4 ms·

I think it helps to remember that programming was "secretarial" work back then. Essentially, most programmers were women, and working from home meant they were

I think it helps to remember that programming was "secretarial" work back then. Essentially, most programmers were women, and working from home meant they were also able to keep up their home duties and child-care. Back then you'd program in punch cards, so if you have the punch-card equipment you could do this near anywhere. So there wasn't a big difference between being at home or the office. It also allowed managers to hire low-wage women easier. It wasn't later that IT became a more profitable and less niche field that these women were pushed out and replaced with men. Programming stopped being 'pink collar' due to this dynamic. As far as modems go, we didnt really see that get big until the 1980s with speeds like 1200-2400 baud being groundbreakingly fast compared to 300 baud. You could receive or send text almost as fast as you could read it or type it, so it was not that different than using a green screen terminal at work or at university.

pmontra 3y ago
The cost of a 8 hours phone call would be huge, at least in my country. Of course if the company is paying for it, great! They would have to install a separate phone line not only to ease billing but also because you'd be unreachable all day long. I remember that the fixed costs were not negligible but again, if the company is paying for it out of the money they make selling your work, that's OK.
- zoeysmithe 3y ago
  I think in the old, old days you'd do a batch job. So you'd connect, then upload/download at whatever baud speed was accepted. Your modem would only connect for x amount of minutes. Later, more 'always on' was possible. In the US, the phone system was setup in a way that local calls, defined by geographic rings based on switching stations, were 0 cents a minute after the initial first minute. So that allowed things like BBS culture to thrive.

pmontra 3y ago

The cost of a 8 hours phone call would be huge, at least in my country. Of course if the company is paying for it, great! They would have to install a separate phone line not only to ease billing but also because you'd be unreachable all day long. I remember that the fixed costs were not negligible but again, if the company is paying for it out of the money they make selling your work, that's OK.

zoeysmithe 3y ago
I think in the old, old days you'd do a batch job. So you'd connect, then upload/download at whatever baud speed was accepted. Your modem would only connect for x amount of minutes. Later, more 'always on' was possible. In the US, the phone system was setup in a way that local calls, defined by geographic rings based on switching stations, were 0 cents a minute after the initial first minute. So that allowed things like BBS culture to thrive.