"first" computer on the internet

On Sun, Jul 20, 2008 at 10:45:45AM -0700, C. Sullivan wrote: We never had an Atari 2600 back in the day, but when I moved up from a PET to a C-64 (1982), the first thing I stuck on it after a disk drive was a VIC-MODEM. It came with some sort of CompuServe promotional offer (a few free hours or free sign-up or something), but the simple character-echo program in the back of the VIC-MODEM manual was too simple to be really useful. I ended up having to write my own to support CompuServe and the BBSes I used to call (AppleII-based, mostly, IIRC). When QuantumLink came along some time later, I pretty much ignored it. Most ironic that I eventually worked for them for a couple of years after they became AOL (though I was originally employed by CompuServe as they were being digested - about half-way through my time there, my badge changed over, my payday changed, the sign on the building changed, etc... If my mother had written things down, I might yet owe her for more than a few $6/hour (offpeak) hours at 300 baud from those days. It was really easy to rack up quite a bill, especially after one finds the CIS on-line shop with posters and other paraphernalia (my first on-line shopping experience, as I expect it was for many people). -ethan -- Ethan Dicks, A-333-S Current South Pole Weather at 20-Jul-2008 at 20:10 Z South Pole Station PSC 468 Box 400 Temp -70.1 F (-56.7 C) Windchill -103.1 F (-75.1 C) APO AP 96598 Wind 8.9 kts Grid 19 Barometer 672.9 mb (10897 ft) Ethan.Dicks at usap.gov http://penguincentral.com/penguincentral.html