Internet history

Thu Oct 21 18:52:53 UTC 2021

On Oct 21, 2021, at 2:37 PM, Michael Thomas <mike at mtcc.com> wrote:
> 
> [changed to a more appropriate subject]
> 
> On 10/20/21 3:52 PM, Grant Taylor via NANOG wrote:
>> On 10/20/21 3:26 PM, Michael Thomas wrote:
>>> Just as an interesting aside if you're interested in the history of networking, When Wizards Stayed Up Late is quite elucidating.
>> 
>> +10 to Where Wizards Stay Up Late.
>> 
>> I recently re-acquired (multiple copies of) it.  (Multiple because I wanted the same edition that I couldn't locate after multiple moves.)
>> 
>> 
> One of the things about the book was that it finally confirmed for me what I had heard but thought might be apocryphal which was that one of my co-workers at Cisco (Charlie Klein) was the first one to receive a packet on ARPAnet. I guess it sent an "l" and then immediately crashed. They fixed the problem and the next time they got "login:". It also casts shade on another early well known person which gives me some amount of schadenfreude.

It was “LO”, and Mr. Kline sent the packets, but you got it essentially right.

Source: https://uclaconnectionlab.org/internet-museum/

The last picture confirms Mr. Kline sent the LO and crashed the WHOLE INTERENT (FSVO “Internet”) just a couple seconds after it started. I wonder if he will ever live it down. :-) Apparently at the time it was not that big a deal. He did the test at 10:30 PM. He did not call and wake anyone up, everyone had to read about it in the notes the next day.

My understanding is that really is IMP No. 1. Someone found it in the “to be scrapped” pile & rescued it, then they closed off room 3420 & made it a micro-museum. I believe the teletype is not the original, but is a real ASR-33. The Sigma 7 is a prop, I believe.

Anyone can visit it for free (other than parking, which is expensive near UCLA!). If you are near UClA, you should stop by. To be honest, it is both overwhelming and underwhelming. Overwhelming because of what it was and represents. Underwhelming because it is a tiny classroom with a half-glass locked door and a plaque in the basement of the mathematics department at a public university that looks like it was built in the 40s. I went to UCLA for mathematics, and spent quite a bit of time in that hallway without even realizing what that room was. (It was not a museum at the time.)

-- 
TTFN,
patrick