Reply to this thread if you think you are a pioneer of the internet

[sdifox]

I sent email with a bang path addressing via UUCP.

If I wanted to email user joec on a machine named filebox somewhere, you had to know enough of the network topology to understand how to get from my machine to filebox. So I might have to address it to pdp11a!r40!ingr!filebox!joec . pdp11a would be the machine that my system hands off email to.

That described the route from my machine through other net-connected machines to the machine where joec received his email. You can see how fragile that system would be.

I still have a VAX all steel fan somewhere.

 

[pcgeek11]

BBS's back in the mid 80's.

 

[edro]

Hell yes.
14.4 modem gamer here!
First computer was a 286dx.

 

[Scarpozzi]

My father worked for Sperry, who changed their name to Unisys in the mid 80s... He was a tech and when the company was shifting because of big blue and the Reagan administration not protecting monopolies, switched over to Commodore repair.

Mid-80s....My first modem was a 300 baud that I connected a few times to QLink. It was long distance, so that wasn't a common thing for me to do since I wasn't paying the bill. I had a stack of C64s...

Because computers were somewhat expensive, I had a 286 after that and used lynx, but it really wasn't until the 486 days that I was truly online because I had a friend who's brother worked for Compudyne and sister who worked for Prodigy. I got on with Compuserve and we also burned through a lot of AOL time... Not pioneers by the time we were on because the pioneers had already laid the groundwork.

The same time I was on Qlink and just getting my feet wet, a future coworker of mine was writing BITNET Relay using REXX... He was probably the closest thing to a founder that I worked with professionally because his work was said to have inspired the development of IRC.

(Another founder I could mention is Linus Torvalds....but that doesn't count because I've only met him and not worked with him on any projects.) I only consider him an internet founder because his platform has been adapted to the appliance side of cloud computing due to its open source roots.

 

[JeepinEd]

I started accessing BBS's in the early 80's using my C64 and a 300 baud modem. I was one of the first in my area to get a cable modem. At the time, there was NO security. I remember when I first got the modem, I saw a bunch of computer icons on my network. It turns out everyone who had a cable modem in my neighborhood was there and I had complete access to all their files. I called the cable company (can't remember which one it was) and told them about it. It took several weeks before people finally put passwords on their systems. They still appeared on my network, though.

 

[IronWing]

You guys are all incredible advanced. "Modem", my ass.

My first "modem" was actually called "acoustic coupler", and I built it myself... ca. 1986 or so.

You had an acoustic coupler? We just had to yell.

 

[gorcorps]

yes

I was the first and only one to claim this username on AT

 

[Painman]

MOIS, motherfuckers

 

[ElFenix]

I'm throwing my hand up. 47 years and one of the first people to ever use a cable modem in ontario Canada yet across the world.

when did you first use said cable modem?

 

[dainthomas]

Have had the same Yahoo email address since 97.

Bought a Packard Bell with a 14.4 in 94 or 95. so that would be my first home use of the internet.

 

[Sonikku]

Got online in 96. The official website for everybody, Nintendo, Sega you name it had web design that was SHIT.

 

[Cr0nJ0b]

My introduction to computing was a teletype that timeshared on an early UofM mainframe. My first games were zork and Oregon Trail. My first program was in basic. I think it was 10 print "hello"
20 goto 10

and the system had a physical tape out, like a long piece of receipt paper that got holes punched in it to output data. you could save a program to tape and then feed it back in.

way cool. I felt like a hacker, since there was so little security in those days. You could do almost anything you liked on the system. I even war dialed a little in the early days to find open modems...but didn't do anything bad, just looked around.

 

[Puffnstuff]

My first introduction to dial up was back at the original John Bartram high school in South Philly back in '79. My math teacher Mr. Jacobs had a computer in the class with a 300 baud acoustic modem and used to call up the school board during class and upload grades.

 

[zinfamous]

BBS's back in the mid 80's.

Big Beautiful Serbs?
How long did it take to download those jpgs?

....were there even jpgs in the mid 80s? :hmm: I think not.