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Where Are The Founders Of The Dial-Up Revolution?

Posted by simoniker on from the hayes-today-gone-tomorrow dept.

RIMBoy writes "The Atlanta Journal-Constitution recently tracked down the founders behind the dial-up modem revolution. The founders of Hayes Micromodem set the standard with their AT Command set. While Dennis Hayes finds himself inducted into the Computer Industry Hall of Fame, at the same time he is broke (with a stop as a bar owner) and trying to find the next big thing. Dale Heatherington cashed out early and has dedicated himself to several projects, including ham radio."

12 of 295 comments (clear)

  1. Easy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    They're waiting patiently for the web to load.

    1. Re:Easy by drix · · Score: 5, Funny

      I'm came bit later than the truely nostalgic crowd, but I do distinctively remember as an 8-year-old my trusty Hayes 1200 baud modem with its distinctive metal case and red LEDs. I think I tried to download 600k Wolf 3D about 7 times over two weeks... frickin' Ymodem-G with no error tolerance whatsoever. I'd leave it downloading when I left for school and my mom picked up the phone every time. Finally someone gave it to me on a floppy... and that was how started learning about virii :)

      Them were the days

      --

      I think there is a world market for maybe five personal web logs.
    2. Re:Easy by i81b4u · · Score: 3, Funny

      1200 baud!!??? Back in my day we had to use two sticks and a log to pound out binary code and hope to God that someone on the other end of town heard us! Young wipper snappers.......

  2. Come to think of it by BillsPetMonkey · · Score: 4, Funny

    Where are the founders of the broadband revolution?

    Working in bars, claiming benefits etc. etc.

    --
    "It's not your information. It's information about you" - John Ford, Vice President, Equifax
  3. Ah, the dialup days... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I remember sitting eagerly in front of my 386, waiting for a single GIF from the adult door of the BBS to download at 1200bps. Then it always turned out to be something crappy that I wasted 5 minutes to download. Porn in those days was so difficult!

    That damn callback verification feature always woke up my mom in the middle of the night when I was cruising the BBS's for porn... Thank god for these "always on" connections!

    --
    Rate Naked People at FuckMeter! Not work safe (unless your boss likes pr0n)

    1. Re:Ah, the dialup days... by caluml · · Score: 4, Funny

      Do you think that broadband has contributed to peoples attention spans becoming shorter? Because, now that pages load faster than I can click, I get annoyed more quickly if a page takes slightly longer to load. I'm tutting if Google isn't there in 1 second, and clicking again, and again, to punish it for its....
      I'm bored now.

      --
      Get your own free personal location tracker
  4. Broad Band Revolutionaries by AtariAmarok · · Score: 5, Funny

    Do you mean the great girl bands of the past? The Supremes, the Ronettes, or even the GoGos?

    Check "VH-1 Where Are They Now?" to find out the fate of those great Broad Bands of the past.

    I know about "Heart". They look like Roseanne Barr now.

    --
    Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
  5. In lieu of the vi vs. emacs debate... by RevMike · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'm proud to initiate the Xmodem vs Kermit flamewar.

    Let's get ready to RUMBLE!

    Extra points for anyone who can segue smoothly into an Anti-Bush/Anti-US rant.

    1. Re:In lieu of the vi vs. emacs debate... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      Kermit is so fucking typical of you government types. Send a bit across the wire. Ask everyone if it's okay. Send another bit. Anyone got a problem yet? Sure, if I accidentally pick up the phone during a Kermit transfer, my session will still be valid. But you're throwing the baby out with the bathwater! It's too fucking slow! You'll never get the data! You gotta use something like Zmodem which gives the best compression.

      It's just like the airports now-a-days. President Bush has made so many regulations I can't even ride the plane! I checked in and went through security, and I was supposed to fly out at 11:40. But they oversold and gave me a seat on a different airline at 12:40. By the time I got to the other side of the enormous government-run airport, it was 12:30 -- and they didn't have any George Bush agents to search through my belongings _again_ to make sure that I still wasn't a crazy terrorist. So I missed the plane because George Bush wants too many intrusive, redundant regulations! Throwing the baby out with the bathwater, that's what I call it. I wish Bush had learned from the whole Kermit debacle.

    2. Re:In lieu of the vi vs. emacs debate... by angst_ridden_hipster · · Score: 5, Funny

      OK. I'm always up for a challenge...

      Dude, XModem sucks! Use ZModem! But whatever you do, don't even think of using Kermit. After all, if you remember Operation Sundevil back in ... what was it ... '92? Someone from Steve Jackson Games explains to a Secret Service guy that Kermit's a 7-bit protocol, and they raided the shop because "only a hacker" would know that (that is, after the SS figured out that Kermit wasn't a specific person). Gives you some insight into the United States intelligence services, doesn't it? Talk about oxymorons... and hey, while we're on the subject of morons, what about the Chimp In Chief, eh? I understand he went to Iraq for Thanksgiving ... great. Piss off the Kurds by bringing Turkey into the whole situation...

      --
      Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachtani?
      www.fogbound.net
  6. Hey bartender! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    I was in that bar once.

    To get his attention, you'd to yell: +++

  7. So you could say that ... by Gothmolly · · Score: 4, Funny

    That 56K killed the dialup star?

    --
    I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.