[vcf-midatlantic] oldest email address in the club

[Dave McGuire]

On 09/08/2016 12:08 PM, Evan Koblentz via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
>>> b) What he DID claim, which was totally correct, was that he was
>>> responsible in large part for the funding that brought the Internet
>>> to the public
>>
>>   I disagree, very loudly.
> 
> There's nothing to "disagree" with. Whether or not Gore was instrumental
> in funding vital things like the backbone, or he wasn't. Facts are like
> math, not literature: you don't "believe" them or not; they just ARE.

  Thank you evan, I'm familiar with the definition of the word "fact".

  YOU must now choose to believe in either the ramblings of a politician
looking to take credit or the ramblings of someone who was actually
there and did the work.

  Or you can ask around and find out for yourself, and weigh the
information that you get by their sources and potential hidden agendas
of those sources.  You know, something that journalists typically know
how to do.

>>   Having built and managed much of the infrastructure for one of the
>> first public ISPs, I can categorically state that we did not receive one
>> red cent from Al Gore, the federal government, or anyone else other than
>> ourselves.  We lived on ramen noodles and lots of couch-sharing, and
>> built it all starting from a pair of used Sun-3 systems up to the third
>> largest ISP on the planet.  ZERO help from Al Gore.
>>
>>   The funding that his efforts resulted in went primarily to the growth
>> of backbone services
> 
> ...Without which ISPs would only have "nets", not "inter(s)". :(

  WRONG.  It was already there, and already running.  And even before
actual dedicated "backbones" came into play, the "inter(s)" were routing
packets just fine.  For YEARS.

  Do you research and get your facts straight before making such claims,
and before pissing in my pool.

>> it was well on its way and would've happened without any of that.
> 
> THAT is open to opinion. Would it have happened anyway without federal
> funding? I don't know.

  You don't, but you can learn by reading this: It was already there.
The EXPANSION of the backbone TO THAT DEGREE and AT THAT RATE may or may
not have happened.  It was already there, and it was already growing at
a tremendous rate.

  But don't take MY word for it (having only done a lot of that very
work myself), ask others who were also there.  I can give you some
contacts for your research.

               -Dave

-- 
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA