Hello all , i have not posted for a long time .

I know this may have been covered before but cannot find trace .What has
happened to abpo i only have 4 posts and none are of orchids it has been
like this for a while now , no action .

Whats going on ?

Regards keith

Hi, Keith,

Months back, the major ISPs in the States dropped all binaries groups. It's
a long story, but the result is that many (most?) of us can no longer access
abpo.

One of our long time posters, Kye, from Australia, hooked us up again with a
new server. The number is 121.208.40.178.

There you can subscribe to two newsgroups: orchids (text group) and
orchids.pictures.

Hope this helps. It was a royal pain for those of us who got shut down.

Diana

"keith kent" wrote in message
...
Hello all , i have not posted for a long time .

I know this may have been covered before but cannot find trace .What has
happened to abpo i only have 4 posts and none are of orchids it has been
like this for a while now , no action .

Whats going on ?

Regards keith

Hello Diana
Sorry to be a pain in the ass, but how do you access with the I.P no, i use
IE 7/Outlook express

Thanks Keith

Hi, Keith,

Months back, the major ISPs in the States dropped all binaries groups.
It's a long story, but the result is that many (most?) of us can no longer
access abpo.

One of our long time posters, Kye, from Australia, hooked us up again with
a new server. The number is 121.208.40.178.

There you can subscribe to two newsgroups: orchids (text group) and
orchids.pictures.

Hope this helps. It was a royal pain for those of us who got shut down.

Diana

"keith kent" wrote in message
...
Hello all , i have not posted for a long time .

I know this may have been covered before but cannot find trace .What has
happened to abpo i only have 4 posts and none are of orchids it has been
like this for a while now , no action .

Whats going on ?

Regards keith

Hi, Keith,

It had to be explained to me as well. Go to Tools; then Accounts; then
News; then Add. From there, follow the directions and enter the number I
gave you where it asks for the name of your server. Then you will need to
subscribe (free) to the two newsgroups that the server offers.

Diana

"keith kent" wrote in message
...
Hello Diana
Sorry to be a pain in the ass, but how do you access with the I.P no, i
use IE 7/Outlook express

Thanks Keith

Hi, Keith,

Months back, the major ISPs in the States dropped all binaries groups.
It's a long story, but the result is that many (most?) of us can no
longer access abpo.

One of our long time posters, Kye, from Australia, hooked us up again
with a new server. The number is 121.208.40.178.

There you can subscribe to two newsgroups: orchids (text group) and
orchids.pictures.

Hope this helps. It was a royal pain for those of us who got shut down.

Diana

"keith kent" wrote in message
...
Hello all , i have not posted for a long time .

I know this may have been covered before but cannot find trace .What has
happened to abpo i only have 4 posts and none are of orchids it has
been like this for a while now , no action .

Whats going on ?

Regards keith

On Feb 5, 5:10*pm, "Diana Kulaga"
wrote:
Hi, Keith,

It had to be explained to me as well. Go to Tools; then Accounts; then
News; then Add. From there, follow the directions and enter the number I
gave you where it asks for the name of your server. Then you will need to
subscribe (free) to the two newsgroups that the server offers.

Diana

"keith kent" wrote in message

...

Hello Diana
Sorry to be a pain in the ass, but how do you access with the I.P no, i
use IE 7/Outlook express

Thanks Keith

Hi, Keith,

Months back, the major ISPs in the States dropped all binaries groups.
It's a long story, but the result is that many (most?) of us can no
longer access abpo.

One of our long time posters, Kye, from Australia, hooked us up again
with a new server. The number is 121.208.40.178.

There you can subscribe to two newsgroups: orchids (text group) and
orchids.pictures.

Hope this helps. It was a royal pain for those of us who got shut down..

Diana

"keith kent" wrote in message
...
Hello all , i have not posted for a long time .

I know this may have been covered before but cannot find trace .What has
happened to abpo i only have 4 posts and none are of orchids *it has
been like this for a while now , no action .

Whats going on ?

Regards keith

I don't use a newsreader. Is there a web browser based interface for
it?

If not, what would be involved in creating one?

Ted

I don't know, Ted. What I do know is that Kye created this server, and you
can't find it unless you have the server number. That will someday change,
but that's how it is right now.

Someone with more tech savvy than I perhaps will answer. You might want to
open a new thread with that question. That way, someone in the know may see
it.

Diana

"Ted Byers" wrote in message
...
On Feb 5, 5:10 pm, "Diana Kulaga"
wrote:
Hi, Keith,

It had to be explained to me as well. Go to Tools; then Accounts; then
News; then Add. From there, follow the directions and enter the number I
gave you where it asks for the name of your server. Then you will need to
subscribe (free) to the two newsgroups that the server offers.

Diana

"keith kent" wrote in message

...

Hello Diana
Sorry to be a pain in the ass, but how do you access with the I.P no, i
use IE 7/Outlook express

Thanks Keith

Hi, Keith,

Months back, the major ISPs in the States dropped all binaries groups.
It's a long story, but the result is that many (most?) of us can no
longer access abpo.

One of our long time posters, Kye, from Australia, hooked us up again
with a new server. The number is 121.208.40.178.

There you can subscribe to two newsgroups: orchids (text group) and
orchids.pictures.

Hope this helps. It was a royal pain for those of us who got shut down.

Diana

"keith kent" wrote in message
...
Hello all , i have not posted for a long time .

I know this may have been covered before but cannot find trace .What
has
happened to abpo i only have 4 posts and none are of orchids it has
been like this for a while now , no action .

Whats going on ?

Regards keith

I don't use a newsreader. Is there a web browser based interface for
it?

If not, what would be involved in creating one?

Ted

Outlook Express has "a newsreader". Diana's instructions below are all
that's needed with Outlook Express. Just open your Outlook Express screen,
click on "Tools" at the top of the screen, and follow Diana's instructions.
Feel free to ask further if you still get stuck.
Chuck B.


"Ted Byers" wrote in message
...
On Feb 5, 5:10 pm, "Diana Kulaga"
wrote:
Hi, Keith,

It had to be explained to me as well. Go to Tools; then Accounts; then
News; then Add. From there, follow the directions and enter the number I
gave you where it asks for the name of your server. Then you will need to
subscribe (free) to the two newsgroups that the server offers.

Diana

"keith kent" wrote in message

...

Hello Diana
Sorry to be a pain in the ass, but how do you access with the I.P no, i
use IE 7/Outlook express

Thanks Keith

Hi, Keith,

Months back, the major ISPs in the States dropped all binaries groups.
It's a long story, but the result is that many (most?) of us can no
longer access abpo.

One of our long time posters, Kye, from Australia, hooked us up again
with a new server. The number is 121.208.40.178.

There you can subscribe to two newsgroups: orchids (text group) and
orchids.pictures.

Hope this helps. It was a royal pain for those of us who got shut down.

Diana

"keith kent" wrote in message
...
Hello all , i have not posted for a long time .

I know this may have been covered before but cannot find trace .What
has
happened to abpo i only have 4 posts and none are of orchids it has
been like this for a while now , no action .

Whats going on ?

Regards keith

I don't use a newsreader. Is there a web browser based interface for
it?

If not, what would be involved in creating one?

Ted

On Tue, 3 Feb 2009 22:17:55 -0000 in keith kent wrote:
Hello all , i have not posted for a long time .

I know this may have been covered before but cannot find trace .What has
happened to abpo i only have 4 posts and none are of orchids it has been
like this for a while now , no action .

Whats going on ?

The ISPs either dropped their USENET servers or dropped binaries from
their servers.
The free access to USENET tends to be without binaries.

Some folks have moved pictures off to sites such as flickr,
but the ense of community is fairly destroyed.


--
Chris Dukes
davej eskimos have hundreds of words for snow. I have two. Bullshit.

On Feb 5, 10:11*pm, wrote:

The ISPs either dropped their USENET servers or dropped binaries from
their servers.
The free access to USENET tends to be without binaries.

Some folks have moved pictures off to sites such as flickr,
but the sense of community is fairly destroyed.

That does not need to be so. Witness the sense of community Facebook
has successfully created: actually self organizing multiple
communities.

A well constructed website can be at least as effective as a usenet
newsgroup in creating a sense of community, and provide benefits that
would be impossible with usenet.

Years ago, Kye and I discussed doing something like this, but it did
not progress far as neither of us had the resources to make it work.
It appears Kye has been able to at least support a usenet server. In
a matter of weeks, I will be hosting my employer's website from my
home office. This means that if I had a machine with enough
capability, I could host such a website. The idea Kye and I discussed
included supporting subscribers being able to store photos, formal
botanical descriptions, culture conditions (daily records of
temperature and humidity, when the plants is watered, fertilized and
how much, plant size through time, production of infloresences/blooms,
&c.), as far as the subscriber wishes. I'd add statistical support so
a user could examine culture and results for those specimens most
similar to their own, checks on specimen identity, &c. With such
data, one could easily submit a query to learn what culture practices
work best given a particular cultivar and ambient humidity and
temperature. I'd even have a section for vendors to publish
information on what they have available, so if you're looking for a
particular cultivar, it becomes easy to learn who has it, if anyone
does have it; and another section supporting subscribers arranging
trades of plants, back bulbs, &c. (whatever they wish). Adding in web
fora for discussions, and one could make the usenet newsgroups
obsolete.

At present, I just don't have the money to get the hardware required
(though I do have all the requisite software development tools and
skills, and then some), and with my current workload, developing all
of it will take quite some time. The only way I see any of this
happening, though is if someone who can get excited does get
enthusiastic enough to enlist sufficient resources to proceed. I
can't get excited about much these days because the health challenges
I've had recently have been overwhelming. I am pretty tired and
discouraged.

--
Chris Dukes
davej eskimos have hundreds of words for snow. I have two. *Bullshit..

I have two too: snow, and pretty (at least when it is fresh, before
the plows and sanders corrupt it). ;-)

Cheers,

Ted

On Feb 5, 8:38*pm, "C. Berlin" wrote:
Outlook Express has "a newsreader". *Diana's instructions below are all
that's needed with Outlook Express. *Just open your Outlook Express screen,
click on "Tools" at the top of the screen, and follow Diana's instructions.
Feel free to ask further if you still get stuck.
Chuck B.


It isn't a question of being stuck. I have years of experience using
Outlook Express. I just hate it because of the extent it wastes
resources such as hard disk space, and it's interface leaves much to
be desired. A web interface is preferable (if well designed) since
the data remains on the host, always viewable, and consumes minimal
resources on the client machines. Web technologies are just more
flexible that nntp allows.

Ted

Chris, the community doesn't need to be destroyed. We can still get together
using Kye's server. I have been too busy to post pictures lately, but I
check orchids.pictures every day wof.

Diana

"Ted Byers" wrote in message
...
On Feb 5, 10:11 pm, wrote:

The ISPs either dropped their USENET servers or dropped binaries from
their servers.
The free access to USENET tends to be without binaries.

Some folks have moved pictures off to sites such as flickr,
but the sense of community is fairly destroyed.

That does not need to be so. Witness the sense of community Facebook
has successfully created: actually self organizing multiple
communities.

A well constructed website can be at least as effective as a usenet
newsgroup in creating a sense of community, and provide benefits that
would be impossible with usenet.

Years ago, Kye and I discussed doing something like this, but it did
not progress far as neither of us had the resources to make it work.
It appears Kye has been able to at least support a usenet server. In
a matter of weeks, I will be hosting my employer's website from my
home office. This means that if I had a machine with enough
capability, I could host such a website. The idea Kye and I discussed
included supporting subscribers being able to store photos, formal
botanical descriptions, culture conditions (daily records of
temperature and humidity, when the plants is watered, fertilized and
how much, plant size through time, production of infloresences/blooms,
&c.), as far as the subscriber wishes. I'd add statistical support so
a user could examine culture and results for those specimens most
similar to their own, checks on specimen identity, &c. With such
data, one could easily submit a query to learn what culture practices
work best given a particular cultivar and ambient humidity and
temperature. I'd even have a section for vendors to publish
information on what they have available, so if you're looking for a
particular cultivar, it becomes easy to learn who has it, if anyone
does have it; and another section supporting subscribers arranging
trades of plants, back bulbs, &c. (whatever they wish). Adding in web
fora for discussions, and one could make the usenet newsgroups
obsolete.

At present, I just don't have the money to get the hardware required
(though I do have all the requisite software development tools and
skills, and then some), and with my current workload, developing all
of it will take quite some time. The only way I see any of this
happening, though is if someone who can get excited does get
enthusiastic enough to enlist sufficient resources to proceed. I
can't get excited about much these days because the health challenges
I've had recently have been overwhelming. I am pretty tired and
discouraged.

--
Chris Dukes
davej eskimos have hundreds of words for snow. I have two. Bullshit.

I have two too: snow, and pretty (at least when it is fresh, before
the plows and sanders corrupt it). ;-)

Cheers,

Ted

On Fri, 6 Feb 2009 07:23:09 -0800 (PST) in Ted Byers wrote:
[SNEEP]

I'm afraid I'm from the generation that just doesn't get face book.
I do occasionally post to blogs and such things, but I usually catch
myself having to delete vi commands :-).

I actually have hardware at a colo facility with enough bandwidth
to run something like that, I just haven't come across anything moving
the chattering over to web apps that actually induces me to come back.

However, I am slowly trudging my way through putting together a few things
in django. If you have a rough mockup of what you'd like to see, and
some notes on what you'd like as far as flow, I can see about grinding
out some rough models and views.


I have two too: snow, and pretty (at least when it is fresh, before
the plows and sanders corrupt it). ;-)

This fellow lives and works up on ice planet Hoth, sorry
Westford, MA, and made this observation after watching the
4th or 5th auto acident at the intersection outside his apartment.


--
Chris Dukes
davej eskimos have hundreds of words for snow. I have two. Bullshit.

On Fri, 6 Feb 2009 07:29:59 -0800 (PST) in Ted Byers wrote:

It isn't a question of being stuck. I have years of experience using
Outlook Express. I just hate it because of the extent it wastes
resources such as hard disk space, and it's interface leaves much to
be desired. A web interface is preferable (if well designed) since
the data remains on the host, always viewable, and consumes minimal
resources on the client machines. Web technologies are just more
flexible that nntp allows.

Outlook is a festering pile of feces, and always has been.
OTOH, an NNTP client need not be more than netcat and a pad
of paper to track last read articles...
And while most NNTP servers are configured to discard articles after
a period of time or quantity of storage space, they don't have
to be configured that way.
A single web host has the disadvantage that it can be shut down
and lost with one warrant or lawsuit.

Granted, things have gotten better, we're back to normally having web
pages where I can click on a specific blog entry and get a URL I
can send to someone else and 1) it'll work 2) It's human readable
and less than 80 characters long....
But it's a UI nightmare to shuffle between live journal,
various software blogs, launchpad.... And maintaining state about
what's read and unread and what was marked as unread so it
could be reread, is pretty much non-existant.

Plus I'm horribly biased from 11 years of dealing with incompetent
websphere developers mixed with cargo cult PHP developers
and my normal inspiration being to go build a raised bed
instead of writing something that sucks less :-).


--
Chris Dukes
davej eskimos have hundreds of words for snow. I have two. Bullshit.

If you really do not like Outlook that much get on google and find a news
reader that is more to your liking. There are a couple of them out there
which are free to download.

I do not think any website is going to be the same as USENET. With websites
come moderators, administrator, owners, IDs and passwords, rules, and
hosting bills. If these things do not bother you, there are lots of web
based orchid forums out there. None of them are like the wild, wild west
USENET used to be. I was recently asked where all the RGOers went. I
replied that I really did not know and that you did not see that many of
them on the various website forums except Ray and Ray is ubiquitous.

On Feb 6, 11:04*pm, wrote:
On Fri, 6 Feb 2009 07:23:09 -0800 (PST) in Ted Byers *wrote:
[SNEEP]

I'm afraid I'm from the generation that just doesn't get face book.
I do occasionally post to blogs and such things, but I usually catch
myself having to delete vi commands :-).

;-)

Been there, done that. But I develop software for a living, so I can
appreciate their design and understand how their communities form and
function.

I'm old enough (or feel old enough) to remember when the Rocky
Mountains were just stoney hills, and my sister is just a couple years
behind me. While I don't use Facebook much, she does and maintains a
'community' with friends she's known for eons and with family
scattered across the province using it. And some of these friends are
even older than I am. ;-)

I actually have hardware at a colo facility with enough bandwidth
to run something like that, I just haven't come across anything moving
the chattering over to web apps that actually induces me to come back.

However, I am slowly trudging my way through putting together a few things
in django. *If you have a rough mockup of what you'd like to see, and
some notes on what you'd like as far as flow, I can see about grinding
out some rough models and views.

All I have so far is a prototype of one small part of the database
back end. I delivered that to Kye over a year ago, but I have a copy
on my system here. Maybe he has something firmer, or at least some
ideas. If I devote the next few weekends to it, I might be able to
work up a first draft of some design documents.

It would be good, too, though to get input from others on what
functional requirements others would look for. When I design
software, I begin with the desired and available data, and build up
from there, and then restart from the perspective of what intended end
users would want to do.



I have two too: snow, and pretty (at least when it is fresh, before
the plows and sanders corrupt it). *;-)

This fellow lives and works up on ice planet Hoth, sorry
Westford, MA, and made this observation after watching the
4th or 5th auto acident at the intersection outside his apartment.

I hope these accidents involved only minor body customization by
crunch and no personal injury. Even as common as such accidents are,
I hate hearing about them and wish there were more instruction
available about driving in bad weather.

OK, so his perspective would be similar to those of folk currently
living through a week of snow that just about shut down the country,
but an amount of snow that anyone living in the snow belt around
Toronto (as I have) would regard as just a light dusting. ;-) I
guess I shouldn't tease the Brits too much as they only see that
amount of snow every couple decades.

Cheers

Ted