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The first packet sent via RFC1149 avian carrier is up for auction at Christie's

88 points · 18 comments · peter_hansteen

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  1. sublinear · · focus · HN ↗
    > ... embodying the playfulness, technical ingenuity, and collaborative spirit that characterized the early Internet community.

    We're now considering 2001 "the early internet community"? Some people must still have whiplash from how quickly things changed. Shopping malls were already feeling the impact of ecommerce by this point.

    Also, in hindsight, the 2000s wasn't really all that collaborative compared to now.

    1. dn3500 · · focus · HN ↗
      The internet was 19 years old in 2001, and it's 44 now. To me, turning off the NSF backbone in 1995 marks the end of the early internet, because that's when commercial traffic was allowed everywhere with no restrictions. So I'm with you, but others will have different opinions.
      1. djtango · · focus · HN ↗
        In 2001 downloading a video could take days and the phone ringing could torpedo that download. Playing RTS games online was like a game of russian roulette
        1. excannuk · · focus · HN ↗

          [dead]

        2. rhplus · · focus · HN ↗
          By 2001 the Internet - or specifically the web - had already bubbled and crashed. If anything, 2001 was the reset for the start of Web 2.0
    2. goodmythical · · focus · HN ↗
      The age of an average new mother in the US is 27 meaning that 2001 is likely before these new mothers were forming memories.

      Of the current living population, roughly more than a third were born after 2001. (Are less than 25 years old).

      So the average firstborn is now being born to a mother who has no memory of 2001, and a third of the population didn't yet exist.

      Seems fair to characterize the time in a historical way.

      1. sublinear · · focus · HN ↗
        What? You're also saying two thirds of the population know better.

        It's not fair at all to characterize 2001 as the early internet era!

        1. goodmythical · · focus · HN ↗
          I most certainly am not.

          I don't have time to run the numbers, but the numbers I already stated are for a full third of the population, but the number goes up considering that there is a large number of people for whom 2001 would constitute either their very first memories, some of their earliest memories, or a part of their childhood. Unless you're idk 10, memories from your childhood are certainly seen as being from a different time.

          In 2001 DeviantArt was just beginning to gain users. Wikipedia was just launched. We just upgraded to IE 6 and visitted YTMND. Friendster and Meetup did not exist. AWS wouldn't exist until next year. Firefox, Myspace, Youtube, Facebook, Orkut, Flickr, Gmail, Digg, Reddit, Vimeo...Hell, Club Penguin was still in our future.

          We were still doing cultural damage control on the Y2K bug. The Motorola RAZR, certainly a socio-historical landmark, wouldn't exist for another 3 years. The very first iPod wasn't released until the end of the year.

          I really don't think you could find a single person that can not see that the web of '01 was an objectively demonstrably different thing as compared to the web of '26. In rereading the original comment, I can see perhaps that the argument is that perhaps '01 is not "the early internet" given that by '01 the "bubble had popped", but that's kind of silly given that "early" does not in anyway mean "original". Like the "early bronze age" doesn't mean "the first time someone forged bronze". The same will be said of '26 in '46 when talking about the "early LLM days".

  2. etothepii · · focus · HN ↗
    Is there a prediction market for the ultimate sale price?
    1. maxrev17 · · focus · HN ↗
      Polymarket?
  3. noisy_boy · · focus · HN ↗
    > One printed IP/ICMP "ping" packet sent by carrier pigeon per RFC 1149.

    Is that the entire packet shown in the picture frame? So the price is 1k+ USD for the frame? Because anyone can type that and get it printed/framed for considerably less. What am I missing?

    1. flufluflufluffy · · focus · HN ↗
      It’s the literal piece of paper that was transported by the pigeon and it’s signed by the author of RFC 1149. A little piece of Internet history ephemera.
      1. noisy_boy · · focus · HN ↗
        Ahh, obviously. Seems the coffee isn't working for me anymore :(
    2. elsonrodriguez · · focus · HN ↗
      May I interest you in Franklin D. Roosevelt's personal Zippo lighter?
      1. gerdesj · · focus · HN ↗
        No but do you have his last Apple phone? The one with the tar stains on the mouthpiece.
  4. PunchyHamster · · focus · HN ↗
    Should've added a stuffed pidgeon
  5. slipperybeluga · · focus · HN ↗

    [dead]

  6. podunkPDX · · focus · HN ↗
    I want this but not at the estimated final price.

    A girlfriend preordered the first iPhone, and when she sent me an email, I noticed the default signature, "Sent from my iPhone."

    I have since set my sig for email and anything else that allows it to "Sent via RFC1149" with a link the actual RFC.

    I've gotten a few chuckles over the years.

  7. geerlingguy · · focus · HN ↗
    I guess I should hold onto the SanDisk USB sticks I bundled up for a 3TB re-test in 2023 then. Didn't realize the packets were so valuable!
  8. gspr · · focus · HN ↗
    Is the seller ok? It seems a bit strange to sell such an heirloom for a few thousand bucks so many years after the fact. No judgement, of course, it's his to sell for any price he wants. Just feels sad if he needs the money.
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