(???)        .-------------------------------------------------------------.        
 (???)        | Apr 19, 2024 : Fri : Yahoo 2004, Dillo & Vivaldi Mobile     |        
 (???) -------'-------------------------------------------------------------'-------.
 (???)  I found a 2004 version of Yahoo's home page [0] on my computer. Here's what |
 (???)  it looks like using Dillo 3.0.5 [1] (I like using extra large fonts on a    |
 (???)  1080 (eye strain), 16:9 screen in landscape).                               |
 (???)                                                                              |
 (???)  Here's a screenshot [2] of the same (viewable) page using Vivaldi Mobile on |
 (???)  my Lenovo Tab P12-2023, 12.7", 3k display, 16:10 aspect ratio. Portrait Mode|
 (???)  for document-centric stuff is hard to beat.                                 |
 (???)                                                                              |
 (???)  But... honestly very impressed with Dillo. This is a 2015 version of the    |
 (???)  browser that shows:                                                         |
 (???)                                                                              |
 (???)  /usr/bin/dillo                                               (bin: 892 KBs) |
 (???)  /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dillo                     (plugins, etc: 360 KBs) |
 (???)  /etc/dillo                                              (cfg stuff: 19 KBs) |
 (???)  /usr/share/man/man1/dillo.1.gz                          (man page: 1.4 KBs) |
 (???)  /home/USER/.dillo                             (plugins I installed: 94 KBs) |
 (???)                                                                              |
 (???)  Less than a 1.4 MB floppy disk! An update is expected this year (2024) :-)  |
 (???)  --------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
 (???)  [0] https://640kb.neocities.org/support/yahoo.2004.htm                      |
 (???)  [1] https://640kb.neocities.org/support/dillo.3.0.5--yahoo.2004.png         |
 (???)  [2] https://640kb.neocities.org/support/vivaldi.mobile.2024--yahoo.2004.jpg |
 (???) -----------------------------------------------------------------------------'
 (???)        .-------------------------------------------------------------.
 (???)        | Apr 15, 2024 : Mon : Two new finger clients...              |
 (???) -------'-------------------------------------------------------------'-------.
 (???)  I came across two different command-line finger clients today! They are     |
 (???)  both dedicated finger clients only and do not support any other protocol. I |
 (???)  quite like this.                                                            |
 (???)                                                                              |
 (???)  One is written in the D language and available only in source (compiles     |
 (???)  easily after "sudo apt install dub"):                                       |
 (???)                                                                              |
 (???)  https://github.com/KikyTokamuro/dfinger                                     |
 (???)                                                                              |
 (???)  The other is written in rust and includes a precompiled binary:             |
 (???)                                                                              |
 (???)  https://github.com/alexmullins/finger-client                                |
 (???)                                                                              |
 (???)  Both programs have performed well, even handling the 8-bit codepage437 w/o  |
 (???)  issue. Will update the fingerverse file with these new programs soon.       |
 (???) -----------------------------------------------------------------------------'
 (???)        .-------------------------------------------------------------.
 (???)        | Apr 11, 2024 : Thu : Dillo updates; new site at neocities.  |
 (???) -------'-------------------------------------------------------------'-------.
 (???)  I've been playing around with the Dillo browser of late. It's a new toy and |
 (???)  really digging its HTML support. Now that I'm using it more often, I'm      |
 (???)  really surprised at how well it handles the many HTML sites I've visited.   |
 (???)                                                                              |
 (???)  I've been having such a nice time with the browser that I even started to   |
 (???)  use an inactive neocities site to give it some links to play with. I used   |
 (???)  preformatted text because I love working with this format.                  |
 (???)                                                                              |
 (???)  Some sections of the site are Dillo/Kristall specific (since they can handle|
 (???)  the combination of gemini/gopher plus the light html). Other sections of the|
 (???)  site... a mirror of the pages I've posted at happynetbox.com.               |
 (???)                                                                              |
 (???)  https://640kb.neocities.org                                                 |
 (???) -----------------------------------------------------------------------------'
 (???)        .-------------------------------------------------------------.        
 (???)        | Apr 10, 2024 : Wed : Fingerverse page reduction.            |        
 (???) -------'-------------------------------------------------------------'-------.
 (???)  Reduced fingerverse from 47,582 characters to 41,980 (with spaces). I use   |
 (???)  lots of spaces because of the boxy design. Total characters w/o spaces:     |
 (???)  21,885 (52% of total).                                                      |
 (???)                                                                              |
 (???)  I was able to trim the file with little loss of content.                    |
 (???)                                                                              |
 (???)  Perspective: Since I work with the fingerverse file often, I know where     |
 (???)  everything is, everything that's been written. It doesn't feel like a long  |
 (???)  document. I have lost the ability to see it from a new user's perspective.  |
 (???)                                                                              |
 (???)  Objectively, I do recognize that the current 554 lines is long. I'll keep   |
 (???)  trimming...                                                                 |
 (???) -----------------------------------------------------------------------------'
 (???)        .-------------------------------------------------------------.
 (???)        | Apr 08, 2024 : Mon : 44,560 character limit, three clients. |
 (???) -------'-------------------------------------------------------------'-------.
 (???)  On my latest update of the fingerverse file, finger was unable to display   |
 (???)  the entire page. It seems to have hit a limit for characters when trying to |
 (???)  get a file over the internet as:                                            |
 (???)                                                                              |
 (???)  * finger fingerverse@happynetbox.com                                        |
 (???)                                                                              |
 (???)  It had no problems displaying the entire page if it accessed the ~/.plan    |
 (???)  file directly from my computer (not over the internet) as: finger username  |
 (???)                                                                              |
 (???)  After a very quick test, it seems that the character limit is:              |
 (???)                                                                              |
 (???)  44,560 : which translated to 584 lines on the fingerverse file.             |
 (???)                                                                              |
 (???)  note: "finger fingerverse@happynetbox.com > file" adds an extra character   |
 (???)  on top of the file (LF) during processing of the request... so 44,561.      |
 (???)                                                                              |
 (???)  I decided to test every client and access method listed on the fingerverse  |
 (???)  page and only two others had the same (exact) issue: stopping short of      |
 (???)  displaying the entire page at 44,560 characters (line 584).                 |
 (???)                                                                              |
 (???)  * curl gopher://happynetbox.com:79/0fingerverse                             |
 (???)  * dillo (w/gopher plugin)                                                   |
 (???)                                                                              |
 (???)  * Plan Poke : untested (but I'm sure this will display the entire page)     |
 (???)                                                                              |
 (???)  I was pleasantly surprised that every other client on the fingerverse page  |
 (???)  handled the large file without any issues. This includes the bash-based     |
 (???)  bopher-ng, the dos-like ddwarf, the command-line bombadillo, the retired    |
 (???)  'little gopher client' (runtimeterror).                                     |
 (???)                                                                              |
 (???)  Fingerlist on Android, the Underbite extension... and even telnet and       |
 (???)  smolmail (both in the _fun_ section) handled the entire page. All of them   |
 (???)  except for the three listed above (finger, dillo and curl).                 |
 (???)                                                                              |
 (???)  So what do I do? Well... moreso than any other program, I have to respect   |
 (???)  any limits imposed by finger no matter the reason. It is the OG.            |
 (???)                                                                              |
 (???)  There's also curl - an institution in its own right at 28 years and Dillo   |
 (???)  that's been ~active since Dec/1999 (though it's new to modern smolnet).     |
 (???)                                                                              |
 (???)  The clues seem to indicate that the problem lies outside of these three     |
 (???)  programs specifically. Third-party?                                         |
 (???)                                                                              |
 (???)  Until some reason for this is determined, I'll find a way of trimming down  |
 (???)  the file without losing any meaningful content. The limit per page seems to |
 (???)  be 44,560. I'm currently using 47,582 characters.                           |
 (???)                                                                              |
 (???)  This is the smolnet afterall and 44,560 characters ought to be enough for   |
 (???)  anyone... right?                                                            |
 (???) -----------------------------------------------------------------------------'
 (???)        .-------------------------------------------------------------.
 (???)        | Apr 07, 2024 : Sun : Dillo, smolnet plugins, Spartan.       |
 (???) -------'-------------------------------------------------------------'-------.
 (???)  I just discovered that Dillo has a plugin system. Somehow that got pass me. |
 (???)  Turns out plugins exist for gemini and gopher (finger via gopher). Spartan's|
 (???)  plugin does not seem to load/render. Still... very excited about this.      |
 (???)                                                                              |
 (???)  Dillo has always been one of those browsers I really liked but rarely used. |
 (???)  Now that it has gemini/gopher support... I have a great reason to use it    |
 (???)  more often. I'll update fingerverse with this info soon.                    |
 (???)  --------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
 (???)  Feel bad about spamming this box with the monthly archive of old posts.     |
 (???)  These are one time uploads and will disappear from the main listing soon.   |
 (???) -----------------------------------------------------------------------------'
 (???)        .-------------------------------------------------------------.        
 (???)        | Apr 05, 2024 : Fri : Taxes done with room to spare.         |        
 (???) -------'-------------------------------------------------------------'-------.
 (???)  I did my taxes yesterday (Thursday). Just getting this done got me excited  |
 (???)  about crossing off a couple of more items from my procrastination page.     |
 (???) -----------------------------------------------------------------------------'
 (???)        .-------------------------------------------------------------.
 (???)        | Apr 01, 2024 : Mon : Retro OSes, TLS, Spartan.              |
 (???) -------'-------------------------------------------------------------'-------.
 (???)  I found two posts related to discussions of a Gemini browser for DOS (copied|
 (???)  the discussions below). The major sticking point seems to be TLS.           |
 (???)                                                                              |
 (???)  This led me to review the other various emerging smolnet protocols. Spartan |
 (???)  stuck out because it's basically Gemini/Gemtext without the TLS:            |
 (???)                                                                              |
 (???)  https://portal.mozz.us/spartan/spartan.mozz.us/                             |
 (???)                                                                              |
 (???)  https://portal.mozz.us/spartan/mozz.us/software.gmi                         |
 (???)                                                                              |
 (???)  I like that this protocol - among other things - provides a modern doorway  |
 (???)  for legacy systems to enter the smolnet. That it also helps show how the    |
 (???)  various smolnet protocols aren't necessarily competing with each other but  |
 (???)  rather... helping to extend the smolnet in various useful ways.             |
 (???) -----------------------------------------------------------------------------'
 (???) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 (???) ------>                     https://redd.it/sis7lb                    <-------
 (???) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 (???)  DmitriiElj :                                                                |
 (???)                                                                              |
 (???)  But there is no vintage computers support, as far as I know (and using IP   |
 (???)  and TLS in MS-DOS can be tricky).                                           |
 (???)  --------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
 (???)  jakenned :                                                                  |
 (???)                                                                              |
 (???)  using an old DOS machine is out of the question last I checked, I think     |
 (???)  someone may be working on a modern TLS package for DOS but I doubt an old   |
 (???)  PC would be able to handle it.                                              |
 (???)                                                                              |
 (???)  There is someone working on a classic Mac client (m68k IIRC) but they told  |
 (???)  me not to expect a working product for a very long time                     |
 (???)  --------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
 (???)  jarreboum :                                                                 |
 (???)                                                                              |
 (???)  TLS is a non-issue now that local proxies can be easily set up to strip it  |
 (???)  out. A simple RPi added to the local network works wonders.                 |
 (???) -----------------------------------------------------------------------------'
 (???) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 (???) ------>  https://www.bttr-software.de/forum/forum_entry.php?id=17743  <-------
 (???) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 (???)  DosWorld :                                                                  |
 (???)                                                                              |
 (???)  JFYI (i want just share idea):                                              |
 (???)                                                                              |
 (???)  https://gemini.circumlunar.space/docs/                                      |
 (???)                                                                              |
 (???)  In short words: WWW without styles and scripting on client side (sort of    |
 (???)  markdown?), but with community (~3.5 geeks) and modern software, need just  |
 (???)  include dos in this (underground) stream. :-D Here is example browser-      |
 (???)  screenshot ( https://files.catbox.moe/rr96w9.png )for gemini-page.          |
 (???)                                                                              |
 (???)  PS: I am think about topic for my next dos-project, but, definitely, it will|
 (???)  be not networking.                                                          |
 (???)  --------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
 (???)  effebi68 :                                                                  |
 (???)                                                                              |
 (???)  IMHO, TLS (as used by HTTPS) is by far the worst compatibility problem with |
 (???)  old machines or small operating systems. Nice idea, anyway.                 |
 (???) -----------------------------------------------------------------------------'
 (???) --
 (???) ant another? finger glass@happynetbox.com