A ring from Tasmania

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The articles of Cassandra Crossing I'm under license CC BY-SA 4.0 | Cassandra Crossing is a column created by Marco Calamari with the "nom de plume" of Cassandra, born in 2005.

Today we offer you a beautiful story by Cassandra from over 10 years ago.

This article was written on March 10, 2011 from Cassandra

Cassandra's loose change 217/ A ring from Tasmania

Justice, even with closed sources. Even years later. Because a small programmer from the antipodes made the flourishing of what is today the Internet possible.

It was published on Slashdot a news cute, really cute, but so cute that I even reached for my wallet. To explain it I have to take not one, but many steps back, and go back to when men were real men and wrote their own device drivers, and we know that Cassandra really likes being a storyteller...

At that time dear Bill had decided that the protocol NetBEUI, or if you prefer the Microsoft Network, would dominate the world, obliterating all other networks including the TCP/IP (Internet). Novell, Sun and other proud companies had also thought of slightly less imaginative things, whose fate was very different. So anyone who wanted to connect to the Internet (sorry if I don't call it the Internet this time) had to use the mainframes or UNIX hosts of companies and universities.

Then the first Italian and non-Italian providers began to sell Internet access via modem, but to be able to use them, a piece of software was missing: the link between an obtusely proprietary world like Windows and cyberspace.

It then happened that a programmer from Tasmania, then and later almost completely unknown, wrote a small application for Windows 3 that implemented a complete TCP/IP stack, up to the modem control layer, baptizing it with the correct but also colorful name of Trumpet Winsock (it seems he enjoyed being a trumpet player). He did it really well, making it almost automatic but documenting it so that anyone who wanted could "get their hands on it".

At the time I was quite ignorant, but by installing this little application, using an expensive contract with a semi-state and semi-university provider (also long gone) and a copy of, listen, listen, Mosaics 1.2, I managed to open Internet access to a small research center, have fun with my boss and colleagues, and even have a lot of fun.

This opportunity of access literally changed the lives of many, catapulting onto the Internet even people who had until then only heard the name in stories poised between technology and myth.

In recent days, almost by chance, the news it That Peter Tattam, Australian programmer, Tasmanian to be precise, Tasmanita, in short who lives in Tasmania and therefore shares a certain flavor with Taz (secondary but well-known character among Looney Tunes), despite being the author of the very popular Trumpet Winsock, he didn't make money or even fame from it. Trumpet has in fact been sailing well below the surface of the Internet for years, and in the meantime almost all Internet users have used it, and Italian and non-Italian providers have exploited it commercially to ufo(at least in most cases) for their core business (it was found in all installation floppies/cds of the time).

In the meantime, Peter Tattam got by with the usual job that many of us share or have shared in at least one period of our lives, that of a programmer for third parties. Now it is also true that Peter did not put his software under a free license, but rather tried, with very little success, to make some money from it. But gratitude should not impose conditions or have a deadline, and debts, at least when one remembers them, should be paid. The net result is that the undersigned and at least 300 other inhabitants of the planet smiled at the story, then recalled some memories, then he put his hand first on his conscience and then on his wallet, and finally sent some change. If you are old enough to remember this little history of the Internet, you can do it too via Paypal (the address to indicate is: payments@petertattam.com). Maybe it won't be as noble a cause as many others that are waiting, often in vain, for your money or rather your pennies. But it is a small act of justice, and it has its own beauty.

Marco Calamari

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