Paul's Bulletin Board Software

When I was a teen in the 1980s, my parents bought a Commodore VIC-20 computer for us.

One of the apps I developed was a bulletin board. Paired with a 300 baud modem, the app allowed its users to dial and connect 1:1 to a friend's computer, see their files, and download them to your own computer.

I went to a Boston Computer Society meeting and handed out floppy disks with my bulletin board software, and exchanged phone numbers with other members. (Even though I was making only $2.50/hour working in retail, I had purchased my own phone line into my parent's home.)

I didn't have any tech mentors in my teens. I wish I had. Maybe one of them would have said (this was the 1980s) "software to let people see and download files from other personal computers is really useful, keep working on this". :)

VIC 20

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