Not my story, but an interesting bit of history.
I have a friend who was a part of the really early days of the internet, back when it was ARPANET.

In the late 1970s major government departments and major universities were tied into ARPANET and were able to send messages through it. If you happened to be working for one of the Ivy League or something you might have access to do this, but if you were in a smaller university you were out of luck as it cost $25,000 per year to access it.

An MIT graduate who was an engineer and his wife had an idea. Suppose they bought a license themselves, set up a nice big server and sold access to that for a far more reasonable amount, and sold it to a lot of people? And lo, in 1979 one of the first commercially available email services was born.

Bob and Susan became millionaires, of course. Sadly in 2006 Bob died of cancer, and the company has dwindled to nothing. However, Susan and I are good friends, and there may yet be a resurgence of their company- we have plans for drift buoys for climate monitoring that may yet come to pass.

The amusing part of this is that they were essentially reselling government services at a profit, and not only was it legal to do so but it was encouraged.

RIP, Bob. You had chromium steel balls the size of cantaloupes.
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Thu 22 Mar 2012, 21:13, 4 replies)

I like this
Well played, Bob
( LemonEntryMyDearWatson This time, Moriarty, the hand is on the other foot, Thu 22 Mar 2012, 22:55, closed)

And Susan

( LemonEntryMyDearWatson This time, Moriarty, the hand is on the other foot, Thu 22 Mar 2012, 22:55, closed)

i want to know
What happened to Rita
(andythepieman Is surfing the waves of indifference on, Fri 23 Mar 2012, 9:58, closed)

That was a surprisingly good film

( MatJ LOOK, Sat 24 Mar 2012, 20:00, closed)