--- Roger Merchberger <zmerch_at_30below.com> wrote:
> Rumor has it that Bill Bradford may have mentioned these words:
> >On Tue, Aug 07, 2001 at 11:35:32AM -0500, Jeffrey S. Sharp wrote:
> >> I'll always hold in high esteem the 300 baud internal modem that let
> me
> >> discover 'the Internet' in ~1991.
> >
> >Same here. For me it was a HP 110 "laptop" with internal 300 baud
> >modem, dialed up to Tymnet's PC PURSUIT service. Shortly after that,
> >an Atari 520STfm with a Hayes Smartmodem 300.
>
> Holey-Moley - Y'all had the big toyz! ;-)
>
> I started with my CoCo2 & a 300baud Radio Shack mumble-modem...
My first telecom experience was with a DECwriter II in a closet at
Ohio State. They didn't give over large, open, well-lit spaces
back in those days to terminals. A buddy of mine had a phone number
to a RSTS machine somewhere (must have been on-campus, or at least
a local call) and a username/password (I didn't ask where he got it ;-)
We played BASIC games for hours on it.
My first personal experience was when my first employer bought me a
VIC modem - the one that fits on the user port of a C-64/VIC-20. It
didn't even have a telco interface - you picked up the handset, dialed
the number manually, waited for carrier and moved the coiled cord from
the handset to the modem. I used to get into CompuServe and a local
Apple BBS at 300 throbbing baud! Played hours of ADVENT and Scott
Adams adventure games. ISTR off-peak CI$ time was $6/hour _at_ 300 bps.
Eventually, I helped beta-test the pseudo-graphic VidTex interface
software for the C-64. Still have the docs and binary. The sad part
is now that I *work* for those guys (and have an employee account),
there isn't any content left on the classic system worth mentioning,
just menus. :-(
-ethan
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Received on Wed Aug 22 2001 - 13:00:09 BST