Possibilities - Letter From Phil 8/93

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LETTER FROM PHIL 8/93
---------------------

*** From August 1993 Possibilities Newsletter ***
*** Copyright 1993 by eSoft, Inc.  All Rights Reserved ***

Letter from Phil
by Phil Becker

Perspective.  Keeping the relative importance of things in perspective is 
vitally important, but it is often difficult to do.  For example, we tend to 
think the world has always been as it is today -- even in the face of evidence 
that it has changed many times in very recent history.  The evolution of 
personal computer technology and computer communications are prime examples of
this. 

I wrote my first computer program in 1964 -- which means that next year I will 
have been actively programming for 30 years.  To put this in perspective Karl 
Glasgow and Adam Hudson (both current eSoft employees) hadn't yet been born
when I wrote my first computer program (Alan Bryant was looking forward to
his first birthday, Bob Hartman was in grade school).  Five more years would
elapse before man set foot on the moon in 1969.  It would be twelve years
after that before I first wrote TBBS, and still six more years before I met
a 14 year old Adam Hudson at a Net 104 meeting and spent time talking to him
about BBS internals theory (he promptly went out and wrote QuickBBS since he
didn't have the money to buy TBBS).

The result is that I've seen several complete cycles of the computer industry 
first hand -- from the first semi-conductor computers, through the first 
computer that used an integrated circuit, the invention of the mini-computer, 
and all the cycles of the personal computer revolution.  And I've written 
programs for all of them.  This lengthy experience gives me the advantage of a 
personal history to draw upon when viewing the industry today.  These 
experiences have proven very helpful in letting me see how trends are likely 
to evolve, and that's normally how I think of it's effect on me. 

But very recently I've seen another effect of spending this much time in the 
computer business -- one I'm determined to offset as best I can.  It is that 
too much familiarity with the technology makes it difficult to remember just 
how emotionally neat it feels every time you realize what computers are 
capable of.  I've seen or been part of most of the "firsts" in computing so 
long ago that I forget just how neat it feels when you see something done for 
the first time.  Shame on me! 

This effect was dramatically brought home to me this month as I worked on a 
"lab experiment" to show at ONE BBSCON.  This experiment is a program that 
runs on a PC which is a full TCP/IP implementation with Telnet, FTP, SMTP, 
etc., plus a built-in terminal server to connect a TBBS directly to the 
Internet via a modem.  I first used TCP/IP and did "Internet" connectivity 20 
years ago.  So it is very old technology to me and thus not very exciting 
today -- since excitement in technology is directly proportional to "newness" 
to the observer.  The part I forgot is just how exciting it really is to 
connect things together over a wide area with a computer the first time you 
see it done. 

I got a glimpse of this when I called Jack Rickard, editor of Boardwatch 
Magazine, and asked him to call his local Internet host and type "Telnet 
esoft.com".  I'd called him because he was the only person I knew who had an 
Internet account to help me test with.  He's been writing about Internet 
connectivity for a couple of years and I knew he could do the testing.  Being 
a patient sort (and as I NOW know, smelling a story) he obliged.  When his 
screen presented him with a TBBS logon to a very simple TBBS running in a 
laptop on my desk at home (the IP server was running on my desktop computer) 
he came out of his chair with excitement.  I hadn't expected that kind of 
reaction at all.  You can read his full reaction in the story he wrote about 
the experiment in the next issue of Boardwatch.  He did calm down enough to 
help me test things, and then immediately ran out and started putting together 
a machine to run my test program on for himself! 

I suppose that SHOULD have given me a clue, but it really didn't.  The next 
hint came when I called all the eSoft tech people together to show them what I 
had put together as a demo to show in our booth at ONE BBSCON.  To prove to 
them that it really worked (they are a hardened lot) I decided to tie a 
"connectivity knot" that would prove the system really did what I said it 
would.  So I logged on to the TBBS local console, used InterChange to grab a 
line that was hooked to the IP server, and did a Telnet connect to our local 
host system (Colorado Super Net).  I logged on to that computer and then did a 
Telnet back to "esoft.com" which produced a logon from the same TBBS I was 
calling out on.  Logging on again to the TBBS, I next used InterChange to run 
the Tradewars door program on a door slave machine.  The data traveled to and 
from the game program (running on the door slave) via InterChange, the 
Internet,  InterChange again -- travelling many miles just to go to the local 
TBBS screen and console. 

The "connectivity rush" was nearly too much for all of them.  They ran around 
yelling and talking excitedly (since they knew they would have the fun of 
showing this to you in our booth at ONE BBSCON) and the rest of the day was 
shot.  You would think I'd be starting to get the point by this time, but for 
some reason all I could do was start telling them just how old this technology 
was (I'm not always as smart as I could be) and wonder what part of it had set 
them all off like this (I'm also slow at times). 

What really tipped me off that I was missing a big point in all of this was 
Saturday morning when I was in the lab trying to finalize the IP server setup 
for the booth demo.  For some reason TBBS sysop Christopher Blaise (or should 
I say cblaise@moose.uvm.edu) was playing with the school's computer and was 
struck by the random thought that he should try to Telnet to esoft.com.  He 
was immediately connected to the computer I was setting up in the lab, and 
logged on to the demo TBBS.  He found InterChange, experimented a bit, and 
found another line to grab that was connected back to the IP server.  When he 
saw it say "Internet Terminal Server" I think he momentarily lost 
consciousness!  I watched him for nearly a half hour doing Telnet connections 
through the TBBS he had found, using "Finger" to look up info on people, and 
generally trying to contain himself during a full scale "connectivity rush".  
He ended up by FTPing esoft.com and sending me a file, just to show he had 
been there.  Chris had no idea I was watching all this, but he did send me 
Internet email on the support board minutes later that left no doubt just how 
exciting it all had been. 

Somewhere during all of this I started to think back to my first "connectivity 
rush".  It was 1968 when I first called a computer on a modem.  I didn't sleep 
for two days afterwards.  My mind was reeling just trying to take in what it 
all meant, and figure out how soon I could do it again.  My next largest 
"connectivity rush" was when I called my first BBS in 1980.  That one didn't 
end until TBBS had been written, so you know it was a big one! 

I finally realized that I had become too jaded to it all, and started thinking 
anew about what we will be showing off in our booth this year at ONE BBSCON.  
InterChange is the perfect "fix" for a "connectivity junkie".  I now 
understand better the feelings many of you expressed when you first installed 
it on your TBBS.  Jack Rickard's PIMPOM option module (see the review in this 
issue) provides TBBS with full Internet email connectivity.  And my little lab 
experiment looks like it will expand the minds of many who will see it. 

We'll also be giving "sneak previews" of some other exciting new products at 
the show (these are new to me too, so I knew how exciting they were).  I'll be 
writing more about them in future issues of the newsletter. 

Online graphics are a hot topic this year, and I'll be showing you why TBBS is 
the very best BBS to use for graphics implementations.  From RIP (see article 
in this issue) to NAPLPS, to custom graphics implementations, to full photo 
imaging online, nothing does it better than TBBS.  It will be fun to show you 
demos of each of these technologies running on TBBS systems. 

The eSoft slogan, after all, IS "Think About the Possibilities".  And when all 
this new connectivity and presentation capability is added to TIMS 
connectivity and the ability of TBBS to dynamically use every line for every 
function based on each call, it really is a lot more exciting to think about 
(and do) than I thought. 

I'm truly blessed to be able to be a part of it all.  Who would ever have 
suspected, all those years ago, just where that first modem call would lead 
me.  And I promise that not only will it be more fun than ever from here on 
out, but that I won't forget how neat it all feels to do either. 

- END -
PS0893-1
Rev. 8/93

Copyright (C) 1994 eSoft, Inc., All Rights Reserved.  Permission granted
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