The Online Handbook circa 1984
In about 1984, I bought a book called “The Online Handbook”. The book showed me that there was a dark and strange world out there inside computers that connected to phone systems all over the world. I was given a 300 baud modem and used to log into these strange computer systems in the middle of the night, leaving messages for even stranger people.
In 1988, I borrowed a 1,200 modem. I would log into my favourite BBS system but the modem had no error control so a squirt of static on the line would produce a load of “greek” (we used to call it) on the screen! It’s very funny, looking back! By 1989, I had bought an US Robotics HST 14,400 modem from the US. This rocketed me up to 14,400 baud (faster, I remember with a matching Sysop system?). It was illegal to connect this modem to the UK phone system because it didn’t have a “green sticker” but I did anyway with no harm to anyone. The damned thing was £500. A ton of money back then.
Anyway, I just saw a mate of mine pop up on Skype’s toolbar: “Ken Williams is online” and it reminded me of how I got into this odd world. Of course, in the old days, we would either be off-line or on-line. I introduced Wendy to my favourite BBS in 1994 (cix.co.uk) and calling the system was expensive, so we had software to log in, download all the new messages and then hang up. We called this “blinking”. I wonder if it was only the UK that “blinked”?
C.
