Stardate 20011212.0842 (On Screen via long range sensors): I first started using the net before there really
was a "net". This was about 1979, when Usenet was all there was. The majority of traffic moved from machine to machine via UUCP over dialup modems. To send mail to someone you had to source-route, by including a series of machine names between here and there. When someone would sign their email address in a news post, they'd give it as a multi-step link from some major backbone site such as ucbvax (a computer at Berkeley). It was a heady time; the world's largest bull session. (Then
you all came along and ruined it.) I was an active newsposter all through the 1980's from various places I worked, such as Tektronix and BBN. I'm amazed to learn that Google has just put archives of news postings online dating all the way back to 1981; where in hell did they get those? I didn't think anyone had done routine archive until DejaNews went online.
This is pretty cool, and I just went back and searched for some of my own old postings, just to see. I located a few choice posts I thought you all might find interesting, and here they are:
- An early plea for moderation from the feminist movement
- In defense of pre-marital sex
- Struggling with the emerging concept of an FAQ
- Ah, the problems we had then.
- Steve the peace-maker.
- Death with Dignity: first and second.
- In defense of rational thought (and against medical quackery)
- I don't believe that I wrote this; ye Gods!
I guess the restless mind was voyaging even then. (discuss)
