Transfer Protocol: TYRRIAN-904.66
Transfer Date: 15/03/85
Reciever: ASTANHOPE
Send: RKADAMS
Project: Nexus-1.007
Location: ACES
Tele-Number: (617) 826-5175
Genesis Date: 07/01/85
Genesis Time: 22:07:56:05
Completion Date: 22/03/85
Completion Time: UNKNOWN

We have begun the transfer of all data to the Embassy. As you know this transfer is operative for 24hrs. continuims. Nexus-1.003 has programmed for a GED error correction protocol. We feel Nexus-1.003’s programming is capable of this at the present time. Future alterations may be neccessary for the completion of the Nexus Project.

Our current Control Operator is set to interface with with all Nexus Project workers at 22/03/85. We will ONLY then begin the Creational Process. Details are below of the Creational Process:

Project: Creational Process
Date: 22/03/85
Time: UNKNOWN

Purpose:

The creation of a privileged accounts on all systems currently  
located in the South Shore area which are connected to tele-lines.

Procedure:

• Break down of all high-level language routines.
• Accessing all assembly routines currently available.
• Set up of three diverging SYSTAT routines.
• Coalaition of all mounted disks currently available.
• Transfer of data to the Embassy in CTRL-0 library.
• Back-transfer to current target of the operational codes.
• Coagulation of a disk space on the selected drive.
• Transfer of data to the opened space.
• Formation of the directory and references.

References:

• 
  ACES security breaches
• CompuServe Information Service Disk Pack infiltration.
• SLRHS PDP-11/34 V8 Infiltrations «Progressive»
• Stratosphere Data storage prior to Embassy Genesis.
• Copy-Protection violation network «East Coast-Mid West»
• Back Door entry local/remote systems.
• NYNEX-ATT White Page On-Line directory accesses.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration memory dump.

Transfer Alterations{READ} File XX54-.008 

Access-Sublime

DF# HG66 JI8 MN9 MN8 MN5 WE4 101000001

{000010001010010101010010010}

{END DOCUMENT}

Robot Monty Python Theater.

Here is a nearly destroyed recording  of a TI-994A performing the Monty Python sketch “Dead Bishop on the Landing.”  recorded around 1982ish with the TI plug-in speech synthesizer module.

The recording has been to hell and back and possibly back again with a few possible side trips the recording wishes not to talk about.   So if you will, imagine robots trying to muddle their way though Python and being transmitted over the aether.

Date: Fri, 17 Jul 92 17:14:34 NZS
From: cowl@elec.canterbury.ac.nz
Subject: R&S
To: grue@gnu.ai.mit.edu
Message-Id: <9207170514.AA24490@elec.canterbury.ac.nz>
X-Envelope-To: grue@gnu.ai.mit.edu
Status: RO

> Currently I have ALL the episodes of R&S Recorded in HI-FI Stereo At the
> fastest speed possible and I can dub the tapes with Industrial equipment

sounds good… :-)

> What I was looking for is the 5th season of red dwarf… Or at least Good
> SP copies of Hitchhikers… Or Filthy, Rich & Catflap.

I should be able to hire the Hitch-hikers tapes. We have only seen up to
half way through Red Dwarf series 2 here! :-(

Anyways, I am trying to sort things out with some other people, so
we’ll see how things go. Still, even if I arrange something with
someone else, I’ll see what I can do to get you the HHGTTG video :-)

Cheers!
Dave.

____________________________________________________________

Those were dark days in the life of a young geek but with the early internet there was hope. In the 80s if you wanted some geeky British show you had to wait for some kind PBS station to show it and hope you didn’t blink and miss it. There was nightly Doctor Who but never anything current and one would only hear legends of Doctors that were not Tom Baker.

I had been lucky one night and turned to a PBS at the exact beginning of Red Dwarf and became hooked, it would be a fight to get new episodes. The above e-mail was one of those exchanges where I was setting up for a tape trade giving out coveted Ren and Stimpy episodes for other rare British treats and in this case via a kind soul in New Zealand.

Tape trading was the only recourse to fill in the gaps as it was rare for actual commercial video releases of this content. There were lucky moments in the 90s when CBS would release shows 3 episodes to a tape and they were moments of pure “IT MUST BE MINE!” to get copies that were not several generations down.

In the days of the 80s the best strategy was to record every cultist show you were lucky to catch a broadcast for as you may never get to see it again. I cherished some of those recording as even today many shows have never been released on to DVD. One could show off at geeky parties with your old Max Headroom tapes with New Coke commercials or 3rd generation copies of Quark. My head would have asploded for access to something like amazon.co.uk where I could get some amazing thing imported in 2 days.

The days of slinging VHS across the planet had it’s advantages only in the amounts of concentrated joy upon getting an entire season of something you were dying to see for ages before it ever hit a local PBS station and the kudos for showing it to your peers. How I feel now, VHS couldn’t die fast enough and after converting the rarest stuff to DVD I chucked the lot only keeping a few tapes for sentimental reasons.

These days I can go to places like DVD Planet and find a wall of kick ass television collected by seasons at fairly reasonable prices, though I have much more money now than I did then so I might argue what was reasonable. A hardcore Doctor Who fan these days can get a full hd episode a cool hour after it airs in Brittan and in the case of the pilot it leaked 2 weeks before on the internet.  Bittorrent can be a hell of a drug to the video collector.

It’s moments when I come across an old email like this I marvel on we have are in nerdvana.

Rolling for credits.

The year was 1984 and during the summer we went roller skating on Saturdays. It was a regular hangout for most of the family and neighborhood kids. Now imagine the din of skaters, the bad disco lights and the sound of Van Halen’s “Jump” blasting all the way to the snack bar. What attracted me most to this roller rink was the state of the art arcade. It was stocked with tons of the best and newest games. It’s the place I met Joust, Qix, Pengo and Tempest for the first time and 25 years later I still play those games but now on emulators.

One Saturday between roller skating and begging for quarters I had discovered that when you combined dry summer air, carpet and roller skates you would build up a huge static charge. This was just the thing for zapping friends and older sisters and with this discovery I added zapping things to my list of fun things to do that day.

This was the year for all sorts of discoveries about static electricity as months before this event I had gotten into the show Whiz Kids which was an attempt by the networks to cash in on the popularity of the film War Games and computer hackers. It had kids solving crimes with the help of a souped-up computer named Ralph. It aired once and was never in reruns but much of the show managed stick with me. In the episode “Airwave Anarchy” the villain was using a radio modem to hack into the police dispatch system to divert police from his crimes. But when static electricity blows out an important chip in his computer he was taken down by the meddling hacker kids. The moral was “static is the enemy” and because of that episode I would always be extra careful to discharge myself before working on the inside of a computer. I recently re-watched the series from a copy I got with bit torrent and it does not hold up well, but was still fun to watch.

Getting back to skating around all chock full of static electricity and a limited ability to stop, I noticed the game Carnival was free so I skated up and ended up slamming into it. With a loud CRACK I discharged into the controller and the screen flashed white and to my shock the game had given me a free credit. I expect the electricity was arcing over the switch that the coin would normally trip; either way I now had super credit powers! I spent the day experimenting on every game I could ram into; only Carnival and Mouse Trap gave me credits. Somehow those games were just a bit more fun than they were with quarters. This did not stay a secret for long as I expect I had probably boasted to somebody my memory is a bit vague, but I do remember that for the rest of the day kids were slamming into arcade games.

It came as no surprise that the following week many of the video games were out of order.