Ward Christensen (of BBS and XMODEM fame) has died

(en.wikipedia.org)

322 points DamonHD | 2 comments | 13 Oct 24 15:39 UTC | HN request time: 0.408s | source

Show context

rexreed ◴[13 Oct 24 18:36 UTC] No.41830367[source]▶

An amazing guy, and not much of an attention seeker. That he stayed at IBM all his productive work life (1968-2012) says something, especially as "His last position with IBM was field technical sales specialist."

replies(2): >>41831988 #>>41833330 #

1. NPHighview ◴[14 Oct 24 01:27 UTC] No.41833330[source]▶

>>41830367 #

I knew him as one of the co-founders (with Randy Seuss and Ted Nelson) of Evanston's Itty Bitty Machine Company, a storefront that sold (among other things) Digital Group 8085/Z80/6502 machines. My high school friend, Alex Ellingsen, worked there (while in high school).

Recently, I've been playing with MMBasic (for E32s and RPi2040s) and a question about XMODEM and YMODEM came up on their online forum. Ward responded immediately to my inquiry, and gave me the exact information I needed.

Very nice guy.

replies(1): >>41846933 #

2. mikewarot ◴[15 Oct 24 10:07 UTC] No.41846933[source]▶

>>41833330 (TP) #

I met him back around 1980... and yet this is the first I'm learning of the Itty Bitty Machine Company... I'm sorry I didn't hear about this from him along the way.

↑