Introduction
Once Upon A Time, there was no Internet...
Before the Internet, there was a worldwide consortium of PC users who wrote their own
custom software, installed, and maintained a very successful global network of message
channels and e-mail facilities. With names like RHIME and PCRelay, these boards were
primarily operated by diehard technophiles whose vision was far beyond that of the norm.
Some of the early message boards (what you would now refer to as Usenet Groups) like
FidoNet still exist, but see a fraction of the volume of traffic that is carried by the Internet.
It was an exciting time, somewhat reminiscent of the early shortwave radio days. With an
inexpensive computer and some simple terminal software - commonly given away - you
could communicate with societies from the other side of the globe. These capabilities are
taken for granted today, with the recent explosion of the World Wide Web, but were quite
unique experiences at the time. Newspapers and Television couldn't (wouldn't) give you the
Real Story on sensitive subjects such as the Soviet People's thoughts on the Cold War, or
their Space Program, but you could find their stories hidden within the message bases.
Messages were collected at hubs, filtered for redundancy, compressed into packets, and
relayed nightly around the world via long-distance telephone calls - which were paid for by
the dedicated individuals involved. The efficiency of their activities kept costs bearable and
makes the current wastefulness of the Internet's bandwidth look shameful in comparison.
Much work was expended to make this site unique and worthy of visiting on a regular basis.
Due to various web-browser incompatibilities and a quantity of homegrown JavaScript and
Java Code, your computer may not properly display pages at times. While not damaging to
your system, let me know if this happens to you and I'll try to fix it.
This site went up on January 15, 2000, and is therefore somewhat incomplete.
But it is growing, and more valuable content will be added as time and space permits.
So bookmark this site, and check back occasionally to see what has been added.
If there is something you want to see here, tell me about it. I might have what you need.
I hope you find your visit here to be an enlightening experience.