Comments on: 1964 300baud modem surfs the web

By: Erik N

Erik N — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 07:08:04 +0000

Just had to watch this again after downloading it.
Makes me want to go buy an acoustic coupler off ebay.

By: Arthur

Arthur — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 16:40:28 +0000

You bet I remember 300 baud. Back in the early’ 80s, I remember posting regularly on a 300 baud dialup called the Princeton BBS. One day they announced a party and I showed up at the appointed address, rang the doorbell and was greeted by a startled-looking couple. They conducted me down to the rumpus room, handed me coke and pretzels, then introduced me to my equally startled hosts — a bunch of 13-year-olds. We had never spoken about anything much except PCs, they never guessed I was an adult and I assumed they were peers, which they were, intellectually. We talked for about half an hour and I went home, Writing this, I get the creepy feeling that had this happened today I might have been jailed as a pedophile. Too bad. They were a great bunch of guys.

By: hiroe

hiroe — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 19:05:40 +0000

402? nebraska
447 6573

please, please change the passwords you used. I do have the passwords as well but won’t post them.

By: KOS

KOS — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 08:34:30 +0000

Does anyone remember one of the first KITs for building an acoustic coupler?
It was the Pennywhistle back in 1976 March issue of popular electronics, if I remember well.
I would like some scans if someone owns it.
I have managed to buy one of these on e-bay.
I will definitelly do a reverse engineering and make a replica of the modem. :))) I love to see old technology live again. This can be used as a sound card interface modem, more usefull to radio amateurs and computer nostalgics these days rather than fast speed browsing.
Well have you thought that this is the only way to get into the internet using a public telephone? ;)
Yes sometimes old stuff can give us possibilities that newer stuff cannot.
Check my website at microwave.gr/giannopk for more updates in the next weeks/months for complete schematics.

By: sunjester

sunjester — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 00:42:03 +0000

waste of fuckin time.

By: pie(i hope im not stealing someones nick)

pie(i hope im not stealing someones nick) — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 18:38:51 +0000

I found a perfect Apple II E(i think it was an E…)in my attic about 6 months ago…It workeed perfectly but i didnt have anything to use with it except a useless 5″ floppy drive(i didnt have any floppies) and my dad threw it out…i liked it too.

By: Bob

Bob — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 20:21:40 +0000

Too bad there’s no rotary phone in the demo. Loved it!

By: David Cornelson

David Cornelson — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 15:35:56 +0000

I played Zork and Adventure on LA32 and LA34 paper terminals connected to a PDP 11/70 over coupler modems. The LA34 had a 110 baud coupler modem and the LA34 had the much faster 300 baud coupler modem. We also got to bring these thermal paper terminals home that had built-in coupler modems. Those were the days.

By: Chaos Husky

Chaos Husky — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 20:49:13 +0000

Anyone ever tried the trick of getting a DreamCast to connect to broadband by putting a 56k modem into your PC and wiring them together, making sure to disable wait for tone before dialing? I could never be bothered. Might have to rip it out and have a go :D Can’t remember the site it was on though!

By: Sunny

Sunny — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 07:01:13 +0000

hey maxodyne, can u tell me where i can get some pics of those hardwares which you mentioned in your comment?? thanks..

By: maxodyne

maxodyne — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 05:52:49 +0000

Nice vintage demo, thanks. When I was in high school (vintage 1973) in Palo Alto, I was a geek in Computer Lab. We had a 300 baud enabled timeshare to the computers at Stanford U. Input devices were keyboard & punch tape; output was a Western Union teletype machine of Korean war vintage. Our team wrote a checkers program using COBOL. I scored an A for the year. Who woulda thunk back then that we’d be checking our stock funds on wifi laptops in a coffee shop somewhere today, eh?

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 13:05:34 +0000

Now he should try to run an old school bbs system off of it.. OOH OOH can I be a sysop, pleeeeeease?

By: Sunny

Sunny — Sun, 31 May 2009 13:02:07 +0000

a soundcard as a modem?????????? does that really work?? man!! I’ll give it a dry for sure.. what all will I need?? can u help me out static??

By: static

static — Sun, 31 May 2009 07:41:28 +0000

nubie- google soundcard packet. you’ll find several applications that will turn a computer soundcard into a modem. Intended for use with radio xcvrs, but they just might work using cups with a microphone, and speaker.

By: static

static — Sun, 31 May 2009 02:13:42 +0000

COME ON NOW, he is certainly surfing the web. The fact that ASCII to binary conversion, and viceversa takes place, along with an intermediary computer is employed doesn’t mean he is not. That’s like saying one isn’t listening to music or other audio, if a microprocessor is used to convert digital bits to audio wave forms that animal can hear. In the event thing truly go to crap, It will be the old farts, and the genuine young nerds who will be hacking away, sharing the fun via computer networks. Damn where did I put my cane, I need to get up and go use the crapper. :)