Re: [Somewhat More OT] Closed source software Was [Re: Hmmm. A question. Was [Re: Debian is losing its users]]

On Sun, Apr 06, 2008 at 07:45:59PM -0700, Andrew Sackville-West wrote:

I remember upgrading my C-64's 300 baud modem to a 1200baud one. That
was so cool. No more typing faster than the modem... I used to "chat"
with my friends using terminal programs we'd written ourselves
complete with xmodem protocol all written in c-64 basic. (I even had a
rudimentary scripting language built-in to mine to allow scripting the
handshake/login procedures at various bulletin boards. ) I don't know
why we didn't just call each other. It would have been so much
easier... geeks.


I made a spark-gap transmitter to send morse code to my friend's AM
radio three blocks away. Of course, I was sending to everyone within 6
blocks, and the antenna reached half-way there anyway through the tops
of the oak trees. Honest dad, I don't know how that wire ended up
there...


I still remember the magic a few years ago (I know it wasn't magic, but
hey) when I was in a motel in Owen Sound Ontario for the winter and
couldn't get a decent weather report. I hooked my portable SW receiver
to the laptop, installed hamfax (off the set of Woody CDs), and pulled
off the weather map from the Sackville Nova Scotia Coast Guard Radio.
Not bad considering I had just the built-in antenna and the Coast Guard
was transmitting to the Atlantic Ocean, not the Great Lakes.

That was the same P-II laptop that I was reading in a tent when the tent
got hit (or just missed) by lightening. Thank heavens for metal poles.
The display is fried and now the battery and hard drive are dead so I am
laptopless.

Doug.



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