[ih] AT&T, carterfone, the 103, and why didnt BBSs start earlier?

[John Day]

The CS Dept computing center provided TSS on the 360s with a few 
terminals (selectrix), but the performance and user interface was so 
bad no one (at least in our project) bothered with it.  Everything 
about them was so backward it was a waste of time.

By 1970, the IBM equipment on campus was barely tolerated and left to 
the clueless.

One professor teaching an "OS course" who believed that IBM walked on 
water. He would make these sweeping statements and one of our guys 
kept objecting. They finally reached a truce and our guy was given 3 
lectures at the end of the course to explain how non-IBM systems 
worked.

But as we all know, sales and marketing counts for more than 
engineering and scientific excellence.

At 22:01 +0900 2009/08/14, Randy Bush wrote:
>  > Talk about apples and oranges. "Algol not ascii"?  ;-)
>
><trying to stick to comms here as opposed to a geriatric contest>
>
>the serial controller on the first 360s (ebcdic machines) had an ascii
>mode.  when you ran a line to the old dual-lobed pdp-8's serial, the
>bits arrived in the reverse order.  the 360's translate op came in
>handy.
>
>serial comms has kinda been the armpit for a long time.
>
>randy