I have been jumping between a few different things lately. On one side I am trying to finish the remaining work on SkyLordsLab BBS. There is not much left to fix now. On the other side I am working on getting my Nostr signer SkySigner to run from a USB drive with its own bootable operating system. Whenever I get stuck or feel overwhelmed with these projects I usually take a break and play some games. Recently I was invited to test a game and I happily accepted. It had a nostalgic feel that reminded me of the games I used to play years ago. The timing was perfect too. I was already spending so much time working on a retro BBS and suddenly I had another nostalgic experience waiting for me . Today I finally reached the end of the game I was testing. But the ending completely caught me off guard. I really did not expect that Game Over. And there was another nice surprise. I was invited to the second round of testing. I am genuinely happy to have another chance to play it and see how it develops. I will keep the name and details of the game to myself for now. I just wanted to share a little bit of what I have been doing lately. Sometimes taking a break from one project leads you straight into another interesting experience. Have you ever played a game that surprised you with its ending? #nostr #asknostr #game #gaming #gametesting #indiegame #retrogaming #nostalgia #bbs #linux #programming #buildinpublic

I have another question about SkySigner. For those who have not heard of it before. SkySigner is a Nostr signer I have been developing. The idea is to let Nostr clients and websites request signatures without giving them direct access to the private key. I have been experimenting with NIP-07 and NIP-46 and testing compatibility with different clients. Now I have another idea. What if I moved SkySigner onto a USB drive and turned it into a portable Nostr signing device? I am wondering if it would be possible to plug the USB drive into a computer and use SkySigner to approve signing requests while keeping the private key isolated from the applications requesting signatures. Of course a regular USB drive is not the same as a hardware wallet. I am aware that security would be one of the biggest challenges. But could something like this work? Would a bootable USB environment be a better approach than simply running the application from a USB drive? Has anyone here experimented with something similar for Nostr? I am curious about both the technical possibilities and the security limitations. #asknostr #nostr #skysigner #nip07 #nip46 #bitcoin #cryptography #opensource #programming #linux #buildinpublic

I think my old antiX netbook is going to be busy for a while. I have quite a few things planned for SkyLordsLab BBS. Right now I am researching how to integrate Finger and .plan into the existing user profile system. I also want to keep improving the ASCII and ANSI games and make Dungeon 8 more interesting with a world that remembers what players have done. The internal mail system is working but receiving and sending emails through external services is still something I need to figure out. I am also interested in exploring FidoNet and Echomail to understand how different BBS systems used to communicate with each other. And of course there is still the question of how to make the BBS publicly accessible without putting my home network at risk. Several people have already suggested different solutions and I appreciate all the help. But there is something I want to clarify. SkyLordsLab BBS is a terminal based system. Some of the suggested solutions focus on making it accessible through a web browser. My concern is that if I go too far in that direction then what makes it different from an ordinary website? I want to preserve the traditional terminal experience while finding a secure way for people to connect over the internet. That is why I am still looking for other safe methods rather than rushing to make it public. I started this as a small personal project and somehow the list of things I want to build keeps getting longer :D If you were building a BBS today what feature would you focus on first? And how would you make a traditional terminal BBS safely accessible over the internet? #asknostr #bbs #doorgames #ascii #ansi #retrocomputing #linux #antix #programming #opensource #selfhosting #buildinpublic

Another small update from SkyLordsLab BBS. The Netmail idea turned out to be simpler than I initially thought. I already had a working private messaging system inside the BBS. So I added a personal mail address for every user and made it possible to send messages using either a nickname or the full mail address. For example: skylords@bbs.skylordslab.com Everything is still working internally. External email integration is something I may work on later. Now I am thinking about adding Finger and .plan files to SkyLordsLab BBS too. Looking at the existing user profiles and messaging features I think it might not be too difficult to implement something similar. I have started researching how these old systems worked. I am still learning and experimenting. Every old technology I discover seems to give me another idea for the BBS. And thanks to @Tim Apple for sharing information about Finger and .plan files. Your suggestion gave me something new to explore. #nostr #bbs #netmail #finger #plan #retrocomputing #linux #antix #programming #opensource #buildinpublic

Another small update from SkyLordsLab BBS. A few days ago I received some interesting suggestions about FidoNet and Netmail. The idea of sending private messages between users on different BBS systems caught my attention. SkyLordsLab BBS already had its own private mail and messaging system. But those suggestions made me think about taking it a little further. So I started working on a Netmail-inspired system. Now every user automatically gets their own address based on their nickname. For example: skylords@bbs.skylordslab.com Inside the BBS you can send messages using either the recipient's nickname or their full BBS mail address. I tested this between two different user accounts and it works. I also started preparing the system to receive emails from outside services like Gmail and Outlook. External senders will need to use the full nickname@bbs.skylordslab.com address. But there is one important detail. **Receiving external emails is not working yet.** I have not integrated that part of the system. For now the addresses and private messaging work internally within SkyLordsLab BBS. Once I figure out the external mail integration I hope to make it possible for someone to send an email from Gmail or Outlook directly to a BBS user. It is funny how a simple suggestion about an old technology can lead to another feature in a project. Thanks to the person who suggested Netmail and FidoNet. You helped me take SkyLordsLab BBS in another interesting direction. Has anyone here tried connecting a BBS messaging system to regular email services? #nostr #bbs #netmail #fidonet #retrocomputing #linux #antix #programming #opensource #selfhosting #buildinpublic