[spudlyo]

I really miss the Speakeasy, I saw some wonderful shows there and made many great friends there.

Some friends and I worked on the original Speakeasy RAIN (Remote Access Internet Node) servers that were essentially a 486 host that booted Linux off of a floppy disk. We installed 4/8 port Cyclades serial cards and attached recycled Wyse dumb terminals to them. The attached modem dialed back to the Speakeasy mothership and allowed users in Seattle to read their email from places like The Alibi Room, the Sit & Spin, and Cafe Allegro. We processed credit cards so non Speakeasy users could use the system, and when their time was up we utilized a hacked up version of GNU Screen to pop open a text window to let them agree to pay for more time or to disconnect.

It was a pretty sweet setup, I remember remotely upgrading the "firmware" on the RAIN nodes by scping the new tomsrtbt disk image to /dev/fd0 and then rebooting. Those were the days. It's hard to imagine Seattle hipsters happily camped out on old dumb terminals in bars and cafes using Lynx to surf the web, and Pine to read their email, but it happened.

[trav4225]

I remember the RAIN network! I also remember the lovely spray-painted recycled Wyse terminals that were installed locally at the Speakeasy itself. Those were all I used -- I didn't bother with the PCs they had there.

I never lived in Seattle, but every time I visited (from California) I made it a point to stop by the Speakeasy nearly every day... and sometimes in the evening as well to take in a show. It's fun to hear from someone like yourself who was involved in the magic!