4 ms·

MiniMit – Bringing Minitel back to life

50 points by jgrahamc 3y ago

082349872349872 3y ago
including a nod to Ulla (and her 3615 compatriotes): https://player.vimeo.com/video/775486428?h=ee901fb342&app_id=122963&autoplay=1#t=1m30s https://player.vimeo.com/video/775486428?h=ee901fb342&app_id...
tetrisgm 3y ago
For those who aren't aware, this was a government backed mini internet. Most government agencies had services on it, which were in use until ~2001. You'd check how you did in your French version of the SAT, your school enrolment, it even had basic yellow pages and very archaic remote work functionality. There were expensive servers you could call for porn and gambling as well.
- ekabod 3y ago
  My parents, when I was a kid, discovered that Minitel had also paid games, billed by the minute. I spent around 100 euros of their money on them.
  - JTyQZSnP3cQGa8B 3y ago
    IIRC in addition to the price of the service, the Minitel was billed by the minute like every phone communication was billed like this. That's why early internet was expensive in France, and it became "free" with DSL connections.
    - canucker2016 3y ago
      One of the differences between USA/Canada and France/Germany (and perhaps other countries). Local phone calls in Canada/USA are included in monthly phone bill service, whereas in France/Germany, local calls are charged a per minute rate in addition to any monthly phone service cost. I believe local phone-dialup ISPs took off in Canada/USA because of the lower cost.
  - jpl56 3y ago
    There was a category of services with the same price as a local phone call. This was one unit every 3 minutes (~10cents) during the day, one every 18 minutes at night. In this price category, I was able to find boards and make friends, talking about Apple II games. There also were free access versions of more expensive sites, provided you knew the X25 address
- fathyb 3y ago
  > There were expensive servers you could call for porn and gambling as well. And one of those adult servers became one of the principal French ISPs and a major telecom company: Free/Iliad.
apricot 3y ago
"Minitel: Welcome to the Internet" is a great book (in English) about Minitel and its history. It's part of the delicious Platform Studies collection of MIT Press: https://mitpressbookstore.mit.edu/book/9780262036221 https://mitpressbookstore.mit.edu/book/9780262036221
teleforce 3y ago
This is an interesting article on the history of Minitel [1]. Fun facts, the original lead designer of Cyclades Network (Minitel's competitor) is Louis Pouzin using packet switching technology, instead of circuit switching of Minitel, from which TCP/IP was derived [2]. He's widely considered the 4th Internet guy after Cerf, Kahn and Berners-Lee. He originally coined the popular keyword "datagram" that described the very nature of the stateless packet switching based network layer packet structure that is known as IP today. The cue of the word "gram" took the name from telegram that embodied the close resemblance of Internet to the messaging architecture of the postal system than the telephone system. [1]Minitel: The Online World France Built Before The Web: https://spectrum.ieee.org/minitel-the-online-world-france-built-before-the-web https://spectrum.ieee.org/minitel-the-online-world-france-bu... [2]Internet Hall of Fame: 2012 Inductee Louis Pouzin: https://www.internethalloffame.org/inductee/louis-pouzin/ https://www.internethalloffame.org/inductee/louis-pouzin/
- alcover 3y ago
  Re: Pouzin, datagram, CYCLADES This was it, even more so than Minitel. France had an experimental, working Internet in the 70's... That was shutdown over bureaucratic disputes. What a monumental waste.
  - gregman1 3y ago
    > That was shutdown over bureaucratic disputes. > What a monumental waste So French.
raldi 3y ago
dang, is support for international domain names on the HN roadmap?
- throwawaymobule 3y ago
  I prefer seeing the punycode version. Even visited the URL to see how it decoded.
anthk 3y ago
As as Spaniard I envied the French for this. They got that and here in Spain until 1999/2000 no one properly got Internet at home, and Ibertex (AX25?, same as Minitel) https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Videotex https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Videotex was for loaded companies and executives/CEOs. Yes, we got Teletext from long ago, but that was unidirectional and just for TV,
lfconsult 3y ago
Wonderful project. Does anybody knows something about source code release (as stated in the GitHub repo)? https://github.com/multiplie-fr/minimit https://github.com/multiplie-fr/minimit Edit: They are working on a v1.1 and they want to release it soon. Keep following the repo.

50 points by jgrahamc 3y ago

including a nod to Ulla (and her 3615 compatriotes): https://player.vimeo.com/video/775486428?h=ee901fb342&app_id=122963&autoplay=1#t=1m30s https://player.vimeo.com/video/775486428?h=ee901fb342&app_id...

tetrisgm 3y ago

For those who aren't aware, this was a government backed mini internet. Most government agencies had services on it, which were in use until ~2001. You'd check how you did in your French version of the SAT, your school enrolment, it even had basic yellow pages and very archaic remote work functionality. There were expensive servers you could call for porn and gambling as well.

ekabod 3y ago
My parents, when I was a kid, discovered that Minitel had also paid games, billed by the minute. I spent around 100 euros of their money on them.
- JTyQZSnP3cQGa8B 3y ago
  IIRC in addition to the price of the service, the Minitel was billed by the minute like every phone communication was billed like this. That's why early internet was expensive in France, and it became "free" with DSL connections.
  - canucker2016 3y ago
    One of the differences between USA/Canada and France/Germany (and perhaps other countries). Local phone calls in Canada/USA are included in monthly phone bill service, whereas in France/Germany, local calls are charged a per minute rate in addition to any monthly phone service cost. I believe local phone-dialup ISPs took off in Canada/USA because of the lower cost.
- jpl56 3y ago
  There was a category of services with the same price as a local phone call. This was one unit every 3 minutes (~10cents) during the day, one every 18 minutes at night. In this price category, I was able to find boards and make friends, talking about Apple II games. There also were free access versions of more expensive sites, provided you knew the X25 address
fathyb 3y ago
> There were expensive servers you could call for porn and gambling as well. And one of those adult servers became one of the principal French ISPs and a major telecom company: Free/Iliad.

apricot 3y ago

"Minitel: Welcome to the Internet" is a great book (in English) about Minitel and its history. It's part of the delicious Platform Studies collection of MIT Press: https://mitpressbookstore.mit.edu/book/9780262036221 https://mitpressbookstore.mit.edu/book/9780262036221

teleforce 3y ago

This is an interesting article on the history of Minitel [1]. Fun facts, the original lead designer of Cyclades Network (Minitel's competitor) is Louis Pouzin using packet switching technology, instead of circuit switching of Minitel, from which TCP/IP was derived [2]. He's widely considered the 4th Internet guy after Cerf, Kahn and Berners-Lee. He originally coined the popular keyword "datagram" that described the very nature of the stateless packet switching based network layer packet structure that is known as IP today. The cue of the word "gram" took the name from telegram that embodied the close resemblance of Internet to the messaging architecture of the postal system than the telephone system. [1]Minitel: The Online World France Built Before The Web: https://spectrum.ieee.org/minitel-the-online-world-france-built-before-the-web https://spectrum.ieee.org/minitel-the-online-world-france-bu... [2]Internet Hall of Fame: 2012 Inductee Louis Pouzin: https://www.internethalloffame.org/inductee/louis-pouzin/ https://www.internethalloffame.org/inductee/louis-pouzin/

alcover 3y ago
Re: Pouzin, datagram, CYCLADES This was it, even more so than Minitel. France had an experimental, working Internet in the 70's... That was shutdown over bureaucratic disputes. What a monumental waste.
- gregman1 3y ago
  > That was shutdown over bureaucratic disputes. > What a monumental waste So French.

raldi 3y ago

dang, is support for international domain names on the HN roadmap?

throwawaymobule 3y ago
I prefer seeing the punycode version. Even visited the URL to see how it decoded.

anthk 3y ago

As as Spaniard I envied the French for this. They got that and here in Spain until 1999/2000 no one properly got Internet at home, and Ibertex (AX25?, same as Minitel) https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Videotex https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Videotex was for loaded companies and executives/CEOs. Yes, we got Teletext from long ago, but that was unidirectional and just for TV,

lfconsult 3y ago

Wonderful project. Does anybody knows something about source code release (as stated in the GitHub repo)? https://github.com/multiplie-fr/minimit https://github.com/multiplie-fr/minimit Edit: They are working on a v1.1 and they want to release it soon. Keep following the repo.