Minor bragging rights

[crfriend]

Today marks an anniversary of minor historical note in the world of computing -- the opening up of the ".com" notion to public companies on the (then nascent) Internet. The obligatory link tells the story.

Why bragging rights? Take a look at the credits for the photograph.

[ChrisM]

Cool!

And the rubber mallet on top of the monitor? A new definition of "bootstrapping?"

Chris

[crfriend]

And the rubber mallet on top of the monitor? A new definition of "bootstrapping?"

The BRM is a stock prop with the RCS/RI crew, mainly for humour, but it has been deployed in instances where "percussive maintenance" is required.

(One would be surprised how much blacksmithing can be required in the restoration arena.)

[r1g0r]

And the rubber mallet on top of the monitor? A new definition of "bootstrapping?"

The BRM is a stock prop with the RCS/RI crew, mainly for humour, but it has been deployed in instances where "percussive maintenance" is required.

(One would be surprised how much blacksmithing can be required in the restoration arena.)

see, the military taught me the value of the "36 inch drop-test".

if the item doesn't respond to rebooting, taking it in for repair usually costs more than it's worth. in $$$, time, and aggravation.

dropping from a precise height (36") usually causes the piece of equipment to need replacing. this is ALWAYS faster, and usually cheaper than actual repairs.

and occasionally the drop causes the item to start working again!

[Kris]

Today marks an anniversary of minor historical note in the world of computing -- the opening up of the ".com" notion to public companies on the (then nascent) Internet. The obligatory link tells the story.

Why bragging rights? Take a look at the credits for the photograph.

Congratulations for getting your photo in that article, Carl.
That brings back memories.

[Techie reverie follows, the rest of you can ignore it if you like!]
Jumping ahead from 1985 to 1989, the Internet was still a thinly populated place. My company wasn't on it yet. I did have a Compuserve account, but that was an isolated system that did not provide access to the Internet.
In 1989, the first public dial-up access to the Internet was started by The World of Brookline, Massachusetts, in the USA. I just HAD to have it!
They only had dial-in numbers in Massachusetts at the time, and that meant an expensive long-distance call, not a good thing. Compuserve, however, had a national network of dial-in numbers. They connected to an X.25 network.
A light bulb went on over my head! I figured out how I could dial up a Compuserve number, then issue X.25 commands to route my connection through a series of X.25 nodes to The World's network. Awkward, but it worked, and allowed me to get free long distance access to my new Internet account.
I kept that until a local ISP provided dial-up accounts.
[End of techie reverie.]

Kris