Thursday, April 19, 2007

Summer break, and computing?

In the summer of 1979 the Needham Public Library did something amazing. They set up a couple of telephone lines with acoustic modems and terminals. Anyone could sign up for a half hour of access per day to use a minicomputer at Babson College in Wellesley, MA. I believe the computer was an HP-3000. Between me and my brother Ernie we had a whole hour each day to program in BASIC or Fortran.

We wrote our own programs and we played the classic Star Trek game and some others too. The connect speed was 300 baud. It was pure magic.

I don't know whose idea it was to be so generous with their computers. All I can say to you whoever you are is "THANK YOU!" You really made our summer great. :-)

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