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tom jennings

@tomjennings.tldr.nettime.org.ap.brid.gy

51 followers 3 following 253 posts

i make things. The older i get the less i know. not real keen on chauvinists, tech or otherwise. traded corporations are the/an enemy of all that lives. queer […] 🌉 bridged from ⁂ tldr.nettime.org/@tomjennings, follow @ap.brid.gy to interact

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tom jennings @tomjennings.tldr.nettime.org.ap.brid.gy · 5h

Yeah... it's a big hole. No, I did not just think of this.

A web search for "feminism in fidonet" and results are... zero. lol-not.

tom jennings @tomjennings.tldr.nettime.org.ap.brid.gy · 9h

@darkuncle Woah! I'll keep one eye open/remain skeptical re extraction and enshittification but a functional replacement for google maps would be great. I reallly really try to love comaps but its uselessly buggy for me here in los Angeles.

tom jennings @tomjennings.tldr.nettime.org.ap.brid.gy · 18/10/2026

It is an unfortunate historical fact that ctwm is Claude's TWM. Not that one. This one: Claude Lecom-mandeur, Swiss Polytechnical Institute of Lausanne

tom jennings @tomjennings.tldr.nettime.org.ap.brid.gy · 18/10/2026

@motherjones.com The crashes will be great fun to read about. Regular tesla crashes are too common to be interesting any more.

tom jennings @tomjennings.tldr.nettime.org.ap.brid.gy · 17/10/2026

I had forgotten just how great, how amazing this record was in 1987, and it's still that great today. 4AD was an amazing label for a long while. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ap98EFwEzlA Lonely is as lonely does, lonely is an eyesore. LONELY EYESORE compilation […]

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tom jennings @tomjennings.tldr.nettime.org.ap.brid.gy · 16/10/2026

Here's an interesting take on USENET vs. FidoNet ECHOMAIL -- exactly the same and totally different, and their mutuality, centerless vs paid storage. From a BBS sysop's POV. techheart.life/articles/usenet-in-2…

tom jennings @tomjennings.tldr.nettime.org.ap.brid.gy · 16/10/2026

LOL!! Here's a completely fabricated, completely wrong, nonsense history of FidoNet! What a crackup! gabriellataylor.com/2026/09/18/fido… Almost nothing here is correct! What an idiot! It's gotta be slop written.

gabriellataylor.com

Fidonet 1984: The Birth of a Pioneering BBS Network - gabriellataylor.com

The mid‑1980s marked a pivotal moment in digital communication, when a handful of hobbyists and early adopters realised that the isolated bulletin board systems (BBS) could be linked into a global, cooperative network. This vision materialised as Fidonet, a packet‑switching infrastructure that grew from a handful of local nodes to a worldwide community, reshaping how […]

tom jennings @tomjennings.tldr.nettime.org.ap.brid.gy · 16/10/2026

Maddening: I cannot find a simple file repository of "all" Fidonet nodelists, 1984 on. Most seem hidden behind "node lookup" fronts. Someone must have one! aargh. The downsides to decentralization, lol. If I find them I'll copy and put up the dumbest straightforward download page possible with […]

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tom jennings @tomjennings.tldr.nettime.org.ap.brid.gy · 16/10/2026

The weird weather has given us an unusually warm night, clear sky, which makes me want to take some mushrooms and go on a long bike ride. Instead, I'm going to bed.

tom jennings @tomjennings.tldr.nettime.org.ap.brid.gy · 16/10/2026

@emily They've been so consistently undermined and sabotaged by politicians mostly right but some "liberal" too, im surprised it operates at all. I am a HUGE USPS fan, in spite of it all.

tom jennings @tomjennings.tldr.nettime.org.ap.brid.gy · 15/10/2026

Now all three of my desktop computers have SSDs for system and home, and a large (2 to 4 tb) spinny rust drive for hourly increment backup. Today two of them are making the little noises that computers are supposed to make, mouse-like scritchings and tickings, quiet enough to not be annoying […]

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tom jennings @tomjennings.tldr.nettime.org.ap.brid.gy · 15/10/2026

John Ganz today: "One’s personal opinion of Omar’s character or her politics is immaterial. This is a serious assault on the constitutional order being carried out through the executive branch’s legal and bureaucratic machinery. Perhaps the reason that the public response is so tepid is that we […]

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tom jennings @tomjennings.tldr.nettime.org.ap.brid.gy · 15/10/2026

LIFE IN HELL cartoon by (Simpsons creator) Matt Groening.

"If you keep harping on fesd bodies you'll never enjoy the desert storm victory parties"

tom jennings @tomjennings.tldr.nettime.org.ap.brid.gy · 15/10/2026

Devo dog sprwaled on his back, soilling over a dog bed onto pillows.

tom jennings @tomjennings.tldr.nettime.org.ap.brid.gy · 15/10/2026

"My mother is upstairs, she is very ill. She is dying." "Oh, I'm so sorry to hear." "Yes. She has been dying for six years. We are getting used to it."

tom jennings @tomjennings.tldr.nettime.org.ap.brid.gy · 15/10/2026

Delta wing fighter aircraft over los angeles. Fucking LOUD.

tom jennings @tomjennings.tldr.nettime.org.ap.brid.gy · 15/10/2026

Sharing peanut butter on crackers with dogs is always funny.

tom jennings @tomjennings.tldr.nettime.org.ap.brid.gy · 15/10/2026

Recycling. Hmmm the mass of the finished product appears to be larger than the original core... neato to watch anyway www.youtube.com/shorts/rv7JGsp4zDg

tom jennings @tomjennings.tldr.nettime.org.ap.brid.gy · 14/10/2026

From a comment on a random web page: Great article, AL! (sorry for the capital L, but this way it doesn’t look like AI).

tom jennings @tomjennings.tldr.nettime.org.ap.brid.gy · 14/10/2026

Leor Zolman wrote the BDS C compiler for CP/M. He was perfectly suited to the era, open, friendly, had no idea what he was doing but made great things. Here's an email? from him in 1982 regarding his compiler package, available from Lifeboat, a once-significant distributor: Date: 09/04/82 11 […]

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tom jennings @tomjennings.tldr.nettime.org.ap.brid.gy · 14/10/2026

@pflegende The forum story is a very good read. Excellent writing! Hell, once done this would make sn excellent snd readable (nerdy) book. The author is eittyyand succinct.

tom jennings @tomjennings.tldr.nettime.org.ap.brid.gy · 14/10/2026

Heterosexuality is the opiate of the masses.

tom jennings @tomjennings.tldr.nettime.org.ap.brid.gy · 13/10/2026

@aka_pugs I'm truly surprised that people believe there's a 1:1 correspondence, take lsd, invent new thing, enough to look for it. (Not talking about Markoff, hes sharp; snd i could only read down to the blur.) LSD was, is, a huge influence on me, all positive, but its bizarre to me to think […]

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tom jennings @tomjennings.tldr.nettime.org.ap.brid.gy · 13/10/2026

@emily Wow, that's really nice.

tom jennings @tomjennings.tldr.nettime.org.ap.brid.gy · 13/10/2026

@peterhoneyman Looks serious.

tom jennings @tomjennings.tldr.nettime.org.ap.brid.gy · 13/10/2026

What, exactly, is pizazz? And do I really want any?

tom jennings @tomjennings.tldr.nettime.org.ap.brid.gy · 12/10/2026

@aakoskin Oh you have no idea!!! lol what a bunch of jerks they were. Always fighting, monstrous egos. Ron Dwight was a PITA. He had a megalomaniacal idea of reforming the European FidoNet into "technical interest" only by, of course, removing people he thought were "untechnical", which of […]

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tom jennings @tomjennings.tldr.nettime.org.ap.brid.gy · 12/10/2026

Here's a rare (as in, no one saved echo conference content that I know of!) random sub-conversation from a FidoNet Echo Conference, which is FidoNet's homegrown distributed equivalent of a usenet newsgroup. They were gatewayed bidirectionally for some years. We just called them echo's. The […]

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tom jennings @tomjennings.tldr.nettime.org.ap.brid.gy · 12/10/2026

FidoNews vol 8 #48, page 4 article titled "number nine, number niine..." referencing the Beatle's song REVOLUTION 9 (we're old). This is still a radical and freeing idea, that was stomped out of FIdoNet by reactionary assholes. The FidoNet nodelist, appears to be a literal /etc/hosts for the […]

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tom jennings @tomjennings.tldr.nettime.org.ap.brid.gy · 12/10/2026

(I'm vetting a folder of old files for the VCF Montreal talk, mostly to refresh my memory (ugh, lol, I would rather not, some of this) and I'll post amusing things as I find them. Much of it was interpersonal stuff (flames, complaining, the usual). Mute me if it annoys you.

tom jennings @tomjennings.tldr.nettime.org.ap.brid.gy · 12/10/2026

@troed Well, most of the folks at Hackers were, basically, rich, so their confidence is enhanced by the knowledge they won't be subject to the law's invokation, very much at least. Not to diminish from the work they were doing, which was obviously quite substantial.

tom jennings @tomjennings.tldr.nettime.org.ap.brid.gy · 12/10/2026

Lol this is how I tested in 1989. Most others were obsessed with speed. I was obsessed with compatibility and reliability. [describing new version 12n] "On my 8MHz "turbo" junk-pclone, 80mS 20 meg drive, Fido takes 30 seconds to load, create outgoing packets and be ready for an incoming call […]

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tom jennings @tomjennings.tldr.nettime.org.ap.brid.gy · 12/10/2026

FidoNews vol 7 #48, Nov 1990, in an article by me, reporting that at Hackers 6.0 Mitch Kapor and John Barlow announce the formation of the EFF. Everyone thought we were paranoid. fidonews.site/1990/v07n48

FidoNews Vol 7, No 48 - FidoNews Archive · The Fido and FidoNet Users Group Newsletter

Archive, browsing and reference for FidoNews

tom jennings @tomjennings.tldr.nettime.org.ap.brid.gy · 12/10/2026

@jonny When do you think device-based attestation will be "available" in new desktop computers?

tom jennings @tomjennings.tldr.nettime.org.ap.brid.gy · 12/10/2026

@jonny Hmmm yeah me too, but for me the clincher was, google and the corpcreeps pushing them. That alone is literally enough to run screaming. It didnt occur to me to look and see that no rights group backs them. Done and done, and done.

tom jennings @tomjennings.tldr.nettime.org.ap.brid.gy · 12/10/2026

@brouhaha Oh wow, didn't know that. So it was out for a year before games appeared? MobyGames shows a lot of games from '82. (I didn't realize the C64 was followon to the VIC20, or I'd forgot.) www.mobygames.com/platform/c64/sort… None of this is an area I have any experience with.

tom jennings @tomjennings.tldr.nettime.org.ap.brid.gy · 12/10/2026

@jef Both things can be true at the same time! lol 50 years from now, assuming we have contiguous history, will probably reveal how much russian manipulation there is/was. And it does seem massive.

tom jennings @tomjennings.tldr.nettime.org.ap.brid.gy · 12/10/2026

Just looked, instead of going from erroneous memory: cheap cars were ~3500 - 4000, IBM PC with one floppy, 2500. 1500 with cassette interface only and MDA. (1982) 10K for "full size" cars. I should have looked closer before posting. No matter, they were pricey objects. The 8-bit machines from […]

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tom jennings @tomjennings.tldr.nettime.org.ap.brid.gy · 12/10/2026

Lol, I really like John Ganz: (on substack) (yes I know, everything has nazis on it now, I'm as stumped as you as to what to do) "The great Marxian economist Anwar Shaikh died last week. Shaikh was a theorist of capitalist competition, and I first encountered his work when trying to better […]

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tom jennings @tomjennings.tldr.nettime.org.ap.brid.gy · 12/10/2026

@liaizon Serial electrical telegraphy dates back to the first half of the 19th century. So does the facsimile machine. Wait til you read about undersea/underwater cables...

tom jennings @tomjennings.tldr.nettime.org.ap.brid.gy · 12/10/2026

@liaizon The line you are (were) on or off of, was the current loop. This is 1960's/1970's (Teletype Corp ASR-33, but the line goes back to the earliest days of telegraphy wires strung long distances outside). "ON LINE" means your teleprinter is wired in […] [Original post on tldr.nettime.org]

Front panel of an ASR-33 Teletype; the line knob: ON or LOCAL (off the line).

tom jennings @tomjennings.tldr.nettime.org.ap.brid.gy · 12/10/2026

@tb ascii.rest/html

html · ascii.rest

the orange shield with a 5, glinting now and then. An animated ascii piece for web pages, with the code to use it.

tom jennings @tomjennings.tldr.nettime.org.ap.brid.gy · 11/10/2026

@darius Ha! Me too! And i think lots of other people sre feeling the same way.... what works? Things i can touch and see. And people, unmediated. (Spellcheck suggested "unmedicated", lol.)

tom jennings @tomjennings.tldr.nettime.org.ap.brid.gy · 11/10/2026

Imagine all the space one could have when data centers become abandoned.

tom jennings @tomjennings.tldr.nettime.org.ap.brid.gy · 11/10/2026

'Outstanding' is a great adjective and metaphor. It's so blunt!

tom jennings @tomjennings.tldr.nettime.org.ap.brid.gy · 11/10/2026

@darius But also we know from the history its gonna be kids who cut new culture. And that it won't be ours. We can still take control of our own lives though.

tom jennings @tomjennings.tldr.nettime.org.ap.brid.gy · 11/10/2026

@darius I dont think online is a core feature. Its a lovely augment. For evidence i give you... Today. We sre bodies that live and breathe, snd the idea that being online could replace that, is the same core foolishness behind the confusion surround us as intelligent beings vs language models […]

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tom jennings @tomjennings.tldr.nettime.org.ap.brid.gy · 11/10/2026

@darius The catch now is, so many people dejected by the turn tech takes are fully embedded in it as it is (or historically recently, was). Thats the game everyone assumes. It gave people money and purpose. I barely does the former now, and the latter not at all, unless you throw in with the […]

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tom jennings @tomjennings.tldr.nettime.org.ap.brid.gy · 11/10/2026

@glyph And we do not have to have the same goals or paths that some corporations have. But what is your (our) vision for the world we want to live in, to create our own shit in? Keep in mind that you will not get support from people and orgs on conventional paths. They'll think you're wrong […]

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tom jennings @tomjennings.tldr.nettime.org.ap.brid.gy · 11/10/2026

Yowza, here's a great example of embodied skill and knowledge. This geezer making a 10 foot diameter wagon wheel. His language around it uses interesting metaphors, 'strong' for I think tightness of parts due to compression. And shows where precision comes from! […]

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