Anyone ever chat on the old CompuServe Coin Chat Rooms

novacaesarea

For anybody that has, when you look at sites like this, you really marvel at how far coins and the hobby have come. Be interested in anyone's views.

novacaesarea

Hyperion

Russ is a fossil too Im sure he'll have an observation

robertpr

CompuServe, CompuCheap, why does the name Compu2000 ring a bell? LOL

Conder101

Did someone mention fossils?

Oh yes I remember Compuserve. I kind of liked their forum but it was "quaint" compared to all the forums, graphics, and activity we have today. But do you remember it back in the really old days with no graphics, colors, strictly BBS type format? (Compuserve coin forum was where I started online back in 1980 with 300 baud dial up modem. I couldn't afford one of those super fast 1.2K modems, and then there was the per minute connection fee on top of the monthly fee. And it was a long distance call to connect.)

Hyperion

oh god...here we go
anyone want to come up with a punchcard-programming story now ? we used to get annoyed with them in college by adjuncts

kranky

I never used CompuServe or other BBS's back then - just email. I didn't even know CompuServe had a coin chat back then. Any idea how many people were using that?

[Hyperion - I did actually use punch cards for a programming class ]

Conder101

Me too, learning COBOL on a batch processing IBM 360. Lucky to get one run a week because we couldn't convince the school that they had to keep the air conditioning on in the computer room even though the temperature outside had dropped below eighty.

DHeath

Seven programming assignments and 21 compiles represented an A. Every additional compile dropped you a letter grade. We used a 360 also. The message board I liked was Genie.

farthing

I learned programming using a teletype machine and punched tape. Punched cards were an improvement!

Coindexter

You guys make me feel sooooooooo young! Excellent!

Conder101

You think coins have changed, when I first got interested in computers if you wanted a personal computer you built it yourself, from parts not components. 4K of memory was on a board the size of my laptop keyboard, you soldered all the parts to the board yourself and wirewrapped the pins on the IC chips. No such thing as sockets yet. That 4K of storage cost over $600. (About $500,000 per Megabyte.)Today I have a 2 Gig flash drive the size of my thumb in my pocket that cost about $30. (About 66 cents per Meg.)

novacaesarea

Kranky,

It was a few years back, maybe early 1990s. There were a few dozen participants. Amazingly enough, I still am in regular contact with two of the members and a third remains active in EAC. I am not sure where the others went.

Really my observation was more in line with Condors in how difficult and expensive it was to hook up and chat with just a few coin enthusiasts. It's really amazing how things have changed. And how many people you can connect with online.

While a lot of things have changed in the hobby over the past twenty years, on-line access is definitely one of the positives.

Best,

novacaesarea

RickMilauskas

I actually had a programm class in college where we used punch cards in the early eighties.

At the end of the term, everyone threw their punch cards out the windows of the dorms and littered the streets like a ticker tape parade on steroids.

cladking

I made a few posts on a message board back in '92 but don't recall the name of the place.

It wasn't true chat but messages showed up immediately if memory serves.

robertpr

I only got into coins about 5 or 6 years ago but I do remember the days of GEnie and CompuServe, I liked GEnie for the games. I was in 6th of 7th grade about the time I started messing around with that. Also I remember using my school's 600 baud modem on an Apple II (yes, the kind with the black screen and green text, no graphics) to connect with several local BBS's. I remember there was a free local publication with just lists of local BBS phone numbers listed.