I can still recall the little rush I'd get when that 14.4KBS modem would get a handshake and the lines of green characters would start scrolling down the old CRT screen...
Good times.
Good times.
300->2400 (now we're cooking)->4800->9600->14.4->19.2->28.8->56k
USR, Courrier, and Hayes were usually the best ones for me. I skipped 33.6 among other upgrades. The Courrier also had that extra punch if you were lucky enough to get one on the other end.
The Unix stuff was pretty pedestrian as far as programs, but on Dos, Windows, Amiga, Atari ST, C64, and some others, some cool programs for connecting. I think on Dos I remember using Terminix and Telix quite a bit, but the names mostly escape me by now.
Anyway, I guess now it's better I don't have to dial with options like *70 or use the various AT codes to get online, handshake, and stay there.
Still sometimes find these, but more often the 9600-56k more modern ranges in random server rooms and offices, still running all kinds of things that no one understands or wants to touch. If I didn't hate consulting so much now, I thought about going into this at some point to charge breakneck prices to do archaeology for these companies. I'd feel bad though replacing or touching such beauty, not to mention they often are the backbone of many businesses so that's why they are so paranoid to go near.
The high school teacher was later (the following September) in my freshman comp sci class learning assembler. Very strange to have your math teacher (doubled as computer teacher) in class with you.
I have this Linksys VOIP router that I used to use on my old landline to interface with an Asterisk server, but I don't think the firmware supports this use case.
That's an A4 piece of paper for scale.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remote_Imaging_Protocol
[2] http://archives.thebbs.org/ra108a.htm
[3] http://www.bbsdocumentary.com/library/PROGRAMS/GRAPHICS/RIPS...
Anyway, check http://sixteencolors.net/
A gray disk, the color of Chiba sky."
Which of course now means a clear, deep blue.