Blog of Talmage 2004/2

Looking for a family bbs

I'm looking for a bulletin board or community message board system that my extended family can use. If you know of one that meet my requirements, I'd appreciate it if you'd post a comment here to tell me about it.

My requirements are:

• as simple to use as Yahoo! Groups
• supports message threading
• supports pictures in postings
• runs under thttpd or provides its own web server (Apache is too complicated for me)
• users have to register with name, e-mail address
• anonymous cowards prohibited from posting
• no moderation required
• doesn't require MySQL (optional)
• requires little or no tweeking to make it ready for use

The thttpd requirement excludes PHP solutions. It probably limits me to cgi-bin.

I'm playing with two Zope products, CMF and Squishdot. They're both pretty nice but the don't meet my requirements. If there is an easy way to make them do it, I'd like to know about it.

CMF is too complicated to use. Posting a message requires too many choices from the user. You don't post directly to the board. Instead, you publish something on your own, private space within CMS and it magically finds its way into a thread.

Squishdot doesn't have user registration. Anyone can post. It will take a little bit of work to make it look right. By default, a Squishdot site looks like the main Squishdot site, with the Squishdot logo and everything.

FCC supports local radio!

As seen on Slashdot and as reported by Yahoo! News

Low power FM radio (LPFM) is a great idea. It's another opportunity to build community and to express minority points of view. It's no wonder that media giant Clear Channel objects to it: they support the monoculture. That way lies cultural death. In spite of what the media conglomerates claim, an LPFM signal doesn't necessarily to interfere with commercial stations.

You can find LPFM stations near you at the FCC web site.

Robert F. Newton

My friend Bob Newton died 10 years ago today. He was a smart man, valedictorian or salutatorian of the class of 1980 at Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk High School, 1984 graduate of the U. S. Naval Academy, and a professional Boy Scout. Bob was a musican, too. He played the clarinet.

I met Bob when we were in high school. We must have met while on the staff of Stratton Mountain Scout Reservation, a summer camp of the Governor Clinton Council, which served the Scouts of Albany, Schenectady, and Troy, NY. Later, along with our friend Phil Giltner, we led the Albany county area district of Nimat Lodge 181 of the Order of the Arrow. Our friend Peter Wayner was part of our cabal, too, I seem to recall. We were all camp staff in those days.

One of the things I remember about Bob from our camp staff days is that every Sunday he would buy The New York Times. He would spend the rest of the week reading every article. He was probably the best informed member of the camp staff.

There is a memorial fund for Bob. It's the Uline-Newton Memorial Fund and it's administered by Twin Rivers Council. The "Uline" in the name is Jeff Uline, another deceased Scout.

Related linkage:

• The Governor Clinton Council is now Twin Rivers Council.
• Nischa Nimat Lodge #181 is now Haudenosaunee Lodge #19.
• Nischa Nimat Lodge schwag
• Official history of Haudenosaunee Lodge
• History of Haudenosaunee Lodge
• Stratton Mountain Scout Reservation is no more. What is left surrounds Grout Pond in the Green Mountain National Forest.