> one of the larger us BBS systems was execpc Around 1990 they started a parallel "less serious" service called execpc chat, or something like that (had a few

> one of the larger us BBS systems was execpc Around 1990 they started a parallel "less serious" service called execpc chat, or something like that (had a few names) and I played online trivia on exec chat for MANY hours. For some strange reason I seem to remember Thursday nights. For a long time if you had a subscription to the "serious" execpc they gave away a subscription to the "fun" exec chat service. Eventually around '92 I got on the internet and IRC (later MUDs) then dozens of people because normal. Exec-PC the main service had an interesting file search system that used an enormous number of PCs in parallel and they called it hyper-search or something like that and it was ridiculously fast, like Google search speed. You could tell if someone was serious about BBS stuff because they had multiple PCs on their desk. The fancier PC for gaming or programming or using in general, and the lame PC that barely booted but could be dedicated to downloading files for an hour or whatever who cares. Magnetic interference between adjacent CRT monitors was a problem, or some company named "Black Box" sold monitor switchboxes so you could have as many as four analog VGA PCs plugged into one monitor, only one visible at a time of course, or a similar switch could connect one keyboard to multiple computers. I remember seeing an ad for my first KVM switch, well, KV, anyway, and that was pretty mindblowing that you only need one box instead of two. I had multiple PCs on my desk from the late 80s until about 2018, habit I guess. Many people also had a TV on their desk; start a download, watch TV, who cares how long the download takes.