HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: zrepachol@cc.curtin.edu.au
Subject: Re: WANTED: PDP-10
Followup-To: alt.folklore.computers
Organization: Curtin University of Technology
Date: Sun, 13 Dec 1992 23:38:47 GMT

In article <1992Nov21.012445.23588@leland.Stanford.EDU>, alderson@elaine46.Stanford.EDU (Rich Alderson) writes:
> In article <1ebq2kINN20n@usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu>, mal11@po (Matthew A. Lewis) writes:
>>
>>
>>subject line says it all....I'd love to have one of these classics.
>>Anybody know the market values????
> 
> Nothing you can afford.
> 
> First, have you ever *seen* a PDP-10?  Depending on the exact model, it's 2 or
> 3 60" or 72" high, 30" deep, 48" long bays.  It weighs about 3500 lbs.  It runs
> on multi-KVA power.  It requires 1 RP06 disk drive, which is three-phase power
> to start with, in order to boot.  You probably want an RP07 for your main file
> system.
> 

Weell its not quite that bad, but you do need to fiddle it a little. The BIG
killer is the linear PS regulator for the e-box/m-box. replace that with a 5.2v
and 2v switcher and the power and AC plumetts from ~20Kva to ~2.5Kva!!

The disks are another problem. RP07 are more than a little fragile, plus heavy
on the power. Fun to spin 4 up at once though!! The RP06 is also. Replacing them
with a modern drive would require a Massbus to (SCSI?) adapter plus changing
DSKSER and RSX-11F. No huge deal, but...

Replaceing the 40 with a 73/83/84/93/94 would also help.

~Paul

PS: Anyone still got an 18-bit bit-fiddler module for a TM02/3? I realy need
one, also TOPS-10 boot floppys?


Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,alt.religion.kibology
From: kibo@world.std.com (James "Kibo" Parry)
Subject: Re: Famous flame wars, examples please?
Organization: Two rooms filled with typography, in downtown Boston
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1992 07:11:46 GMT

[alt.folklore.computers]
In article <Bz71Gn.MrG@polaris.async.vt.edu> jfurr@polaris.async.vt.edu (Joel Furr) writes:
>2Dec12.200339.24848@news.columbia.edu>
>Organization: Escape from Blacksburg, VA
>
>In article <1992Dec12.200339.24848@news.columbia.edu> lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.
>edu (Charles Lasner) writes:
>>In article <Bz3zJI.B0o@sci.kun.nl> hansm@cs.kun.nl (Hans Mulder) writes:
>>>
>>>It started much earlier, as a flame war, but in 300 B.C. someone pulled the
>>>plug on the Usenet link between Greece and Turkey, hoping that that would
>>>stop the flames coming in.  It didn't work out quite the way he expected.
>>
>>Who was in tthe Backbone Cabal then?
>
>Um, Gene Spafford, Kibo, the usual suspects.

Of course, back then, we were funded by the USIA.  Now it's the NSA.
But Spaf and I still control 90% of the net.
								-- K.
From: jimf@centerline.com (Jim Frost)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Our friend, R. Morris. was: Re: Famous flame wars, examples please?
Date: 14 Dec 1992 19:07:20 GMT
Organization: CenterLine Software, Inc.
NNTP-Posting-Host: 140.239.3.202

kodak@mentor.cc.purdue.edu (Jason 'KodaK' Balicki) writes:
>>How it worked, who got hit, and actions to prevent
>>it occuring again?

>Exploited a bug in SMTP, everyone, 10 times, fixed the bug in SMTP.

You must be pretty fuzzy about it since the SMTP infiltration was
through a debugging feature (it was not a bug).  The worm also used a
variety of other techniques the most clever of which was exploiting a
bug in fingerd.

jim frost
jimf@centerline.com
From: branagh@cs.mcgill.ca (Wayne BRANAGH)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Origin of Lena pics?
Date: 14 Dec 92 23:43:08 GMT
Organization: Dept of Chem, Mcgill University, Montreal, Canada

Greetings.

Can someone tell me where the original Lena pics were published? I
vaguely remember something to the effect that the pictures were
originally published in Playboy in the early 70's (?). 

For those of you who don't know what picture I'm refering to, the Lena
picture is the picture used in many of the image compression and
graphics papers. They feature a woman with brown hair, wearing a hat and
looking back over one shoulder. It has to be the most recognizable
picture in comp sci.  

If it's in a FAQ, please include the name of the FAQ in your flame.

Thanks,

Wayne
branagh@binkley.cs.mcgill.ca 
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: pyotr@halcyon.com (Peter D. Hampe)
Subject: Re: Slide Rule, blinking cursor
Organization: Northwest Nexus Inc. (206) 455-3505
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1992 15:59:43 GMT

>>>In article <1992Dec3.094755.9435@metapro.DIALix.oz.au> Bernd Felsche writes:
>>
>>>> Just how do you get the cursor to blink on a slide-rule? :-)

As I use one at work regularly, I can tell it is not hard,
 but it's all in the wrist.
-- 
Pyotr aka Peter D. Hampe : eka pyotr@halcyon.com
Next Months Panel Topic: "Us and Them: Eliminating Them."
EOF
-- 
Pyotr aka Peter D. Hampe : eka pyotr@halcyon.com
Next Months Panel Topic: "Us and Them: Eliminating Them."
EOF
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: peter@NeoSoft.com (Peter da Silva)
Subject: Re: Famous flame wars, examples please?
Organization: NeoSoft Communications Services -- (713) 684-5900
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1992 01:34:29 GMT

In article <1992Dec12.200339.24848@news.columbia.edu> lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner) writes:
> In article <Bz3zJI.B0o@sci.kun.nl> hansm@cs.kun.nl (Hans Mulder) writes:
> >It started much earlier, as a flame war, but in 300 B.C. someone pulled the
> >plug on the Usenet link between Greece and Turkey, hoping that that would
> >stop the flames coming in.  It didn't work out quite the way he expected.

> Who was in tthe Backbone Cabal then?

Well, the main backbone was between olympus.org (the sysop was a hothead named
Haephestus, but Zeus pulled all the strings) and athens.gov, with a sandalnet
connection to sparta.mil. The connection to troy.gov was handled by bulk mail.
The big flame war got started when paris@athens.gov was running the vote for
the golden.apple group, but the real argument got started when Meneleus accused
achilles@troy.gov of stealing the vote, or the winner, or something... the
details are kind of muddy. We don't even know if one of the main players was
helen@troy.gov or helen@athens.gov, but we do know she could handle 1000 MIPS.
-- 
Peter da Silva.  <peter@sugar.neosoft.com>.
 `-_-'   Oletko halannut suttasi tnn?
  'U`    
Tarjoilija, tm ateria el viel.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: cheryl@gallant.apple.com (Cheryl Lins)
Subject: Re: Apple IIGS being discontinued Dec 1992
Summary: Apple's command line interface = AppleScript (tm)
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1992 18:03:53 GMT
Organization: Apple Computer Inc, Cupertino, CA

In article <1992Dec18.024448.22050@u.washington.edu> fetrow@biostat.washington.edu (David Fetrow) writes:
>In article <1992Dec17.182450.1515@gallant.apple.com> cheryl@gallant.apple.com (Cheryl Lins) writes:
>>In article <9212162327.54@rmkhome.UUCP> rmk@rmkhome.UUCP (Rick Kelly) writes:
>>>
>>>When the Mac ships with a real command line shell, then maybe some people
>>>will look on it more favorably.
>>
>>Ha-ha-ha!!! You make a funny, no?
>>
>>Only those brought up on dinosaur derived systems and mentalities. And i'm so
>>very certain that Mom and Pop want to be programmers (even in the very limited
>>form of writing shell commands).
>
> Command-lines have their place and it's nice to have them as an option
>if not the primary interface. They needn't be dinosaurlike either. Command
>parsing is about to make a comeback, even in "user friendly machines" such as
>whatever the Mac turns into. 

I can agree with the first two sentences. And CLI's are more useful to the
'power' user (or programmer) than the casual loser. And Apple does have a
CLI (even if it's not a released product yet) and it's called AppleScript (tm).
I could say a lot more about how way kool it is and how it'll blow away every
thing else that ever existed, but I live having a job ;-) 

> Don't believe me?
>
> Voice driven menues are a bigger pain than voice driven commands. It's
>just a microphone instead of a keyboard.

I've never been a fan of voice input. Just imagine your current work
environment and _everyone's_ talking into their computer. Can you see the
chaos and confusion? The computer will listen to anyone's input, not just
mine. Plus the fact that I wouldn't want the annoyance of listening to other
people talk when I'm trying to think. Voice IO might be fine when you're
Home Alone, but after talking all day, I bet larengitis (sp?) becomes an
occupational hazard of computing.

-- 
Cheryl Lins    Oberon Paladin and Vegetarian-in-training   lins@apple.com
From: cheryl@gallant.apple.com (Cheryl Lins)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Apple IIGS being discontinued Dec 1992
Summary: Some people live in a time warp
Date: 17 Dec 92 18:15:48 GMT
Organization: Apple Computer Inc, Cupertino, CA

In article <BzDL1u.2rx@world.std.com> jeffb@world.std.com (Jeffrey T Berntsen) writes:
>
>I beg to differ.  That "new personal computer running a brand new computer
>chip and new OS and no S/W" bit is _exactly_ what Apple did when they 
>introduced the Mac in the first place when they already had a thriving
>platform out there.  Based on my experiences with Apple, I could easily seem
>doing the same thing again...  Just my $.03

Wake up Jeff. That was nearly 10 years ago. Remember the Commodore PET, the
Tandy TRS-80, and the other wonderful 8-bit so-called personal computers
circa 1982-3? And where are they now? They are on the dustbin of history.
Technology has outpaced their capabilities.

Apple could do what you describe above in 1984 for 2 reasons:
  1. the introduction of the IBM PC which made personal computers acceptable
     to business,
  2. a radically new user interface paradigm beyond the command line making
     it easier to train and use a computer by the computer-illerate.

(The 2nd point is not to say anything about who invented GUI's. But it is
obvious that the Macintosh was the first commerically successful machine
incorporating such an interface.)

Today there are say 30+ million personal computers out there. The Apple II is
a very small percentage of this total. I like the idea of working for a
computer company that isn't laying off n% of its workforce (including
engineers) as are DEC, IBM, etc. Even the clone-makers are cutting everything
possible simply to stay in business.

I doubt very seriously that Apple would be a 7+ BILLION dollar company today
on the merits of the Apple II. This doesn't mean that there isn't a very nice
niche business for the Apple II. But it certainly isn't going to take Apple
Computer into the 21st century.

-- 
Cheryl Lins    Oberon Paladin and Princess-in-training   lins@apple.com
"We are the guardians of Freedom!" -- Ministry
Xref: sparky alt.folklore.computers:17793 alt.folklore.science:4309
From: slb22@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Seth "the Lesser")
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,alt.folklore.science
Subject: Re: Culture clash (Was Re: 8-bit news)
Date: 11 Dec 92 19:53:51 GMT
Reply-To: slb22@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Seth "the Lesser")
Organization: Generic American College Kids (G.A.C.K.)
X-Posted-From: cunixb.cc.columbia.edu
NNTP-Posting-Host: sol.ctr.columbia.edu

chris@cs.toronto.edu (Chris Beck) writes:
>slb22@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Seth "the Lesser") writes:
>>
>>Great.  That's just super.  Now count out Avogadro's Number of carbon atoms
>>for me so I can calibrate my balance, will you?
>>
>>Boy, some people are dense.  I mean they actually sink in liquid mercury at
>>room temperature, they're so dense.
>
>The original topic was about the _definition_ of a particular unit of 
>measurement.  My point was that this definition is not circular, not that
>it has any useful practical application like calibrating your balance.

No, your point was that the ISO was changing over to this hopelessly
impractical pipe dream.  Which they aren't, because they're sane, and many of
them have IQ's over 80.

>However, on that practical point, do you really think that new definition
>is any less practical than the old?  Show me a balance that will be
>calibrated after I load it on a plane, fly to Paris, find the safe,
>convince someone to unlock it, figure out which piece of platinum is the one
>defining a kilogram, calibrate, and reverse the process to go back home?

Once per year, The Kilogram is removed from its evacuated bell jar in the
bomb-proof safe in Paris and used to calibrate about a dozen secondary
standards, with the aid of extremely precise balances in a room with a known
uniform gravitational field.  These secondaries are then taken back to their
countries of origin (or remade and rechecked if they're out of spec), where
they are used to calibrate tertiary standards, which are distributed all over
the place.  If you ask real nice (and fork over a medium-large fee), you can
get your balance precision-calibrated from a pair of tertiary standards in any
of a handful of major cities in the US.  I assume the same holds for other
countries.  You can also purchase a set of quaternary standards made with
reference to the tertiaries for not all that much money (under $10000, I
think), and keep those in a safe in your lab to calibrate things with.  Every
year, you take your quaternaries back to their place of origin to be checked
against the tertiaries that were checked against the secondaries that were
checked against The Kilogram.

For Bast's sake, man, Avogadro's Number is only known to about 9 or 10
significant figures.  It may not even be an integer.  In the real world (as
opposed to your personal fantasyland), the mole is defined in terms of the
kilogram and not the other way around.

Seth L. Blumberg          \ Warning: This posting has been determined to cause
slb22@columbia.edu (play)   \ cancer in laboratory animals.  Please make sure
sethb@ctr.columbia.edu (work) \ that no white mice are allowed to read it.  
    > No one I know shares my opinions, least of all Columbia University. <
From: samuel@front.se
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Worlds wierdest system crash!
Date: 20 Dec 92 03:10:19 MET
Distribution: world
Organization: Samuel Gustaf Siren

In article <BzI8CB.JrL@wimsey.bc.ca>, chrisp@wimsey.bc.ca (Chris Phillips) 
writes:

> 	Any like stories?
> 		Chris

Back in 1984, I was working on my C64 with a 'mathematical' program that was
printing out a real number as a function of some input data.
In one of the runs the output was something like "@.645122" but when I ran the
program again (using the same input), the output was "2.645122", which was the
correct figure. I was slightly amazed, but I continued with my work. 
Five minutes later, an earwig came crawling out of the computer !

This is a 100% true story.

/SS
-- 
+----------------------+--------------------------------------+
|                      |        / \                           |
| Samuel Gustaf Siren  |      __!_/_                          |
|                      |    / \ |  / \                        |
|                      |   |/  || | \__oW)----------          |
| All opinions and     |   !! / /\ \                          |
| questions are my     |     / /  \ \                         |
| own /SS              |    //    //                          |
|                      |   /|    ((                           |
+----------------------+--------------------------------------+
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: tomault+@cs.cmu.edu (Thomas Galen Ault)
Subject: Jargon file FTP site?
Organization: School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon
Date: Sun, 13 Dec 1992 02:40:34 GMT

Anybody know wherefrom I can FTP a copy of the jargon file, so I, too, can
sound like a clueless newbie trying to sound like a UNIX wizard.
 :)

Tom Ault

Real Programmers Rule #12:

	Real prgrmmrz knt spl

Real Programmers Rule #13:

	Real programmers do not use weenie operating systems like VMS.  They
	use an extensively-hacked version of UNIX they wrote themselves.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: TRS 80 Model I/III emulator?
From: T.Stewart@massey.ac.nz (T.M. Stewart)
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 92 01:53:07 GMT
Organization: Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
Keywords: TRS-80, emulation
Summary: Seeking emulator for TRS80 model 1
X-Reader: NETNEWS/PC Version 2c

All this talk about emulators has rekindled my interest in Trash-80
emulation...The piece below was originally posted to comp.sys.tandy
a few days ago.  Nobody seems to know there, but some of the oldies
that inhabit this group well might...

A couple of years ago I obtained a copy of a PD Beta-release TRS-80
Model III emulator.  The emulator looked OK, although speed was a
problem.  Unfortunately for me, my disks were all Mod 1 single density so I 
wasn't able to use it.  Recently however, I've again become interested in 
getting my (old) TRS-80 programs on an MSDOS platform via emulation.  

The emulator I have was written by Vincent Van Den Berghe and was (apparently) 
uploaded to Compuserve a few years ago. The documentation with the emulator
mentions a definitive version being available in the future.  

Does anyone know anything about such a definitive version?  Is there anyone
out there using the Beta-version I mentioned above.  If so, how good is it?
Does it handle sound and other hardware-type functions like RS-232
communications?  Anyone know where the author is and can he be contacted?

On a 33 MHZ '486, I would imagine the speed problem of the original
emulator may not be such a problem.  I'd like to keep all those programs
of my youth such as PENETRATOR, METEOR MISSION, SEA DRAGON and SCOTT ADAMS
adventures.

Cheers

Terry Stewart
T.Stewart@massey.ac.nz


-- 
 -----------------------------------------------------------
| Terry Stewart                       T.Stewart@massey.ac.nz|
| Department of Plant Science                               |
| Massey University                                         |
| New Zealand                                               |
|                                                           |
 -----------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Subject: Re: "FOO" and Re: 8008 related to PDP-11? (was: What is so greate ...)
Reply-To: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Organization: Columbia University
Date: Sat, 19 Dec 1992 10:02:38 GMT

In article <jcmorris.724693885@mwunix> jcmorris@mwunix.mitre.org (Joe Morris) writes:
>
>A comma following a symbol defines that symbol as the current location
>counter; a slash following an expression changes the location counter
            ^^^^^
perhaps a star? (asterisk)?

>to the value of the expression.  The current location counter is 
>referenced with a period, and a string beginning with a slash is a comment.

cjl
Xref: sparky alt.folklore.computers:18148 alt.religion.kibology:5493 alt.folklore.urban:31682
From: kenh@leps5.phys.psu.edu (Ken Hornstein)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,alt.religion.kibology,alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Proper pronunciation of 'Kibo' IN BED
Date: 20 Dec 1992 06:15:27 GMT
Organization: Penn State, Laboratory for Elementary Particle Science

In article <JKONRATH.92Dec19211424@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu> jkonrath@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu (Jon Konrath) writes:
>In article <1gjmngINN5rq@agate.berkeley.edu> nweaver@soda.berkeley.edu (Nicholas C. Weaver) writes:
>
>	   Real cruel thing to do.  Put the word "Kibo" into your
>   .sig.    :)
>
>I wonder if I could convince local admins to rename our NNTP-server machine
>usenet.ucs.indiana.edu to kibo.ucs.indiana.edu so all of our outgoing stuff
>has to word "Kibo" in it...

Hey, I've already decided that if we get a new machine, it's going to be called
"kibo.phys.psu.edu".  Maybe I'll move news to it :-)

--Ken
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: kps@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Karthik P Sheka)
Subject: Re: PI
Reply-To: kps@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Karthik P Sheka)
Organization: Columbia University
Date: Sat, 19 Dec 1992 23:43:36 GMT

In article <624@cpsolv.CPS.COM> rhg@cpsolv.CPS.COM (Richard H. Gumpertz) writes:
>In article <1992Dec15.134732.3739@piccolo.cit.cornell.edu> smr2@cornell.edu (Szymon Rusinkiewicz) writes:
>>BTW, you can get the first few million digits of pi by anon FTP from
>>wuarchive.wustl.edu in /doc/misc/pi/pi.dat.Z
>
>I am curious: how well does the decimal representation of PI compress using
>standard Unix compress?  (I really don't want to fetch the file just to run
>zcat|wc)


(I edited out all of the hard returns and spaces, so my file is a little
smaller than the one in the ftp site...)

-r--------  1 kps      bobby     1254542 Dec 19 18:37 pi.dat
-r--------  1 kps      bobby      587579 Dec 19 18:36 pi.dat.Z


Karthik Sheka              | It's not an optical illusion.  It just looks like
kps@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu |    one.
karthik@cs.columbia.edu    | By "recursion" I mean "defined by recursion".
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: zrepachol@cc.curtin.edu.au
Subject: Re: PDP ftp archiveREAD/NEW/FOLLOWUP
Organization: Curtin University of Technology
Date: Sun, 13 Dec 1992 23:19:45 GMT

In article <By5x6M.DJK@NeoSoft.com>, peter@NeoSoft.com (Peter da Silva) writes:
> In article <1992Nov22.112250.14995@news.columbia.edu> lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner) writes:
>> Some of these same iron-moving types claim to be a vendor "for all of your
>> DEC VT's" as if VT-100 and up is all that DEC ever made.  Someone should
>> tell them about VT05, 50, 50H, 52, as well as some more obscure stuff like
>> VT-20, 06, and VT8E.
> 
> Anyone still got a GT40 in action?
Why, want a bigmac?

~Paul

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,alt.religion.kibology,alt.folklore.urban
From: std_fleming@hg.uleth.ca (John Fleming)
Subject: Re: Proper pronounciation of 'Kibo'
Reply-To: std_fleming@hg.uleth.ca
Organization: University of Lethbridge
Date: Sun, 13 Dec 1992 20:07:59 GMT

Kibo, what do you do on the net?  Also, what do you do in the real world?

                              std_fleming@hg.uleth.ca
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: mtpins@icaen.uiowa.edu (Michael T Pins)
Subject: Re: Apple IIGS being discontinued Dec 1992
Date: Sat, 19 Dec 1992 19:58:15 GMT
Organization: University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA
X-Newsreader: NN version 6.4.19

Edward.Rice@p4214.f70.n109.z1.fidonet.org (Edward Rice) writes:

>Nicholas C. Weaver said to All: 

-NC> From: nweaver@soda.berkeley.edu (Nicholas C. Weaver)

-NC> example, try moving all files starting with Let to the directory
-NC> Letters.  How do you do this easily in a GUI?  A CLI for some purposes
-NC> is superior, because of it's higher level of abstraction.

>Actually, I just had to do a 26-letter split of several thousand files, and did
>it just fine on a GUI (Macintosh System 7, but System 6 or 4.2 would have
>worked
>okay, also).  FYI, in case your question was a serious challenge -- I defined
>26
>folders starting with the right letter (A Folder, B Folder, etc.), and then
>told
>the system to re-organize the folder by name, using the iconic view.  That gave
>me a list about five icons wide, with a given folder followed by all the files
>starting with the same letter.  Then I just did a lot (and admittedly, it was a
>LOT) of moving.  Because it was a GUI, I could easily select multiple files,
>though, and it wasn't too hard to grab a few dozen at a time.

>It took a while, and I would rather have done it with a CLI.  But I didn't have
>to do N-thousand individual moves, and it only took me fifteen or twenty
>minutes
>for the moves.  That timing is a precise geometric mean between fast enough and
>not fast enough, by the way.

I just wrote a shell script to do the same thing.  
Total time: less than a minute.
And of course, with a multitasking machine you start the shell script and go
onto other things while it's doing it's thing.

-- 
*****************************************************************************
* Michael Pins                |   Internet: amigapd@isca.uiowa.edu          *
* ISCA's Amiga Librarian      |         #include <std.disclaimer>           *
*****************************************************************************