Originally, he would have to use an old, clunky desktop calculator with a print-out after copying the opening and closing numbers from the eight gasoline pumps, calculating differentials, multiplying prices, adding in product sales for oil and windshield fluid, etc. the writing everything down onto a large pad with blue carbon paper in between the sheets. It was a cumbersome process that would often require thirty minutes each night, but with the program I wrote he was able to calculate the daily numbers in less than five minutes! Later, he and I presented this modern technology to the owners, who while expressing an interest, balked at the potential cost for the ten or so stations they owned.
In 1983, I bought a Commodore 64. This was a huge upgrade, jumping from 3.5K system memory to 64K was mind-boggling! With a 1541 5 ¼” floppy disk drive, and my VIC Modem, connecting at 300bps to BBS's was cutting edge technology!
During the mid’ 80’s the BBS’s I frequented most was the Foxboro Area Commodore User Group (FACUG) and the Boston Computer Society (BCS). This was "pre" Internet
so downloading and uploading games and other files was the most popular activity, as well as exchanging electronic messages with other users on the same BBS. Later, the nightly interconnection of BBS’s and the ability to exchange electronic messages with other persons became possible, though it might take a day or two before receiving them.During this period of time “war dialing” became an interest, each night automatically dialing phone numbers sequentially looking for nonpublished BBS’s and other boards of interest. Even nationally, though not as often because of the cost of dialing long distance, it was always interesting to find a modem answer. Sometimes it was a library or college. Other times it wasn’t either, but that’s another story.
In 1986 I upgraded to a 1200 baud modem and with my new Commodore 128 and a 1581 3 ½” Disk Drive I joined Quantum Link, also known as Q-Link. The technology was now becoming impressive! Playing casino games at RabbitJack’s and joining Club Caribe was mesmerizing! Interestingly, Club Caribe was originally called Habitat, and this was the first online multiplayer, role-playing game ever created!
In 1988 I joined CompuServe. My electronic mail address was 75103.3037@compuserve.com, which as an interesting side note, represented your CompuServe account number (in my case 75103) followed with a period and four numbers!
In 1989 Quantum Link (Q-Link) became America Online, and despite having been a member for a couple of years prior, it seemed like receiving disks in the mail from AOL was a monthly occurrence!
In 1990 I added a 1571 5 ¼” Disk Drive, had a second phone line installed and hosted “THE COMMODON” BBS.
Where did the word "Commodon" come from? It was the result of combining the first five letters from my first computer (COMMO) with my first name (DON). Hence, the word "Commodon" was first created.