mirror-textfiles.com/bbs/CBBS/1993/930804.ch

PROTOCOL: ALT

CONNECT 2400
CBBS(R) 4.0.3b
08/04/93 21:31:26

Y/N: want CBBS "1st time user" info?^U
?^U
?^U
?n;ward;christensen;odraw;;fullc;piss

Logging name to disk...
You are caller 230381; next msg =46399;  372 active msgs.
Prev. call 07/31/93 @ 22:54, next msg was 46390
Recording logon for next time.
Use FULL? to check assignments
?^U
?xxxxx
"Mine" command checking for msgs TO you, ^K to abo
>Function:?dir c:log;dir c:killed;dir summary;type-20 log,ward c;or;*;short
LOG.  12 
KILLED.  29 
SUMMARY.  25 
07/31/93,22:54:07,230349,2,WARD CHRISTENSEN,,
E#46390,
E#46391,
E#46392,
E#46393,
E#46394,27
08/01/93,00:31:17,230350,2,STEVE CULVER,,
E#46395,10
08/01/93,03:25:58,230351,2,MICHAEL BRENNAN JR.,,3
08/01/93,10:26:12,230352,2,MURRAY ARNOW,,
E#46396,15
08/01/93,12:09:58,230353,2,BENJAMIN COHEN,,
E#46397,13
08/01/93,14:30:17,230354,2,QUIT EXIT,quit,
08/01/93,17:35:25,230355,2,BOB LUND,,9
08/01/93,21:15:31,230356,2,ALEX ZELL,,
08/01/93,21:26:56,230357,2,MURRAY ARNOW,,1
08/01/93,22:17:02,230358,2,DAVID JOHNSON,,11
08/02/93,01:08:44,230359,2,TONY ANTONUCCI,,
E#46398,16
08/02/93,04:14:27,230360,2,ERIC BOHLMAN,,5
08/02/93,11:44:14,230361,2,RAGHU VANGARA,,6
08/02/93,12:25:08,230362,2,ANDY SHAPIRO,,6
08/02/93,17:58:06,230363,2,TONY PAPSON,mcguire afb/ new jersey,
08/02/93,19:22:40,230364,2,ALEX ZELL,,
08/02/93,22:33:14,230365,2,BILL MATTSON,,3
08/02/93,23:04:33,230366,2,MURRAY ARNOW,,1
08/02/93,23:37:40,230367,2,DON PIVEN,,4
08/03/93,00:00:51,230368,2,NORB DEMBINSKI,,1
08/03/93,02:36:35,230369,2,ROY LIPSCOMB,,5
08/03/93,04:00:13,230370,2,DAVID EGER,,6
08/03/93,09:24:56,230371,2,PAT BALL,chicago,1
08/03/93,12:29:23,230372,2,PAT BALL,,2
08/03/93,14:29:05,230373,2,STEVE RYAN,,4
08/04/93,10:19:51,230374,2,PAT BALL,,1
08/04/93,10:29:14,230375,2,PAT BALL,,3
08/04/93,11:45:52,230376,2,PAT BALL,,6
08/04/93,11:58:16,230377,2,PAT BALL,,1
08/04/93,12:30:23,230378,2,ANDY SHAPIRO,,0
08/04/93,15:18:06,230379,2,ALEX ZELL,,
08/04/93,19:10:21,230380,2,PAUL BRAMEL,,17
08/04/93,21:31:30,230381,2,WARD CHRISTENSEN,,
46390X 07/31/93 WARD CHRISTENSEN => ROY LIPSCOMB: "R/1200 BAUD NOT OPERATING HERE"
46391 07/31/93 WARD CHRISTENSEN => MICHAEL BRENNAN JR.: "R/REPLY FROM MIKE B"
46392 07/31/93 WARD CHRISTENSEN => PAUL STREETER: "R/NEED HELP TO READ DBF'S/ ETC"
46393 07/31/93 WARD CHRISTENSEN => STEVE CULVER: "R/1ST BBS QUESTIONS"
46394 07/31/93 WARD CHRISTENSEN => STEVE CULVER: "R/1ST BBS QUESTIONS"
46395 08/01/93 STEVE CULVER => WARD CHRISTENSEN: "R/1ST BBS QUESTIONS"
46396 08/01/93 MURRAY ARNOW => WARD CHRISTENSEN: "IBM CIRCA 1970"
46397 08/01/93 BENJAMIN COHEN => WARD CHRISTENSEN: "R/GENEVA"
46398 08/02/93 TONY ANTONUCCI => ALL: "CURT & ALL"

 - End of summary - 

Retrieving flagged msgs: C skips, K aborts.
No msg 46390

Msg 46391 is 04 line(s) on 07/31/93 from WARD CHRISTENSEN
to MICHAEL BRENNAN JR. re: R/REPLY FROM MIKE B

 Talk to other 'computers'? Or do you mean other computer users?
 America On Line, is a large nationwide system (with a "Chicago OnLine")
that has TONS of online "chat" rooms, where different computer users get
together and talk about various topics.

Msg 46392 is 07 line(s) on 07/31/93 from WARD CHRISTENSEN
to PAUL STREETER re: R/NEED HELP TO READ DBF'S/ ETC

 If you go into a book store, I think they could search - I'm pretty sure
the book starts with the words "File formats", but not sure. It covers a
lot of different file formats.
 What do you want to do? If you just want to see a DBF, and not via an
index, it is QUITE simple - fixed length records, with a record layout
at the front of the file. I've done it before, but so long ago I don't
recall the details (it may have been helping a friend).

Msg 46393 is 30 line(s) on 07/31/93 from WARD CHRISTENSEN
to STEVE CULVER re: R/1ST BBS QUESTIONS

 Heh, not only don't I live in California, I live in the same house I did
when CBBS and XMODEM were invented. I see you gave a 414 area code. I was
born in West Bend, 30 miles N. of Milwaukee, and went to school @ Madison,
and graduated from "Milton", now defunkt.
 Facts: 1. I actually wrote "MODEM.ASM" and put it in the public domain
in late summer '77, and it was checksum only. Keith Petersen modified it
to hard-code my "quiet" switch so it could run "unattended" without having
to remember the Q switch, and called that variation "Xmodem", a name that
stuck as the name of the protocol.
 2. I didn't do CRC. I am TERRIBLE on names, I can picture him, his
Porche, his job at IBM, but am drawing a blank on the name as to who did
the CRC. It may be online on the Ward Board (708) 849-1132, an ancient
CP/M machine that refuses to die, otherwise it would be off the air.
 3. Yes, CBBS went on the air in early Feb '78, we officially call it
the 16th, as that was 30 days after its conception (during a big snow storm
on Jan 16, 1978 - snowed in, had to do something).
 4. Yes, Randy Suess and I did it. Went something like this. "Ring".
"Hey, Randy, how about working with me on a dial-in system for the computer
club - people could send in articles, etc. I have an extra system and
the phone line used by the club for recordings". reply: "Well, no, lets
put it at MY house since I'm in the city & You're in the burbs, and lets
forget the club - "committee projects" don't work out. You do the software,
I'll do the hardware, when will you be ready?" - or words to that effect.
 5. The first BBS was NOT what you said - that sounds like a "generic" name
for it. Its name was "CBBS", "Computerized Bulletin Board System", and
when it grew, it became CBBS/Chicago (as opposed to CBBS/NW in the northwest
for example.
 6. It operated at 110 & 300 baud, then via PMMI modem at variable baud
from 110-710, for folks who had the variable-baud rate PMMI.
 7. Yes, I conceived of the idea. Patterned after 'Cork board' type BBS.

Msg 46394 is 30 line(s) on 07/31/93 from WARD CHRISTENSEN
to STEVE CULVER re: R/1ST BBS QUESTIONS

 <Cont'd>
 1. Who am I and what do I do? Well, I started working for IBM in '68,
and was bitterly disappointed to find the sales offices didn't HAVE
computers! So I got interested in having my own - early '70s all that was
available of course was minis. In '74 I heard of micros, and "TTL" chips
for the first time, and spent the summer teaching myself digital electronics.
I built my own selectric typewriter terminal interface, and also an intf.
for a floppy drive, in '75. Thus when the IBM 8" diskette became standard
years later, I was incompatible due to having gotten in before standards
came about. SO, I needed a way to share my then-prolific programming
talents, and get other people's programs, and cassettes weren't "cool".
SO, based purely on an ascii ref card that showed words like "ACK", "EOT",
I wrote a program - and indirectly I guess - designed a protocol. I tried
to get Heath (now Zenith) to come out with a home computer kit in '74, but
they didn't have "the vision", and said "oh, we HAVE a computer - it is
analog". Similar results from asking IBM to come out with a micro - they
said "We don't see a market for such a device" - in '78 or so.
 I graduated from Milton College with a BA in Physics and Chemistry.
 2. Where'd the BBS idea come from? Well, Hayes had invented the modem
that you could answer the phone with, (I mean "at hobbyist prices" - there
were commercial auto-answer modems, too). Micros (they weren't called
PCs yet) were cheap enough to afford to have a 2nd one.
 At our club meetings, we had a cork board and push-pin bulletin board,
with 3x5 cards with things like "Need ride to next meeting", "Lets get
together for a group-purchase of memory chips", "anyone else have a KIM-1?",
etc. SO, I came up with the idea of "Computerizing" that - making a
"Computerized Bulletin Board System" - CBBS was born. We publicized it
in the local computer club newsletter, I told folks on Arpanet about it,
and I wrote an article for the November '78 BYTE magazine.
 Hope this does it!

Msg 46395 is 12 line(s) on 08/01/93 from STEVE CULVER
to WARD CHRISTENSEN re: R/1ST BBS QUESTIONS

Wow! Thanks much for your reply. I should have known that you of all people
would have verbose fingers. As it turns out, the space for the article
was cut down, so the section on the history of BBSs was only allowed one
paragraph. so you got stuck in there somewhere between the pony express and
the internet. I hope to be able to do a more comphrensive story on BBSs
for an upcoming issue (assuming that the mag survives that long). The mag
will have a booth at the PC Expo in Chicago, perhaps you would be stopping by
the booth - Computer REGISTER.

Thanks for the reply, I'll hang onto it as valuable material.

Steve

Msg 46396 is 06 line(s) on 08/01/93 from MURRAY ARNOW
to WARD CHRISTENSEN re: IBM CIRCA 1970

Maybe you can confirm something I heard about 20 years ago. When I was doing
my graduate work in Cincinnati around 25 years ago a friend of mine worked
for IBM in Lexington, KY. He mentioned that they were using PC's. He also
said that it was for internal use only and that IBM saw no market for them.
He said that their only marketing strategy was selling the mainframe computers
Have you ever heard any stories at Big Blue regarding this?

Msg 46397 is 02 line(s) on 08/01/93 from BENJAMIN COHEN
to WARD CHRISTENSEN re: R/GENEVA

If Andy can't find the BASIC ROM, let me know, and I'll send you mine (or a
copy of it).

Msg 46398 is 06 line(s) on 08/02/93 from TONY ANTONUCCI
to ALL re: CURT & ALL

My BBS is back. I was out of town, it was Thunder storm season, the dog ate
my diskette, etc. Actually I was out of town, our constant battle with heat
in the summer.
Interesting note: If you run your computer(s) constantly, as I do. Open them
up and blow out the dust every 2 or 3 weeks. I never realized how much it
builds up in that short of time.
dup. chars.
>Function:?