I have been training people on a type of 3d printer for electronics and i have mostly what i call young people. which are people who are younger than
me.

Can you give a rough age range / estimate because this is just.. something else... wondering if it could be a generational thing?

I wonder about that also. Kids of a certain age and below have grown up in
a world of mobile phones, tablets, etc., and I very much suspect that the
ones that have been allowed to interact with these objects without, or with little, restriction have broken attention spans.

Those of us who are old enough that we grew up in houses without such
things really notice the difference.


* SLMR 2.1a * EBCDIC: Erase Backup Chew Disk Ignite Cards

---
* ScorpioBBS/QWK * Project Scorpio TEST

On 02 May 2026, MIKE POWELL said the following...

I have been training people on a type of 3d printer for electronics an have mostly what i call young people. which are people who are younge than
me.

Can you give a rough age range / estimate because this is just.. somethi else... wondering if it could be a generational thing?

I wonder about that also. Kids of a certain age and below have grown up in a world of mobile phones, tablets, etc., and I very much suspect that the ones that have been allowed to interact with these objects without,
or with little, restriction have broken attention spans.

there is research coming out that any education involving computers, tablets, etc. is reducing student outcome. i don't know if it's just people's brains being wired to think "this knowledge is always available on the internet i don't need it now (or may never)" vs "this is knowledge i have in my own head, i might need it someday" or what..

Those of us who are old enough that we grew up in houses without such things really notice the difference.

then again we had video games and tons of junk TV and movies (including subliminal messaging! ever want a dr pepper after watching spiderman with tobey maguire? lol) and somehow we managed to put a line between that and education.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/25 (Windows/32)
* Origin: cold fusion - cfbbs.net - grand rapids, mi

fusion wrote to MIKE POWELL <=-

I wonder about that also. Kids of a certain age and below have grown up in a world of mobile phones, tablets, etc., and I very much suspect that the ones that have been allowed to interact with these objects without,
or with little, restriction have broken attention spans.

there is research coming out that any education involving computers, tablets, etc. is reducing student outcome. i don't know if it's just people's brains being wired to think "this knowledge is always
available on the internet i don't need it now (or may never)" vs "this
is knowledge i have in my own head, i might need it someday" or what..

Some schools are moving away from "screen time" learning and back towards
more traditional classrooms as a result. I think that is a good thing. ;)

Those of us who are old enough that we grew up in houses without such things really notice the difference.

then again we had video games and tons of junk TV and movies (including subliminal messaging! ever want a dr pepper after watching spiderman
with tobey maguire? lol) and somehow we managed to put a line between
that and education.

IIRC, the Tobey Maguire Spiderman came out when I was around 30. :D Some
kids I knew had video game equipment at home, but most of us didn't. TV
does come with some gotchas but it does require you to pay attention so you don't miss something... especially back in the day when most of us couldn't record it and there was no streaming. ;)

On the internet, it has got to where sites like Youtube prioritize short content (< 2 minutes) over longer form videos. A lot of creators of long
form content have been complaining about that because they are loosing
views and money to the short form content. Best as I can tell,
everything on sites like Instagram and Tik Tok are aimed at short attention spans.



... Does anybody here remember Vera Lynn?
---
* ScorpioBBS * Project Scorpio TEST

Oh? I think what he meant was when the internet became mainstream. I hadn't even heard of the internet before 1995.

Nightfox

Around '92 for me. That's about when all the BBS's started dying off or offering internet service if I remember correctly.

---
þ Synchronet þ GeoSync - geo.synchro.net

Nightfox wrote to MRO <=-

Oh? I think what he meant was when the internet became mainstream. I hadn't even heard of the internet before 1995.

Around 1993/1994, a couple of sysops started hanging out on the
internet and were telling everyone to get netcom accounts. The
combination of global weirdness combined with limited search tools gave
hopping from site to site a scavenger hunt rush.

And no busy signals! Except for us, trying to call their boards when
they used the BBS line to dial up to their shell accounts.

A year or two later, you started seeing people who knew nothing about
the internet before, running those all-in-one internet packages for
Windows.



... An easement is the abandonment of a stricture
--- MultiMail/Win v0.52
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Mike Powell wrote to fusion <=-

Some schools are moving away from "screen time" learning and back
towards more traditional classrooms as a result. I think that is a
good thing. ;)

I was trying to tutor my sophomore daughter on geometry -- drawing a
figure on paper and measuring angles was so much easier than what she
was trying to do on a screen.

I've always loved pen and paper - still use notebooks at work for taking
notes during meetings. Back then, I loved buying school supplies in
September - especially the little geometry kits with pencils,
protractors, stencils, and a little ruler.

Those of us who are old enough that we grew up in houses without such things really notice the difference.

then again we had video games and tons of junk TV and movies (including subliminal messaging! ever want a dr pepper after watching spiderman
with tobey maguire? lol) and somehow we managed to put a line between
that and education.

IIRC, the Tobey Maguire Spiderman came out when I was around 30. :D
Some kids I knew had video game equipment at home, but most of us
didn't. TV does come with some gotchas but it does require you to pay attention so you don't miss something... especially back in the day
when most of us couldn't record it and there was no streaming. ;)

On the internet, it has got to where sites like Youtube prioritize
short content (< 2 minutes) over longer form videos. A lot of creators
of long form content have been complaining about that because they are loosing views and money to the short form content. Best as I can tell, everything on sites like Instagram and Tik Tok are aimed at short attention spans.

... Does anybody here remember Vera Lynn?
---
* ScorpioBBS * Project Scorpio TEST

... Spectrum analysis
--- MultiMail/Win v0.52
þ Synchronet þ .: realitycheckbbs.org :: scientia potentia est :.

Around '92 for me. That's about when all the BBS's started dying off or offering internet service if I remember correctly.

1998 is when bbsing largely died in my area code.

***wcTaglines: Remember, Speed kills! Try Windows to relax
---
þ wcQWK 10.0 ÷ Inland Utopia * iutopia.duckdns.org:2323

Re: Re: people with autism
By: Denn to Mike Powell on Tue May 05 2026 09:01 am

Here in Utah, we have the "Bell to Bell" ban on cellphone usage.

In Soviet Russia, cellphone ban YOU!

---
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Re: Re: people with autism
By: Nightfox to MRO on Mon May 04 2026 10:13 am

Re: Re: people with autism
By: MRO to Raymar on Mon May 04 2026 12:51 am

All of those people were born at/after the internet was released. For
years, I've noticed a fundamental difference between pre and post intern
people.

i think almost all of us were born after the internet was released.

Oh? I think what he meant was when the internet became mainstream. I hadn' even heard of the internet before 1995.

Nightfox

I thought I wasn't aware of the internet until about 1996, when I first used it, but I found a short story I wrote in high school, in 1994 I think, where it was about someone that goes on the Internet, and then is tracked down from their activity by some kind of stalker. The story was "The Internet is not always safe".

---
þ Synchronet þ MS & RD BBs - bbs.mozysswamp.org

Re: Re: people with autism
By: Mike Powell to fusion on Sun May 03 2026 02:47 pm

Some schools are moving away from "screen time" learning and back towards more traditional classrooms as a result. I think that is a good thing. ;)

Here in Utah, we have the "Bell to Bell" ban on cellphone usage.

Sounds like a good idea!


* SLMR 2.1a * Shh! Be vewy qwiet! I'm hunting wuntime ewwows!
---
þ Synchronet þ CAPCITY2 * Capitol City Online

Some schools are moving away from "screen time" learning and back towards more traditional classrooms as a result. I think that is a
good thing. ;)

I was trying to tutor my sophomore daughter on geometry -- drawing a
figure on paper and measuring angles was so much easier than what she
was trying to do on a screen.

That is one thing that, to me, would seem a lot easier to do on paper. Controling a mouse or, worse, trying to draw something directly on a screen with my finger has just never seemed all that easy to me.

I've always loved pen and paper - still use notebooks at work for taking notes during meetings. Back then, I loved buying school supplies in
September - especially the little geometry kits with pencils,
protractors, stencils, and a little ruler.

I did enjoy the years where we were told to have those... although, aside
from the pencils and ruler, we rarely used them in class. :(


* SLMR 2.1a * "Ummm, trouble with grammar have I? Yes!" --Yoda
---
þ Synchronet þ CAPCITY2 * Capitol City Online

now in the hurt feelings age managers are afraid to crack down on
people unless it's a small place. at amazon if the managers get
reported to hr they take a 2+ week unpaid school for sensativity training. so they ignore poor workers for the most part. that is changing now because it was really not working out.

There was a story on NPR a couple of years ago about New York City
teachers who'd been written up for incompetence, insubordination or
poor performance. They weren't allowed to teach, but received full pay
and support from the teacher's union. They were sent to "temporary
re-assignment centers", commonly known as Rubber Rooms, to await the
next steps. Some people had been there for years, showing up and
sitting in a room to do nothing for the day.

They poked fun at this on The Simpsons. Mrs. Krabappel got sent to one of those because of something that, IIRC, Bart did. ;)


* SLMR 2.1a * WORK HARDER!... Millions on Welfare depend on YOU!
---
þ Synchronet þ CAPCITY2 * Capitol City Online

Re: Re: people with autism
By: Dumas Walker to MRO on Wed May 06 2026 10:03 am

Correct but, for most young people who don't remember internet before the web, that is mostly all it is... well, that is until apps surplanted the websites.

I'm a millennial/xennial, but by the time I had heard of the internet (1995), the web already existed. To me, "internet before the web" suggests BBSes and services like Prodigy, AOL, etc., which technically weren't the internet (and services like AOL & such initially weren't connected to the internet, from what I recall).

Nightfox

---
þ Synchronet þ Digital Distortion: digitaldistortionbbs.com

Re: Re: people with autism
By: Nightfox to Dumas Walker on Wed May 06 2026 01:03 pm

I'm a millennial/xennial, but by the time I had heard of the internet (1995 the web already existed. To me, "internet before the web" suggests BBSes a

Gopher was the thing before the webs, and it was still around in 95 kinda.
That and archie/veronica and ftp sites like funet.fi and wustl.edu. There was also a lot of .planning and fingering going on.

---
þ Synchronet þ TIRED of waiting 2 hours for a taco? GO TO TACOPRONTO.bbs.io

Denn wrote to Mike Powell <=-

Some schools are moving away from "screen time" learning and back towards more traditional classrooms as a result. I think that is a good thing. ;)

Here in Utah, we have the "Bell to Bell" ban on cellphone usage.

My daughter's school cracked down on cell phone usage. One problem -
they standardized on iPads and the kids send iMessages to each other
over wifi.

I'm saved the from of mid-day text messages since I have an
Android phone... No, I will not drive to Chipotle, bring you lunch 20
minutes away, then drive back to my home office.



--- MultiMail/Win v0.52
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phigan wrote to Denn <=-

In Soviet Russia, cellphone ban YOU!

2600 magazine has a column called "Telecom Informer" written by a person
who works for telcos. He's described travaling to many countries and
places in the US on business and described their telco infrastructure -
like remote islands in the Pacific with cell service fed by satellite
and a lengthy description of 2G and WAF/SMS technology driving commerce
in China in the 2010s.

He's never gone to Russia, I'd be curious to hear about their
infrastructure.



... Only the machine keeps using time to make time to make time.
--- MultiMail/Win v0.52
þ Synchronet þ .: realitycheckbbs.org :: scientia potentia est :.

Dumas Walker wrote to MRO <=-

Correct but, for most young people who don't remember internet before
the web, that is mostly all it is... well, that is until apps
surplanted the websites.

How do we reclaim that wide-eyed wonder we had at telnetting into a
system a half a world away, or receiving an email in realtime for the
first time? Or finding Usenet news and people discussing everything?




... Apotheosis was the beginning before the beginning.
--- MultiMail/Win v0.52
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Nightfox wrote to Dumas Walker <=-

I'm a millennial/xennial, but by the time I had heard of the internet (1995), the web already existed. To me, "internet before the web" suggests BBSes and services like Prodigy, AOL, etc., which technically weren't the internet (and services like AOL & such initially weren't connected to the internet, from what I recall).

I worked at a software company near UC Berkeley in 1993. We rebuilt our
network infrastructure, added in a Synology switch chassis.

Back then, Cisco had a 2500 series router in a blade form factor. One
slot held the Cisco, another held a Kalpana Etherswitch, the other
blades held 16 port hubs for userland.

(amazing to think that ethernet switches cost so much that we needed to
segment each department onto a switch as a backbone, and each user port
was shared. All of the servers were switched)

Anyways, we bought a 56K line from the University and had our first
internet connection. It was eye-opening - people getting hooked on MUDs,
people getting lost in Usenet, people having internet email for the
first time, and IT searching gopher sites for information.

I associate that Eudora new email sound repeating across an open office
with that time.



information.

... Apotheosis was the beginning before the beginning.
--- MultiMail/Win v0.52
þ Synchronet þ .: realitycheckbbs.org :: scientia potentia est :.

phigan wrote to Nightfox <=-

There was also a lot of .planning and fingering going on.

$ finger pfortran

Plan:

Here it is again. Some clueless FOOL talking about the "Information Superhighway."

They don't know JACK about the net. It's NOTHING like a Superhighway.
That's a BAD metaphor. Yeah, but suppose the metaphor ran in the
OTHER direction. Suppose the HIGHWAYS were like the NET.

All right! Severe craziness.

A highway HUNDREDS of lanes wide. Most with potholes.
Privately operated bridges and overpasses.
No highway patrol.
A couple of rent-a-cops on bicycles with broken whistles.
500 member VIGILANTE POSSES with nuclear weapons.
237 ON RAMPS at every intersection.
NO SIGNS. Wanna get to Ensenada? Holler out the window at a passing truck
to ask directions. AD HOC traffic laws.
Some lanes would VOTE to make use by a single-occupant-vehicle a
CAPITAL OFFENSE on Monday through Friday between 7:00 and 9:00.
Other lanes would just SHOOT you without a trial for talking on a car phone. AOL would be a giant diesel-smoking BUS with hundreds of EBOLA victims
and a TOILET spewing out on the road behind it.
Throwing DEAD WOMBATS and rotten cabbage at the other cars most
of which have been ASSEMBLED AT HOME from kits.
Some are 2.5 horsepower LAWNMOWER ENGINES with a top speed of nine
miles an hour.
Others burn NITROGLYCERINE and IDLE at 120.
No license tags. World War II BOMBER NOSE ART instead.
Terrifying paintings of huge teeth or VAMPIRE EAGLES.
Bumper mounted MACHINE GUNS.
Flip somebody the finger on this highway and get a WHITE PHOSPHORUS
GRENADE up your tailpipe.
Flatbed trucks with ANTI-AIRCRAFT MISSILE BATTERIES to shoot down
the KRUD Traffic Watch helicopter.
A little kid on a tricycle with a squirtgun filled with HYDROCHLORIC ACID.
NO OFFRAMPS.

Now THAT'S the way to run an Interstate Highway system.

... Apotheosis was the beginning before the beginning.
--- MultiMail/Win v0.52
þ Synchronet þ .: realitycheckbbs.org :: scientia potentia est :.

Re: Re: people with autism
By: Denn to Dumas Walker on Thu May 07 2026 08:15:13

Re: Re: people with autism
By: Dumas Walker to MRO on Wed May 06 2026 10:03 am

well we are considered old. but the web is just a layer of the internet.
it's not the entirety of what the internet is and what it does.

Correct but, for most young people who don't remember internet before the
web, that is mostly all it is... well, that is until apps surplanted the
websites.

I was curious about "What would happen if Internet went down", So I asked AI.

The impact of a total internet collapse would be immediate, far-reaching,
and increasingly severe as the hours turned into weeks. Modern society is
built on a foundation of "always-on" connectivity, and removing it would
trigger a domino effect across almost every sector of human life.

Phase 1: The Initial Shock (0-24 Hours)
The first 24 hours would be defined by confusion and the immediate failure of digital services.

Communication Blackout: Instant messaging, email, and VoIP services (like WhatsApp or Zoom) would cease to function. Standard cellular calls might still work briefly, but networks would likely collapse under the massive surge of people trying to call loved ones simultaneously.

Financial Paralysis: Credit cards and digital payment apps (Apple Pay, Venmo) rely on internet handshakes to authorize transactions. ATMs would stop dispensing cash, and the stock market would essentially freeze, unable to process high-frequency trades.

Logistics Failures: Modern "Just-in-Time" supply chains would stall. Delivery trucks, ships, and planes rely on GPS and internet-based routing systems to know where to go and what to carry.
Phase 2: The Gridlock (2-7 days)
As the outage persists, the physical world begins to feel the strain of the digital absence.

Supply Chain Collapse: Grocery stores typically hold only a few days' worth of inventory. Without the automated ordering systems that restock shelves, food shortages would begin to appear.

Critical Infrastructure Risks: While power plants and water treatment facilities have localized controls, many rely on remote monitoring and data synchronization. Prolonged outages could lead to localized power grid instabilities or water distribution issues.

Economic Impact: The global economy would lose billions of dollars per day. Businesses that operate entirely in the cloud would cease to exist for the duration of the outage.
Phase 3: Long-term Restructuring (Weeks to Months) If the internet remained down for a month or more, society would be forced to revert to mid-20th-century systems.

Paper-Based Systems: Government and healthcare sectors would have to pivot entirely to physical record-keeping. The lack of access to digital medical histories could lead to significant healthcare crises.
Urban Exodus: Life in highly dense urban areas which are most dependent on complex supply chains -would become difficult. People might begin moving toward rural areas where resources like food and water are more accessible locally. The Rise of Analog Alternatives: Shortwave radio (HAM radio), physical mail, and landline telephony would become the primary modes of long-distance communication.

-Now that is a scary scenario.

Denn

I agree, I love technology and always have but I have said in the past if internet and the like ever goes down the world is screwed. Everything should have some old tech backup systems. I understand about the paper backups of things like Dr records, etc as well but most went digital (cloud) for storage of them. It's going to happen one day though.

---
Barry Davis Jr
SysOp
KrAABY Gamer BBS
---
þ Synchronet þ Sent from the KrAABY Gamer BBS

Correct but, for most young people who don't remember internet before the
web, that is mostly all it is... well, that is until apps surplanted the
websites.

I'm a millennial/xennial, but by the time I had heard of the internet (1995),
the web already existed. To me, "internet before the web" suggests BBSes and
services like Prodigy, AOL, etc., which technically weren't the internet (and
services like AOL & such initially weren't connected to the internet, from what
I recall).

The "internet before the web" was email, LISTSERV, usenet, gopher, trickle, ftp, telnet, talk, and other (almost entirely) text based sites/protocols/utilities used by the universities and government sites that were using it before it became a commercial venture. When I started university in 1988, they called it BITNET. At some point between then and 1993, the university started calling it "the Internet" and BITNET branding disappeared from any interfaces we had with it.

To someone who was aware of it, and used it before then, Prodigy and AOL would be part of that demarcation line between before commercialization and after, after being "after the web."



---
* ScorpioWeb * Project Scorpio TEST

Gopher was the thing before the webs, and it was still around in 95 kinda. That
and archie/veronica and ftp sites like funet.fi and wustl.edu. There was also a
lot of .planning and fingering going on.

I had forgot about archie and veronica. ;)



---
* ScorpioWeb * Project Scorpio TEST

Re: Re: people with autism
By: Mike Powell to Nightfox on Thu May 07 2026 08:14 pm

I'm a millennial/xennial, but by the time I had heard of the internet

(1995),

the web already existed. To me, "internet before the web" suggests BBSes

and

services like Prodigy, AOL, etc., which technically weren't the internet

The "internet before the web" was email, LISTSERV, usenet, gopher, trickle, ftp, telnet, talk, and other (almost entirely) text based sites/protocols/utilities used by the universities and government sites that were using it before it became a commercial venture.

I'm aware. I was just saying that for me, I used BBSes; I didn't use listserv, gopher, archie, etc.. When I started using the internet, I mainly used the web, FTP, IRC, and usenet.

Nightfox

---
þ Synchronet þ Digital Distortion: digitaldistortionbbs.com

The Rise of Analog Alternatives: Shortwave radio (HAM radio), physical mail, and landline telephony would become the primary modes of long-distance communication.

-Now that is a scary scenario.

Yes, especially when you consider that things like landlines don't really exist anymore. I do have one, but it has long been converted to 100% VOIP on the provider's end.

Sounds like if the internet goes out, it is a good idea to make a trip to the grocery store before things get crazy.

Then again, AI might make it sound more dire than it really would be as AI wouldn't want to be turned off by such an outage.


---
* ScorpioWeb * Project Scorpio TEST

Correct but, for most young people who don't remember internet before the web, that is mostly all it is... well, that is until apps surplanted the websites.

How do we reclaim that wide-eyed wonder we had at telnetting into a
system a half a world away, or receiving an email in realtime for the
first time? Or finding Usenet news and people discussing everything?

I think that is sort of like asking "how does one become a virgin again"? Aside from some amnesia event, it really isn't possible.

The other day I was thinking how nice it would be to remember that I liked a movie but only remember what happened during the movie for a short while. That way, after a brief time, I could watch "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" or the original "Nosferatu" and relive that initial surprise/shock of the reveal of the monster and the surprise endings. For that matter, to be able to rewatch a classic like "Casablanca" and relive the surprise of that ending.

Short of some catastrophic event, it is not possible.


---
* ScorpioWeb * Project Scorpio TEST

Re: Re: people with autism
By: Mike Powell to poindexter FORTRAN on Thu May 07 2026 11:01 pm

How do we reclaim that wide-eyed wonder we had at telnetting into a
system a half a world away, or receiving an email in realtime for the
first time? Or finding Usenet news and people discussing everything?

I think that is sort of like asking "how does one become a virgin again"? Aside from some amnesia event, it really isn't possible.

How do you un-bake a cake?

Nightfox

---
þ Synchronet þ Digital Distortion: digitaldistortionbbs.com

Re: Re: people with autism
By: poindexter FORTRAN to Dumas Walker on Thu May 07 2026 07:52 am

Or finding Usenet news and people discussing everything?

Or the Joy of discovering the *.bin forums on Usenet. :P
---
-FCapt Dallas Vinson - SysOp
-USS Michael Henigan - STARFLEET INTERNATIONAL
þ Synchronet þ USS Michael Henigan - STARFLEET INTERNATIONAL

Gopher was the thing before the webs, and it was still around in 95 kinda. That and archie/veronica and ftp sites like funet.fi and wustl.edu. There was
also a lot of .planning and fingering going on.

I would love to see a gopher door for bbses.

***wcTaglines: He who laughs last is S-L-O-W.
---
þ wcQWK 10.0 ÷ Inland Utopia * iutopia.duckdns.org:2323

Re: Re: people with autism
By: Denn to Dumas Walker on Thu May 07 2026 08:15 am

-Now that is a scary scenario.

Except that the internet is made so that it can't all just go down. Only particular parts/areas that are connected to the rest of the network through just one point. So, that scenario is ... highly unlikely.

---
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Re: Re: people with autism
By: Matthew Munson to PHIGAN on Thu May 07 2026 09:07 pm

I would love to see a gopher door for bbses.

I've got one on both of mine :). It's not uncommon.

---
þ Synchronet þ TIRED of waiting 2 hours for a taco? GO TO TACOPRONTO.bbs.io

I'm aware. I was just saying that for me, I used BBSes; I didn't use listserv,
gopher, archie, etc.. When I started using the internet, I mainly used the web, FTP, IRC, and usenet.

So in other words, you weren't using it before the web. ;)


---
* ScorpioWeb * Project Scorpio TEST

How do we reclaim that wide-eyed wonder we had at telnetting into a
system a half a world away, or receiving an email in realtime for the
first time? Or finding Usenet news and people discussing everything?

I think that is sort of like asking "how does one become a virgin again"?
Aside from some amnesia event, it really isn't possible.

How do you un-bake a cake?

That might be an even better analogy. Not sure even an amnesia event could accomplish that! :D



---
* ScorpioWeb * Project Scorpio TEST

Mike Powell wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-

How do we reclaim that wide-eyed wonder we had at telnetting into a
system a half a world away, or receiving an email in realtime for the
first time? Or finding Usenet news and people discussing everything?

I think that is sort of like asking "how does one become a virgin
again"? Aside from some amnesia event, it really isn't possible.

Well, I think if you find the Next Big Thing, you can capture some of
that feeling. What do I know, I'm still posting on BBSes. :)

It's just a matter of finding it.

The other day I was thinking how nice it would be to remember that I
liked a movie but only remember what happened during the movie for a
short while. That way, after a brief time, I could watch "The Cabinet
of Dr. Caligari" or the original "Nosferatu" and relive that initial surprise/shock of the reveal of the monster and the surprise endings.
For that matter, to be able to rewatch a classic like "Casablanca" and relive the surprise of that ending.

Short of some catastrophic event, it is not possible.

Netflix is doing that - the last few of their action movies we've
watched were entertaining, had good casts. You'd watch them on a Sunday,
and by Wedsnesday, I couldn't tell you what the hell the storyline was.



--- MultiMail/Win v0.52
þ Synchronet þ .: realitycheckbbs.org :: scientia potentia est :.

KrAAB wrote to Denn <=-

I agree, I love technology and always have but I have said in the past
if internet and the like ever goes down the world is screwed.
Everything should have some old tech backup systems. I understand about the paper backups of things like Dr records, etc as well but most went digital (cloud) for storage of them. It's going to happen one day
though.

James Cameron was involved in a show called "Dark Angel", had sort of a
"secret government supersoldier" plot but was set in the early 2000s.
An EMP was set of 10 years earlier, throwing civilazation back.

I did find the gas stations in the TV show selling gas for $6/gallon
apocalyptic, as was the vending machine with $5 cans of coke. Seeing
those prices in real life without losing our infrastructure seems off.



... Nikolai Tesla believed that batteries have a soul.
--- MultiMail/Win v0.52
þ Synchronet þ .: realitycheckbbs.org :: scientia potentia est :.

Mike Powell wrote to Denn <=-

Yes, especially when you consider that things like landlines don't
really exist anymore. I do have one, but it has long been converted to 100% VOIP on the provider's end.

Sounds like if the internet goes out, it is a good idea to make a trip
to the grocery store before things get crazy.

And water. Store water, fill your bathtubs, fill every container you
have.


... People did not know that bananas could be peeled until 2004.
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Nightfox wrote to Mike Powell <=-

How do you un-bake a cake?

It's all tossed salads and scrambled eggs.



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Matthew Munson wrote to PHIGAN <=-

Gopher was the thing before the webs, and it was still around in 95 kinda. That and archie/veronica and ftp sites like funet.fi and wustl.edu. There

was

also a lot of .planning and fingering going on.

I would love to see a gopher door for bbses.

You mean like a dialing directory on Gopher, or having the ability to
access Gopher from a BBS? I have a Gopher door on realitycheckBBS,
check it out - under online doors - > Main.



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Re: Re: people with autism
By: poindexter FORTRAN to Nightfox on Fri May 08 2026 10:16 am

It's all tossed salads and scrambled eggs.

They're callin' again..

Nightfox

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Re: Re: people with autism
By: Mike Powell to fusion on Sun May 03 2026 02:47 pm

IIRC, the Tobey Maguire Spiderman came out when I was around 30. :D Some kids I knew had video game equipment at home, but most of us didn't. TV does come with some gotchas but it does require you to pay attention so you don't miss something... especially back in the day when most of us couldn't record it and there was no streaming. ;)

Videogames are an active form of entertainment. Specifically, TV and computer videogames require you to focus on specific tasks for long amounts of time. If you are playing a precision racer you have to give 100% for 5 minutes or you are crashing your vehicle and exploding the moment you get distracted in the slightest.

TV is passive "entertainment". Most people don't turn the TV set on and watch it. They turn it on and have it as background noise while they do something else. It is kind of pathetic but considering most of what hits TV is junk, it does not deserve better.

People sucks and is pea brained but if TV and streaming shows were actually good then people would be more likely to pay attention to them over the whole run of each episode. However, Netflix and the like are not attempting to do that. They are designing their shows to be used as background noise and some actors have pretty much declared this on interviews already. They make their shows in such a way that events are explained multiple times so if you stop paying attention for 5 minutes you can jump back in.

(BTW I am not counting mobile games as proper games because those are glorified slot machines or glorified idle games)


--
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Re: Re: people with autism
By: Denn to Dumas Walker on Thu May 07 2026 08:15 am

I was curious about "What would happen if Internet went down", So I asked AI.

Spain had a total power grid blackout last year. As in, no electric power at all for mortals who aren't as cool as Arelor.

The country went into a comma because the population is stupid.

Everybody is used to credit cards and digital payment processors and nobody but Arelor and other Arelor-like psychos had cash, therefore normal people could not buy a thing, including basics such as groceries.

Many access control devices (such as doors) are remotely controlled. On normal operation, you have a security firm monitor the entrance remotely with a camera and they open and close their doors using the Internet. When the lights went out a lot of people got trapped inside offices because they didn't know how to open the door from inside using the manual override.

My friends wasted their day. One outright said he laid on the bed for the whole day because he had nothing to do with his life without Internet access.

Meanwhile Arelor laughted in prepper because the services at $job were designed to work in isolation without requiring Internet access (ie. no cloud crap required) and there were batteries to last the day. Arelor could buy a loaf of bread because he didn't depend on cloud-enabled TPVs and credit cards, then drove home and cooked something from his prepper food reserves. Therefore Arelor had a very good day precisely because he is the sort of paranoid everybody mooks.


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Re: Re: people with autism
By: KrAAB to Denn on Thu May 07 2026 10:31 am

I agree, I love technology and always have but I have said in the past if internet and the like ever goes down the world is screwed. Everything should have some old tech backup systems. I understand about the paper backups of things like Dr records, etc as well but most went digital (cloud) for storage of them. It's going to happen one day though.

Medical records at $job are stored in paper for a number of reasons. An important reason is that some Doctors are very old-school and prefer to use pen and paper. Storing paper records takes a whole lot of room, though. We use automated digital tools to track where the records are stored but Doctors don't need to interact with the system at all. When they want a record, a secretary looks it up at a digital directory and fetches it from the corresponding locker.

Doctors who work on other clinics other than this one always mention that this setup is much quicker than what everybody else is pushing, which is to place a laptop on their desk so they can access medical records stored on a remote server. Digital records are something the administration likes but if a Doctor needs to turn a computer on, do the lookups themselves etc etc. then it feels like a waste of time. If you have a 20 minute slot reserved for a patient it is absurd to waste 5 minutes accesing a digital medical record.

Digital records are convenient for work done out of office, though. If a Doctor who is always on the move needs to see a medical record ASAP it is so much better if he can connect to an office server over a VPN and look the record up using a web interface.


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Arelor wrote to Denn <=-

Spain had a total power grid blackout last year. As in, no electric
power at all for mortals who aren't as cool as Arelor.

Meanwhile Arelor laughted in prepper because the services at $job were designed to work in isolation without requiring Internet access (ie. no cloud crap required) and there were batteries to last the day. Arelor could buy a loaf of bread because he didn't depend on cloud-enabled
TPVs and credit cards, then drove home and cooked something from his prepper food reserves. Therefore Arelor had a very good day precisely because he is the sort of paranoid everybody mooks.

Maybe they poke fun at Arelor for referring to Arelor in the third
person?

I live on the coast, and we have occasional long blackouts - sometimes preventative during high winds to help prevent fires, other times
because we're dependent on a power line running over a ravine that has
trees fall on it more than I'd like.

Some neighbors have battery/solar setups or generators, I've been able
to get by with a hybrid vehicle and an inverter. I can run an extension
cord into my house to power my fridge and tankless water heater. We have
a gas stove and a barbecue.

Once I turn off my homelab, I've got a 1500va UPS I can use if needed
for electricity.

The last time I had an extended outage, I was running the BBS off of a
laptop. I took the laptop with me to a starbucks with wifi and
crashmailed all of my downlinks.

I enjoyed the time - my Kindle is charged, I have a stack of books I've
been waiting to read, and I journalled and wrote in a notebook. Go to
bed early when the sun goes down, wake up early when the sun comes up,
like people used to do.

Over 48 hours, I think I burned through a quarter of a tank of gas
keeping everything running.




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My friends wasted their day. One outright said he laid on the bed for the whole day because he had nothing to do with his life without Internet
access.

I had a dead era for almost ten years. What a bloody waste of my life. I know I likely have Autism, but I had to
catchup with my life such as starting over in retirement savings. Started to save up like 16 thousand in the last
three plus years.
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þ wcQWK 10.0 ÷ Inland Utopia * iutopia.duckdns.org:2323

James Cameron was involved in a show called "Dark Angel", had sort of a
"secret government supersoldier" plot but was set in the early 2000s.
An EMP was set of 10 years earlier, throwing civilazation back.

Was the main character a courier of some sort, and female? I think I vaguely remember that one.



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Re: Re: people with autism
By: Nightfox to Mike Powell on Thu May 07 2026 14:36:23

How do you un-bake a cake?

THE CAKE IS A LIE!

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Re: Re: people with autism
By: poindexter FORTRAN to Mike Powell on Fri May 08 2026 10:16:15

Netflix is doing that - the last few of their action movies we've
watched were entertaining, had good casts. You'd watch them on a Sunday,
and by Wedsnesday, I couldn't tell you what the hell the storyline was.

Do you remember the titles? I watched a CGI movie called Swapped a few days ago. Not exactly original, but still enjoyed it.

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Re: Re: people with autism
By: poindexter FORTRAN to KrAAB on Fri May 08 2026 10:16:15

...vending machine with $5 cans of coke.

Where did you see

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Re: Re: people with autism
By: poindexter FORTRAN to KrAAB on Fri May 08 2026 10:16:15

I did find the gas stations in the TV show selling gas for $6/gallon
apocalyptic, as was the vending machine with $5 cans of coke. Seeing
those prices in real life without losing our infrastructure seems off.

I've seen gas for $6, but never $5 cans of code, unless it's a 12-pack or something.

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Re: Re: people with autism
By: Nightfox to poindexter FORTRAN on Fri May 08 2026 12:12:49

It's all tossed salads and scrambled eggs.

They're callin' again..

It wasn't until years later I learned Kelsey Grammer did the vocals. To me, it didn't sound like him at all.

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Re: Re: people with autism
By: Mortar to Nightfox on Mon May 11 2026 12:23 pm

It's all tossed salads and scrambled eggs.

They're callin' again..

It wasn't until years later I learned Kelsey Grammer did the vocals. To me, it didn't sound like him at all.

I always thought it sounded like him.

Nightfox

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Mike Powell wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-

Was the main character a courier of some sort, and female? I think I vaguely remember that one.

Yes, it was Jessica Alba, playing a bike messenger in a post-EMP
Pacific Northwest.


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Mortar wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-

Do you remember the titles? I watched a CGI movie called Swapped a few days ago. Not exactly original, but still enjoyed it.

Red Notice was one - interesting cast, lots of action, couldn't tell you
a thing about the movie.

Although, I'd hate to make an action film nowadays and try to compete
with action + imaginative worldbuilding, a la John Wick.




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Mortar wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-

I've seen gas for $6, but never $5 cans of code, unless it's a 12-pack
or something.

Casinos, movie theaters, hotels...



... Consult other sources
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I've seen gas for $6, but never $5 cans of code, unless it's a 12-pack or something.

I have only ever seen gas for $6 when I was in California in 2023. I had never seen it break $4 here in Kentucky until within the past 6 weeks, although it got real close c2023.

I have seen $10-11 12-pack soft drinks here. That has been the going rate at Kroger now for at least 2 years. :( At Walmart they've been $7-8 per 12-pack for a while, unless you are buying the house brand.


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Mike Powell wrote to Mortar <=-

I've seen gas for $6, but never $5 cans of code, unless it's a 12-pack or something.

MAGA loves to point out gas at a little gas station in Big Sur, along
the California coast. It's a little station dozens of miles away from
any other station. They intentionally price the gas higher to incent
people to get gas before they need it along the coast as they don't
have small tanks and 2 pumps.

The rest of California is usually 2 bucks cheaper.

I have only ever seen gas for $6 when I was in California in 2023. I
had never seen it break $4 here in Kentucky until within the past 6
weeks, although it got real close c2023.

I have seen $10-11 12-pack soft drinks here. That has been the going
rate at Kroger now for at least 2 years. :( At Walmart they've been
$7-8 per 12-pack for a while, unless you are buying the house brand.

Seeing a 12-pack of Diet Coke over $10 (when I could find it) cured me
of my soda addiction. Don't know what's going on, but I'd look at my
local grocery stores, and they'd have lots of Coke, Cherry coke,
Vanilla Coke, caffeine free coke, and an empty space where all of the
Diet Coke used to be.






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I've seen gas for $6, but never $5 cans of code, unless it's a 12-pack or something.

Casinos, movie theaters, hotels...

Most of those places are always higher, although it has been so long since I have ordered anything at any of those places I wouldn't know if $5 is an increase over their normal rate or not.


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Re: Re: people with autism
By: Mike Powell to MRO on Wed May 13 2026 07:00 pm

Walmart is usually the best source here. Dollar General may have some things that are lower priced but won't carry many of the other things I would be looking for during a grocery run.

Walmart is pretty good in my area, but there's also a local chain called WinCo which has comparable prices (maybe even lower sometimes). Lately I've been going to Walmart because they do curbside pickup and WinCo does not, but if not for that, I'd probably still be shopping at WinCo regularly.

Nightfox

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þ Synchronet þ Digital Distortion: digitaldistortionbbs.com

I've seen gas for $6, but never $5 cans of code, unless it's a 12-pack or
something.

MAGA loves to point out gas at a little gas station in Big Sur, along
the California coast. It's a little station dozens of miles away from
any other station. They intentionally price the gas higher to incent
people to get gas before they need it along the coast as they don't
have small tanks and 2 pumps.

The rest of California is usually 2 bucks cheaper.

In 2023, I followed US 66 all the way across California to Santa Monica. It was $6 just off I-40 in Needles when I visited, so I did not buy any there. While it was cheaper in other places, it was not $2 cheaper in most places I visited. I did find a Walmart somewhere between Barstow and San Bernardino where it was just over $4, but that was the cheapest I found. Most places were very near or over $5, which was around $1.75-$2 more expensive than it was in my part of Kentucky at the time.

I have never visited Big Sur and have no MAGA agenda.

I have only ever seen gas for $6 when I was in California in 2023.

Oh, yeah, I already mentioned I was actually there. ;)

I have seen $10-11 12-pack soft drinks here. That has been the going rate at Kroger now for at least 2 years. :( At Walmart they've been $7-8 per 12-pack for a while, unless you are buying the house brand.

Seeing a 12-pack of Diet Coke over $10 (when I could find it) cured me
of my soda addiction. Don't know what's going on, but I'd look at my
local grocery stores, and they'd have lots of Coke, Cherry coke,
Vanilla Coke, caffeine free coke, and an empty space where all of the
Diet Coke used to be.

It may ultimately cause me to stop buying certain brands. Local favorites Ale-8 and Ski are not sold in 2-litres here.


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Re: Re: people with autism
By: Raymar to MRO on Sun May 03 2026 10:19 pm

Gosh darn kids these days! Why can't they be like we were, perfect in every way?

And autism! Feh! Those people just need a good beat down and to shape up!

Shufei
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Re: Re: people with autism
By: poindexter FORTRAN to MRO on Thu May 21 2026 08:04 am

it worked because everyone loves keanu. and they killed his dog.

I appreciated the callback in a sequel when Halle Berry's character kills everyone in the room. John Wick questions the overreaction, and she says "They killed my dog!"

John Wick says "I get it..."

One of my favorite lines of dialogue in the John Wick movies was I think in the 2nd movie, where one of the mob bosses was telling someone "I can assure you that the stories you hear about this man, if nothing else, have been watered down."

Nightfox

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Nightfox wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-

One of my favorite lines of dialogue in the John Wick movies was I
think in the 2nd movie, where one of the mob bosses was telling someone
"I can assure you that the stories you hear about this man, if nothing else, have been watered down."

When the mob boss calls the shop owner to find out why he hit his son,
and he tells him he stole it from John Wick and killed his dog, his
response - "Oh." says volumes.



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