Subtext – A multi-user BBS server for classic macOS | Hacker News Reader

Subtext – A multi-user BBS server for classic macOS

jcs.org

76 pointstosh19 comments

The git hosting for the code of that has a pretty cool website also.

The website is made to look like classic Mac OS. And instead of commit hash in the summary of the most recent commit on the top of the page, it says:

    Amendment 291 on November 19, 2022

Which is also fun :)

I like the idea of a code repository as being an ideally complete initial version followed by a number of "amendments".

The risk is that you'll generate a bunch of chatter about what the amendment was supposed to do even while it's clearly stated in the comments.

I would like to amend my previous comment by the way.

It seems that amendhub is in fact not hosting git repositories.

It seems that "Amend" is a revision control system distinct from git.

https://jcs.org/amend

And that amendhub hosts Amend repositories.

I admire anyone who has created a BBS, but I don't understand this. Is it to better learn how to code in C? It is nostalgia? It looks like he spent part of a year on nostalgia. PS: https://amendhub.com/jcs

It predates my lifetime but it’s been really fun to learn about how stuff used to work. (Which I guess is some form of nostalgia)

There’s a bit of a boom in retro computing in general right now. Many independent makers doing hardware and software with cool blogs or YouTube channels.

The funny thing with all of this interest in the computets of my childhood, I have grown more interested in the computers that came before my lifetime.

Not only is it great to see the old spirit of tinkering be revived, but there are important lessons about the nature of innovation from the industry's past.

It's art. If you want a modern BBS, you can write one in bash.

There’s a very interesting write up about building this, with a lot more information, here: https://jcs.org/2022/07/15/kludge

How is this exact dupe URL possible? See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33711724

The hyphen character is different

I don't think the title matters, does it? Only the URL I think.

And in this case..

    cmp <( echo -n 'https://jcs.org/subtext' ) <( echo -n 'https://jcs.org/subtext' )

..no output. It's the exact same URL byte for byte.

Maybe 14 hours is enough that HN allows to post it again. Some score threshold could be involved to allow reposting after certain amount of time as well, to allow something more attention if it didn't get enough attention initially?

If you drop an email to the mods using the footer contact link, they can talk more about it (and maybe reply here!).

Can someone explain what this line in the feature section mean?

Telnet brute-force IP banning by sending UDP packets to a firewall host

It refers to a technique also known as "port knocking" which consists of leaving a port closed by default and opening it upon receiving a message by another channel (in this case, a UDP packet).

It was mostly in use when TLS hadn't made it's way into most common protocols

No, that’s not what this is referring to, since that doesn’t involve blocking IPs. This page[1] provides some detail:

> A recent change goes a step further and sends a UDP packet to my OpenBSD firewall containing the IP to be banned, and a small Ruby server running there adds the IP to a pf table, immediately blocking all further IP access from the bot.

[1]: https://jcs.org/2022/07/15/kludge

Thank you,

Mac OS should be in caps

Actually I think System 6 predates the Mac OS naming scheme

Indeed the Mac OS branding didn't really kick in until after 7.5 as far as I know.

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