[ih] AOL in perspective

[Barbara Denny]

 I found some more detailed info on the coke machine which includes mentioning pony.
Happy Reading!barbara

https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~coke/coke.history.txt
    On Sunday, September 7, 2025 at 11:13:10 AM PDT, Noel Chiappa via Internet-history <internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:  
 
     > From: Barbara Denny

    > I found this write-up on the coke machine. I thought people might
    > be interested in reading it if this hasn't been posted before.
    > https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~coke/history_long.txt

Very interesting! Again, a minor correction for the record, here:

    >> This is a list of various coke or other vending machines that are
    >> accessible via the Internet.

This list appears to omit the 'Prancing Pony' vending machine at SAIL, which
SAIL claims:

  http://infolab.stanford.edu/pub/voy/museum/pictures/AIlab/SailFarewell.html

was "the first computer-controlled vending machine". Given that it was
originally in the Donald C. Power building, it was indeed fairly early.
Perhaps 'the first vending machines that was accessible via the ARPANET?' :-)

I did a Web search for more about it, but could find almost nothing
online, including in the SAILDART Prolegomenon:

  https://saildart.org/simple/book/2019.pdf

(Thanks for writing down the history of the CMU one, Clem!)

I can't believe there wasn't a way to interrogate its status remotely, via
'finger', although with so little recorded about it...

    Noel