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Re: History--early remote on-line computer access

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In article <c9e91d7a-78fd-4364-a038-d645292abeff@googlegroups.com>,
 <hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com> wrote:
>On Tuesday, June 7, 2016 at 1:37:17 AM UTC-4, Mike Spencer wrote:
>
>
>[snip]
>> Allegedly, this was because the Pentagon had coopted *all* the cycles
>> over some kind of data link from D.C.
>
>I strongly doubt that happened, in that context.
>
>MIT was doing experiments with time sharing in that era, although
>I don't know how far along they got.  Compsci people criticized
>IBM for failing to include certain features for timesharing in
>the original S/360 announcement.  IBM rushed to provide it, and
>found that it was a lot harder than the theorists claimed.  Serving
>a few users with simple stuff could be done, however, complex work
>by a lot of users was too much for the machines of that era.  (The
>IBM S/360 history goes into detail on this.)
>
>So, I doubt at that time the Pentagon had any _on-line_ connection
>to the MIT machine.
>
>What is possible is that MIT was asked to do some computer work
>for the Pentagon via conventional means, and that work tied up
>the machine.
>
>
>The Cuban missile crisis was unsettling.  In school, we had
>frequent air raid drills.  Our 'shelter' was simply going
>into the hallway, which didn't seem a lot of protection.
>
>Then, we had a city wide air raid drill.  We'd get printed
>cards explaining the various siren codes and what to do.
>There were two special radio stations to tune to for info.
>
>We were not to use the telephone.  Early on, they discovered
>that an air raid drill inspired lots of people to use the 
>phone, which crashed the telephone network.  I think today,
>people should be instructed not to use the phone (landline or
>mobile) during major emergencies because the system still gets
>overloaded and true urgent calls can't get through.
>
>For years after, city sirens would be tested every Wednesday 
>at noon.  I don't know if they still bother, or if the sirens
>even still work.


Still happens 3-4 times a year. Wednesdays 12 noon.

Wednesdays 11-13 is also the official time to test emergency
response on phone networks (112/911). This is about the quietest
time all week for all the blue light responders. And they have
double shifts in this time frame to handle the test traffic.

You are instructed to say clearly "this is a test" as soon as
the responder answers when you are testing 112/911 calling. 
They will just hang up if they have too much to do. Otherwise
they will go through a protocol of validating caller id etc.

-- mrr

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History--early remote on-line computer access hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com - 2016-06-06 14:33 -0700
  Re: History--early remote on-line computer access Mike Spencer <mds@bogus.nodomain.nowhere> - 2016-06-07 02:30 -0300
    Re: History--early remote on-line computer access Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2016-06-07 16:49 +0000
    Re: History--early remote on-line computer access Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com> - 2016-06-07 10:44 -0700
    Re: History--early remote on-line computer access Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca> - 2016-06-07 13:47 -0400
    Re: History--early remote on-line computer access Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com> - 2016-06-07 10:54 -0700
    Re: History--early remote on-line computer access hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com - 2016-06-07 13:17 -0700
      Re: History--early remote on-line computer access Morten Reistad <first@last.name.invalid> - 2016-06-08 00:23 +0200
      Re: History--early remote on-line computer access Dave Garland <dave.garland@wizinfo.com> - 2016-06-07 19:22 -0500
        Re: History--early remote on-line computer access hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com - 2016-06-08 12:11 -0700
      Re: History--early remote on-line computer access jmfbahciv <See.above@aol.com> - 2016-06-08 12:25 +0000
        Re: History--early remote on-line computer access "Charles Richmond" <numerist@aquaporin4.com> - 2016-06-11 10:37 -0500
          Re: History--early remote on-line computer access jmfbahciv <See.above@aol.com> - 2016-06-12 12:27 +0000
            Re: History--early remote on-line computer access Rich Alderson <news@alderson.users.panix.com> - 2016-06-16 17:11 -0400
              Re: History--early remote on-line computer access usenet@only.tnx (Questor) - 2016-06-17 07:37 +0000
                Re: History--early remote on-line computer access Rich Alderson <news@alderson.users.panix.com> - 2016-06-17 16:53 -0400
      Re: History--early remote on-line computer access JimP <solosam90@gmail.com> - 2016-06-08 10:35 -0500
      Re: History--early remote on-line computer access "Joe Morris" <j.c.morris@verizon.net> - 2016-06-18 08:35 -0400
  Re:History--early remote on-line computer access Sarr Blumson  <sarr.blumson@alum.dartmouth.org> - 2016-06-07 12:20 -0400

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