ARPANET Reaches the Royal Signals and Radar Establishment (RSRE, Malvern)

[Paul Birkel]

The following extract comes from a History of Programming Languages (HOPL)
retrospective on the development of the Ada programming language written by
the individual who was the government lead at DARPA for much of the time of
its development (Colonel William A. Whitaker).  I found it humorous.
Perhaps you will too.

 

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The ARPANET connection was inaugurated during a visit to RSRE by Her Royal
Highness Queen Elizabeth II.  Her Majesty sent a message of greetings to the
members of the HOLWG from her net account, EIIR, by pressing a red velvet
Royal carriage return.  Because the address list was long, it took about 45
seconds for the confirmation to come back, 45 seconds of dead air.  Prince
Philip remarked, joking respectfully, that it looked like she broke it.

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I suspect that we've "all been there" at one time or another!

paul