Was helping my father fix up my uncle's old PC just now. Helping him to connect to mySingtel, the dialup service. My old 56k modem was commissioned for the job. New lease of life for that little black box :)
As I hooked it up to the wall outlet, I couldn't help but reminisce a little about the old days. Ah.. the days when computer networking didn't mean the Internet. It meant BBS'es - Bulletin Board Service. Somebody runs a program on his computer and leaves it on 24hrs (or fixed periods, like opening hours), and other people get to connect to his computer through the phone lines (with a modem, of course). Most were small affairs where only one person could connect at a time. Then there were the juggernauts that could take 30+, even 100+, people.
What did we do on BBS'es? Back in those days when there was no residential Internet access, BBS'es were where you downloaded files, email (most of the time restricted to people using the same BBS), played games, and chatted (if that BBS had multiple users).
I can't even begin to describe the experience in today's context. If your first experience with a computer is Windows, then it's difficult for you to imagine life without a graphical user interface. That's how it was with BBS'es (of course, everything else in DOS too). Everything was text-based. Ah, but there was ANSI art! Here's a sample. So even on a 80x25 screen, things could still look nice and colorful. The subtlety of it.
Well, of course, I'm happy with today's broadband Internet, but I just think there was so much charm on those old VGA screens. Haha, hearing the modem sing its tune when it was connecting brought a little warmth to me. What a geek.
Comments (6)
Wow... those were the days indeed. :) Haha... thanks for sharing, brought back warm memories. :D
Posted by yeu@nn | October 22, 2005 2:32 AM
Posted on October 22, 2005 02:32
"New lease of life for that little black box"... "hearing the modem sing its tune when it was connecting"... hahahahaha. :)
Posted by huichun | October 23, 2005 12:31 AM
Posted on October 23, 2005 00:31
Sing its tune? More like scream its tune... ;) hey! we could record its scream and use it as a login sound for Ubuntu/WinXP... then naive newbies will think that we're logging in via dial-up... LOL...
Posted by yeu@nn | October 23, 2005 1:54 AM
Posted on October 23, 2005 01:54
i prefer sing!! lol
oh, the login sound idea is not bad!! haha
Posted by Weizhu | October 23, 2005 8:04 PM
Posted on October 23, 2005 20:04
i think "sing" sounds nicer hahaha, plus its in tuen with the whole feel of a "new lease of life"...
seriously the treatment of old stuff is always of concern to me, like wat to do with an old laptop, digital camera, etc etc... dun tell me to sell them, the price is not worthy of them... i'd very much prefer leaving them in the hands of ppl who really need them, then for some pesky business to make a profit out of it hahaha
anyway i'll need to think of settlements for my laptop and digital camera soon, i shd be upgrading my digi within 6 months and my lappy before i enter NIE
Posted by KC | November 1, 2005 5:31 AM
Posted on November 1, 2005 05:31
i think depending on wat ur new camera is like, u might keep ur current one as a compact to bring around. if not, im sure lots of ppl would be blessed by a new camera :P
laptop? install a low-resource linux on it and run it as a server... hmm.. or a "mediabox". connect it to speakers and TV, store ur media on it, install a small linux for this purpose. All it does is plays songs and videos and photos for the rest of its life ...
Posted by Weizhu | November 1, 2005 10:13 AM
Posted on November 1, 2005 10:13