All together, they're a great record of the evolution of PCs.
Yup... But it's still not the same as having lived through the experience and learning curves.
like ( this one time at band camp... Oh wait, wrong story ) for instance when Amiga .mod files were ported to the PC and a German named Jan Ole Sur ( or something like that ) came out with his .mod player which had a 4 channel "unreal time" oscilloscope which I actually sent a blank floppy, ten bucks, and a self addressed stamped envelope to Germany just so I could have the "registered" version which I wanted to disassemble and compare it with the shareware version to see if I could figure out exactly how he accomplished this feat to run on a 286.
Unfortunately he had compressed and encrypted that registered .exe file...
But my name was in the "exiting credits" screen which was cool.
The name of the program ? Wowii.
it's still not the same as having lived through the experience and learning curves.
Indeed. Another problem with the show is that it's a little more biased to the business side than it should be.
I watched a 1987 episode discussing online services, one of which (Prodigy or Compuserve) was $0.30 a minute! Myself and pretty much everyone else I knew used to be online with BBSs 24/7 for the cost of a second phone line, usually only $25 per month.
I was a SysOp on Synapse BBS which had hundreds of phone lines and connected with every major network on the planet, including the internet, all for under $10 a month, or free if you were a contributor. It totally dwarfed all the other services combined, and was around long before Compuserve was, yet they get the credit for being the first online service to offer an internet gateway. Total lie!
My first computer was a Tandy HX-1000. 6 months after I got it I had it all tricked out with an aftermarket 20MB RLL hard drive, 2 3.5-720K floppies and a 5.25-360K floppy, along with the so called smartwatch so you didn't have to reset the system time on every boot, and various other goodies. ( yes it was nice to be rich once upon a time ). I also installed a 1200 baud modem and signed up to Compuserve... That months phone bill was $600 and change. Grrrrr.
Then I found several local bulletin boards and I remember the Synapse BBS ANSI logo on several shareware packages I downloaded from these local BBS's.
One of those BBS's became notorious because the FBI busted them for piracy ( bootleg Lotus 123 ). The Botany Bay BBS located in Portsmouth NH. The last time I drove by there about a year ago they were still in business... A little hole in the wall computer shop which still resembles a mom and pop operation. lol
My first was a C64. It was BBSs that got me into phreaking... later I did Compuserve too... never had one of those $600 phone bills, but I racked up some hours along the way... I can't remember any of the BBSs that I used to get on. Somewhere around there are some relics of those days.
I am now going through loads of those episodes that are upped on youtube!
All together, they're a great record of the evolution of PCs.
Yup... But it's still not the same as having lived through the experience and learning curves.
like ( this one time at band camp... Oh wait, wrong story ) for instance when Amiga .mod files were ported to the PC and a German named Jan Ole Sur ( or something like that ) came out with his .mod player which had a 4 channel "unreal time" oscilloscope which I actually sent a blank floppy, ten bucks, and a self addressed stamped envelope to Germany just so I could have the "registered" version which I wanted to disassemble and compare it with the shareware version to see if I could figure out exactly how he accomplished this feat to run on a 286.
Unfortunately he had compressed and encrypted that registered .exe file...
But my name was in the "exiting credits" screen which was cool.
The name of the program ? Wowii.
Heh... it still exists : ftp://78.46.141.148/dos/sound/WOWII/
LOL
Indeed. Another problem with the show is that it's a little more biased to the business side than it should be.
I watched a 1987 episode discussing online services, one of which (Prodigy or Compuserve) was $0.30 a minute! Myself and pretty much everyone else I knew used to be online with BBSs 24/7 for the cost of a second phone line, usually only $25 per month.
I was a SysOp on Synapse BBS which had hundreds of phone lines and connected with every major network on the planet, including the internet, all for under $10 a month, or free if you were a contributor. It totally dwarfed all the other services combined, and was around long before Compuserve was, yet they get the credit for being the first online service to offer an internet gateway. Total lie!
My first computer was a Tandy HX-1000. 6 months after I got it I had it all tricked out with an aftermarket 20MB RLL hard drive, 2 3.5-720K floppies and a 5.25-360K floppy, along with the so called smartwatch so you didn't have to reset the system time on every boot, and various other goodies. ( yes it was nice to be rich once upon a time ). I also installed a 1200 baud modem and signed up to Compuserve... That months phone bill was $600 and change. Grrrrr.
Then I found several local bulletin boards and I remember the Synapse BBS ANSI logo on several shareware packages I downloaded from these local BBS's.
One of those BBS's became notorious because the FBI busted them for piracy ( bootleg Lotus 123 ). The Botany Bay BBS located in Portsmouth NH. The last time I drove by there about a year ago they were still in business... A little hole in the wall computer shop which still resembles a mom and pop operation. lol
My first was a C64. It was BBSs that got me into phreaking... later I did Compuserve too... never had one of those $600 phone bills, but I racked up some hours along the way... I can't remember any of the BBSs that I used to get on. Somewhere around there are some relics of those days.