Verizon Public Policy on Netflix

Sat Jul 12 22:26:13 UTC 2014

What is generally claimed is that I was the first to put the general
public on the internet.

Unix shell account, $20, connected machine, have at it.

I got enough crap at the time for doing this that it must have been
significant!

  ``Wot??? You can't put the GENERAL PUBLIC on the internet? What are
  you CRAZY??? You're illegally reselling federal property!!! (etc)''

The leap was that it was around $20 to ANYONE with a modem and a
terminal (yes we had customers who actually used VT100s) or PC rather
than thousands per month for a 9.6KB or 56KB leased line, router, etc.

   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World.std.com

On July 12, 2014 at 12:18 randy at psg.com (Randy Bush) wrote:
 > >> And, for the record, it's pretty widely acknowledge that "The World" 
 > >> (Barry Shein) was the world's first commercial ISP - offering shell 
 > >> access in 1989, and at some point started offering PPP dial-up 
 > >> services.  As I recall, they were a UUnet POP.
 > > yep.  and uunet and psi were hallucinations.  can we please not rewrite
 > > well-known history?
 > > or are you equating shell access with isp?  that would be novel.  unix
 > > shell != internet.
 > 
 > btw, not do denigrate what barry did.  a commercial unix bbs connected
 > to the real internet was significant.  the left coasties were doing free
 > stuff, the well, community memory, ...  and barry created a viable bbs
 > commercial service which still survives (i presume).  a significant
 > achievement.
 > 
 > randy

-- 
        -Barry Shein

The World              | bzs at TheWorld.com           | http://www.TheWorld.com
Purveyors to the Trade | Voice: 800-THE-WRLD        | Dial-Up: US, PR, Canada
Software Tool & Die    | Public Access Internet     | SINCE 1989     *oo*