blog.noetech.com

Newly Digital

Adam Kalsey has a project called Newly Digital where he initially asked 11 people to write about their first computing experience and is now asking everyone to participate. So read on to read mine.

via Six Log

My first experience online is what stands out to me the most when I think of fist computer experiences. I had some great times with an apple ][ in grade school, Oregon trail and Logo being two great things. But no, being online was the thing that changed me the most.

In 1994 I received my first computer with a modem. An Apple Quadra 660av. I loved that thing. I could hook it up to a VCR and watch TV for god's sake! I had reached nirvana compared to my IBM clone running some version of DOS, it was too old to run Windows 3.1 (I'll never know why after our first Mac in 1985 my parents started buying PCs).

When I say online I don't mean the internet. My first experiences came from BBSs (Bulletin Board Systems). Stand alone computers loosely connected by Fidonet. I can't remember who gave me the number for that first BBS, but who ever it was I owe them some nice brownies or something. It was a local one, and it turns out the only one in my town. It was OK, it had all the RPG games of the time, but it lacked the larger group of people I was looking for.

On that first board I found a number for one in Madison. Now this one I loved. It had a Fidonet account so I was able to communicate with a much larger portion of the world, and it even had a internet mail gateway so you could send mail to others (I would refuse to get an internet account for too many years).

Soon I was dialing all over the country, there was one in Alaska that was a particular favorite. You can imagine what our phone bill was. When the first telephone bill came my dad wasn't even that mad. I was so surprised, I thought he would have killed me. All he asked was that I cut back a little, especially to Alaska :-)

Soon dialing wasn't enough, I wanted to receive. I found a BBS program for my Mac, Hermes, and I was on my way. It was never that popular but I had a few regulars and I made some friends. I enjoyed meeting all those people, the Mac vs. PC fights, the easily available porn (so nice when you're 15), and the ANSI art (which I was never good at). Hermes didn't have any good RPGs but it was still a great board.

It was fun while it lasted, which wasn't long. Family problems got in the way, the internet got more exciting, and girls started to like me, but I'll remember those years for the rest of my life. BBSs are what really started me on computers. I was able to find answers to all my questions and I had a lot of them. I learned that computers could be understood, that I could understand them.

From gti @ GTI BBS