{"id":1115,"date":"2010-06-23T12:31:10","date_gmt":"2010-06-23T12:31:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.benjeapes.com\/?p=1115"},"modified":"2022-08-26T08:33:31","modified_gmt":"2022-08-26T08:33:31","slug":"back-when-pad-didnt-even-mean-pad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.benjeapes.com\/index.php\/2010\/06\/back-when-pad-didnt-even-mean-pad\/","title":{"rendered":"Back when pad didn’t even mean “pad” …"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>
\nWhat do you mean, what is it?<\/p>\n

It’s a\u00a0JNT<\/a>\u00a0PAD<\/a>. It says so on the front, in a font that looks suspiciously like Comic Sans, only that didn’t exist back when this baby was made.<\/p>\n

JNT = the Joint Network Team, the group set up to research and ultimately implement a UK-wide computer network for research and education, which lives today as\u00a0JANET<\/a>. PAD = Packet Assembler \/ Disassembler – a device used to connect circuit-based computer terminals to a packet-switching network such as … oh, I dunno … the Internet.<\/p>\n

In other words, this little gadget – well, I say little, it measures 21 x 27 x 46 cm – was quite important in the history of networking.<\/p>\n

It could presumably connect 16 terminals to a network, judging by the connections on the back – plus, which makes it so sweet, in the top left corner, a socket for connecting a cassette facility. Bless! That was the point at which I actually wanted to hug it.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The JNT sponsored its development in 1980 and placed an initial market-glutting order of 50 with Camtec. A further impetuous (gasp)\u00a085\u00a0were ordered in 1981. The mad, mad fools! It’ll never catch on.<\/p>\n

Photos taken by friend and colleague\u00a0Sue<\/a>, who is available at reasonable costs for any respectable function requiring skilled photography.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What do you mean, what is it? It’s a\u00a0JNT\u00a0PAD. It says so on the front, in a font that looks suspiciously like Comic Sans, only that didn’t exist back when this baby was made. JNT = the Joint Network Team, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[90],"class_list":["post-1115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bens-life","tag-computers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.benjeapes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.benjeapes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.benjeapes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.benjeapes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.benjeapes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1115"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.benjeapes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1115\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3983,"href":"https:\/\/www.benjeapes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1115\/revisions\/3983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.benjeapes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.benjeapes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.benjeapes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}