A 1985 Essay from a Bulletin Board System Admin Foretold Our Future(motherboard.vice.com)
motherboard.vice.com
A 1985 Essay from a Bulletin Board System Admin Foretold Our Future
http://motherboard.vice.com/read/a-1985-essay-from-a-bulletin-board-system-admin-eerily-foretold-our-future
6 comments
For most people, "online" means "the web", so roughly two decades of online services (1975-95) have ceased to exist. This includes FidoNet, Usenet, Prestel, Teletel, CompuServe, AOL, Prodigy and too many others to mention.
Of those, only AOL still seems to have any mind-share, and that's probably because it eventually provided internet email and browser-based web connections.
Of those, only AOL still seems to have any mind-share, and that's probably because it eventually provided internet email and browser-based web connections.
For a lot of people, AOL was their original ISP given how ubiquitous their disks were pre-broadband.
It's interesting that pre-web, you really had a number of largely non-overlapping online communities (which didn't even intersect all that much within the broad groups). I'm not sure that most people appreciate how fragmented the entire thing was. There was no real universal email for a long time.
Individual BBSs - which also had some shared boards through systems like PCRelay
Commercial "BBSs" like Compuserve, AOL, Delphi, etc.
Usenet which was the only one which was actually part of the Internet.
It's interesting that pre-web, you really had a number of largely non-overlapping online communities (which didn't even intersect all that much within the broad groups). I'm not sure that most people appreciate how fragmented the entire thing was. There was no real universal email for a long time.
Individual BBSs - which also had some shared boards through systems like PCRelay
Commercial "BBSs" like Compuserve, AOL, Delphi, etc.
Usenet which was the only one which was actually part of the Internet.
> I'm not sure that most people appreciate how fragmented the entire thing was. There was no real universal email for a long time.
Nor how expensive it was.
http://imgur.com/xz3k9OC
Compuserve was $11 per hour. Delphi was $6 per hour.
$11 in 1998 is $22 now.
Nor how expensive it was.
http://imgur.com/xz3k9OC
Compuserve was $11 per hour. Delphi was $6 per hour.
$11 in 1998 is $22 now.
And that's not even counting the fact that even intra-state dialing outside of the local calling area was metered per minute at non-trivial rate. When I was BBSing and had a subscription to a service in a nearby city (which was still an intra-state long distance call), I used software that sucked down BBS content and let me read and reply offline.
Cellphones used to include unlimited forwarding so I would set my cell phone to forward to the BBS I wanted to call and then I would call my cell phone with my terminal software. Cell phone companies figure that out and limited the number of minutes allowed for forwarding.
When I was getting started Compuserve was $6 per hour for 300 baud and $11 for 1200 baud.
I was in 6th grade at the time and caused a number of rather large monthly bills to the point my family cancelled the service.
I did later go on to run a BBS which included FidoNet. That was incredibly fun stuff.
I was in 6th grade at the time and caused a number of rather large monthly bills to the point my family cancelled the service.
I did later go on to run a BBS which included FidoNet. That was incredibly fun stuff.
Hey, I still use my CompuServe email daily! (Same address since 1997!)
I was a Compuserve subscriber for a long time starting sometime in the early eighties. Not sure exactly when I stopped using it entirely. I used it for various things and I was reasonably active in the shareware scene for a time which used CIS as their main member discussion forum. As I recall, CIS was also my gateway to Internet email for a time before I got my own email through my BBS (which became an ISP like other commercial BBSs at the time).
I occasionally see @aol.com addresses and cringe to think that people might still be paying $20/month for it. Is a compuserve account free at least?
AOL acquired CompuServe, but still maintains the mail servers - for now. People go all wide-eyed when they hear my '@csi.com' address, associating it with the TV series.
But, yes, it's free ;-)
But, yes, it's free ;-)
I agree with you that we tend to ignore our immediate history and not see things for how they were - but, how do we fix this, exactly? By telling each other about these articles .. I was around in those days, my eyes have been rolling and rolling over the years as we see Hot New Stuff get released that is really just Old Stuff Ignored, Re-invented. There are definitely cycles of insomnia in our culture.
So for me anyway its great to see these predictions coming out of the woodwork, and to recall some of the great, fine essays that were produced in the early years of electronic media consumption. So much great stuff, lost to the electrons of time..
So for me anyway its great to see these predictions coming out of the woodwork, and to recall some of the great, fine essays that were produced in the early years of electronic media consumption. So much great stuff, lost to the electrons of time..
Yep. Of course this guy's post didn't exist in a vacuum, but most people aren't aware of how back online culture goes. Most hacker kids nowadays haven't even heard of Clifford Stoll or "The Cucko's Egg"(1).
(1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cuckoo%27s_Egg
(1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cuckoo%27s_Egg
It took me a moment to realize why I was stuck in the internet revisionist mindset even though I know many of the early computer crime stories. It's because the security game has played out generationally - the publically known techniques used to break into systems in 1995 were less sophisticated than those seen now. This a war that has quietly been fought since the first secret messages, on a battlefield that is now shifting with increasing speed and is tilted heavily in favor of offense. The common advice one had to take control of one's information in the 90's just isn't any good now - there are critically failing holes in the infrastructure that make individual defense a Sisyphiean task.
But relative to now, gaining unauthorized access to a valuable system in the 80's or 90's would still be challenging, as the bag of tricks would be different, less widely known, and you might need more expensive equipment.
But relative to now, gaining unauthorized access to a valuable system in the 80's or 90's would still be challenging, as the bag of tricks would be different, less widely known, and you might need more expensive equipment.
[deleted]
It's kind of like how people keep pretending there wasn't a decade of pocket computers before the iPhone.
It seem like a bit of a reach or modern reinterpretation. I think you could write an article based on Byte Magazine Volume 10 Number 13 - Computer Conferencing[1] very much like this one predicting social networks.
1) https://archive.org/details/byte-magazine-1985-12
1) https://archive.org/details/byte-magazine-1985-12
A bit off topic, but this line stuck out: "I did some googling and couldn’t find any information on Inman, except for some mentions in lists of BBSes of times gone by."
It's a pretty self-damning statement by the author that the extent of their research is confined to "googling". Motherboard Vice's about page says it's "With in-depth blogging, longform reporting, and video journalism, Motherboard investigates the news and events that are already affecting the years to come." This article falls short of any of that.
It's a pretty self-damning statement by the author that the extent of their research is confined to "googling". Motherboard Vice's about page says it's "With in-depth blogging, longform reporting, and video journalism, Motherboard investigates the news and events that are already affecting the years to come." This article falls short of any of that.
vice.com is the same kind of clickbait trash as a Gawker site or Vox or whatever. But this is what journalism has become now.
This is the sad reality. The last bastion of true journalism now exists within NPR (at least to a degree) or outside the United States. Sensationalist media with only a surface approach to journalism has become the rule and no longer just the exception.
I think both parent and grand-parent just haven't seen Vice enough to get the full picture. While I'll grant the fact that some of their channels err on the side of fluff, I do consider the fact that they routinely send journalists to war areas (ISIS, Ukraine) and report from there, or other inhospitable places (e.g. North Korea, central Africa, the Amazon) a display of something more than just a "surface approach to journalism". Or clickbait trash :-)
Edit: Tried to make my comment less harsh.
Edit: Tried to make my comment less harsh.
> The last bastion of true journalism now exists within NPR (at least to a degree) or outside the United States.
As someone who works in the press industry, but you'd be forgiven for thinking this is the case. There are a number of outfits doing hard hitting, deep journalism. Bigger names include NYT, WaPo, even Bloomberg. You are right in the aspect that those sorts of articles usually aren't headline pieces in favor of the shorter form click-bait. They do themselves a disservice in that respect. But don't mistake that for absence of good journalism.
As someone who works in the press industry, but you'd be forgiven for thinking this is the case. There are a number of outfits doing hard hitting, deep journalism. Bigger names include NYT, WaPo, even Bloomberg. You are right in the aspect that those sorts of articles usually aren't headline pieces in favor of the shorter form click-bait. They do themselves a disservice in that respect. But don't mistake that for absence of good journalism.
All 3 of those you mention do have good pieces, but they really suffer (to me at least) from brand dilution. I know there is good info on the site, and some articles are superb, insightful and good sources of info, but the brand doesn't guarantee real journalism (to me).
I think you're being a bit unfair in this case. It's something he found interesting while doing research for a different piece and he decided to share. More biographical details on the author of the original piece (and even tracking him down for an interview) might have provided more color and context but you can't really do deep research for every 1,000 word article you publish.
It's a tradeoff and the fact that the tradeoff is so often made in favor of shallow and quick these days doesn't change the fact that most writers can't spend days making phone calls and visiting libraries for every piece they write.
It's a tradeoff and the fact that the tradeoff is so often made in favor of shallow and quick these days doesn't change the fact that most writers can't spend days making phone calls and visiting libraries for every piece they write.
I loved the BBS era. For those of us kids who saw Wargames at the movie theater it was almost like magic.
My first modem was 300 baud. You haven't lived until your mom ruined your 5 hour download of a sweet 300-500k game because she picked up the phone. Good times.
My first modem was 300 baud. You haven't lived until your mom ruined your 5 hour download of a sweet 300-500k game because she picked up the phone. Good times.
I would also add that you haven't lived until your mom burst into your room holding a phone bill for hundreds of dollars and demanding an explanation.
Now that brings back memories!
"Who were you talking to in Pennsylvania for four hours in the middle of the night for a week!?"
"Who were you talking to in Pennsylvania for four hours in the middle of the night for a week!?"
That's when you start phreaking. Then you learn to deal with your mom bursting in the room when you get a letter from the phone company investigating wire fraud.
Took me a while to convince my mother that the credit card generator that I used for "free" accounts was actually just part of a video game I was playing. She found a print out of some fake AMEX numbers and was not pleased.
Brings back memories of using CC generators to call 1-900 numbers for free or pay for random services online. I still dont know how I never got in trouble.
We also used keygens so we could play online games online for free with a burned disc (or to play over LAN).
We also used keygens so we could play online games online for free with a burned disc (or to play over LAN).
Happened to me in 1985. Racked up a $350 phone bill in one month using my Mitey Mo 300 bps modem. Parents took the modem for a month. Then I fixed the problem by finding some long distance company's calling card access numbers (Sprint, MCI) and had the Commodore 64 my BBS ran on hack them out every night between 2 am and 6 am. I would get about a dozen codes per night.
I just miss BBS games like LORD[0] and Trade Wars[1] in their "natural" setting.
Sure, I can play them now, but when dialing in to a BBS meant spending actual money on long distance calls, most people who played those games were pretty serious about it. Similar to how most DWANGO[2] players were also pretty solid and didn't mess around.
Another fond memory: finding a BBS list on one BBS, and then dialing into all of the new ones to see what they had to offer. Was a great way to spend the night while the parents were asleep.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legend_of_the_Red_Dragon [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade_Wars [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DWANGO
Sure, I can play them now, but when dialing in to a BBS meant spending actual money on long distance calls, most people who played those games were pretty serious about it. Similar to how most DWANGO[2] players were also pretty solid and didn't mess around.
Another fond memory: finding a BBS list on one BBS, and then dialing into all of the new ones to see what they had to offer. Was a great way to spend the night while the parents were asleep.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legend_of_the_Red_Dragon [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade_Wars [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DWANGO
The scanned essay:
http://motherboard-images.vice.com/content-images/article/no...
http://motherboard-images.vice.com/content-images/article/no...
Is there a text-version of this?
I'd like to know this too.
I get this impression the "research" conducted in the article involved actual printed material and not something like textfiles.org.
I quote-searched a couple of sentences from the article on Google, and got the article back as the sole result.
I get this impression the "research" conducted in the article involved actual printed material and not something like textfiles.org.
I quote-searched a couple of sentences from the article on Google, and got the article back as the sole result.
While this is interesting, most of the facts were openly being discussed and are not huge leaps of faith to see coming.
Underground Economies - You had a huge recession in the 1980's. People were not happy with the government and employment spiked to 9%. This idea wasn't a huge stretch considering the political and economic environments at the time.
Computer Hacking - Security was non-existent in those days and a myriad of high profile attacks had already occurred: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_computer_security_... It's a not a huge leap to see that security would always be a few steps behind well organized hackers.
Privacy - People have been talking about the loss of privacy going back to the 1950's and 60's with the Watergate break in. Nothing really big here, only that computers would make it easier to keep tabs on the general public, not harder. Hell, people were already talking about Orwell's "1984" which supposedly predicted a lot of what was going in 1985 - in 1949!!
Underground Economies - You had a huge recession in the 1980's. People were not happy with the government and employment spiked to 9%. This idea wasn't a huge stretch considering the political and economic environments at the time.
Computer Hacking - Security was non-existent in those days and a myriad of high profile attacks had already occurred: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_computer_security_... It's a not a huge leap to see that security would always be a few steps behind well organized hackers.
Privacy - People have been talking about the loss of privacy going back to the 1950's and 60's with the Watergate break in. Nothing really big here, only that computers would make it easier to keep tabs on the general public, not harder. Hell, people were already talking about Orwell's "1984" which supposedly predicted a lot of what was going in 1985 - in 1949!!
It's entirely possible the rest of the essay predicted flying cars, but the published bits are good...
The reality is that by 1985 the UK already had the Data Protection Act, the US had computer crime acts in place, high profile hacks had occurred (notably the hacking of the Duke of Edinburgh's email in the UK), 2600 was being published, and WarGames far from being a 'hokey hacking movie' actually showed the reality of the sort of hacking that someone would undertake (dialing through phone number after phone number and accessing systems that were largely unprotected).
If you were immersed in the BBS scene or Usenet at this time these things were being openly discussed. This essay feels like a very basic summary of some of what was going on.