© Lawrence I. Charters
Washington Apple Pi Journal, Vol. 31, no. 5, September-October 2009, p. 17.
On Friday, July 24, 2009, Karen Ackoff posted the 100,000th message on the “new” TCS, a Web-based forum run by Washington Apple Pi. The TCS dates back to the very early 1980s, and was originally based on a single modem talking to a single Apple II; the current TCS is a 21st-century creation with modern underpinnings.
From the very beginning, the TCS (which originally stood for “Tele Communications Systems,” but now stands for nothing except “TCS”) was a social networking community, even before the term “social networking” became popular. Bringing together, government workers, contractors and other members of Washington Apple Pi, all owners of Macintosh computers, the original modem-based system accepted over half-a-million telephone calls, keeping a small fleet of Apple II computers very busy for two decades.
The current version of the TCS is a single machine, which is connected to the Internet via the Web. Using nothing more than a Web browser, Pi members can log in to the TCS 24 hours a day and ask for, or provide, advice on hardware and software, job opportunities, or almost anything else they care to discuss. This single computer handles a much heavier load than the fleet of Apple IIs ever did, and far more reliably: on average, one Apple II or modem needed to be reset every week, and repairing accumulated damage and getting all the pieces working again could take days.
Karen Ackoff’s posting was typical for the TCS. Karen was concerned about a security system she was installing in her home. Two different sets of contractors were blaming one another for setup problems, and Karen asked if others had any experience that might prove valuable. This sparked a string of 30
messages over the next four days, as members discussed different ways to wire security systems, different issues the installers might encounter, how to deal with prickly neighbors when you do anything “modern” in a historic neighborhood, and similar topics. Some messages were posted in the morning, most in the afternoon; one was posted at midnight.
The “new” TCS, by the way, had its first posting on April 22, 2003, at, ahem, 3:39 a.m. On average, roughly 120 messages are read by members for everyone posted; about the only quiet time is between 4 and 5 a.m. Karen, by the way, lives in the Midwest, not in the DC-Baltimore metro area. The TCS has had members post messages from Europe, Asia, South America, and a few U.S. Navy ships in the Indian Ocean.
For nearly three decades, in any and every incarnation, the TCS has served as the Pi’s 24-hour-a-day general meeting: a place where you can ask for help with a problem, give technical advice, wax lyrical about new restaurants or old movies, or share a pun or silly joke. It is the place to be if you or your Mac (or iPod, or iPhone, or Newton, or…) needs a friendly ear at noon, or closer to midnight.
Try it: http://tcs.wap.org/