[jf]

This archive has been a personal reminder to watch what I say in all digital communication. Even if I think that my post is "internal only" or "private", it can still end up online.

I say this because one of these files has an email that my dad wrote nearly 30 years ago. I'm willing to bet that my dad had no idea that the email he was writing would be read by his son, who would be slightly embarrassed at the fact he was writing in ALL CAPS, and wishing that his dad had used a little more tact in what he was saying.

(The email I'm referring to is in "vax84.txt" search for "THE FUTURE AT ATARI")

[unimpressive]

I liked the straight-to-the-pointness of your dad's words. You probably think it's more embarrassing than it really is because he's your dad.

[allenbrunson]

Are you just now discovering this stuff? Because I read all these emails on Jed's website, way back in 2001 or so.

(side note: this page has his last name as Margolis, when it is really Margolin)

[jf]

I've known about this archive for quite a while.

[quadhome]

To be fair, it seems a few people's terminals may have only supported uppercase.

[georgemcbay]

Ditto on the reminder of the permanence of any electronic communication.

My dad didn't work at Atari but years ago I worked with Eddie Babcock at Vicinity Corp (one of the early internet map services), so there is some nostalgia in reading his emails there.

[dr42]

This is the same as usenet. Back in the 80's and 90's the expectation of posting to say alt.tasteless.jokes was that it would happily scroll off into infinity. Then a million years later google has the whole damn lot indexed.

The all-caps thing was just the times, terminals were in transition and people were learning how to use the types of services that today have a highly developed etiquette expectation.

[kabdib]

Also, a bunch of these people were programming in 6502 assembly language, every day. It marks you, it does. :-)

[dr42]

6502 was for wimps :) LDIR, CPIR, HL and two register set exchange FTW :)

[kabdib]

I cut my teeth on the Z80. Fun chip. Moving to the 6502 was a shock that took me months to get used to.

But at some point, I would think in a language I called "6502 C", and code would pop out of my fingers. It's an interesting experience, writing big programs in assembly code.