AdamCon.org > chat > 2001-06-30

Chat for 2001-06-30 14:00:00

Ron: 10 minutes late. It's now 3:10 pm EDT....or
Ron: if you live out here..... west of the rocks.....12:10 PDT
Ron: Still talking
moved to room Meeting Place
changed username to Rich Drushel
Rich Drushel: I just got your E-mail and thought I'd peek in, so you wouldn't be lonely.
Ron: hey!
Ron: sorry I was looking at my Linux box..... not paying attention
Rich Drushel: Well, I'm sure you hardly expected anyone else to be here...
Rich Drushel: Poor Rich Clee; it's been *pouring* rain downtown today for the Grand Prix.
Rich Drushel: I'm sure he's totally soaked.
Ron: no, it is a pleasant surprise
Ron: how ya doin?
Ron: oh Lord! I know he was looking forward to that
Rich Drushel: We just got a thunderstorm blow through which knocked out the power for a few seconds.
Ron: sounds dangerous
Rich Drushel: Elanor was online, and I just was rebooting the machines and making sure everything was okay.
Rich Drushel: Well, sky is clearing now, a little sun...so it was just a quick storm front, I guess.
Rich Drushel: I was out on a brief errand and had the radio on the local sports talk station, which was broadcasting live from the race.
Rich Drushel: The emcee was drooling because he said it had turned into a giant wet T-shirt contest.
Rich Drushel: So I hope Rich was able to take cover somewhere...
moved to room Meeting Place
changed username to Ron
Ron: ok.... iMac bumped me so now we'll try Linux
Ron: we'll blame iMac anyway
Rich Drushel: What's the last text you had from me? I was typing away happily when you disappeared.
Ron: sun coming out
Ron: clearing a little
Ron: you were hoping Rich was able to duck under cover
Rich Drushel: Looks like you got it all, then.
Ron: ok. for some reason, iMac does not like Dale's server.... have no idea why.
Rich Drushel: So did you notice the little message from Zonker this morning? It'll be nice to get him into the convention chat.
Ron: no,I've not been in for my mail yet.... we've heard from him?
Rich Drushel: Yes, he posted to the list saying that, if he remembered, he would drop in on the chat at the ADAMcon.
Rich Drushel: At least I *think* that's what he said...let me recheck the mailbox.
Ron: good. Sure miss him not being around. He's one of the last I would have expected to leave the bunch
Rich Drushel: "cant wait to see the sched....unless i totally forget it, i plan to join in on the chat this year."
Ron: sounds like he intends to be there...Good Lord willin'
Rich Drushel: Well, didn't he say that ADAM was something his wife had no interest in and wanted no part of?
Rich Drushel: I could see that creating some tension, or pressure to find some activities that she would want to participate in.
Ron: yes, if I recall correctly...that was it
Ron: had that impression at 'con 11.
Rich Drushel: Zonker spent a lot of time with ADAM stuff, and it might have looked to him like continuing would leave his wife out of a big chunk of time.
Ron: and he's since told me that his activities are taking him further away from ADAM
Ron: Been there, done that, got the separation papers
Ron: looking back on it, there were some things I should have done differently
Rich Drushel: I wonder what else he's up to...anything at all with computers, do you know?
Ron: no, not sure.... he's a grandfather and I heard a lot about the grandkids
Ron: suspect he's more of a family man that I was
Rich Drushel: I wasn't trying to bring up anything bad from your past, Ron, not that I know too much about it, nor need to know...
Ron: not at all Rich. my life unfolded and hind-sight is wonderful
Ron: sometimes I think we need one life for prractice and one for good
Rich Drushel: I think I've seen it expressed as "Give me body of age 20 and experience of age 65".
Ron: exactly
Ron: so are you as ready for the 'con as you hoped to be?
Rich Drushel: No :-)
Ron: good honest answer
Rich Drushel: We know there will be food, shirts, and a banner, because I've paid for them all and/or taken delivery.
Rich Drushel: Elanor has agreed to give a 1-hour session on games, so that will be a new voice.
Ron: well, then you've got the fundamentals taken care of. The rest will happen
Ron: Whoops....here we go again
Rich Drushel: Herman and George are resurrecting their BBSes for me, *and* going to give a refresher course session,
Ron: hey, now that sounds interesting
Rich Drushel: because I am planning a sort of treasure hunt which will use them.
Ron: the more I hear, the better it gets
Ron: Really like your idea of trying to involve new presenters
Rich Drushel: I have hedged on it, because I didn't want to write it all up and then find out that they couldn't get the stuff out of mothballs.
Ron: good plan
Rich Drushel: I can't even remember my username or password for Herman's BBS.
Rich Drushel: George said he was afraid he wouldn't remember the root password for his BBS.
Rich Drushel: I can only remember that I was user #36 at George's.
Ron: you're not the only one.... I was on there for a while from Ottawa.... back in the days of 'long distance'
Ron: Guy Cousineau even made a point of calling Zonker in Seattle each Friday night
Rich Drushel: I would love to convert the BBSes to some net-accessible format (thus avoiding long-distance charges).
Ron: should be possible, it seems to me
Rich Drushel: I know there has to be a way to map a telnet session to a BBS login.
Rich Drushel: Just probably need to get my own Linux box and spend 6 months woodshedding with it.
Ron: my last contact here with the world of FIDO involved logging onto a BBS in Florida via the Internet
Ron: where I got the Coleco ADAM echo
Rich Drushel: Reports of its demise may be greatly exaggerated, but I read today on comp.os.cpm stuff to the effect that it really was dead.
Ron: wouldn't take you that long I don't think Rich
Rich Drushel: hold a minute...
Ron: wouldn't surprise me... The powers that be were asking us to either use it or lose it.... (back about 3 years ago)
Ron: and we didn't use it
Ron: ok
Rich Drushel: back after various children interrupts
Ron: the hierarchy ofi/o ports
Rich Drushel: hahaha
Ron: you've got 2 girls right?
Rich Drushel: I've got 4 :-) Ages 14-11-8-5.
Ron: ok... stand suitably corrected.... life does indeed get interesting then
Rich Drushel: Elanor is the 11-year-old who'll be coming again this year.
Ron: that's quite an age spread
Ron: right...she was there last year in Toronto right?
Rich Drushel: Everyone, including Joan, is coming for the banquet, so you'll see the whole brood then.
Ron: good. Will look forward to that
Rich Drushel: Yes, Elanor was in Toronto.
Rich Drushel: Christina came to 007 in Kitchener.
Ron: ok right
Ron: certainly must keep you on your toes
Ron: with an age spread like that, there's bound to be some animated discussion around the table
Rich Drushel: Yes, it's a rat-race of shuttle runs...Christina is at a party this afternoon, from which she must be picked up at 4:30.
Rich Drushel: Re: discussion
Ron: oh yes...to say nothing of the chauffeur bit
Rich Drushel: Yes, we get some different views...Christina starts high school in the fall, Elanor starts middle school, and Gretchen (the youngest) starts kindergarten.
Rich Drushel: In the fall, they'll all be in school at last, no more day care.
Ron: And you will be expected to keep all levels of knowledge of all subjects suitably current to help with school work
Rich Drushel: The only place where they beat me is in pop culture references. So far, none of the academics has been beyond me or Joan.
Rich Drushel: At some point, that may change...
Ron: good.
Ron: in pop culture my son, Jeff, and I have a widening generation gap
Rich Drushel: From what I've seen of my kids' peers, the place where so many of them start to go bad is around 5th grade--when the schoolwork gets too hard for the dropout and teenaged moms.
Ron: he brought his new girlfriend home on our May long weekend, and at points I really felt out of it
Rich Drushel: The parents can't help, because they could barely do that work themselves...
Rich Drushel: Jeff is how old? Mid-20s?
Ron: Recall that grade 10 math was the point where my memory no longer served. We hired a tutor
Ron: he'll be 30 in August
Ron: and he's whining about that
Ron: as I'm whining about pushing 60
Ron: Mom tells us both to please shut up
Ron: Another glitch in the ether
Rich Drushel: My Dad was 61 this 21 June...I'll be 39 on 3 November.
Rich Drushel: And Joan will be 40 in January...tempus is fugitting, as my Dad says.
Ron: yeah, tempus does that
Ron: Jeff just started a temporary assignment with the City of Vancouver. One of these 1 year deals
Ron: to see how the other side of the table lives
Ron: he's in their Fire Code Complianc organization somewhere
Ron: his firm submits fire code compliance plans on behalf of contractors to the City for approval.
Rich Drushel: Does he like his work?
Ron: So now Jeff will be on the other side of the table for a while
Ron: yes he does... it's a field of engineering where there aren't many
Ron: He got his Masters a year ago just before the course died at UBC for lack of a prof
Ron: master of fire protection engineering
Rich Drushel: Bet he and my Dad could have some nice talks...Dad was a volunteer fireman for 25 years.
Ron: I bet
Rich Drushel: I grew up climbing on fire engines...and making coffee at Pancake Festivals to raise money for the Fire Department.
Ron: :) sounds like fun
Rich Drushel: Seriously, if I lived where there was a volunteer fire department, and I didn't have a crazy schedule, I'd be a volunteer, too.
Rich Drushel: It's a necessary job in rural communities.
Ron: Gather Jeff's life is more to do with sprinkler systems per square foot, and safety of exits etc etc
Rich Drushel: I bet it's fun trying to get old non-compliant facilities retrofitted...
Ron: there are two communities here, one a town and one a city, both with volunteer fire depts
Ron: I've got to know someof the guys...they're good and they're dedicated
Ron: yeah....most contractors engage Jeff's firm to write up what are called 'equivalancies'. Ie.. we 're not meeting
Ron: letter of the code, but what we propose will do the same job or better
Rich Drushel: I know that there was a lot of work to install sprinkler systems in our 1897 Biology Building which got renovated last year.
Ron: guess it would be harder in an older structure
Rich Drushel: It has a sandstone shell and wooden interior (including floors and grand staircase), 4 floors.
Ron: with the new project, you're planning for the pipes, sprinklers, etc
Ron: same as cabling for all the connectivity expected in new offices....internet, networks etc
Rich Drushel: I wonder how many new jobs are leaving empty conduits for wiring etc. that hasn't been invented yet :-)
Ron: that would be difficult to go thru
Ron: bet they are now.
Rich Drushel: I might as well tell you that PJ and Bob have decided to come to the convention after all...
Ron: Our community net just moved into a new office, and they've rewired the whole thing. Think you could get an internect
Ron: hookup in the can if you wanted one
Rich Drushel: George phoned me last night with the news...PJ phoned Herman at 6:30 AM to tell him. Boy was he mad :-)
Ron: sounds like PJ
Ron: that girl has no sense of time whatever
Ron: but glad to hear she's coming
Ron: both of em
Rich Drushel: Seems to me like the gradual fadeout of the ADAM community has hit her hardest of us all.
Rich Drushel: It seemed to provide a structure in her life that she needed, and hasn't seemed to find anyplace else.
Ron: what really stopped her was the demise of Compuserve's text mode
Ron: she was active prior to that, and downhill after
Rich Drushel: Well, there are textmode alternatives still available now...even just this chat forum.
Ron: yeah, true- re structure
Ron: could never convince here that we're still here and all she has to do is use the Wintel computer she has
Ron: here sould be 'her'
Ron: she's decided she can't learn the newer stuff
Rich Drushel: Did anybody archive the stuff from CIS before it disappeared?
Ron: good question. And I don't know the answer
Ron: Last I heard, Rob Friedman was still maintaining an ADAM presence in the Vintage Computer section of cIS
Ron: and if anybody knows where that stuff went, he should
Rich Drushel: There's a name I haven't heard for a while.
Ron: he dropped in at one of the Wed night chats not long ago
Rich Drushel: Wow, that was nice.
Ron: and I didn't have the presence of mind to ask him about the ADAM stuff
Ron: Actually I still have a compuserve account, and I haven't logged on in months... should go on a bit of a hunt
Ron: anyway Rich.... gotta go here...due out in about 20 min
Ron: appreciate the company here
Rich Drushel: Me too, time for shuttle run to get Christina.
Ron: right...driver, front and centre
Ron: see ya Wed
Rich Drushel: Glad I got your E-mail...take care, I should be here on Wednesday night.
Rich Drushel: Bye.
Ron: oksir....have a good day
Ron: or what's left of it
Rich Drushel left chat session
Ron left chat session
moved to room Meeting Place
changed username to me
me left chat session
moved to room Meeting Place
changed username to Ron
Ron: All right. Finally got this figured out on the laptop...... It wasn't running the java script.
moved to room Meeting Place
changed username to nokoqau
nokoqau left chat session
moved to room Meeting Place
left chat session
moved to room Meeting Place
left chat session
moved to room Meeting Place
changed username to nick
moved to room Meeting Place
changed username to Jillian
Jillian moved to room The Lounge
Jillian moved to room The Garden
Jillian moved to room The Hallway
Jillian moved to room The Kitchen
Jillian moved to room The Lounge

AdamCon.org > chat > 2001-06-30
Send comments to dmwick@home.com. I am Dale Wick