Additional features include smart wrapping, rendering (HTML, Markdown, ANSI), custom shortcuts, blocklists, auto CR/LF detection for server compatibility, protocol validation and error handling.

Author's Note: Nearly all tools in this script are standard on most Linux systems, except pandoc and lynx, which are only required for the built-in Markdown support (-m/--md).

Author's Note: This simple little thing is probably my most used finger utility. So useful for checking in on the core servers running finger. See the screenshot below for a sample output.

Author's Note: I enjoy reading .plan files with terminal-based clients but I go through phases where I route everything through 'NFO Viewer'. Requires both NFO Viewer and this script. The "install" is simple. The rewards...? see the screenshots below.

Other ways to render and make the links clickable are via lynx, nview and portal.mozz.us↗.

16 Dec 2025: I will be retiring this app - removing it from this list soon. It has already been removed from the fingerverse file. Transitioning to nf (netfinger) which already has an improved HTML renderer over textnet and a few additional cool features textnet does not have.

It is easy to add, remove or modify the current replacement pairs directly in the script. Alternatively, to aggressively convert or remove all non-ASCII characters, you can use iconv:

iconv -f UTF-8 -t ASCII//TRANSLIT//IGNORE input.txt > output.txt

As a secondary function, it converts the cleaned Markdown into HTML 3.2.

The resulting HTML is available in its own Text Area window. Optionally, you can copy the rendered 7-bit ASCII text (sans HTML tags) from the [Preview] tab.

Author's Note: You can also paste modern html (a complete page or snippets) to preview quickly.

weather is the core utility that fetches and displays a concise set of essential weather information in just two lines. It uses OpenStreetMap to resolve locations to latitude/longitude (an improvement over open-meteo's own geocoding) and Open-Meteo for weather retrieval.

ww is a convenience wrapper that runs the weather script sequentially for multiple predefined locations, allowing you to check conditions in several cities at once. See the screenshot below.

weather.wttr.table is a simple HTML wrapper for wttr.in that displays the current temperature for 8 cities. Change the lookup locations by editing the URL values in the JavaScript array.

Update: Tweak 3: You can opt for the 100% 7-bit ASCII version without the Unicode line characters (U+2500 and U+2501).

Author's Note: This standalone script requires the user to enter "sv {URL}" which may be an issue for some. The sbl file below (a companion bookmark/launcher to sv) fixes that. It links to some great sites on spartan in an easy to access way.

"sv {URL} | less -R".

Author's Note: I use this to easily visit core spartan sites and great ascii art pages available using the spartan:// protocol. Requires sv (above) in order to retrieve and render the pages (it's just a single, portable script like this one). 12 pages are currently listed and it's easy to add your own (sbl --edit).

Author's Note: There are strong similarities between Stoicism and the Tao Te Ching. If you find value in one, I think you'll find value in the other.

Author's Note: Below are two translations/interpretations by different authors. The first is by Ursula K Le Guin and is well received (and very approachable). The other, by Stephen Mitchell, is more controversial.

I actually started with Mitchell's version first - many years ago. Because of the language and delivery - it made general concepts approachable and put the "grand scheme of things" into perspective in an eye-opening and lucid way. He's here because he got me started and I think I owe others the same kind of intro.

The more accurate Le Guin version will do the same and is the recommended first read.

Philosopher John Gray argues that human progress is largely a myth. Technological advancement doesn't correspond to moral improvement.

He suggests we abandon utopian thinking and acknowledge the darkness in human nature rather than pretending it's being progressively eliminated.

Note: htmlApp to follow soon.

Author's Note: It's in-house - so... maybe it could look nicer (I think it looks perfect:-) but it gets the job done for me. I plan on adding another template/htmlApp (for example: this one is next). Others may follow after that.

• Main: Template htmlApp: main.template Status: new 15 Oct 2025

Author's Note: ART is a basic ANSI viewer. Some files may not display correctly. It was created specifically to automate posting ANSI art to ansi@happynetbox.com and to make files Linux-terminal compatible.

Additional notes and background at ANSI Art on happynetbox.com

Author's Note: This is a fun program that was created as a prop to the short story: The Council of Linux Greybeards. Its existence in the real world feels like fourth wall stuff. Details are here.

Author's Note: I didn't know where to put this and this page seemed like the current best fit.