Martins World

I started another website recently: www.binomsc.com. bino-what? binomsc! Pronounced “bino-m-s-c”.

Why “binomsc”, what does that mean? Well, this is my “unique user name”. A name which I use for more than 10 years when surfing the net. Whenever someone ask for “user name”, “login name”, “nickname” or something like that, it’s time for binomsc. And as a look at Google confirms, it seems that I am the only one using that strange name. So, if you come across “binomsc”, its 99% me: Martin Scholz from Berlin ;-) But, again, what is the story behind that name? Well, it is a long one…

The name was born in the middle of the 90ties. Sometime in 1994 or 1995, Even before the “internet” started to get big, A friend told me at that time about her new hobby called “chat”. I could not really understand what she tried to explain to me, however, she was really euphoric. So she convinced me to come with her and try it myself. Yes, “come with her”, To a Cafe which was connected to the Stadtnet. It was some kind like a precessor of today’s Internet cafes. The “www”, the “world wide web”, was not that “world wide” at this time. Instead there were a lot of modems, connected as local mailbox-networks, Among these networks also the first German chat-line. It has started in Munich, of course it was available in Berlin as well soon. And to one of those places the friend took me.

There were some computers, some used for chatting, some for gaming (yes, there were multiplayer games long before World of Warcraft …). She had a seat in front of a free PC and started the chat. i looked over her shoulder but could not really follow, irritated and not used to the speed of reading AND writing and the communication with several chatters at the same time. She decided I should try myself to get familiar with it. First challange: a “nickname” had to be found. At this time, most names were still unused. She was “Bambi” (as far as I remember that fit well to her). Without long thinking she named me “BimBamBino”, the title of a childrens TV-Show at this time.

This name was to long in my opinion, so I shortend it to “Bino”. But, this name was sometimes already taken on international websites – looks like there are some Italians with this name :-) And to avoid those ugly number-combinations like “bino21″, I added “msc”. These are my (extended) initials. In the early times of computer games, e.g. from Commodore C116 or C64, the high score lists allowed only three letters. Instead of “Martin” I used “msc”.

So this way the name “binomsc” was choosen. Over the last decade I probably registred at more than 100 websites, amongst them freemail services, chatts, Instant messenger, forums, shops, communities etc… this name was never been taken. And if you search for “binomsc” at Google , you will find (only) stories about or written by Martin Scholz ;-)