On Thursday, May 25, 2017 at 5:41:16 PM UTC-4, Diesel wrote:
-hh wrote:
Dustin wrote:
Since my
client is configured to download message bodies as well as
headers, it's kept all the threads for this newsgroup. There's
many I still haven't gotten around to reading yet. I noticed the
thread, I read the posts, and, I replied. Simple as that. What's
'old and dead' to you doesn't mean the same to me.

Oh, I know quite well how .rn files work .. but nevertheless, you
chimed in on a thread which had otherwise ended ("dead") by the
other newsgroup regulars.

newsrc files, you mean. Formally known as .rn files...Prior to
threading capable newsreaders came into existance...

Which merely means that I got some of my old IT history a bit blended,
by using the original name instead of the more recent (and PC based) one.

I'm not a regular of your newsgroup, so it's not dead to me, or anyone
else who comes across it for the first time, either. As I wrote previously,
this is usenet, not a chatroom.

And all posts have dates on them. Given that this is still a reasonably
active group, you had to deliberately go past the active threads to go find
the old ones. Given that your post targeted me, it was motivationally
nothing more than a troll attempt. Quite lame & childishly petty.



As in the blue boxes that Steve Jobs built & sold before Apple,
which enabled thefts of services from Bell Telephone. But that's
just its original history.

Sorry if I don't feel bad about taking ma bell for a ride on
occasion.

Oh, your lack of morals is already quite obvious.

Please don't tell me your a mac fanboy too?

Oh, look: its another lame "L33t" attempt.

Sorry kid, but AFAIC, they're all just tools in the toolbox,
and I don't subscribe to the irrational fanboy crap. So
I use different ones at different times, including Linux.



True, but you claimed that your job was done.

In so far as warning people like yourself, which seem to be a bit
gullible concerning David Brooks and his need to stalk people who
refuse to do his bidding, yes. I can lead you to water, but, I can't
really force you to drink it.

Except that you're the one who has made poorly based assumptions
on gullibility and who needs your supposed "help".


Get a ****ing clue, newbie.

I haven't been a newbie in a very long time...

Yet you're still very much acting like one ... so I'll just say instead
that you're a PSL ... short for "Painfully Slow Learner"


And I mean "newbie" in the USENET sense, not merely RPD.

Says the one who thinks google groups is intended for usenet and
makes for a great method of accessing usenet...

Nice straw man you tried to build there - - too bad its already been proven wrong.


Oh, look: it is another complaint from Dustin about his personal
lack of a PC with any computational power. Have you perhaps
thought buying a new one from *this* decade?

Your trolling skills need work, Hugh. You should learn how to read in
context. I was citing an example, I didn't say I had any machines
that old here.

Didn't really read that way to me, nor when you complained about I-81 traffic.


How about *installing* it, pedantic boy?

It doesn't require installation. It's a 'portable' app.

It still comes down to how the Admin was set up; some will lock down
to the point of prohibiting any .exe from running. I've even seen some
systems where one can't install a new printer.


After all, one can't run an App which hasn't been installed.

Are you sure about that? You seem to be of the mistaken impression
that All apps require installation. They don't.

It still comes down to how restrictive the Admin was set up (and what
options their Admin pkg has). I've seen/used some which were locked
down to the point of prohibiting a random .exe from running. Similarly,
where one can't even install a new printer...or updated print driver to
an existing printer (yes, on first glance, that one seems stupid).


Nope...but you failed to read the [3] footnote: it made it clear
that this USB dongle was to have a local, yet transportable, copy
of one's Newsreader's .rn file, which you take with you via the
USB stick as one moves between different desktop PC's.

There's no rn file with Xnews. It uses a newsrc file. Why take the
newsrc file when I can just take the entire program with me?

Because the conversation that this stems from was from a decade
ago, when big USB sticks weren't dirt cheap, etc.

Doesn't require admin level rights to run, either.

Oh, so then let me go test your claim by taking a copy of Xnews
to a PC on a USB and plugging it in ... oh, look: they've locked
out the USB port drivers for all storage media too.

Doesn't require install, either. Copy directory (oh, sorry, in
Windows slang it's a 'folder')

Windows? I thought I was a Mac 'fanboy'?

Just give me a "ls -laF" and I'll be fine.


I don't know exactly what you mean by contextual continuity
between multiple devices either.

And it shows.

Shrug. Any device that can connect to the internet and use a browser
capable of parsing the scripts will see essentially the same thing on
screen (mobile devices obviously see a slightly different version;
but the posts themselves look pretty much the same) I don't see how
you consider that to be a feature specific to google, though.

Because they invisibly & painlessly handle the .rn (or .newsrc) file
updates automatically for me, as I move between devices/platforms:
my read/unread thread are all up to date ... with zero effort on my part.




Nope, not what I was alluding to at all. This was alluding to
replacing the hardware USB dongle for the .rn file repository with
a cloud based one that each platform's newsreader App would use,
in lieu of a local one. The approach would have some headaches
for revision control with multiple open sessions, but...

The newsrc file, you mean...Although, they are the same beastie,
clients these days use a file called 'newsrc' It has the same
internal structure for the most part as the original 'rn' file.

And in trying to be pendant, you dodged the key point.


Some headaches?

I don't know why I'd just copy my newsrc file to take with me, when I
can just rar/zip/native copy the entire Xnews folder instead?

Which is still more work...you're not going to beat ZERO effort.



Lack of any filtering ability, limited search options, failure to
maintain proper threading. Inability to change threading views,
etc.

But of course there's downsides; life is like that.

Well, those are important things to me and others who've been on
usenet for decades and actually like the flexability and control
offered with a real client, vs a web portal interface. YMMV.

Sorry, kid, but your l33t attempts fall flat. I've been online for longer
than you've been alive...and I'm not talking about as a 6th Grader
playing Oregon Trail -- I'm talking about having a paid IT job.


Hardly a problem with cellular data networks - - although I will
admit that I went ~3 weeks last year effectively without coverage,
while on vacation in South Africa and Namibia...and to keep this
post at least minimally on-topic to RPD, here's some photos from
that trip:

As I said. I don't have to be online to read/write replies/search
folders ...

And you continue to choose to miss the point.


Further, I can review them at any time I like, prior to them being
sent and make changes and/or delete them instead, if I so choose. I
can also delay which ones get sent and when. Can't do any of that
with google groups...

Nope, and it simply isn't an important capability for my workflows.

I'm aware of the options of Newsreaders, as I did use them for a couple
of decades. Kid, the problem you're having is that you're arrogantly
assuming that you're telling me something that I didn't already know.



Which tells me you're located in Sierra Vista, Arizona on an Army
base.

Gosh, really? /S

My point in doing that was that your choice of usenet access provider
exposes information to the rest of us that doesn't need to be. The
internet can be a dangerous place, as you well know, why just give
people with nefarious intentions information they don't even have to
work for?

There's reasons, even if you don't grok them.

Google groups is great, if you don't give a **** about your own
privacy.

Or know that attempts at anonymity are doomed to failure.

That depends on the steps you take, actually.

Not for years now.


And, privacy isn't the same as anonymity, but, they are related to a point..

The best security option is to never put it online, ever. And even that has
ways of being breached today.


As for me, ...

Sorry, but I don't really care about your life story.


One can remain anonymous online, if ...

Nope.


Yes, for several years. Go search the USENET archives, kid, and
you'll find proof in ancient headers.

You have nineteen years on me, so you can stop calling me a 'kid'.

Sorry, but your performance haven't earned you anything better.


Ok? And I didn't start with computers as a teenager or young
adult, either.

So if you're not a kid, then you're just a PSL ("Painfully Slow Learner").



As I said, I didn't recall the exact file name correctly. That's
an extremely minor issue when you realize that I'm recalling
minutia from 30 years ago ... back when you were still in diapers.

See above. I wasn't in diapers thirty years ago...

PSL Hint: I really wan't talking about biological age.


From a capability standpoint, there is AFAIK no equivalent
match to GG by any alternatives that anyone has suggested in
the last ~decade.

What capabilities, specifically, do you think GG has that a real
news client does not?

The ones listed above which you just tried to comment on.

The only one that GG has on Xnews is it's ability to be accessed on
any device capable of an internet connection and a browser able to
parse the scripting.

Pretty much.

Which doesn't make it unique.

Probably not today .. but you failed to actually prove that such alternative
products, in a viable form, actually exist.


Xnews has many capabilities that GG does not have...

True, but merely aren't higher priorities for my workflow choices.


Wrong. All you've done is to fail to meet my stated capability
requirements.

The only valid requirement you have stated is the web portal aspect
to GG.

And that was good enough.

Xnews isn't a web portal, it's an actual Newsreader with
abilities that exceed that of which GG is able to offer you.

No, the fact that Xnews can do "different stuff" does not mean "better".

You really don't know how to actually generate or analyze capability
requirements, do you kid?

The first objective is to assure that the capability requirements are satisfied.
That's where you've failed, kid.



T-Minus 3 hours and counting.

While I find your clock rather amusing, it doesn't mean I care about
meeting 'conditions' you set on me in the time limit you impose.

The lady doth protest too much.


You prefer to access usenet via a web portal, and, I prefer a real
client. It's as simple as that. The real client has more features and
abilities, which suit me. YMMV.

So you try to claim - - but it doesn't matter, because what
you did to is to "dox" another, which makes you a hypocrite.

MID:
http://al.howardknight.net/msgid.cgi?ID=149563187700

Pot-kettle-black, then?

Another failure on your part, because you've failed to show that
I've been offered by others doxing me.


Again, you're nineteen years older than myself, so you can quit with
the condescending 'kid' remark.

Sorry, but you still haven't shown being deserving anything better than "kid", kid.


-hh