When The Net Was Young

[ Thanks to Bob_Robertson for this link.
]

“I would like to wax philosophic on a subject for a
moment. My apologies to anyone who doesn’t care.

“I started working at NASA Ames Research Center in July, 1992.
Prior to this I had worked as a computer operator then network
engineer for a large multinational, and I’d been using network
services starting with Compu$erve in 1983, then Fido-net, I-link,
many BBS’s, etc.

“Being about as close to the heart of things as one could get,
and working the graveyard and evening shifts, gave me a wonderful
ring-side seat to watch as a Liberty occurred.

“Ames was the location of the Metropolitan Area Exchange, West.
MAE-East was located at Goddard Space Flight Center, also my
responsibility to monitor and help fix. This was where, if you were
an “Internet” participant, your circuits were connected so that
your IP packets could be routed to other “Internet” participants.
Ames and Goddard also had two of the primary Root Name Servers,
which I believe are still being run from there.”

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