[gopher] Gopher 2.0?

[Kevin Veroneau]

Quick note on this.  Although I do hope that we are all mature adults in gopherspace, I am hoping that nobody goes and abuses this to make, let's say "prank calls" to numbers which aren't your own...  any number put into the search box will be called by the server, there's really no way to know if it's your real number or someone else's.  Do not use this service for solicitation.  Nobody likes spam, and especially random phone numbers calling them asking them to record a guest book post.

  In version 2.1 I will implement a rate limiter based on IP address to prevent potential abuse when it goes more public.  Thankfully not many bots frequent gopherholes, and from my gopher server logs and prior guestbook, I don't see bots spamming our gopher type 7s thankfully, so hopefully I can keep this proof of concept alive for years to come for many people to try out.  Anyways, I do hope everyone enjoys this rather interesting project I put together.  Look forward to both hearing your guestbook messages and reading what is transcribed.  This also gives us an interesting way to share our real voices with others in gopherspace. :). I still think I'm the youngest gopher user here, but let's see.

  Original Message  
From:kevin at veroneau.net
Sent:January 22, 2016 12:25 AM
To:gopher-project at lists.alioth.debian.org
Subject:[gopher] Gopher 2.0?

Hello everybody!

  I have developed a new kind of gopher mole, which would have suited gopher 
back when it was popular, as it pairs telephony technology with gopher!

  Get ready to jump into a gopher hole like no other on gopher space, I now 
proudly present the world's first gopher-to-telephony gateway interface!  Now, 
you can fill in gopher forms using the latest in voice transcription services.  
Yes, you heard me right, with this new one of a kind gopher mole, my server 
will call any phone number you give it and request of you using voice to 
record your guestbook posting.  This guestbook posting is then saved directly 
on the server as a convenient MP3 file and then transcripted into text for 
future visitors can both hear your lovely voice and read your transcribed 
text.

  Now, you might be asking yourself...  Does this require some sort of fancy 
new modern gopher client?  Nope, not at all.  This proof-of-concept technology 
even works by using your PCs tried and true telnet command program.  So, this 
gopher mole will work in everything in the gopher market from today to back in 
the 70s.

  Upon visiting the mole, you just use a standard gopher type 7 to submit the 
phone number you wish gopher to call you at.  The mole will then use some 
telephony magic to make an outbound call to any phone number you provided, it 
will even do a quick check to make sure you entered in a valid working phone 
number using various carrier APIs.  Then seconds from submitting your phone 
number, your phone will magically ring and an automated message will play back 
asking you to record your guestbook message after the tone.  Then you can 
simply hang up the phone and watch the magic happen.  The recording should 
appear about 5 seconds after the phone is hung up, and the transcription can 
take as long as 2 minutes, depending on the length of your message.

You can try it out here, currently the gopher hole isn't yet publically 
available, as I wanted to you lovely a sneak peek: 
gopher://gopher.veroneau.net/1apps/guestbook2

  My next goal is to enable this same functionality using SMS messages, but 
that could incur charges on the users' end depending where they are and if 
they are charged for long distance SMS messages.

  Finally, I plan on making a complete sms2gopher gateway, where you can text 
a number a valid gopher URI, and browse gopher from absolutely any mobile 
device in the entire known universe, as long as it supports SMS that is.  You 
will even be-able to instruct it to call you with a full text-to-speech 
recording of an entire gopher document!

  For privacy reasons, your phone number is not stored, or displayed on this 
guestbook.  So go ahead and show off this rather unique guestbook experience to 
friends and family.  It's sure to put a smile on their face.

Best Regards,
  Kevin Veroneau

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