Slog
News & ArtsMonday, November 16, 2009
Tech Wait, They Found the Internet in a Nutshell?
Posted by Paul Constant on Mon, Nov 16, 2009 at 12:29 PM
The first bulletin board system (BBS) was developed during a blizzard in Chicago in 1978.
There is nothing else there. Why a blizzard? Did the blizzard help with the creation of the online bulletin board somehow? Yesterday I didn't know anything about this, and today I find it fascinating.
Has anyone written an Harold Robbinsesque Carpetbaggers-style epic trashy novel of the invention of the internet? Because I would be all over that book. It's got it all: the U.S. military, fabulous wealth, the sudden loss of fabulous wealth, and D&D nerds. Throw a little sex in there and you've just written a bestseller.
1
"Yesterday I didn't know anything about this, and today I find it fascinating."
statements like this are infinitely more possible with the internet!
statements like this are infinitely more possible with the internet!
2
Someday, Paul, you are going to post a TVTropes or SCP link and Slog will be doomed. Doomed, I say!
5
Hey! Did anyone hear the newstory about the out of control, completely irresponsible, law breaking bicyclist who brazenly and recklessly sped his bicycle down Pike St, crashing in to a young child story that SLOG continually and intentionally continues to ignore covering in its endearing attempts at advocacy journalism?
So why is there no mention of the big news story about said cyclist who plowed a child over in front of Pike Place Market, and then tried escaping only to be tackled by witnesses down the block?
Hmmm?
Is the Stranger fair and balanced enough to cover a story about a cyclist that is going to face multiple assault and battery chargers for causing a child's mouth to be wired shut to fix the damage?
I'm thinking others might also want to know why the story is still being ignored by a news site that goes out of its way to cover Critical Asshole cyclist events, Cascade bicycle club talking points about more bicycle awareness, and other similar related pro-bicycle news, yet oddly fails to cover a news story that might run contrary to their politics?
http://www.king5.com/news/local/Boy-Inju…
Is some Stranger staffer a family member or friend of this thug?
Inquiring minds want to know....
So why is there no mention of the big news story about said cyclist who plowed a child over in front of Pike Place Market, and then tried escaping only to be tackled by witnesses down the block?
Hmmm?
Is the Stranger fair and balanced enough to cover a story about a cyclist that is going to face multiple assault and battery chargers for causing a child's mouth to be wired shut to fix the damage?
I'm thinking others might also want to know why the story is still being ignored by a news site that goes out of its way to cover Critical Asshole cyclist events, Cascade bicycle club talking points about more bicycle awareness, and other similar related pro-bicycle news, yet oddly fails to cover a news story that might run contrary to their politics?
http://www.king5.com/news/local/Boy-Inju…
Is some Stranger staffer a family member or friend of this thug?
Inquiring minds want to know....
6
D&D nerds don't have sex. You could add in some Japanese anime porn to spice it up though. That would at least keep it realistic.
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I don't know of any trashy novels, but Steven Levy's "Hackers" reads like one. Highly recommended, not just for the early internet stuff but the antecedents, the suits at DEC who made the computers and the geeks at MIT (starting with the model railroad club) who figured out how to make them move a dot on an oscilloscope screen (the first computer screen). As is Don Libes's "Life With Unix", which is a bit drier and deeper into geekdom, but which explains the unusual unix culture, like why the programs always have funny names -- the very first program to send an alert when a new email arrived was (and is) called "biff" after a real-life dog that barked at the mailman. To say nothing of "sed" and "awk" and "Gnu's Not Unix".
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No, 5280, they couldn't have. I'm sad to see you retailing that tired old misquote. Vint Cerf, who really DID invent the internet, gives Al Gore massive credit:
http://www.politechbot.com/p-01394.html
http://www.politechbot.com/p-01394.html
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Reality Check @5: Are you suggesting Slog should provide equal coverage and report on the ~170 motor vehicles caused deaths in King County every year? There are still no bicycle-caused deaths.
This was one bicycle-caused injury, so Slog would have to report on over 1500 motor vehicle caused injuries in KC every year to balance this story. Are you prepared for 5 posts about car-caused injuries every day and one post about a car-caused death every day or two?
This was one bicycle-caused injury, so Slog would have to report on over 1500 motor vehicle caused injuries in KC every year to balance this story. Are you prepared for 5 posts about car-caused injuries every day and one post about a car-caused death every day or two?
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@5 in the story, the parent clearly admits fault:
"You tell your kids to look both ways before crossing the street, and be aware [of cars], but I've never mentioned watch out for a bicycle."
that seems pretty darn neglectful to me.
"You tell your kids to look both ways before crossing the street, and be aware [of cars], but I've never mentioned watch out for a bicycle."
that seems pretty darn neglectful to me.
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@ 5, nice way that you not only spam SLOG with this so-called "big story" by posting it on three different threads, it's HI-larious that you're also logging unregistered comments in a transparent effort to make it seem like anyone but you gives a shit. (As I pointed out on another thread, this "big story" is not anywhere on the current home or local news pages of KING, KOMO, Seattle Times, or the PI's web sites. Some "big story.")
15
ah, the good old days of hand crafted S-100 bus 110 baud modems ... and those rubbery acoustic couplers ....
Back then men were men, gerbils were gerbils, and we hand sautered stuff in my high school and checked the circuits with oscilloscopes.
Back then men were men, gerbils were gerbils, and we hand sautered stuff in my high school and checked the circuits with oscilloscopes.
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Paul, you'd probably really enjoy Where Wizards Stay Up Late as well.
http://www.powells.com/biblio/0684832674…
http://www.chick.net/wizards/
http://www.powells.com/biblio/0684832674…
http://www.chick.net/wizards/
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@15, bullshit. How can I tell? You're using the terminology wrong, and you're talking about the wrong subject to begin with. There's no such thing as an "S-100 bus modem" -- acoustic couplers were connected to serial ports, and if you ever operated an S-100 computer, which I very much doubt (they were obsolete by 1980), you didn't, wouldn't have, couldn't have, made your own; you would have bought the serial card and slotted it in.
And Altairs and the like have nothing to do with the development of the internet, and were not typically used even as terminal equipment, which would have required too sophisticated a display interface (but no CPU). That's what the original acoustic coupler modems were primarily used for: to connect portable terminal gear (VT100 emulators) to mainframes via services like Telenet.
Oh, and those early acoustic couplers ran at 300 baud, not 110 (the Bell 103 dataset, dating from 1962, long before the internet).
Your attempts to inject yourself into the early history of EVERYTHING are more sad than anything.
And Altairs and the like have nothing to do with the development of the internet, and were not typically used even as terminal equipment, which would have required too sophisticated a display interface (but no CPU). That's what the original acoustic coupler modems were primarily used for: to connect portable terminal gear (VT100 emulators) to mainframes via services like Telenet.
Oh, and those early acoustic couplers ran at 300 baud, not 110 (the Bell 103 dataset, dating from 1962, long before the internet).
Your attempts to inject yourself into the early history of EVERYTHING are more sad than anything.
19
@18 - the computer revolution started before 78, Fnarf. Much of it was mid-70s, and unlike you, I was the computer science rep at SFU on Student Council. My campaign slogan was a rabbit on every streetcorner.
ROYGBIV ftw. By 78 we had a couple of 300/1200 baud modems, but it wasn't until early 80s those had much of a load at the UBC and SFU labs from people at home with modems.
Unlike you and your class-based Wiki, we handcrafted a lot of stuff back then and rolled our own.
ROYGBIV ftw. By 78 we had a couple of 300/1200 baud modems, but it wasn't until early 80s those had much of a load at the UBC and SFU labs from people at home with modems.
Unlike you and your class-based Wiki, we handcrafted a lot of stuff back then and rolled our own.
21
@19, that's pathetic. "Class-based Wiki"? What does that even mean? And why are you changing the subject? You didn't address your bumbling, erroneous mention of "S-100 bus". Maybe that's because you don't know what the fuck you're talking about.
Similarly, your "handcrafted" modems have miraculously been boosted from 110 baud (your original claim) to "300/1200", which again begs the question, which was it, 300 or 1200, and why did you say 110 at first?
The answer is, of course, that you're lying. Though this is the first time we've heard about the Student Council at SFU. This suggests that what you were really doing was standing around catching flies in your open mouth while people who were actually working on something went about their business. Further evidence: ROYGVIV, which apparently has talismanic meaning for you, because some people smarter than you told you what it meant once.
I know you want to get into a pissing contest with me, to see who's got the biggest computing-history cock, but I'm not going to indulge you. Suffice it to say that whatever was happening at SFU in the mid-70s, you didn't get it; and even if you did, it speaks only to your desire to seem important to others, not to any desire to be interesting or enlightening. You are not interested in or capable of either.
(For the record, I was writing simple BASIC programs on a WSU mainframe using my uncle's mainframe account, logged in via Telenet on an electric-typewriter-sized portable terminal with an acoustic coupler in 1972, and I was writing slightly more complicated BASIC on punched tape under the tutelage of the fellow who wrote all the attendance and grade software for the Dallas School District in 1973. I'm not a programmer, and I achieved nothing of interest or importance back then. I mention it only to establish a historical interest -- an interest I have augmented over the following decades by, you know, READING BOOKS and LEARNING THINGS. It would be nice if Will could do the same, and thus perhaps convert his BULLSHIT SELF-AGGRANDIZEMENT AND LIES into something that an ordinary Slog reader might want to see.
More...
Similarly, your "handcrafted" modems have miraculously been boosted from 110 baud (your original claim) to "300/1200", which again begs the question, which was it, 300 or 1200, and why did you say 110 at first?
The answer is, of course, that you're lying. Though this is the first time we've heard about the Student Council at SFU. This suggests that what you were really doing was standing around catching flies in your open mouth while people who were actually working on something went about their business. Further evidence: ROYGVIV, which apparently has talismanic meaning for you, because some people smarter than you told you what it meant once.
I know you want to get into a pissing contest with me, to see who's got the biggest computing-history cock, but I'm not going to indulge you. Suffice it to say that whatever was happening at SFU in the mid-70s, you didn't get it; and even if you did, it speaks only to your desire to seem important to others, not to any desire to be interesting or enlightening. You are not interested in or capable of either.
(For the record, I was writing simple BASIC programs on a WSU mainframe using my uncle's mainframe account, logged in via Telenet on an electric-typewriter-sized portable terminal with an acoustic coupler in 1972, and I was writing slightly more complicated BASIC on punched tape under the tutelage of the fellow who wrote all the attendance and grade software for the Dallas School District in 1973. I'm not a programmer, and I achieved nothing of interest or importance back then. I mention it only to establish a historical interest -- an interest I have augmented over the following decades by, you know, READING BOOKS and LEARNING THINGS. It would be nice if Will could do the same, and thus perhaps convert his BULLSHIT SELF-AGGRANDIZEMENT AND LIES into something that an ordinary Slog reader might want to see.
23
No, Fnarf wishes he had nerdcred back then, but he never was on the WorldCon Business Meeting Minutes or on panels at comix, gaming, and SF&F cons back then.
He just uses his little wiki to show his view of what things were like back then, not realizing we didn't pub everything, unlike the coke machine or the coffee pot on the web.
He just uses his little wiki to show his view of what things were like back then, not realizing we didn't pub everything, unlike the coke machine or the coffee pot on the web.
24
OMG! WorldCon Business Meeting Minutes! Holy crap, Will, you DID create the universe!
What a fucking knob. Now he brings up the famous coke machine again -- which of course he had nothing to do with.
And for what, Will? What is your point? Do you even know what this thread is putatively about? Why are you posting here? You have nothing to contribute. Your every effort here in this thread is merely to try and get some of the glamor of the early internet to stick to you.
That first BBS? Interesting. Anything that you've ever been involved in? Not interesting, and not relevant.
Go ahead, Will. Lay some more irrelevant bullshit on us. Tell us how you made a PDP-10 out of chewing gum and paperclips, and how you were using Usenet ten years before Usenet was born.
Please note that my first contribution to this thread was a suggestion for a couple of interesting books on the subject at hand -- as suggested in the original slog post.
See how that works, dickhead? Instead of waving my tiny little peen of a resume around, saying "look at me", I CONTRIBUTED TO THE CONVERSATION. Something you have yet to accomplish anywhere. Anywhere at all.
What a fucking knob. Now he brings up the famous coke machine again -- which of course he had nothing to do with.
And for what, Will? What is your point? Do you even know what this thread is putatively about? Why are you posting here? You have nothing to contribute. Your every effort here in this thread is merely to try and get some of the glamor of the early internet to stick to you.
That first BBS? Interesting. Anything that you've ever been involved in? Not interesting, and not relevant.
Go ahead, Will. Lay some more irrelevant bullshit on us. Tell us how you made a PDP-10 out of chewing gum and paperclips, and how you were using Usenet ten years before Usenet was born.
Please note that my first contribution to this thread was a suggestion for a couple of interesting books on the subject at hand -- as suggested in the original slog post.
See how that works, dickhead? Instead of waving my tiny little peen of a resume around, saying "look at me", I CONTRIBUTED TO THE CONVERSATION. Something you have yet to accomplish anywhere. Anywhere at all.
25
Contrary to popular belief, the internet was not primarily for pr0n at first, but for listings of equipment to buy/trade/sell, music - we used to swap music files we created of electronic music, which was more of a geek scientist thing at first, and only later did it have all the art, games, and other things we now associate with it.
But it was an elitist playground, until the commerce and art students glommed onto it.
But it was an elitist playground, until the commerce and art students glommed onto it.
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And all this time I thought pissing contests were confined to the knuckle-dragging neandertals of sports venues, street corners, FPS spaces, and congressional corridors. Damn, we were so wrong.
Nerdfight!
Nerdfight!
27
You have no earthly idea what the internet was "primarily for", Will. It certainly wasn't electronic music. If I recall correctly, the biggest email distribution lists before Usenet took off in 1987 were "SF-Lovers", "Word-L" (language discussion), and "INFO-VAX" (about Vaxen, the standard internet computers, natch).
Maybe electronic music was big news on Fidonet, which was only sort of internetty (as was Usenet, technically, though Usenet was usually managed in conjunction with the internet, while Fidonet wasn't). But I doubt it, knowing Will's track record for veracity. I just hope and pray I never have to hear any of his.
Maybe electronic music was big news on Fidonet, which was only sort of internetty (as was Usenet, technically, though Usenet was usually managed in conjunction with the internet, while Fidonet wasn't). But I doubt it, knowing Will's track record for veracity. I just hope and pray I never have to hear any of his.
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