http://www.osnews.com/story/14021/Scanning_in_Geek_History Exploring the Future of Computing en-us Copyright 2001-2009, David Adams adam+nospam@osnews.com Thu, 09 Jul 2009 20:32:38 GMT http://www.osnews.com/images/osnews.gif http://www.osnews.com http://osnews.com/thread?105710 http://osnews.com/thread?105710 Jason Scott is the closest thing to a Hacker Historian I know. He is doing a great service with textfiles.com, the BBS Documentary, and now this.

His BBS documentary is a must-see for anyone who used to think a 9600 baud modem was too fast, or anyone who is curious what smart people did before the internet.

http://www.bbsdocumentary.com/

(my reaction to someone telling me they bought a 9600 baud modem back in the day: "what a waste of money, you can't READ that fast!") Sun, 19 Mar 2006 16:06:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (braddock) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?105726 http://osnews.com/thread?105726 This is a great adventure for all of us to understand this world, from the sources. Sun, 19 Mar 2006 17:37:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (csousa) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?105772 http://osnews.com/thread?105772 His BBS documentary is a must-see for anyone who used to think a 9600 baud modem was too fast, or anyone who is curious what smart people did before the internet.

Nostalgic, yes, but IIRC correctly from my younger days of dial-up BBS'ing, a lot of those message boards were flaming and irrational diatribes about the IBM PC vs Apple II that often drowned out any ability for intelligent discussion. I'm not entirely sure we've progressed.

But I do remember that 9600 baud modems (which at one point were considered the theoretical maximum speed for an analog phone line until the introduction of compression protocols) led to the advent of "graphical" BBSing (often in CGA with 320x200x3), predating Windows 3.x or the web. Not to mention early cyber pr0n, in the form of ASCII printouts or horrific monochrome low-res scans from bored IT students using lab equipment.

Ahhhh.... Memories.... Sun, 19 Mar 2006 21:25:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (elsewhere) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?105793 http://osnews.com/thread?105793 Looking at the state of the PC industry today, it's hard to believe that there were so many competing computer systems back in the day. I remember discovering basic computing with the TRS-80 Model III, playing Wizardry on the Apple ][ (yes, using brackets for the "2" numeral!) and cursing the 16KB extension to the ZX81 (Timex Sinclair 1000 for you Americans) because it would so easily unplug after you'd spent an hour entering your program onthe completely non-ergonomic membrane keyboard.

I first became interested in PCs back in 1978, and I can't believe how much things have progressed in less than 30 years. Here's to the next 30!! Sun, 19 Mar 2006 22:48:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (archiesteel) Comments http://osnews.com/thread?105891 http://osnews.com/thread?105891 Ah, all of those 5 3/4 "floppy" diskettes... we really DID use those things by the ton, didn't we?

Now look... CDs and DVDs... who'd have thought, back then? Mon, 20 Mar 2006 07:40:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (digitaleon) Comments