Better than air traffic slides, I guess

[jay]

(borrowed from dancing_star

1. When did you first connect ("go online"), and how?
300 baud acoustic coupler to the magic TIP number... 1980. Arguably the TOPS-20 mainframes that I used in 1978 at BB&N were on ARPAnet, but I didn't know this at that time.

2. What was your first communications program?
Didn't use one for several years, as people think of them now. Terminal emulators, maybe.

3. When did you first chat over the Internet, and how?
Played with "phone" between different VAXen at MIT in 1982. Although it was still the ARPAnet then.

4. What chat type program(s) do you use now?
Apple's iChat.

5. Who was your first service provider?
The MIT AI Laboratory ;-).

6. Did you ever use AOL?
Sure. Beginning back when it was the #5 service provider and the only Mac-friendly one, say 1991 or so.

7. Do you admit using AOL in public?
Why not? I have nothing to prove.

8. Who is your current ISP?
DSLExtreme, 1.5Mbps for $41/month. Not bad, with a static IP.

9. What was the first computer that you used to access the 'net?
Since a DECwriter and a modem doesn't count as a computer... an Apple ][c running a terminal emulation program.

10. What computer do you use to access the 'net today?
Mostly this Mac G4 laptop, sometimes other Macs or Suns at home or work.

11. What was your first 'net handle?
jayglass, not terribly imaginative, but people tended to use real names back then.

12. Did you use any other handles for any length of time?
"cracker" in grad school... dropped it because it was too annoying. "brassrat" for awhile...

13. What 'net handle do you normally use now?
brian1789, looks innocuous and reflects a year of principle and revolution

14. Are you active on any Web sites other than LJ?
"active" how? On various servers, I guess, but I don't do many webby things apart from data searches and LJ.

15. Has RMS ever tried to pick up your girlfriend?

Yes, two different SOs, 15 years apart ;-).

Comments

[raddy.livejournal.com]

RMS... as in Richard Stallman??? OMG! He was one to avoid at USENIX, oh so long ago.

[geekchick]

15. Has RMS ever tried to pick up your girlfriend?

*snicker* Was that seriously one of the questions?

I don't know that I'd call it so much "trying to pick up", more like "light flirtation and an opportunity to ogle corset-enhanced cleavage up close and personal". ;)