Bruce's Pad Photo Gallery.
Access-80: One of the First Bulletin Board Systems
."Access-80" was one of the first public-access computer bulletin board systems (BBS's) in the country. The system was built and operated by computer expert Charles Oropallo, later assisted by a teenage Bruce Burleson and his mother Susan Burleson (now deceased). Access-80 ran on a modified Radio Shack TRS-80 Model 1 and its dial-up connection ran at 1200 bps. The system first ran out of upstate New York in 1977, then moved to Nashua and ran until 1987. Access-80 may be the first "public access network" in the country as it connected with a second Access-80 server in Londonderry. The system featured a number of "special interest areas" (SIA's) where users could exchange ideas. One "first" for Access-80 was the development of electronic mail, to be termed "e-mail."