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Know whence thou comest and whither thou goest;
 
 - - Ethics of the Fathers: Chapter Three

CompuServe died this week. The service that started in 1969 and by the 1980s offered electronic mail, real-time chat and online shopping, was shut down by AOL, its current owner. Yes, of course I know most people have never heard of CompuServe. The Internet, just like electricity, has always been there – or so it seems.

I am pretty sure I really hope there are many people out there who would be interested in learning how all this came about and there’s no place better to start than by watching BBS: The Documentary. Spanning 8 episodes of 40 minutes each, it’s almost as long as a Claude Lanzmann’s documentary, but it’s full of geeks reminiscing about old times. Here’s the first episode:

Check out episodes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.