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A new finger service

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  A new finger service Daniel <me@sc1f1dan.com> - 2026-05-17 03:30 -0700
    Re: A new finger service oldernow <oldernow@dev.null> - 2026-05-17 11:06 +0000
    Re: A new finger service Ben Collver <bencollver@tilde.pink> - 2026-05-17 13:10 +0000
      Re: A new finger service f6k <f6k@huld.re> - 2026-06-11 21:18 +0200
        Re: A new finger service Daniel <me@sc1f1dan.com> - 2026-06-14 12:49 -0700
          Re: A new finger service f6k <f6k@huld.re> - 2026-06-15 09:25 +0200
            Re: A new finger service Daniel <me@sc1f1dan.com> - 2026-06-15 22:30 -0700
    Re: A new finger service jayjwa <jayjwa@atr2.ath.cx.invalid> - 2026-05-17 11:39 -0400
    Re: A new finger service Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-05-17 22:30 +0000
      Re: A new finger service SpallsHurgenson(NG) <user14325@newsgrouper.org.invalid> - 2026-05-17 23:13 +0000
        Re: A new finger service Nuno Silva <nunojsilva@invalid.invalid> - 2026-05-18 23:07 +0100
          Re: A new finger service scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) - 2026-05-18 22:28 +0000
            Re: A new finger service Daniel <me@sc1f1dan.com> - 2026-05-19 16:14 -0700
              OT: Baseball, was Re: A new finger service Peter Flass <Peter@Iron-Spring.com> - 2026-05-19 19:57 -0700
                Re: OT: Baseball, was Re: A new finger service oldernow <oldernow@dev.null> - 2026-05-20 03:19 +0000

#234774 — A new finger service

Hey folks -

Sort of a shameless plug. I've created a finger service that serves as a
companion to my BBS. I've been whoring out a friend's finger service to
advertise my board and have been epically lazy about doing my own.
While I'll keep that old finger around, this one is far more than a
business card.

The idea came from using the weather finger. It's something I've used
constantly for at least the last dozen years or so. When I first
learned about it, it never occurred to me that finger could be used in
such a way. So I did some digging. Old, underused protocols doing cool
shit is hella rad.

Right now the feature set is limited, but there's more coming soon. Some
of the features are adapted from doors I wrote for my BBS (hence the
"companion" part).

Others are being spun out of a door currently in development that will
serve as a baseball portal. For the non-US crowd: baseball is
our national pastime, whether the rest of the planet finds that
remotely interesting or not.

Current offerings:

dictionary   - definitions via API
movie query  - movie info via API
baseball     - schedules, scores, and league standings via API

The baseball portal will be expanded to include a lot more information.
The sub-fingers will be updated with the respective triggers as new
features come online. Once I'm satisfied with that, I'll move on to
other ideas in the toolbelt. I want this finger to be dope as hell.

Anyway, if you're a smolnet nerd and curious, 411 below.

--
Daniel
sysop  | air & wave bbs
finger | info@bbs.airandwave.net

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#234775

On 2026-05-17, Daniel <me@sc1f1dan.com> wrote:
> Hey folks -
>
> Sort of a shameless plug. I've created a
> finger service that serves as a companion to my
> BBS. I've been whoring out a friend's finger
> service to advertise my board and have been
> epically lazy about doing my own.  While I'll
> keep that old finger around, this one is far
> more than a business card.
> 
> The idea came from using the weather
> finger. It's something I've used constantly
> for at least the last dozen years or so. When
> I first learned about it, it never occurred to
> me that finger could be used in such a way. So
> I did some digging. Old, underused protocols
> doing cool shit is hella rad.
> 
> Right now the feature set is limited, but
> there's more coming soon. Some of the features
> are adapted from doors I wrote for my BBS
> (hence the "companion" part).
> 
> Others are being spun out of a door currently
> in development that will serve as a baseball
> portal. For the non-US crowd: baseball is our
> national pastime, whether the rest of the planet
> finds that remotely interesting or not.
> 
> Current offerings:
> 
> dictionary - definitions via API movie query -
> movie info via API baseball - schedules, scores,
> and league standings via API
> 
> The baseball portal will be expanded to include
> a lot more information.  The sub-fingers will
> be updated with the respective triggers as
> new features come online. Once I'm satisfied
> with that, I'll move on to other ideas in the
> toolbelt. I want this finger to be dope as hell.
> 
> Anyway, if you're a smolnet nerd and curious,
> 411 below.
>
> --
> Daniel
> sysop  | air & wave bbs
> finger | info@bbs.airandwave.net

No thanks. I've experienced your "finger service"
before....

-- 
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| alt.troll.adam-h-kerman: proof that the |
| internet sometimes gets something right |
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#234776

On 2026-05-17, Daniel <me@sc1f1dan.com> wrote:
> movie query  - movie info via API

I like this feature, thanks!

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#234986

Hello,

On 2026-05-17, Ben Collver <bencollver@tilde.pink> wrote:
> On 2026-05-17, Daniel <me@sc1f1dan.com> wrote:
>> movie query  - movie info via API
>
> I like this feature, thanks!

I like it too. But actually I have a question. Is it possible
to query info for two movies that has the same title? For ins-
tance I tried to query info about The Girl Who Leapt Through
Time, the 1983 Japanese movie, but it gave me information about
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, the 2006 Japanese anime version
of this story.

To formulate it differently, if I

$ finger the_girl_who_leapt_through_time@bbs.airandwave.net

I have all information about the 2006 anime version. How can I
get information about the live action movie of 1983?

Thank you very much Daniel for this very appreciated service :)

-f6k

-- 
~{,_,">  finger f6k@huld.re  <",_,}~

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#235015

f6k <f6k@huld.re> writes:

> Hello,
>
> On 2026-05-17, Ben Collver <bencollver@tilde.pink> wrote:
>> On 2026-05-17, Daniel <me@sc1f1dan.com> wrote:
>>> movie query  - movie info via API
>>
>> I like this feature, thanks!
>
> I like it too. But actually I have a question. Is it possible
> to query info for two movies that has the same title? For ins-
> tance I tried to query info about The Girl Who Leapt Through
> Time, the 1983 Japanese movie, but it gave me information about
> The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, the 2006 Japanese anime version
> of this story.
>
> To formulate it differently, if I
>
> $ finger the_girl_who_leapt_through_time@bbs.airandwave.net
>
> I have all information about the 2006 anime version. How can I
> get information about the live action movie of 1983?
>
> Thank you very much Daniel for this very appreciated service :)

Thank you for the suggestion. I spent some time modernizing the original
program since it was one of my first tests for this finger service and
it wasn't employing many features of my other fingers.

It's been a nice weekend, and thanks again for the suggestion. I can't
thank my nephew enough for helping raise my skills to a higher level
with this monster project. 

I am thrilled you are enjoying it. Do try using my wikipedia finger if
you also need more information.

I just added a podcast feature after two days of coding. You can search for
podcasts, lists the episodes, and output the episode data. Each
feed comes with the url to stream/download the content with your media
player. Until yesterday, I had no other way to consume podcasts other
than with a podcast app my tablet.

I added search results, with a guide on how to call the exact
movie. I just tested it with 'the_girl_who' and got this result. Should
work better from now on. 

~ $ finger film:the_girl_who@bbs.airandwave.net 

Film Search: the girl who
--
 1) The Girl Who Played with Fire (2009) [movie] tt1216487
 2) The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (2009) [movie] tt1343097
 3) The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (2006) [movie] tt0808506
 4) The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane (1976) [movie] tt0074806
 5) The Girl Who Got Away (2021) [movie] tt11859012
 6) The Girl Who Escaped: The Kara Robinson Story (2023) [movie] tt25602750
 7) The Girl Who Killed Her Parents (2021) [movie] tt10605812
 8) The Girl Who Believes in Miracles (2021) [movie] tt9098454
 9) The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (1983) [movie] tt0086456
10) The Little Girl Who Sold the Sun (1999) [movie] tt0196848

Choose one:
  finger film:the_girl_who:1@bbs.airandwave.net

Direct IMDb ID lookup also works:
  finger film:tt0092099@bbs.airandwave.net

~ $ finger film:the_girl_who:3@bbs.airandwave.net

Movie Lookup: The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
--
Year:      2006
Rated:     TV-PG
Released:  15 Jul 2006
Runtime:   98 min
Genre:     Animation, Adventure, Comedy
Director:  Mamoru Hosoda
Actors:    Riisa Naka, Takuya Ishida, Mitsutaka Itakura
Awards:    12 wins & 2 nominations total
IMDb ID:   tt0808506
IMDb:      7.6 / 10
Votes:     75,341
Metascore: 66
BoxOffice: $188,265

Plot:
A high-school girl named Makoto acquires the power to travel back in
time, and decides to use it for her own personal benefits. Little does
she know that she is affecting the lives of others just as much as she
is her own.

--
Daniel
sysop  | air & wave bbs
finger | info@bbs.airandwave.net

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#235047

Hello,

On 2026-06-14, Daniel <me@sc1f1dan.com> wrote:
> I am thrilled you are enjoying it. Do try using my wikipedia finger
> if you also need more information.
>
> I just added a podcast feature after two days of coding. You can
> search for podcasts, lists the episodes, and output the episode
> data. Each feed comes with the url to stream/download the content
> with your media player. Until yesterday, I had no other way to
> consume podcasts other than with a podcast app my tablet.

Great! I've read about your wikipedia service on finger (I can't
remember where, maybe on your personnal finger?) but didn't had the
chance to try it yet.

> I added search results, with a guide on how to call the exact movie.
> I just tested it with 'the_girl_who' and got this result. Should
> work better from now on.

That is super great! Thank you very much for the hard work :)

I live with a very limited data plan 4G uplink to the internet, so
browsing the surface web is not really an option for me. Finding
services and ressources like the ones your propose to retrieve usefull
informations is a gem for me. Needless to say that the fact all is
served via finger is clearly a plus for me.

So thank you very much, it is very appreciated.

-f6k

-- 
~{,_,">  finger f6k@huld.re  <",_,}~

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#235048

f6k <f6k@huld.re> writes:

> Hello,
>
> On 2026-06-14, Daniel <me@sc1f1dan.com> wrote:
>> I am thrilled you are enjoying it. Do try using my wikipedia finger
>> if you also need more information.
>>
>> I just added a podcast feature after two days of coding. You can
>> search for podcasts, lists the episodes, and output the episode
>> data. Each feed comes with the url to stream/download the content
>> with your media player. Until yesterday, I had no other way to
>> consume podcasts other than with a podcast app my tablet.
>
> Great! I've read about your wikipedia service on finger (I can't
> remember where, maybe on your personnal finger?) but didn't had the
> chance to try it yet.

Give it a try. It is listed on the root finger under 'reference'

>> I added search results, with a guide on how to call the exact movie.
>> I just tested it with 'the_girl_who' and got this result. Should
>> work better from now on.
>
> That is super great! Thank you very much for the hard work :)
>
> I live with a very limited data plan 4G uplink to the internet, so
> browsing the surface web is not really an option for me. Finding
> services and ressources like the ones your propose to retrieve usefull
> informations is a gem for me. Needless to say that the fact all is
> served via finger is clearly a plus for me.

This is the main purpose of doing it. I was inspired by the weather
finger over at graph.no. I've been using it for years to get quick
weather forecast and thought I should be able to do the same thing. I
even have weather on mine. So I don't use graph.no anymore.

In the bbs world, I am among many sysops focused on providing instant
online information on our systems for our users. With a broad use of
API's across the internet, it's not hard to avoid the bullshit of the
open web and get the meat of the information. Once you get over the need
for images, adverts, and autoplaying videos you realize that the meat of
the net, information, is still there. No browser required.

As I get older, the less dependent I've been on newer technology and
have worked toward digital minimalism wherever I can. My wife is onboard
with the whole concept and she's far ahead of me. She even reads the
newspaper. I abandoned my cellphone eight years ago in favor of my
landline. Got a small data tablet onhand for text messages. It often
collects dust since most my friends would rather hang around and smoke
cigars with me on my patio. I am also looking into LORA but waiting for
the technology and software to stabilize. 

You fill the exact use case of the service. At some point my bbs will be
aligned with the finger. That's why I called it the bbs companion. The
bbs versions will be more colorful and dynamic.

I dream of a day when I can return to dialup.

> So thank you very much, it is very appreciated.

You are welcome.

--
Daniel
sysop  | air & wave bbs
finger | info@bbs.airandwave.net

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#234777

Daniel <me@sc1f1dan.com> writes:

> Sort of a shameless plug. I've created a finger service that serves as a
> companion to my BBS.
It's good to keep finger alive. I added you to my H3TEXT > . Looks good
from ITS, supdup from Linux via CHAOS. It's a lovely day to be a turist.

*:finger mlb_schedule@bbs.airandwave.net

[BBS.AIRANDWAVE.NET]

MLB Schedule / Scores for 2026-05-17
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Miami Marlins           @ Tampa Bay Rays      
Start: 9:15 AM
Status: Pre-Game
------------------------------------------------------------
Baltimore Orioles       @ Washington Nationals
Start: 10:35 AM
Status: Pre-Game
------------------------------------------------------------
Philadelphia Phillie    @ Pittsburgh Pirates  
Start: 10:35 AM
Status: Pre-Game
...
------------------------------------------------------------
San Diego Padres        @ Seattle Mariners    
Start: 4:20 PM
Status: Scheduled
------------------------------------------------------------

 EMACS◊J
*

-- 
PGP Key ID: 781C A3E2 C6ED 70A6 B356  7AF5 B510 542E D460 5CAE
       "The Internet should always be the Wild West!"

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#234778

On Sun, 17 May 2026 03:30:29 -0700, Daniel wrote:

> Old, underused protocols doing cool shit is hella rad.

No cap.

> For the non-US crowd: baseball is our national pastime, whether the
> rest of the planet finds that remotely interesting or not.

Pity you couldn’t get the rest of the world involved in some kind of
competitive series ...

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#234779

Lawrence =?iso-8859-13?q?D=FFOliveiro?= <ldo@nz.invalid> posted:

> On Sun, 17 May 2026 03:30:29 -0700, Daniel wrote:
> 
> > Old, underused protocols doing cool shit is hella rad.
> 
> No cap.
> 
> > For the non-US crowd: baseball is our national pastime, whether the
> > rest of the planet finds that remotely interesting or not.
> 
> Pity you couldn’t get the rest of the world involved in some kind of
> competitive series ...

I mean, if you go by polls baseball hasn't been the 'national pasttime' 
in the USA for years, with football far exceeding it in popularity for 
decades. By 2017, baseball was third in popularity, falling behind 
basketball. And a recent 2026 Gallup poll indicates that baseball's 
popularity has dipped even further, with only 9% of Americans naming 
it as their favorite sport. Which is 1% less than soccer, which now 
is the third most popular sport in the country.*

Although you know what they say about polls and statistics. Still, it's 
fairly clear that baseball no longer has the same pull on the national 
consciousness that it once did.

Which has nothing to do with the utility or coolness of having a finger 
service recite baseball stats. It's a better use of the tech than many 
other things. ;-)



* source:
https://www.si.com/soccer/soccer-passes-baseball-race-america-favorite-sport

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#234783

On 2026-05-18, SpallsHurgenson(NG) wrote:
[...]
> Although you know what they say about polls and statistics. Still, it's 
> fairly clear that baseball no longer has the same pull on the national 
> consciousness that it once did.


I guess you could say people are getting rain checks on baseball?

-- 
Nuno Silva

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#234784

Nuno Silva <nunojsilva@invalid.invalid> writes:
>On 2026-05-18, SpallsHurgenson(NG) wrote:
>[...]
>> Although you know what they say about polls and statistics. Still, it's 
>> fairly clear that baseball no longer has the same pull on the national 
>> consciousness that it once did.
>
>
>I guess you could say people are getting rain checks on baseball?

They cannot afford tickets.   The prices are ridiculous; a family
of four might pay $500 to attend a single game (more or less depending
on the seat and concessions).

On the other hand, baseball is popular in much of latin america,
and massively popular in Japan and Korea.

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#234787

scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) writes:

> Nuno Silva <nunojsilva@invalid.invalid> writes:
>>On 2026-05-18, SpallsHurgenson(NG) wrote:
>>[...]
>>> Although you know what they say about polls and statistics. Still, it's 
>>> fairly clear that baseball no longer has the same pull on the national 
>>> consciousness that it once did.
>>
>>
>>I guess you could say people are getting rain checks on baseball?
>
> They cannot afford tickets.   The prices are ridiculous; a family
> of four might pay $500 to attend a single game (more or less depending
> on the seat and concessions).
>
> On the other hand, baseball is popular in much of latin america,
> and massively popular in Japan and Korea.

Baseball is growing back in the US. TV viewership is up. The game was losing
interest due to intense time wasting on the mound. but changes with the
pitch timer among other things have shortened the game. Currently, a
typical game is shorter than a basketball game. I watched some early
2000s baseball and couldn't believe how long it took between
pitches. Holy shit! The 15 second pitch timer has really sped things
up. 3-5 minute innings are nice. They also shortened the ad break
between inning shifts.

My team's stadium is routely packed. So, anyway. I did baseball
currently because it's early in the season and I didn't know how long it
would take to develop it. I wanted fresh data returns with the api calls.

I've expanded my baseball triggers and getting close to done. After I
finish with that, I'll be looking at creating a huge rss news aggregator.

Soccer is in full swing so I'll get to work on that too. Rugby,
basketball and football api endpoints will all be included. Then RSS news
aggregation. Already got baseball news spitting out full stories, so
that was my test bed.

Using finger as an information service has been a hoot.

--
Daniel
sysop  | air & wave bbs
finger | info@bbs.airandwave.net

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#234789 — OT: Baseball, was Re: A new finger service

On 5/19/26 16:14, Daniel wrote:
> scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) writes:
> 
>> Nuno Silva <nunojsilva@invalid.invalid> writes:
>>> On 2026-05-18, SpallsHurgenson(NG) wrote:
>>> [...]
>>>> Although you know what they say about polls and statistics. Still, it's
>>>> fairly clear that baseball no longer has the same pull on the national
>>>> consciousness that it once did.
>>>
>>>
>>> I guess you could say people are getting rain checks on baseball?
>>
>> They cannot afford tickets.   The prices are ridiculous; a family
>> of four might pay $500 to attend a single game (more or less depending
>> on the seat and concessions).
>>
>> On the other hand, baseball is popular in much of latin america,
>> and massively popular in Japan and Korea.
> 
> Baseball is growing back in the US. TV viewership is up. The game was losing
> interest due to intense time wasting on the mound. but changes with the
> pitch timer among other things have shortened the game. Currently, a
> typical game is shorter than a basketball game. I watched some early
> 2000s baseball and couldn't believe how long it took between
> pitches. Holy shit! The 15 second pitch timer has really sped things
> up. 3-5 minute innings are nice. They also shortened the ad break
> between inning shifts.
> 
> My team's stadium is routely packed. So, anyway. I did baseball
> currently because it's early in the season and I didn't know how long it
> would take to develop it. I wanted fresh data returns with the api calls.
> 
> I've expanded my baseball triggers and getting close to done. After I
> finish with that, I'll be looking at creating a huge rss news aggregator.
> 
> Soccer is in full swing so I'll get to work on that too. Rugby,
> basketball and football api endpoints will all be included. Then RSS news
> aggregation. Already got baseball news spitting out full stories, so
> that was my test bed.
> 
> Using finger as an information service has been a hoot.
> 
> --
> Daniel
> sysop  | air & wave bbs
> finger | info@bbs.airandwave.net

Maybe I'll have to give baseball another look. I was extremely bored 
when I tried to watch a couple of years ago.

I prefer football, then hockey.

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#234791 — Re: OT: Baseball, was Re: A new finger service

On 2026-05-20, Peter Flass <Peter@Iron-Spring.com> wrote:
>
> Maybe I'll have to give baseball another look. I
> was extremely bored when I tried to watch a
> couple of years ago.

Make haste, lest an evaluation of person
in the vicinity of stupid dolt finds you.

-- 
v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v
| alt.troll.adam-h-kerman: proof that the |
| internet sometimes gets something right |
^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^

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