> It used to be that you could use a coaxial cables for Ethernet and wire a single cable between computers, but those days are long gone, and the speeds were low enough that the major reason to miss those times is nostalgia.<p>ah yes. I tried to make drama out of Xerox's whole Ethernet going down, because of a storm just like we're having now (except no lightning).<p>========= "Lightning Strikes" chapter of <i>Inventing the Future</i> =====<p>Thursday, January 5, 1978. Janet was visiting Palo Alto again, something she never tired of. Today, she was just supposed to check in with people and learn whatever she could about the Pilot operating system, the product hardware, Ethernet, user interface, and all that.<p>In one of those magic changes of name that Xerox never officially announced because that would let an enemy keep track of code names, the product was now called “Star,” She hoped she wouldn’t slip up today and call it “Janus.”<p>This time she took an earlier flight than she had been lately, the 7:00 am PSA flight out of LAX. She hated having to get up at an obscene hour, but really, if you took a more reasonable flight, you got to the office at 10:45 or later, and that made it a pretty short day. This morning, the roads were all wet and littered with tree branches and leaves. Apparently, it had stormed the night before.<p>She first went to Grant’s office to talk about the latest marching orders from corporate management. Grant was pacing back and forth, frowning, holding the base of the phone in his right hand and the receiver in his left. He glanced at Janet, smiled briefly, and motioned to the guest chair.<p>“How much of the network is down?” The answer seemed to make him even more worried. “Does Michael know? Okay, I’ll tell him.”<p>“Who’s looking into this?” He wrote down some names on a yellow pad.<p>“Um, yeah. We have Peter McColough and Bill Glavin flying out tonight for a demo.” He stared at Janet, knowing he just dropped the name of the Chairman of the Board. Janet knew McColough was adamant that no exec would ever touch a keyboard—that was for their secretaries. The idea of an expensive computer like Star for knowledge workers, whatever that meant, was dubious to him. His rule of thumb was that you shouldn’t buy a piece of equipment for a secretary that cost more than her annual salary. The execs were already a hostile audience. A bad demo was about the last thing Grant needed.<p>“I’ll let you get back to it. Keep me posted.” He hung up and turned to Janet, “The entire Ethernet is down. Excuse me, but I need to work this out.” He started for the door, then paused. “On the other hand, do you want to help out?” Grant strode briskly toward Michael’s office with Janet trying to keep up.<p>=====================