Happy Baud Day!! 3/12/24 a BBS callback
Back in the days of the dialup the notion of modem speed, or baud rate, was a pretty big deal. The supported speeds were often a selling point for any particular modem and would largely determine how productive your online sessions where.
When a BBS would advertise, they often mentioned their supported baud rates and was written in the (a/s/l) notation. For March 12th 2024 that translates to 300/1200/2400 as the supported baud rate which was shortened to drop the redundant double zero.
So, why was the supported baud rate important??
The baud rate difference between 1200 and 2400 was exactly double meaning that if your favorite BBS supported 2400 baud then you could download twice as much data, complete your online door game session faster and have the opportunity to bank more time with faster uploads. Of course, aside from torrents the notion of uploading more to download more has largely been forgotten however, before the widespread use of the internet a BBS was the defacto way to do online communication and try out some new software AND, you needed time credits to do this.
Check out the site supporting Baud Day [3/12/2024]. They go into a little more detail about the significance and why days like this are a chance of a lifetime.
Baud Days are like comets. They do not come around too often. December 24, 1996 (12/24/96) marked the first Baud Day with little fanfare as many saw the popularity of the Computer Bulletin Board System (BBS) waning from the rise of the Internet.
Personally, I have fond memories of dialing into a BBS system, I was curious about computers and found the notion extremely enlightening. During the rise of the Internet we simply changed the system we dialed into. Instead of “City of Trees BBS” I dialed into, AOL or CompuServe and later into my ISP. The interesting thing is that as Internet technology grew, so did the data requirements and the requirement for a fast modem and even faster ISP.
Related Web URL: https://www.southernamis.com/baudday
