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This is the Modem World: The sinister side of the '80s BBS

3 pointsby rpledgealmost 12 years ago

2 comments

e3pialmost 12 years ago
After acquiring an APPLE ][+ with also a Novation AppleCat][, a few months later I was able to get a super deal on a 64k ram card through a CALL A.P.P.L.E.group purchase for only $110.00. It astonishes me today I can get entire dated 9&quot; netbooks on eBay for less with so much more living room.<p>CALL A.P.P.L.E.&#x27;s Val Golding, lived in a basement with many cats and dreamed 6502 assembly and would welcome anyone&#x27;s voice calls.<p>I had the 15(?)th BBS in Seattle listed in the back of that freebie computer newspaper you could find on ferries(NW Computer User?).<p>Same here, the whole BBS social thing was accumulating vast index rows of copied 5.25&quot; floppies.<p>The university had the unix shells and emacs, so ftp and telnet about brought us up today facile wise though we watched individual remote characters stream along at 300 baud.<p>Maybe why my favorite comfort space is still simple monochrome tty console.<p>I also had H19(~Z21) terminal and a 300 baud wooden phone handset box. The H19 was heavy as a populated desktop, and likely would still be functional if you could find one. I miss that modem handshake babble.
na85almost 12 years ago
Maybe I&#x27;m just jaded, but none of that sounds particularly sinister compared to what a few hours&#x27; work could net you via Tor or other deep web portals.