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by 2wrist 1641 days ago
Akademgorodok sounds so inspiring! If you don't mind me asking, what happened next? What did you end up doing?
1 comments
googamooga 1641 days ago
Well, in 1990 I created a first FIDOnet node in USSR and became first regional coordinator of FIDOnet there. Next I graduated from Novosibirsk State University and opened my first business (ISP in Novosibirsk). Then in 1995 I moved to Moscow and became a first CTO of a first Russian stock exchange. Since that time I launched several startups and changed multiple CIO/CTO jobs at different Russian and international companies. In 2018 I understood that I fed up with Putin’s cleptocracy and moved from Moscow to Switzerland, now working as an enterprise architect for a large insurance business.
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Dracophoenix 1640 days ago
I don't mean to digress, but you seem like an interesting individual and I have several questions that you might be able to answer:

1) What was your first computer? Was it a Russian clone or a smuggled American or European one?

2) What was the USSR BBS scene like? What BBS software was in common use at that time?

3) Were you ever familiar with OGAS or latter-day Soviet/Russian equivalents to ARPANET?

4) Seeing as you were in Physics, did you ever meet the famous figures like Landau or tour areas like Dubna?

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googamooga 1629 days ago
1) ES 1022 which was a clone of IBM/360 and SM-4, a clone of PDP-11

2) Maximus BBS was the most popular software to run a BBS in USSR in late 80s, in addition to FifoNet utilities for sending/receiving/reading messages. In 80s there were just a few BBSes but their number grew exponentially starting 1990.

3) Unfortunately OGAS ceased to exist before my time. I haven’t seen Soviet equivalent of ARPAnet either.

4) I‘m in Mathematics, not Physics and never visited Dubna. Although I had a tour once of accelerators in Novosibirsk Institute of Nuclear Physics, it was very cool experience.

When I was an intern at the Institute of Catalysis I was introduced to Yulii Khariton, chief designer of Soviet nuclear program. I don‘t remember details of that meeting unfortunately…

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