SDF Public Access Unix System

(sdf.org)

56 points | by neehao 1 day ago

15 comments

  • tomhow 1 hour ago
    Previously...

    SDF Public Access Unix System - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32340635 - Aug 2022 (29 comments)

    SDF Public Access Unix System - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31076886 - April 2022 (46 comments)

    SDF Public Access Unix System - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14940790 - Aug 2017 (29 comments)

    SDF – Public Access Unix System - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14134798 - April 2017 (51 comments)

  • kristopolous 1 hour ago
    Finally got to log into a vms system! I was looking to do that over 20 years ago but never could find one.

    Somehow I still remembered most of the shell syntax in a book I read about it probably in 2001. Don't ask me ... I don't know how either.

    Got bored in about 10 minutes but still, another box checked off!

  • dharmatech 17 minutes ago
    Their section on Plan 9:

    https://sdf.org/plan9/

    Side note: here's my workflow for running Plan 9 on Windows:

    https://youtu.be/IzEa2L_Pgw0?si=unM5l2-_i_g-NYKP

  • asimovDev 1 hour ago
    Named after the Super Dimension Fortress from the Macross anime series. If you like mecha i recommend checking out the original series (it might look dated in some regards but still worth a watch. And the Do You Remember Love is a must watch after you finished the series, a grandiose animated spectacle, one of the most impressive animated films I've seen)

    If you are not feeling like watching a long series, I recommend checking out Macross Plus, from the author of Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo

    The series is known as Robotech in the USA. The original series is not available legally in the USA to my knowledge but should be available on Japanese blu rays with english subtitles or on your favorite Linux ISO sharing website. The rest of the entries are on Disney+ or the aforementioned websites.

  • exitnode 14 minutes ago
    I wrote a bit on the SDF if you are interested: https://rz01.org/sdf/
  • seblon 1 hour ago
    I found a way to escape their shell (so you can run whatever you want), if you're not verified, it involves multiple steps to archive this. I mailed them 2x to their membership address, but since today no reaction. I asked also in their IRC.

    Just a question to HN: should I wait more, try again? Or should I simply publish the vulnerabilities somewhere? If yes, where? It's my first time that I found a vulnerability at my own, not sure how to deal with that.

    • bayindirh 1 hour ago
      You shall wait. It's a volunteer powered system and while the ops are silent and terse in their mails, they're nice people.

      Their plate is already quite full and they operate a whole universe of services, so cut them some slack.

      It's not an ordinary service which is exposed to internet trying to turn a profit. They run SDF, two Mastodon instances, a mail server, a Git server, trying to salvage/keep alive living computer museum (SDF Vintage Systems), etc. etc.

    • zorked 1 hour ago
      Don't publish. You already notified them, your shell escape isn't a big deal, publishing it will only be a pain for the volunteers running the service.
    • aboardRat4 1 hour ago
      I think you should create some visible but harmless nuisance using this shell escape, so that it's likely to get noticed, but doesn't damage anyone's valuable data.

      Perhaps just run "bash -c 'stress --cpu 64 ; echo fix your shell escape'"l " or something like that.

      • bayindirh 7 minutes ago
        Well, ruining everyone's day on that particular host is not a nice way to "bring this to attention".

        If I ever experienced something like that, I'd be banning the person (or limiting their resources drastically) for 60 to 90 days to bring the impact of this matter to their attention.

        Anything affecting users on a system is not harmless.

    • nabogh 1 hour ago
      Definitely wait at least a few months if you've not already. There are legal risks with these kinds of things and some orgs move slowly.
    • anthk 52 minutes ago
      I did it too but TBH as I used small tools such as tcc, jimsh, eforth+muxleq, sacc, smu, catpoint+pointtools, compilers from https://t3x.org... I didn't care a lot on the rest, I'm pretty happy with my current account.

      You can do a lot with S9 Scheme and the Unix API/syscalls it supports.

  • CursedSilicon 1 hour ago
    I've been fortunate enough to know Stephen Jones of SDF through his running of the local Seattle retro computing event (now rebranded as VCF PNW)

    He's an absolutely kind soul who is deeply interested in all kinds of retro projects. I wish there were more folks like him in tech generally

  • pestle 22 minutes ago
    I had an account there years ago but never really saw the point. I was already SSHing in from a shell, just to end up at another, different one. Kind of whimsical I guess, but ultimately of scant practical use.
  • mackeye 18 hours ago
    just got my stickers from there yesterday! :-) i wish my less cs-oriented friends could see how cool i think the sdf is, lol; and, that some kind of "small-web" system, complete with the self-expression the sdf offers via web-hosting, a radio station(!), etc., was accessible to more people (not at the fault of anyone; just that there's a lot to the internet that most people will never see). :>
  • jbaber 1 day ago
    Still going strong. I started there when they were still on DEC alphas.

    "this page was generated using ksh, sed and awk"

  • hsnewman 1 hour ago
    I've been on it forever, it's such a great resource
  • jaypatelani 1 hour ago
    Yesterday was NetBSD's 33rd Birthday. Nice time to share it :)
  • jbaber 1 day ago
    A great webhost, too. You can log in and edit html/index.html directly or scp stuff up.
  • user3939382 1 day ago
    I love SDF. Super reliable and awesome community.
  • adaptit 34 minutes ago
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