HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: kabreuer@cip.informatik.uni-erlangen.de (Klaus Breuer)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Help wanted with Phillips 9600 Modem
Date: 27 Aug 92 17:06:31 GMT
Distribution: alt.folklore.computers
Organization: CSD., University of Erlangen

Hi all!

I hope this is the right group to post this:

I just got a Phillips SDV231F-9,6 Modem, which was used to hook up a PC
to a local network.
Now I'm trying to attach this thing (can it dial on its own?) to the phone
network.
Has anyone got a command list for this thing? Perhaps even a manual telling me
which wires to connect where? :-)

Ciao,
Klaus

PS: Please reply via email, I won't be reading here for some time...
From: D.Banks@ee.surrey.ac.uk (Danny Banks)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Flash pix
Date: 28 Aug 92 15:15:17 GMT
Organization: University of Surrey, Guildford, Surrey, UK. GU2 5XH

In article <1992Aug28.082723.1@bronco.fnal.gov>, colombo@bronco.fnal.gov (Rick Colombo - Fermilab) writes:
|> In article <1992Aug27.114044.22877@echo.philips.nl>, dolf@echo.philips.nl (Dolf Grunbauer) writes:
|> >
|> > But as the technicians had forgotten to seal the EPROM's erasing
|> > windows the flash light cleared the EPROMs or at least erased them enough
|> > to be unable to continue with the demo.
|> > 
|> 
|> So this EPROM was sitting on top of the computer mugging for the camera?
|> Sounds like real folklore to me, but at least it's in the appropriate place.
|> I've seen EPROMs erased, they use UV light and set the timer for 15 minutes.
|> 

I've "seen" EPROMs be "erased" by a photo-flash, too. These had printed paper
lables stuck over their windows (cheap, and they were going into cabinets
anyway).

These EPROMs were sat in microcontroller type boards on a bench in Test. A
photographer decided he wanted a picture of the test department, *flash*, 
all the boards started failing - and all the EPROMs need re-programming.

PS. I've also seen "flash" UV erasers advertised recently .....

Danny.

-- 
Danny Banks.						eep1db@ee.surrey.ac.uk
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'm *not* a mad scientist............................I'm an eccentric engineer.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,alt.religion.computers
From: parry@yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au (Tom J Parry)
Subject: Re: Good source code to read?
Originator: parry@yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au
Organization: Monash University, Melb., Australia.
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1992 03:22:44 GMT

Paul Tomblin (pt@geovision.gvc.com) wrote:
> the machine state of machines of speed X and speed X/2 will catch a loop
> eventually, and thereby solve the halting problem.
> 
> The problem is that the halting problem, as far as I understand it, is not
> necessarily about loops.  If I write a program that calculates digits of pi,
> for instance, this program will never halt, but it will also never loop.

But the people you mention above are dealing with finite sized machines. At
some point your program must crash because it runs out of memory or your
data will 'wrap around' and eventually get back to a point that it had
previously encountered.

If you have infinite storage for you computation, then it will never halt
nor loop.

-- 
Tom J Parry.
Your reality is a figment of my imagination.
Xref: sparky alt.folklore.computers:13560 comp.unix.misc:3493
From: valdis@vttcf.cc.vt.edu (Valdis Kletnieks)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.unix.misc
Subject: Re: The need for an assembler (was: Favorite CPU)
Date: 4 Sep 92 01:01:08 GMT
Followup-To: alt.folklore.computers
Organization: Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA

In article <1992Sep1.230435.27381@news.columbia.edu> lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner) writes:
>Pure crap.  That's not what the assembler directives do.  Other than enabling
>the few instructions available in the 286 over the 86, the only other thing
>you can wake up has to do with optional memory management for writing larger
>programs.  If I can't run it in a smaller machine, I never would have in
>the first place.  All this proves is that upward compatibility works.  The
>features gained don't dictate rewrites, rather just additional opportunity
>for alternate implementations that won't apply in this class of problem.

Let's bag it guys.  There's no way to win this one.  This man obviously
*believes* that "if it doesn't run on a 128K PC w/ a 8088 and a b/w
monitor, its just bells and whistles that I don't need ANYHOW", *and*
that opportunities never require rewriting the code to support. ;)

I've been in this boat before - I wrote a program for a Zenith Z-100
to do instrumentation for a research project that involved irradiating
memory chips and quantifying the results.  Lots of ugly assembler
code doing lots of very slick things. Worked fine when designed
for the 64K DRAMs that were available at the time.  On the other hand,
I just about fainted when I was told "OK, now re-do it for these shiny
new 256K chips we just got samples of".  If I had been working in C,
I'd had to have just changed a #define.  As it was, I ended up spending
the better part of 2 weeks fighting around the brain-dead segment
architecture of the 8088.

Let's face it - there are *reasons* for using assembler - but they're
pretty rare.  Most stuff is better done in an HLL.

/Valdis
From: Sam.Wilson@ed.ac.uk
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: You know you've been hacking too long...
Date: 1 Sep 92 17:05:58 GMT
Reply-To: Sam.Wilson@ed.ac.uk

The other night I dreamt I was directing someone to a street about half
a mile away.  "Too far," I thought, "I'll just cut and paste the street
so it's nearer..."

Sam
From: ap096@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Kevin P. Dahlhausen)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Coke machine at CMU
Date: 3 Sep 1992 05:31:14 GMT
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA)
Reply-To: ap096@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Kevin P. Dahlhausen)
NNTP-Posting-Host: slc4.ins.cwru.edu


In a previous article, jarnot@kin.lap.upenn.edu (Kevin J. Jarnot) says:

>I have recently heard of a Coke machine at CMU that is connected to the 
>Internet.  Anyone have the whole story???
>

Sure, here is an article from some time ago.....

Article 22465 of
alt.folklore.computers:
Newsgroups:
alt.folklore.computers
From: rfd@po.CWRU.Edu (Richard F. Drushel)
Subject: Branching in HLL vs. Assembler (was Re: The need for an assembler)
Reply-To: rfd@po.CWRU.Edu (Richard F. Drushel)
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA)
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 92 13:51:29 GMT


In a previous article, lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner) says:

>BTW, if HLL theory is that it abstracts what computers actually do,
>then why the deficiency in so many languages regarding goto?  Do people
>believe that computers lack program control branch instructions?

	That is something I have always wondered...being a self-taught
programmer, on the outside of computer engineering looking in, I have
heard the dogmatic "All GOTOs are bad" philosophy, with nary the
acknowledgement that the CPU does nothing *BUT* GOTOs.

	There are conditionals, of course.  JP Z/NZ/C/NC/PE/PO are typical
examples from the Z80 instruction set.  While with efficient code ordering
and the appropriate test, you can stick with the explicitly conditional
branches, there are still occasions where the only choice is the absolute
JP.

	And what is a CALL subroutine but a hardware-implemented, special
case of JP subroutine / do subroutine / JP back whence we came?

	HLLs may be constructed so that, for the user, every program branch
must be expressed as a conditional.  But the machine-code implementation of
those conditionals must be done with little more than GOTOs.  I understand
that GOTOs give you more leeway to write obfuscated spaghetti, but just
because you *CAN*, doesn't mean you *HAVE TO* :)
-- 
Rich Drushel ** rfd@po.CWRU.edu *** Biology Ph.D. Student ** Cleveland FreeNet
Co-Sysop, Coleco ADAM Forum --- Assistant Sysop, Science Fiction & Fantasy SIG
"Solda pung apfashat ro des-marno, / Marn ladir o armag noth yeni arno. / Hell
miryat it, / Jambo iat it, / Os lasse wei ticip kati baldo." / Old Ennish poem
From: sfleming@cs.hw.ac.uk (Stewart Fleming)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Computer world champ
Date: 1 Sep 92 11:30:59 GMT
Reply-To: sfleming@cs.hw.ac.uk
Organization: Dept. Of Computing and Electrical Engineering, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh


In article <l9t0ulINNjq7@exodus.Eng.Sun.COM>, linden@positive.Eng.Sun.COM (Peter van der Linden) writes:

>Everyone knows about the World Computer Chess Championships,
>not quite up to world human standard yet, but I recently heard 
>that a program had become world checkers ("draughts" in UK)
>champ -- beating the human champ.

Chinook is the computer; Prof. Marion Tinsley is the human.
Tinsley retained his world title after a marathon match in the UK
just last weekend.  Chinook won a few games, but not the title.
I forget the final score.

The funny side to this is that when Tinsley was returning home,
he found all his flight reservations had been screwed up by the
British Airways computerised booking system.  "Just when you think
it's all over, it has only begun."

>linden@eng.sun.com|| P. van der Linden and his uncustomary theories.

STF
--
sfleming@cs.hw.ac.uk                        ...uknet!cs.hw.ac.uk!sfleming
"I got confused about the term 'anaerobic' and tried
   sprinting whilst holding my breath."  -diary of a wannabe racer
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: andy@research.canon.oz.au (Andy Newman)
Subject: Re: Fun with punch cards
Organization: Canon Information Systems Research Australia
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1992 01:25:30 GMT

John R. Levine <johnl@iecc.cambridge.ma.us> writes:
>So what's the most interested thing you ever did with one punch card?
Write my lunch order on one :-)
-- 
Andy Newman (andy@research.canon.oz.au)		"int - God's own type"
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: gurgle@netcom.com (Pete Gontier)
Subject: Re: Better dead than IBM
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 92 03:49:15 GMT
Organization: cellular

fstuart@eng.auburn.edu (Frank Stuart) writes:

>What does IBM *really* stand for?  Let me know if you know the answer and
>I'll post a summary in a week or two.

The One True Expansion of IBM is "I'll Buy Macintosh."
-- 
 Pete Gontier // EC Technology // gurgle@netcom.com
From: 9125113g@lux.latrobe.edu.au (Mitch Davis)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: GOTOs
Date: 4 Sep 92 06:10:25 GMT
Organization: La Trobe University

In article <Bu0EJI.EGF@watcgl.uwaterloo.ca> eadengle@watcgl.uwaterloo.ca (Ed "Cynwrig" Dengler) writes:
>In article <1992Sep03.104918.10823@bnr.uk> agc@bmdhh298.bnr.ca (Alan Carter) writes:
>>
>>Or there is the C version:
>>
>>communicate()
>>{
>>from_the_top:
>>   if(!init_rs232()) goto from_the_top;
>>   if(!init_modem()) goto from_the_top;
>>   if(!dial_number()) goto from_the_top;
>>   if(!log_on()) goto from_the_top;
>>   if(!do_the_business()) goto from_the_top;
>
>communicate()
>{
>    while ( TRUE )
>    {
>        if ( !init_rs232() ) continue;
>        if ( !init_modem() ) continue;
>        if ( !dial_number() ) continue;
>        if ( !log_on() ) continue;
>        if ( !do_the_business() ) continue;
>        break;
>    }
>}

procedure try;

{Build a finite state machine that repeats all actions in turn until }
{it gets to the end without failure.  If any step fails, it starts   }
{afresh with the initial state.                                      }

var state:integer;
    leave:boolean;

begin
  state := 0;
  repeat
    case state of
      0:leave := init_rs232;
      1:leave := init_modem;
      2:leave := dial_modem;
      3:leave := log_on;
      4:leave := do_the_business;
    end;
    case leave of
      true :leave := false;
      false:state := state + 1;
    end;
  until (state=5);
end;

Mitch.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: jimf@centerline.com (Jim Frost)
Subject: Re: The need for an assembler
Organization: CenterLine Software, Inc.
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 1992 19:44:33 GMT

lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner) writes:
>In assembler, I can make up the "rules" that an algorithm
>applies only to if need be.  The language can't support a special-case
>limited range algorithm, because code writers in C want to abstract themselves
>from hardware details.

What?  Are you saying that because he's programming in an HLL he can't
dictate entrance requirements to an algorithm, but since you're doing
it in assembler you can?

Sounds bogus to me.

>a compiler that implements this code as a general solution is creating buggy code;

The compiler is just trying to create efficient implementations of
your abstraction.  If your algorithm has limitations then the
implementation of the algorithm will too.  The compiler isn't
implementing this code as a general solution, it's just doing what you
told it to do.

You seem to be saying that since it's possible to write code in an HLL
that can be inappropriately used, all HLL's are bad.  That's quite a
leap of logic.

jim frost
jimf@centerline.com
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: zcookbruc@cc.curtin.edu.au
Subject: Re: Musical Peripherals
Organization: Curtin University of Technology
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1992 09:25:58 GMT

In article <24252241@zl2tnm.gen.nz>, don@zl2tnm.gen.nz (Don Stokes) writes:
> 
> I have a TK50 in a DECmate III box.  A friend of mine (then) in DEC FIeld 
> Circus told me how a site had a MicroVAX II with its TK50 and RX50 outboarded 
> in a Rainbow chassis, with what was left of the Rainbow running its built-in
> VT100 emulation as the console terminal....
> 

That's what I loved about the rainbow - it was a better terminal
than the VT100 available then, and you could run games on it when
the '11 or VAX went down.

...BRU
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Wang 2200 MVP
From: devin@telerama.pgh.pa.us (Slumbering Pachyderm)
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1992 19:26:59 GMT
Organization: Telerama

A friend of mine has recently acquired a Wang 2200 MVP computer.  He's
managed to get it to do various things, but he's completely lacking
documentation.  It sounds like a cool system -- multiuser operation,
etc., but we can't get it to do much beyond the inventory control
application that appears to be built into it.

If you know anything about the Wang 2200 series, or (better yet) have
any documentation, especially technical docs for this kind of machine,
please send me some mail about it.

Does anyone know what kind of CPU it runs on?  What is the OS?

--devin the elephant
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: pdt@mundil.cs.mu.OZ.AU (Peter David THOMPSON)
Subject: Re: Computer world champ
Organization: Computer Science, University of Melbourne, Australia
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1992 01:26:20 GMT

wes@cs.UAlberta.CA (Wes Tutak) writes:

>In article <1992Sep1.113059.22787@cs.hw.ac.uk> sfleming@cs.hw.ac.uk writes:
>>
>>In article <l9t0ulINNjq7@exodus.Eng.Sun.COM>, linden@positive.Eng.Sun.COM (Peter van der Linden) writes:
>>
>>>Everyone knows about the World Computer Chess Championships,
>>>not quite up to world human standard yet, but I recently heard 
>>>that a program had become world checkers ("draughts" in UK)
>>>champ -- beating the human champ.
One of the nuggets of (mis?)information stored in my mind is that checkers
has been "analysed" and that between two perfect players, the game's outcome
(win/lose/draw) is totally predictable. To make the checkers championships
less of an endurance test, and more of a game of skill, the first three moves
are random.

* These opinions belong to pdt@mundil.cs.mu.OZ.AU unless otherwise specified.
You were expecting an intelligent, witty, and articulate .signature? Ha!

>>Chinook is the computer; Prof. Marion Tinsley is the human.
>>Tinsley retained his world title after a marathon match in the UK
>>just last weekend.  Chinook won a few games, but not the title.
>>I forget the final score.
>>
>>The funny side to this is that when Tinsley was returning home,
>>he found all his flight reservations had been screwed up by the
>>British Airways computerised booking system.  "Just when you think
>>it's all over, it has only begun."
>>
>>>linden@eng.sun.com|| P. van der Linden and his uncustomary theories.
>>sfleming@cs.hw.ac.uk                        ...uknet!cs.hw.ac.uk!sfleming
>The final score was:
>		Chinook : 2
>		Tinsley : 4
>		with 33 draws
>Wes A. Tutak						wes@cs.ualberta.ca
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: msb@sq.sq.com (Mark Brader)
Subject: 24-hour clocks (was: Microwave ovens ...)
Organization: SoftQuad Inc., Toronto, Canada
Date: Tue, 25 Aug 92 20:16:20 GMT

> Speaking of microwave ovens, we have one at home that has a built-in
> 24-hour clock that at midnight goes from 23:59 to 24:00 then to 24:01,
> 24:02 etc. until 01:00. Presumably whoever programmed the
> microcontroller was't very familiar with the 24-hr clock....8^)

Cute.  I've seen this in one other place: a 19th century railway timetable
that I have a reproduction of at home.  Actually, this notation is used
for only part of the timetable -- another part uses 12-hour notation!
This was on the Canadian Pacific Railway, and it seems that different
divisions had adopted different practices.

The previous generation of public clocks on the Toronto subway system,
when they worked, used to count from 0:00 to 12:59, then from 1:00 to
11:59 (pm).  I have also seen the converse; a time-of-day utility running
under GCOS TSS, which reported the time from 12:00 (midnight) to 12:59,
then from 1:00 (am) to 23:59.  In both cases, I saw these times for months
or years before noticing what was peculiar about them.

I read some years ago that British Rail's timetable software would not
allow a train departure to be specified as exactly midnight.  This was
not further explained, but I decided it was probably a deliberate feature,
to avoid any question of the departure *date* of the train.

Btw, while I'm writing, can anyone identify the signature quote?  Henry
couldn't remember, when I asked him, who he'd been quoting.
-- 
Mark Brader			"If you design for compatibility with a
SoftQuad Inc., Toronto		 donkey cart, what you get is a donkey cart."
utzoo!sq!msb, msb@sq.com			-- ?, quoted by Henry Spencer

This article is in the public domain.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: einhorn_d@apsicc.aps.edu (E. Drew Einhorn)
Subject: Re: The need for an assembler
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 92 22:42:00 GMT
Organization: Albuquerque Public Schools - Career Enrichment Center
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    

In article <jimf.715031105@centerline.com>, jimf@centerline.com (Jim Frost) writes...
>gls@windmill.ATT.COM (Col. G. L. Sicherman) writes:
>>Do we really *need* an assembler?

>Oh yea.  There really are some things that you cannot do any other
>way, or that must perform optimally.  Consider the context switcher in
>an OS, for instance.

>>By the way, what's the strangest assembly language you've ever used?
>>I'm not talking about instruction sets or registers, now; I mean the
>>language itself.
>

Twenty years ago I was working for Singer Business Machines.  They made
an assortment of odd duck terminals.  Their biggest seller was an early
electronic cash register.  Their computer the Singer System Ten main
function was to collect data from the cash registers and forward it to
an IBM mainframe for further processing.  Each terminal had a single 
interface card that plugged into a slot in the computer.  There were
jumpers on the card that indicated how much of the computers memory
was permanently allocated to the program that handled this terminal.
The kernel of the operating system was implemented in hardware.  Each
terminal had its own virtual computer.  There was a common area for
communication between the various virtual computers each communicating
with its own terminal.   The High Level Language you could use was
RPG II which had its origins in very simpleminded emulation of the
really ancient punched card machines that were "programmed" by putting
jumpers in a patch panel.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: smith@sctc.com (Rick Smith)
Subject: Urban Legend in the Making (was: SAGE)
Organization: SCTC
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1992 15:10:25 GMT

URBAN LEGEND WARNING...

Someone has cited me as claiming that SAGE blinkenlights were used in
various TV shows. Wrong.

I personally doubt that _real_ SAGE blinkenlights were ever used on TV
or movies.  It's unlikely that real pieces of SAGE computers were
scrapped in time to appear in the various mid 60s TV shows people
claim. Even if the dates make it possible, that doesn't "prove" that
SAGE componenets were used. For one thing, big blinkenlight panels can
be Very Heavy, and I expect it would be easier for studios to build
their own than to try to locate, ship, and recycle something real.

I'd be happy to hear from anyone with evidence to the contrary.

Let's do a reality check on this.

Rick.
smith@sctc.com        arden hills, minnesota
From: jeremy@snrc.uow.edu.au (Jeremy Lawrence)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: You know when you're hacking too long
Date: 27 Aug 92 11:18:40 GMT
Reply-To: jeremy@snrc.uow.edu.au
Organization: University Of Wollongong


In article @rpi.edu, rogerj@aix.rpi.edu (Jeffrey C. Rogers) writes:
>bwatson@nyx.cs.du.edu (bruce watson) writes:
>
>>But at MacDonalds' you don't get a choice. The Big Mac comes only one way; 
>>like it or not.
>
>Actually, I think they will change the ingredients upon request (as I've
>heard from friends who work there), but they don't advertise that fact.

New Zealand MacDs have a vegetarian burger on the menu. Why anyone
interested in healty food would eat at MacDs is beyond me, though.

Jeremy
From: avg@rodan.UU.NET (Vadim Antonov)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Branching in HLL vs. Assembler (was Re: The need for an assembler)
Date: 1 Sep 1992 14:13:32 -0400
Organization: Berkeley Software Design

In article <1992Sep1.083701.2898@pollux.lu.se> magnus@thep.lu.se (Magnus Olsson) writes:
>Speaking of spaghetti code, one common reason for writing spaghetti
>code was (is?) the lack of a line-renumbering utility in primitive
>BASICs...
>
> [example deleted]
>
>Horrible? Yes, of course, but the alternative (manually renumbering
>maybe hundreds of lines) would be even worse.

And writing a 10-lines long program to do it automatically is 
obviously above mental abilities of both users and authors of
such BASIC interpreters.

Not funny.

--vadim
From: lowen@lorc.UUCP (Lamar Owen)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: You know when you're hacking too long when...
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 92 11:48:54 EDT
Organization: LORC Enterprises

otto@vaxb.acs.unt.edu (M. Otto, "Virtual Prisoner of the VAX") writes:
> Not too long back, Burger King was advertising their Whopper; you can have it
> one of 1024 ways.  Now that's 2^10; what I couldn't figure out is what all 10
> items are.
> 
> Single/Double, mayo, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onion, tomato, mustard,
> ketchup...
> 
> What's the 10th item?  Is it something only a hacker would want?

The Beef.  Yes, you heard it: go to Burger King and order a Veggie Whopper and
see what you get.

>          __ ____ __      otto@vaxb.acs.unt.edu                               

--

Lamar Owen, Systems Consultant, GE Lighting Systems, Hendersonville, NC
***********************************************************************
 Opinions expressed herein are the author's and do not reflect policy
   or opinions of the General Electric Company or its subsidiaries.
***********************************************************************
Xref: sparky alt.folklore.computers:13568 comp.unix.misc:3498