The Pentode

"The Pentode" was a BBS in San Luis Obispo, California (SLO). For those of you who weren't computer geeks then, a BBS is (or was) a computer Bulletin Board System.

You see, your modem is not limited to dialing only Microsoft, or AOL, or your ISP (Internet Service Provider). In fact your modem is capable of dialing ANY telephone number. And you don't need "the internet" to do this. Some people and businesses in many cities used to run computers in their homes or offices that had modems and Bulletin Board Systems. Then you could have your modem dial their modem, connect to their computer, and peruse their bulletin board system. There were many different types of systems or programs, with different commands. And there were many different reasons for having a BBS: business, social, clubs, software, etc. You would use a "terminal emulator" -  a program on your computer that would talk to the modem and make your computer function as a "terminal" that could send text commands to the remote computer. Nowadays everyone uses a different type of connection protocol, called "PPP", to connect to corporate sites that provide internet access.

While the WWW (World Wide Web) is wonderful, I lament the fact that it killed BBS's. They used to provide LOCAL computer forums where you could have real meetings, activities, promotions, or parties associated with BBS, and go meet your other local computer users. Now that is gone. 8(    Though some business, like SLO-Net in San Luis Obispo, still try to provide a kind of community for their users.

A lot of the friends I made in the SLO area, I made through The Pentode. It provided forums for intellectual discussion and argument about the topics people most love to argue about - politics, religion, etc. As well as discussions about many other areas, community events, etc. etc. And the quality of the discussion was quite good. I miss it.

In case you're wondering about the name of that now-defunct BBS: a "Pentode" is a five-element vacuum tube. The owner of the BBS was a Geek of Electronics who chose that name. Most people just thought "Pentode" sounded cool - which is of course also true.


[ Rhyader ] [ Home ] [ BBS ] [ Geek ] [ Internet ] [ ISP ] [ Pentode ] [ SLO ] [ SLO-Net ] [ WWW ]