Robert Goodwin wrote: > Ron Schwarz (see@sig.to.reply) wrote: > : Didn't Christenson create Xmodem for file transfers on a bbs (what was > : it called, "bye" or something?) a few years earlier than that? > > Yes, Ward Christenson did write the very first Xmodem program. I have a > file on this somewhere, but can't find it. I was hearing about him quite a > bit back in the early 80s, around 1983, when I got my first 300 modem. You > should be able to find the full story out on the web somewhere. I've not > looked but I will be! > > Christensen's BBS, if I've heard right, is still up, making it the oldest > BBS in the nation, and maybe the world. I guess this is as good a "point of injection" for this as any. No, a few years ago Ward "lost interest in computers" and both the original "Ward & Randy's CBBS" and Ward's home CBBS went forever. "Ward & Randy's CBBS" was indeed the very first BBS in the world. Here are some messages I saved from my regular dial-ins to 312-545-8086 (the phone number was a happy coincidence, as it existed long before the Intel chip). The following is definitely an unedited bit of history. Msg 45906 is 27 line(s) on 11/25/92 from WARD CHRISTENSEN to ANDREI SCHEINKMAN re: REPLIES RE: CBBS Ya, CBBS has been "sick" for a week or so - bad modem, finally changed software to be more "generic" and allow other modems to work - but now we seem to have lost MNP (error correction). How old were we? Not sure of the relevance of that! But "about" 33. Why create CBBS? Well, there's a long story, but the short one was (1) that I had an extra computer (I'd been doing some talks and bought one to take with me); (2) Hayes had come up with the computer-controllable internal modem; (3) I had a phone line - for club recordings about next meeting, etc; (4) there was this terrible snow storm on Jan 16, 1978, that kept me from going to work, so Randy and I got together by phone and dreamed up the idea. I thought of it being for the club, Randy said that just we two should do it - "committee" projects just don't go anywhere. So we just did it. I patterned the software after the "cork board and push-pins type of bulletin board", and coined the term "BBS" for it. The future of BBSs? more specialized, more commercial, more lines, but also a lot of people just getting into it for the fun of it. Multi- media, graphics (talked to a guy with A HUNDRED SEVENTY THOUSAND graphic images online, today - over TWENTY GIGS of disk...). Roll of BBSs in mass media? Well, there will be limited exposure - things like library BBSs or perhaps a city's or village's council BBS or something - but still not something of general appeal - just not a high enough percentage of people with modems yet. Sorry you had trouble uploading your comment. HEY, in the future, how about putting them in a MESSAGE instead of only-I-can-see-'em comments? (Well, some assistant operators can also see 'em). Where are you doing this article for? Pardon if you already said, and I've forgotten. Msg 45914 is 09 line(s) on 11/30/92 from WARD CHRISTENSEN to ALL re: CBBS 15TH ANNIVERSARY Mark your calendars - Saturday the 13th of Feb '93. CBBS & Chinet will have a pizza-fest, probably again at Barnaby's, Touhy and California, 2:00 PM. BUT watch for a more "final" message, probably posted in mid-Jan or perhaps late Jan. P.S. these have become "bring your toys" kind of get-togethers. Last year, we had a remote control blimp, a hover-craft, a laser, home-made chain-mail (medieval armor), a great "suction cup dart gun" but made from PVC that shot a toilet plunger, etc. If you can't afford the pizza, come anyway, someone will buy for you. Msg 46393 is 30 line(s) on 07/31/93 from WARD CHRISTENSEN to STEVE CULVER re: R/1ST BBS QUESTIONS Heh, not only don't I live in California, I live in the same house I did when CBBS and XMODEM were invented. I see you gave a 414 area code. I was born in West Bend, 30 miles N. of Milwaukee, and went to school @ Madison, and graduated from "Milton", now defunkt. Facts: 1. I actually wrote "MODEM.ASM" and put it in the public domain in late summer '77, and it was checksum only. Keith Petersen modified it to hard-code my "quiet" switch so it could run "unattended" without having to remember the Q switch, and called that variation "Xmodem", a name that stuck as the name of the protocol. 2. I didn't do CRC. I am TERRIBLE on names, I can picture him, his Porche, his job at IBM, but am drawing a blank on the name as to who did the CRC. It may be online on the Ward Board (708) 849-1132, an ancient CP/M machine that refuses to die, otherwise it would be off the air. 3. Yes, CBBS went on the air in early Feb '78, we officially call it the 16th, as that was 30 days after its conception (during a big snow storm on Jan 16, 1978 - snowed in, had to do something)... 4. Yes, Randy Suess and I did it. Went something like this. "Ring". "Hey, Randy, how about working with me on a dial-in system for the computer club - people could send in articles, etc. I have an extra system and the phone line used by the club for recordings". reply: "Well, no, lets put it at MY house since I'm in the city & You're in the burbs, and lets forget the club - "committee projects" don't work out. You do the software, I'll do the hardware, when will you be ready?" - or words to that effect. 5. The first BBS was NOT what you said - that sounds like a "generic" name for it. Its name was "CBBS", "Computerized Bulletin Board System", and when it grew, it became CBBS/Chicago (as opposed to CBBS/NW in the northwest for example. 6. It operated at 110 & 300 baud, then via PMMI modem at variable baud from 110-710, for folks who had the variable-baud rate PMMI. 7. Yes, I conceived of the idea. Patterned after 'Cork board' type BBS. Msg 46394 is 30 line(s) on 07/31/93 from WARD CHRISTENSEN to STEVE CULVER re: R/1ST BBS QUESTIONS 1. Who am I and what do I do? Well, I started working for IBM in '68, and was bitterly disappointed to find the sales offices didn't HAVE computers! So I got interested in having my own - early '70s all that was available of course was minis. In '74 I heard of micros, and "TTL" chips for the first time, and spent the summer teaching myself digital electronics. I built my own selectric typewriter terminal interface, and also an intf. for a floppy drive, in '75. Thus when the IBM 8" diskette became standard years later, I was incompatible due to having gotten in before standards came about. SO, I needed a way to share my then-prolific programming talents, and get other people's programs, and cassettes weren't "cool". SO, based purely on an ascii ref card that showed words like "ACK", "EOT", I wrote a program - and indirectly I guess - designed a protocol. I tried to get Heath (now Zenith) to come out with a home computer kit in '74, but they didn't have "the vision", and said "oh, we HAVE a computer - it is analog". Similar results from asking IBM to come out with a micro - they said "We don't see a market for such a device" - in '78 or so. I graduated from Milton College with a BA in Physics and Chemistry. 2. Where'd the BBS idea come from? Well, Hayes had invented the modem that you could answer the phone with, (I mean "at hobbyist prices" - there were commercial auto-answer modems, too). Micros (they weren't called PCs yet) were cheap enough to afford to have a 2nd one. At our club meetings, we had a cork board and push-pin bulletin board, with 3x5 cards with things like "Need ride to next meeting", "Lets get together for a group-purchase of memory chips", "anyone else have a KIM-1?", etc. SO, I came up with the idea of "Computerizing" that - making a "Computerized Bulletin Board System" - CBBS was born. We publicized it in the local computer club newsletter, I told folks on Arpanet about it, and I wrote an article for the November '78 BYTE magazine. Hope this does it!