Book People Archive

Re: ARPANET Records

woodsjay@[redacted] wrote:

> There is a reference to  a Xerox Sigma V in the Materials Research
> Library [sic] at the University of Illnois from:
> 
> http://journals.iucr.org/b/issues/1973/06/00/a10073/a10073.pdf
> 
> on the Crystal Structure of CsMcCl3 ...
> 
> ---- Jose Menendez <ebooks@[redacted]> wrote: 
> [The crux of the post is that there is no reference to a sigma v at
> UI much less that it was connected to the internet via a server.]


Where did I say that the University of Illinois didn't have a "Xerox 
Sigma V"? :)

Michael's claim is that he used that computer in the Materials 
Research Lab on July 4, 1971 to post the Declaration of Independence 
on the "internet" (ARPANET). The records I cited were ARPANET records. 
The "crux" of my post was that none of those records showed a "Xerox 
Sigma V" at the University of Illinois *connected* to the ARPANET in 
1971, 1972, or 1973. The records didn't claim to show every computer 
on the campus; they referred to the ones that were connected or being 
connected to the network.

Another "crux" would be that Illinois' ARPANET node apparently wasn't 
finished on July 4, 1971. Also, the records showed that the node 
didn't have a server in the 1971-1973 period, which raises the 
question of how were people on the network downloading his file back 
then if it wasn't on a server.

By the way, did you read that article, or just find it with a web 
search? Does it mention when the Xerox Sigma V was installed there? 
Does it say whether the computer was connected to the ARPANET?

Since I'm not a subscriber to that journal and I'm not going to pay 
$40 to read one article, I went to Google and tried this search:

"Xerox Sigma V" site:journals.iucr.org

Sure enough, the article you cited came up in the search. Then I tried

"Xerox Sigma V" ARPANET site:journals.iucr.org

No matches. Then I tried

"Xerox Sigma V" ARPA site:journals.iucr.org

Again, no matches.

Then I tried

"Xerox Sigma V" network site:journals.iucr.org

The same article came up, but the snippet showing the word "network" 
was "Perspective projections of octahedra network in a unit ..." so I 
don't think it was referring to a computer network. ;)

When I tried

"Xerox Sigma V" net site:journals.iucr.org

the same article came up, but the snippet showing "net" was "net 
decrease of 20 % in intensity by the end of the data."

When I tried

"Xerox Sigma V" site site:journals.iucr.org

the same article came up, but the snippet showing "site" was 
"octahedral sites between these layers."

I tried a number of other search terms along with "Xerox Sigma V" at 
that journal web site (e.g. "the net" "the network" "computer 
network", server, node, host, telnet, ftp, connect, connected, 
connecting, connection, download, downloaded, downloading, upload, 
uploaded, uploading, transmit, transmitted, transmitting, 
transmission, send, sending, sent, email, receive, etc.) with no hits.

However, when I tried this search on Google:

"Xerox Sigma V" received site:journals.iucr.org

the same article came up, and the snippet showed that it was 
"Received. 26. July. 1972;" i.e. more than a year after Michael's 
anniversary.

If you have read the article and it contains evidence supporting 
Michael's version of events, please let us know.

Jose Menendez

[Moderator: In case it isn't clear for some folks who can only see the
 snippets, the "Received" above refers to when the article mentioning
 the use of the Xerox Sigma V was received by the editors of _Acta
 Crystallographica Section B_, not when the Xerox Sigma V itself was
 received by UIUC. - JMO]