A summary for those that haven’t been keeping up with this series:
I found a bunch of 5.25″ disks at a thrift store a number of years ago. I finally got around to acquiring a 5.25″ disk drive and extracting the contents a while back. Since then I have been posting the contents here.
Based on the contents, at least some of these disks were apparently once owned by someone named Connie A. Buys who used to run the “Close Encounters” Special Interest Group (SIG) on Delphi in the mid 1980s.
A specific definition of this SIG was found in a previous document on one of the disks: “This SIG, known as “Close Encounters”, is a forum for the discussion of relationships that develop via computer services like the Source, CompuServe, and Delphi. Our primary emphasis is on the sexual aspects of those relationships.”
Everything was text based from whatever terminal program you used to dial in to Delphi’s servers. Many of these disks have forum messages, e-mails and chat session logs. All of this is pre-internet stuff and I don’t know if there are any archives in existence today of what was on Delphi in the 1980s. In any case, much of this stuff would have been private at the time and some of it is quite personal.
I’ve been splitting up the contents of this disk (descriptively labeled “File Disk”) since it contains a number of documents, some of which are pretty long. A 5.25″ floppy disk can still hold an impressive amount of info when it is just text. (see the previous parts here: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18).
This is apparently a partial repost of an article from Glamour magazine. Does anybody know if “graphology” is still a thing?
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SIGNHERE.DOC
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A classic of the pop wisdom genre comes via sexual analyses from handwriting experts in Glamour magazine. Be informed that well-rounded loops on letters "indicate erotic passion and emotional warmth," loops that don't close "show unfulfilled sexual fantasies" and loops that float to the left "indicate a man who needs mothering." The implication here is clear: Before a first date, single women should demand a letter of introduction. In case that sounds like so much faddish mumbo-jumbo to you, consider that more than 2,000 American companies are making personnel decisions with the help of graphology. Graphologist Barbara Harding says that by studying written strokes, a professional can gain an insight into a person's personal traits, talents, and motivations. "Handwriting is actually 'brainwriting.' The brain directs the nerves and muscles of the writing process; the hand merely holds the pen."
