On Feb 17, 2020, at 10:38 AM, Gene LeDuc <gleduc@sdsu.edu> wrote:
I was a student worker at a computer lab at USC in the 70s and a buddy had a system operator job at ISI in Marina Del Rey. One day he connected to his office from my lab via a 300baud acoustic modem and then got on the ARPA-NET. From there he connected to a system called ATLAS in the UK. I had no idea what to do at the prompt so I typed
?
to get list of commands. My global eyes were opened when the response was
Pardon?
instead of the usual rude or cryptic error message that I was used to. There was a big world out there and we were definitely not in Kansas anymore!
It was about 1980. My C-128 came with one of those CIS snap packs to let you test connecting to the 'net via Compuserve. So I connected with my 300baud modem and..whoa!!! When I got my next computer (and first portable) shortly thereafter (a TRS Model 100) I got acoustic cups for it, and suddenly I was connected from anywhere and everywhere there was a phone - including from my job at a Fotomat booth (remember those?) :-) Anne -- Anne P. Mitchell, Attorney at Law, Dean of Cyberlaw & Cybersecurity, Lincoln Law School CEO/President, SuretyMail Email Reputation Certification Author: Section 6 of the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 (the Federal anti-spam law) Legislative Consultant, GDPR, CCPA (CA) & CCDPA (CO) Compliance Consultant Former Counsel: Mail Abuse Prevention System (MAPS)