The History of the HMVH Corporation BBS
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■ April 1988:
Introduced to computers by an HP85B (8085 processor, methinks...) and had
the opportunity to work with it for a few weeks during my apprenticeship.
A far too long pause followed.
■ October 1990:
Work finally introduced me to the IBM-compatible family of computers.
Not too long after, a simple 2400 baud was added and I discovered BBSing.
■ 1st October 1991:
Purchased my first computer: a humble 386SX/16 with all the bells and
whistles of the day. BBSing continued relentlessly.
■ 4th September 1992:
While in the process of collecting additional components to upgrade my PC,
Exebug reared its very ugly head in my direction, and after hunting down
the nasty bugger my poor PC ended up in a bit of a mess.
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■ 1st May 1993:
Typically, instead of merely upgrading the old one, I had soon built a
brand new computer system, only a few of the original components remained.
With an almost complete spare system on my hands, the idea of starting my
own BBS developed in my cranial cavity.
Gradually added a V.42bis modem and larger hard drives, and within a few
months I had satisfied my basic hardware requirements.
■ August 1993:
Started collecting necessary BBS software and began configuring system.
Upgraded to RA 2.01 and found out the hard way that an NS16550AFN was
essential even before the system went online.
■ 25th October 1993:
Telkom finally installed the line to the house, I finished off the job.
■ March, April and June 1994:
BBS went online for a few short trial runs. Fine-tuning of the system
continued after all these months!
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■ 28th June 1994:
The HMVH Corporation BBS officially went online. Not even ten minutes after
placing my last advertisement the first caller had a closer look!
■ 28th July 1994:
The HMVH Corporation BBS celebrates its first month online and part of
cyberspace. Although a few minor problems have decided to make their
presence felt, the SysOp relentlessly lumbers on, already considering some
somewhat major changes for the BBS, working to make this the HOTTEST
number in town!
■ 5th August 1994:
A bug that suggested its existence for a while already decided to confirm
this when my modem's power supply blew. The modem didn't survive either.
A temporary replacement was hooked up long enough to announce the sorry
fact that this BBS was about to go down soon!
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■ 10th August 1994:
The HMVH Corporation BBS goes off-line until further notice. The SysOp was
not to give up and spent a few thousand bucks upgrading the hardware a bit.
■ 15th December 1994:
The SysOp decides that it's time to get the BBS back on air and declares
that the system is fit to do so. So, as of this fateful day, we're back in
business, hopefully this time for good!
■ 10th April 1995:
The BBS having suddenly increased in popularity over the last few days, and
a humble 73 users and 1080 calls already clocked up, the SysOp feels the
time right for a 28k8 modem. So he goes out and gets one.
■ 2nd June 1995:
Business is going slow due to poor line conditions. One electronic exchange
telephone number is what the BBS now has too, ISDN to follow sometime!
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■ 15th December 1995:
It's our first birthday, and because of paltry line conditions we've been
forced to downgrade the line to 14400bps for the last few months already.
■ 3nd January 1996:
A new year, so it's time for a new look: Major re-vamp of the menu screens,
as well as another attempt at running a 28800bps V.34 modem.
■ 21st February 1996:
RemoteAccess is registered.
■ 13th March 1996:
A power surge by way of lightning takes the BBS down for about three days.
A few weeks later the modem also dies a slow death. I love this business!
■ 12th November 1996:
And yet another modem modem packs up. Upgraded to V.34+ (33.6kbps).
Unfortunately, it's not very happy at home... bah, I'll be moving one of
these days, hopefully to where Telkom lines are much better!
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■ 2nd January 1997:
Never mind the new modem, the whole damn machine takes a serious dive! Once
again, it turns out to be the drive controller card. Bad timing added leaves
me to no other decision than to take the BBS offline until I've moved house
and until further notice.
■ 8th June 1997:
The BBS is brought back to life in a manner that would make Dr. Frankenstein
proud... IT'S ALIVE!! The next few days are spent testing, reconfiguring
and catching up on six months worth of maintenance.
■ 16th June 1997:
A public holiday spent not at work, instead, the BBS goes back online
faster, bigger and, most importantly, more accessible!
■ 15th December 1997:
The HMVH Corporation BBS celebrates THREE YEARS online, unfortunately not all
of them continuous. Callers are far and between, simply because of the great
impact of the World Wide Web. Adaptation of this BBS is imminent too!
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■ 15th December 1998:
By far the technically most successful year, 1998 also meant a slow death for
this (and others too) BBS, despite having clocked up FOUR YEARS online. There
are hardly any callers, and the ones that do log on are only the die-hards of
the pre-WWW days. Nevertheless, we lumber on, if only to make the adaptation
to a WebServer much easier!
■ 6th January 2000:
It's the millennium, and this BBS is still running! Who'd have thought...?
Nevertheless, a few minor Y2k bugs aside, we're keeping this dinosaur alive
purely for our own entertainment value and to continue maintaining the
ever-growing filebase - mostly JPGs.
■ 27th April 2000:
The HMVH Corporation BBS finally succumbs to the influence of the internet
(as well as a complete lack of callers) and is shut down after having clocked
up a grand total of 9528 calls in about 5½ largely continuous years online.
Mark these words: I'll be back!
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