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There are a hundred variants of it used in various software for the C64, the Amiga, the anything.

And so many variant typefaces of the same graphical language were seen in a million products during the home computer boom of the late 70s and early 80s. Iconic.

It's a copy of the Westminster font from the 60s which was an adaption of the visual style of MICR digits and symbols to a full symbology (without being machine readable). It was a meme for computerbilia of the era that now seems quaint.

> computerbilia

Google finds 2 uses of this word - yours, and a ~1985 newsletter. However, its AI was able to guess it’s a combination of computer and memorabilia.


It's not, and you have.

Rats! Some day I'll remember this. (I am a fan both of JCS and of the author of this page).

This just in: AI Superstar tweets about new stint. Crowd goes wild. News at eleven.

I'm happy with it. Been running OpenSMTPd for many years at this point, on both OpenBSD and Linux, and I have no complaints.

I've also started using OpenSMTPD on linux machines when I need a simple MTA (which is to say, in almost all cases).

Good retro feel. I don't mean to shift the spotlight away from the topic, but a great lightweight alternative is Tiny Player: https://www.catnapgames.com/tiny-player-for-mac/

In reality, most banks perform a lot of these transaction checks in real time to block fraudulent txes up-front, instead of validating tx legitimacy retroactively at a point where the money is already gone. Some 15 years ago a security rep with Nordea (a large Nordic bank) called me late at night asking if I was currently in South Korea and had just a minute ago used my card in a shop. Someone had initiated a "card present" purchase with my card for 1337 SEK (I'm certain this amount was intentional), which Nordea automatically blocked as it was near the edge of possibility relative to my previous card swipe in Sweden earlier in the day, and they wanted to make sure they weren't about to mistakenly strand me abroad by blocking the card.

I work for a small telecom services provider whose current VP immediately set an AI course when stepping on board 6 months ago. Involving AI in everything and every task is now our first priority - across all employee segments, not just us system developers - and leadership is embarking on a program to measure employees' AI usage levels as a means to gauge everyone's individual efficiency. It's like the era of the evangelic crypto bros all over again.

> Why should I switch over to something way less proven?

Must they prove their software to you? They're offering an alternative, not bargaining for a deal.


When you offer up an alternative as technically superior in some manner then yes, it is on you to demonstrate such a claim in a convincing manner. "No bugs in 3 years in this software with a much smaller audience and also look AI audits!" comes across as off topic shameless self promotion. At least if an insightful technical discussion ensued the subthread might prove worthwhile but so far it's just the usual tired shit flinging.

I have far more evidence of a very good security record with MaraDNS than “No bugs in 3 years in this software with a much smaller audience and also look AI audits!”

• The software has been around for 25 years

• The software is popular enough to have been subjected to dozens of security code audits, including two audits in the post-AI era

• In those 25 years, only two remote “packet of death” bugs have been found

• Also, in those same 25 years, only one single bug report of remotely exploitable memory leaks has been found

This isn’t something which, as implied here, has a lot of security bugs only because no one has used or audited the software. This is a long term, mature code base which has only had a few serious security bugs in that timeframe.

Here is my evidence:

https://samboy.github.io/MaraDNS/webpage/security.html

If this evidence isn’t “convincing” to you, I don’t know what evidence would be “convincing”.


For what it's worth I didn't know about maradns prior to this. Maybe it actually sees fairly wide use? Whether or not I accept your evidence would hinge on that. Regardless I think my point stands - if you don't lead with a convincing line of reasoning all that's left is an empty assertion. Unless I happen to recognize you as an authority in the field that's not going to do anything for me since by default you're some stranger on the internet that might be a dog for all I know.

To illustrate the issue with an extreme example, consider that a disused repository on github full of security holes is highly unlikely to have any CVEs regardless of age. The software has to present a worthwhile target (ie have a substantial long term userbase) before anyone will bother to look for exploits. (I guess that might change in the near future thanks to AI but I don't think we're there just yet.)


“The software has to present a worthwhile target (ie have a substantial long term userbase) before anyone will bother to look for exploits”

MaraDNS is a worthwhile target; two people have been auditing it this year, in fact:

https://github.com/samboy/MaraDNS/pull/137

https://github.com/samboy/MaraDNS/security/advisories/GHSA-c...


I'm sure someone reading this thread has UAE handy in order to contribute a screenshot of AmigaOS/Workbench 1.x.

Regarding Amiga screenshots, they've taken care to get the DigiPaint aspect ratios right, but the Workbench 2.04 screenshot is in a resolution that comes from an add-in graphics card rather than the Amiga's custom chips. It's a resolution Workbench wasn't graphically designed for, so it looked wrong in such a resolution at the time. If you double the screenshot's height, then everything (text, icons, window gadgets etc) looks right.

It would be more representative of the OS, and the era, to have a height-doubled "HiRes" screenshot, 640x200 or 640x256.


The aspect ratio is correct on all screenshots and are accurate de-interlaced representations of a 640x400/512 workbench setup, even though these particular screenshots are in RTG dimensions. Starting with ECS, the Amiga was also capable of true non-interlaced 640x400 output (and even 480 vertical lines unless I misremember) in what was commonly called "productivity mode", limited to 4 colors (2 bitplanes).

Interlaced workbench setups weren't uncommon. I ran such on and off for years for certain productivity stuff where I wanted more screen real estate, until I decided to spend money on a flicker-fixer.


> The aspect ratio is correct

Yes it is, was my post unclear? Following your suggestion that someone might contribute a screenshot of 1.x, which I agree would be a nice addition, I'm suggesting a "HiRes" screenshot of 2.x or 3.x would be a better representation of how it looked in-period to the vast majority of users. The point is just that the icons, text, and general UI chrome were designed for that lower vertical resolution.

I ran the interlaced modes later after buying a flicker-fixer, but didn't know of anyone who used them without one - the flicker meant those interlaced modes weren't generally considered to be very usable.


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