Better and worse. One thing I sorely miss is printed documentation -- especially the (unix) permuted index. Even today, I'm convinced that I understand and re

Better and worse. One thing I sorely miss is printed documentation -- especially the (unix) permuted index. Even today, I'm convinced that I understand and remember information better when I can hold an actual book in my hand as I read. Long before internet access was available for what the NSF used to call "commercial traffic", we were already connected to each other through store and forward networks like uucpnet, FidoNet (fight-o-net), and WWIVnet. Instead of an ISP, you'd connect by modem to a BBS (TAG BBS ftw!). And for most BBSs, only one person could connect at a time. If you were a user that meant you'd have your terminal program (Telix was my favorite) set to keep redialing across several BBSs till you connected to one. Sometimes you'd be redialing for most of the early evening before your modem squawked and squealed which meant you'd finally gotten in. The BBS itself, was just some hobbyists computer. And the Sysop (system operator/owner) may or may not have participated in one of the aforementioned store and forward networks. If not, there would be local discussion boards, file download areas, and usually a few doors (games). Popular games I ran on my BBS were Tradewars and Geopolitics -- and like everything else, it was multiuser but only one person at any given time. Being a Sysop had three main benefits: [1] it was fun; [2] US Robotics gave you a sweet deal on a high-speed modem; [3] whenever you were sitting there connecting to other BBSs (thus tying up the line) people just assumed the busy signal meant your board was more popular than it was. For those of us who were writing software, there were usenet newsgroups like comp.lang.c and FidoNet echos like 'the c echo' where we could discuss and trade code with people around the world. But honestly, I spent far more time reading talk.bizarre than doing useful C-related stuff. That little edge though -- having easy access to other people from all over the world, made me seem far smarter at work than I really was. That, and being able to read a man page... Can't believe that makes me an old-timer :-(