“Back in the day, having a board with more than one phone line was huge. Two lines meant more than one person could be online at the same time. This was heavy. But it was the end of something, too: the end of that amazing solitude you felt when the busies stopped, and the carrier finally screeched through, and you knew the board was yours. And then, for as long as you were online, nothing changed unless you changed it. Everything stopped; frozen in time, waiting patiently for you to peruse it, or ignore it. Two lines, though, and it was gone. It was just one more person, but that was a lot.” N. Z. Bear —When 300 Baud Was the Bomb (Salon)

I just came across this essay on “The Truth Laid Bear.” I love retrotech.

Update: 22 July. Jim Eccleston sends me a link to retroarchive, which features an assembly language program he wrote in 1980. Makes my head spin!