Reborn Tech Maniac

Chapter 324 BBS and MUD
In order to ensure the execution of the Fangyuan Computer Standards Alliance, Tang Huan did it himself, listening to the plans of every partner, especially those third-party ISA expansion card manufacturers, and confirmed in person that their products will not be later than November this year. Autumn COMDEX is available.

In a word, Tang Huan wanted to give the Fangyuan Computer Standard Alliance an initial acceleration as large as possible. As long as the chariot started running, no one could stop it, even himself included.What he can control is only to guide the direction of progress through the operating system, BIOS, and North and South Bridge chips.

Dealing with these matters is inevitably boring, but the few events he took time to attend were still very interesting.

Zheru, Fangyuan Computer, and EA jointly built two network platform applications - BBS (electronic bulletin board system) and MUD (mud online game), and used the summer vacation to recruit college students for testing.

As far as the hardware structure is concerned, the Yipeng/Holder server prototype is used in the background, Fangyuan Computer and Apple Computer are used in the front end, and the public switched telephone network is used in the network without any other choice.

The personal computer at the front end is dial-up connected to the background server on the public switched telephone network through a modem.

The current network speed is roughly between 150bps and 300bps, which is not the same as the future broadband conditions, and the cost is quite expensive, but as a necessary expenditure for research projects, it is worth the money.

Both BBS and MUD cannot be created by Tang Huanlai, and their technical prototypes and application examples came into being as early as the 1970s.

It is believed that the public-facing dial-up Bulletin Board System - BBS, which is considered to be running earlier, is the Computerized Bulletin Board System - CBBS founded by Ward Christensen and Randy Suess in 1978 .

The background of its birth was the blizzard in the Great Lakes region of North America in 1978. Due to the inconvenience of communication, Ward Christensen and Landisus thought of creating a public BBS.

The services provided by BBS are very practical, including bulletin boards, classified discussion areas, news reading, software and game exchanges, user online dialogues, and so on.

Zheru, Fangyuan Computer, and EA officially provide BBS services as part of their product support.

And Tang Huan also sponsored the cost of BBS R & D and application to various universities on the west coast, resulting in the popularity of BBS culture, and his ID was also very famous in the circle.

In the development process of BBS system, network communication protocol is a very important subject.

At present, TCP/IP has not replaced the old Network Control Protocol - Network Control Protocol, or NCP, in the ARPA network. Naturally, it is not yet its turn to take the top position.

But the corresponding problem is that it is often not so easy to find a ready-made, reliable, and easy-to-use network communication protocol when developing network applications.

Tang Huan used a BBS project that was tangible and tangible in reality to drive a number of technical projects in the Zheru R&D Center, thus saving him a lot of pen and ink to explain his requirements.

MUD is also based on the purpose of this pulling effect, and was pushed to the stage by Tang Huan. Its history can be traced back to an online game called Multi-User Dungeon, which appeared in the UK in 1978.

To some extent, MUD can be regarded as the prototype of online role-playing games decades later, but the interaction method is very primitive and relies entirely on text.

In the original time and space, it has been interpreted with different meanings, including Multi-User Dimension - multi-user level, Multiple User Dialogue - multi-user dialogue, Multiple User Domain - multi-user virtual space, etc.

When Tang Huan presented these names, EA chose to use Multiple User Domain——MUD, as the name of the official operation.

In the field of BBS, Tang Huan is an old bird. He mainly used it to explain computer technology, and as a result, he attracted many believers who called themselves disciples and grandchildren.

But for MUD, Tang Huan participated in it as a player for the first time.

When a command is typed, the system prompts: You have come to a square, but there is no one else here except yourself.

At this time, the system broadcast the news of Tang Huan's landing, but Tang Huan didn't pay much attention and casually typed go west, intending to go all the way west.

But not long after, the system notified that the crowd was coming, and there were a lot of greeting emojis, and then it crashed.

Seeing this, Hawkins shrugged helplessly, "I asked the administrators not to send broadcasts, but they still made trouble. Your appeal is so great and attracted so many people to make system requests. It's strange that the server doesn't crash. .”

Tang Huan shook his head with a smile, "These guys just use me to test the limits of the system."

Overall, the performance of the MUD is quite good, as can be seen from the enthusiasm of the testers.

However, due to the objective limitation of the current high network costs, it is not so easy to popularize the MUD for social entertainment compared to the functional and practical BBS.

But in any case, through the test of the MUD project, Zheru's network technology reserves have been significantly strengthened.

……

Tang Huan's next most important itinerary is a trip to the mainland.This time it's not like before, he only circles around the southern cities, he is going to officially enter Beijing.

As an important spice for exchanges, the status of sports cannot be ignored. Tang Huan specially invited Nelligin from Moscow, Soviet Union to San Francisco, intending to let the Olympic champion help out.

The last time Tang Huan went to Baodao in the name of a business delegation, he brought the Oakland Athletics, a Major League Baseball team. This time, Tang Huan took the Golden State Warriors, an NBA team.

Although there was a slight conflict in time, Tang Huan had already communicated with the NBA.

But what he didn't expect was that David Stern, the executive vice president of the NBA, made a personal trip to the matter for such a big deal.

Through the conversation, Tang Huan guessed the reason why David Stern was so enthusiastic.

To be honest, compared to the strong gold-absorbing ability of Major League Rugby and Major League Baseball, the NBA has always been relatively weak, not to mention that its further popularity will have to wait until Jordan's era in the next few years to hype.

In the original time and space, after David Stern took the throne of NBA president, during his 30-year tenure, he devoted himself to the development and growth of the NBA, and even there were many controversies.

For example, in the 1985 NBA lottery draft, seven envelopes representing seven teams were placed in a cylinder and rotated, and then David Stern pulled out the envelopes in order to determine the ownership of the No. 1 to No. 7 picks.

Video footage shows the result: Two envelopes were placed heavily in, while another five envelopes were placed gently on the bottom of the cylinder.

After the cylinder had been spun three or four times, David Stern picked up several stacked envelopes and chose the bottom one.

Ever since, the New York Knicks got the No. [-] pick.

This made many people suspect that the NBA deliberately sent the best player Ewing to New York in order to expand the TV broadcast market and enhance the influence of the NBA.

As for the specific method of cheating, there is speculation about "frozen envelopes", that is, the envelope representing the Knicks was placed in the refrigerator in advance, so David Stern could distinguish the only cold envelope with his fingers.

There are different opinions on such events, but in order to develop and expand the NBA audience, David Stern's measures to establish training camps, tour games around the world, recruit more international players, etc. are unmistakable.

In other words, after hearing that Tang Huan was going to take an NBA team to the world's most populous eastern country for exchange activities, David Stern, the executive vice president, couldn't help but see Hunting Heart. Hi, I had some other thoughts.

We are all smart people, some things don’t need to be said so bluntly, Tang Huan cares about enriching the content of the mainland’s itinerary, David Stern values ​​the influence of the NBA, there is no conflict between the two sides, but there is quite a common interest orientation, and the following It's not surprising that we talked happily.

After discovering that preparations for the trip to the mainland still needed a few days, Tang Huan took Nelkin around for a while.

Seeing that the other party still maintained an exquisite figure, Tang Huan remembered one thing.

The study of computerized data processing of sports has not only arranged a team in charge of the Chelsea club, but also the teams in the United States.

After Nelijin personally confirmed that she could still complete the performance gymnastics movements, Tang Huan arranged for a technical team to conduct on-site research with equipment in the company's internal gymnasium.

Tang Huan even took the initiative to punch a few times when he was eager for skills.

Facing the compliments from his subordinates, Tang Huan, who was very satisfied with his level of physical fitness, waved his hands and said with a smile: "I hope that my hard work will help the progress of the project, at least fighting games are now fully equipped with the basis for realization. "

After receiving the towel from Nelkin, Tang Huan added: "Besides, I invited you an Olympic gymnastics champion to provide you with more reference data."

Neelkin was curious and couldn't help asking, "Can fighting games have female characters?"

"Of course." Tang Huan laughed loudly, "According to my estimation, players are likely to be particularly fond of it."

It is quite interesting to simply participate in this kind of technical research. Tang Huanquan regarded it as a kind of relaxation.

During this period, Tang Wenmao brought news that the Chinese American Museum Tang Huan asked Lin to design had been completed in San Francisco's Chinatown, and he, as a sponsor, had to be present at the opening ceremony.

For this invitation, Tang Huan was of course obliged to attend.

The land of the museum was bought by the Shennong Foundation, and the Chinese in Chinatown also provided various supports, so the process from financing, design to completion, etc., was very smooth.

On the day of the opening ceremony, the lion dance and whip setting were very lively.

Tang Huan chatted with Maya Lin for a few words, and learned that Jobs had recently invited Maya Lin to discuss the technical design of the product's appearance for his own MAC.

Regarding this, Tang Huan was very speechless. Now that the personal computer market is so crowded, you are still so leisurely and elegant.

In fact, Maya Lin's current popularity is basically limited to professional circles. The wider society and the public do not know much about her. After all, her famous work, the Vietnam War Memorial, has not yet been completed.

On July 7 last year, the U.S. Congress approved the three-acre site of the Constitution Garden near the National Mall northeast of the Lincoln Memorial as the site of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and announced the start of a design competition.

By December 12 of that year, more than 29 people had registered to participate in the design competition with a prize of 2500.

On March 3 this year, the selection committee collected more than 31 designs.

After being numbered to keep the authors anonymous, Maya Lin's design was unanimously selected as the winner on May 5.

But because Maya Lin is of Chinese descent, she was boycotted by racists and some veterans of the Vietnam War. The selection committee had to reorganize the jury. As a result of the second review, her design still won No.1.

Under the difficulty of the investor, Lin Maya's design and No.2's design were finally decided to be built together, and the relevant parties have even deliberately avoided her name until now.

It can be said that this kind of discrimination has existed openly in the United States for a long time.Fortunately, the judges of the selection committee insisted on professional ethics and professionalism.

Tang Huan comforted Maya Lin jokingly, "After the part of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial you designed is completed, all critics will have to shut up completely."

Because the opening ceremony of the museum was attended and supported by many Chinese people, it can be said to be very successful, so everyone didn't talk too much about the unfair treatment Lin Maya suffered, so as not to spoil the fun.

But unexpectedly, the next day, Tang Huan was very unexpectedly ridiculed by the "San Francisco Observer".

He didn't bother to pay attention at first, but the situation quickly escalated.

The cause of the incident also comes down to the structure of the local newspaper industry in San Francisco.

At present, there are two major newspapers in San Francisco - "San Francisco Chronicle" and "San Francisco Observer", while the Chinese-dominated Fang's newspaper is rapidly rising.

In terms of strength, the "Observer" has lagged far behind the "Chronicle".

Due to the fierce competition in the late 1950s and early 1960s, both newspapers were weakened, so they signed a "Cooperation Agreement".

From then on, the Chronicle became the city's only daily newspaper, while the Observer became an evening paper, which ultimately led to the loss of its readership.

Now seeing that Fang's newspaper industry is rapidly catching up with itself, the "Observer" naturally couldn't sit still, so it decided to do something to reverse the decline.

(End of this chapter)