The Great Idea F>> Dennis C. Hayes invented the PC modem in 1977, establishing the
>> critical technology that allowed today's online and Internet
>> industries to emerge and grow.
> Well, THERE is some pretty impressive revisionism. Hey, by 1977 there
> were even kits like the Pennywhistle aimed directly at the
> microcomputer community. --scott
Yes, but wasn't a key difference between the two that the early modems like the Pennywhistle, etc. were more or less totally transparent to the data stream and the connection had to be manually dialed on a separate phone's keypad, the user had to listen for an answer tone before hitting "connect", manually disconnected at the end of the call, etc. while the Hayes modem was the first popular mass-market modem which also featured the escape sequence (+++), AT commands, call progress tone detection, etc.? The latter capabilities would put all modem operations truly under program control without need for any "hands-on" manual operation or intervention.