Kris' Atrium

[Brad]

Does anyone remember Kris' Atrium? It was board run by Kris (or Kristine) Grevstad. It was one of the first men-in-skirts forums I found along with this one. It went defunct several years ago. I was wondering if anyone knows what happened to Kris.

[Warren]

I used to visit Chris' Atrium a fair bit, I really liked the photograph of Chris in a Wedding Dress with the beard.

I vaguely remember him closing the board down and I was sad at the time as the forerunner to this board was quite kilt biased.

Gosh, it was a while back in the halcyon days of 56K or ISDN!

[crfriend]

Gosh, it was a while back in the halcyon days of 56K or ISDN!

I'm glad I'm not the only one who recalls the sometimes rather savage days of dialup modems and all the fun that went with those. I was also involved during the dying days of BBSes.

That was when 9600 BPS was the fastest thing you could do -- and those required specially-conditioned 4-wire leased-line telephone circuits, and a modem occupied a 17", 4U, full depth rackmount piece of hardware. It's certainly gotten a lot smaller. But has it gotten better? I'll leave that up to the reader.

[Ray]

Yes, I remember it well. I was an active participator.

[kingfish]

I also remember The Atrium. With its closure, the passing of Tom, and the presence of X Marks The Scot have brought about a slight change of focus here. The whole "Bravehearts Vs Freestylers" business is completely gone.

And I have to credit the tireless efforts of Carl in keeping this place going, and extend a heartfelt "Thank You" for it.

[Grok]

And I have to credit the tireless efforts of Carl in keeping this place going, and extend a heartfelt "Thank You" for it.

Agreed

[FLbreezy]

Gosh, it was a while back in the halcyon days of 56K or ISDN!

Oh my, you just gave me an ISDN flashback. Working on an early website for a big NYC book publisher, working remotely in a rural area. My only choices of ISP were constantly overloaded dialup or getting an ISDN line run some ungodly number of kilometers from the nearest capable central office. Two 64K channels billed by the minute. If you really needed to upload something ASAP you could drop voice from one and get into 2B+D mode for 128K...at double the per minute cost. Thank goodness the publisher paid for that bad boy in my expense report. If you had a big update to send to someone else on the team it was more cost effective to FedEx Zip drives around the country.

[phathack]

Gosh, it was a while back in the halcyon days of 56K or ISDN!

Oh my, you just gave me an ISDN flashback. Working on an early website for a big NYC book publisher, working remotely in a rural area. My only choices of ISP were constantly overloaded dialup or getting an ISDN line run some ungodly number of kilometers from the nearest capable central office. Two 64K channels billed by the minute. If you really needed to upload something ASAP you could drop voice from one and get into 2B+D mode for 128K...at double the per minute cost. Thank goodness the publisher paid for that bad boy in my expense report. If you had a big update to send to someone else on the team it was more cost effective to FedEx Zip drives around the country.

Back about 25 years ago I remember reading in on one of the networking newsgroups that as bandwidth becomes cheaper it will reach a point where voice will be free as it will no longer be worth the billing effort. My how far we have come.

[kingfish]

Back about 25 years ago I remember reading in on one of the networking newsgroups that as bandwidth becomes cheaper it will reach a point where voice will be free as it will no longer be worth the billing effort. My how far we have come.

Back in the 90s I took a course on T1 connections. The instructor at that time made the exact same prediction.

[crfriend]

And at one point in time it was predicted that electricity generated by nuclear power would be "too cheap to meter". Right.

Fast forward 70 years. We cannot afford to heat ourselves in the winter because it costs too much to burn the fossil fuels that come out of holes in the ground to heat ourselves, yet somehow in the summer we can afford to burn the stuff that comes out of holes in the ground to boil water to spin turbines, that generate electricity to chill ourselves until we shiver. Where's the rational thought, folks? Does it exist?

Yes, I can call the far side of the continent for nothing, but yet have to spend fifty bucks to carry what amounts to an electronic leash around my neck. Rational thought? Where?

Oh, we're still paying a bandwidth tax. In spades. See my musing here about just that from a couple of weeks ago when I was questioning whether I'd wasted my life in computing or not. Magnificent communications networks -- for what? 500 TV channels and not a one worth watching, omnipresent sports betting, The Lotto, betting on everything else, infinite advertising, "Fux Noise". Yep. Wasted. All for a negative -- worse than wasted.

But, on the bright side, I did have a hand in making remarkable things happen -- pieces of transportation infrastructure that never existed before, astonishing buildings that couldn't realistically even been conceived without computers I looked after, restoration projects that remain truly astonishing, and my work in computer history. So, maybe not so much of a waste. But, the overall use of technology has not really benefited mankind all that much other than to seriously enrich a few billionaires.

Maybe I should have followed sage advice for the times and become an English major. So long ago...

[Warren]

Gosh, it was a while back in the halcyon days of 56K or ISDN!

Oh my, you just gave me an ISDN flashback. Working on an early website for a big NYC book publisher, working remotely in a rural area. My only choices of ISP were constantly overloaded dialup or getting an ISDN line run some ungodly number of kilometers from the nearest capable central office. Two 64K channels billed by the minute. If you really needed to upload something ASAP you could drop voice from one and get into 2B+D mode for 128K...at double the per minute cost. Thank goodness the publisher paid for that bad boy in my expense report. If you had a big update to send to someone else on the team it was more cost effective to FedEx Zip drives around the country.

Back about 25 years ago I remember reading in on one of the networking newsgroups that as bandwidth becomes cheaper it will reach a point where voice will be free as it will no longer be worth the billing effort. My how far we have come.

I used to play FPS Shooters for a Clan back then and ISDN was a must, NTL were just installing cable in the UK but if you didn't get cable the fastest thing was ISDN.

My phone bills were astronomical, billed by the minute, hours of practice then the occasional tournament. Oh, and team chats in IRC!

Modern ADSL is marvellous and cheap in comparison. I pay less now then back then.

The Internet however is not as pleasant a place as it was.

Oh, and hats off to the gent who keeps this place running.

[FLbreezy]

Back about 25 years ago I remember reading in on one of the networking newsgroups that as bandwidth becomes cheaper it will reach a point where voice will be free as it will no longer be worth the billing effort. My how far we have come.

Indeed. I remember the phone bill for my ISDN line coming in the mail and it was as thick as a paperback book because it listed each connection/duration for each channel.

[FLbreezy]

But, the overall use of technology has not really benefited mankind all that much other than to seriously enrich a few billionaires.

I was driving in I-75 this morning and a song came on the radio that reminded me of an America's Cup race many years ago. I kind of long for the days when eccentric rich guys spent most of their extra cash and effort on fancy sailboats, ballooning around the world and such; and not on making the world a shittier place.

[phathack]

I'm paying the same now as I was 25 years go but instead of 768K/128K ADSL
I'm getting 1G Fiber