HAPPY FRIDAY: How the Internet really started

WELL, you might have thought that you knew how the Internet started, but here's the true story ...

In ancient Israel, it came to pass that a trader by the name of Abraham Com did take unto himself a young wife by the name of Dot.

And Dot Com was a comely woman, broad of shoulder and long of leg. Indeed, she was often called Amazon Dot Com.

And she said unto Abraham, her husband: "Why dost thou travel so far from town to town with thy goods when thou canst trade without ever leaving thy tent?"

And Abraham did look at her - as though she were several saddle bags short of a camel load, but simply said: "How, dear?"

And Dot replied: "I will place drums in all the towns and drums in between to send messages saying what you have for sale, and they will reply telling you who hath the best price. And the sale can be made on the drums and delivery made by Uriah's Pony Stable (UPS)."

Abraham thought long and decided he would let Dot have her way with the drums. And the drums rang out and were an immediate success. Abraham sold all the goods he had at the top price, without ever having to move from his tent.

To prevent neighbouring countries from overhearing what the drums were saying, Dot devised a system that only she and the drummers knew.

It was called Must Send Drum Over Sound (MSDOS). She also developed a language to transmit ideas and pictures - Hebrew To The People (HTTP).

But this success did arouse envy. A man named Macabia did secrete himself inside Abraham's drum and began to siphon off some of Abraham's business. But he was soon discovered, arrested and prosecuted for insider trading.

And the young men did take to Dot Com's trading as doth the greedy horsefly take to camel dung. They were called Nomadic Ecclesiastical Rich Dominican Sybarites, or NERDS.

And lo, the land was so feverish with joy at the new riches and the deafening sound of drums that no one noticed that the real riches were going to that enterprising drum dealer, Brother William of Gates, who bought off every drum maker in the land. And indeed did he insist on drums to be made that would work only with Brother Gates' drumheads and drumsticks.

And Dot did say: "Oh, Abraham, what we have started is being taken over by others."

And Abraham looked out over the Bay of Ezekiel , or eBay as it came to be known. He said: "We need a name that reflects what we are."

And Dot replied: "Young Ambitious Hebrew Owner Operators."
"YAHOO," said Abraham. And because it was Dot's idea, they named it YAHOO Dot Com.

Abraham's cousin, Joshua, being the young Gregarious Energetic Educated Kid (GEEK) that he was, soon started using Dot's drums to locate things around the countryside. It soon became known as God's Own Official Guide to Locating Everything (GOOGLE).

And that is how it all began.

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STUNTS: The father of modern-age racing games

Farting around on the inter-webs the other day I came across something that kept me entertained for hours (would have been days if I didn't pass out on my keyboard and wake up to find "gfdhhhhhhhhhh" recurring on my monitor). So because it's Christmas and I'm in a festive mood I thought I'd share this one with you. Christmas is all about the presents after all :)

STUNTS
If you have a Need for Speed yet perhaps lack the hardware requirements to run the latest racing games, then Stunts is for you.

Also known as 4D Sports Driving, Stunts features everything one could possibly want in a racing game: sharp turns, ramps, loops, extreme jumps, corkscrews, and lots of speed.

Players can choose from 29 tracks and 11 different cars and either race these against the clock or challenge up to six differently-skilled opponents.

One can also choose between manual and automatic transmission, switch between four different camera views, and save your insane wipeouts, stunts, and write-off crashes as instant replays.

Courses like these make for great instant replays
Awe ye!

In addition to all this is a built-in track editor that allows you to design your own tracks. With this you can choose to ice your track with snow, rough it up with gravel, or smooth the surface with a selection of paved roads.

Stunts was originally written for MS-DOS and therefore runs in 320x200 with 256 colours. However, it has a relatively advanced pseudo-physics engine for its time (1990), which is able to simulate oversteer and understeer.

Although Stunts is now more than 18 years old, it remains a popular and addictive title that maintains a large fan-base worldwide. It has seen a few World Stunts Meetings and there are even still online competitions held whereby players can send in their saved replays via e-mail.

  • Stunts is available for free download via the link below and is a mere 1mg zipped file. Also note that you’ll probably need to run the game in DOSbox with Mo’slo, otherwise you may have almost no control over your car! May make for better replays though...

Resources:

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