Mastodawn

i've managed to connect to IRC using my IBM 3151 terminal! unfortunately i struggled to find any active discussions on any channels on libera.chat. i know most people just use discord these days, so i guess it's to be expected. does anyone know any channels that are usually more active?

i'm considering getting a serial to USB cable so i can more easily connect it to a modern linux computer which will increase the amount of software i can interface on this a lot more, including possibly fediverse clients which would be cool

@mjdxp you'll encounter a lot of software hardcoding VT100 and even xterm sequences if you haven't already
i think maybe 3151 can emulate a vt100 so might not be a big deal, 3161 can't and even 3163 needs a cartridge for it so i have to use TERM=ibm3161

@mjdxp i assume based on the fact you got that working you have a null modem cable with full handshaking, so that'll be good if you're getting a USB thing

@wyatt yep, it's plugged in via a DB25 to DB9 connector with an integrated null modem adapter. i believe i actually have some RS232 USB adapter laying around somewhere, but it's really inconvenient to use because i have to use a separate null modem which requires me to go to the back of the terminal. it'd be a lot easier if i could just adapt the DB9 end that plugs into my ultra 10 to USB

@mjdxp (running GNU screen can help with this because it acts like a VT100 or some descendant thereof, and it cooperates with non-VT100 terminals, so it can sort of translate stuff to make it work)

@wyatt it actually does emulate a vt100, in fact i've been emulating a vt100 this whole time! works great, might be missing out on a few features but it doesn't matter too much to me

@mjdxp i've got a physical copy of the programming manual for my 3161 which is good because it's not online last i looked
3151's is, though, so you could check what you've not got

@wyatt definitely get that scanned if you can, i'm sure some nerd out there would appreciate it

@mjdxp it's bound with glue, it's extremely annoying or i'd have done it already

@wyatt even if you can just take crappy pictures of each page it'd be better than nothing :P

@mjdxp it's over 150 pages

@wyatt okay that's fair :P

@mjdxp i still want to do it some day, i'd need to rig, like, a tripod or something for it and find a nice place to flip through it though

@mjdxp connect the terminal to the console of a modern linux computer? that’s basically same as using a tty tho

@zaire a tty doesn't have amber monochrome and extremely smoothly scrolling text though

@mjdxp true tbh

@[email protected] #sysadmin

@mjdxp last i checked efnet nesdev was somewhat active but it's been a hot minute.
'classiccmp' usually has people on it, i think that's libera
'electronics', too

Congrats, really would like to get my 3161 going again

luna sugar🍬🍭🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈1d ago

@mjdxp check out starlight irc network, posibly: starlightnet.work/posts/irc.html

fae is on its #public channel, which is pretty active

@mjdxp It looks to me like that font is different than my 3161's; check out the lowercase 'e'. The top loop is more rounded on my 3161, that's a right angle on it there. The lowercase 'u' in Sun' is also different, look at the 'hook' on the bottom of it. The number 5 has a different amount of vertical space between the start of the 'sickle' on the bottom and the bar at the top as well. It's a pretty different font than the one I have online

@mjdxp The number '9' looks especially different. Lots of other differences too, the hook on the lowercase "r" for instance

@wyatt i can try to get a clear picture of the font sometime if you'd like!

@mjdxp i’d take those photos, if you make them, although idk if I have the energy to make a font for it since i’m not as sentimental towards it as the 3161 that I physically possess. Maybe I would though, just for fun or something.
If there’s a test mode switch on yours that shows the full character set that’d be the best way to do it probably.
It was fun but a bit challenging to do, maybe you’d enjoy doing it too, honestly. I used unifont and its tools as the basis for mine, the unifont source tarball’s ‘doc’ directory contains a GNU info file called unifont.info which is really useful for figuring out the intended workflow, I wish I’d read it before I jumped in. It gives you some nice tools.

@[email protected] @[email protected] oh that's interesting, the 9 looks more like the 3270 font http://www.identifont.com/show?5PJ4

@jiub @mjdxp yeah i was reminded of the 3270 font but i'm not sure if it's that or not
there seems to be a strange lineage between different IBM typefaces

verifiedbisexual

@mjdxp omg omg omg an amber crt

neocat_pleading

@[email protected] i think land of kittens has a IRC bridge

@Stellar to what?

@[email protected] irc bridge that communicates with the discord and matrix and telegram so everyone can talk to eachother on their favorite tool

@Stellar sounds cool, might look into that

Laberpferd 1d ago

@mjdxp idont know about Libera, but i can say some channels on Furnet are still alive, and on Austnet there is the #EEVBlog electronics channel quite active

Digital Mark λ ☕️ 🚀 🌗1d ago

@mjdxp There's some of us old-school hackers in #b4udw3rk5
Libera tends to more specific topic channels and a little quieter, not the nerd scrolling freenode had.

@mjdxp > i know most people just use discord these days

The mandatory doxing wasn't enough to kill it?

@mjdxp the superior way to chat

Kevin P. Fleming 1d ago

@mjdxp #homeassistant is usually active.

Andrew Zonenberg 1d ago

@mjdxp electronics and networking are usually pretty busy. Kicad is often decently active too

thorsummoner 19h ago

@mjdxp a perfectly good frontend! you could study anything on this bad boy!

@mjdxp I think you'll find most IRC users moved to Matrix, not Discord.

@mjdxp
Out of the channels I idle in, ##electronics, #kicad and #hamradio are the most active.
#priyom also has had more activity lately.