[comp.mail.uucp] continuous reading

dgnewton@wiffle.techbook.com (dgnewton) (11/24/90)

Is there any way to set the board to give you all the new messages 
continuosly without stopping at each page.  That way I can get them to 
read off line instead of running up my phone bill reading them on line?

jamesd@techbook.com (James Deibele) (11/24/90)

In article <woJ4s1w163w@wiffle.techbook.com> dgnewton@wiffle.techbook.com (dgnewton) writes:
>Is there any way to set the board to give you all the new messages 
>continuosly without stopping at each page.  That way I can get them to 
>read off line instead of running up my phone bill reading them on line?

I had debated about killing this, since it's a question that should have been 
put into a local newsgroup.  But it's a question that I had myself when using a
dial-up UNIX system, and I hear it fairly frequently now that I run a site 
myself.  Most people wanted to turn the paging in rn off, so that they could
dump the text to disk to read at their leisure later.

Obviously the best way to read news would be on an X terminal.  But for those
who are limited to dial-up usage, has anyone come up with a neat way of 
bundling up selected areas so that they can be downloaded?

I know there are things for mail (UUPC) and things to hook up to BBS's (Waffle,
UFgate) but those don't do much for the user who maybe wants to call in and grab
all the messages in misc.jobs.offered so they can read them with the morning
coffee.

Thanks!

--
Public Access UNIX at (503) 644-8135 (1200/2400) Voice: +1 503 646-8257
Authorized ESIX, SCO resellers --- Great products at a GREAT price

cambler@polyslo.CalPoly.EDU (Fubar's Carbonated Hormones) (11/24/90)

jamesd@techbook.com (James Deibele) recently informed us:
>I know there are things for mail (UUPC) and things to hook up to BBS's (Waffle,
>UFgate) but those don't do much for the user who maybe wants to call in and 
>grab all the messages in misc.jobs.offered so they can read them with the 
>morning coffee.

FSUUCP will do this for you... Propoganda? Sure...

FSUUCP Version 1.1 release 5 is the most current version of FSUUCP.

FSUUCP implements a UUCP/Usenet transfer protocol for MSDOS based machines.
It comes complete with a full 7 window uucico, uuxqt with rnews and rmail
capability, mail, readnews, postnews, uuq, uusnap, and news utilities like
batcher and expire. Unlike other packages, FSUUCP implements these programmes
as DOS commands directly. By putting the executables on your PATH, and setting
an environment variable pointing to your configuration file, you can have
UNIX mail and news on your MSDOS machine from the prompt, just like UNIX.

To get a copy of FSUUCP:

1. Get it via anonymous FTP from polyslo.calpoly.edu. The file name will
   be fsuu11r5.zip.

   The current naming convention is fsuu[VV]r[R].zip, where VV is the version
   number in V.V format, and R is the release number. In this case, fsuu11r5
   means version 1.1, release 5.

   Check occasionally on polyslo to be sure you have the latest version.

2. Mail us the $35 shareware registration and we will mail you back a disk
   with a registered copy. Please specify:

   A. 3.5" 720K
   B. 5.25" 1.2Meg

3. Mail us a self-addressed stamped disk mailer with either formatted 5.25"
   1.2 Meg or 3.5" 720K or 1.44Meg disk. ***NO 360K DISKS!!!***

Registered users remain registered through all major revisions, or for a
full year from time of registering, whichever is longer. That is, if you 
register your copy of 1.1, you are still registered through 1.2, 1.3, ...,
1.x, and all releases of these versions, and you are also still registered
regardless of the version for a full year.

Note that if you choose method 3, you DO NOT need to send the registration
until/if you decide to use FSUUCP.

And, as always, any bug reports or wishlists will be addressed for future
releases. 

Coming Soon: FSBBS 2.0, Fubar Systems BBS with FSUUCP 1.x integrated
into the package, plus local boards, DYM, games, files, textfiles, complete
full-screen sysop utilities, termcap capability, scheduler, complete
development package available, fully expandable, pant pant pant. All this,
and shareware too. 

ADDRESS FOR SENDING DISK:

Fubar Systems
FSUUCP Request
1525 Mill #6
San Luis Obispo, Ca
93401-2543

(805) 54-FUBAR  -- BBS (FSBBS 2.0 prototype system)
(805) 544-9234  -- Voice support

For more information, send mail to: support@fubarsys.com

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------


-- 
++Christopher(); --- cambler@polyslo.calpoly.edu --- chris@erotica.fubarsys.com
---
A feature is a bug with seniority.

jamesd@techbook.com (James Deibele) (11/25/90)

In article <274df9cb.20b9@petunia.CalPoly.EDU> cambler@polyslo.CalPoly.EDU (Fubar's Carbonated Hormones) writes:
>jamesd@techbook.com (James Deibele) recently informed us:
>>I know there are things for mail (UUPC) and things to hook up to BBS's (Waffle,
>>UFgate) but those don't do much for the user who maybe wants to call in and 
>>grab all the messages in misc.jobs.offered so they can read them with the 
>>morning coffee.
>
>FSUUCP will do this for you... Propoganda? Sure...

Great, but that's not what I'm looking for.  I want something simple that 
someone who wants to use their regular telecomm program, like Procomm or Telix,
can use to pick up news and read it.  

There are a lot of people to whom the addition of one more program is 
unthinkable.  Not having used FSUUCP, you may have the greatest install in the
world and there's absolutely no debugging involved.  Maybe.  But I'd bet large
sums of money that it takes a couple of hours of work to get things going.

Thanks for the info, but I'm looking for something that's a lot more casual 
than setting up a full-blown UUCP site.  

cambler@polyslo.CalPoly.EDU (Fubar's Carbonated Hormones) (11/25/90)

jamesd@techbook.com (James Deibele) recently informed us:
>>FSUUCP will do this for you... Propoganda? Sure...
>
>Great, but that's not what I'm looking for.  I want something simple that 
>someone who wants to use their regular telecomm program, like Procomm or Telix,
>can use to pick up news and read it.  

Ahhh, another animal entirely. I must have misread what you were looking for.

>There are a lot of people to whom the addition of one more program is 
>unthinkable.  Not having used FSUUCP, you may have the greatest install in the
>world and there's absolutely no debugging involved.  Maybe.  But I'd bet large
>sums of money that it takes a couple of hours of work to get things going.

Yup, you'd win. *any* UUCP is time to get working.
>
>Thanks for the info, but I'm looking for something that's a lot more casual 
>than setting up a full-blown UUCP site.  

Good luck. I, personally, can't think of anything that meets your requirements.

-- 
++Christopher(); --- cambler@polyslo.calpoly.edu --- chris@erotica.fubarsys.com
---
A feature is a bug with seniority.

netnews@uafhp.uark.edu (Netnews) (11/26/90)

> Thanks for the info, but I'm looking for something that's a lot more casual 
> than setting up a full-blown UUCP site.  
From: tn03@uafhcx.uucp (Tn3270 access)
Path: uafhcx!tn03
Organization: College of Engineering, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville



In the process of trying to set up a full-blown UUCP site, I have
found something to use in the meantime.  I set the environment
variable PAGER to "cat".  Now I use readnews, so this may not work for
other news-readers.  I run a shell under emacs and capture everything
that goes by to a file.  I am sure you could do something similar with
PROCOMM (ech!) or Telix.  As an aside, the install program for FSUUCP
was very unsatisfactory.  I spent two-three hours setting everything
up after I helped the install program to function, only to find out
that the device driver for the comm port locked up both my machines.
At that point I was quite depressed and went to bed.  FSUUCP's author
has said he'd try to help me resolve the problem, but we'll see.
Anybody had better luck with any other uucp packages?

James E. Ward

fair@Apple.COM (Erik E. Fair) (11/26/90)

If your site still uses B version netnews, the command:

	readnews -p

Will do what you want.

	Erik E. Fair	apple!fair	fair@apple.com

ben@servalan.uucp (Ben Mesander) (11/27/90)

In article <1990Nov24.195439.9015@techbook.com> jamesd@techbook.com (James Deibele) writes:
>In article <274df9cb.20b9@petunia.CalPoly.EDU> cambler@polyslo.CalPoly.EDU (Fubar's Carbonated Hormones) writes:
>>jamesd@techbook.com (James Deibele) recently informed us:
>>>I know there are things for mail (UUPC) and things to hook up to BBS's (Waffle,
>>>UFgate) but those don't do much for the user who maybe wants to call in and 
>>>grab all the messages in misc.jobs.offered so they can read them with the 
>>>morning coffee.
>>
>>FSUUCP will do this for you... Propoganda? Sure...
>
>Great, but that's not what I'm looking for.  I want something simple that 
>someone who wants to use their regular telecomm program, like Procomm or Telix,
>can use to pick up news and read it.  
>
>There are a lot of people to whom the addition of one more program is 
>unthinkable.  Not having used FSUUCP, you may have the greatest install in the
>world and there's absolutely no debugging involved.  Maybe.  But I'd bet large
>sums of money that it takes a couple of hours of work to get things going.
>
>Thanks for the info, but I'm looking for something that's a lot more casual 
>than setting up a full-blown UUCP site.  

Basically, you want a problem solved with no software??! Naw, that can't be
what you really want :-)

You could use a PeeCee telecom package that is smart enough to be able to
use scripts (I'm sure there is one, right?), a file transfer program for
the UNIX site that speaks a protocol that the PC telecom package understands,
and a little shell script knowledge.

Write a telecom script to dial the UNIX system, log in, run a shell script,
and transfer a file back to the PC. The UNIX program needs to look for new
messages in the news directories - use .newsrc, or look at file dates in the
news directories, batch it all up, and transfer it back to the PC.

ben@epmooch.UUCP

jkimble@bally.Bally.COM (The Programmer Guy) (11/29/90)

>Thanks for the info, but I'm looking for something that's a lot more casual 
>than setting up a full-blown UUCP site.  

Look in your .newsrc to figure out which articles are not read, then
go to your news directory (i.e. "cd /usr/spool/news/alt/suicide/holiday")
and grab the articles you need. 

A shell script to do this automagically wouldn't be too difficult.
Your script would probably want to just use cat(1) to put together a
neat little/large) package you could download using your favorite
transfer protocol.

Heck, why not get *really* wild and not only have cron run your shell
script, but also fire off a "ct" to your home PC so it's really
automated. ;-) ;-)


-- 
--Jim Kimble,						jkimble@bally.bally.com
Consulting for Bally Gaming (the slot machine people)	   uunet!bally!jkimble

"ALPO is 99 cents a can.  That's over SEVEN dog dollars!!"

stanley@phoenix.com (John Stanley) (11/29/90)

netnews@uafhp.uark.edu (Netnews) writes:

> > Thanks for the info, but I'm looking for something that's a lot more casual
> > than setting up a full-blown UUCP site.  
> 
> In the process of trying to set up a full-blown UUCP site, I have
> found something to use in the meantime.  I set the environment
> variable PAGER to "cat".  Now I use readnews, so this may not work for
> other news-readers.  I run a shell under emacs and capture everything
> that goes by to a file.  

   Everything that goes by what? It seems that the original problem was
not just capturing the info that goes by (still don't know what it is
going by), but getting the info in the first place. It helps nothing to
have readnews and to set PAGER to "cat" if you don't have a news feed in
the first place.

> I am sure you could do something similar with
> PROCOMM (ech!) or Telix.  

   Without a news feed? I doubt it.

   About the only thing you can do is find a local (or non-local, if
desired) public access Usenet site, and then use Kermit or file-capture
to pull the news straight out of the desired directory.

> Anybody had better luck with any other uucp packages?

   Waffle wasn't too bad. 


<> "If winning is not important, then why keep score?" -- Turtle Head
<> "Eaten any good books lately?" -- Q
<> "Sanity check!" "Sorry, we can't accept it, it's from out of state." - me

les@chinet.chi.il.us (Leslie Mikesell) (12/05/90)

In article <ewPDT1w163w@phoenix.com> stanley@phoenix.com (John Stanley) writes:

>> Now I use readnews, so this may not work for
>> other news-readers.  I run a shell under emacs and capture everything
>> that goes by to a file.  

>   Everything that goes by what? It seems that the original problem was
>not just capturing the info that goes by (still don't know what it is
>going by), but getting the info in the first place. It helps nothing to
>have readnews and to set PAGER to "cat" if you don't have a news feed in
>the first place.

I think this is in the context of someone who has dial-up access to
a machine running news but would prefer to interact with his local
machine.

Now that modems that operate faster than reading speed are the norm
this seems like a real need that should be addressed.  In particular,
what is needed is something that would gather up your unread news
into batches of a reasonable size for transmission and maintain your
 .newsrc on the fly the same as an interactive session.  A corresponding
program would accept your batched replies, sort out mail and followups and
submit them to the appropriate programs.  This differs from a normal
newsfeed in that you could alternate between logging in directly and
running the automatic program without missing anything. 

Does anything like this exist?

Les Mikesell
  les@chinet.chi.il.us

time@tbomb.ice.com (Tim Endres) (12/05/90)

In article <1990Dec04.192928.5564@chinet.chi.il.us>, les@chinet.chi.il.us (Leslie Mikesell) writes:
> Now that modems that operate faster than reading speed are the norm
> this seems like a real need that should be addressed.  In particular,
> what is needed is something that would gather up your unread news
> into batches of a reasonable size for transmission and maintain your
>  .newsrc on the fly the same as an interactive session.  A corresponding
> program would accept your batched replies, sort out mail and followups and
> submit them to the appropriate programs.  This differs from a normal
> newsfeed in that you could alternate between logging in directly and
> running the automatic program without missing anything. 
> 
> Does anything like this exist?

ICE Engineering sells a product called uAccess which gives you a full
UUCP, mail and news implementation for the Macintosh. This, I assume,
is ideal for the above case (it also provides a terminal emulator),
but of course, the product costs money.

tim.

-------------------------------------------------------------
Tim Endres                |  time@ice.com
ICE Engineering           |  uunet!ice.com!time
8840 Main Street          |
Whitmore Lake MI. 48189   |  (313) 449 8288

stanley@phoenix.com (John Stanley) (12/06/90)

les@chinet.chi.il.us (Leslie Mikesell) writes:
> Now that modems that operate faster than reading speed are the norm
> this seems like a real need that should be addressed.  In particular,
> what is needed is something that would gather up your unread news
> into batches of a reasonable size for transmission and maintain your
>  .newsrc on the fly the same as an interactive session.  A corresponding
> program would accept your batched replies, sort out mail and followups and
> submit them to the appropriate programs.  This differs from a normal
> newsfeed in that you could alternate between logging in directly and
> running the automatic program without missing anything. 

   Sounds like a lot of work to create something that looks like a
regular news feed, works like a news feed, and talks like a news feed.
Why not just set up a news feed? The software for that already exists. If
the system you log into has a feed, they should be able to feed you with
the same software they get fed with. 

   If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and tastes like duck when
you cook it, it must be a duck! As long as there are real ducks, why bother
synthesizing artificial ones?




<> "If winning is not important, then why keep score?" -- Turtle Head
<> "Eaten any good books lately?" -- Q
<> "Sanity check!" "Sorry, we can't accept it, it's from out of state." - me

kherron@ms.uky.edu (Kenneth Herron) (12/06/90)

stanley@phoenix.com (John Stanley) writes:

>les@chinet.chi.il.us (Leslie Mikesell) writes:
>> ...what is needed is something that would gather up your unread news
>> into batches of a reasonable size for transmission and maintain your
>>  .newsrc on the fly the same as an interactive session.  A corresponding
>> program would accept your batched replies, sort out mail and followups and
>> submit them to the appropriate programs.  

>   Sounds like a lot of work to create something that looks like a
>regular news feed, works like a news feed, and talks like a news feed.

[My original reply to this never showed up; maybe I hit R instead of F...]

Brad Templeton's Dynafeed package is perfect for this situation.  It maintains
a newsrc file for each site it feeds and periodically batches up new articles
in groups mentioned in the newsrc.  Depending on the setup, the receiving 
end can directly edit the newsrc file to add or remove groups, or can submit
subscription lists.  These subscription lists may be hand generated or 
the package includes a daemon that reads each user's .newsrc file (plus the
newsrc files of other sites) and generates a subsription list automatically.

The feeding end requires no special permissions to set up, beyond the use
of at or cron to run the batcher regularly.  Batches are normally created
in cunbatch form and uux'ed to the other end to be fed into rnews (which
works fine) but it's all done by shell scripts; you could arrange to zoo
up all the articles and place them in a directory for manual downloading
if you're using a PC and something like procomm.

The package is in beta-test, but it's well thought-out and seems bug- and
maintenance-free.  I've been running a dynafeed link between two sites
here for some time now with literally no problems after the first week.

The package is available for anonymous ftp from uunet.uu.net in the ClariNet
directory.

Disclaimer:  I'm just a satisfied user of Dynafeed

-- 
Kenneth Herron                                            kherron@ms.uky.edu
University of Kentucky                                        (606) 257-2975
Department of Mathematics
                                "Never trust gimmicky gadgets" -- The Doctor

les@chinet.chi.il.us (Leslie Mikesell) (12/08/90)

In article <R71PT1w163w@phoenix.com> stanley@phoenix.com (John Stanley) writes:
>
>les@chinet.chi.il.us (Leslie Mikesell) writes:
>> In particular,
>> what is needed is something that would gather up your unread news
>> into batches of a reasonable size for transmission and maintain your
>>  .newsrc on the fly the same as an interactive session. 

>   Sounds like a lot of work to create something that looks like a
>regular news feed, works like a news feed, and talks like a news feed.
>Why not just set up a news feed? The software for that already exists. If
>the system you log into has a feed, they should be able to feed you with
>the same software they get fed with. 

The difference is that I don't really *want* the news on my machine and
it is often convienent to log in directly to the site that does have
a feed and read interactively.  However, this is not always the case
and at times it may be expensive to dial in for a connection at reading
(or typing speed).  Even if I had my own feed, this would still be the
case.

Doesn't anyone else travel?  Or take their machines apart from time
to time?

>   If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and tastes like duck when
>you cook it, it must be a duck! As long as there are real ducks, why bother
>synthesizing artificial ones?

The duck I want would pretend to be me, telling rn that I want all the
unread articles in certain groups (not necessarily all of the ones that
I read when I'm on-line directly), but instead of reading I want to
use a fast file transfer protocol and some software on my end to help
with the interactive part off-line. 

Les Mikesell
  les@chinet.chi.il.us