Re: Apple II's and modems

[et472@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Michael Black)]

 (johnw_94020@yahoo.com) writes:
> In the film "A View to a Kill" made in 85 the scientist in the film
> used her Apple II to dial into her work, and get detailed earthquake
> and other scientific data for Roger Moore. Can someone please explain
> how this was possible using a 2400 baud modem I'm assuming and without
> a Internet?  I did not know such machines could do so much in their
> day.  
> 
> 
> John
> 
Well Arpanet, that sort of set things up for the internet, started
back in 1969.

But even before that, there were modems.  You'd use them to dial in
to big mainframe computers, which were usually running timesharing software
so more than one user would be using it at the same time.  Arpanet was
just a way of interconnecting those mainframes.

Before there were hobby computers, people who had a use (and money)
would buy (or more usually rent) a terminal (a klunky mechanical Teletype
machine in the beginning, with an eventual changeover to electronic
terminals) and a modem to connect to a timesharing system.  Many
a high school student had access to computers in the sixties and early
seventies because their school had such a terminal in the math class.

As soon as small computers hit in 1975, modems followed.  People wanted
to use them for what they'd already been using them for, to connect to
mainframes, but they could also connect to other home computer users.
The first computer bulletin board system came along in 1978, a small
computer running software that would answer when the phone range, and
then someone at the other end of the computer could do things on
the computer.

Usenet, what these newsgroups are, came along in 1979, connecting 
small Unix systems together by sending messages over the phone lines
in batches.  The computer BBSs followed in 1983 or so with the Fidonet,
doing the same thing on personal computers.

In the late seventies or early eighties, there were big mainframe
services opening up to the public.  Compuserve and Genie were
two.  Far simpler than what you can do now, but pretty fancy at the time.
AOL has it's origins in that sort of thing, a closed system one would dial
into, though I believe it came a tad later.

Plus, there were networks in place that allowed one to subscribe and
dial into a local number, and then your terminal could connect to distant
systems without long distance calls.  Things like Tymenet, which a system
like Compuserve used for local access.

In 1984, the WELL came online. It was a small UNIX system, but meant
for the public rather than a scholarly crowd.  It was big as a BBS,
and it was one of the easiest means of getting to the newsgroups
at that point. I know for sure I read about Arpanet that year (I
can't remember if I took note of it in 1978 in articles which I read
that do mention it when I read them after 1984), and it was from
someone, Jerry Pournelle, who had a tourist pass.  

1985 was pretty late for data communication.

I think it would be more like a 1200baud modem in '85.  I only had a
300baud modem, in a Radio Shack Model 100 laptop.

But of course, back then you'd likely be dialing to a specific computer,
unless Arpanet, rather than the arrangement we see today where you
connect to your ISP, then do a search, and then get the data.

  Michael