[gentoo-user] Re: Somewhat OT: Any truth to this mess?

[Grant Edwards <grant.b.edwards@gmail.com>]

On 2012-02-20, Michael Mol <mikemol@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Mon, Feb 20, 2012 at 3:49 PM, Grant Edwards
><grant.b.edwards@gmail.com> wrote:
>> On 2012-02-20, Todd Goodman <tsg@bonedaddy.net> wrote:
>>> * walt <w41ter@gmail.com> [120219 15:37]:
>>>> On 02/18/2012 05:18 AM, Dale wrote:
>>>>
>>>> > Sounds like the internet could be switched off. ??So, next question, how
>>>> > easy would it be to get it going again? ??Hours? ??Days? ??Weeks?
>>>>
>>>> My guess is that the old farts that read this list could have their
>>>> old dialup bulletin boards back on line in a day. ??Probably on the
>>>> original hardware gathering dust in the attic :p
>>>
>>> Naw, uucp on dialup on a Telebit Trailblazer 9600. ??:-)
>>
>> It's been a while since I set up a uucp node, but I think I could
>> manage it in a couple hours if required. ??To paraphrase Damon Wayans,
>> "Homey don't play BBS." ??I think I've got a USR sportster sitting
>> around somewhere. ??What I don't have is a POTS line.
>
> Hey, my family ran a 53-line MajorBBS/Worldgroup setup back in the
> day, with between 30-50 consumer hardware modems. (Those v.Everythings
> were sweet... 3coms were good, too. Anything Motorola after their 14.4
> model...not so much.) Don't knock the BBS. :)

I didn't mean to knock them (though I guess Homey the Clown was always
being a bit derogatory when he said that line) -- I just never used
them and wouldn't have a clue how to run one [it always seemed like
they were a DOS thing, and I was a Unix guy]. Aside from that, they
also don't really seem like something analogous to the Internet.  They
all seemed like "walled gardens" whereas UUCP was a way to do
networking between peers.  In the days before "The Internet" UUCP was
how we transferred files, e-mail, and Usenet postings between hosts.

-- 
Grant Edwards               grant.b.edwards        Yow! I wonder if there's
                                  at               anything GOOD on tonight?
                              gmail.com