[Lakegeezer]

Originally Posted by gtxrider

I think you need to contact Al Gore, you know the guy who invented the internet.

Just a short diversion off-topic; To the best of my recollection, the internets of the 80’s were the Usenet, Arpanet and NSFnet. Then VP Al Gore pushed for a directive that allowed commercialization, which triggered the growth that has become what we know today. I was working for DEC at the time, which was a significant contributor to internet technology, and remember the day we considered it legal to use the net commercially. Al-Gore – rightly - has a claim on helping to create the internet, but his remarks were perhaps bit self-serving when he said "During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet."

Commercialization was a niche issue of the Gore primary campaign, became part of the successful Clinton-Gore campaign. It was implemented shortly after the pair took office. Al Gore’s senator dad had helped push the funding for the Interstate road system during the Eisenhower era, and Al wanted his legacy to be a digital version - the “information super-highway”. He pushed several internet related funding bills while a Senator – before the executive branch decree to let it be commercial. So, technically, Al Gore did not create the Internet, but without his efforts, the technology of the early 80’s (hyperlinks, email, chat, threaded discussion groups, etc) would have remained within the military industrial complex for at least a few more years. See http://greatgreenroom.org/cgi-bin/bt/backtalk/wasabi/begin?item=11 for links to the bills that Senator AG sponsored.

Now lets get back to the effort of getting some global warming here for the rest of the summer.