore, but I have fond memories of OS/2. I was looking at the
    ecs website not long ago wondering if I should do the deal. It's not
    inexpensive and you have to also pay more for each core.

    Yea, if money was no object, it would be interesting. Makes one wonder
    why it's so expensive...

    ummm... antiques are expensive... rare items are expensive...

    Not useless at all, always was and still is good for FTN stuff. I can
    do all the FTN stuff on my linux box that I ever did on OS/2, but I
    have lost the ease of running dos doors that I had with OS/2.

    True enought. DOS/Win support have been the strong as well as the weak point of OS/2. And I believe that if IBM had released 2.0 with the UI
    of 1.3 instead of delaying it to get the WPS ready, things might have
    been different. Windows 3.0 would may have been seen as a cheap OS/2 knockoff, who knows? Timing is everything and MS did beat IBM.

    m$ beat IBM because IBM didn't know how to support all the millions of little people... IBM's base was in big iron and the $$$$$ they could charge for support...

    It's all so easy in hindsight, isn'it? :)

    in many cases, yep!

    )\/(ark

    ... A bore is a man who, when asked how he is, tells you.
    ---
    * Origin: (1:3634/12.73)
  • From Jean-Claude Dumas@1:249/204 to Alan Ianson on Thu Jul 30 17:37:50 2015
    why it's so expensive...
    I dunno, I wonder if their customer base is commercial.

    Most likely.

    The first and only version of OS/2 I used was Warp 3 I

    I got a copy of OS/2 2.11 for 20$ back then. :) It was leaps and bounds ahead of DOS/Windows, minus multimedia support. The Workplace Shell was (and still is) a magnificent UI.

    up a sealed box somewhere for $20 when I was in some store so someone else could go shopping. I think that's the best deal I ever got. I ran that version happily for years.

    A great deal indeed.

    the time.. :) Marketing. The Windows marketing crew
    must be the best in the
    world. I don't know how they did it but they did. If IBM had of stayed the course I likely would have to but maybe there just wasn't enough in it for them to continue.

    I see it as a market where the first in gets it all. Thus why MS was smart to push Windows, even as buggy as it was. Get some key applications and you're pretty much set forever.

    IBM had more than a fair chance with OS/2. They were just too big and slow to win. Somewhat like MS is now on the mobile market. They have great products but
    just don't seem to be able to put the smallest dent into Apple's and Google's marketshare.


    --- Maximus 3.01
    * Origin: ModŠs tm (modestm.ddns.net) Valcourt, Qc (1:249/204)
  • From Jean-Claude Dumas@1:249/204 to Bryan Handfield on Thu Jul 30 17:52:22 2015
    Way back when I used OS/2 Warp 4 (Merlin as it
    was codenamed) for my
    BBS'ing when I was in my mid-20's... now when I look in the mirror I see a scruffy, well seasoned face staring back at me ;)

    Hehe, change that 4 for a 3 and you might as well be talking about me. :)

    Funny how things change. Back then, I was figuring I'd be running a custom PC with some flavor of Linux by now. Instead, I'm sporting a Macintosh with some flavor of UNIX. :)


    --- Maximus 3.01
    * Origin: ModŠs tm (modestm.ddns.net) Valcourt, Qc (1:249/204)
  • From Jean-Claude Dumas@1:249/204 to Mike Luther on Thu Jul 30 18:00:18 2015
    Absolutely still solid with OS/2 here. Have been part of a major group design operation still solidly based on OS/2 since even
    [...]
    the heavans and do what I think is the real purpose of
    all humanity,

    Wow.. didn't understand everything but color me impressed.

    Wish I was more into this kind of stuff back then, it's fascinating.


    --- Maximus 3.01
    * Origin: ModŠs tm (modestm.ddns.net) Valcourt, Qc (1:249/204)
  • From Bob Seaborn@1:140/12 to Jean-Claude Dumas on Thu Jul 30 16:49:00 2015
    Yes, I use OS/2 for the bulk of my Fidonnet
    operations. Have been doing
    so for over 25 years.

    In a VM now or still on it's own physical machine?


    It was on it's own physical machine up to about 2 years ago, when the hard drives failed, so we (my son and I) migrated it to a VMware server here.





    .....Bob

    --- GEcho/32 & IM 2.50
    * Origin: http://www.fidonet.ca (1:140/12)
  • From Jean-Claude Dumas@1:249/204 to Mark Lewis on Thu Jul 30 18:10:56 2015
    why it's so expensive...

    ummm... antiques are expensive... rare items are expensive...

    You nailed it right there. :)

    m$ beat IBM because IBM didn't know how to support all
    the millions of little people... IBM's base was in big
    iron and the $$$$$ they could charge for support...

    Very true. I've read enought on the subject I should have remembered that.

    --- Maximus 3.01
    * Origin: ModŠs tm (modestm.ddns.net) Valcourt, Qc (1:249/204)
  • From Holger Granholm@2:20/228 to Tommi Koivula on Thu Jul 30 09:26:00 2015
    In a message dated 07-29-15, Tommi Koivula said to Jean-claude Dumas:

    Hi Tommi,

    Concord BBS native OS/2 version since the very first alpha, 1994.

    Never heard/read about that software. Too late now to switch <BG>.

    floor. I still like the OS, as useless as it might have become. :)

    OS/2 is not useless. It just runs, no need to update every day.

    Well said Tommi!

    Have a nice day,

    Holger

    ---
    þ MR/2 2.30 þ Wisdom comes with age. But sometimes age comes alone.

    * Origin: Coming to you from the Sunny Aland Islands. (2:20/228)
  • From mark lewis@1:3634/12.73 to Jean-Claude Dumas on Fri Jul 31 00:07:24 2015
    30 Jul 15 12:30, you wrote to me:

    my original frontdoor/fastecho/remoteaccess multinode
    system is one of the jobs that my main server has...
    along with apache, ftpserv, weasel for web, ftp and
    email... there's also binkd, a jamnntpd server and at
    least 10 AI controllers for my tradewars 2000 v3 gold
    games ;)

    Quite impressive, I wish I had the will to put up and maintain such a system.

    thank you... it has been in operation for at least two decades... it has also has been transferred to newer hardware several times by simply moving the HDs over... try doing that with winwhatever ;)

    as for "useless" that depends on what one wants or
    needs to do... as a multitasking OS it works very well
    for native OS/2 apps and DOS apps... browsing the

    I always had. :)

    :)

    internet and stuff like that? i'd rather use another
    system simply because of the possible dangers one might
    run into... i'd rather reload a workstation than a
    server, ya know? ;)

    Wise enought, yes. :)

    most definitely! hell, i can reload and repopulate a linux server faster but the OS/2 stuff is better in most cases... at least for the native and DOS stuff... the ported stuff from linux is pretty good most of the time but occasionally it has problems...

    )\/(ark

    ... Olympic spirit- "Fight as friends and not as foes."
    ---
    * Origin: (1:3634/12.73)
  • From Tommi Koivula@2:221/360 to Holger Granholm on Fri Jul 31 15:56:06 2015
    Thursday July 30 2015 09:26, Holger Granholm wrote to Tommi Koivula:

    Concord BBS native OS/2 version since the very first alpha, 1994.

    Never heard/read about that software. Too late now to switch <BG>.

    Oh my.. Concord was written by a finn Pasi Talliniemi. I was in the beta team from the beginning. I may be the last person to run it..

    Concord is somewhat a successor for SuperBBS by Aki Antman. When Aki stopped the development of SuperBBS 1993, Pasi decided to write a bbs software of his own. The last version of Concord was released 31.12.99.

    OS/2 is not useless. It just runs, no need to update every day.

    Well said Tommi!

    Tack!

    'Tommi

    ---
    * Origin: * Rampton Birds Box * Lake Ylo * Finland * (2:221/360)
  • From Bryan Handfield@1:275/89 to Jean-Claude Dumas on Fri Jul 31 22:21:00 2015
    On 07-30-15 17:52, Jean-Claude Dumas wrote to Bryan Handfield below:

    Hello Jean-Claude Dumas,

    Funny how things change. Back then, I was figuring I'd be running a
    custom PC with some flavor of Linux by now. Instead, I'm sporting a Macintosh with some flavor of UNIX. :)
    Same here.. I don't have my OS/2 Warp copy anymore, but I have eComStation 2.2 which does the trick just nicely when I want to look at some OS/2 stuff.. fortunately I've managed to track down this offline reader setup for the Mac :)

    Cheers,

    Bryan
    Email: bhandfield(at)me(dot)com

    ... All things change, nothing is extinguished.

    --- MultiMail/Darwin v0.49
    --- SBBSecho 2.26-Win32
    * Origin: Diamond Mine Online bbs.dmine.net (1:275/89)
  • From Holger Granholm@2:20/228 to Tommi Koivula on Sat Aug 1 09:24:00 2015
    In a message dated 07-31-15, Tommi Koivula said to Holger Granholm:

    Good morning Tommi,

    Never heard/read about that software. Too late now to switch <BG>.

    Oh my.. Concord was written by a finn Pasi Talliniemi. I was in the
    beta team from the beginning. I may be the last person to run it..

    Well, that's why I have never heard about it. I have always taken my
    influences from the west.

    Concord is somewhat a successor for SuperBBS by Aki Antman. When Aki stopped the development of SuperBBS 1993, Pasi decided to write a
    bbs software of his own. The last version of Concord was released
    31.12.99.

    Likewise, I have never heard/read about SuperBBS either because of the
    same reason as above.

    CU AGN,

    Holger

    ___
    * MR/2 2.30 * This OS/2 system uptime is 1051 days 16:03 hours (en).


    --- PCBoard (R) v15.22 (OS/2) 2
    * Origin: Coming to you from the Sunny Aland Islands. (2:20/228)
  • From Mike Luther@1:117/100 to Sergey Poziturin on Sun Aug 2 09:12:40 2015
    Howdy Sergey!

    Hello, Mike Luther.
    On 30.07.15 8:02 you wrote:

    I was the key part to the creation of 'private' telephone numbers
    for FidoNet as I was the creator of the original underground
    telephone lines that might survive the Russian whop on the US back
    in the days of the Cold War.

    Mua-ha-ha, now we've got your name. :)

    Not quite Sergey. I wasn't the actual creator of the underground telephone lines themselves. However I knew that the underground lines could best be able
    to survive the EMP pulse from an atomic explosion. And even way back then that
    the solar flare/coronal explosions on the sun could be MUCH worse on us humans even with the level of electrical technolgy we had back then as well. So my name is only a tiny minor part of what Tesla, Einstein had all presented as what would grow upward into complexity as technology grew up for 'us' as time and quantities of this and that became exposed to us all.

    I already knew about the Carrington Event of 1859 two years after 1857 when the
    Golden Spike was driven where the railroad lines were merged into the first rail line that went from the East Coast to the West Coast of the whole USA. When that solar flare from the Sun hit us, it burned up all the telegraph sounders in the whole USA. It killed three people sending Morse Code and put 23 more in the hospital as best I know it. And in ten places in the whole USA where it arced from the railroad rails to the Earth over the wood cross-ties, it SET THEM ON FIRE! If we ever got another one like that, all the power lines, the telephone systems above ground would be destroyed. And everything sensitive to electrical pulses in your home or car would even be burned up.

    Even at age 10 in 1949, as a boy growing up here confounded by all that was a part of Texas A&M College where my Dad became a math professor in 1936, I was, say it a little better, 'dumb founded', grin! Dad had taught me that though Einstein was a child early on in Ulm, Germany, he had been moved away to England. And Ulm, Germany was the home of the highest church steeple in the world. It hadn't been finished when Einstein was moved to England. But when it was later on, Einstein went back to Ulm to get to climb up the 651 foot steeple on stairs to the top and look out on the world from it. Dad taught me that when Einstein did so, as anyone could do, at each window was higher up away from the Earth, since Earth was a round ball, you could see further away the higher you climbed. Which I was taught, that when Einstein noticed that at
    each window he saw more and more 'spots' on the surface of the Earth that is exactly how he realized how to handle math in multiple dimensions! Even at a tiny cost of climbing each step upwards for the some 45 minutes it took an average person to climb to the top of the cathedral.

    At even ten years of age in 1949, when I had already been 'hooked' by one of my
    unbelievably wonderful mentors from A&M, Dr, George Huebner who was ham radio operator W5WQN, was coaching me to learn Morse Code. As my then whole family was hugely musically oriented. I still have the old 78 RPM plastic records from my Erie, Pennsylvania Uncle Bill Schuster that had the Morse Code lessons which I played on our record player to learn it. When I got my first ham radio
    license in very early 1952, the only thing I was interested in at all was Morse
    Code. And started the whole ham radio stuff by building my own transmitters back then as even then I was allowed in all the Aggie engineering labs poking my nose in everything. My first decent receiver was a Hallicrafters S-38 although I actually started using a crystal set and winding my own coils. I still have the whisker crystal I used then!

    I was fascinated with long distance contacts and was really only mostly able to
    work DX at night in a little room out behind the garage when my parents kicked me out of the house since I really LOVED 40 meter CW DX even all night long at times, Keeping them awake and - oh well! I had already discovered on my own that I could actually work places like Perth, Australia from my ham shack on 40
    meter CW really loud at sunrise time for me an sunset time for a ham friend there! We were so poor I had to even mow the lawn of the Texas A&M professor for the Texas Aggie Band with a push lawn mower during WWII for even a single US Dollar per mow job. Just for money to feed me food as well as help buy my pants and shirt back then. As well to even help get the 'money' to help me in ham radio, I got a job as a paper boy throwing one of the Houston, Texas early morning newspapers in our neighborhood on my bicycle at about 5:00AM in the morning. My 807 tube CW transmitter for Morse Code had a WONDERFUL strong signal in the total darkness before the sun came up in the morning! I wondered
    how low in power I could reduce my power to my Perth, Australia friend and he could still hear me. We tried that test. I was SHOCKED!

    I got down to ONE WATT output into my dipole antenna on 40 Meter CW and my friend in Perth, Australia could still hear me!! Then what Daddy had taught me
    about Einstein hit me somehow in my head! I had a four cell flashlight that I used on my bike to deliver the newspapers there beside me. In the total dark moon night before the sun had come up, after I and my friend had said '73' on Morse Code, I took my flashlight outside into the back yard. I pointed it up into the dark sky and turned it on. I looked up how far into the sky my adjusted long beam light could be seen! Not very far. It hit me again and I almost collapsed onto the lawn! WOW! If that's the distance that one watt of light beam goes, even given how far anyone could see it at a maximum from far way and even my ONE WATT Morse Code 40 meter Radio wave signal could be heard in Australia, half way around the world..

    There has to be really something about the Heavans, a Power and
    Future Way bigger than all humans are really in control of. Plus
    as things like radio, nuclear power, electical generators, fuel of
    all kinds, agricultural farms, airplanes, ammunition .. whatever.
    Especially that even though I am using only ONE WATT of power on
    my 40 meter CW station and thousands of miles everywher from me,,

    Even at the right time IF NEEDED IN AN EMERGENCY ..

    Even a hundred thousand humans could hear a
    needed message for survival.

    To survive being poked in the
    side or rear and having things
    stolen from them even.

    And as I had learned even from before then from people of the many different cultures and races of humans here around Texas A&M College.. My job and the real goal of all the human tribe is to put forward the most possible options for ALL human beings. So that all of us all the way into the future can have the best opportunity in life. It's OK to earn a profit. But you must not lie,
    cheat and steal from others or try to force them, hurt them or kill them to take away their possible future. There is even more than the fourth dimension in life. Look upward and around you. It's really true.


    Mike Luther as N117C at 1:117/100

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    * Origin: BV HUB CLL(979)696-3600 (1:117/100)
  • From Mike Luther@1:117/100 to Sergey Poziturin on Sun Aug 2 09:51:48 2015
    Hi Sergey and others.

    Hello, Mike Luther.
    On 30.07.15 8:02 you wrote:

    I was the key part to the creation of 'private' telephone numbers
    for FidoNet as I was the creator of the original underground
    telephone lines that might survive the Russian whop on the US back
    in the days of the Cold War.

    Mua-ha-ha, now we've got your name. :)

    Slight error in my long post to you just now.

    My Mentor Dr. George Huebner's ham radio call sign I typed was W5WQN was *NOT* W5WQN at all! That's my assigned call sign, originlly as WN5WQN when I got my Novice class license first. Dr. Huebner's call sign was W5GDK,

    He was originally a EE graduate from A&M. At the time I got to meet him as a boy walking to kids' school here in College Station at A&M Consolidated School here, he was the guy who cleaned up the Episcopal Church on the old Jersey Street, now George Bush Drive here. When I had built my crystal set to listen to WTAW AM radio here, around eight or nine years old, as I walked to school a mile each day in the back yard of his house next to the church I noticed a copper wire antenna! I knocked on the door one day to see who it belonged to. His wife answered the door and told me it was George but he was not there and would be back. I asked if I could sit on the porch until he got there? She said, "Yes." That's how I met him, The rest is history.

    However that was some sixty years ago, I didn't even know until about ten years ago that after he graduated from A&M, in WWII he was in Washington, DC! He was the person who was heavily involved in the design of the complete short wave reception system that monitored Hitler's short wave communications during WWII there! My Dad and none of us knew about this at all way back then!

    Dr, Huebner died several years ago. He was a treasure of a man in MANY ways that had lots more to do with humanity as a whole and not just radio waves.


    Mike Luther as N117C at 1:117/100

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    * Origin: BV HUB CLL(979)696-3600 (1:117/100)