22:22 MrHorizons_: A bit of context first: in the late 50s, when America was spending more on science and engineering education because of Sputnik, a computerized education system was proposed, ending up becoming known as PLATO and mainly being headed by a man called Donald Bitzer. It outgrew its educational origins pretty quickly, and became sort of a proto-Internet, multiplayer games, chatrooms, and all.
22:26 MrHorizons_: In 1975, Don outlined a plan in which, by 1985, there would be a million PLATO terminals and 250 mainframes worldwide. He realized that he could no longer rely on government funding and had to try to find some corporation willing to take it up, which turned out to be Control Data Corporation, a manufacturer of mainframes and terminals.
22:27 MrHorizons_: Now, here’s where the more relevant stuff begins.
22:29 MrHorizons_: In RL!1976/1977, CDC badly marketed it, by doing such things as marking up a $1,200 terminal as $8,000, “disallowing” it on microcomputers, and even charging the cost of the terminal for an emulator, which, unsurprisingly, made it a commercial failure.