IMPORTANT NOTE: The file: msggroup_archive-june_1975-june_1986.tar.gz contains everything in this directory. In order to grab everything, simply download this tarball. ... I downloaded the MSGGROUP archive from the Internet some years ago with a fair amount of excitement. I have always been curious about the early days of the Internet (Though involved in the 8 bit BBS scene of the 1980s, I didn't actually make it online until my Rutgers account in 1991). There is a lot of interest here. For example, consider this message from April 1976: ---quote--- Mail from USC-ISI rcvd at 8-APR-76 1202-PST Date: 8 APR 1976 1110-PST Sender: STEFFERUD at USC-ISI Subject: MSGGROUP# 314 Welcome Richard Stallman (RMS@MIT-AI) From: STEFFERUD at USC-ISI To: [ISI]Mailing.List: Message-ID: <[USC-ISI]8-APR-76 11:10:25-PST.STEFFERUD> Please add RMS@MIT-AI (Richard Stallman) to your MsgGroup mailing list, or obtain a new copy form [ISI]Mailing.List;56. Richard and Ken Harrenstien (KLH@MIT-AI) have been perusing the MsgGroup Proceedings and have raised a number of issues that I think are well worth discussion. So, Welcome to MsgGroup. Enjoy. See you in the discussions, Stef Begin forwarded message -------------------- Mail from MIT-AI rcvd at 7-APR-76 2256-PST Date: 8 APR 1976 0155-EST From: RMS at MIT-AI To: msggroup at USC-ISI 1) I would like to enter your mailing list. 2) On the subject of mail systems, can't there be set up a name which when mailed to automatically forwards to all the people on the mailing list? ITS has that feature, and I have heard that TENEX is getting it. It would be much more convenient than copying the file to ones own machine. 3) I maintain this system's mail reader, called RMAIL. It is designed for display consoles, unlike most. It is documented in the file .INFO.;RMAIL ORDER on this machine (I guarantee you will be surprised to find out what language it's written in). Our FTP server does not expect you to log in; our system is not paranoid the way most systems are. ------- -------------------- End forwarded message ---end quote--- I hope this will be as interesting to you as it was to me. When the first message in this archive was sent, I was 3 years old. This list is valuable in two ways. Primarily, it chronicles the early discussions related to Internet messaging, something we all but take for granted now. Secondly, well, this is a message list from *1975*. It is hard for me to imagine "being online" in 1975 though obviously I know people were. Perhaps those who were there will not find value in the following contextual points, but it is really the only way I can personally put it into perspective: (Most of what follows is from Wikipedia): * The name "Micro-soft" is used by Bill Gates in a letter to Paul Allen for the first time 4 months later. * The Atari 2600 had not yet been released, nor had the Commodore PET, nor the Apple I. However, the MITS Altair 8800 was released that year, with 2500 Altair 8800s delivered by the end of May. The iconic IMSAI 8080 was also released that year as was the IBM 5100. The VAX architecture committee would meet for the first time in 1975, releasing the first VAX system, the VAX-11/780, over two years later. Ethernet was in development at Xerox PARC. The VT52 was released that year. VT100 terminals would not be released until August 1978. FTP existed, as did (obviously, e-mail). * The Adolescence of P-1 by Thomas J. Ryan would not be released until 1977. I mention this here merely because it is a technological benchmark of sorts for those who were not there (the story starts in 1974). * The following RFCs seem to be worth a look: RFC680: "Message Transmission Protocol" by Theodore H. Myer and D. Austin Henderson. This RFC details basic message syntax, such as the headers, date, and so forth. RFC681: "Network UNIX" by S. Holmgren. This states, among other things: "Although the UNIX network software was developed without ARPA support, the Center for Advanced Computation is willing to provide it gratis to the people of the ARPA community. However Bell Laboratories must be contacted for a liscense (sic) to the base system itself. Bell's policy in the past has been to licsnse the system to universities for a nomal fee, $150, and unfortunately for a cost of $20,000.00 to "nonuniversity" institutions. RFC686: "Leaving Well Enough Alone" by Brian Harvey. There are several interesting bits in this RFC, including: "...this is a security issue, of course, and I'm afraid that I can't work up much excitement about helping the CIA keep track of what anti-war demonstrations I attended in 1968 and which Vietnamese hamlets to bomb for the greatest strategic effect even if they do pay my salary indirectly." "...If you have a secret, don't keep it on ARPAnet. (In the past week I have heard about two newly discovered holes in Tenex security." RFC706: "On the Junk Mail Problem" by Jon Postel. It is unclear whether Postel is talking about machine-generated garbage or what we now know as spam. He writes: "It would be useful for a Host to be able to decline messages from sources it believes are misbehaving or are simply annoying." Further non-tech cultural points which I think are invaluable for providing some context: * Gerald Ford was the President of the United States. * Harold Wilson was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. * The Suez Canal had opened for the first time since the Six Day War. * Two FBI agents and one AIM member died in a shootout at the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. * The Birmingham Six were soon to be wrongfully sentenced to life imprisonment in Great Britain. * Viking I was launched about a month later. * Squeaky Fromme would attempt to assassinate Gerald Ford two months later. * Pink Floyd had not yet released the classic album Wish You Were Here. * Patricia Hearst was still wanted by authorities. * Spanish dictator Francisco Franco was still in power. * Among albums released that year: (*) Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here (*) Kiss - Alive (*) Queen - A Night at the Opera (*) Bob Dylan - Blood on the Tracks (*) Bruce Spingsteen - Born to Run (*) Heart - Dreamboat Annie (*) Fleetwood Mac - Fleetwod Mac (*) Rush - Fly by Night (*) AC/DC - High Voltage (*) Patti Smith - Horses (*) Lou Reed - Metal Machine Music (*) Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti (*) Aerosmith - Toys in the Attic (*) The Who - The Who By Numbers (*) David Bowie - Young Americans The top US television shows that year were: (1) All in the Family (2) Rich Man, Poor Man (3) Laverne and Shirley (4) Maude (5) The Bionic Woman (6) Phyllis (7) Sanford and Son (8) Rhoda (9) The Six Million Dollar Man (10) ABC Monday Night Movie The top US movies that year were: (1) Jaws (2) One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (3) The Rocky Horror Picture Show (re-issue) (4) Shampoo (5) Dog Day Afternoon (6) The Return of the Pink Panther (7) Three Days of the Condor (8) Funny Lady (9) The Other Side of the Mountain (10) Tommy Preserve, disseminate, mirror, and share freely! -Quag7, August 2008 PS: I had *nothing* to do with archiving, unearthing, or preserving this archive. I merely downloaded it from elsewhere when I stumbled across it one evening. I encourage people to mirror and share this for posterity -- I believe it is appropriate and legal to do so. If this is not the case, contact me immediately at quag7@dataswamp.net.