![]() ![]() They shared message data by dialing each other late at night and shuffling packets down the line. ![]() There were no direct connections between the BBSes scattered across the country, though. For you real old-timers, it was like a grassroots, civilian DARPANET. What in the H-E Double Hockey Sticks was Fidonet? Fidonet was like a primitive Yahoogroups, I guess (I was gonna say “Usenet,” but fewer and fewer people know what that was/is). It wasn’t until I got my IBM (which came with a freaking 1200 baud modem), discovered a program called “ The Blue Wave,” and found that a couple of the more advanced local BBS systems were connected to something called “Fidonet” that I got a sense of the potential of online astronomy. While my friend's BBS was diverting fun, given the primitive nature of the C64 and its software, it really wasn’t of much practical use in astronomy-or anything else. While a BBS was sort of like a website, you had to disconnect and dial the phone number of another BBS to connect to a different “website.” How did you connect to one back in the dark ages? I plugged my 300 baud (don’t ask) modem cartridge into my C64, used a “terminal” program to dial the number of the desired BBS, and I was rocking and rolling online. A website that offered many and varied things: message boards, file downloads, news, pictures, etc. ![]() It was sorta like connecting to a big website, I suppose. “What exactly was a ‘BBS,’” the younguns ask? There’s nothing like one today, not precisely. A couple of little programs for the 64 for download, some local astro related messaging, and even a space picture or two (shazam!). While a lot of what he put on the air with his BBS was general-interest and Commodore computer related, he also had some astronomy offerings. Heck, he’d had a second phone line installed to facilitate things. A local amateur astronomer buddy of mine had gone C64 crazy, acquiring two or three of the blasted things, and had set up a Bulletin Board System, a BBS, for local Commodore users. Astroboard on ebay software#The new astro software popping up like daisies on a spring field was great, but it was soon obvious one of the biggest uses for computers in amateur astronomy would have nothing to do with running planetariums on your isolated computer it would have to do with computer to computer communications.Īctually, by the time I entered the world of serious computing with a genu-wine PC, I was already an online veteran. Astroboard on ebay Pc#When we last left microcomputer (you do remember that word?) crazy Uncle Rod, he’d transitioned from his Commodore 64 and Apple II Plus and Creative Computing Magazine, to an IBM 486, PC World, and, at long last, some truly useful astronomy software in the form of David Chandler’s Deep Space 3-D. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |