Comments on: WinCIM, lose some

By: CGHill

CGHill — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 17:35:25 +0000

I had a presence on P* myself. (CMFW43A)

By: Brian J.

Brian J. — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 17:15:26 +0000

Jumpers, DMAs, and IRQs. Those were the days. You could actually see how it was configured, which beat out the esoteric locations for setting those interrupts and whatnot in the software back before plug’n'play.

Also, I’d like to point out I was on Prodigy when I first got a clone.

By: McGehee

McGehee — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 16:56:29 +0000

Huh.

The only part of the CS number my wife and I had was the “,2606″

...that I still remember... At least I'm having a better day than Ambrose.

By: McGehee

McGehee — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 12:29:03 +0000

My mother-in-law still had her CompuServe account up until relatively recently, when she finally got cable internet at home. But by then CS had long since converted its addresses to e-mail standard. The only part of the CS number my wife and I had was the “,2606″

And while I can’t match Charles’ 300-baud, we did dial up CS with a 2400 that I had to install in my wife’s 286 because my 386 didn’t seem to have a spare port for it. Ah, the olden days when you installed hardware inside the case and then had to configure it before it could work. Kids today, they just don’t know.

By: Michael Bates

Michael Bates — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 07:50:30 +0000

I’m impressed you can recall your Compuserve number.I’m pretty sure I shut mine down about 14 years ago — shortly after connecting with IOnet, and shortly after it became possible to e-mail between the Internet and Compuserve.

By: CGHill

CGHill — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 04:32:59 +0000

The original DOS-based CIM was way speedier than WinCIM, but this isn’t saying much. And my old C-64 did tolerably well, given its limitations, on a purely-text rendition of CIS.

For about twenty minutes, Usenet was something like that.

By: Mark Alger

Mark Alger — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 04:06:14 +0000

I actually used OzWin, not WInCIM — which, IIRC, was a real dog. But I could dl messages from a round dozen forums several times a day in less than six minutes a pass.

Of course, as a sysop, I got my service at reduced rates (any forum I sysopped on was “free” — even the free ones), but, still… There was a point of principle involved.

I do miss the forum threading and the richness of the communities and — with OzWin — the ease of use. Nothing on the Web has EVER compared. The closest I’ve come has been listserv lists, but people don’t seem to like those. Never did figure out why.

By: CGHill

CGHill — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 01:28:06 +0000

I actually ran a chat room on Q-Link for a while, which explains much I’d probably just as soon not have explained.

By: Brian J.

Brian J. — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 01:22:10 +0000

Q-Link guy here, which was basic service for a flat rate, but cool stuff was 6 cents a minute.

Between the hours of 6pm and 8am. Because, in the working hours, the computers at the access numbers had more important things to do than let you play casino games or chat.

By: Jeffro

Jeffro — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 00:18:05 +0000

CompuServe was for all you dazzling urbanites.

I had to wait until my local telco set us up – unless I wanted to pay long distance charges for any online activity. We got the astounding high tech 28.8 service at first.

So I’m just a rank newbie.

By: McGehee

McGehee — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 23:58:52 +0000

…not that I ever won, nor even placed in the top whatever — but I got some hilarious feedback.

By: McGehee

McGehee — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 23:58:12 +0000

My favorite CompuServe memory was the writers’ forum where, every February I believe it was, the moderators staged an insult contest. Given CS’s rules of decorum of course the tone of the invective was higher than typical in the larger internet, but it was the first occasion I had to really work at crafting a fine insult and be rewarded for it.

These days, feh.