CHEVY

If you think he didn't then I doubt you know what the internet is. I had internet access from home around that same period of time - somewhere in the '83-'84 range. You're not confusing the internet with the WWW, are you?

To keep this on topic - I was driving GM cars at that time. One brief excursion into Ford land, with the purchase of a Mercury Marquis, but then directly back to GM land.

Not at all.

I only have one simple question for you:

Who was your ISP for your internet access?

Oh, I bet I remember now... Lemme guess, you guys had Compuserve or something similar along those lines?

I spent some time on Compuserve around 92 or so, and, even at that later date, I'd hardly call that the internet.

If that's it, then we'll just have to agree to disagree that you had home internet access. I'd have to classify that more as a private, closed network that members dialed into, much like the early AOL. Although I will agree that it was, in many ways, analogous to the internet, and I can see how huge fans of a service like CIS or early AOL would classify it as the internet.

I wouldn't, but I'm no internet historian.

For me, I guess, the bottom line would be whether or not they were allowed to run their private network traffic on the internet backbone lines. If they were, then I guess, technically, one could say it was "the internet." IMHO, it's more like piggy backing on the internet lines.

Variety is the spice of life. Autos should be no exception. Good for you for exploring the different manufacturer's offerings.

And thanks for technically keeping us on topic! :)

ISP's as we know them today did not exist at that time. You don't seem to understand the origins of the internet.

You should not make assumptions like that - they do not reflect well on you. In fact, most of us back then either had direct access through universities or through our employers. No ISP or BBS service required. Lemme guess - you read about the origins of the internet in Al Gore's book didn't you?

That's a shame. I never used Compuserve. And I had internet access almost

10 years before you. But you go right ahead and tell those of us who cut our eye teeth on the net, just exactly what we were really doing...

You can call it anything you want but the fact of the matter is that those services did indeed provide internet access. You must not understand the internet at all.

You do not understand the internet at all. That explains your position.

Yeah - but it was a very painful experience. I think that car was the one I was most happy to get out from under. Never did go back to a Ford product after that.

My little contribution to a great big wide world. Sometimes the little things are all I can muster...

I had a TRS80 with the Zilog Z80 chip in those days. No disk drive of any type, it used a cassette. If there existed internet in those days, I didnt know of it.

That was exactly my point.

You don't seem to understand a simple conversation.

Again, my point exactly. I believe I mentioned about dialing into a university in one of my previous posts. Heck, I was doing that from late 84 onward. Try to read more thoroughly.

Not that it matters one iota to this discussion, but I tend to avoid any and all things Al Gore.

What's with the intense competition? Can't have a simple discussion without trying to prove your superiority?

The people who cut their eye teeth on the internet were the ARPA and DARPA employees and researchers who created the dang thing back in the early 60's or so. (I think the case could be made for late 50's as well, but that may not agree 100% with your (absolutely correct) view, so I'll leave that out so you can't berate me for mentioning it.

Perhaps the internet enabled you to sell more industrial paint in the early 80's or whatever it is you've done. However, I'm certain you're not one of the internet pioneers.

You'd sure like to believe that, but you'd wrong. Unlike you, I will happily admit, though, that I am no expert. (And I don't feel like less of a man as a result. Novel concept for you, I know)

Well, no need to talk to me further then, I guess. You probably need to dust all those framed PhD's you have, anyway.

Jeez, what's next? You wanna start discussing proper TCP or UDP packet formats?

I never started, and I don't intend on it. I've learned from friends who owned Fords.

Same here. Glad to see you've calmed down.

Ah, the "Trash-80" No offense intended, I just know that those machines acquired that nickname (in an admiring sort of way) by their very loyal fan base.

I personally never had one. My bro did, though.

And the Z-80. What a wonderful little chip that was! That thing seemed to be in just about everything back in the day!

And those cassette setups made floppies look like a godsend (when they finally arrived).

I know the Z-80 has been successfully emulated in SW for some time now. I bet someone has a TRS-80 SW emulator out there if you're interested. Might be a nice blast from the past.

Sold the TRS-80 and got to play with the prototypes as well. Still have some Z-80 chips in stock from a former job.

Then you have a very weak point. ISP's have nothing to do with whether or not anyone had internet access in the mid-80's.

You seem to imply that the OP could not have been on the net in '82 as he claimed, and threw a bunch of questions his way that make it appear that you don't understand the workings of the internet. Who he had as an access point, whether he used Compuserve, or anyone else, is irrelevent to whether he had net access. How do your questions to this poster sum up to a simple conversation? It seems you were trying quite hard to prove that the OP did not have net access as he had stated. The problem is your arguments did nothing to cast doubt on his claim.

Comments like this one above do little to support your position of a simple conversation.

I saw that but you did not limit yourself to that comment. Regardless, if he dialed into a university system, or his employer's system, or used Compuserve, he still had internet access. My point, exactly.

I knew that despite this slight amount of friction, there was something I really liked about you...

Not intense competition. I was responding to your original position that questioned the claim of the OP that he had been on the net since '82. Not trying to prove superiority either. Don't read that into what I write. Do I sometimes get a little intense? Well, maybe a little. Not in a spirit of competition or superiority though. I don't want that to come through - it's not part of the picture.

Not in the sense of ARPA-net or DARPA at their origins, but certainly as a member of the academic and business community that were the early citizens of the internet. Didn't sell industrial paint either. Assumptions like that have really not served you well to this point, so I can't figure out why you continue to resort to them. They continue to fail you. I was part of the commercial sector that manufactured and sold computer hardware and software, and were on the backbone. I have installed systems that were primary nodes on the early internet, and have worked for companies that were in their own time, primary contributors to the growth and development of the internet. Sorry if that does not fit your industrial paint notion.

Not at all. In fact it is only your bravado that I challenged. Maybe you should go back and read the way you presented yourself in this thread. It may not appear the same after you read it, as it seems in your mind at this time.

So - you make a foolish statement in public as part of an effort to denigrate another individual, you are called to task for that very statement, and it somehow becomes a matter for you to turn the table on me? Sorry - but you opened this can of worms. You made a patently false statement and you were challenged. Your response is an ad-hominem.

Not unless you make a silly statement about them. You are the one who started talking like Mr. Internet - and demonstrated that you don't really understand it.

No calming down Rick. Not to disappoint you but I don't get all sweaty and frustrated over newsgroup posts. I'll reply in near-like manner to people, and I'm happy to keep a bit of less intense, more light-hearted stuff alive in there as well. The stuff that goes on in a newsgroup is just not so important to me as to upset me.

Some of that old stuff from the past would be worth still having today. Just for the nostalgic value of it. I kept so much stuff from over the years, always thinking it would be neat to keep as reminders of the old days at some point, but finally I cleaned house and chucked it all. Now I wish I hadn't.

Aaahhhh... the "trash-80" Trying to read the ( overpriced ) cassete was "iffy" And the tin-plate connectors that corroded up. I unloaded it soon as I could.

The COMMODORE-64 is still my favorite. A $600 floppy disk drive was painful. The modem was a modestly priced 300bd plug-in. First on-line experience was with local BBS's.

Didn't go internet until the early 90's with an IBM PC. AOL was the big player.... and the tough part was getting "local" dial-up service into smaller towns.

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Whereas in England AOL was known "as almost on line". Infact still is a joke, apart from the morons among us.