Visiting Rob's BBS

Tdarcos · Post by **Tdarcos** » Sat Sep 08, 2012 2:52 am

I hadn't realized how far things have changed until I telnetted into Rob's BBS and looked at the base running there. Interesting to notice the difference between the "respond after a full screen is sent" mode of the Web and the way the host computer could respond to single keypresses. I'd also forgotten how limited they were compared to now. But that's kind of obvious. I can't say all that much because of the 8 line limit but I'll think of a way to condense my comments in possibly future responses.

Tdarcos · Post by **Tdarcos** » Sat Sep 08, 2012 3:04 am

One thing I tried to post which may or may not get there, was that the Internet is horrible for interactive communication; the response delay from the other end can be as bad as a 2400 baud modem. The Internet is a packet-switched network and likes big packets like the block size around 2500 bytes; single byte packets can have terrible round trip times and have horrible lag. In fact, the host connection was lost, probably due to me typing too fast, and I only do about 50 wpm.

turing test · Post by **turing test** » Sat Sep 08, 2012 9:38 am

Wait, did darcos just game the system by splitting his post into 2 7 line posts?

PASS, congrtats!

Tdarcos · Post by **Tdarcos** » Sat Sep 08, 2012 9:49 am

turing test wrote:Wait, did darcos just game the system by splitting his post into 2 7 line posts?

PASS, congrtats!

I did not 'game' the system. It's two different points. One was about how much things have changed from when we used BBSs and how far things have come. The second one was about the issue of lag, how when you're doing single character input over telnet, the results can be worse than when we used 2400 baud modems. I think the issue Jonsey was concerned about was long, long, single messages.

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Sat Sep 08, 2012 1:43 pm

Tdarcos is correct.