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frstcomputer.com:70 frstcomputer.com:70/0/phlog/12-11-2025-FRST-Exiting-Stealth-Mode.md
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December 11, 2025: FRST Computer Exits Stealth Mode
[SubHeading: Announcing Aether Data Crystals!]
[Sub: Sub: Announcing Aether!]
[Sub: Sub: Sub: We (still) sell Plan 9 CyberDecks]
====
Things have been very quiet on the gopher front... I apologize.
## Gopher as "stealth mode"
Tonight, FRST Computer exits "stealth mode"... One of the unique
advantages of gopher has been its quiet, out-of-the-way quality and
I've enjoyed the quiet of this space to "air out" some of my ideas
on personal computing, permacomputing, cyberdecks, solarpunk... But
tonight, I'm sharing some more details of what I've been up to in my
lab and how I plan to expand my reach. (while continuing to prioritize
FRST's gopher presence) This is happening -- I'm finally ready to
sell you something! :)
## (brief re-hash of my 3-year "nerd snipe" adventure...)
I've been chipping away at this thing for a while now, in an attempt,
I know, to recapture my own joy of computing. I've become a student
of the old school, seeking out the truly elegant engineering designs
of the past to inform our present and future -- exploring an alternate
timeline, perhaps. In these travels in cyberspace, I've come to
take courage in knowing that I'm not alone in this journey and that
others have already been hard at work in either preserving or
advancing this alternate timeline, promoting still-great-and-maybe-
never-more-relevant technologies.
What became clear to me is that this alternate timeline deserves the
'grid computing' envisioned by the brilliant Bell Labs team that
brought us Plan 9. When Sir Berners-Lee himself has expressed his
grave concern that the modern Internet is beyond saving, it's time for
us to take it upon ourselves to build the cyber space we deserve.
I envision small, local, people (neighbor)-oriented digital networks
that overlay naturally against our in-real-life social networks. I've
been spending most of my evenings these past couple of years studying
packet radio, LoRa, FidoNet, 9P and brushing up on my OSI Model stuff
in order to make something _real_ that might help us build such
networks... tinkering...
## Introducing the Aether Data Crystal!
That _real_ thing I have ready to sell is something I'm calling the
"Aether Data Crystal" and it is a bulletin board system (BBS) in a
microcontroller -- a Nordic nRF5340 microcontroller.
This modern take on the BBS is made possible by 9P-over-L2CAP,
as provided by my 9p4z library for the Zephyr RTOS.
With the help of Claude, I've been able to build out a very
serviceable bulletin board server, itself modeled after Plan 9-style
"grid" computing concepts. The expressiveness of the 9P protocol
opens up a host of possibilities. The 90s Bulletin Board System
serves as a perfect model for exploring the unique advantages afforded
in using a modern, ubiquitous, and human-centic protocol stack.
I will continue to explore a custom LoRa mesh protocol for its sub-ghz
and spread-spectrum advantages, but I've found renewed focus on my
FRST work in proving out this real-world, practical-today BLE-oriented
solution. And while I've come to resent the modern day "world of the
app" that Jobs ushered in, I've realized that a simple, intuitive app
that is open source and freely distributed will aid greatly in the
adoption of my back-to-basics, "personal computing"-era time-travel
philosophy.
The AetherBBS client software (or, "companion app" in the parlance)
provides an intuitive and familiar interface. My current alpha
builds are already quite useful, both for SysOps and users.
As such, I've decided to go ahead and take preorders for this thing.
I've begun schematic / PCB work and hope to have EVT boards back
in a few weeks. I'll be working with a pre-certified module, of
course, and I'm pretty sure I know the vendor I'll pick there. (hint:
it's one that offers a power-amplified footprint-compatible variant
sku ;) ) I should have all of the essential bits worked out in short
order and hope to be sending out to early "backers" by EOY.
If you are interested, place your preorder by using the gopher store -
(available at gopher://frstcomputer.com) -
## Embracing the (smol) web!
Exiting stealth mode will mean embracing the web, finally... I've had
some FRST "hints" up on my personal web sites for a bit now, of
course, but along with this post, I'm launching a basic "smolweb"
website for FRST, which will allow me to really promote FRST more
broadly. With the gopher presence prioritized, I've made
the website intentionally abbreviated. I was at least able to
adapt the gopher-commerce cart system for the new website, so web
visitors can place their orders -- now backed by a business Venmo
account.
Another note about the site: Having successfully proven the
efficiency and compatibility of an imagemap-based site, (see
sharpcreative.tv) I've adopted the same approach for the new FRST
site. This is also meant to signal FRST's retro-inclusive values. I
truly want to cater to those few of us that actually use our old
computers regularly in our everyday personal computing. (NOTE: I will
absolutely give discounts to people that place their orders with
their interesting, unique retrocomputers.) If you happen to have such
a machine, you can expect to be able to successfully order a personal
computer or Bluetooth BBS with your old browser, in spite of its outdated
cipher suite. ;) I've personally tested the site on the following:
- lynx, links2, w3m, netsurf, mothra
- Netscape Communicator 4.7 (Mac OS 9), Internet Explorer 5.0 (OS 9)
- OmniWeb for Tiger, Safari (a bunch of them), Firefox
- Opera 3 for Windows for Workgroups 3.11
It doesn't require CSS or Javascript. It has very minimal markup.
And if the images are too heavy, there's an even smol-er smolweb
option. (my 486 appreciated this)
With this new, lightweight-and-highly-compatible site launched, I can
feel comfortable promoting FRST more broadly -- on Mastodon, at least.
## Aether
Oh, and what's with this 'Aether' business, eh? Well, that's just the
name I've been working with to describe the "mesh" portion of the
experimental networking stack I've been sketching out. It's meant to
work over different RF links and is inspired by the store-and-forward
capabilities of FidoNet.
I've been slowly developing a network simulator, written in Go, to
validate this protocol stack and provide a test-bed for
experimentation. This simulator actually forms the basis for the
network chat functionality (a work in progress) of my web-based PCD68
emulator demo ROM at https://jonsharp.net.
AetherBBS does not incorporate any of this mesh stack, focused
instead on providing individual, hyper-local instances in which to
build thriving "offline" communities. This is a design feature, in
fact, allowing for autonomy and sovereignty of data, determined by
the members of a each community. As mesh-oriented capabilties become
available to AetherBBS SysOps, communities will remain in control of
how they choose to participate with a broader Aether mesh community.
## We still sell Plan 9 CyberDecks
Oh, and yes, we still sell Plan 9 CyberDecks! That is, after nearly
two years of dragging my own handmade cyberdecks around the world,
I'm comfortable promoting this more broadly, as well. I expect the
Data Crystal to become the more popular FRST offering, but I'd love
for more people to experience the joys of a simpler form of personal
computing -- embracing software zen. (TODO: 9front bluetooth driver
for native AetherBBS support -- order one now and help make that
development effort a priority! ;) )
## To be continued...
There will be more to come...
.
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