-={ 2017-02-11 15:53:35.329561079-05:00 }=-

Hey mark!

 ml> we do over here... in fact there's two copper pairs providing
 ml> traditional dialtone here

The last one in the neighbourhood (dialup to an isp) went down about a decade
ago and never did have a Commodore 64 hooked up to it.  I believe she had a
pentium 4 or equivalent and never did fidonet.  The only reason she had dialup
was to hook up to online classes to handle {up,down}load class assignments.  I
am guessing that CP1252 was the default codepage which at that time was the
default for windows whatever version she was using.

Also I am fairly certain it was one of those 56k pci modems that were fairly
much considered abandonware at that time.  The isp she used has long since gone
out of business.

Eventually one has to consider the true cost and worth of backwards
compatibility and I seriously doubt any of us really needs to be compatible
with 8 bit processors ... or their peripherals for that matter.  It is curious
though considering the hoops one has to jump through.

Life is good,
Maurice

... Ræd sceal mon secgan, rune writan, leoþ gesingan, lofes gearnian.
    One should give counsel, write secrets, sing songs, earn praise.
--- GNU bash, version 4.4.12(1)-release (x86_64-atom-linux-gnu)