History...

[kengr]

While reading someone else's LJ, a comment of theirs got me to thinking.

I've been on the Internet for around 20 years. And, if I recall correctly, it was in March of 1981 that I got my first modem. (I still have one of the same model, simply for the sake of boggling newbies).

So I've been online for 24 years.

I want you to try to picture this. My system had cost $1000 *before* adding things like extra RAM, a serial port and a modem (and a serial port wasn't standard then!).

It was a TRS-80 Model III. Z-80 CPU at 2(?) MHz. 16k of RAM (which I expanded to the max of 48k as soon as I could). Yes *k*, not meg.

Storage was cassette tapes at 1500 baud. The display was monochrome with 16 lines of 64 characters. Graphics resolution was 128x48.

When I went online, there were two BBS systems in Portland. I got their numbers from Byte magazine. The *national* BBS list took up only one page. And the print wasn't super small.

The modem was 300 baud. I had to dial the phone, and when I heard the modem on the other end answer, flip the toggle switch on the modem from Off to Originate.

I want you youngsters to try to imagine when that was state of the art in home computers...

I got onto CompuServe a bit later and stayed on it until 1994 or so.

I got onto the Internet sometime around 1985.

I have to wonder what it'll be like in another 20 years?

Comments

[tsjafo.livejournal.com]

My first computer was a trash 80 micro 10 basic...hooked up to the tv and I couldn't even afford the magnetic tape recorder to store programs, I had to fat finger 'em in every time. We got our first modem much later, a blazing fast 300 baud model you plugged your phone into, second hand, of course. Remember what the world was like before the world wide web? Playing Zort on a BBS. And the sound the phone made hooking up to the internet...the geek love call! Yeah, I think we are living in some very interesting times, technologically speaking. Ain't it great?

[kengr]

Ah yes, the MC-10. I have several of those, including at least one with ther 16K expansion. Have you ever seen the memory map for that thing? it's *insane*.

I went from the "manual" 300 baud to one with autodial and auto answer (before the Hayes command set became standard). Then it was a 1200, then a 2400. Then a big jump to a Telebit T2500. 9600 bps with most modems, 18k with another Telebit. Now, of course, I've got v.92 modems, and a 4meg down 384k up cable connection. :-)

[lolleeroberts.livejournal.com]

I worked for Western Union for 10 years, starting in 1978. We had the "order wire", a teletype that was hooked into a circuit that ran between every Western Union office in the country. Think of a hard copy chat room for proto-geeks. And every Christmas the techs would get out the ascii art punch tapes...ah, good times, good times.

But I wouldn't trade it for now. It's like the memory of crossing the desert in covered wagons from the comfort of your Vegas penthouse. Nice to look back on.

[kengr]

I learned BASIC on a time sharing system using an ASCII TTY. I still have a program on paper tape around here somewhere.

I even logged onto a BBS on a 110 baud TTY. :-)

And in my collection of "ancient artifacts" I have a strip of *Baudot* paper tape. Only time I ever used a Baudot TTY was at a Ham station at OMSI when the operator let me type a few lines.

At some point, I'm going to set up a section on one of my web sites that'll have pictures of some of my "artifacts".

[kengr]

Oh yeah, I forgot. I helped take care of the telex at one job. Late 80s. Basicly a very odd PC. *Very* odd. Used things like "quad density" 5.25" floppies. (basicly a double density floppy, but with 80 tracks instead of 40).

I think it was an 8 bit system that used some weird OS.

Young punk!

[seawasp]

When *I* started you couldn't OWN a computer system because there weren't any (aside from a couple of actually-fairly-useless kits) for private users! 300 Baud? That was FAST, and we were GLAD to have that instead of our 110-baud teletypes!

*bangs cane noisily on walker* Rassassassafrassin' kids...*cough hack*

20 years from now, there's no real predicting. I make some overcautions predictions for some of the functionality to expect 30 years from now, but I'm rather deliberately NOT trying to predict accurately at that distance because if the technology goes on its current curves it's beyond my ability to guess.

Re: Young punk!

[kengr]

Well, if you want to get technical, the first computer I *used* was an IBM 360. I punched the cards myself. And wrote the programs in FORTRAN.

That was in 1972.

[suzilem.livejournal.com]

Back in the dim mists of time, I had a Timex-Sinclair. :-) 4K of RAM and a Chicklet keyboard.

[kengr]

The MC-10 mentioned in another comment was Radio Shacks attempt to copy the Timex-Sinclair. :-)

[ranunculus.livejournal.com]

Gotta say that I'm not a programer, and that my first computer was a TRS 80 with, I think 8k of ram. Since I was only doing word processing the silly thing lasted me for -years- till it wouldn't talk to the printer any more, and I couldn't find any one to fix it. Upgraded to a 386....
My first modem was a 1200 - but I was late, didn't start on the internet till 93? Geez, what a latecomer!
My partner insists on keeping an old K-Pro in the basement. He claims that it will some day be worth something....

[kengr]

I have a system (secondhand) That started life as a sort of data entry unit to let folks using timesharing systems save money by doing their data entry offline and then "dumping" it to the service.

Basically a glorified *line* editor. Wrote the lines to disk, one line per (128 byte) sector. 639 lines per disk.

Has two serial ports. One for a terminal, one for a modem.

It dates back 1977 when the first single chip floppy controllers came out.

It has an 8080 CPU, 8k of ROM and 8k of RAM. A friend used one as a BBS of sorts for years. With *one* k of RAM. :-)