On Tue, 02 Apr 2013 11:31:08 -0400, wrote:

On Tue, 2 Apr 2013 10:52:43 -0400, iBoaterer wrote:

In article ,
says...

The biggest force was deregulating the phone company, home PCs and the
invention of the Hayes modem.
Without that the internet would still be a primitive Email system
between military people and a few universities with big government
(DARPA) contracts, running on mainframe computers.
If I had to point to one man who brought the internet to the people I
would say Steve Case who included an internet browser to AOL at a time
when nobody had even heard of it.
Prior to that "online" meant going to an in house service like
Compuserve, Prodigy, AOL or a privately run BBS.
There were over a million Prodigy users when Al Gore
"discovered" the internet in the late 80s. AOL wasn't even around yet.
The bill he sponsored in 91 did throw federal money at a network of
fiber backbones that loop the US but the telcos were going to build
that anyway. They just did it with tax money instead of private
capital. They had already started building it when the federal money
came in. It was an important kick start to the rise of a faster
internet but the internet was coming anyway.

Gore never, ever said he "discovered" the internet, nor did he say he
invented it. Ever. That host of bull**** was "invented" by the right
wing liars club.

http://www.snopes.com/quotes/internet.asp

But, Gore DID in fact have a very heavy influence on the subject via S
2594 Supercomputer Network Study Act of 1986.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Gore...ion_technology

I agree the 1991 bill that put massive government funding into the
infrastructure was a big boost but the thing that brought an extra
several million users to the internet between 90 and 96 was when
Prodigy, AOL and Compuserve ported all of their customers to the net.
I was there for that but I had been a "day one" Prodigy user since the
early 80s when IBM and Sears rolled it out. Employees got it for free.
That was when 2400 BPS was "high speed" ;-)

Before the rise of graphics that was blazing fast tho.

I bought a modem like that. I think it was $600. Felt like a great
deal at the time. :-)