The History of The Internet (Humor)

The Lemon ^ | 5/19/2003

[anymouse]

Many young people around the world use the internet every day, and yet they have no memory of the history that led to the creation of the global network. Many have no understanding of how or why the internet has developed. As part of out continuing efforts to combat ignorance around the world, The Lemon is proud to present...

The History of The Internet

[anymouse]

Something to take your mind off of politics, almost. :)

[Eala]

Were modems really up to 300 bps in 1969? I thought they were 110 bps until sometime in the 70s...

[Rebelbase]

"Were modems really up to 300 bps in 1969?"

I don't know, but if there were, im sure they were the size of a refridgerator back then.

[freedumb2003]

I used a 150 baud modem in 1977.
And we were GLAD! We didn't have to drive in to work! We could DIAL UP using our trusty acoustic coupler! And we were GRATEFUL!

[FrogMom]

Funny!

I don't want to get beaten to death with a 300 BAUD MODEM, but...

Al Gore didn't invent sh*t!!!

Except boredom. And lying. And more lying...

[leadhead]

And Internet Blogs are.......

[ThePythonicCow]

Were modems really up to 300 bps in 1969?

From Modem-HOWTO: Appendix H: Antique Modems:

Prior to 1960, 110 bps ( 0.11) modems were used for teletype machines (like an electric typewriter only much more noisy). Then in 1960 AT$amp;T came out with a 300 bps modem (for use on it's phone system). Such slow (and expensive modems) were later mainly used for transmitting data between mainframe computers or for connecting a dumb terminal to a mainframe computer over phone lines.

Granted, 300 baud modems for ordinary people didn't come out until 1979 (accoustic) or 1980 (direct). From The Computer Museum:

peripherals
		Noakes 300 baud Modem Introduced in 1979, this is an acoustically coupled modem. Almost hree times as fast as the Western Union modem, it required a regular telephone to dial the phone number. Once the connection was established, the operator plugged the handset into the modem.

[Chad Fairbanks]

Progress: Since its inception almost 30 years ago, the internet has been transformed from a primitive device for sharing thoughts and ideas, into a massive network where people pay to connect and read advertisements they don't want, while calling each other "asshats".

I've never called anyone an "asshat"... I'm much more creative...

[netmilsmom]

And anyone who thinks that Instapundit is the place to find information has never been on Free Republic. My husband laughed when he would ask about something he heard on the radio on the way home and I would start Freeping. Find it everytime.

[Big Giant Head]

Humor bump!

[50sDad]

I used a 150 baud modem in 1977. And we were GLAD! We didn't have to drive in to work! We could DIAL UP using our trusty acoustic coupler! And we were GRATEFUL!

When I was your age, I had to download in the snow, both ways, all year long! We had to get our bootleg 8-bit software off of BBS's, sometimes over long distance lines. 9600 baud? We would be grateful to have 9600 baud! We had 300 baud, and dialed up on rotary phones, and we were thankful for it!

[mike_9958]

You young whippersnappers....I had to teletype with 110 baud - papertape was high tech replacement for my punch cards.

A DEC1170 was my dream computer, you ain't programmed until you did it with blinky lights !!!!

... and Algore is a crank

[LivingNet]

Punch Cards! We used to dream of punch cards...

[Eala]

I don't know, but if there were, im sure they were the size of a refridgerator back then.

Acually they weren't. At the time my father was engineering manager at Anderson-Jacobsen, then the foremost modem manufacturer. And/Jac modems were about the size of the one in response #7. They even fit into the body of an ASR-33 teletype.

[Eala]

Thanks for the info! It was about 1979 or so that I first had access to a 300 bps modem.

teletype machines (like an electric typewriter only much more noisy)

Heh. That's when they're working correctly. I remember working with one in a concrete room, nothing but the minicomputer, ASR-33 teletype and me on a chair in the bay, and when its mechanics went haywire in that reverberant environment I nearly died of a heart attack. At age 21.

[Eala]

Punch Cards! We used to dream of punch cards...

Ahem. Them's Hollerith cards, sonny!

[farmfriend]

ping

[Big Giant Head]

Man! You guys make me cringe at my OWN cringing at my first computer. I just threw out the box the other day, read the label first. A SCREAMING 50 mhz that my bro-in-law drooled over. His was a 25, previously a 7, hotrodded to 8. I had 4 megs of memory and was proud of it. I spent 125 bucks getting a second 4 meg chip when they were going for over 200. Man, was I on a roll! I had a 2X CD drive-state of the art. 14.4 modem, yeah baby. WOOOHOOOO!

I'm unfortunately still using the 12" monitor right this minute.

[Billthedrill]

Punch cards? We were lucky if we got to see punch cards! And acoustic couplers - feh! - we had to use two coconut shells clapped together. We didn't even have any "0"s to use, we had to make our databases up out of "1"s and capital "O"s with a little slash thingy drawn through them in pencil!! Punch cards...

[solzhenitsyn]

The first computer I ever programmed was a TERFAC AGS-37. Never heard of it since, and I can't find anything about it w/Google. It was in about 1970, and this machine was already a fossil. No idea when it was made. It was about the size and shape of a fridge. The only I/O it had was a row of front panel toggle switches and lamps for each register. There was a switch and a lamp for each bit position. It was at Goddard Space Flight Center at the time; it had formerly belonged to the Dept. of Agriculture.

The I/O was so awkward that I've never figured what good the machine could ever have been to anybody, so far as solving engineering problems (I believe Goddard had IBM 360s at the time). I think they just hadn't gotten around to scrapping the old beast. But it was wonderful for a kid to play with, and learn rudimentary machine language. You could see everything that happened, in every register.