Maybe you are all out Christmas Shopping, no that cannot be it, as its been
Christmas on't Telly since late August. We should be stocking up for Easter
soon.

Thursday sees the opening of the Alpine Village and giant Reindeer in
Kingston Town centre near me, so I think that knocks out any shopping
there.

Brian

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On 14/11/2023 08:25, Brian Gaff wrote:
> Maybe you are all out Christmas Shopping, no that cannot be it, as its been
> Christmas on't Telly since late August. We should be stocking up for Easter
> soon.

Actually, I was thinking it was quite busy!
25 massages overnight - well since 5pm-ish yesterday.

Chris

On 14/11/2023 11:46, chrisnd@privacy.net wrote:
> On 14/11/2023 08:25, Brian Gaff wrote:
>> Maybe you are all out Christmas Shopping, no that cannot be it, as its
>> been
>> Christmas on't Telly since late August. We should be stocking up for
>> Easter
>> soon.
>
> Actually, I was thinking it was quite busy!
> 25 massages overnight - well since 5pm-ish yesterday.
>
> Chris
>

Same here

Tone

For a while yesterday, despite a ping working, I lost all usenet access
via NIN at about lunchtime yesterday. When I logged on this morning,it
was back to normal with 40 unread messages.

On 14/11/2023 08:25, Brian Gaff wrote:
> Maybe you are all out Christmas Shopping, no that cannot be it, as its been
> Christmas on't Telly since late August. We should be stocking up for Easter
> soon.
>
> Thursday sees the opening of the Alpine Village and giant Reindeer in
> Kingston Town centre near me, so I think that knocks out any shopping
> there.
>
> Brian
>

--
Tciao for Now!

John.

chrisnd@privacy.net <chrisnd@privacy.net> wrote:
> On 14/11/2023 08:25, Brian Gaff wrote:
>> Maybe you are all out Christmas Shopping, no that cannot be it, as its been
>> Christmas on't Telly since late August. We should be stocking up for Easter
>> soon.
>
> Actually, I was thinking it was quite busy!
> 25 massages overnight - well since 5pm-ish yesterday.
>

Happy ending?

Tim

--
Please don't feed the trolls

On 14-Nov-23 8:25, Brian Gaff wrote:
> Maybe you are all out Christmas Shopping, no that cannot be it, as its been
> Christmas on't Telly since late August. We should be stocking up for Easter
> soon.
>
> Thursday sees the opening of the Alpine Village and giant Reindeer in
> Kingston Town centre near me, so I think that knocks out any shopping
> there.

Alpine village... Is it very 'Alp-y' where you live?

No problems with the giant reindeer though.

--
Sam Plusnet

Sam Plusnet said:
>
> No problems with the giant reindeer though.

Not a thing you hear very often.

--
Richard Robinson
"The whole plan hinged upon the natural curiosity of potatoes" - S. Lem

My email address is at http://qualmograph.org.uk/contact.html

Brian Gaff wrote:

> Maybe you are all out Christmas Shopping,

Plusnet's news server isn't playing ball at the moment.

On 15/11/2023 02:07, Tease'n'Seize wrote:
> Brian Gaff wrote:
>
>> Maybe you are all out Christmas Shopping,
>
> Plusnet's news server isn't playing ball at the moment.
>

Agreed.

Not Football, basketball, cricket, tennis, baseball, boules, bowling,
croquet, billiards, snooker, rugby, football, golf, hockey, hurling,
Lacrosse, netball, paintball, polo, squash, tetherball, volleyball, etc.

None of these.

Tone

On Tue, 14 Nov 2023 18:36:24 +0000
Sam Plusnet <not@home.com> wrote:

> No problems with the giant reindeer though.

"Don't stand underneath when they fly by."

--
Steve O'Hara-Smith
Odds and Ends at http://www.sohara.org/
Host: Beautiful Theory meet Inconvenient Fact
Obit: Beautiful Theory died today of factual inconsistency

In article <20231115073141.6b16ee3912af3e2339b943c5@eircom.net>, Ahem A
Rivet's Shot <steveo@eircom.net> on Wed, 15 Nov 2023 at 07:31:41 awoke
Nicholas from his slumbers and wrote
>On Tue, 14 Nov 2023 18:36:24 +0000
>Sam Plusnet <not@home.com> wrote:
>
>> No problems with the giant reindeer though.
>
>"Don't stand underneath when they fly by."
>
Worse to be in the flying sledge which they are towing.
--
0sterc@tcher -

"Où sont les neiges d'antan?"

Well I've not seen them unless they are on topics with whiskers of course.
Brian

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<chrisnd@privacy.net> wrote in message
news:krh518Fch27U2@mid.individual.net...
> On 14/11/2023 08:25, Brian Gaff wrote:
>> Maybe you are all out Christmas Shopping, no that cannot be it, as its
>> been
>> Christmas on't Telly since late August. We should be stocking up for
>> Easter
>> soon.
>
> Actually, I was thinking it was quite busy!
> 25 massages overnight - well since 5pm-ish yesterday.
>
> Chris
>

No its by the River Thames so not alpine at all. I never did get a
satisfactory answer to the reason its an alpine village. One year they even
had fake snow, but it cost so much to clear up, they don't do it any more.
Brian

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"Sam Plusnet" <not@home.com> wrote in message
news:J6P4N.4005$tQH1.632@fx10.ams1...
> On 14-Nov-23 8:25, Brian Gaff wrote:
>> Maybe you are all out Christmas Shopping, no that cannot be it, as its
>> been
>> Christmas on't Telly since late August. We should be stocking up for
>> Easter
>> soon.
>>
>> Thursday sees the opening of the Alpine Village and giant Reindeer in
>> Kingston Town centre near me, so I think that knocks out any shopping
>> there.
>
> Alpine village... Is it very 'Alp-y' where you live?
>
> No problems with the giant reindeer though.
>
> --
> Sam Plusnet
>

Great balls of fire.

Anyway, talking about great things. Who is this bloke on tour calling
himself the Great Neil Diamond, since the tickets are cheap, I suspect its a
tribute act.
Brian

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"Hymermut" <tone@email.com> wrote in message
news:uj1a5h$1fbbg$1@dont-email.me...
> On 15/11/2023 02:07, Tease'n'Seize wrote:
>> Brian Gaff wrote:
>>
>>> Maybe you are all out Christmas Shopping,
>>
>> Plusnet's news server isn't playing ball at the moment.
>>
>
> Agreed.
>
> Not Football, basketball, cricket, tennis, baseball, boules, bowling,
> croquet, billiards, snooker, rugby, football, golf, hockey, hurling,
> Lacrosse, netball, paintball, polo, squash, tetherball, volleyball, etc.
>
> None of these.
>
> Tone

On 15-Nov-23 2:07, Tease'n'Seize wrote:
> Brian Gaff wrote:
>
>> Maybe you are all out Christmas Shopping,
>
> Plusnet's news server isn't playing ball at the moment.
>

I understand (from elsewhere) that _part_ of the problem is that PlusNet
seem to have no idea that they offer a Usenet server, not indeed what
Usenet might be[1].

[1] Saint Bob Pullen excepted of course.

--
Sam Plusnet

Sam Plusnet said:
> On 15-Nov-23 2:07, Tease'n'Seize wrote:
>> Brian Gaff wrote:
>>
>>> Maybe you are all out Christmas Shopping,
>>
>> Plusnet's news server isn't playing ball at the moment.
>>
>
> I understand (from elsewhere) that _part_ of the problem is that PlusNet
> seem to have no idea that they offer a Usenet server, not indeed what
> Usenet might be[1].

That's what their 'support' told me a while back[1a]. It's a "third-party"
service coming out of their domain, they have no idea what it does and
are not responsible. And, yes, what is usenet anyway ?

> [1] Saint Bob Pullen excepted of course.

[1a] just before I switched to e-s.

--
Richard Robinson
"The whole plan hinged upon the natural curiosity of potatoes" - S. Lem

My email address is at http://qualmograph.org.uk/contact.html

You got a lot of that, and I think this is the reason why isps came out of
usenet. Now many are abandoning I-mail gradually as well, it will be sad if
the only email in town is run by the fickle Google.
Back in the demon days effectively you ran a dos program called K9Q that
worked using smtp and in effect you were only there, when you were on, then
pop3 added the ability for Demon to look like you and get your incoming
email and pass it on when you were on, though it was just pop, point of
presence then. NNtp of course was there as well. So news worked that way
I find it quite amusing that since the complete mess at Twitter/X people
have been leaving for Mastodon, which although it has a flashy like the
metaverse is really just a glorified limited length text version of Usernet
and the ability to address a person directly!

Brian

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"Richard Robinson" <richard@qualmograph.org.uk> wrote in message
news:uj35e0$1s640$1@dont-email.me...
> Sam Plusnet said:
>> On 15-Nov-23 2:07, Tease'n'Seize wrote:
>>> Brian Gaff wrote:
>>>
>>>> Maybe you are all out Christmas Shopping,
>>>
>>> Plusnet's news server isn't playing ball at the moment.
>>>
>>
>> I understand (from elsewhere) that _part_ of the problem is that PlusNet
>> seem to have no idea that they offer a Usenet server, not indeed what
>> Usenet might be[1].
>
> That's what their 'support' told me a while back[1a]. It's a "third-party"
> service coming out of their domain, they have no idea what it does and
> are not responsible. And, yes, what is usenet anyway ?
>
>> [1] Saint Bob Pullen excepted of course.
>
> [1a] just before I switched to e-s.
>
>
> --
> Richard Robinson
> "The whole plan hinged upon the natural curiosity of potatoes" - S. Lem
>
> My email address is at http://qualmograph.org.uk/contact.html

On Thu, 16 Nov 2023 08:57:36 -0000
"Brian Gaff" <brian1gaff@gmail.com> wrote:

> You got a lot of that, and I think this is the reason why isps came out
> of usenet. Now many are abandoning I-mail gradually as well, it will be
> sad if the only email in town is run by the fickle Google.

Also those of us who run their own.

> Back in the demon days effectively you ran a dos program called K9Q that

<nit>KA9Q</nit> Demon provided a proper connection to the net with
a static IP address and a domain. You could do a lot with it, including
connect to it with SLIP or PPP from a unix system, KA9Q (originally written
for packet radio use) wasn't the only option - even in DOS.

> worked using smtp and in effect you were only there, when you were on,

Nope when you were not connected Demon's puntmail system received
your email and stashed it until you logged in at which point it injected it
back into their sendmail based system. I wrote a workalike of it for
Internet Eireann which I called drop-kick, the one and only time I have had
to deal with the fiddly bits of sendmail.cf.

> then pop3 added the ability for Demon to look like you and get your
> incoming email and pass it on when you were on, though it was just pop,
> point of presence then.

Post Office Protocol - a hideous hack IMHO, it only supports a
single address.

Demon's first point of presence (dial in location) outside of
Finchley was in Giles Todd's spare room - there was one evening of chaos
when his daughter (a toddler at the time) found the flashing lights and
started playing with the buttons on the modem bank (er stack on the floor).

Gawd it's been twenty years since I last met with Giles in
Amsterdam.

--
Steve O'Hara-Smith
Odds and Ends at http://www.sohara.org/
Host: Beautiful Theory meet Inconvenient Fact
Obit: Beautiful Theory died today of factual inconsistency

Well, I hope when uit all got flogged to scottish power they made some
decent money from it, since they seemed to bring a new level of incompetence
not seen till the recent take over of virgin by O2!

Brian

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"Ahem A Rivet's Shot" <steveo@eircom.net> wrote in message
news:20231116100207.575057a502025e6442c13d47@eircom.net...
> On Thu, 16 Nov 2023 08:57:36 -0000
> "Brian Gaff" <brian1gaff@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> You got a lot of that, and I think this is the reason why isps came out
>> of usenet. Now many are abandoning I-mail gradually as well, it will be
>> sad if the only email in town is run by the fickle Google.
>
> Also those of us who run their own.
>
>> Back in the demon days effectively you ran a dos program called K9Q that
>
> <nit>KA9Q</nit> Demon provided a proper connection to the net with
> a static IP address and a domain. You could do a lot with it, including
> connect to it with SLIP or PPP from a unix system, KA9Q (originally
> written
> for packet radio use) wasn't the only option - even in DOS.
>
>> worked using smtp and in effect you were only there, when you were on,
>
> Nope when you were not connected Demon's puntmail system received
> your email and stashed it until you logged in at which point it injected
> it
> back into their sendmail based system. I wrote a workalike of it for
> Internet Eireann which I called drop-kick, the one and only time I have
> had
> to deal with the fiddly bits of sendmail.cf.
>
>> then pop3 added the ability for Demon to look like you and get your
>> incoming email and pass it on when you were on, though it was just pop,
>> point of presence then.
>
> Post Office Protocol - a hideous hack IMHO, it only supports a
> single address.
>
> Demon's first point of presence (dial in location) outside of
> Finchley was in Giles Todd's spare room - there was one evening of chaos
> when his daughter (a toddler at the time) found the flashing lights and
> started playing with the buttons on the modem bank (er stack on the
> floor).
>
> Gawd it's been twenty years since I last met with Giles in
> Amsterdam.
>
> --
> Steve O'Hara-Smith
> Odds and Ends at http://www.sohara.org/
> Host: Beautiful Theory meet Inconvenient Fact
> Obit: Beautiful Theory died today of factual inconsistency

On Thu, 16 Nov 2023 17:05:51 -0000
"Brian Gaff" <brian1gaff@gmail.com> wrote:

> Well, I hope when uit all got flogged to scottish power they made some
> decent money from it,

Without getting into detail - they did.

--
Steve O'Hara-Smith
Odds and Ends at http://www.sohara.org/
Host: Beautiful Theory meet Inconvenient Fact
Obit: Beautiful Theory died today of factual inconsistency

Good, but it is a great pity that most of the isps that start with experts
in charge end up just trading off the name, and pairing down the experts and
services that need intelligent humans to troubleshoot issues. It has
happened so many times over the years.
Brian

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"Ahem A Rivet's Shot" <steveo@eircom.net> wrote in message
news:20231116180028.747271d934e06eb9c792faa1@eircom.net...
> On Thu, 16 Nov 2023 17:05:51 -0000
> "Brian Gaff" <brian1gaff@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Well, I hope when uit all got flogged to scottish power they made some
>> decent money from it,
>
> Without getting into detail - they did.
>
> --
> Steve O'Hara-Smith
> Odds and Ends at http://www.sohara.org/
> Host: Beautiful Theory meet Inconvenient Fact
> Obit: Beautiful Theory died today of factual inconsistency

On Fri, 17 Nov 2023 10:29:34 -0000
"Brian Gaff" <brian1gaff@gmail.com> wrote:

> Good, but it is a great pity that most of the isps that start with
> experts in charge end up just trading off the name, and pairing down the
> experts and services that need intelligent humans to troubleshoot issues.
> It has happened so many times over the years.

I think the only times when it didn't was when the original owners
failed to find a buyer.

--
Steve O'Hara-Smith
Odds and Ends at http://www.sohara.org/
Host: Beautiful Theory meet Inconvenient Fact
Obit: Beautiful Theory died today of factual inconsistency

Yes well, its been the same all around. Originally United Artists had folk
that could keep email etc running, then when it became Blue Yonder itt was
not too bad, then Virgin improved it for a while, and now its o2 Telefonica
or whatever its called they are just bearing down on supply of boadband and
tv, but eeven that is basically over the internet anyway so they area middle
person between the provider and the customer, they have one of the slowest
internet speeds of upload to download as the competition has leap frogged
straight to fibre to home. What all companies seem to have a problem is is
that the next bottleneck along will then limimit the speeds. I have noticed
recently that streaming channels can have long down times due to routing
problems on the main internet. Who is going to watch stuff when the end can
often be missing meaning that you need to get the programme again to finish
it?
Brian

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"Ahem A Rivet's Shot" <steveo@eircom.net> wrote in message
news:20231117105309.2e6055821172b2fccdbc7a0c@eircom.net...
> On Fri, 17 Nov 2023 10:29:34 -0000
> "Brian Gaff" <brian1gaff@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Good, but it is a great pity that most of the isps that start with
>> experts in charge end up just trading off the name, and pairing down the
>> experts and services that need intelligent humans to troubleshoot issues.
>> It has happened so many times over the years.
>
> I think the only times when it didn't was when the original owners
> failed to find a buyer.
>
> --
> Steve O'Hara-Smith
> Odds and Ends at http://www.sohara.org/
> Host: Beautiful Theory meet Inconvenient Fact
> Obit: Beautiful Theory died today of factual inconsistency