I'm sure that some other listmembers remember the ol' days in the late 70's
when the embryonic Internet did, in fact,  exist - the ARPAnet linked
defense-funded institutions.  While in grad school in 1979, I recall playing
a great Star-Trek style game (written, I believe in Basic) with other
players at the University of Chicago, CWRU, and MIT.  The screen images were
basic " *, ^, # " characters and it would sometimes take literally hours to
send and receive moves.  Relatively few knew about the "net" and even fewer
used it at that time for anything other than 'approved' research.

In late 1978 or early 1979, as I recall, the Computerized Bulletin Board
System (CBBS) protocols went online and people started sending messages via
sysops to  public "boards" and others responded creating precursors of the
virtual discussions we're having now.

Todd

85 Westy 'Rivendel'
Columbus, OH

----- Original Message -----
From: Ben T <BenTbtstr8@AOL.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Sunday, September 30, 2001 11:29 PM
Subject: Re: any flux capacitor conversions available?

> In a message dated 9/30/01 8:11:12 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
> jwalker17@EARTHLINK.NET writes:
>
> << does anyone else see anything peculiar about the year 1978 and
>  Netscape and the Internet?? >>
>
>
> Well, I don't remember exactly but when I worked for AT&T in 1982 there
was
> this big fuss about something called the information superhighway. We
finally
> had a pilot system running about a year later. Another year later about
1984
> The Net started to get traffic mostly from government institutions,
> educational institutions and a handful of  engineers. I could be wrong
about
> the exact years but there was definitely no information superhighway or
(aka
> NET) in 1978.
>
> BenT
>