#Bulletin Boards

[timeclonemike]

Before the spread of the World Wide Web, the closest analogue in cultural terms was the collection of Computer Bulletin Board Systems or BBS services. Individual computers would connect directly to other computers via phone line in order to exchange information. These systems were limited by the technology of their era; client and service computers often had limited space, dial up modems had bandwidth so low as to be laughable by modern standards, and portable storage was limited primarily to magnetic floppy disks that could not even hold 2 MB of data. There were also issues of competing file formats and a lack of standardization, with ASCII being the lowest-common-denominator choice. Images were usually limited to ASCII art representations, as a lot of the file compression algorithms that turned large bitmap files into more nimble JPEGs, GIFs, and PNGs were just a gleam in some programmers eye.

This meant that, leaving aside variations in style and formatting, these files had to condense a considerable amount of information into a very small package, both in computer terms and human terms; it might take a while to download a particularly large file from a bulletin board, which might not prove to be useful or informative or entertaining compared to multiple smaller files that could be accessed in the same time frame. In a way it presaged the push towards small-form video content in the present day, but motivated purely by cost-benefit analysis on the part of writers, readers, and hosts rather than advertising engagement; it was naturally organic, not algorithmically enforced. To a lesser extent this also impacted the specific content of the files; according to the Wadsworth Constant, the first 30% of every YouTube video can be skipped while not losing any information content, something only possible because our computing and telecommunications technology has undergone multiple revolutions in the past three decades, while our precursors didn't have the luxury of "filler" content.

While I personally believe we have gained more than we have lost through the adoption of the World Wide Web and its various protocols, and indeed I cannot see the BBS era through rose-colored glasses because I did not experience it personally, only read about it after the fact through historical and personal accounts, the topic of condensing the maximum information into the smallest possible footprint is definitely on my mind a lot these days.

[lovegasmic]

[vintagehomecollection]

Bright Ideas for Your Home, 1978

[clumsypuppy]

@heropartnerweek 2025 day 1 - home

[outsidewolves]

[srnileforme]

“Thank you so much. All I did was tutor you. Without you I wouldn't have made it. I must thank you too. For what? All this time, I've lived my life with one eye on the goal, thinking I deserved to be happy only after I reached it.”

BOYS IN LOVE (2025) | EPISODE 4

[mylittleredgirl]

lennier “from birth, I was raised in the temple and studied the ways of the religious caste, six months ago I came here” is pretty funny when you think about it.

not only is this his first job, it’s his first time living outside a monastery. imagine spending twenty years or so never meeting anyone who isn’t also in a minbari monastery, and then one of the nine-most important people on your planet plucks you out of divinity school sight unseen to come work for her. so they put you on a space transport and now you live at the United Nations International Airport (*soon to be the Independent Galactic War Outpost International Airport) with the most cosmically relevant people alive. and all This is happening.

maybe that’s to his benefit actually!! everyone else has to have their moment of reckoning when they realize “we are living in unprecedented times and, regrettably, it seems i am a named character in biblical-level events 😐” while lennier, fresh from minbari religious mythology and history class (one subject), is like oh yes they warned us about the biblical events! how fascinating to experience them in person.

his direct supervisor is the second coming. it turns out that he personally knows Jesus George Washington from a thousand years ago who he’s been praying to this whole time. then he’s right there in the front row when the First Ones get kicked sternly shamed out of the galaxy and there’s a civil war on his planet because society broke down and it’s still his first job!

honestly we’re too hard on him for being a dramatic disaster in season five when 73% of his life experience outside the temple has been directly related to the End of Days (the rest is administrative errands and that time londo took him to a bar). every person he knows is unhinged. he has never seen normal life even from a distance. it’s a lot to expect him to handle an ordinary thing like “falling in love with your milf boss who’s the first lady of the known universe and is also like if the pope had a massive well-trained space army personally pledged to die for her” with anything less than shakespearean levels of drama.

[dinemunyu]

bYEE i spent way too long on this

I don't own any of the assets used in rebuilding the town and the ui—nah, that's the great work of ConcernedApe. I just merely made two extra buildings to look similar enough to the other buildings in town.

Why stardew though??? idk i couldn't sleep one night and instead detailed out the steps on how I would do this with unity and aseprite because of course I'm still thinking about trigun 24/7; only this time I've recently started playing stardew.

wanted to add Nai, Livio and the rest of the cast but i wanna work on keychains next sooooo

Nai works in the library where books are less likely to offend him. Livio helps around the orphanage. Vash likes to garden and to visit the bakery next door in his free time. Kinda want Zazie to be an absolute menace of a niece that got sent there under their care.

[tarochimochi]

Man parents are so cool I wish I had some

Part: one of bfdi fan - parent project!

[jvgsjeff]

[sacrificialcat]

I LOVE THIS ANIMAUX.....

[lovegasmic]

THIS IS NOT FAIR TO MY OVARIES

[asiaphotostudio]

Kawasaki City, 1989 Tama-ku, Kawasaki, Kanagawa, Japan. 日本 神奈川県 川崎市 多摩区 堰 Photography by Michitaka Kurata

[stormsailmyship]

photobooth

[shadowxamyweek]