[HN Gopher] Tell HN: John Friel my father, internet pioneer and ...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Tell HN: John Friel my father, internet pioneer and creator of
       QModem, has died
        
       If you knew him in life or remember his contribution to the world,
       please share your stories.
        
       Author : AaronFriel
       Score  : 1022 points
       Date   : 2024-12-30 18:11 UTC (1 days ago)
        
       | yoyoma1234 wrote:
       | I'm very sorry for your loss, and wish him and yourself the best
       | in this next phase.
        
       | spockswrench wrote:
       | I only used QModem after it was purchased by Mustang Software but
       | still have great memories! I was actually blown away by ZModem as
       | a protocol when I first used it. How far we've come! This was a
       | really interesting and innovative time period for computing and
       | communications in general.
        
         | spockswrench wrote:
         | I missed that this was your father and can't edit my post! Much
         | condolences for your loss. Your dad built something amazing.
        
       | captainkrtek wrote:
       | So sorry for your loss
        
       | pmb wrote:
       | The Qmodem program, brought home on some random 3.5 inch floppy,
       | allowed me to connect to local BBSes and started my journey into
       | networking computers. Now I have a PhD in CS and I spent more
       | than a decade deeply caring about the Internet, networks, and
       | network research. Without the start given by those BBSes, my path
       | could have been very different! I am very sorry for your loss,
       | and I hope the fact that he made a random teen's life better is
       | some comfort.
        
       | blitzo wrote:
       | Hey Friel Family, I just wanted to reach out and say how sorry I
       | am to hear about John's passing. I didn't know him or his work,
       | but it's clear he made a significant impact on many lives. Losing
       | someone who has touched so many people is never easy. Even though
       | I'm a stranger, I hope you find some comfort in the memories you
       | shared and the love that surrounds you during this tough time.
       | Sending you all my best wishes and support.
        
       | chasingthewind wrote:
       | My condolences on your loss. I used QModem in the early 90s
       | downloading shareware and the like. I just looked through my
       | floppy disk holder and found a 3 1/2 inch floppy from 1992 with
       | QModem on it :) Your dad's contribution to the BBS scene was huge
       | and it was an important part of my own journey into computing.
        
         | russellbeattie wrote:
         | Add me to the list of early 90s QModem users! Just looked it up
         | now and was reminded of the various download protocols like
         | ZModem and Kermit. I haven't thought of those for years! When I
         | used them, I don't think I even knew what a protocol was!
         | 
         | RIP JF.
        
       | jeremyjh wrote:
       | I used QModem in the late 80s, accessing files on local BBSs on
       | my 8086.
        
       | nickdothutton wrote:
       | QModem and then Telix were a window through which I explored
       | another world as a young teenager with a budget modem with shaky
       | MNP compatibility. In that world I eventually found friends, a
       | wealth of knowledge, and a career. So thanks JF. RIP.
       | 
       | ATH0.
        
         | cf100clunk wrote:
         | The family of modem data transfer software back then had
         | Kermit, xmodem, ymodem, zmodem, UUCP scripts, and pro-quality
         | tools like QModem and Telix, as you mentioned. I'm sure I've
         | left some other modem data transfer tools out. QModem had a
         | certain polish and stability to it.
        
         | f1shy wrote:
         | Telix with the salt scripting language!! What memories!
        
         | yowayb wrote:
         | "ATH0" made me tear up
        
       | wenc wrote:
       | I used QModemPro (after it was bought by Wildcat) and it was the
       | best. It integrated with OLR (offline reader) which meant I could
       | login to the BBS, download my messages via Zmodem as a compressed
       | QWK file, and logoff.
       | 
       | It was so much more efficient than downloading plain text
       | messages. Of course these days we no longer have bandwidth
       | constraints like that but back in the day it enabled long
       | discussions like the sort we're having on HN today.
       | 
       | Qmodem wasn't the only terminal emulator but it was the most
       | professional one.
        
       | rboyd wrote:
       | QModem was great software. I remember meeting many new friends
       | from BBS days using that program. My condolences to you and your
       | family.
        
       | thecrumb wrote:
       | It was like a doorway on a floppy disk.
        
       | cf100clunk wrote:
       | Condolences, and thanks John Friel for the QModem memories.
        
       | justmarc wrote:
       | My condolences. May he rest in peace.
       | 
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qmodem
        
       | reconnecting wrote:
       | Only today, I told my colleague that the first BBS connection was
       | one of the most extraordinary experiences I've had in my life. Of
       | course, it wasn't possible without QModem software.
       | 
       | Thank you so much to your father for the happiest moments of my
       | childhood!
        
       | mikerg87 wrote:
       | Accept my condolence for your family in this time of sorrow. The
       | QMODEM program was transformative in my life. Through USR
       | robotics HST modem and QMODEM I was able to access a world far
       | beyond the rural life in which I lived. The generousity of his
       | shareware program probably touched more people than you will
       | know.
        
       | kylecazar wrote:
       | I have a very early memory related to QModemPro (too young to
       | remember the original).
       | 
       | Sorry for your loss, and grateful to your dad for his
       | contributions.
        
       | bwann wrote:
       | Qmodem was my favorite comm program during the BBS days, and it
       | still is today when working with vintage computers. It was just
       | nice to use. Its scripting language was the first I used and I
       | find myself wishing there was a Linux comm program with scripting
       | that worked that well. Long distance calls were expensive so I
       | used a Qmodem script to call BBSs each morning to download my
       | email before school.
       | 
       | Just the last several months I've been using Qmodem scripting to
       | make thousands of modem calls over VoIP to test downloads to see
       | which models and ATAs work best.
       | 
       | After I jumped back into the vintage BBS world I've been keeping
       | an eye out for anything Qmodem. I recently just picked up a
       | Qmodem manual on ebay that I wanted to scan and archive, because
       | it's pretty rare to see.
       | 
       | Not too long ago I saw where John had posted to a FB group he was
       | working on a new DOS version of Qmodem, my first interaction with
       | him. I was excited to see it be worked on again and hoped to see
       | the new version. Sad to see him go.
        
         | maybeben wrote:
         | Huh, interesting. Are you publishing the results of that
         | testing somewhere?
        
         | mattdeboard wrote:
         | Do you plan on writing about your dip back into vintage BBSs? I
         | have a lot of memories from my youth oriented around BBSs, a
         | world and network of communities I wasn't really old enough to
         | understand. I'd like to revisit that time with my adult
         | brain...
        
         | Bluestein wrote:
         | > Just the last several months I've been using Qmodem scripting
         | to make thousands of modem calls over VoIP to test downloads to
         | see which models and ATAs work best.
         | 
         | This is great. That someone is _still using this software
         | meaningfully_ to this day.-
        
       | runjake wrote:
       | The amount of engineers your father directly or indirectly
       | created are innumerable. Myself included.
       | 
       | I would've never discovered UNIX or the pre-web internet without
       | software like and including QModem.
        
       | jimodonald wrote:
       | I knew him personally. We worked on a few projects together in
       | the late 90s/early 00s. He was a good man and I remember him
       | trying to be a good father to you. I will miss him and his
       | infectious laugh.
       | 
       | My condolences to you and your family.
        
       | ska wrote:
       | Condolences on your loss, Aaron & family. Few of us will ever
       | write software with as much impact as QModem, I hope that your
       | father found satisfaction in that reach.
        
       | BeefWellington wrote:
       | Sorry for your loss. I was an avid Qmodem user back in the day.
       | 
       | Your father's software directly led to a lifetime passion for me.
       | Dialing into a local BBS and being able to reach people around
       | the world was, to me as a kid in the 80s, the single most magical
       | thing imaginable.
        
         | rbanffy wrote:
         | BBSs made me realize computers are much more useful as
         | communication devices than computing devices. By far the most
         | useful peripheral back then was the modem (after the basics -
         | such as floppy disks).
        
       | pheller wrote:
       | I too was one of the Many who used Qmodem back in the day, and
       | still do now on vintage stuff like bwann mentioned.
       | 
       | I had opportunity to work with John on a small consulting thing
       | when I started and ISP back in the mid 90s, and I recall him
       | being an incredibly bright and affable guy.
       | 
       | My deepest condolences to the family.
        
       | cyberge99 wrote:
       | Qmodem still runs on Linux. I've had to use it a few times to
       | talk to serial devices.
        
         | graton wrote:
         | That might be Qodem instead of Qmodem. But I would be happy to
         | be wrong.
        
       | JeremyMorgan wrote:
       | I'm so sorry for your loss.
       | 
       | Your father's contributions are immeasurable. Just reading the
       | word "QModem" gave me an instant flashback to my youth. QModem
       | was my gateway to the outside world.
       | 
       | I grew up way out in the country. I was the 80s and I was pretty
       | isolated from technology and didn't even know anyone who cared
       | about it at first. I started tinkering with our home PC, and I
       | finally purchased a modem and figured out how to connect to BBSs.
       | This changed my life. I had many sleepless nights as teenager,
       | connecting everywhere I could. QModem was like a fancy car that
       | drove me anywhere I wanted to go.
       | 
       | I became obsessed with learning and tweaking things. AT commands,
       | autoexec.bat, QModem scripting. Whatever I could figure out to
       | get maximum performance and fast download speeds. Because of
       | Qmodem, I could download games, text files, and even talk with
       | other people. This moment in time defined my future. I knew right
       | then what I wanted to do with my life.
       | 
       | I owe thanks to your father and what he built for my wonderful
       | career, and 40 years of enjoying technology. Without something as
       | easy to learn and reliable as QModem, who knows what path my life
       | would have taken.
        
       | ghewgill wrote:
       | I worked with John for a few years in the 1990s. This was during
       | the heyday of BBSes, when he joined our small team at Mustang
       | Software after Mustang bought Qmodem. John moved to Bakersfield
       | California (with his family, including OP!) to be with us. John
       | left a few years later due to I think business differences with
       | management.
       | 
       | John was personable and full of joy. He always loved a good joke.
       | I remember the parties (not wild, we were pretty tame back then)
       | we would have around the pool at his place. He was generous with
       | his time.
       | 
       | The story of Qmodem itself was a bit different. Qmodem for DOS
       | was a one-man shareware business and was John's pride and joy. It
       | was clear that he poured everything into that program. It was
       | finely tuned and just worked. Times were changing though, and
       | people were calling for a Windows version. Unfortunately, John
       | was not interested in learning Windows programming, so Scott
       | Hunter (now at Microsoft), Dan Horn, and I built Qmodem for
       | Windows. It was good, but it really never had the same level of
       | polish that John's work did. It was "Qmodem" in name only.
       | 
       | After John left Mustang he also left Bakersfield and I lost touch
       | with him. I'm sure he continued to make the people around him
       | smile. Thank you for your time and contributions, John.
        
         | geocrasher wrote:
         | In the mid 1990's, as a teen, I once was hired to cold call a
         | bunch of software companies to contribute to some non-profit,
         | and I recall calling Mustang Software.
         | 
         | That was 30 years ago. I don't know who I talked to, but they
         | were not too happy to have me on the phone lol. Sorry if that
         | was you. and OP sorry about your father. I recall QModem well.
        
         | dicroce wrote:
         | I had two floppies: MSDos & QModem. With those two I could use
         | BBS's to get everything else.
        
         | xbar wrote:
         | QModem was amazing software, and I was sad when Mustang bought
         | it. I was happy to see a software company in Bakersfield,
         | though, and continued to use it. Without it, I never would have
         | come as far as I did.
         | 
         | My condolences to you and your family during this time. I am
         | grateful for John's work and the pathway he paved for so many
         | into this world.
        
       | jexe wrote:
       | Thanks to your father for his contribution to my childhood, I
       | used QModem every single day until my parents screamed, and it
       | changed my life. I made friends on some local BBSes that I still
       | have 30+ years later.
       | 
       | Sending condolences and gratitude.
        
       | Trixter wrote:
       | I'm very sorry for your loss.
       | 
       | In the early 1990s, QModem's workflow for offline inter-BBS email
       | (in the QWK file format) allowed me to communicate several times
       | weekly, much faster than physical mailed letters, to people all
       | over the world that I would not have been able to do otherwise.
       | It helped me curb depression, build my technical skills, and join
       | a community whose members I am still in contact with over a third
       | of a century later.
       | 
       | QModem was written in Turbo Pascal, and was noticeably faster
       | than other terminal ("modem") programs on my aging 8086 hardware
       | at the time. And knowing it was written in TP, and being a TP
       | programmer myself, gave me hope for the possibility of writing
       | fast code in a high-level language myself, which I eventually
       | did.
       | 
       | I would not be as successful in my life today without the
       | positive experiences made possible by QModem.
       | 
       | PS: Your father's choice of name for his shareware company, "The
       | Forbin Project", was quite the hax0r flex at the time.
        
       | ChuckMcM wrote:
       | Sorry for your loss Aaron. My father passed away just before
       | Thanksgiving and it hit me harder than I expected (long illness,
       | failing health, so I felt I was prepared but alas).
       | 
       | Qmodem was for me the tool that IT gave everyone so they could
       | "dial in" to the office when on business trips. And because it
       | was installed by IT on every fresh laptop it was always in the
       | top left corner of the screen. Even after my company had moved on
       | to other products, my wife continued to use it for years sending
       | faxes when folks needed a fax sent.
        
       | ohjeez wrote:
       | Your father opened doors to other worlds and helped us humans
       | reach one another.
        
       | qmodemjunky wrote:
       | QModem changed my life, and gave me an outlet and window to a
       | whole new world as a young teen. My condolences. And my eternal
       | gratitude to you, your father, and your family!
       | 
       | Glad to see all my Qmodem peeps in here again! If anyone has any
       | pointers on how to get back into the BBS world, my interest is
       | piqued.
        
         | jlundberg wrote:
         | This FidoNet-style experimental messaging network is a good
         | pointer to get started and find more people involved in today's
         | BBS world:
         | 
         | https://fsxnet.nz/
        
       | qmodemjunky2025 wrote:
       | QModem changed my life, and gave me an outlet and window to a
       | whole new world as a young teen. My condolences. And my eternal
       | gratitude to you, your father, and your family!
       | 
       | Glad to see all my Qmodem peeps in here again! If anyone has any
       | pointers on how to get back into the BBS world, my interest is
       | piqued.
        
       | mansilladev wrote:
       | Sorry for your loss. Like so many others here, I was a heavy
       | QModem user. My memory is for crap, but I think without it (and
       | Ymodem-G and Zmodem protocols) BBS/warez life would have been
       | unbearable.
        
       | monitron wrote:
       | I'm so sorry for your loss. I don't have anything super-personal
       | to contribute except what has been said many times already:
       | QModem was my first window on the digital world and a
       | delightfully crafted tool. Developers of today (like me) could
       | learn a lot from your dad.
        
       | cannibalXxx wrote:
       | my condolences
        
       | jimmar wrote:
       | I was a middle schooler in the 1990s when I first used QModem. My
       | dad found a list of BBSs from the local newspaper and I dialed
       | them up with my trusty 14.4 modem. It felt like unlocking a
       | secret world.
        
       | clamprecht wrote:
       | Wow, QModem! I wish a had a screenshot of my main QModem page
       | with the top BBSs & dialups in my list. I never met John Friel,
       | but his software changed my life.
        
       | rbanffy wrote:
       | I am so sorry for your loss. I used QMODEM a lot on my BBS years.
        
       | anshubansal2000 wrote:
       | I am so sorry for your loss.
        
       | dugmartin wrote:
       | QModem got passed around to the CS freshman by an older student
       | when I started college in '89. It was my gateway to the local BBS
       | scene where I made a lot of friendships, both online and at
       | monthly "swap, meet the sysops" meetings we had at a local sub
       | shop.
        
       | mericson wrote:
       | John helped get me and my college roommate started with Linux
       | system administration and web development three decades ago. We
       | both grew up in in the town in Iowa where John lived, and my
       | roommate had met him around the time we went to college in the
       | mid nineties. We were both nerdy engineering majors who had
       | gotten exposed to Unix through our college dial-up shell
       | accounts, and we had managed to scavenge together enough computer
       | parts -- an old 386 motherboard, a discarded hard drive that just
       | needed a molex connector soldered back onto it, a spare floppy
       | drive -- to assemble a computer just barely capable of running
       | Linux.
       | 
       | I remember lugging it all over to John's basement where he helped
       | us install Slackware Linux from a giant stack of 5 1/4 floppies
       | he had.
       | 
       | Later, when John was running up a dial-up ISP in town, he let us
       | park that server at his ISP, so we had a full Linux server of our
       | own connected to a T1 with its own public IP address, and where
       | we had root access and could experiment with running our own web
       | and email servers and other such things. Back then in dial-up
       | days, having a Linux server of our own on the Internet seemed
       | unbelievable, and I will always be deeply appreciative to John
       | for that opportunity.
        
       | coolcsh wrote:
       | John and I met each other in the early days of BBSes and he put
       | me in touch with the developer of a BBS called Colossus which was
       | written in Turbo Pascal. This got me started as a developer and I
       | met Jim Harrer through these interactions as we were trying to
       | port BBSes to run on the IBM PCjr. Years later Jim started
       | Mustang Software where we developed a commercial BBS called
       | Wildcat. Jim and I stayed in touch with John the whole time which
       | led to Mustang buying Qmodem. After John left Mustang he and I
       | continued to stay in touch. I ran into him and his son at many of
       | the conferences I spoke at for Microsoft. And most recently he
       | and I were in touch trying to find all the components so we could
       | compile Qmodem again.
        
       | pcdoodle wrote:
       | Aaron, This is before my time but I want to send my condolences
       | and also acknowledge the great title as it's rare here.
        
       | jbot29 wrote:
       | Sorry for your loss. Like many others QModem was a huge part of
       | me getting into computers. I loved the shit out of QModem, ATH0
       | ride or die.
        
       | steelframe wrote:
       | Another software engineer chiming with QModem being one of his
       | childhood core memories. Sorry for your loss.
        
       | jim_lawless wrote:
       | In the early 1990's, I purchased a "Telepath" modem from a
       | company then known as Gateway 2000 along with a computer and
       | other gear. Qmodem for DOS was included with the Telepath.
       | 
       | I had used a number of different terminal programs on a handful
       | of machines of the era, but I never found one as robust and as
       | easy to use as Qmodem. I used Qmodem for several years. I quit
       | using it when the local BBS scene wilted away.
       | 
       | Thank you for your father's contributions to communications tech
       | and BBSing. My condolences to you and your family.
        
       | 51Cards wrote:
       | This brings back so many memories. QModem was my go-to for online
       | life back in my BBS days. Your father had an immeasurable impact
       | in enabling the online world, which in turn fostered countless
       | people like me who went on to careers in development / IT.
        
       | tmountain wrote:
       | Used QModem as a young teen, and it was my gateway to connecting
       | with people in my community via a very cheap laptop that only had
       | a floppy drive (no HD). This experience shaped my future and my
       | trajectory in tech, thanks to your dad.
        
       | nthnb wrote:
       | Sometime around 1994, when I was 14, I remember using QModem to
       | connect to my best friend's computer down the street. We spent
       | all day sending text messages back and forth. Then I discovered
       | BBSs and eventually an early version of the internet offered by
       | my towns local library BBS. A whole world opened up from that
       | moment.
       | 
       | Your father's work had a big impact on my life. I'm sorry for
       | your loss.
        
       | Jaauthor wrote:
       | QModem was my first modem program and I can still hear the sound
       | of that little DOS-based 2400 BPS modem ringing in my ears. My
       | best to you and your family and I'm so sorry for your lost.
        
       | glimshe wrote:
       | My condolences. I wasn't a QModem user (my older friends used
       | Terminate/Telemate so that's what I learned from them), but I was
       | a heavy BBS user in the later scene which greatly benefitted from
       | the ecosystem that grew thanks to QModem.
        
       | SpaceManNabs wrote:
       | Sorry for your loss OP. From reading the comments, your dad was
       | pretty awesome. Hope the memories keep you company.
        
       | hackcoughgasp wrote:
       | I was a happy customer of The Forbin Project. QModem was a great
       | product. It's probably hard for younger people to appreciate how
       | important terminal software once was.
        
       | powerhugs wrote:
       | I am sorry for your loss, OP.
       | 
       | QModem was my window to the world of BBS:es and FidoNet back
       | before we got Internet.
        
       | wut-wut wrote:
       | So sorry for your loss.
        
       | elijahwright wrote:
       | My local bbs scene had a ton of qmodem fans; mostly older guys
       | who had been around a while. It was the late 286 and early 386
       | days for us, and I was in late middle school and early high
       | school.
        
       | simonvc wrote:
       | +++ATH
        
       | simonvc wrote:
       | +++ATH
       | 
       | QModem was the best (until everyone started pushing zmodem).
        
       | ToddWBurgess wrote:
       | QModem allowed me to explore the wonderful world of BBSs before
       | the Internet was a thing. Having access to BBSs gave me a leg up
       | when I got to University and got access to the Internet. BBSs are
       | what got me seriously interested in computers and helped me
       | launch a career in software development.
       | 
       | Your Dad's legacy will be writing the software that opened doors
       | for many of us when computers used to be a walled garden and
       | talking to another person on a computer was still a foreign
       | concept for the general population. Condolences on the loss of of
       | your father but hopefully you can take comfort in the fact his
       | legacy made the world a better place for PC users.
       | 
       | Just wanted to add, found this YouTube video of your father
       | launching QModem on an old PC:
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gs7XZs6jOhc
        
       | martyz wrote:
       | I ran a BBS for several years in the late 80s, early 90s as a
       | teen and dialed out to countless others with the help of Focke's
       | BBS List and Qmodem - thank you so much John for your
       | contributions. RIP.
        
       | 1vuio0pswjnm7 wrote:
       | I used qmodem as late as the 90s for transferring files from an
       | SDF-like remote UNIX shell account to a home PC. Great program.
       | RIP.
        
       | TomAugsrpuger wrote:
       | My condolences Aaron. Reading through these comments, it sounds
       | like your dad left a great impression on the world.
        
       | anotherlab wrote:
       | I'm so sorry for your loss. I remember buying licenses for Qmodem
       | and later on Qmodem for Windows. I think I spent more time
       | tweaking scripts to log me into various BBSs than I would have
       | spent just typing in the username and password. But where's the
       | fun in that?
        
       | RiellyYoung wrote:
       | My condolences to you and your family.
        
       | WesBrownSQL wrote:
       | I am sad for for your loss but glad he had such a large impact on
       | my life and so many others.
        
       | jjguy wrote:
       | I didn't personally know your dad, but like many others here
       | depended on his work with QModem during the late 80s and early
       | 90s. The fact we are all on Hacker News is evidence of how it
       | impacted our lives - and the relevance of the community here.
       | 
       | Thank you for posting - I've enjoyed reading the outpouring of
       | history and stories and hope it brings you the same sense of
       | wonder it has me. Godspeed to you and your family.
       | 
       | Similar to all the rest of you HN lurkers, especially the grey
       | beards - thanks for being here and thank for keeping the "hacker"
       | in "hacker news" alive.
        
       | dfe wrote:
       | Just the other week I dug out my old Qmodem floppies, and I
       | installed it on my retro Tandy 1000 TL. I used it with a null
       | modem cable and USB serial to my Mac, where using something
       | simple like picocom let me send files back and forth with Zmodem.
       | 
       | The built-in serial on this machine is too slow to be seriously
       | useful (max sustained speed is 9600), but it was enough to send
       | different network drivers to try without having to play with disk
       | images and plug/unplug USB sticks from my floppy emulator to my
       | Mac.
       | 
       | Qmodem was as familiar and useful as ever.
        
       | jimbergman wrote:
       | I miss the BBS days and the good folk like John that were part of
       | that community.
       | 
       | Sorry for your loss Aaron.
        
       | dvrj101 wrote:
       | is this his youtube channel :
       | https://www.youtube.com/@JohnnyMarauder , the last video is :
       | "Getting an old copy of Qmodem running on a restored IBM 5150
       | PC." with
       | 
       | description: "I wrote Qmodem originally on an IBM PC Clone, the
       | Tava PC. I've restored an actual IBM 5150 with the same cards and
       | software from back in the day, and here it is running Qmodem
       | V3.1"
        
         | AaronFriel wrote:
         | Yeah, that's his channel.
        
       | palisade wrote:
       | Qmodem is what got me into BBSes. I later switched to Terminat.
       | Sorry for your loss, he contributed a lot to early communications
       | that eventually led to the internet. I'll always have fond
       | memories of the BBS era.
        
       | robarr wrote:
       | I want to comment on something that seems important to me. In the
       | third world, in countries where the internet arrived much later
       | and where money was much scarcer, the effect of qmodem was quite
       | long lasting and profitable for the tech savvy community. A PC
       | and a modem were the support for many of the adventures and
       | beginnings in computer science and in general to satisfy that
       | insatiable curiosity for the computer revolution. Engineers
       | working in big companies and using the resources of these and
       | local volunteers installed BBS with Walnut Creek cds and other
       | shareware CDs and gave access for the first time to that universe
       | that we now take as evident and accessible from our phones.
       | Without qmodem I would still be waiting for my copy of unarc!.
       | 
       | In my personal case, I want to also thank your father for
       | pointing us thru it's company name to the book and movie "the
       | forbin project" :-). In our present of promises of supercomputing
       | AIs, maybe we should all read the book or watch the movie.
        
       | pfdietz wrote:
       | I knew nothing about him, but here's his YouTube channel.
       | 
       | https://www.youtube.com/c/JohnnyMarauder
        
       | flyinghamster wrote:
       | My condolences. Between QModem, Telix, ProComm, and all the rest,
       | I'd put QModem at the top (but all were good). I didn't get
       | online until I was away from home, but wasted no time getting
       | there once I had the opportunity. At that time, Champaign-Urbana
       | had a hopping BBS scene, aside from all that was going on in
       | school.
       | 
       | I've considered revisiting old-school BBS systems (or at least,
       | BBS-via-SSH, it is the 21st Century after all) but there just
       | never seems to be enough time.
        
       | michaelcampbell wrote:
       | Sorry to hear it. I used QModem (as well as any other package I
       | could get my hands on) in the mid 1980's quite a lot. Was active
       | in the BBS scene for my area, (and Compuserve, and GEnie, and
       | others), and have many fond memories of those days. They were
       | _MY_ "golden years of computing" where every month something
       | revolutionary seemed to come out.
       | 
       | 5 1/4's; 300-1200 baud modems, x/y/z modem transfer protocols,
       | programming in BASIC mostly at home, Pascal in high school,
       | reading Byte magazine, typing in endless rows of DATA statements,
       | "+++" attacks, "ATDT" vs "ATTD" arguments... I miss all of it.
        
       | notorandit wrote:
       | The loss of a father is a big loss. This one in particular is
       | like a world pillar just collapsed.
        
       | spalt wrote:
       | how many hours did i stare at the ZMODEM BATCH download screen
       | waiting for my warez to finish at 4800 baud? innumerable! RIP.
        
       | browningstreet wrote:
       | QModem, redialing, carrier connect speaker audio, ASCII art and
       | BBSes were a huge part of my teen years. Big thanks to John, and
       | a heartfelt RIP.
        
       | m_walden wrote:
       | Could you please provide a link(s) to an obituary if/when it gets
       | published?
       | 
       | Sorry to hear of you loss, and my condolences to you. Thanks in
       | advance.
        
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       (page generated 2024-12-31 23:02 UTC)