nanog mailing list archives

Re: Reminiscing our first internet connections (WAS) Re: akamai yesterday - what in the world was that


From: "Anne P. Mitchell, Esq." <amitchell () isipp com>
Date: Mon, 17 Feb 2020 11:20:22 -0700



On Feb 17, 2020, at 10:38 AM, Gene LeDuc <gleduc () sdsu edu> wrote:

I was a student worker at a computer lab at USC in the 70s and a buddy had a system operator job at ISI in Marina Del 
Rey.  One day he connected to his office from my lab via a 300baud acoustic modem and then got on the ARPA-NET.  From 
there he connected to a system called ATLAS in the UK.  I had no idea what to do at the prompt so I typed

?

to get list of commands.  My global eyes were opened when the response was

Pardon?

instead of the usual rude or cryptic error message that I was used to. There was a big world out there and we were 
definitely not in Kansas anymore!

It was about 1980.  My C-128 came with one of those CIS snap packs to let you test connecting to the 'net via 
Compuserve.  So I connected with my 300baud modem and..whoa!!!

When I got my next computer (and first portable) shortly thereafter (a TRS Model 100) I got acoustic cups for it, and 
suddenly I was connected from anywhere and everywhere there was a phone - including from my job at a Fotomat booth 
(remember those?) :-)

Anne

--
Anne P. Mitchell, Attorney at Law, Dean of Cyberlaw & Cybersecurity, Lincoln Law School
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