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You have entered another dimension...

Imagine for a moment if the computer revolution had occurred a decade
or so sooner.  With all the power and chaos of the 60's, it's not to
hard to go further and pretend that...

Computer Nerds Could Have Controlled Network Programming.
                        by Robert S. Coats

Gilligan's Island:
   The Professor finds some rare binary coconuts that can be
used to upgrade the ROM in his bamboo clone modem to support
X.25.  After hours of effort, he manages to establish a
connection via his papaya-based VT-100 terminal and satellite
uplink with Telenet, but falls asleep from exhaustion.
Gilligan walks up and types "+++" then "ATH" and drops the
line.  The Skipper beans him with a rock and finally loses
it, his seafaring years catch up with him and he starts making
lewd remarks to Mary Ann about playing Leisure Suit Larry IV
together.  Meanwhile, Mr. Howell finally figures out how to
work the ISDN set that was accidentally dropped by a passing
JAL jet and has a heart attack when he hears via Dow Jones News
Retrieval that the stock market has soared above 3000 points.
Ginger calls CompuServe and E-mails some software developers in
an effort to convince them that she would be a good model for
MacStripPoker 2.0.  Eventually, all connectivity on the island
is lost, when Gilligan discovers an actor in a bad gorilla
costume has shorted pins 2&3 on the serial cable, and everybody
on the island has just been echoing characters to each other.




The Brady Bunch:
   Peter uses Crosstalk Mk.4 to dial into the high school
computer and, through hacking tricks picked up from a local
"adults only" BBS, is able to access individual student's
"permanent records."  He scans through the listings, then,
using a clever keyboard macro, alters his completed courses
such that he won't be required to take English Lit again.
However, Jan is working in the school office at the time and
is alerted to the invasion by a diligent anti-viral TSR.
She is then tormented with having to decide to do the
"right thing" or be loyal to her brother.  Jan goes home and
talks to Alice, who says she should analyze all the factors
and then decide after using the new artificial intelligence
software Mr. Brady has recently installed on his '386 laptop.
Jan tries to use the program, but instead accidentally deletes
all the files in the Harvard Graphics directory, leaving Mr.
Brady to blow a presentation the next day.  Mrs.  Brady finds
out via Jan what happened, and forces Peter to write "I will
not hack into the school computer" 5000 times with EDLIN while
the rest of the family eats angle food cake on the patio.


-- 
 -^-*-^-*-^-*-^-*-^-*-^-*-^-*-^-*-^-*-^-*-^-*-^-*-^-
/*   Henry Chilvers            [email protected]    *\
|*   Internet Analyst          MCA/Universal       *|
|*   MUIS Dept.                Universal City, CA  *|