Indeed. I suspect that there are any number of examples of this, but the
most egregious in my experience was at CWRU. The ECMP department had a VAX
11/780 on Usenet ("cwruecmp"), and the campus computer center had a DEC-20
in the room next door. The machines were separated by a grand total of about
30 feet and a piece of wallboard, but the computer center was not at all
interested in "catering" to "those CS types" by stringing an RS-232 line
between them. So, it was possible to send mail between them, but only
by sending via a route resembling:
crwuecmp => decvax => ucbvax (UUCP)
ucbvax => columbia (CU20A, I think) (ARPANET)
columbia => cmu-cs-c => cwru20 (CCnet)
Yup, that's three networks, and two coasts just to get through a piece of
sheetrock :-). Took about a week, too.
The funny thing is, I have to do something similar to get mail across the
DC beltway to my brother at Goddard Spaceflight Center even today...
Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose.
--Amanda
This page last updated on: Jul 1 09:16