When I was 15, I configured a Waffle BBS system to act as a mail application and Usenet newsreader:
- In the middle of the night, a mechanical lamp timer would turn on my 286 computer.
- AUTOEXEC.BAT would detect the time, and run a separate batch file.
- This batch file would run a UUCP application. My 2400 baud modem would call Lake Systems, a private dial-up UNIX system run by the sysadmin of Marquette University, and download a payload of mail and news.
- In the morning, I was free to read rec.humor.funny without the bother of busy signals or slow modem throughput.
In order to set up this Rube Goldberg contraption, I needed to register as a host. Scanning my soda can- and candybar wrapper-littered desk, I fixed upon a half-eaten white chocolate bar, and chose my hostname.
Alpine.
Twenty-one years later, an anonymous software engineer pulled together various digital artifacts to create a multiplayer game for his son.
Tonight, while playing that game, I ran into my 15-year-old self.
] 06/16/2011 00:58:00 : permalink
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