SIGHST.THD --- Copyright 1987 by Phil Wheeler An original compilation of Compuserve Model 100 Forum messages for use by Forum members only. There are still a few folks frequenting the Model 100 who were here in the early days, four years ago -- and some remember when there were less than 1000 messages on the board (in June of 1983) and very few files in the DL's These messages have reminiscences from some of the early users. FAME.THD is a related thread, with informal (unsolicited) votes for a SIG Hall of Fame. Message range: 149759 to 150072 Dates: 6/9/87 to 6/13/87 Sb: #M100 Forum History Fm: Guerri F. Stevens 75675,1220 To: All Anybody here know how old our forum is? I had an interesting discussion with my spouse, who said that there were over 7000 messages in the PC Sig on the Source. I said, hmmm, 7000, eh? ** WE ** are up over 149,600! I was rooting around the other day, cleaning up, etc. and I find that I've got messages dating back to 1983. I even threw some out (probably a mistake - undoubtedly they're collector's items now -grin!). Fm: Phil Wheeler 71266,125 To: Guerri F. Stevens 75675,1220 Best info is probably from looking in the DL's and seeing how old the oldest files are. I think they go back to June 83, or earlier. John Mello started it all (I think). I showed up in Sept or Oct 83 -- and got real active starting in Nov-Dec of that year. Good point. It would be nice to have a short history file. Wonder if there are any volunteers? Fm: Dave Thomas 70526,1117 To: Guerri F. Stevens 75675,1220 #: 11185 Sec. 0 - GENERAL Sb: & didn't want to ask 24-Oct-83 01:29:44 Fm: Dave Thomas 70526,1117 To: All Database Users Database Files Bytes -------- ----- ------- XA0 77 184,105 XA1 36 78,885 XA2 33 94,680 XA3 40 112,195 XA4 4 6,395 XA5 48 186,340 XA6 6 14,860 --- ------- Totals 244 677,460 Includes goofs/nits: XA0 CISTRN.ASM 10/18 0 bytes XA0 TEST 10/15 0 bytes XA2 ADRS 10/18 & also ????????????????????? Methinks [75675,12] of XA5 gets the prize for the shortest working program ->-->> TITLE.100. Longest? Depends on definition of "working" & "program". Spent a minute or two in the cellar Sunday & ended up with 53 pages of CAT/DES. Worth every $$ as long as I do a CAT/DES/AGE:7 every weekend to keep up to date. Fascinating, the bits I found that I had no idea were there! SIG along the 100 way!! .^Dave^. Fm: Dave Thomas 70526,1117 To: Guerri F. Stevens 75675,1220 Quite soytan that t'idn't take you long to realize that my last above was a complete copy of an early message. Oldest that I've found is #9665, but it isn't quite as interesting for SIG history - pertains to MikroKolor video interface for the Model 100. Message #11185 above, and ensuing cataloging, led to offer from John Mello on 22-Nov-83 for me to "help out" on the SIG. Historizicating ... Mortimer's way ... .^Dave^. Fm: Eiji Miura 76703,4311 To: Guerri F. Stevens 75675,1220 Portable 100 founded Model 100 SIG in April, 1983. And ^Dave^ became a sysop, I think, in August, 1983. My first visit to this forum was in Sept. 1983. Fm: Eiji Miura 76703,4311 To: Dave Thomas 70526,1117 Thanks for that old message. I still have my first conference transcrpt dated July 15 '84. Well, I've completely forgotten about MikroKolor. Wasn't it a stand-alone video interface for the M100? It's strange that sometimes people ask for video only interface, but we actually had such device long before Tandy made their DVI. I understand it didn't work well, but I wonder how many people actually have used that. I've never thought about seeing the guy who made it when I's living in San Luis Obispo. Fm: Tony Anderson 76703,4062 To: Phil Wheeler 71266,125 Very few old-timer's around... "old" in the sense of being here from the beginning. Marvin Miller once indicated the names of forum sysops prior to Dave... and of course, arriving here in spring of '84, they were before my time. Perhaps Marvin can be coaxed to recall those details again. Fm: C. Davey Utter 70055,522 To: Tony Anderson 76703,4062 Tony, I'm old! ...Dave Fm: Tony Anderson 76703,4062 To: C. Davey Utter 70055,522 I know, I know.... But I wouldn't admit it! So, what are your early rememberances??? Fm: Mark Earle 73117,351 To: Guerri F. Stevens 75675,1220 I recall getting my first M100 in 1983 (first year I was married!) and joining the SIG... the discussions then were on howto use different cassette recorders, memory upgrades (32k was a BIG number, then!). Also using micro-recorders. Text formatting utilities. Wondering what the ROM socket would ever be used for. Discovering the contents of the rom by peeking and looping in basic. Etc Etc. Fm: C. Davey Utter 70055,522 To: Tony Anderson 76703,4062 I'll have to think that over and see if I can come up with any other than the extreme help I was given by the members. One thing I remember was helping Howard Benner by testing SMART.SIG (Back when it was SUPER.SIG) and letting him know what I thought it needed and having him respond favorably to my suggestions and the final result of 3 years of modifications turned out to be SMART.SIG which I still feel is one of the best programs ever written for the M100...Dave Fm: Scott Hibbard 70536,674 To: Dave Thomas 70526,1117 Oldest I can find is #4487, sent to me from Jake Commander on 28-Jul-83. Gee, it was just a few months ago I asked myself why I had 20 boxes of messages in the garage, & started using the backside of the paper & pitchin' em! Am I destroying history? Fm: Phil Wheeler 71266,125 To: Scott Hibbard 70536,674 Destructive little devil! Now here's what you do, Scott. Sit right down and start entering them into your computer. Then upload them in, say, 10K blocks. Assure your place in historical annals!!! Act now -- don't let any more pages yellow!!! Fm: Scott Hibbard 70536,674 To: Phil Wheeler 71266,125 Heh, Heh, Heh. Don't worry about the _oldest_ ones ... they're on CGP-115 paper printed out on the 100 before it got it's first scratch on the LCD plexiglas cover. Can't find many ways to reuse THAT paper. Fm: Tony Anderson 76703,4062 To: Scott Hibbard 70536,674 Gee, what a treasure trove... I'll bet there are many long-lost tips, hints, and lost peeks and pokes in those messages. I _KNOW_ we've lost a lot of valuable bits of information over the years, just by not catching and archiving it at the time. That's why we decided to have Phil act as "archivist" to watch for, and catch these little nuggets. Should you stumble across any gems while reviewing your boxes of messages, we'd sure appreciate your reuping them for us. Either in a tip file (if there's enough info), or as a message which Phil can catch and safely tuck away somewhere. Fm: Dave Thomas 70526,1117 To: Eiji Miura 76703,4311 Yep - Still have a file of messages about the MikroKolor. I was able to return mine for full refund. Seems Paul Andreasen was never able to get rid of the vertical bars all across the screen. Still have the software too! Fm: Eiji Miura 76703,4311 To: Dave Thomas 70526,1117 You mentioned that you still have the software for MicroKolor; what does the software do? I thought that vertical bar problem was only in graphics mode. Did you get that in textmode, too? Fm: Guerri F. Stevens 75675,1220 To: Dave Thomas 70526,1117 I can go back earlier. A glance at my pile of old messages yields one from July 13, 1983. I'll look further and see what else I come up with. I see an old one here (Jul 14) from Larry Holmes. So far, tho, nothing thrilling (in content I mean). Nice to see you here! I haven't been very active for awhile, and when I have been here, I haven't seen much of you! Fm: Scott Hibbard 70536,674 To: Tony Anderson 76703,4062 I'll keep an eye out, Tony. Haven't really been reading the 'back side' of the paper ... but I've started to scan it B4 pitching. Might even find some juicy info on some of the old timers still around! Fm: Guerri F. Stevens 75675,1220 To: Tony Anderson 76703,4062 The earliest message I've been able to find was one of mine, followed by responses, dated June 1, 1983; message no. 573. I remember the unfailing politeness of the Sysops, discussions about batteries, tape recorders, and gel cells (whatever they are!). At that time, I was operating from a wall phone in the kitchen, which I had adapted to take the plug from the 100's modem cable. In fact, it took me a long time to adjust to telecommunicating from anyplace but the kitchen! Haven't run across any earth-shaking early messages yet. I did see one from Gary Bender and some from Jake Commander masquerading as John Mello! For a long time, I thought John had two aliases! I also have some messages about the stringy floppy. Anyway, my messages in June were in the high 500's. By July, we were over 3000! I notice that my earlier messages are all in upper case. It was a while before I figured out how to get lower case from CIS. Who knows what's become of John Mello? I was fortunate enough to meet him once when I was in Maine. Wonder what he's doing now? Anyone remember Arlen P. Walker (the gel cell expert)? And what was the name of the guy who manufactured belts out in CA? How's Larry Holmes doing these days? This is really taking me back - I'd better quit before someone complains about the length of the messages here! Fm: Guerri F. Stevens 75675,1220 To: Tony Anderson 76703,4062 We must discuss a serious matter. In less than a year, this forum will have its fifth anniversary. What are you planning for it? I think we should at least TRY to organize some sort of gathering. I suggest early April, and a central location. Chicago springs immediately to mind, being easy to reach from almost anyplace. Of course, Columbus is the home of CIS... What do you think? Certainly Dave Thomas should attend; he *was* the SIG for so long. Can we get hold of John Mello? Fm: Bob Willard 70425,1155 To: Tony Anderson 76703,4062 Tony - Just dropped in after an extended absence ("saving lives" on the ski slopes took me away again for the Winter) and delighted in reading this thread. If any SIG needs an archivist/historian, it's surely good, old PCS-154! And how's that for dating myself? My earliest recollection of the SIG dates back to the beginning of 1984. I was teaching computer classes and doing customer service for Radio Shack when they had just introduced this slick new product -- the Model 100. Being easily seduced by gadgets, I immediately bought one for myself. The trouble was that Tandy didn't seem very interested in supporting the M100 or coming out with software for it that would make it a useful product. The company was more involved in developing and selling high-ticket items like their soon-to-be-introduced T2K. In desperation, trying to find support information and programs for the M100, I joined the SIG. John Mello was the sysop at that time, but he seemed to spend most of his time explaining why his "Portable 100" magazine had not reached its subscribers on time (or not reached them at all). As a neophyte SIGger I was greeted and welcomed by an unpretentious, literate, and terribly competent chap who had named his computer Mortimer and signed his messages with a distinctive .^Dave^.. It soon became obvious that this SIG was the _only_ genuine resource for early M100 users -- and it was _fun_, too! Fm: Tony Anderson 76703,4062 To: Guerri F. Stevens 75675,1220 You're a serious contender for the brass ring! I don't recall anyone coming up with any messages earlier... yet! Fm: Tony Anderson 76703,4062 To: Bob Willard 70425,1155 PCS-what? (just kidding...) So, you're back once again, huh? Well, it's nice to hear you friendly voice now and then... it's too long between visits. You're going to have to get a cellular telephone, so you can check in more often by bouncing a signal off a satelite somewhere. Fm: Phil Wheeler 71266,125 To: Guerri F. Stevens 75675,1220 For some further nostalgia, take alook at BSTPGM.PW1. Uploaded in Dec 1983, it gave my view on the "best" PCS-154 (aka M100 Forum) programs in that era. Out of date now -- though some still-popualr programs (e.g., FILEN). will be found in the list. Of course, at that time the TDD and Chipmunk were unheard of, and we all focussed on combatting our tape recorders! There were no ROM's (or almost none), and hardly anyone thought of using machine language programs. No one was saying ill of Portable 100 (partly because the editor, John Mello, was the Sysop here -- "assisted" by Dave, who did all teh work as far as I can tell). A popular SIG pastime was "Jake Commander bashing", and we were about to visited by Peter Stanwyck (aka the End User). And there were no big, klugy laptops like the M600 & M200 (grin!). Fm: Phil Wheeler 71266,125 To: Guerri F. Stevens 75675,1220 BSTPGM.PW1 now in DL1; download counters got reset a bit ago, but it had been taken by between 1000 and 1500 users at the time. Sure would be different (and harder to write!) if I did it today!