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The 25th Anniversary of the BBS
Jason Scott writes "25 years ago today, Ward Christensen and Randy Suess officially announced the creation of a little project they threw together with a 300 baud Hayes modem, a Z-80 based S-100 computer, and a phone line. They called it "Chicago Bulletin Board System" (CBBS) and it was the first dial-up BBS. From this beginning, BBSes grew into the many thousands and became an entire industry, and when the Internet started to mature with the World Wide Web, the users who had cut their teeth on BBSes moved over to it. So raise a toast to these two fellows for a quarter century of great online times."
Tradewars.
I guess this must be the first /.-ing of BBSes...
Help my modem's on fire!
The real fun with BBS's was tricking fellow users into accidentally typing +++
Shortly after the first BBS, the first C64 Hacker figured out how to rig his system to get free long distance telephone calls so that he/she could stay connected to Chicago from the West Coast 24/7.
And on the really cool BBS's you played Pimpwars, not Tradewars.
"a 300 baud Hayes modem, a Z-80 based S-100 computer, and a phone line"
I dunno - the very same hardware has served Kuro5hin pretty well over the last 5 years! It if ain't broke, don't fix it!
Whiner: blah blah blah
Guru 1: This xyz BBS has a cute bug to gain system privileges...
Guru 2: Agree and talk about it but no details until the whiner starts reallllly begging to know the details. Then:
Guru 1: Ok type +++ (originally typed as ++ space bkspace +) followed by ATH and hit enter
Whiner: NO CARRIER
And of course being a busy BBS he would be kicked out for a jolly good time. The fun at the inept continued when we created variations on the ATH theme on the same victim :-)
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Another interesting fact I remember back in the day was being able to type faster than the 300 baud modems could send.
:)
300bps full duplex, let's say that 9 bits per byte with parity, and I forget if the modem signal had an extra stop bit... but let's say it did, so that's 10 bits per character.
That would be 30 characters per second, meaning 1800 characters per minute. If I recall correctly from my typing days, 5 characters were considered to be a "word", but I don't think they counted spaces, but we will to be generous.
So, at 6 characters per word, that would mean that you were a 300wpm typist.
You kicked ass!
Ah, how nostalgia changes our perspective.
Why are you letting these clowns ruin our country?
At age 8-9, LORD thought me about the birds and the bees through Violet!
Jesus Christ, that was so long ago...
Yes, around 2003 years I think. Not sure about your BBS though.
Thanks, I'll be here all week...
Never, ever lose a file again. Ever.
Go back? Those are all telnet sites. I suppose you could write some code to simulate 300 baud in software and busy signals and stuff.
click me
Ahhh LORD,
'You give the old man -10000000'
Gee, that old man funded many a campaign to slay the dragon and lay Violet.
"She's a West Texas girl, just like me" - G.W Bush Iraqis
I can imagine.
Did they even know what you were doing?