
Google BBS Terminal - psychetician
http://www.masswerk.at/googleBBS/
======
enneff
Kinda annoying that it plays the modem handshake sound while printing dots to
the terminal. The handshake would only ever happen at the beginning of the
call, before any actual data is received by the user. After the initial
handshake the modem speaker would switch off, and the rest of the session
would be silent.

~~~
kken
Well, you could configure most modems not to turn the speaker off. But then
you'd only get white noise all along.

~~~
drivers99

      ATM2
      OK

------
lnanek2
Heh, reminds me of printing out 200 pages of dot matrix perforated edge print
outs of why kirk is better than picard off a bulletin board as a kid...

~~~
pault
What an incredible waste of paper! Everybody knows picard is better than kirk!

~~~
lnanek2
ok, print out your stack and we'll see which is taller...

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jrochkind1
This is really fun.

You say 'Google BBS', I say 'Nobody else remembers Dialog?' It was kinda like
this, except with much more powerful searching and limiting commands.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialog_(online_database)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialog_\(online_database\))

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danso
Obligatory link to "Mad Men"-era Google
[http://www.masswerk.at/google60/](http://www.masswerk.at/google60/)

~~~
vezzy-fnord
Ah, I did not immediately realize this was made by the same person(s).

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flyinglizard
Oh, the fond memories of that satisfying modem handshake. Once alone, you are
now connected to something bigger. New possibilities, new venues, stuff to
explore.

~~~
sanoli
This is pretty cool here: [https://www.dropbox.com/s/4fphtrgrnksfuf6/dialup-
final.png](https://www.dropbox.com/s/4fphtrgrnksfuf6/dialup-final.png)

~~~
Malstrond
And the same thing with audio:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abapFJN6glo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abapFJN6glo)

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genwin
$6 an hour using CompuServe, IIRC. Dang I'm old.

~~~
stormbrew
I used up $1000 worth of hours on compuserve in a month once. My parents
weren't happy.

~~~
DanBC
In those days credit card checking was done offline using Luhn algorithms.

So you could download a program to generate numbers, and use made up data, to
get free illegal access to Compuserve. Sometimes the accounts lasted a few
months before being closed.

~~~
Andrenid
I pretty much owe my career in tech to those programs. We were too poor for
internet, but dad had a work computer at home. Fake CCs kept me online and let
me upload the HTML pages I'd made offline, and chat to people who taught me
everything.

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VladRussian2
color terminal? You definitely should feel lucky.

------
D9u
[http://goosh.org/](http://goosh.org/)

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jrochkind1
I realize I actually have a technical question about both this, and the "Mad
Men" version that danso points[1] out...

How the heck do they do this when Google doesn't have an API, and will quickly
rate-limit you for excessive volume of screen-scraping? How are they getting
the google results to show in their own interfaces?

[1]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6729231](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6729231)

~~~
zacharyz
They just hit the limit: ERROR: Quota Exceeded. Please see
[http://code.google.com/apis/websearch](http://code.google.com/apis/websearch)

~~~
jrochkind1
Ah, nice, and that URI (after first redirecting) suggests they are using the
Web Search API that used to exist,and is still around but rate-limited:

> _Note: The Google Web Search API has been officially deprecated as of
> November 1, 2010. It will continue to work as per our deprecation policy,
> but the number of requests you may make per day will be limited. Therefore,
> we encourage you to move to the new Custom Search API._

The Custom Search API is not free, and I think doesn't let you search all of
Google either, but only 'custom search engines' set up with certain hosts.

All sorts of interesting things you could do with google if they gave you an
api.

------
rottyguy
Funny this came up today. Had a flashback moment with a colleague yesterday
when he mentioned BASIC (Beginner All Purpose Symbolic Instructional Code?).
My earliest memory of "programming" was copying cheat editors for Ultima and
Wizardy from the magazine Nibble(?) for our Apple ][. I then progressed to
operating a bbs running Forum-PC and learned Pascal by hacking the software.
Good times!

------
yeukhon
This is not new and in fact the Taiwanese has been using this for many years.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PTT_Bulletin_Board_System](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PTT_Bulletin_Board_System)

This is the most popular forum in Taiwan, out of terminal. This is the oldest
reddit you can find in Taiwan.

------
kayoone
My first experiences with the net was a local BBS in my city in 1997 when i
was 14. They also had a vibrant message board and lots of files. A normal
internet ISP was still too expensive for me as a teenager and my parents were
not really allowing it, but today i am glad i could still experience BBSes.

------
glass_of_water
I actually really like the interface of pressing a number to instantly open a
search result.

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ck2
My first computer experience was compuserve on a printing (only) terminal.

It was kinda like this but without the color.

You could only use it at night because the rates were too high during the day,
the dialup was meant for business use.

------
dccoolgai
No one will be old enough to remember this, but TradeWars was the best.

~~~
jdude104
Do you know anywhere that still runs that? I remember playing it back in high
school,but not much left about it it seems.

~~~
AJ007
Do a search for "telnet bbs tradewars" on Google. Still plenty running.

My favorites were Legend of the Red Dragon and Usurper.

~~~
jlgaddis
Jennie? Jennie Garth? Describe her.

------
fosap
IMO their Unix emulator is a way more impressive. But in the days of CPU-X-
eumlator-in-js outdated.

[http://www.masswerk.at/jsuix/](http://www.masswerk.at/jsuix/)

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chollida1
Is the "Error quota exceeded" part of the joke or is this just a service that
got hammered?

------
taopao
Can I play Google Doodle door games?

~~~
devindotcom
L.O.R.D.

~~~
swernoxidation
Oh man! There was a bug where you could deposit negative money in the bank and
it would credit your account positively. Best weapon at the lowest level? Yes
please. And fix the spelling of "wierd".

------
dude3
I swear I've seen this on hacker news before

------
cranklin
pretty cool, but I would imagine Google to use some better ANSI.

~~~
masswerk
But the real Google started out even in HTML quite sparse with a simple white
page. It took 10 years before there were more complex doodles.

Don't miss the ASCII image previews at
[http://www.masswerk.at/googleBBS/images](http://www.masswerk.at/googleBBS/images)
\-- maybe some kind of a redress.

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gravitronic
how do I get to the door games

