Opportunity, the second Mars Explorer Rover is on the surface andtransmitting!

Steven Shelikoff wrote:

guessed. A prime example is the internet. Without government funded
development (no corporation would ever have funded work on the arpanet
back then without a clear view of commercialization) Mr. Kolker would
not have this soapbox with which to vent.

There were bulletin boards prior to the internet. They could have
evolved into a wide computer network. There were also intermachine
protocols in addition to TCP/IP. Arpa was not the only entity working on
hooking up computers. IBM was doing a lot of work independently of
defense contracts.

Hooking up computers by telephone lines was done independently of and
well before Arpa.

Bob Kolker