[HECnet] VCF UK

[Mark Wickens]

On Fri, 2010-06-25 at 10:18 +0100, Michael-John Turner wrote:
On Tue, Jun 22, 2010 at 08:12:11AM +0100, Mark Wickens wrote:
Not sure how much interest will be generated long term, but there were a
few people who'd heard of hecnet and a few who said they'd like to get a
machine up and running on it.

Although I didn't manage to chat to you while I was there, yours was by far
my favourite stand at VCF UK. It was great to come across some VAXen in a
sea of home computers (which don't really interest me a great deal, to be
honest). I was rather amused to see two guys wondering why Unix commands
weren't working on an OpenVMS system :)

I've been subscribed to this list for years and seeing your machines has
finally given me the kick I need to dig out a VAX, reinstall OpenVMS and
get connected to HECNET.

(Resending this as I don't think my original reply got through due to using
an address not subscribed to the list).

-mj

Hi MJ,

Well, I'm sorry I missed talking to you. Yes, the Scandinavians (at
least that's the accent I detected) were very amusing, although I
couldn't quite work out what the interest was in the Digital Unix based
Alpha system seeing as how they were transfixed with the output of
'uname -a' for a couple of minutes. Certainly the 'unrecognised command
verb' issued on the VT320 didn't hold anywhere near as much interest,
but certainly it was amusing (do any machines exist out there that don't
run windows or macOS or linux?)!

I think it a little bit of a shame and possible somewhat of a dichotomy
that the event was geared so much towards gaming computers, given some
of the current restoration projects going on within the VCF. However,
all credit for them for pulling it off - I know how much effort is
required for a 30 person event - the organiser Simon seemed quite calm
given the scale of the event. 

It was a shame that my primary VAX/VMS machine that I do most of my
development and experimentation on decided not to play ball at the event
(I think it would have been impressive to see the VAX jump through some
modern day hoops successfully) but at least, after all the fretting, it
booted happily when it got back home. Not sure what that was about - I'm
not one to personalise machines, but it's hard not to when a box that
refused to boot at one location is happy when it get back home again (I
got some use out of it over the weekend as a demonstration of how well
DEC stuff is engineered - 'lets take this box apart with one hand')

Get that VAX connected to hecnet - my interest is still strong and I
still feel like a 'noob'. Certainly, I think there is scope on hecnet.eu
for a 'projects' list where people can chip in on other people's pet
projects. Bless him Malcolm Blunden (who I met at my DEC Legacy Event)
has been guiding me in the art of VMS sysadm since he got an account on
my (very amateurishly configured) box BUBBLE and solving some
'interesting' VMS based problems, such as producing the content of the
'wall' on hecnet.eu, and also Steve Davidson who was configuring ORAC
(the machine that went to the VCF) on the night before and morning that
the power got turned off and the box put in the boot of the car! I've
also learnt a lot from Steve!

My own personal goal is to get an SMTP to ALLIN1 mail gateway running,
but I know I am going to have to draw on other people's talents.

Also - shameless plug - the retrochallenge is due to start in less than
a week for the month of July - I would encourage everyone to drop in to
the website and see what is going on (at the very least) or preferably
have a go! Really, all you have to do is tell the organiser what you
plan to play with, create a web page/gopher space/telnet server/etc and
off you go. It's really nice focussing on something retro for a month
with the support and interest of other fellow retroheads. I've been
amazed at how much I've got done in a month considering I spend most of
my time 'thinking about living that retro-life' instead of getting on
with it.

Website:   http://www.retrochallenge.net
BBS:           telnet bbs.retrochallenge.net
Twitter:   http://twitter.com/retrochallenge
Last14me: http://www.wickensonline.co.uk/rc2010ww/index.html

Right, back to the excellent Muse set at Glastonbury (my nostrils are
ok, so I must be watching it on TV!)

Regards, Mark.