Early Internet (or not) Experiences
Ed Brayton brought back memories talking about how he first got online. I first encountered Ed on the Compuserve Religion Forum, and since then I have enjoyed reading his blog, Dispatches from the Culture Wars and The Panda’s Thumb, of which he was a founder. We have another connection, in that he is co-founder and president of Michigan Citizens for Science, and I’m a founding member and board member of Florida Citizens for Science.
I first got online using a Sharp PC-1500 with a Radio shack RS232 port attached, and I believe it was at 150 bpsbaud, though I don’t remember very clearly. That was in the early 80s. The experience was not all that exciting except for the fact that I did get logged in. I went on to get involved just a bit with FidoNet, and operated The Wind Dragon Inn in Bellevue, NE. I had a 20 MB hard drive, a 1200 baudbps modem and I thought I was pretty wonderful.
It was a few years before I expanded to the Religion Forum which was where I first encountered Ed. But I think I’m dating myself. (Also corrected my misuse of baud and bps.)
