3 Aug
1998
3 Aug
'98
8:28 a.m.
Yes, but a 400lb VAX is much more exciting than a 9600
baud leased-line
modem that weighs 1/30 as much. I only have a little bit of interesting
data comm hardware, the best of which is an ASR33 with built-in 110 baud
dataset. It terminates in a three-wire POTS line - red, green and yellow,
presumably for ring voltage to auto answer and turn on. When you send it
an EOT (CTRL-D), it turns off. The modem is in the pedestal... the whole
pedestal. I cannot concieve of a time in my own lifetime when a 1200
baud Hayes modem will be considered exciting.
Aggreed, but a Hayes modem (or any modem) is about as simple as you are
going to get. What about old switches, muxes, and routers? Simple modems
they aint!
Anyway, I think old datacom and networking equipment is at least as
interesting as the disk and tape drives we love so much.
William Donzelli
william(a)ans.net