I just found out something interesting about Bubba's early computer days. Rather than tell you myself, I will let him tell you about it.
So, what is this post about? What was your earliest online experiences? What was the most memorable?
It was 1986 and I was 14. I had a Commodore 64. I bought a used 300 Baud modem for $70. I still have it. (lol) It was partially broken. The computer couldn't dial it, but I could dial BBS numbers by hand, then when I heard the modem tones, I could issue the answer command. Do you know what it is like to dial your favorite BBS's all night by hand? Talk about geeky.
The other cool thing from my early days was the BBS I was a co-sysop of. It was a guy I met online who happened to live a few miles from me. He was my same age and put every penny into his BBS. It was Called the Casino BBS. In fact, he had put back $1200 for a car and instead bought a used 10Meg Commodore Hard Drive for the BBS. We were the first local free public BBS to have that kind of space online. I can't go into details, but our files were the "best".... :-)
All of the Commodore BBS's were a kind of early online club. When I was 16, a few of us went to a BBS party. Man, talk about creepy. These guys made us look like jock studs.... I guess it was a precusor to MMORPG conventions.... ;-)
My first online was probably about 93-94 dialing into BBS's to download games. My first REAL online was in 95. Then in 97, I was one of the original alt.music.spice-girls members, Heck I didn't know what I was doing at first and bashful that I didn't even post for like 6 months.... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAH!!!
hmmm uhhh... wow boy I think I am pretty sure I have no idea what a BBS is after what Raze has revealed here. ;-)
Seriously I have almost the exact same story as Atomm but make me a handful of years younger. I remember the emmense joy of getting a 1200 baud modem.
Funny story in 6th grade we had the annual science fair and I did my project about BBS's and Modems. I in essence hooked up a computer in the cafe and had it connect to my BBS and people could play on it. The judges were so out of their league with my project they didn't ask me a question about it, and I won. I had a family friend who was a freelance tech, he came to see how I was doing he was all proud and left me with an IBM modem that I know at the time was worth a ton of money.
Much like Atomm I was the sysop of a BBS I had written. My BBS was supported by my elementary school so they bought me 2 dedicated lines and a 10 Mb HDD for the c-64 it was on. At one point I ported the BBS to the IBM platform. When I graduated from my elemetary school they sold it to my HS for two macs and a couple IBM clones. And I much like Atomm did once dare a BBS party, it was frightening to say the least. Everyone was at least 4 or 5 yrs older than me and scary looking. All well
What language did you use bubba? That's pretty impressive, writing your own BBS.
At one point, the BBS software I was using allowed you to connect at 300, then push it up to 450 baud. Man, I thought I was smoking. In the end, I sold my C64 and bought a C128. I owned a 1541 5 1/4 drive, a 1571 3 1/2 drive (actually a rare thing back then), a 3rd party zip drive that allowed me to use dip switches to add compression to the 5 1/4 disk. The coolest part of the zip drive was the toggle switch that allowed me to read both sides of the disk without punching a hole in it. :-) Along with my software and printer, I sold it all when I turned 16 for $500 and put that towards my first car.
The next computer I would own was a 486/DX4 100MHZ. I paid about $2500 for it. I had AOL and a 14.4K modem. I thought I was flying... :-)
Think of how big a geek I would really be if I hand't waiting 4 years to get my second computer.... :-)
must have been basic. I to this day am amazed at that, I know I couldn't do it now. I was a considerably better programmer then than I am now. I remember the 1541's, but i never had a 3.5 floppy, don't think I ever saw one for a commodore. I went through the ranks. TRS-80, C 64, C128, 8080, 8088, 80186, 286,386, a few 486's (that was when i worked at the computer shop) 2 sx's and 2 dx's, then to a p166mmx, AMD 500, Then a few things that I don't remember, 1Ghz AMD, then my current 3Ghz P4. Also owned a few beater machines and 2 macs as second machines. I loved my 8088, I networked my parents house and setup 2 terminals one for each my sis and me off of that bugger. I was quite good with LANtastics.
I have you covered in computers Atomm..... Now you will figure out where I got my knowledge in computers.....
1) I had my sister's computer , 8088 for about a year while she was in Panama capturing Noriega, it was a bit after that, 2) I got my 386/sx16. A couple years later, 1400 Baud Modem... 3) I built my first PC, 486sx/66 28.8 modem Computer I really started surfing the web on. That lasted me another year until 4) I bought my 3rd PC, IBM Pentium 133 (I still have), a couple years later 33.6 modem 5) I built my 2'nd PC. Dished out $300 for a Pentium 256MMX, I was smokin now. 33.6 6) Then I build a P2 500, 56K 7-8 ) then a 1ghz and 900(2 at once) 56k 9 )Then a 1.5 AMD , 56k 10) a 1.9 AMD, 56k Still running - home webserver where I test things that make it here. :-) 11) Bought a Dell 2.4ghz, Cable connectiom, Still running gave to my mom 12) Bought a Dell 3Ghz P4, Still running, Sometimes Server2003, sometimes Linux 13) built a 3ghz P4 Still running Gaming Box.
Let's just say I've had so many spare parts over the past 10 years that I have built family members computers so I could get the spare parts out of the way. I've Actually been contemplating building my 14th this year. Thinking of trying the Athlon 64...
Raze wrote:Let's just say I've had so many spare parts over the past 10 years that I have built family members computers so I could get the spare parts out of the way.
I know what that is like, I was sorting through my spare parts boxes today.