Oh SNAPP

I found this going through a bunch of Apple II floppy disks today. Oh, the havoc I used to wreak with this. This was the BBS software I bought in the 1980s so I could finally stop using (and terminally crashing) the unfortunately named Public Messaging System software, which, as you can see, abbreviated to PMS. I was a kid at the time, so I went to various user group meets around town, earnestly and unflinchingly promoting the fact that I had PMS up and running, and you could call this number and get PMS too. I shared my PMS with everyone (as you do).

PMS, fittingly, was a temperamental and unpredictable piece of software that would routinely crash and take everything with it – user database (such as it was – anyone could long in under any name at any time), messages and all. I would try vainly to disguise the fact that I had been afflicted with PMS yet again, and would proceed to change the name of the BBS before putting it up yet again. As if that would fool everyone. The phone number was always the same.

After years of suffering through PMS (and making everyone else suffer through PMS with me – isn’t that always the way?), my PMS finalled caused me to SNAPP (SNAPP cost about $80 back in the day, and as you can see, it arrived on a lovely purple floppy disk). It was much better-written BBS software, but the speed of modems was evolving at a ridiculous rate in those days. I couldn’t keep playing the BBS game. I gave up after SNAPPing for a couple of years, had the phone number changed, and put my time to better use, harrassing folks on other people’s bulletin board systems.

The indirect result of that… is the site you’re reading this on. Happy 23rd birthday, theLogBook (and happy 13th birthday, domain name). No, you can’t have the keys to the car yet.

In other news, sources close to my cats inform me that Gabby Dog has stolen…

…Peter Gabriel’s weird little beard. (Try as you might, you can’t unsee it now. Kinda like all that PMS.)