14 Oct
2024
14 Oct
'24
3:40 a.m.
Sad indeed, and thanks for letting the group know.
I had the honor of meeting with Ward last year at VCF. I was so excited in
meeting with him, I forgot to ask and get a proper photo with him. But he
did sign my Computer Lib book that I had with me - I bring it with me
to VCFs just for that purpose, of a chance encounter with one of the living
legends. I found a candid image later. He was helping teach soldering at
the tables setup at VCF, very enjoyable to talk with him (I ran a BBS for
about 5 years right around 1990, and never-ever imagined that I'd meet the
guy who started it all). I wrote about my encounter with him here:
https://voidstar.blog/vcf-mw-midwest-2023/
Maybe VCF West and the great CHM might consider a kind of computing "hall
of fame". It may be hard to decide who meets that threshold, but one
criteria might be that of being humble enough to attend a VCF.
If anyone is involved with Commander X16, we're in need of an xmodem
implementation for one of the terminals in that system. I think we could
pull it off in BASIC even.
-Steve
On Sun, Oct 13, 2024 at 8:20 PM Murray McCullough via cctalk <
cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
I'm afraid time abides no one! It seems that the
greats were of an earlier
time, no pun intended, but they were pioneers who made technology work for
them.Happy computing. Murray 🙂
On Sun, Oct 13, 2024 at 9:05 PM Fred Cisin via cctalk <
cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>
wrote:
1945 - 2024
Found dead 10/11/24 in a "wellness check".
Little or no other information yet.
Ward Christensen created the first "BBS".
Then, when he needed to transfer files, he created XMODEM. The XMODEM
protocols became the de facto standard for transferring files.
Later, there was some competition from Kermit, but, other than being
"FROM
A
UNIVERSITY!", it wasn't nearly as good.
Not only are all of the greats dying off, but soon there won't be anybody
around who even knew about them.
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin(a)xenosoft.com