
SDF – Public Access Unix System - znpy
https://sdf.org/
======
rocky1138
I received this email from them in January. HN might find it interesting:

SDF Celebrates 30 years of service in 2017!

On June 16th, 1987 Ted Uhlemann (handle: charmin, later iczer) connected his
Apple ][e's 300 baud modem to the phone line his mother had just given him for
his birthday. He had published the number the night before on as many BBSes
around the Dallas Ft. Worth area that he could and he waited for the first
caller. He had a copy of Magic Micro BBS which was written in Applesoft BASIC
and he named the BBS "SDF-1" after his favorite Japanimation series ROBOTECH
(Macross). He hoped to draw users who were interested in anime, industrial
music and the Church of the Subgenius.

Slowly, SDF has grown over all these years, never forgetting our past and
unlike many sites on the internet, we actually have a past. Some people today
may come here and see us as outdated and "retro". But if you get involved,
you'll see it is quite alive with new ideas and a platform for opportunity to
try many new things. The machines are often refreshed, the quotas are gone,
the disk space is expanding as are the features (and user driven features at
that) and our cabinets have plenty of space for expansion here in the USA and
in Europe (Germany).

Think about ways you'd like to celebrate SDF's 30th and join us on the
'bboard' to discuss what we could do.

I realize many of you have likely moved on yourselves, but I just wanted you
to know we're still here and we'll keep doing new and exciting things with a
foundation in the UNIX shell.

Sincerely,

Stephen Jones (SMJ)

[https://sdf.org](https://sdf.org)

------
derefr
SDF and its "long-running public multitenant shell server" kin are all pretty
old, and not one of them has been spared from slowdowns due to
oversubscription.

It's sort of like an MMO: it's only fun when you're on a heavily-populated
"shard", but that also means that you're all putting strain on the same
server.

I'm surprised that there's no more modern implementation of the same
multitenant "shell system" as a scale-free distributed architecture—like
Mesos, z/OS, or any other "multi-tenant scheduler of interactive container-
jobs with access to a common GlusterFS volume" kind of approach. A PaaS you
can hang out in like a BBS.

Come to think, you could put one of these up on AWS, using EC2 autoscaling +
K8s/Docker Swarm + Amazon EFS for storage, quite easily. Has anyone done this
yet?

~~~
archimedespi
There /is/ a modern, well-managed open-registration shell and IRC service,
similar to what you're talking about, called Hashbang. You can join via
[https://hashbang.sh](https://hashbang.sh).

We're reasonably active, and we have almost 1400 registered users [edited: i
was corrected by a hashbang admin as to the amount].

The _ultimate purpose_ of hashbang is to expose more users to a traditional
remote UNIX server and command line, as well as teaching people how to use it.
We've created a slight barrier to entry with the intentionally obtuse signup
flow, as we don't want completely non-technical users flooding the service.

I promise we won't bite :D

~~~
Aloha
To join would require me to run code from the website.. or initiate a call to
their API via curl?

~~~
archimedespi
Yep. You can download/verify that script by hand, or hit the endpoints
yourself. They just run stuff to provision your user and files and add you to
our LDAP directory.

~~~
corford
Can confirm hitting the endpoint with curl works. Thanks for the account! :)
Going to go poke around.

------
j_s
_This page is anonymous_ |
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5638988](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5638988)
(4 years ago)

[http://voidnull.sdf.org/](http://voidnull.sdf.org/)

"there is one place where you can still host your content anonymously. That
place is the Super Dimension Fortress or SDF. SDF lets you register an
anonymous user over ssh (which is accessible via the Tor network) and takes
cash over mail in order to validate the user."

"I challenge you to send me a postcard to my mailing address with the content
that says "I see you voidnull" and a self-addressed postage-paid envelope. I
will then send you a $10 bill back as a prize."

------
vmarsy
For those wondering what exactly is SDF, a summary loading quickly:

[https://web.archive.org/web/20160828065530/http://sdf.org/?f...](https://web.archive.org/web/20160828065530/http://sdf.org/?faq?BASICS?01)

~~~
sigjuice
Interesting. Anyone know what they mean by

 _We are using a 'swamp' class C 192.94.73..._?

Edit: Found
[https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4632](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4632)
(CIDR: The Internet Address Assignment and Aggregation Plan), which says this.
Still not quite sure what they mean.

    
    
       Note that, as defined, this plan neither requires nor assumes the
       re-assignment of those parts of the legacy "Class C" space that are
       not amenable to aggregation (sometimes called "the swamp").

~~~
daurnimator
Good question. Some quick googling turned up:
[https://www.safaribooksonline.com/library/view/bgp/978059600...](https://www.safaribooksonline.com/library/view/bgp/9780596002541/ch04.html)

> Since more than half the global routing table consists of /24 announcements,
> those are the first candidates for being filtered. More aggressive filters
> may even filter out everything smaller than the smallest assigned PA blocks,
> possibly with some exceptions for “the swamp,” the part of the Class C space
> assigned in pre-CIDR days(192.x.x.x and part of 193.x.x.x). The currently
> allocated smallest PA blocks are /20, but much of the Class C space is
> allocated to ISPs in /19 and larger blocks.

------
nyolfen
I remember learning how to use telnet into SDF when I was in middle school,
around 2001, looking for something more interesting to do in computer lab
while everyone else was doing typing assignments, and I _seem_ to remember
playing a MUD on their server as well. I also have a distinct memory of
copying the source code of their site's index when I was learning to edit
HTML, probably within a month of that, because their site was very legible and
easy to tinker with. How time flies!

~~~
nyolfen
Another memory -- I also ordered a Red Martian CD from them! I need to see if
I can dig it up at my mom's house sometime

------
sigjuice
What would be some reasons to use SDF or Hashbang? Running my own system on
Digital Ocean or a similar service seems quite straightforward.

~~~
kijin
I have a lifetime account at SDF, and I've set it up as an emergency email
address of last resort. If I ever let my domains and all other freemail
accounts expire (perhaps I'll get hit by a bus and stay in a coma for 10
years), I'll try to use my SDF account to regain control of my online
presence.

Well, I'll actually have to do a few more things in order to make that
possible, but at least I think SDF will last longer than most other services
of its kind.

------
hackuser
I know you were wondering: SDF stands for Super Dimension Fortress, or at
least that's what they tell a noob.

"a networked community of free software authors, teachers, students,
researchers, hobbyists, enthusiasts and the blind. It is operated as a
federally recognised non-profit 501c7 and is supported by its members."

...

"Our mission is to provide remotely accessible computing facilities for the
advancement of public education, cultural enrichment, scientific research and
recreation. Members can interact electronically with each other regardless of
their location using passive or interactive forums. Further purposes include
the recreational exchange of information concerning the Liberal and Fine
Arts."

...

"Members have access to games, email, usenet, chat, bboard, gopherspace,
webspace, programming utilities, archivers, browsers, and more. The SDF
community is made up of caring, highly skilled people who operate behind the
scenes and in the underground to maintain a non-commercial INTERNET."

~~~
neuromantik8086
SDF is a bizarre part of the internet / well-kept gem of a secret. Bob
Odenkirk hosts his website there, which is something I wouldn't have expected.

------
hsnewman
I've been on SDF for over 18 years, absolutely love it. And the fact that they
run a pdp-10 emulator is so cool! These guys rock and I consider myself lucky
for finding them so many years ago.

------
mrbill
How does SDF keep itself funded? What kind of bandwidth do they have to the
outside world?

I can see hardware not being an issue - with the right contacts you can be
swimming in older x86 and Alpha gear, storage and networking, etc, with enough
spares to last until the apocalypse.

~~~
dmitrygr
to actually execute any commands or do anything you need to get "validated"
which costs $3 by paypal or $1 + postage by us mail

~~~
gergles
If you know a MetaARPA user, they can validate you for free.

------
satbyy
There's a European subsidiary of SDF as well:
[https://sdfeu.org/](https://sdfeu.org/) . So the latency is much better than
accessing US servers.

I've been using this for IRC and it works satisfactorily.

------
rocky1138
Definitely getting hugged by HN right now. When changing my password I get
"passwd: The passwd file is busy, waiting..." until it finally gives up and
times out :)

------
peteyboy
SDF is awesome. It's just nice to have an account on a cluster that is
straight on the internet and lets you play with whatever unix and web things
you want.

------
Jaruzel
SDF also has some fairly active Gopher holes: gopher://sdf.org

(or via the floodgap[1] http<->gopher proxy:
[http://gopher.floodgap.com/gopher/gw?gopher://sdf.org:70/1](http://gopher.floodgap.com/gopher/gw?gopher://sdf.org:70/1)
)

\--

[1] [http://gopher.floodgap.com/gopher/](http://gopher.floodgap.com/gopher/)

------
hackuser
For those interested, Panix in NY offers Unix shell access (and much more).

[http://www.panix.com/](http://www.panix.com/)

~~~
voltagex_
"Access to a Panix Web server where you can keep your Web pages (even your own
CGIs), with 1 GB (1024 MB) of transfers per month included. (Transfers in
excess of this allocation are $1/GB.) We will even install WordPress in your
web space if you wish."

That could result in a nasty surprise.

------
KiDD
I've had an account with SDF for so long... If only I could remember my
password!

~~~
agumonkey
Same. I appreciated the offer when I found about it.

------
j_s
Pub400: free *PGMR user profile on IBM i 7.3 mainframe

[http://pub400.com/](http://pub400.com/)

------
ddingus
Oh, this is beautiful!

Should have signed up some time ago. Had a free few minutes and took the
plunge.

I got online in early 91, dialup PPP on some cobbled together PC. Prior to
that time, I was online with Apple //e using various BBS gateways.

This brings back some great memories. I'll lifetime this and get to know a few
people ASAP.

------
gwu78
The first of their three nameservers is non-responsive for at least some
users. There is no round-robin.

ns-a.sdf.org 205.166.94.20

This will obviously slow down lookups for those users. If this is intentional,
I would be curious why they are doing this.

~~~
keeperofdakeys
There is the concept of a "hidden master", where the public nameservers are
slaves to the real authoritative server, which is kept hidden. Some people put
their hidden masters in their public NS records, which I've always found odd.

------
norea-armozel
I remember sending in the mail the money and verification info for my SDF
account. God I wish I remembered my account's password, it might still be
there.

------
znpy
It seems that the SDF website is suffering from the HN hug of death and the
webservers aren't liking it that much.

------
balladeer
When I got on SDF years ago I was very enthusiastic. It's old and it has a
legacy and a story with it which, to be honest, I never could connect to and I
don't blame SDF, people, or myself for that. It just didn't click. I got my
account validated using paypal, back in 06 from India, where I used my
cousin's card to pay $5. Then I got the ARPA account spending $36 one time fee
which was a decent sum considering my country's currency and my pocket money
at the time. I tried to hang out on IRC, COM and even tried the boards but I
just didn't quite get the appeal of it. It was not like I didn't fit in. More
like I didn't try to fit in or belong because I couldn't connect to the
culture or the environments. As in it was bad? No, not at all. Whoever I
communciacated to, and got a response or so, it was always supportive and
positive. It was just, how do I put it, too USA oriented. The chatter, the
matter and it was fine because that was where it was from and it's cool. I am
just talking about my experience. I realise, kinda realised then too, SDF's
appeal might have gone by the time I went there. People gush over it
(sometimes) or talk about it is the nostalgia, maybe. What it was - not even
what it could be, let alone what it is. Or maybe I still don't get the very
idea of SDF.

After I got a job, one day I thought of going for MetaARPA. It was again some
kind of curiosity and and a sense of giving back - because in all honesty it
was SDF where I had first accessed a remote shell and sent a file via FTP to a
remote server. I checked around on the net and SDF how is this, what do I get
with it and I sent a short mail to support asking few questions. I never got a
reply. Tried asking on IRC and COM too didn't really receive much in info.
Docs are really insufficient. Maybe I was not patient enough - having been
accustomed to StackOverflow and tutorials.

Fare enough, it was nothihng that anyone owe me. Then at the same time email
started to act strange and many other problems. Yes, I was using <my-user-
name>@sdf.org really at many important places (except my bank and all). It
would sometimes bounce back and then would act funny. The delay in fetching
email of course. Didn't receive any communication regarding any of these. I
read a blog post by someome who gave up and has started to change his email
everywhere because of SDF's unreliability. He mentioned he had used the
sdf.org email for close to 20 years. Recently the link where one could access
roundcube webmail (and no, IMAP never never really worked - for me; I guess it
might be because of my membership level but then I did want to upgrade)
stopped working and there was no communication regarding it, no response. And
on IRC I figured I am not the only one wondering about it. It was not the
first time mail/webmail had a problem. The link still doesn't work
([https://wm.sdf.org/rc](https://wm.sdf.org/rc)) and there still hasn't been
any communication or response regarding that (at least I didn't get one - not
I am owed one). Amyway that's how it was. I also think it's pretty much one
person setup (not sure) - maybe not full time and how such roles at non-
profits can be a thankless job especially when people start expecting services
as they expect from commercial entities. Anyway, I never proceeded much
further than that. I kinda realised me and SDF are not a match, or a fit so to
speak.

I am really not complaining (really really not; it may sound like one) I am
just sharing my experience. I think my connection with SDF is just all about
curiosity and maybe I never really had the real SDF experience. Either I
didn't try enough or maybe the relevance was lost to time by the time I got on
SDF (around 2006-07). Or maybe I tried to treat SDF as a service provider (a
commodity?) and it is/was supposed to be more of an experience, an anecdotal
memory collected over time.

------
rocky1138
sdf.org also runs a Minecraft server, if anyone here plays.

