more on 1972 ARPANET Film (was: "an amazing film...")

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Suzanne Johnson <sjohnson () pobox com>
Date: March 19, 2006 3:27:14 PM EST
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Re: [IP] 1972 ARPANET Film (was: "an amazing film...")



Without going too far down memory lane,  in response to Lauren's  
comment  I've got to say that amid the "prehistoric technology" in  
this film is a reference to network manaqement and control, which  
has, in my opinion, never developed to the same point  since that  
time.  One possible exception would be the Ricochet network in the  
mid-nineties.

I was on the system staff at Sumex-Aim (at Stanford) back in the  
early-sevienties.  We were  the first non-defense funded application  
site on the ARPANET.    One day the system staff were all in the  
offices which were located several blocks from the machine room  
containing our computer and  IMP.  We all started getting IMP shut- 
down messages on our terminals. "IMP going down in 30 minutes for 10  
minutes", with a count-down of minutes after that.  We all looked at  
each other and asked who scheduled the shut down.  None of us had.

Then someone remembered an 800 number we'd been given when we  
connected to the ARPANET.  It was for a "network control center  
somewhere back east".  We called the number and asked the person who  
answered what was going on.  Not expecting a coherent answer, we were  
surprised when the person made a quick check and told us:  "your IMP  
has been having intermittent problems for about a week.  It finally  
was able to make a diagnosis of which board was creating the problem.  
We've scheduled and controlled the downtime and a technician is there  
waiting to switch boards.  You will be back up again in 10 minutes."

By the time we all regained our composure, and sent someone to the  
machine room, the IMP was fixed and in the process of coming back up.  
We then recalled that as a part of being connected to the ARPANET,  
we'd had to ensure that access to the IMP was available at all times  
to ARPANET technicians (we'd given a key to them).

        ...Suzanne



At 8:20 PM -0500 3/18/06, David Farber wrote:
> Excuse me, I have a sudden urge to dig out some old
> DECtapes, punched paper tapes, stone knives, and bearskins...
>
> --Lauren--
> Lauren Weinstein


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