@Bill Mattocks, having little knowledge of most of those endeavours there are a lot of questions I would like to ask like how did you get set up with the internet before there was widespread adopting, did you make your own hardware and write your own software or could these things be hunted out? I mean you could not go on the internet and buy modems and things since there was no internet. I think we take the internet very much for granted. I cannot imagine how it was before that. And what kind of BBS did you run? And what is your IQ. I used to be in Mensa though I did not like the fervency with which they hunted out their prodigies. And did you really sell weapons from your home? Did you have an inventory at your home or did you deal from a shed? How did that work and was it dangerous or risky? Anyway thank you, I think I am being impertinent by asking too much. I appreciate your time.
Good questions! Let me try to answer in order.
BBS: I bought my first 'real' computer with student loan money (hey, I used it for for school, right?) in 1988. (I had taken a break in my college career between 1979 and 1985, little thing called the military intervened). The computer was a "Leading Edge" 286 that cost me something like $2,400; it ran MS-DOS. I was living in Denver at the time; there was a local 'zine called "Boardwatch," put out by Jack Rickard, which listed all the computer Bulletin Board Systems in the area. I went to the local computer shop and bought a 2400 bps modem, got a second phone line for our apartment (I had also just gotten married at the time, didn't last), and started getting involved in online discussion forums. Know what? They were just like this, only without graphics (we used ASCII art, some people were quite good at it)!
Then I decided to set up my own BBS. I called it "The Pscylone" and I called myself "Mister Zen" (or in ASCII, ===[---Mister-Zen--- ). LOL! It was a discussion forum with a file download area. I ran The Major BBS software, it was free. I didn't do much programming, it was mostly configuration. I did get stuck into to a lot of batch file scripting, for ZMODEM and various transfer protocols, and I had some correspondence with Phil Katz with reference to the now ubiquitous PKZIP compression software.
I became a node on FidoNet and started doing bucket-brigade discussion forum transmission - it let different BBS' exchange public (and private - the first email outside of universities) messages in an overnight distributed way.
I then bought an old AT&T 3B2 computer from Johns Hopkins that had a dozen or so serial ports on it - it was a 'midi' computer that ran System 7 UNIX. I bought several more modems, got a few more phone lines, and wrote my own BBS software, so I was the first multi-line BBS in Denver (there were a couple two-line BBS', but they had to use DesqView or other multi-tasking time-splitting OS add-ons to get it to work, mine was multi-user natively). I didn't actually write a lot of code; UNIX had built in email and public discussion forum software, I just wrote shell scripts (and taught myself UNIX) to make the login shell for users coming in on TTY my script, which gave them the ability to use those tools from a menu I wrote; it looked and felt like a BBS to them; a bit less graphical, but multi-user; I had the first-ever 'live chat' BBS software ('talk' in UNIX). Seriously, I was using ancient technology (for UNIX) but I was way ahead of the curve in BBS stuff.
I moved from a job programming (in BBX BASIC, right out of college) to a job selling computers in a retail store (and I was damned good at it, taught myself how to read and bid on federal contracts, sold a lot of computers that way). This also gave me access to cheap prices on computer equipment, which helped a lot with my hobby. My marriage ended about this time; I suppose it had a lot to do with my obsession with computers.
I started to going to Boardwatch conventions, which eventually morphed into ISPCons, (Internet Service Providers) and from there, once the Internet started happening, the BBS world started dying.
I got my first Internet account via free dialup to Nyx, a service provided by Denver University Math Lab. It was great! I was able to use UNIX tools like telnet, ftp, archie, gopher, and so on to travel around the world from university to university; I felt like an explorer. This was heady stuff back in the day, know that I was sitting in Denver typing, and some computer in Canberra, Australia was doing something in response to my commands. I got on UseNet. This is my first-ever UseNet post via FidoNet gateway:
http://groups.google.com/group/misc.forsale/msg/c5d9af774c01904e?dmode=source
Path: gmdzi!unido!mcsun!sunic!uupsi!cmcl2!rutgers!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!ub!boulder!pikes!mercury.cair.du.edu!mnemosyne.cs.du.edu!isis!scicom!idic!p0.f429.n104.z1.FIDONET.ORG!William.Mattocks
From:
[email protected] (William Mattocks)
Newsgroups: misc.forsale
Subject: test
Message-ID: <
[email protected]>
Date: 23 Nov 90 18:12:00 GMT
Sender:
[email protected] (newsout1.26)
Organization: FidoNet node 1:104/429.0 - WestWind BBS, Denver CO
Lines: 9
Posted: Fri Nov 23 19:12:00 1990
test
--
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
IDIC Fan Group | Net 104 UFGate: 1:104/2@FidoNet
8805 E 12th Av #311 |
Denver, CO 80220 |
(303)329-8136 (data) |
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is my first-ever Usenet post via Nyx, the DU service:
http://groups.google.com/group/misc...6a28dbae3b?q="bill+mattocks"#97d19d6a28dbae3b
Path: gmdzi!unido!mcsun!uunet!isis!wmattock
From:
[email protected] (Madoc)
Newsgroups: misc.forsale.computers
Subject: Tandy Model 100 laptop w/extras - $300o.b.o.
Message-ID: <
[email protected]>
Date: 4 Mar 91 23:30:03 GMT
Organization: Nyx -- Public access Unix, U. of Denver, dept. of Math/CS
Lines: 27
TANDY MODEL 100 WITH EXTRAS FOR SALE!
-------------------------------------
Tandy Model 100 laptop, perfect operating condition. Includes manuals, a
book or two on the Model 100, a carrying case, AC adaptor, NiCad batteries,
and LapLink II (cable, software, and manual) to transfer your files to or
from an IBM-compatible PC/XT/AT/386/486. This thing is great for taking
notes in class or at meetings. I've also got literature from the Model 100
club out in San Francisco, which still sells lots of upgrades (ROM and
software) for this unit. Radio Shack still supports this model also, as the
newer Model 102 is not much more than a "thinner" Model 100.
This computer works great, has 32K RAM installed, includes ROM-based:
BASIC, an editor, and a comm program; built-in 300 baud modem, RS-232
serial port (the comm program will handle external modems faster than
300bps), and parallel port with special ribbon printer cable.
All for $300/highest offer. I will pay UPS insured shipping in CONUS, will
negotiate shipping outside of US mainland.
Thanks,
Bill Mattocks
I used that early laptop to take notes in college, BTW. Again, I was an early adopter; and it worked great, I got fantastic grades because I could type faster than I could write longhand. I put tiny rubber bands around each of the keys (the kind people used to use for dental braces) to keep the keyboard quiet when I typed. I should have patented that; I started a trend.
I moved to Wisconsin, got a job in Northbrook, Illinois, doing tech support for a company that wrote an accounting package aimed at purified water dealers. I had the idea to and helped them set up a 64-line BBS for dealers across the country to stay in touch with each other and exchange financials with the parent company on, using the first multi-line BBS software written in Assembler (tBBS, by eSoft), which made the company a lot of money. Yay me. I also opened a used-computer store in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and set up another BBS there. I tried to sell used computers, didn't work that well. However, I did partner with a friend who set up the first ISP in Kenosha, which he later sold. He's a famous science-fiction writer now, still lives in Kenosha. I taught one of my nephews how to build a PC, he took to it like a duck takes to water and later wrote me a nice letter as a young adult, telling me how much impact I had had on his life; I was touched. Sometimes you don't know how the little things you do will affect others for a very long time.
IQ: Never been measured. My 'GT' score in the Marines was 126; high but not scary high. Frankly, though, I'm off the charts and I know it. I have met a few - very few - people in my life whom I knew were smarter than I was; but it's a good yardstick for me. I never took the SAT or ACT tests; I just started going to college when I was in High School as part of a state program in Colorado, and after that, I was a transfer student, so didn't need to take them. It's maybe not so much that I'm 'smarter' than other people, but that I think very differently. I come at problems from angles people have trouble following; but I get results. I'm an autodidact; I learn everything, I'm largely self-taught, and I find everything fascinating.
FFL: Back then (1986/97) it was easy. I was living in Omaha at the time. I just applied by mail, gave my hours as 'by appointment only' on the application form. Paid my fee, they sent me my FFL. It's not done that way anymore, you have to have a storefront and regular hours. I only did business part-time; I had a full time job working for the newspaper and a part time job clerking at a drive-through liquor store. Background checks were not required for purchases, only the FFL "I am not a crook or an addict" affidavit, which I had to keep on file when I sold a weapon. I did not have any inventory; I just bought through Shotgun News dealers using my FFL to have the weapons shipped to my house, and then sold it. I did not buy until I had an order placed; I charged 10% markup. I mainly did it so I could buy the weapons I wanted wholesale; mostly surplus WWII weapons. I gave up my license when it expired; by that time I had moved back to Denver and could not use it anymore anyway.
So there you go.