Subj : Re: Internet 2.0
To   : Shadowheart
From : Damon A. Getsman
Date : Wed Oct 28 2015 02:22 pm

  Re: Internet 2.0
  By: Shadowheart to Khelair on Tue Mar 05 2013 18:40:00

  Wow I just found a trove of mail in this conference that I haven't replied to
in g-d knows how long.

 Sh> You are almost correct but you must be young because originally fidonet
 Sh> and things like usenet and what not were around before the conveniance
 Sh>  of the internet to transfer the mail packets. long ago in a land far far
 Sh> away sysops used to use things called front door mailers and such to
 Sh> frequently call out to other bbs's in order to send netmail back and
 Sh> fourth from bbs to bbs. back then the bbs was used daily to send and
 Sh> receive email because it wasnt as instant as it is now a days. some
 Sh> sysops had their bbs's configured to do the mail transfers at midnight.

  Well I don't know who is considering what as young here any more, but I'm 38
right now, for whatever that is worth.  I didn't get into things as early as I
could've due to a pretty isolationist upbringing.
  When I really started playing around was when I found the first dialups for
*NIX systems such as the colleges and all being around.  There were UUCP and
DARPA/milnet before the Internet, too, I believe.  As far as the front end
mailers and all of that, I'm well aware.  I was there when that stuff first
came around the upper midwest USA.  Didn't catch on with it really well until
after Wargames was released, but after that point it was on.

 Sh> The 'internet kill switch' is a rumor and theoretical at that. i am not
 Sh> saying the government does not have the power to order the servers running
 Sh> the internet because most are probably run in area 51 or something. Do
 Sh> nott get me wrong, i believe it is important for it to continue running we
 Sh> need persons like yourself calling polititions out to be parinoid of
 Sh> infringing on our constitutional rights. if no one squeeked their wheels
 Sh> no one would get anything fixed because the politicians would become
 Sh> complaicent.

  I certainly do not mean any sort of 'internet kill switch' as an actual big
red switch that Obama or whoever has hidden behind one of the drapes in the
oval office.  When I'm mentioning the 'kill switch', I guess it could be
handled many ways, but my suspicion is that feds would just sweep in or make
their calls or whatever to people at the telecommunications firms and it would
be fed only to restricted places after that.  I don't think it's such a huge
leap to make, but that's just me.
  I agree with keeping the wheels squeaking regardless.

 Sh> networks would revert to dial up connections.
 Sh> it would be slow but i think we would find a way to manage.

  That's precisely why I started my own BBS, to manage a system that had
communication capabilities spread out between AX.25, modem, internet protocols,
etc...  I want to make sure that I've got that capability ready to go.

 Sh> this is how much the bbs scene has mutated to/from the internet. it also
 Sh> demonstrates how entagral the internet has become and how much of
 Sh> political
 Sh> suicide it would be for any politician to "press" the internet "off/kill"
 Sh> switch. 

  If it were in their best interests to care about public opinion at the time,
I suppose.

 Sh> all you need is one phone number of an active dial up bbs and you can get
 Sh> other dial up numbers from that one. that is how we used to do it back in
 Sh> the day. it was word of mouth and grew from there. i remember going to a
 Sh> Radio Shack to get my first bbs numbers.

  That part I never experienced.  Met another friend who was into that stuff
that made me realize that modems were actually accessible to people in the
area.  I'd not seen magazine ads or anything anywhere else to make me think
that they were real prior to that point.  I was a naive kid sometimes.  I think
if I ever came across one and hadn't known any numbers to call I probably
would've ended up there at some point, though.  That's when they were still
giving away the comics and everything.

  -D
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