3 ms·

This account is very similar to my own including the start date, except we had a c64 (with disk drive). Even once we had a modem, virtually every BBS was long d

This account is very similar to my own including the start date, except we had a c64 (with disk drive). Even once we had a modem, virtually every BBS was long distance. It wasn't until I was well into highschool that the Internet was accessible out there. CD based encyclopedias were mostly sparse subsets of paper ones with some movies included. Knowledge was still hard to find and dated. Biyearly trips to the nearest city let me get some computer books, and since I couldn't connect out, I dove in and learned x86 assembler and the low level details of PC architecture. In retrospect, it was a very unique moment to be involved in computing and it produces a rather unique viewpoint.

phone8675309 3y ago
I've noticed this trend among my fellow 80s kids - connecting out was either expensive or impossible for many so they dove deeper into the details of how their computer worked. I have found that being able to stay on task and dig into these things has become a lot more difficult as I get older - part of that is probably age but part of it is that I have a World of Distraction available just a click away, and the pull of cheap dopamine is strong.
- galangalalgol 3y ago
  Part of it is also the vastly greater complexity of axi buses and svi2 buses and trusted compute modules that load stuff for the processor... Yeah I can't even follow the boot procedure of a modern computer. The arm cores in a usb3 controller have more juice than the computers I bhad back then.
ghaff 3y ago
During some period intrastate long distance (i.e. outside of your immediate local calling area) could actually be more expensive than a call to another state/area code. As I recall, at one point, I actually got a phone plan that let me call 40 or 50 miles into a subscription BBS into a nearby city so my telephone costs weren't exorbitant. (Still used various software that let me go in and out quickly and do most of my reading and writing offline.)

phone8675309 3y ago

I've noticed this trend among my fellow 80s kids - connecting out was either expensive or impossible for many so they dove deeper into the details of how their computer worked. I have found that being able to stay on task and dig into these things has become a lot more difficult as I get older - part of that is probably age but part of it is that I have a World of Distraction available just a click away, and the pull of cheap dopamine is strong.

galangalalgol 3y ago
Part of it is also the vastly greater complexity of axi buses and svi2 buses and trusted compute modules that load stuff for the processor... Yeah I can't even follow the boot procedure of a modern computer. The arm cores in a usb3 controller have more juice than the computers I bhad back then.

ghaff 3y ago

During some period intrastate long distance (i.e. outside of your immediate local calling area) could actually be more expensive than a call to another state/area code. As I recall, at one point, I actually got a phone plan that let me call 40 or 50 miles into a subscription BBS into a nearby city so my telephone costs weren't exorbitant. (Still used various software that let me go in and out quickly and do most of my reading and writing offline.)