2018-03-09 at 2:40 AM UTC
-SpectraL, as far as I'm aware, that didn't apply before the WWW. When you actually had to dial in, it DID cost money. Can you post a source that it was free before the WWW?
2018-03-09 at 2:58 AM UTC
Originally posted by -SpectraL
What do you mean by "work"? There was no work involved. If you were connecting to another phone line anywhere in the world by modem, long distance changes did not apply.
not whenever i did it in the 80s. if a weeeeeee-vvvvvkkkkkkkvvvv-zzzzzzrrrrr-kkkkkkkk modem that attached to the end of telephone was connected to another modem, any charges that applied to a voice call applied.
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2018-03-09 at 3:01 AM UTC
Originally posted by -SpectraL
None of you scare me one bit.
One dialed into Totse using a standard phone line and a modem. No long distance charges applied, no matter where in the world you were dialing in from. The software used was HyperTerminal, which was TelNet-based. Once connected to the BBS node, one was presented with a full screen of colorful ASCII text, which described the site and contents, and also provided information about the BBS itself and its mission statement. Navigation to the next screen was accomplished with a combination of the LEFT/RIGHT arrow keys, the TAB key, the ESC key, and the Enter key, also the F1, F2, F3, F4 and F5 keys. The second screen in contained a flashing prompt at the bottom the screen, which allowed you to either choose a handle of your choice, or remain as anonymous, the default. The following screen contained a listing of the .NFOs contained therein, a kind of index, which one could open as plaintext and peruse. Once a topic of interest was discovered, the user would then use the navigation keys to page over to the appropriate section, whereupon all the text files for that particular item of interest resided. One could then highlight the item requested and press Enter and load the file for viewing, closing out back to the file list with the ESC key. Totse was unique, in the way that it had no "ratio", which means you didn't have to upload to get enough credits to download; it was a free information command center for the entire planet. No search engines. No browsers. No Internet at all yet.
Now, how could I know all this if I wasn't actually there? Try and Google this kind of information, you won't find it anywhere. All my peers of those days long ago are either dead or in a nursing home. I am one of the few survivors of that era. Once upon a time, we peppered the horizon like the buffalo. Today, we are like the last-surviving remnants of a great nuclear holocaust, roaming the barren lands in search of sustenance.
so you're saying we can't verify this then? that's all just conjecture then and not admissible as evidence.
.
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2018-03-09 at 3:04 AM UTC
I like how he said all his peers from 1990 are long dead or in a nursing home.
They're in their late 30s at the earliest, you insane fuck.
2018-03-09 at 4:05 AM UTC
He's saying that in theory, when you link one computer to the next with in a Call Zone, no Toll fees would be required. before we had "Call anywhere (in your country) for one basic monthly fee. calls were fucking expensive. You could call a neighbor down the block, yet if you were in one region and they jumped to the next, you would be charged a toll. in the 1980s your phone bill could be hundreds of dollars a month.
but I think SpectraL is confusing Telnet which uses no voice data (which takes more power for sending voice through analog phone signals) it just uses this pulse beat (cant think of the term) to send commands for letters, numbers and such.. this was used for the blind and deaf or mute people who original used TTY in case of an emergency. You could use TTY calling like 911 is a form of telnet service. it was cheaper and one month basic fee.
The concept that SpectraL is saying is what Jeff and his friends wanted before HTTP was released by some european guy in 1993.
though I didn't get a true gateway to http broadband until late in the 90s probably. still stuck on a 56k with probably half of that speed from crappy phone line connections.
2018-03-09 at 5:25 AM UTC
SpectraL, you got rekt in this thread, that's gotta hurt.
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