--- title: "Random thoughts for 2014 Nov 25" date: 2014-11-25T12:00:00-07:00 url: https://blog.lmorchard.com/2014/11/25/random/ author: Les Orchard tags: [daybook, thoughts, livinginthefuture, retro, bbs, synchronet] --- # Random thoughts for 2014 Nov 25 TL;DR: Living in the future with spreadsheets and DOS games. * Hello world. I've not gotten any better at keeping these posts going. * A reminder that we're living in the future: * A [powerful spreadsheet package][docs] is available online, free to use. * It offers the ability to fill in cells with live data queried from services all over the world. * This is serious gee-whiz stuff. I seem to remember first getting fired up by the potential after reading [Practical Internet Groupware by Jon Udell][group], circa 1999. * Oh, and I mainly use it to [plan business activities in a video game][evesheet]. [docs]: https://docs.google.com/ [group]: http://www.amazon.com/Practical-Internet-Groupware-Jon-Udell/dp/1565925378 [evesheet]: https://www.fuzzwork.co.uk/2013/06/22/importing-price-data-into-spreadsheets/ * Speaking of living in the future: [bbs.decafbad.com][] lives again! * [][bbs.decafbad.com] * In a spasm of nostalgia-ception, I set up [Synchronet][] with a handful of [BBS DOOR games][door]. * e.g. [LORD][], [BRE][], [SRE][], [Usurper][], and a few others. * The last time I did this was [back in 2002][lastbbs], on a little 70mhz PC rescued from a dumpster. * *Holy crap over 12 years ago*. So, there are like 2 layers of nostalgia going on here. * This time around, I first tried installing Synchronet on my [couch gaming PC][couchpc]. * The BBS itself works. But, alas, Windows 8 has largely left the old DOS games behind. Also, and having this stuff going on this PC is annoying. * My second attempt was to [try running Windows 98 in QEMU][win98] on my hobby Linux VM. * [It was hilarious.][winfunny] But, it chewed up 100% CPU while running. After I slapped it with [cpulimit][], it performed about as well as that 2002 trash computer. * My third attempt saw me [building the Linux port of Synchronet][sbbsport]. * This involves wrestling with [DOSEmu][] to run the old-school games. There are a few hitches, but the games are far more playable than I expected. * I expect this Linux-based install to be a lot easier to keep running, since it doesn't depend on hardware in my own house and I can mostly forget about it. [couchpc]: http://blog.lmorchard.com/2013/02/10/building-my-couch-computing-station/ [cpulimit]: http://cpulimit.sourceforge.net/ [dosemu]: http://wiki.synchro.net/howto:dosemu [sbbsport]: http://wiki.synchro.net/install:nix [lastbbs]: http://www.decafbad.com/blog/2002/02/15/ooooai/ [synchronet]: http://synchro.net [bbs.decafbad.com]: http://bbs.decafbad.com [door]: http://breakintochat.com/wiki/BBS_door [lord]: http://breakintochat.com/wiki/Legend_of_the_Red_Dragon [bre]: http://breakintochat.com/wiki/Barren_Realms_Elite [sre]: http://breakintochat.com/wiki/Solar_Realms_Elite [usurper]: http://breakintochat.com/wiki/Usurper [win98]: https://twitter.com/lmorchard/status/535478319148703744 [winfunny]: https://twitter.com/lmorchard/status/535485189196369920