The new BBS

I just wanted to kick off a thread specifically for discussing what we like or dislike about the new BBS.

So far, I'm really enjoying it. It seems to be faster (Paul, did you upgrade the server as well?), and some of the new bells and whistles are cute ("Who's Online", the new smileys, the ability to tag messages with icons, etc.).

I was hoping for a spell checker that would offer selectable suggestions, though. When I use the spell checker, it just flags me with what words aren't in the dictionary, but doesn't let me perform edits to those words on that screen. I have to hit the "back" button and edit the original message. Does anyone else get that, or is it just my browser's fault?

One thing I have noticed is the bug has been fixed which sometimes tagged your own postings as "new". I no longer have to do careful navigation stunts to avoid being faked out by my own messages. This is very welcome, and a big relief.

Those of us that used HTML tags in our signatures will have to do some editing to our profiles (unless Paul can find a fix for that, but I think that's probably a security measure which can't be reversed- if so, I understand).

I also really appreciate the fact that I can still log in with the same hand-tweaked URL that I'd been using for the old BBS (a URL which entered my password for me as part of the link). All in all, it's just the same BBS we've grown to love, but with more features. Great stuff.

Now, according to a message at paypal.com, they'll have their system up again by 2:15pm Pacific time and I can contribute my pledge to this new software...

Tony Fabris (http://www.jps.net/tfabris)
Empeg #144

Those of us that used HTML tags in our signatures will have to do some editing to our profiles

Tony, what tweaking did you do? Or did Paul manage to change the BBS settings?
Your web page is appearing in your signature again

Henno
ex 00120

Tony, what tweaking did you do? Or did Paul manage to change the BBS settings? Your web page is appearing in your signature again.

The new BBS appears to be preventing raw HTML tags in the signatures. I edited my signature to use the square-bracket-markup language's "url" tag instead. This is less elegant than raw HTML because I can't just turn my name into a link, I have to spell out the link next to my name.

Like I said, I think it's a security feature, since some intrepid hackers can do a lot of evil with the proper HTML tags. It's possible there is a BBS setting to allow it, but I don't know. Perhaps I'll post over at the wwwthreads forums and see if I get a reply.

Tony Fabris (http://www.jps.net/tfabris)
Empeg #144

I hate the icons. I liked the simple folder icons.. It's a longer load time too for all the different little icon graphics. I can no longer tell at a glance whats new and what's not at the moment.

The root message has a tendency to stay orange (like it's new) in the tree view of replies.

I like the new options for a message , i dont know if the buttoms are in the optimum place (longer time for me to click CONTINUE now that it is below the fold on my monitor.

other than that , the small and large changes are nice.

Empeg Kicks Ass
S/N 00203
<A HREF="http://www.iretro.com">http://www.iretro.com</A>

Date format...

Can we have the DD/MM/YYYY format back please =)

Jazz
(List 112, S/N 00030, 4 gig blue)

Not too sure about this "addict" tag - I mean how does Tony get away with "old hand"?? *g*

Rob

Not too sure about this "addict" tag - I mean how does Tony get away with "old hand"?

"When I Was a Boy"
By Frank Hayes
Copyright © 1997 by Frank Hayes, Firebird Arts & Music (BMI)

When I was a boy, our Nintendo
Was carved from an old Apple tree
And we used garden hose to connect it
To our steam-powered color tv.

But it still beat that ancient Atari
'Cuz I almost went blind, don'tcha know,
Playing Breakout and Pong on a video game
Hooked up to the radio.

And we walked twenty miles to the schoolhouse
Barefoot, uphill both ways,
Through blizzards in summer and winter
Back in the good old days.
Back when Fortran was not even Three-tran
And the PC was only a toy
And we did our computing by gaslight
When I was a boy.

When I was a boy all our networks
Were for hauling in fish from the sea--
Our baud rate was eight bits an hour,
And our IP address was just 3.

And you kids who complain that the World Wide Web
is too slow, oughtta cut out your bitchin',
'Cuz when I was a boy every packet
Was delivered by carrier pigeon

And we walked twenty miles to the schoolhouse
Barefoot, uphill both ways,
Through blizzards in summer and winter
Back in the good old days.
Back when Fortran was not even Two-tran
And the mainframe was only a toy
And we did our computing by torchlight
When I was a boy.

When I was a boy our IS shop
Built relational tables from wood,
And we wrappered our data in oilcloth
To preserve it the best that we could.

And we carried our bits in a bucket,
And our mainframe weighed 900 tons,
And we programmed in ones and in zeros
And sometimes we ran out of ones.

And we walked twenty miles to the schoolhouse
Barefoot, uphill both ways,
Through blizzards in summer and winter
Back in the good old days.
Back when Fortran was not even One-tran
And the abacus? Only a toy!
And we did our computing in primordial darkness
When I was a boy.

Tony Fabris (http://www.jps.net/tfabris)
Empeg #144

I agree. The folders were much better. But all-in-all, I do like the upgrade.

I hate the icons. I liked the simple folder icons

...where are these tags coming from anyways, are they something Paul's chosen for us, or does the BBS automatically choose something depending on the number of posts?
-mark

...proud to have one of the first Mark I units

The BBS gives you a ranking based on the number of posts.

What I want to know is: What all the rankings are, and what the numbers are for each level. I figured something like that would be in the FAQ, but it's not. I'll bet it's documented at the wwwthreads site.

In other news... PayPal is still screwing the pooch. I've got an account but I'm having trouble entering a credit card and validating my address. I'll get you your cash as soon as they install their upgraded system (a 486 on an ISDN line, apparently).

Tony Fabris (http://www.jps.net/tfabris)
Empeg #144

I notice that PaulH's name appears in red on the new BBS. It would be nice if we could get Rob, Hugo, and the other Empeg employees to have their names appear in a special color, too. It would probably make thing a little easier for new visitors.

Corby
SN#320, 6-Gig Blue

I liked the simple folder icons. . .
. . .other than that , the small and large changes are nice.

Yep

Henno
ex 00120

According to WWWThread's www page, this is configurable at installation, although I'm sure that there is a default setting ... PaulH?

I know that altman has (addict) and has 700+ postings
tfabris (old hand) - 797
enthusiast - 201 ish
journeyman 60ish

Cheers,

Paul

Paul Haigh, 6GB, Blue
Reg: 4120 - Serial 00254

What I want to know is: What all the rankings are, and what the numbers are for each level.

With 199 messages, I was a mere member . When I asked you last night, how you managed to get your URL in the signature, status(?) was raised(?) to enthusiast .

So there's either a break at 200, or someone intelligent is snooping all messages . . .

Henno
ex 00120

>I also really appreciate the fact that I can still log in with the same >hand-tweaked URL that I'd been using for the old BBS (a URL which entered >my password for me as part of the link)

May I ask what URL you are using for the auto login? As you may recall we had a conversation about this a while back and I never got around to figuring it out entirely.

Thanks,
Mike

May I ask what URL you are using for the auto login?

It's just a way to enter my username and password without having to depend on the BBS cookie (since I wipe my cookies regularly).

It goes like this:

http://empeg.comms.net/cgi-bin/start_page.pl?Username=YourName&Password=YourPassword&option=Login

Now that there's new software, I'm going to see if there's a way I can format that command so it takes me straight to the main index.

Tony Fabris (http://www.jps.net/tfabris)
Empeg #144

I think red indicates the thread moderator. Since Rob, Hugo, etc. aren't moderators, they wouldn't show up in red.

Tony Fabris (http://www.jps.net/tfabris)
Empeg #144

Don't you dare - we're just normal users on here :-)

Rob

Anyone tried attachments yet? It'd be nice if those were working.

Tony Fabris (http://www.jps.net/tfabris)
Empeg #144

..then how do you explain rob's "addict" tag with only 499 posts?:)
-mark


...proud to have one of the first Mark I units

I don't explain anything .

Anyway, anyone who works for empeg must be an addict.

Paul.

Paul Haigh, 6GB, Blue
Reg: 4120 - Serial 00254

Perhaps addict is actually lower than 'Old Hand'?

PaulH???? (this spooks me, since I'm paulh too - woooo!).

Paul (h).

Paul Haigh, 6GB, Blue
Reg: 4120 - Serial 00254

since some intrepid hackers can do a lot of evil with the proper HTML tags

..especially with a forum software that lets you send raw SQL calls through a HTML tag. I read a nice security paper written specifically about how to exploit a server running wwwthreads, since it requires a mySQL (or equivelant) server running to store the forum data on.

Was pretty interesting, had information on how to hack your own admin account, get a password list of everyone else on the site, and even, I believe, root the system the mySQL daemon is runnong on if the sysadmin has said daemon running suid root.

(O|||||O)

Scary stuff!

Usually, these kinds of BBS systems have internal protection against those sorts of hacks. PaulH, is any information on this offered with the software documentation?

Tony Fabris (http://www.jps.net/tfabris)
Empeg #144

well i just made a fourm on Delphi that works very good.

www.delphi.com/empeg3

it's quick you can do lots of stuff on there etc. ohh ya it's free also.

..especially with a forum software that lets you send raw SQL calls through a HTML tag. I read a nice security paper written specifically about how to exploit a server running wwwthreads, since it requires a mySQL (or equivelant) server running to store the forum data on.

---

I was just over at the wwwthreads web page, looking at the changelog.. noticed one of the upgrades was specifically a security upgrade, and it was fairly recent.. So they might have patched THOSE perticular problems up..
-mark


...proud to have one of the first Mark I units

no it don't

first you have to bee a member, and when you become a member the spamming will begin

and what's wrong with this BBS

Mark
wait for mk III with a USB Host/slave
(USB->Ethernet)(USB->COM 1-8)(USB->You name it)

i have never got any spam from delphi, or had them give out my e-mail address, you can view messages as a quest all day long, you can only post when you become a member, you don't even have to give them your correct e-mail address, you can also change what ever you want etc. some other things that it can do are "Polls" "Chat rooms" profiles if you want etc.

Empeg3

I have to say that I once tried the Delphi forums, and I got spammed about once a week at first. However, their system for removing oneself from their spam list was easy and it worked. The spam stopped.

Still, I prefer this BBS's functionality to the Delphi forums.

Tony Fabris (http://www.jps.net/tfabris)
Empeg #144

Since there currently isn't much left to talk about the Mark 2 until it comes out, I think it's kinda cute that so much conversation has arisen from the BBS and its upgrade .

I'm scraping the board for some real empeg material to read (since, after all that is what this BBS is supposed to be for right? )

I jest. I mean no harm by all of this. It's nice that the community is trying to keep active in anticipation for such a great thing. I just wish that the empeg guys would feed us something else to talk about .

Kureg (hungry for empeg information hehe)

I just wish that the empeg guys would feed us something else to talk about.

The Empeg guys have been very forthcoming in information about the Mark 2. How many companies do you know that give out this much prerelease product information?

Well, OK, computer game companies do it, too. I take that back...

Tony Fabris (http://www.jps.net/tfabris)
Empeg #144

In reply to:

---

The Empeg guys have been very forthcoming in information about the Mark 2. How many companies do you know that give out this much prerelease product information?

---

True. But I want more!

In reply to:

---

Well, OK, computer game companies do it, too. I take that back...

---

Only they give out TOO much information, and in the end, a lot of it wasn't true and everyone ends up being disappointed .

Nevermind now, empeg can take their time... I don't want them making promises they aren't going to keep .

Kureg

The problem is really in the delays in getting the actual product out. At this point, it's like a school of raving mad sharks with a side of beef dangling over the water, slowly coming closer to the water, and moving away do to something unexpected.

Calvin

there are a lot of multiple question topics that could be up there to learn about customers and future customers of empegs deires.. with one click..

how about a new poll...

Empeg Kicks Ass
S/N 00203
<A HREF="http://www.iretro.com">http://www.iretro.com</A>

These are the defaults that the system came with
I didn't have time to make up my own during the upgrade:

0 stranger
25 newbie
50 journeyman
100 member
200 enthusiast
400 addict
700 old hand
1200 veteran
1600 Pooh-Bah
2500 Carpal Tunnel

Apparently the current version of the BBS is not
open to this attack. This is one of the reasons
I decided to go ahead and do the upgrade.

Regards

Paul

Should hopefully be fixed! Now I'll have all our
US members moaning!

PaulH

Anyway, anyone who works for empeg must be an addict.

I'm only an enthusiast. I'm deeply hurt.

--
Mike Crowe
I may not be speaking on behalf of empeg above :-)

Great, thanks

Henno
ex 00120

...I kinda like the "enthusiast" tag; i'll have to cut back on my postings to stay under that category:)
-mark


...proud to have one of the first Mark I units

Nice one... =)

Jazz
(List 112, S/N 00030, 4 gig blue)

I haven't read this whole thread - not enough time.
So I'm sorry if my question was already answered anywhere here but I wondered how you get your Title (I got Stranger, others get Newbie...) Is this depending on the amount of posts you made? (Same with the icon - some have one, I don't have one...)

Could anybody answer that?

Generally I'm a little concerned.. I don't want to bore "old" BBS-users. Its not a long time ago since I made my first post here. I'm reading the BBS every day since about 1/2 a year now and I've learned many theoretical things about the empeg.
I do not own one although I've a very low reg#. About 1 year ago when I was invited to place my order I didn't have some money to buy an empeg player.
But now I've saved enough money that I'm going to spend on the Mk 2 and after all that I could read about the Mk II and also the 1st revision I really want to have a unit as I don't want to have something else.

I was already collecting and ripping mp3's for about 2 years. With the help of the BBS I think I'm pretty well prepared for the arrival of my unit. I've named the ID3 tags and my whole collection is ready to be downloaded.

My intentions are to help other empeg owners as good as I can - like e.g. Tony or dionysos do.
The only thing I hope for now (like thousands of others do) is the shipping of the Mk 2.

TeeMcBee

Yes, TeeMcBee, the titles are based on your number of posts. Read the post from PaulH 8 posts up from this one (in flat mode, anyway...)


_~= Dearing =~_
"WAY too happy about having #99."

I think there ought to be a set of titles for number of posts READ.

There are plenty of people on the sidelines watching every word that goes by!

Some credit should be given :)

Calvin

In reply to:

---

I think there ought to be a set of titles for number of posts READ.

There are plenty of people on the sidelines watching every word that goes by!

Some credit should be given :)

---

I agree, but I can see the potential for abusing it (gee, that's unheard of ).

If I had enough time on my hands (and if I was a moron), I could rig up something to surf through the posts without me actually being there just so that I could get recognized

Yeah, I know, it's lame. By the same token, I could create something that would autopost about 1000 messages, but that would be a whole lot more noticable hehe.

It's sad that it has to be difficult for everyone else because all it takes is one person to screw around like that .

Kureg

On the topic of those "titles", that post just made me a Newbie! I feel so special now .

Kureg

In reply to:

---

With 199 messages, I was a mere member . When I asked you last night, how you managed to get your URL in the signature, status(?) was raised(?) to enthusiast .

---

I like the enthusiast tag . I think we're the only two members that have it..
-mark

...proud to have one of the first Mark I units

....I like the enthusiast tag . I think we're the only two members that have it..

Make that three

Henno
ex 00120

Hey -- I really have read every single one of the 7,735 posts to date (7,736, now, counting this one!).

And with this post, I think I only have to make three more to graduate from "member" to "enthusiast".

Watch out world, here I come!

tanstaafl.

"There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch"

I like the enthusiast tag . I think we're the only two members that have it..

Not for long, Di --- I have just one more post to go (after this one) and I'll be in your exclusive club.

Wasn't it Grouch Marx who said, "I wouldn't want to be in any club that would have me as a member." ?

tanstaafl.

"There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch"

In reply to:

---

And with this post, I think I only have to make three more to graduate from "member" to "enthusiast".

---

HEY - you're cheating:)
-m

...proud to have one of the first Mark I units

It's so amusing the things people will do when someone gives them a title....

;p

(O|||||O)

I'm going to jump on the bandwagon and become a lowly newbie with this post.

-Waiting to replace the hole in my truck with a Mark2

I think there ought to be a set of titles for number of posts READ. There are plenty of people on the sidelines watching every word that goes by! Some credit should be given :)

Calvin

I enjoy this BBS in different way: reading e-mailed daily summaries with first coffee and a small cigar is my morning ritual. (OK, I do sometimes stay up untill 2AM in order to read is as soon as it arrives :)

Cheers!

Dragi "Bonzi" Raos
Zagreb, Croatia
#5196

Yes thats right and stay there !!!

Mark
wait for mk III with a USB Host/slave
(USB->Ethernet)(USB->COM 1-8)(USB->You name it)