<div dir="auto">It is great being part of hecnet, it is quite unique. <div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">My interest in the technology waxes and wanes over the years depending on family, other hobbies, the weather, all sorts of parameters. I have seen the same in others. </div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">It is an very niche hobby. </div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">Mark</div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Sat, 5 Sep 2020, 16:52 Thomas DeBellis, <<a href="mailto:tommytimesharing@gmail.com">tommytimesharing@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div>
<p>Yes, it is disappointing, but one has to remember that HECnet is
a 'hobby', which usually implies a few things:</p>
<ol>
<li>If you are working with these protocols, then you have a
certain amount of talent. That means you are in demand to work
on other technical issues. Like fixing an Office
installation...</li>
<li>Where the domestic sphere exists, one ignores those requests
at one's peril.</li>
<li>Work done here either does not immediately generate revenue or
(more likely) doesn't generate any revenue at all.</li>
<li>Job.<br>
</li>
</ol>
<p>So it's completely normal for people to get interrupted for days
or even weeks at a time (or months).</p>
<p>It sadly happens; that's today's life. Even assuming 3. or 4.
were not of any concern, 1. & 2. can blow a lot of time. I'm
thankful for what I can do, but not finishing things IS
annoying...<br>
</p>
<div>On 9/5/20 11:13 AM, Supratim Sanyal
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite">
Equally or more frustrating is when someone reaches out to get
into the fun, we get to a point where I open a port waiting for a
connection, then complete silence! Leaves me wondering what
happened. I am sure you have had the same experience.<br>
<div dir="ltr">
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<div><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">---</span></div>
<div><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">Supratim
Sanyal, W1XMT</span></div>
<div><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">39.19151
N, 77.23432 W</span></div>
<div><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">QCOCAL::SANYAL
via <a href="http://www.update.uu.se/~bqt/hecnet.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">HECnet</a></span></div>
</div>
<div><br>
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<div dir="ltr"><br>
On Sep 5, 2020, at 9:46 AM, Keith Halewood <<a href="mailto:Keith.Halewood@pitbulluk.org" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">Keith.Halewood@pitbulluk.org</a>>
wrote:<br>
<br>
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<blockquote type="cite">
<div dir="ltr">
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal">Hi,<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I know HECnet “should not be regarded
as a serious networking setup, nor should it be expected
to work 24/7” to quote Johnny’s web page on the subject. I
find it fun in a ‘way back when’ sense because way back
then, as a student encountering VMS for the first time,
the real DEC VAX 11/780 two-node cluster at the university
was connected together via its CI and to the outside world
by KMV X25 devices. The latter devices only talked the old
UK ‘Coloured Books’ protocols and DECnet wasn’t
(officially) allowed over Janet. So you can imagine how
underwhelming the output of various NCP SHOW commands was,
even with the addition of a standalone Systime VAX and the
odd departmental MicroVAX to the DECnet, using a mixture
of KMVs, asynch DDCMP, eventually X25 1984 (pink book?)
over Ethernet and then unencapsulated DECnet over
Ethernet. All this was around the time of VMS 5.4 I think.
Departmentally, we also used CMUTEK TCP/IP software to
talk to the world when UK Academia finally accepted that
IP was the way to go and OSI just wasn’t going to happen.<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Anyway, the point(s).<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">It’s really nice to be able to see a
page full of circuits, nodes, areas etc. as a result of
being connected to the HECnet. In combination with Paul’s
excellent mapper joining up geography with connectivity,
there’s a certain ‘warm fuzzy feeling’ being part of a
community like this… even if our nodes do more of the
talking than we do. Harking back to the hobbyist bit
though, I have to stop myself from being disappointed when
nodes drop off for whatever reason especially long term.
I’ve not seen inbound links from 29.400 and 29.500 for a
while now. I occasionally wonder where area 8 is too –
geographically less than 10 miles away possibly yet I’ve
not seen any of it up and running on the HECnet during my
connection to it.<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I’m not complaining about any of this,
just wondering… as well as staying as far away from
source-code control topics as possible :)<br>
<br>
<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Keith<u></u><u></u></p>
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