[Labyrrinth]

A 1972 documentary on ARPAnet (early internet) on the beginnings of what is now a huge part of our lives and what some noteable professors and other experts envisioned it to be

[rabb1t]

oooooh he drew a pentagram and now he's talking about Imps... I don't think anyone knew the implications back then...

I don't know the technical stuff, but I heard in a class that the French set up a network long before us. Apparently this was a closed circuit thing (just Paris) used by technicians to talk to a central network to do troubleshooting. (I believe for business machines and telephone network stuff.) If I recall it later expanded to include home user access to government documents. Apparently this network was rapidly hacked by regular users and people started sending each other birthday messages and such.

[Raya]

Originally Posted by rabb1t

oooooh he drew a pentagram and now he's talking about Imps... I don't think anyone knew the implications back then...

I don't know the technical stuff, but I heard in a class that the French set up a network long before us. Apparently this was a closed circuit thing (just Paris) used by technicians to talk to a central network to do troubleshooting. (I believe for business machines and telephone network stuff.) If I recall it later expanded to include home user access to government documents. Apparently this network was rapidly hacked by regular users and people started sending each other birthday messages and such.

lol - that's the thing that grabbed me too. I couldn't believe, when he joined all the lines together, that it formed a perfect pentagram! And then, yeah, talking about IMPs, whose configuration got rid of the pentagram and created a rhomboid (which rhymes with zhomboid )

Like Rabbit, I too am not all that conversant with the technical information provided here, although the guy at the blackboard had me understanding things I never understood before (I wonder if it was the pentagram that did it ).

Another thing that blew my mind were the statistics, i.e. the computer technology field improved 1000 times in 20 years. Now that has got to be the most improved thing on earth! No wonder the prices have dropped steadily over the years.

The best humor in it all (besides the pentagram) was the earnest skinny guy with the glasses and a bow tie...the very model of a 1970s nerd. I don't mean to be insulting though...look at Bill Gates - nerds make tons of money

Thanks again for another interesting link, Laby!

[Razorwire]

Oh no the link doesn't work for me