Well I bought some “SolarNet” netscout from SUN that allows Win16 clients to tunnel TCP/IP over an IPX network to a Solaris 2.4 x86/sparc box to access the internet… It is interesting in that it has NAT like functionality over a different network..
Sometimes we have to remember that LOTS of people in the mid 90’s only had IPX routers and an exclusive Netware environment so all this ‘internet’ talk had to be phased in, and a product like this would have allowed for a rapid deployment of people on the internet….
Anyways going thru the manual, it’s kind of funny. It’s FULL of Buckaroo Banzai jokes, talk about overthrusters, and whatnot. Then in the email client, there is this gem:
From: [email protected] (P.D.)
Subject: Careful with that Shop-Vac, Eugene!Cleaners Vacuum Family’s Cat
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From the Ottawa Citizen, 14 May 1991Sudbury, Ont. – Cleaners who used an industrial-strength vacuum to clean air ducts at a local home were surprised to learn that their vacuum had sucked up a cat named Pebbles.
“We got a call from one of my guys that the truck was meowing,” said Colin Firth, owner of Sudbury Air Duct Cleaning Systems. Firth said he thought the workers were joking until Pebbles’s owner Kristina Anderson called to say her cat had been missing since the ducts were cleaned.
Naturally SUN had credited John Whorfin for sending the whole thing..
Anyways I thought it was interesting to see what happens when tech writers run amuck.
Sadly John Bigboote didn’t seem to get any mention…. I guess management drew the line somewhere.
Oh those zany internet people!
