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Uhhh.. you can still use for underlines. Oh, and you can always end your paragraph, start your list, then restart your paragraph. But then again, when people complain that they can't use &, I should probably leave well enough alone since they don't know about entity references.

when you have to "go through a dozen different smaller tasks before I can achieve my goal" you should *really* think about learning what pipes are .
I'm afraid this is entirely typical of so many recent articles referenced to on slashdot; people writing about a *nix based systems obviously dont know *nix

• Around 1984, students in the RPI-ACM created the "CB" program, which took the place of chatting (in "vamp mode") via the MTS system's *FORUM service (which was a bit like a proto-blog, I suppose).
• In 1986, a complete rewrite of the system was made, and named "CONNECT". All of the users moved from CB to CONNECT, which was quite superior.
• There was a vaporware project called "Connect-2" that was active around 1988-1990 -- this was to be an advanced object-oriented successor to CONNECT, but it was never actually written, despite the dozens of people who were actively involved with the project. (Some interesting design documents were created, however.)
• Another system, "Clover" was started in December 1989, and all the CONNECT users moved to this system after the CONNECT system was shut down (for political reasons) on June 30, 1991. Clover was the first in this line of CMC systems written for a Unix system instead of the MTS operating system that RPI used for its mainframe.
• Another CONNECT-like CMC system (which I wrote) was Gangplank, which was previously known as "Phoenix". (In its earliest days, it was just called "conf" and written in C, but this was just in the few months since development began on November 30, 1992 -- the system was soon rewritten in C++ and renamed.) I renamed the system on November 30, 2001 when I released the source code under an Open Source license. Originally, I wrote this server to talk to family members who couldn't use CONNECT. Later, I hoped it might replace Clover, but it wasn't ready enough until it was too late to interest the existing users. Gangplank is unique in that it implements the TELNET protocol directly (along with remote echo, line editing, input history, etc.) instead of using a client application. (I'm not aware of any other CMC system that provides such a user-friendly interface directly to TELNET clients...)
• In early 1994, one of the authors of Clover wrote yet another new CMC system from scratch, named lily. Again, this system was similar (from a user perspective) to CONNECT and Clover, but it was a complete platform change again. Although still running on Unix, lily is implemented in the LambdaMOO programming language. Again, the entire user base transitioned to a replacement system, moving from Clover to lily. The lily system remains in active use today. This is also an open source system, but the main server is the RPI server that the old user base migrated to.

RPI's "CMC service" might qualify as a "pre-web" service according to your definition -- although the users migrated from C

IM is synchronous; e-mail is asynchronous. See the literature for corresponding behavior.

"I immediately deleted this professor's reviews, as I always do those rare times that a professor complains."

"TeacherReview had a "no review is ever deleted" policy."

"As I find about about these reviews, I always delete them."

This guy is absolutely ridiculous... Can you say CONTRADICTION?

This sounds like the anon.penet.fi pseudonymous mail that promised to never reveal users' identities. Sure enough, they buckled under pressure from the Church of Scientology. I'm pretty sure they did so without telling the users.

AOL definitely predates 1993. I knew AOL users in 1988. Try again.

As I recall, IRC was available as early as 1987-1988. It was definitely around in early 1990, so it certainly predates the patent.

Also, there are older CMC systems (Computer Mediated Communication systems) invented by members of the student ACM chapter at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI). (Not all of these CMC systems were Internet-based.)

In particular, CONNECT was a network server (but not Internet-based) which allowed users to connect to the server over the network and login, see what other people are signed on, and send public and/or private messages to other online users. CONNECT dates back to the spring of 1986, and replaced ACM:CB, a program which students previously used to chat -- but that program only worked between users logged into the MTS mainframe system; CONNECT was a true network server. (It, in turn, took the place of "vamp-mode" on *FORUM -- that is, people used to use the MTS forum software for interactive conversations, although it wasn't designed for that purpose. ACM:CB was, and CONNECT even moreso.)

After CONNECT was shutdown in 1991 for political reasons, another program called Clover took its place. Clover was an Internet-based server running on a Unix machine, licensed under the GPL. It had a client-server architecture and used a UDP-based protocol. Clover ran for several years until about 1994, when it was replaced by lily, a MOO-based server using a TCP-based protocol and new client software. Lily remains active today and is the current home of the online community which formed on the MTS mainframe in the mid-1980s.

I myself wrote a Unix-based server imitating CONNECT. This server was started in 1992, running on a server open to public access (via guest access) since early 1993, and eventually released last year. This server uses the standard TELNET protocol to avoid the need for a custom client.

>She could have posted using the anonymous server in Norway (wasn't that where it was?)

Finland: anon.penet.fi, closed down in 1996 after COS forced Johan Helsingius (the site admin) to reveal the identity of one of its users. Here's a history of the service.

Simply cutting back and not buying every single gadget produced would help. There are people who are devoted to living "more simply" who advocate giving up some 'luxuries', slowing the influx of 'junk' into your life and making other adjustments. See Live simple for more information.

What's there to do around Vernon Hills? Probably zip. I dunno, never been there. As for things to do in Chicago, c'mon, it's a major city. What do you want to do? Try the Reader ,MetroMix, and CHI blue