Video: 45 year old modem used to dial into web, view Wikipedia, correct the entry on Klaus Nomi
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted May 28th 2009 5:37AM
posted May 28th 2009 5:37AM
We've just been hepped to a video by someone named Phreakmonkey, wherein he gets his hands on a Model A Acoustic Coupler Modem and puts it through its ever lovin' paces. Manufactured by Livermore Data Systems ca. 1964, the 300 baud device uses an analog signal powered by the computer's serial port. Of course, getting this thing up and running required scrounging up cables, adapters, and a twenty year old telephone -- but the result? Pure geek goodness. What're you waiting for? Squeeze past the break to watch this dude dial into a server, fire up Lynx, and visit Wikipedia, old school.
[Via Hack-A-Day]
[Via Hack-A-Day]
even Bluetooth goes faster.
If it was wireless you'd have a replicator for AT&T data services...until engadget got ahold of the results for a tweak.
Or GPRS.
BEHOLD!
The coolness, the nerdiness of this knows no bounds!
I would have been more impressed if I had seen tubes and punch cards.
WTF? Not the modem, that parts awesome. I'm actually boggled about the part where someone actually remembered Klaus Nomi!
when I see lips begging to be kissed... I cant stop myself! I cant STOP MYSELF!
that man was a god ahaha.
It's a pity he succumbed to AIDS... I would have paid to see him live! In University I listened to him on Youtube while studying for math tests... I grew very attached to him
I'm m m m m I'm just a simple man man man man man.... and
LIGGGGHHHHHTTTTNNNNIIIIINNNNGGGGG STRIIIIIIIIKING AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN lol
Not much beats a man in a triangular suit
Oh yeah baby we're blazin' now!
That reminds me the Matrix....
And it took an hour to bring up the Wiki site??? Painfully slow @ 300 Baud.
If he once had a Commodore 64, I bet he did, He just went to the kitchen and made a sandwich.
Would you like to play a game if chess dr. falken?
else
fire nukes
or a game of global thermal nuclear war? prolly not exactly how you say it but o well
JOSHUA!!!!!
is it just me, or am I not getting the Klaus reference....
Check out his entry on Wikipedia... 1980s performer... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaus_Nomi
Welcome to the internet.
Pfft, text based porn sucks.
You have apparently never seen good ASCII line printer art.
Bah, just leave it overnight and you can get a nice picture of porn 12 hours later. Back in my day, that's how it was. And we liked it that way!
( . ) ( . )
Great title! Anyone else have Klaus Nomi on their iPhones?
You, sir, win one slow Internet.
Seriously, I thought my first modem (2400 baud) was a relic. I remember really looking up to the Phreaks in the last days of that strange subculture. I feel old.
Mine was a 1200baud. But I remember using an acoustic 300baud on an old BBC micro b that someone had.
Ah those were the days, when an email took 2-3 days to get from oz to the USA and you knew the guy running the BBS
2400 baud modems, BBS, "phreakers", etc... Those were the days! I remember my physician father getting on the PubMed BBS database... eventually with COLOR TEXT!
Fantastic.
I remember seeing this...in User Friendly.
Man, people are crazy these days. If you need more than 300 bits per second, you're dialing too much. What's next, modems that transmit 1200 bits per second?! I mean, what are you Interneting for, 96x96 images?
Back in my day, we had 50baud modems. Them fancy 300baud modems are just a little too fancy for me.
Totally awesome! I love the wood craftsmanship. They really knew how to make an enclosure back then. I remember when 300 baud seemed fast because we had been using teletypes at 110 baud. I worked on the development team for the HP2631 printer (Hewlett-Packard, dot-matrix 180 char/sec, $2,000 ???) in 1975 and we had an acoustic coupler modem as an option and since we expected to sell in Europe, we had to have phones from different countries so we could make sure their handsets plugged into the rubber cups we were developing.
I agree the box was nice. This combo would make Teddy K. cry.
I am shocked when I figured how the modem and phone are connected.
It's amazing that the 20-year-old telephone itself is part of the system.
Cool stuff ! Thanks for that video !
Meh... should have used a rotary telephone.
I was going to - but my Vonage adapter didn't recognize pulse dialing. :-P
barnyard pr0n never loaded so quick!
It's cool to look at what we used to have and how far things have advanced. I'm never going to complain about my DSL being too slow (:
Maybe he's dialing into the Matrix...
Dam that is awesome! and no I'm not being sarcastic, I really would love to have one.
Woah I'm impressed! Seriously that was a lot more interesting than most of todays tech because it was a proper invention, rather than just an adaption of already-existing tech.
Not really the case. That was an adaptation of other inventions like the teletype, and really just using the phone network to transmit noises that modems understood rather than human voice. Don't get me wrong, modems are/were a huge deal, but no more so than any largely used tech today
Dudes, my first modem in the 80's was a 300 baud modem. I feel really old now.
Me, too. And yet, the internet (or more likely, the local BBS) ran faster then without all the flash ads and "catch the monkey" crap.
So everyone too young to have any idea what this stuff is, just stop reading. We're a bunch of old farts remembering when - sorry to you for doing that.
Never used an acoustic coupler - did have a console printer that had one though. But I remember so well watching lines paint like that with 300 baud modems. Sad, I have a DB-9 to DB-25 adapter in my desk drawer right here, he coulda had it. In fact he would have been much better off with a breakout box, never know if he had to swap pins 3 and 5. Oh, stupid memories.
I did love that video.
Bet his girlfriend gets pissed at him for playing around with....all....that.....stuff....oh wait
There was 9 minutes of my life I'll never get back. Thank God I was at work.....
I never had an acoustic coupler, but I did have a 300 baud modem in my fist PC. Quickly switched to a 1200, then 2400 baud. Usenet, gopher, UUCP email. Those were the days.
I love how the text is slowly printed out on the screen. Nostalgic :)
The Blackberry Storm has met its match......