Subject: Re: In search of Christopher Willis

From: chris <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri May 16 10:40:33 2003

>What is a BBS?

Yikes. My first reaction was this must be a joke. Someone on this list 
doesn't know what a BBS is.

But then I realized, this is a list for classic computers, with the 
definition of classic being older than 10 years. By 1993 the internet was 
on a solid growth, and BBSs were already hard to find.

Kind of scary that some of the people that might just be getting into 
this "lifestyle" (now that we have determined it is a lifestyle) honestly 
may not know what a BBS is. Nor might they know anything about much that 
predates the existance of Windows and the Mac OS.

Hopefully, we can welcome the new people, and educate them to what they 
have missed out on... while keeping the list from degrading into a 
glorified Windows 95 tech support forum.

-chris
<http://www.mythtech.net>

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From: Joe <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri May 16 10:40:57 2003

>doesn't know what a BBS is.

  Next he'll want to know what a Teletype is! :-/

    Joe

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From: Gene Buckle <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri May 16 10:41:21 2003

> on a solid growth, and BBSs were already hard to find.
Horsepucky.  Boards didn't begin to decline until 1995 or so. :)

g.

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From: "Thompson Family" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri May 16 17:01:49 2003

LOL I have a teletype and all the original receipts, manuals and service
bulletins.
Times are changing. Of course I got it and a big stash of other stuff from
someone who left it at my brother's house during a divorce. He disappears
and after 15 years or so I got it. I have been picking up the odd piece here
and there just because they are cheap and here seems to be a market for
them.

I never heard of a BBS. It ranks up there with butter churn parts and
knowledge of how to crank start a car. It is good to know but it is not
something you'd run across  - well except here. It is interesting to think
of all the detailed knowledge lost throughout history as it simply had no
use and was not preserved.

Computing has gone the path of automobiles. The first generation of owners
were hobbyists, mechanics and it evolved into an everyday thing. They have
become collectible the same as baskets, old weather vanes and Stickley
chairs.

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From: Mail List <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun May 18 02:21:04 2003

> It is interesting to think of all the detailed knowledge lost throughout 
history

But it almost seems like it was only yesterday.

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From: Tothwolf <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun May 18 02:22:50 2003

On Fri, 16 May 2003, Mail List wrote:
> > knowledge of how to crank start a car. It is good to know but it is
> > not something you'd run across - well except here. It is interesting
> > to think of all the detailed knowledge lost throughout history as it
> > simply had no use and was not preserved.
>

Seems like? Uhm, it probably *was* only yesterday for some of us...or even
just a few hours ago ;)

-Toth