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Online Services: The Internet Before the Internet
jfruh writes "The Slashdot readership is probably split pretty evenly into two groups. There are those for whom full-on Internet access has been available for their entire computer-using lives, and then there are those who wanted to use the Net from home before 1991, and who therefore had to use a BBS or an online service. Here's a tour of some of these services, including Prodigy, Compuserve, and of course AOL. This should be a nostalgic trip for the oldsters among us, and a history lesson for Gen Y readers."
Back in time my dad didn't give me internet access, so I had to resort to offline things. However, that was all fine because I used to learn a lot from it. I used to do programming for a long time before Internet, and I am actually glad I did. It feels like the current generation is too obscured with useless things and even new programmers copy paste their code from searches performed on Google. It hardly teaches you anything. I used to read programming books and manuals that came with the tools. I actually had to walk to my friends place to download the latest XNA and Visual Studio. Now kids get it too easily. However, I do find my new internet access fascinating. My dad and I had a discussion and he gave me access. It gives a little nostalgic tear on my eye when I first time logged in to the Internet and made Facebook account so that I could chat with my friends. Good times there, folks.
I ran one, great times. Blazing 300 baud modem. By the time I was done we were up to 56K. I could probably still tell you the connection speed based on the squawks during the initial connection session.
I'm still very nostalgic about those times as I was part of them, and contributed to them. My BBS was free, and wasn't half bad. Of course Fido Net really gave you that sense of being in communication with the rest of the world. Amazing stuff!
I remember when America Online was a BBS run by Rocky Rawlins in Birmingham, AL. He sold the name to some unheard of upstart company who offered him stock instead of cash. He took the $15k in cash. Oops.
Egads, I'm not even an oldster, they're too young! I had to follow the link to remember a mention of LORD. And 14.4 modems were the 3rd or 4th upgrade for me, after having the wonderful experience of an new 300 baud modem. That would be after coding my first game, in assembly, on an Atari 800. We played things like Zork, Wizardry, Hack, and, heck, there was some star based game on DECs we used to play, although the name escapes me now. For that matter, there were an entire sequence of very popular Infocom games (I admit I still have them in a box upstairs) that I played, and the original D&D games in amazing 2 bit color (ok, perhaps only my graphics card was monochrome, I don't recall) But I do recall FIDONET as a new wondrous thing (hey, if we're mentioning BBS's, might as well mention the first networked system) OK, nostalgia satisfied, time to go back to my VCR and reel to reel.
The cesspool just got a check and balance.
My first modem was 300 baud. It wasn't til those blazing fast 2400 baud modems came out, that a friend gave me an old 110 baud acoustic coupler.
I still remember the claims about how each generation was "as fast as it will ever be". Nonsense about frequencies and capacity of the copper. I remember a rather heated discussion on FidoNet, about the fact that going faster than 2400 baud would melt phone lines, and as CPU speeds reached radio frequencies the interference would cripple all RF transmissions (TV, radio, and those "new" cordless phones). At the time, there was no cellular phone service in the area.
I definitely can live without ever setting another init string to make some off-brand modem work properly. I used to have all the codes, and S registers of various manufacturers memorized. I love where we are now. "Plug it in. Your machine will get an IP via DHCP. You're done."
I freaked someone out not long ago, because I whistled to a fax machine to make it connect. It was just a quick test, to see that the line worked. I can only get 2400 baud, but it's enough to say it connected, and throw an error. :) I used to be able to do 9600 baud to some modems.
Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.