Few know this, but CBBS, running on its original hardware, is the comments server for slashdot.org.
--Pat
Ahh Those were the days
by
Saoi
·
· Score: 5, Funny
single character commands, harsh bootings, sounds like my kinda system, pity I wasn't born yet:(
Re:Ahh Those were the days
by
antiprime
·
· Score: 5, Funny
Get drunk to simulate the slow response time, then try to navigate through your favorite modern windowing shell without using a mouse, tie the power cord to your ankle to simulate random rebooting that you somehow blame yourself for: exactly the same effect. For advanced nostalgia, futz with your monitor and display settings so everything's a shade of green and black.
5 million solders? I dont think so.
by
DaPhoenix
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
"The answer was two weeks later, when the Computerized Bulletin Board System first spun its disk, picked up the line and took a message."
"Christensen wrote the BIOS and all the drivers (as well as the small matter of the bulletin board code itself), while Suess took care of five million solder joints and the odd unforeseen problem."
Okay time for quick math.
60 secs a min * 60 mins a hour * 24 hours a day * 14 days (a fortnight) = 1209600 seconds.
5 million solders / 1209600 seconds = ~4.13 solders per second.
Aint no way in hell he did that by hand.
-- --
-=innocent ramblings from the mind of an insomniatic programmer=-
Re:my heroes
by
Anonymous Coward
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
Think "meta" - route around the Internet.
Work with your neighbors. Build a wireless network using the common pool of equipment. You're not allowed to let other people on the Internet through your connection (check your AUP - many ISPs say something like this), but nothing says you can't let them get to things on your own network!
Start creating content that only exists on the 'wireless' side of your network. Get other people to do the same. When enough compelling content exists on the "other" net, people will find their own way to get to it.
Incidentally, this also sidesteps another problem that many people face on their home connections: "no servers". You're serving inward, not outward, so that never becomes a problem.
I ran a BBS from 1990 to 1999 and shut it down due to a lack of interest. The fundamental concept of a bulletin board where people post about stuff is still needed - stare at your monitor for awhile if you don't believe it. Bring it back at a neighborhood level and you'll find the community that's been waiting all this time.
Never would have known...
by
cabra771
·
· Score: 5, Funny
that those damn people at Blizzard not only killed all my social skills by releasing Diablo and Diablo II, but now I learn that they got me hooked even earlier! Damn all those BBS's I used to visit!!!
--
-my other sig is your mom
Kids and Doors (True Story!)
by
romper
·
· Score: 5, Funny
In the late 80's my parents took away the monitor to "ground" me from playing Tradewars 2002 on the local BBS.
Of course I could blindly launch telemate from DOS and knew how to turn on the printer log and start the dial-up.
The printer didn't even have ink! We had to read the carbon copy.
You kids now with your fancy monitors and colors.
-- Right is wrong when left is right.
Usenet Born at the Same Time - Synchronicity
by
Futurian
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
The impetus to electronically intercommunicate was strong. Usenet was born in 1979, one year after the creation of the CBBS. I was an undergraduate at Duke at that time, and recall being shown a prototype of the project by Tom Truscott. The early messages included arcane comments about operating system programming for "Unix wizards". I told Tom it was excellent, but with my limited horizons I internally felt that the early games "adventure" and "Zork" were more exciting. In retrospect, Tom Truscott, Jim Ellis and the other creators captured the zeitgeist and deserve lavish praise. A full Usenet feed topped 500 gigabytes in 2002, a mind-boggling size circa 1979, and the leviathan keeps growing.
Tom and Jim were great people. They were enthusiastic, friendly, and helpful even to a "lowly" undergraduate. They were always trying to improve Usenet and spoke extensively about how the data structures of the news program had to be redone. Even in 1979 more sophisticated structures were needed to scale up and handle the growing number of news articles. The Duke graduate school did not have a budget item for long distance telephone calls to swap Usenet news items. Luckily, Bell Labs charitably became a hub of the early network and subsidized the long distance calls.
Jim Ellis enjoyed reading SF and his programming skill helped make one positive SF scenario, inexpensive fast electronic communication, come true. I never had a chance to thank him for all his help and for suggesting I read "Shockwave Rider" and "Forever War". Thanks - via the celestial internet.
Slashdot Mirror
I wonder if the internet would even exist if those guys had had girlfriends during that week snowed in.
--Pat
single character commands, harsh bootings, sounds like my kinda system, pity I wasn't born yet :(
"The answer was two weeks later, when the Computerized Bulletin Board System first spun its disk, picked up the line and took a message."
"Christensen wrote the BIOS and all the drivers (as well as the small matter of the bulletin board code itself), while Suess took care of five million solder joints and the odd unforeseen problem."
Okay time for quick math.
60 secs a min * 60 mins a hour * 24 hours a day * 14 days (a fortnight) = 1209600 seconds.
5 million solders / 1209600 seconds = ~4.13 solders per second.
Aint no way in hell he did that by hand.
-- -=innocent ramblings from the mind of an insomniatic programmer=-
Think "meta" - route around the Internet.
Work with your neighbors. Build a wireless network using the common pool of equipment. You're not allowed to let other people on the Internet through your connection (check your AUP - many ISPs say something like this), but nothing says you can't let them get to things on your own network!
Start creating content that only exists on the 'wireless' side of your network. Get other people to do the same. When enough compelling content exists on the "other" net, people will find their own way to get to it.
Incidentally, this also sidesteps another problem that many people face on their home connections: "no servers". You're serving inward, not outward, so that never becomes a problem.
I ran a BBS from 1990 to 1999 and shut it down due to a lack of interest. The fundamental concept of a bulletin board where people post about stuff is still needed - stare at your monitor for awhile if you don't believe it. Bring it back at a neighborhood level and you'll find the community that's been waiting all this time.
that those damn people at Blizzard not only killed all my social skills by releasing Diablo and Diablo II, but now I learn that they got me hooked even earlier! Damn all those BBS's I used to visit!!!
-my other sig is your mom
In the late 80's my parents took away the monitor to "ground" me from playing Tradewars 2002 on the local BBS.
Of course I could blindly launch telemate from DOS and knew how to turn on the printer log and start the dial-up.
The printer didn't even have ink! We had to read the carbon copy.
You kids now with your fancy monitors and colors.
Right is wrong when left is right.
The impetus to electronically intercommunicate was strong. Usenet was born in 1979, one year after the creation of the CBBS. I was an undergraduate at Duke at that time, and recall being shown a prototype of the project by Tom Truscott. The early messages included arcane comments about operating system programming for "Unix wizards". I told Tom it was excellent, but with my limited horizons I internally felt that the early games "adventure" and "Zork" were more exciting. In retrospect, Tom Truscott, Jim Ellis and the other creators captured the zeitgeist and deserve lavish praise. A full Usenet feed topped 500 gigabytes in 2002, a mind-boggling size circa 1979, and the leviathan keeps growing.
Tom and Jim were great people. They were enthusiastic, friendly, and helpful even to a "lowly" undergraduate. They were always trying to improve Usenet and spoke extensively about how the data structures of the news program had to be redone. Even in 1979 more sophisticated structures were needed to scale up and handle the growing number of news articles. The Duke graduate school did not have a budget item for long distance telephone calls to swap Usenet news items. Luckily, Bell Labs charitably became a hub of the early network and subsidized the long distance calls.
Jim Ellis enjoyed reading SF and his programming skill helped make one positive SF scenario, inexpensive fast electronic communication, come true. I never had a chance to thank him for all his help and for suggesting I read "Shockwave Rider" and "Forever War". Thanks - via the celestial internet.