Commodork/Commodorkier to appear on StoryBundle

[Flack]

The original version of Commodork, along with an all-new companion piece titled Commodorkier, have been selected to be part of a StoryBundle this April. For those unfamiliar with the site, StoryBundle allows people to pay what they want for a collection of DRM-free eBooks.

After the StoryBundle campaign ends, I'll be releasing Commodork along with Commodorkier in paperback and (finally) as an audio book.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

You son of a bitch.

::fingerguns

I'm in.

[obliterator918]

What kind of stuff do you have in Commodorkier?

[Flack]

Great question! It's a companion piece to Commodork, so think of it as a "where are they now" piece that lines up chapter by chapter to the original.

When it's done, I'll be providing free PDF copies to all members of The Gas Chamber. After the bundle ends, I'll be offering it as a PDF, paperback, and (fingers crossed) part of an audio book package.

[k8track]

How did I miss this? Really looking forward to reading it!

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Great question! It's a companion piece to Commodork, so think of it as a "where are they now" piece that lines up chapter by chapter to the original.

When it's done, I'll be providing free PDF copies to all members of The Gas Chamber. After the bundle ends, I'll be offering it as a PDF, paperback, and (fingers crossed) part of an audio book package.

Did you find a lot of the people that were in Commodork without too much trouble? Anyone you wish you got a hold of but didn't?

[Flack]

Eh, mostly. In 2005, I was still chatting with many of the old tbh405 guys in IRC. 2005 predates the popularity of Facebook, but a lot of people were on MySpace, and people weren't as good at keeping their real names out of search engines.

The harder part was finding people who wanted to talk about BBSes. I tracked down my old partner from the OK Krackers (who was 25+ years older than me) and he had 0% interest in talking about those days and remembered almost nothing. When he bought his first PC in the early 90s, he donated all of his Commodore hardware and software to his church who turned around and sold it at a yard sale. I mentioned half a dozen old aliases to him and he didn't remember any of them.

Ironically, it's harder to find people today because I remember less about them. Going back through Commodork and my old notes, I see people's names that I wouldn't be able to come up with by memory alone.

[Artisian78]

That is really something, Flack. I just finished reading Commodork this morning. I would like to check out the Commodorkier ebook if I can. I saw that Commodorkier was mentioned on Storybundle a while back. But I am not sure how to get it.

Artisian78

[Flack]

I never got around to adding it to my site. I'll try and make that happen tomorrow.

[Artisian78]

No problem, Flack. Sounds good. Yes.

[Artisian78]

I just thought I would comment about your experience taking an Internet class. I had a similar experience with my first online Internet class,a government/history politics, that I took during summer school from a local community college. It is kind of crazy that it was almost 22 years ago. I had gone on a summer vacation trip with my parents to California while I was taking this class. Of course, I had a desktop PC that I had built from my college computer literacy classes that I was taking at the time. Yet, my desktop PC was heavy to lug around on the trip in Southern California.

Before going on the trip with my family, I had a bought a second hand black Tandy 286 laptop that ran MS-Dos 6.2 from Ebay. I had installed Windows 3.1 on it, along with an old version of Microsoft Works and copy of the telecommunications software for the modem. I guess it would have been nicer if I had a laptop that ran America Online and I could dial out. But buying a better laptop on a student budget would have been prohibitive for me at the time.

Since the year was 1998, I didn't exactly access to WIFI connection. My parents were saying at various hotels in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Santa Monica I didn't exactly have dialup Internet access. So, my parents and I would have to visit some local Internet cafes and a library in Santa Monica to use the Internet. It was really crazy that there was homeless man at one of the Internet cafes that ran when he heard loose change coming out of my pockets during one visit.

Thinking back now, I guess it would have been better if I would have spent some time trying to research what free dial up bulletin board systems were around at the time. Yet, bulletin board systems were quickly vanishing and being replaced with commercial Internet access.

Anyway, as a requirement for the class I had to post these weekly diary postings and comment what other people would post online. This was way blog sites and My Space was ever created. The only thing that did
exist at the time was Yahoo Geocities and e-zines that the professors would create would send out to students enrolled within the classes.

I also had to keep up with the required chapter readings during the trip.

I tried to write out notes in a spiral notebook. Then, at night at the hotels I would type out
the notes and save them in a .Txt Text file. Then, at the libaries and cyber cafes I would
just try to upload the journal entries as fast as I could since it was a grade.

I tried to do the best I could to study during the trip. But I found it difficult to read the textbook at the time since it was kind of written more as a reference manual, like reading a Chilton's book on repairing automobiles were. The best that I could do, especially on the trip, was just sort of skim, place paperclips as a reference, and make notes.

If I remember correctly, I believe the professor of the class I was actually on a trip himself.
The professor took a long trip to Washington State. He would somehow check his email and would
sent posts during the trip.

After the trip ended, my parents and I flew back home. I thought I had more time to study but
I didn't. I believe I only had a week to finish reading the book and to take a test. The test
itself was a major part of the class. I had to schedule a time to take a written test
within a computer lab and take the test on the 7th floor of the library at the community college.
I believe there were a few people that did show up for the exam. Yet, I only got a 65 or so on
the exam. There was another person that was there that got a 43 or so on their exam.

I winded up just dropping the class since I didn't exactly need the class for graduation. But
it was a wake up call for me for taking an Internet distance learning class.

As for economics, I had a similar experience with a professor that didn't seem to enjoy teaching.
I thought the class would be interesting to take. But I winded up just dropping it.

[Artisian78]

Flack, I see.

>College was a waste of both time and money for me early on.

I remember taking some college classes at this community college that was about 20 minutes away from the high school I attended. Truth is, the college was just right across from this park that overlooked this senior citizen complex where my maternal grandmother once lived. Sadly, she died right after I graduated from high school.

I didn't actually start college at that community college, but just took some summer classes there.

>My first two years of college were at Redlands >Community College, a small school about 20 minutes away <>from my high school. It was really "High School 2.0."

Flack, I know it was a long time ago, but did you ever try to get in touch with the English professor you had for the yearbook? Just wondering. It would have been kind of neat if you got in touch with her just to say you went back to school?

> There was some good that came out of it -- my English professor is the one who drafted me for the >newspaper and yearbook and really got me started down the road of writing, but I literally spent two years >taking classes <with no real aim toward any particular degree.

College can be a real eye opening experience at least from high school. I know one of my long time friends from high school had problems graduating. I think he has 60 hours or so. I tried to talk to him to consider going back to school, but that has to come from him.

>After two years of going there I was dumbfounded that you didn't <just magically graduate after that. My <>parents paid for my books for one or two semesters and that was it.

I see. Sometimes, people need time to adapt to college. It's a different experience from high school.

>When I went back to finish my associates 10 years after I had started, it was a completely different experience. >When the teacher said to read at home, I read at home. When they said to do the homework, I did the >homework. And my class was filled with a bunch of high school kids that were just like me a few years prior. I >almost feel like there should be a 1/2 or full year break between high school and college, just to weed >out the people that are going because they feel like they need to vs. those that want to.

[Flack]

Before going on the trip with my family, I had a bought a second hand black Tandy 286 laptop that ran MS-Dos 6.2 from Ebay. I had installed Windows 3.1 on it, along with an old version of Microsoft Works and copy of the telecommunications software for the modem. I guess it would have been nicer if I had a laptop that ran America Online and I could dial out. But buying a better laptop on a student budget would have been prohibitive for me at the time.

There was a window in time when many of us had a vision about mobile computing, but the technology just hadn't caught up yet. When my son was born in 2001, I was able to take pictures in the hospital and post them online by taking them with my digital camera, using a serial cable to quickly sync them to my laptop, connect it to the phone line in the room to dial up, and then email them -- and of course, I had to shrunk them down because even a one-megabyte attachment would have completely clogged the pipes.

It's just like my first GPS, which connected to a laptop through a serial connection and required a CD for all the maps. I remember fiddling with that while using multiple adapters to connect my laptop to the cigarette lighter (for power) and the cassette deck (to play mp3s) and thinking, man, someday this will be a lot easier!

Fast forward to today, where my phone has 5,000 mp3s stored on it and my unlimited data plan can sync millions more from the cloud.

[Flack]

Flack, I know it was a long time ago, but did you ever try to get in touch with the English professor you had for the yearbook? Just wondering. It would have been kind of neat if you got in touch with her just to say you went back to school?

I talk to her regularly through Facebook! A few months ago she invited me to speak to one of her adult evening classes about self-publishing and internet promotion. I had a blast doing it.

[Artisian78]

That is really great to hear, Flack. I was not sure if you tried to reconnect with the journalism professor you once had.

>I talk to her regularly through Facebook! A few months ago she invited me to speak to one of her adult evening >classes about self-publishing and internet promotion. I had a blast doing it.

[Artisian78]

I see.

<There was a window in time when many of us had a vision about mobile computing, but the technology just >hadn't caught up yet.

I see.

Wow, t hat is something.

>When my son was born in 2001, I was able to take pictures in the hospital and post them online by taking >them with my digital camera,

I see. That is something. I remember some digital cameras back in the day used 3.5" floppy disks.

>using a serial cable to quickly sync them to my laptop, connect it to the phone >line in the room to dial up, >and then email them -- and of course,

I see. You are right about the file sizes had to be small to be able to download the files.

>I had to shrunk them down because even >a one-megabyte attachment would have completely clogged the >pipes.

I see. Wow, that is something.

>It's just like my first GPS, which connected to a laptop through a serial connection and required a CD for all >the maps.

I agree with you that using a GPS has to be easier than than.
>I remember fiddling with that while using multiple adapters to connect my laptop to the cigarette >lighter (for power) and the cassette deck (to play mp3s) and thinking, man, someday this will be a lot >easier!

I see. That is really something.
>Fast forward to today, where my phone has 5,000 mp3s stored on it and my unlimited data plan can sync >millions more from the cloud.

[Artisian78]

Top

Re: Writing about crap you don't know

Postby Flack » February 10th, 2017, 10:42 am

I see. This kind of reminds me of the literary magazine that I published some short stories in during college. I didn't get paid for doing it, whatsoever.

>I think I, and a lot of writers, have hovered in this gray area for years, this area where you are good enough <to get "published" by places that don't pay, and not good enough to get published by places that pay.

I see.

> I'm <trying to change that, but it's tough.

I see.

>At Oklahoma Graphics, I worked 12 hours shifts without a break.

I just found this article online a little while ago:

Oklahoma Graphics to Be Sold
Published: Tue, August 18, 1987 12:00 AM

https://oklahoman.com/article/2195907/oklahoma-graphics-to-be-sold

I believe it.

> When I mentioned to my boss that that >was illegal, he showed me a filing cabinet full of applications of >people who would love to have my job.

I believe it. Sad but true.

<>So, I >worked 12 hour days without a break for as long as I could >take it.

I guess that is why BBSs were popular in the 1980s and 1990s, especially for reading fanzines and fan lit.
This reminds me of the Sith lit that you mentioned in the Commodorks ebook.

>When blogs and online zines popped up, people started writing for free. Wired is never going to run an >article written by me about anything, but I can write some crappy article and get Joe Bob's Digital Playhouse >to run it because he's getting content for free. So this entire infrastructure developed where content is >worth nothing.

I believe it.

>I can't tell you how many websites I've contributed to for free.

I see.

>Magazines were already at a disadvantage when it came to delivery times. I've been told magazines buy >holiday features 60-90 days out. Sure, some articles and magazines are more timely, but many aren't. When >there's an earthquake in India, people in Indiana know about it seconds later thanks to Twitter. The only >advantage magazines had in my opinion (other than simply being physical, which some people prefer) is >that their audience is used to reading longer, more in depth pieces.

That is true.

<But I think people's brains have been ruined by texts and tweets and Facebook updates and 90 second CNN >blurbs. It's like people expect their brains to change channels once a minute and people don't want to read a >2,000-3,000 word piece on anything.

I see.

<>On top of that, financially, magazines struggle to pay writers because nobody online pays writers. So for years now you're seeing a lot of "contributed by" or "submitted by" articles (which usually means no payment) or a lot of times they don't even say that. People, including myself, have bought into this ecosystem where they are happy to do work "just to get their name out there." I wish I had a dollar for everything I ever did that got my name out there.

I believe that. Yes, you can clearly see this now with a number of journalists losing their jobs due the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.

>So really the only problem magazines have today is that they can't afford writers and fewer people than ever >are reading them.

[Artisian78]

That is really something, Flack. You had quite a busy schedule attending college..

t was actually worse than that.

<I drive 30 minutes to get to work and the college is 30 minutes further, so here's what I did on day #1:

<5am: woke up.
5:30am: left for work.
6am-8am: worked at work.
8am-9am: drove to school*.
9am-10:30am: class.
10:30am-11am: drove back to work.
11am-2:30pm: worked
2:30-3pm: drove home, picked up Mason from the bus stop.
3pm-3:45pm: worked from home.
3:45pm-3:50pm: picked up Morgan from the bus stop.
3:50pm-5pm: worked from home.

<*So, about that hour drive to school. As I mentioned, a parking pass to park on campus is $250, and I've <been told (and seen) that by 9am there would be no parking available anyway. My other option is parking two miles away and riding the free shuttle to and from school. Not a big deal, but it takes time. So while the drive from my work to the campus is right at 30 minutes, now I have to park, walk to the bus stop, wait for a bus, ride the bus, and walk from the bus stop to my building. Based on Tuesday, this adds another 20 minutes or so. Also, traffic headed toward the college is a bitch at 8am.

I've been running through this schedule looking for a way to shave some of this time off and we may have come up with a plan. Because of the nature of my work, I can work from almost anywhere. All I need is power for my laptop -- I have a MiFi for internet access with me and a cell phone is anyone wants or needs to call me. So what I am considering is driving to the school at 6am. The shuttle starts running at 7am, and I'm thinking parking and whatnot should be a lot easier that early. I could get to the campus, get set up, work from there for a few hours before class, and then after class I could either work from there some more or just drive back home. I still have to drive the same distance, but getting there earlier would make traffic easier to deal with and I wouldn't have to set up and break down my stuff multiple times. So I dunno, I'll probably try it a few different ways to see which works best.
Flack

[Flack]

Yes, it was a very hectic time.

During that time, I had taken a position at work where I was... how should I put this... underutilized. If I went offline for an hour or two, nobody seemed to notice. Life's funny that way, sometimes things just work out.

I'm not entirely sure where you're pulling all of these quotes from -- if they're from one of my books or somewhere else on the forum? But yes, I did eventually streamline my class schedule. I found some places on campus where I could work between classes, and was able to group classes together either early in the day or late in the afternoon/evening to try and consolidate the number of trips I made back and forth to school. I don't know that I ever officially was approved to work remotely from college, but I always got my work done and nobody ever said anything about it, so it worked out. Forgiveness is often easier than permission.

[Flack]

I never got around to adding it to my site. I'll try and make that happen tomorrow.

Ok, the link is live. Once I see that it's worked at least once, I'll blow it out on Twitter and Facebook as well.

http://www.robohara.com/?page_id=12721

[obliterator918]

I just bought a copy. Pay no mind if you see a disk mag version show up with an intro that says "original supplied by Obliterator918."

[Flack]

I used to spend a looooot of time worrying about people pirating my books. I did a pretty good job of guilt tripping people in the introduction of Commodork -- I've had lots of people download pirated copies who went ahead and sent me money. For these types of books, I see payment almost as a tip.

[Artisian78]

Flack, I can imagine it was hectic for you. Sometimes, you have to do what you need to do.

I remember working retail part-time while attending school. I remember that I was taking online classes at the time so it worked out that I would take a class early in the morning. Then, I would report to work. Yet, at the time the managers didn't seem to like that I would get the shifts online instead of in person from the main office like they once did. But then, the hours started to get trimmed down in that I was only working like 3-4 hours just like your work schedule.

>Yes, it was a very hectic time.

I see.

>During that time, I had taken a position at work where I was... how should I put this... underutilized.

I see.

>If I went offline for an hour or two, nobody seemed to notice.

I know what you mean.

>Life's funny that way, sometimes things just <work out.

Flack, I found the quotes from the Gas Chamber BBS College forum the other night.

>I'm not entirely sure where you're pulling all of these quotes from -- if they're from one of my books or >somewhere else on the forum?

But yes, I did eventually streamline my class schedule.

I see. So, it just worked out for you then.

>I found some places on campus where I could work between classes, and was able to group classes <>together either early in the day or late in the afternoon/evening to try and consolidate the number of >trips I made back and forth to school.

I see. Sometimes, it is not always easy to ask if you can work remotely.
Yet, in the time we are living in now due to the coronavirus, I think companies are more willing to have someone work remotely than in the past.

><I don't know that I ever officially was approved to work remotely from college, but I always got my work <done and nobody ever said anything about it, so it worked out.

>Forgiveness is often easier than permission.

[Artisian78]

FIack,
I see. Ok.

>Ok, the link is live. Once I see that it's worked at least once, I'll blow it out on Twitter and Facebook as well.

Thanks.
<http://www.robohara.com/?page_id=12721

[Artisian78]

I see.

<I used to spend a looooot of time worrying about people pirating my books.

I see.
>I did a pretty good job of guilt tripping people in the introduction of Commodork -- I've had lots of people download pirated copies who went ahead and sent me money.

I see.
>For these types of books, I see payment almost as a tip.