TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Re: More on Internet and Patent History

Re: More on Internet and Patent History

hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com
5 Apr 2007 15:38:14 -0700

Scott Dorsey wrote:

> You don't really _need_ memory management to do timesharing, but it
> sure helps a whole lot and keeps users from killing one another. IBM
> made an aftermarket DAT box that could be attached to the 360/50 and
> some other models in order to run TSO, when it became clear that this
> was a big deal for computer buyers.

True.

In the early 1960s, IBM made the decision not to include time sharing
hardware, then rushed later to add it on. I wonder if that was a good
decision, but it appears it was. The vast majority of customers at
that point were batch oriented. S/360 DID include the basics of good
storage protection and interupts to handle real-time processing.

> Most of those predictions actually described the internet of 1990,
> really, which was greatly superior in some ways to the internet of
> today.

Could you elaborate as to why you think the 1990 Internet is partly
superior to that of today?

For myself, I think there is way too much unnecessary bloat. For
example, try to look at the schedule page of FX TV network. There's
dancing logos all over the place but it's hard to find actual data.
Plain old Courier type tables is "boring" but real quick to show. My
14.4 modem accesses the very few sites just fine. I do like .pdf
files of documents, such as actual images of train and bus schedules
and maps which I frequently download.

Would anyone know the percentage today of homes that have Internet
access? The public terminals at the library still have plenty of
users (including me). Of course, "access" quality varies from slower
modems to high speed connections.

Post Followup Article Use your browser's quoting feature to quote article into reply
Go to Next message: Robert Bonomi: "Re: More on Internet and Patent History"
Go to Previous message: William Warren: "Re: A Stay of Execution Possible for Vonage"
May be in reply to: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com: "More on Internet and Patent History"
Next in thread: Robert Bonomi: "Re: More on Internet and Patent History"
TELECOM Digest: Home Page