RIP. Zmodem was so amazing. It was a huge step forward. I got started in 1980 with an old Hayes 300 baud modem on the Source, and graduated to Compuserve and BB

RIP. Zmodem was so amazing. It was a huge step forward. I got started in 1980 with an old Hayes 300 baud modem on the Source, and graduated to Compuserve and BBSes in 1986 when I got a 2400bps modem. When I got a 9600bps modem in ~1988, that's when things really took off for me online. Early BBS culture was really something else--we'd do meetups at the local Godfather's Pizza on Saturday afternoon and knew each other by our handles. We'd trade notes on new BBSes that had cool downloads or interesting message boards, and give each other advice on which companies had the best long distance plans. I remember doing math to calculate how many 3.5" disks worth of data I could download from a given BBS in another area code--IIRC it was something like $5 per disk with a 9600bps modem. I didn't even try downloading full games until I had a fast enough modem because downloading a floppy at 2400bps meant you'd blow out your daily time allocation before the download finished. What an era. Thanks Chuck.