If anyone’s interested in a snippet of Internet history, olduse.net is worth a look: it’s usenet updated in real-time, from 30 years ago, so well before Eternal September, when the Internet was populated by only geeks.
Come on, tell me that phrases like:
At such time as we acquire 1200-baud dialout capability
don’t get your heart racing? No? Just me then.
For the non-network geeks reading, 1200-baud is in this sense used as 1200 bits per second- not strictly correct, but good enough for this purpose. A typical broadband connection today will run between 8 million and 5 million bits/sec…..
You can play with olduse.net at the web interface, or if you have a newsreader, point it at nntp.olduse.net. If you have a default newsreader, this link might do it for you.
Usenet is the oldest proper discussion system on the Internet- it’s use is declining as Twatter, Facebook and web forums become the current mediums, but Usenet is the original Internet social network- some of those currently evangalising could do to take note.
I’ve never really understood how this system works – do you still use it?
You mean you don’t?
I will explain over a beer 🙂
Sadly usenet is dying these days, which is sad. Like many early systems, it’s distributed, robust, and bandwidth-efficient.
I’ll look forward to it.