When 300 baud was the bomb

[Jason Dunn]

<a href="http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2002/05/31/back_in_the_day/index.html?x">http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2002/05/31/back_in_the_day/index.html?x</a><br /><br />Ah, the good ol' days when data transfer was measured in bits, not bytes. My first modem was a 2400 baud beast, blisteringly fast compared to the 1200 baud my pals had. This article is a nice trip down memory lane for some of us.<br /><br />"...back in the day, Hayes ruled the Earth. First it was 300 baud. There was comfort at 300 --- it was a good speed. A human speed. You could read the text as it scrolled down the screen. But then it was 1200, and it was better, sure. But you couldn't really read it; not like 300. But both of them sounded great. The carrier tones were pure, beautiful notes. 56K sounds like a buzz saw. 1200 was music..."

[kennyg]

I may be dating myself, but in college I actually used a 110 baud connection that predated the 300 baud connection...

[Rob Borek]

&lt;pure geek mode on>
Baud does not equal bps
&lt;/pure geek mode off>

[JonnoB]

That article really brought back memories. I remember running a BBS at my Jr. high and we could animate the screen by using sequential characters in the same spot like - / | \ -

Then came fidonet where we could use our bbs connections to do email. We had MUDs and games like TradeWars.... then the internet was opened to the masses with the first internet application useable by the masses (other than email and usenet groups) the hyperlink pages we now call the web.

In many ways, I long for those old days when the virtual world was reserved for other nerds/geeks like myself. Not to be selfish, but I think in making computers more useable, we have dumbed things down a bit too much.

[Marc Zimmermann]

&lt;pure geek mode on>
Baud does not equal bps
&lt;/pure geek mode off>

At least not beyond 9600 bps.

[Marc Zimmermann]

My first modem was a 2400 baud beast, blisteringly fast compared to the 1200 baud my pals had.

I started my online life in 1987 with a 300 bps acoustic coupler. Stop coughing, don't use a dot matrix printer... ;-)

Stepping up to a 1200 bps modem was like living in a dream... a highly secret one as those imported modems still weren't licensed to be used with the German phone network and connecting them was close to a major crime. And licensed modems were not affordable for mere mortals.

[lar3ry]

"...back in the day, Hayes ruled the Earth. First it was 300 baud. There was comfort at 300 --- it was a good speed. A human speed. You could read the text as it scrolled down the screen. But then it was 1200, and it was better, sure. But you couldn't really read it; not like 300. But both of them sounded great. The carrier tones were pure, beautiful notes. 56K sounds like a buzz saw. 1200 was music..."

You really don't go back far enough.

I started programming (professionally) in 1974. My main input device was a Model 33 teletype, and there were only two of them where I worked with acoustic couplers (where you'd put a "standard" Western Electric telephone handset into a couple of rubber "cups," which would send signals over the acoustic line at a whopping 110 baud). The other eight Model 33's were "offline" systems, that were good only to allow you to type to paper tape. The "online" 33's could read the paper tape at about the same speed that the modem could transmit the bits to the PDP-10 on the other end. Typing your program (and data) "off line" allowed you to save on telephone charges, especially since your phone line that was "capable" of transmitting 110 baud was billed at a premium!

The problem with "trips down memory lane" is that there are still some survivors that can remember things a little more primative than you! A lot of people think of me as an "old timer," but at a recent party here in Nashua, I recall somebody producing a "telephone book" containing the entire DEC employee directory (one page!). That guy beats me... and I wasn't even trying to compete!

[bbarker]

&lt;pure geek mode on>
Baud does not equal bps
&lt;/pure geek mode off>I don't remember why, but I understood 300 baud was correct, but 1200 and up were bps, not baud. Can somebody explain it?