Usenet and Google Groups

[Paul Berger]

On 2021-01-31 3:21 p.m., John Foust via cctalk wrote:
> At 06:01 PM 1/30/2021, you wrote:
>>>> Which Henry was that?  Henry Spencer perhaps?
>>> Yes, Henry Spencer (formerly of zoo.toronto.edu).
>>> N.
>> Another blast from the past.  I haven't seen anything of or spoken with him in nearly 30 years.
> A legend, indeed, and one that only makes me upset about Google's Usenet archive.
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Spencer
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Groups
>
> Couldn't Google just give someone else a copy of what Spencer
> (and everyone else) gave them?
>
> - John
>
I worked with a gentleman for a while who studied at U of T and now 
teaches there, who told me about visiting Henry's office.  He said all 
the lights where off save a small desk lamp and there was also a green 
screen terminal on his desk, a heater under the desk and the walls lined 
with book cases.  This would have probably been in the mid to late 70s.  
I am surprised to hear it was only in 1981 that utzoo was started.  I 
had my first exposure Usenet about that time too when I discovered that 
my workplace VM network had a read only service we could subscribe to 
usenet forums and have the updates delivered as VM notes.

Paul.