CompuServe: Communicating at 300 Baud

You're missing out if you're not listening to the Podbean-hosted version of Redmond Radio. That version of the show is where you'll hear my "IT Webgems" segment; it's just a goofy little aside in which I mention a few events or innovations or some trivia related to technology that took place that week sometime in IT history (this week, it was all about old school tech, Firefox and H.G Wells).

One gem that I didn't include and that bears mentioning is the launch of CompuServe on Sept. 24, 1979; Wired has the story http://www.wired.com/thisdayintech/2009/09/0924compuserve-launches here. How many of us can claim to have had a CompuServe account back then? (Would love to hear from ya if you did.)

I got a personal CompuServe account when I got my first job as an editor for a San Diego-based technology magazine, and it was all new to me then, this getting online thing and dialing up and whatnot. Even so, I got my account about 10 years after CompuServe's big debut (ancient history in Internet years, no?), when I moderated a few CompuServe bulletin boards hosted by our company. Come to think of it, I've been online for 20 years which, in itself, is interesting and sad at the same time: Interesting because I have made a living doing something that's not really tangible (except for the seeing part); sad because it's like claiming that I've been watching TV for the last 20 years.

Posted by Michael Domingo on 09/25/2009 at 11:59 AM