20th Anniversary of the Dawn of Dot-Com 94
btempleton writes "It was 20 years ago today when I posted to USENET the public launch of ClariNet, my electronic newspaper service delivered over the Internet. By finding a way around the NSFNet acceptable use policy, ClariNet was the first business founded to use the Internet as its platform for business, and the era of the 'dot-com' had begun. For the anniversary I have written a history of the founding of ClariNet and early internet business, which outlines how it all came down. Readers may also enjoy the included anecdote about what I term 'M5' reliability, where the news system was so robust that, like the M5 computer on Star Trek, even those authorized to do so were unable to shut it off; and a story of the earliest large SF eBook effort."
Re:Sgt. Salt (Score:4, Informative)
I put that in quotes in the story, but the /. editors took 'em out. They also took changed "the dot-com" to just dot-com in the title which reads wrong to me, but who knows?
No, he's not. (Score:5, Informative)
Re:So we should blame you? (Score:5, Informative)
This guy, whom you speak of, is Brad Templeton. He just so happens to also be the Chairman of the Board of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
I think we owe him (and the EFF) a little gratitude for sticking up for all of us who want to use the internet in free and open ways, and NOT the manner in which corporations would prefer you to.
I'm kinda glad he helped start the commercialization of the internet. And glad that he is also working hard to protect it as a medium of information exchange that we all value so much.
Re:No, he's not. (Score:4, Informative)
Check the first reference on that wikipedia article. I'm the guy who first interviewed him, so of course I know about him. But DEC, while it did that ad over E-mail, was not what we would consider a dot-com.
Re:So we should blame you? (Score:5, Informative)
Perhaps, but he sure was annoying back then.
Re:I remember ClariNet (Score:4, Informative)
I hear what you're saying, but ClariNet wasn't an ISP, it offered wire news services for a fee. It means you could flip on your terminal, fire up the Telebit, dial into your service provider, (or work, as may be) and then, for a fee, access news stories from wire services. As opposed to, for instance, turning on the radio. Utterly redundant now, but it was all the rage, sometimes literally, back then.
Always a pleasue to visit Brad's site (Score:2, Informative)
The history, t his blog. Well worthwhile site. I find looking at his panoramic photos very relaxing.
Yeahh I know my post is not relevant.
Re:Decline of Usenet (Score:1, Informative)
1991: First pornographic video binary
Where does that come from? I was watching (very poor quality) porn video on my C64 in the early 80's. The good stuff came in the mid/late 80's with the Amiga. All this this way before 1991 and it wouldn't surprise me if there was even older stuff.