HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: bogstad@gauss.cs.jhu.edu (Bill Bogstad)
Subject: Re: Apple IIGS being discontinued Dec 1992
Organization: Johns Hopkins Computer Science Department, Baltimore, MD
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1992 09:26:40 GMT

In article <BzDL1u.2rx@world.std.com> jeffb@world.std.com (Jeffrey T Berntsen) writes:
>cheryl@gallant.apple.com (Cheryl Lins) 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

	Actually, that is what they did with the Appple III which failed.
Then the Lisa which also failed.  Finally, they came out with the Mac and
retrofitted its software to run on the Lisa.  The Mac succeeded, but it was
definitely not clear for sometime that it would.  I seem to recall that the
original Macs came with 128K of RAM and were kind of pathetic.  I think
people did development and testing of software on the retrofitted Lisa
platform.  This record would not appear to encourage "clean slate"
development of products.

				Bill Bogstad

P.S. And then there is the II GS, I would guess a moderate sucess; but I
haven't paid attention to that market in a long time.
From: cunniff@hpfcso.FC.HP.COM (Ross Cunniff)
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 17:20:57 GMT
Subject: Re: PI
Organization: Hewlett-Packard, Fort Collins, CO, USA
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers

I couldn't resist; here's a short program that will print out a song
guaranteed to annoy anybody over the age of 10.

Ross Cunniff
Hewlett-Packard Graphics Software Lab
cunniff@fc.hp.com

---cut here-----------------------cut here-------------------------cut here---
/* The song "99 digits of pi" */

char
    Pi[] = "314159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937510582097494459230781640628620899862803482534211636";

#define	PLURAL(i)	(((i)==1)?" ":"s")

main()
{
    int
	i;

    for( i = strlen( Pi ); i > 0; i-- ) {
	printf( "%2d digit%s of pi on the wall\n", i, PLURAL(i) );
	printf( "  %2d digit%s of pi\n", i, PLURAL(i) );
	printf( "    you take \"%c\" down, pass it around\n", Pi[i-1] );
	printf( "      %2d digit%s of pi on the wall.\n", i-1, PLURAL(i-1) );
    }
}
Xref: sparky alt.folklore.computers:17860 alt.religion.kibology:5314 alt.folklore.urban:31004
From: twcaps@tennyson.lbl.gov (Terry Chan)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,alt.religion.kibology,alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Proper pronounciation of 'Kibo'
Date: 14 Dec 1992 00:16:53 GMT
Organization: Department of Redundancy Department
Reply-To: TWChan@lbl.gov (Terry Chan)
NNTP-Posting-Host: 128.3.12.117

std_fleming@hg.uleth.ca writes:

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

What's the difference?

Terry "Terribo" Chan
--
Energy and Environment Division   | Internet:  TWChan@lbl.gov
Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory      | 
Berkeley, California  USA  94720  | Carpe Per Diem
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: gfritz@tesla.ecn.purdue.edu (Geoffrey M Fritz)
Subject: Re: PI
Organization: Purdue University Engineering Computer Network
Date: Sun, 20 Dec 1992 02:27:36 GMT

Let Pi = 3.14159265359 (so sayeth my HP28s [please, no booing for my not
                        having upgraded to the 48sx yet])
       
>>>>Back to folklore - what's everybody's favorite fast-converging
>>>>series expansion for 'pi'?
>>>
>>>Simple and fast: 22/7

3.14285714286 = Pi - 0.00126448927

>> How 'bout this one:    
>>                      4_________
>>                     \/ 2143/22

3.14159265258 = Pi + 0.00000000101

>For 8 digit calculators especially, try:
>
>          16__________
>          \/ 90032221
>
>With even the simplest calculator you can punch in 90032221, filling the 
>display, and hit square root four times, and get pi, accurate to +11 places 
>after the decimal.

3.14159265938 = Pi - 0.00000000034


So far, this last one is the winner.  Are there any *more* accurate than this?
Better yet, any similar computations out there for "e"?

-- Geoff
From: kiki@bass.bu.edu (Keith Baccki)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Jargon file FTP site?
Date: 15 Dec 92 15:21:34 GMT
Reply-To: kiki@bass.bu.edu (Keith Baccki)
Followup-To: alt.folklore.computers
Organization: Boston University

In article <1992Dec14.132803.24891@dxcern.cern.ch> xexeo@hplaa02.cern.ch (Geraldo Xexeo) writes:

>
>Wrong, real programmers use program in BINARY, using a monitor
>program they did themselves and entered in the memory via
>a hardward hack.
>

	yeah, yeah yeah, I know... "real programmers directly 
manipulate the and/or gates with a small hand-cranked generator 
which is blah blah blah..." 

Uh, guys, can we skip the middle man and end this one right here? 
Thanks. You're precious.

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Subject: Re: What is so greate about the PDP 10?
Reply-To: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Organization: Columbia University
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1992 11:19:17 GMT

In article <3865351@zl2tnm.gen.nz> don@zl2tnm.gen.nz (Don Stokes) writes:
>lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner) writes:
>> Speaking as if I were a stock-holder, then apparently this is true, since
>> DEC did 1) instead, and look where they are now.  Clearly what they did was
>> 1), and clearly it hasn't been good for the bottom line.  While it can't be
>> alternated, since in the Real World (tm) you only get one chance, it's
>> entirely possible that had they chosen 2) they would today be better off.
>
>Oh come on, Charles!
>
>You're saying DEC is having trouble today because they killed the -10?
>
Yes, taken literally.

More importantly, DEC is a self-destructive company.  IBM has *never* killed
off anything, and I believe it was about a year ago that the last of the
704 or something really old machines was retired by the user so that ended an
era, not IBM's unwillingness to support it if the user community paid a decent
amount for the support.

Whether the -10 would have made any specific difference is not the point:  DEC
made it clear that the VAX was *THE* one and and only way to go, and any other
project would get very little support.  The inability for something as inept
as the VAXmate to evolve properly is additional evidence of this.  How much
futzing around with a mundane product can one company do.  The dumb thing was
at best a poor PC assuming it even ever worked, yet it never fully did, thus
deepening DEC's woes in that department.

Successful companies make *many* products, and divisions don't backstab each
other.  The only "product" you could ascribe the word "many" to at DEC is
the "product" called "managers".

cjl
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: What is so greate about the PDP 10?
From: don@zl2tnm.gen.nz (Don Stokes)
Date: 17 Dec 92 08:16:18 GMT
Distribution: world
Organization: The Wolery

lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner) writes:
> Speaking as if I were a stock-holder, then apparently this is true, since
> DEC did 1) instead, and look where they are now.  Clearly what they did was
> 1), and clearly it hasn't been good for the bottom line.  While it can't be
> alternated, since in the Real World (tm) you only get one chance, it's
> entirely possible that had they chosen 2) they would today be better off.

Oh come on, Charles!

You're saying DEC is having trouble today because they killed the -10?

That's like saying they're in trouble because they cancelled de Castro's
project.  Or because they never built the PDP-2, or because they should
have stuck with making modules and not got into computers at all.

DEC today is a casualty of the "open systems" and commodity computing wars.
If anything, the failure to market a decent *low end* computer in the early
80s has more to do with DEC's woes now than anything they did in the 
supermini/mainframe market.

> Perhaps we need opinions on where DEC would be today.  Imagine a DEC history
> where the VAX was never a seriously pursued architecture (or at least wasn't
> done so at the -10's expense) and thus now DEC would be at a new cross-roads
> regarding what to do about the various product lines with the Alpha just
> coming up to speed now, but without all the VAX activity, etc.

If DEC had pushed the -10, a "mainframe" architecture, at the expense of
the minicomputer market it grew up in and knew best, they would now be in
the kind of shit that the mainframe makers are in.

--
Don Stokes, ZL2TNM (DS555)                        don@zl2tnm.gen.nz (home)
Network Manager, Computing Services Centre            don@vuw.ac.nz (work)
Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand              +64-4-495-5052
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Apple IIGS being discontinued Dec 1992
From: rmk@rmkhome.UUCP (Rick Kelly)
Organization: The Man With Ten Cats
Date: Sat, 12 Dec 1992 07:05:27 GMT
Reply-To: rmk@rmkhome.UUCP (Rick Kelly)

In article <1992Dec10.223135.8761@gallant.apple.com> cheryl@gallant.apple.com (Cheryl Lins) writes:
>In article <gFqkVB6w165w@bluemoon.use.com> cmcurtin@bluemoon.use.com (Matthew Curtin) writes:
>>While I think that technically the Macs are, for the most part, neat 
>>machines, I don't think I'd ever get one for several reasons. a) they're 
>>closed boxes. The Apple II was the original open system, and everything 
>>that I've used and liked has been an "open system." 
>
>Gee, Macs have had slots since, oh the Mac II in 1986. You can get a 'closed'
>Mac if you don't need expansion, but you have many other choices.

The simple, little Apple IIe, a general purpose computer with a lot of slots,
has many good things going for it.  There are thousands of specialized boards
available for it that help automate jobs in the laboratory, the classroom,
and in industry.  It is easy to write control programs from Applesoft BASIC,
a language known by many non-computer industry professionals.

The Macintosh has little of this hardware available, and requires the casual
programmer to climb a steep learning curve before they can produce anything
meaningful.  It is a canned application machine.

The Apple IIe is a programmable tool that can do an amazing number of things,
considering it's age.

>>        b) in 2002, will Mac users be squealing that Apple has dropped 
>>them in favor of the PowerPC, having the PowerPC run a mediocre emulation 
>>that covers "older" Mac stuff only?
>
>Nope. Because PowerPC IS Macintosh. 

PowerPC is UNIX with a Mac emulation on top.

Taligent is not compatible with MacOS.

>>        c) "What do you get when you cross Apple and IBM? IBM." 
>
>NOT

That remains to be seen.

-- 

Rick Kelly	rmk@rmkhome.UUCP	unixland!rmkhome!rmk	rmk@frog.UUCP
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: Szymon Rusinkiewicz <smr2@cornell.edu>
Subject: Re: PI
Organization: Totally Disorganized...
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 92 13:47:32 GMT

Daniel Drucker (daniel@mertwig.uucp) writes:
>A while back people were asking for the 50000 digits of pi; if anyone is 
>still looking for it, please mail me with a subject of "send pi".

>If I get more than 15 requests in the first day, I will post it.

For THE 50000 digits of pi? Since when is pi finite?   :-)

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

SMR
---
/---Szymon-Rusinkiewicz-<smr2@cornell.edu>------------------------------------\
|                ___                 |  In theory, there is no difference     |
|               (o o)                |    between theory and practice, but    |
\------------ooO-(_)-Ooo-------------+---*      in practice there is.      *--/
From: peter@NeoSoft.com (Peter da Silva)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: using /bin/ed (Was Re: Famous flame wars, examples please?)
Date: 20 Dec 92 15:47:22 GMT
Organization: NeoSoft Communications Services -- (713) 684-5900

In article <1992Dec20.043126.9743@u.washington.edu> tzs@stein.u.washington.edu (Tim Smith) writes:
> russell@alpha3.ersys.edmonton.ab.ca (Russell Schulz) writes:
> >davei@wam.umd.edu (The One True Dave) writes:
> >> Well, if you look at it that way, ed has all the features you NEED in an
> >> editor. (As a matter of fact, I still use ed. (Stop laughing!)

> >of course, anyone trying to admin a Unix system who knows emacs or vi and
> >not ed may not enjoy the day they boot and can only mount a minimal file
> >system that doesn't include /usr/bin.

> They deserve what they get for being so foolish as to not move vi or
> emacs into /bin, where it belongs.

So what do they do when the system is sufficiently hosed that VI and EMACS
won't work? (like, no /etc/termcap and emacs startup files because they've
lost parts of /etc...) 'ed' works so long as you have '/bin/ed'. I'm used
to having "vi" in /bin, and still having to use it in "ex" mode.

Not to mention that most systems I've used haven't had enough disk space in
root to hold Emacs.
-- 
Peter da Silva.  <peter@sugar.neosoft.com>.
 `-_-'   Oletko halannut suttasi t dn d dn?
  'U`    
Tarjoilija, t dm d ateria el d d viel d.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: carlos@morgan.ucs.mun.ca (Miguel Borges)
Subject: Re: Apple ][e emulator (?)
Organization: Memorial University of Newfoundland
Date: Sun, 13 Dec 1992 11:33:30 GMT

daniel@mertwig.uucp (Daniel Drucker) writes:
>c3q@vax5.cit.cornell.edu writes:
>> A couple of us CS types were discussing the old ][e, and concluded that it
>> would be a SMOP to write a ][e emulator (sort of an interpreter that took ][e
>> object code and ran it on a virtual 6502, virtual graphics chips, etc). 
>> Although this would be a real cool hack, *I* don't have time for it.  Has
>> anyone heard of anyone else talk about this project (either software or 
>> vaporware)?  I'd like to meet the demented heroic fool!
>I'm not sure how well it works, but there's a store in I believe Wellesley,
>MA that has an Apple ][e emulation running on a 386sx. I vaguely remember
>that they were having trouble with the disk drives because of the copy-
>protection schemes used by many ][e programs.

There's one such emulator for MSDOS.  There's also one that emulates a
Spectrum, and I think I've seen a ZX81 emulator around as well.  
A C64 on is available, but it only works with Hercules graphics cards.

Anyway, most of these are available from simtel mirrors, I believe, in
the emulators directory.  
-- 
\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\_/\
C. Miguel Borges        and his EVIL TWIN BROTHER (tm)        Carlos M. Borges
carlos@morgan.ucs.mun.ca <-------------------------> carlos@garfield.cs.mun.ca
Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, NF. Canada []*[] <-cheap flag
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,alt.religion.kibology,alt.folklore.urban
From: pt@geovision.gvc.com (Paul Tomblin)
Subject: Re: Proper pronounciation of 'Kibo'
Reply-To: pt@geovision.gvc.com
Organization: Not officially GeoVision Systems Inc., Ottawa, Ontario
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 00:13:52 GMT

kibo@world.std.com (James "Kibo" Parry) writes:
>In article <1992Dec13.200759.16071@honte.uleth.ca> std_fleming@hg.uleth.ca writes:
>>Kibo, what do you do on the net?  Also, what do you do in the real world?
>Um...
>I dunno.
>							-- K.

I know: "Everything" and "Nothing".  (Or is that "Nothing", and
"Everything")

Paul "Gibo - Garbage In, Bozocity Out" Tomblin

-- 
Paul Tomblin, pt@compass.gvc.com
(This is not an official opinion of GeoVision Systems Inc.)
"Usenet is like Tetris for people who still remember how to read"
 -- Joshua Heller (heller2@husc.harvard.edu) on rec.humor.funny
Xref: sparky alt.folklore.computers:18120 alt.folklore.science:4413
From: carl@SOL1.GPS.CALTECH.EDU (Carl J Lydick)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,alt.folklore.science
Subject: Re: mean failure time vs power-to-weight ratio (was: Re: Sig file)
Date: 19 Dec 1992 13:41:08 GMT
Organization: HST Wide Field/Planetary Camera
Distribution: world
Reply-To: carl@SOL1.GPS.CALTECH.EDU
NNTP-Posting-Host: sol1.gps.caltech.edu

In article <1gtj8aINN1s5@news.aero.org>, shag@aero.org (Robert M. Unverzagt) writes:
>Right -- higher power-to-weight decreases mean time to failure.  For
>a "typical" launch vehicle it was something like 4 hours between
>failures.

Hmmm.  How many launch vehicles are run for four hours?  How do they manage to
carry enough fuel to run that long?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Carl J Lydick | INTERnet: CARL@SOL1.GPS.CALTECH.EDU | NSI/HEPnet: SOL1::CARL

Disclaimer:  Hey, I understand VAXen and VMS.  That's what I get paid for.  My
understanding of astronomy is purely at the amateur level (or below).  So
unless what I'm saying is directly related to VAX/VMS, don't hold me or my
organization responsible for it.  If it IS related to VAX/VMS, you can try to
hold me responsible for it, but my organization had nothing to do with it.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: peter@NeoSoft.com (Peter da Silva)
Subject: Re: What is so greate about the PDP 10?
Organization: NeoSoft Communications Services -- (713) 684-5900
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 11:47:09 GMT
Keywords: PDP 10, gods gift to hackers, TOPS, ITS

In article <1992Dec16.065529.16380@news.columbia.edu> lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner) writes:
> Speaking as if I were a stock-holder, then apparently this is true, since
> DEC did 1) instead, and look where they are now.

Doing pretty well, actually, compared to Gould, CDC, Spurroughs, and so on.

> Perhaps we need opinions on where DEC would be today.  Imagine a DEC history
> where the VAX was never a seriously pursued architecture (or at least wasn't
> done so at the -10's expense) and thus now DEC would be at a new cross-roads
> regarding what to do about the various product lines with the Alpha just
> coming up to speed now, but without all the VAX activity, etc.

The Alpha, or something very much like it, would have already been on the
market for at least a couple of years now and the -10 would be just as dead,
unless you know some magic way of extending the -10's address space without
blowing binary compatibility.

Speaking as an employee of a company that has just crawled out of the Univac
1100 mire, and that would probably be using -10s right now if they'd been
available, I'm glad DEC went the way it did. There's more than one way to run
out of horsepower, and Virtual Fortran (Sperry's answer to the '60s mainframe
address space crunch) really sucks worse than a VAX.
-- 
Peter da Silva.  <peter@sugar.neosoft.com>.
 `-_-'   Oletko halannut suttasi tnn?
  'U`    
Tarjoilija, tm ateria el viel.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Apple IIGS being discontinued Dec 1992
From: rmk@rmkhome.UUCP (Rick Kelly)
Organization: The Man With Ten Cats
Date: Sat, 19 Dec 1992 03:46:39 GMT
Reply-To: rmk@rmkhome.UUCP (Rick Kelly)

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). But that's a discussion best suited for the
>'famous flame wars' thread (GUI vs command line). And I have better things to
>do than spend time trying to convince you otherwise or start a new flame war.

Well designed computers should offer both a GUI and a command line.  There's
no vs about it.

If you look at overall sales figures for personal computers sold to the
home, it would seem that Mom and Pop want an MSDOS box.

-- 

Rick Kelly	rmk@rmkhome.UUCP	unixland!rmkhome!rmk	rmk@frog.UUCP
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: iisakkil@lk-hp-13.hut.fi (Mika Iisakkila)
Subject: Re: Apple IIGS being discontinued Dec 1992
Organization: Helsinki University of Technology, Finland
	<Bz6rKH.Ln2@mentor.cc.purdue.edu>
Date: 16 Dec 92 11:15:02 GMT

kodak@mentor.cc.purdue.edu (Jason 'KodaK' Balicki) writes:
>Argh!  Why does EVERYONE ignore the Amiga.  :)

Aaaaagghh! Now you said it! It won't take long before THEY come here
and there goes another fave newsgroup down the drain, right after
comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware...

--
Segmented Memory Helps Structure Software
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: slb22@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Seth "the Lesser")
Subject: Re: Worlds wierdest system crash!
Organization: Generic American College Kids (G.A.C.K.)
Date: Sun, 20 Dec 1992 00:49:26 GMT
Reply-To: slb22@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Seth "the Lesser")
X-Posted-From: cunixb.cc.columbia.edu
NNTP-Posting-Host: sol.ctr.columbia.edu

delusion@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (Albert Schmezer) writes:
>
>     I was able to bypass the power supply on the C64 by just leaving it on
>for about 5 hours. The entire SYSTEM malfunctioned. It was pretty funny.

Huh.  You must've had a lousy machine.  I used to leave mine on for days at a
time, doing elaborate number-crunching stuff.  After about an hour, though,
the disk drive heated up enough to change the alignment a little or something,
and copy-protected games wouldn't work anymore.  So I had to play Zork in
one-hour installments.

Hacking 6502 assembly code to do high-res graphics on that godawful weird
memory map...trying to get BASIC 2.0 to read the status of a file
reliably..ah, those were the days.  Not.

I wish I'd had a PDP-8/e instead.

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. <
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: octal to decimal converter?
From: don@zl2tnm.gen.nz (Don Stokes)
Date: 17 Dec 92 09:01:31 GMT
Distribution: world
Organization: The Wolery

lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner) writes:
> As I said, this is a general-purpose kind of claim; that eliminates all of 
> those advantages, because if you do enough of them, the tricks can't cover all
> of the requirements without stumbling around.  The VAX has some instructions
> that could take other machines many lines to do, but if you change the
> requirement a bit, then it's just as clumsy as others, etc.  In any case, I
> think that the alleged overhead is not the biggest cause of problems in a 
> more general sense.

To put it bluntly, I don't believe you.  8-)

For example, a simple move on an accumulator machine takes two instructions.
On a two-operand machine, it takes one.  The same applies to most operations.
I *am* talking about general cases, not special instructions.  (I mean, who
*really* uses the POLYx instructions on the VAX? 8-)

A challenge: state the purpose of your 48 word routine in enough detail
so I can have a go at implementing it on a pdp11 or VAX (possibly other
architectures too).  Let's get objective about this!

--
Don Stokes, ZL2TNM (DS555)                        don@zl2tnm.gen.nz (home)
Network Manager, Computing Services Centre            don@vuw.ac.nz (work)
Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand              +64-4-495-5052
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: jbridson@kean.ucs.mun.ca
Subject: Re: PI
Organization: Memorial University. St.John's Nfld, Canada
Date: Sat, 19 Dec 1992 15:35:03 GMT

In article <1992Dec19.150629.17015@noose.ecn.purdue.edu>, gfritz@tesla.ecn.purdue.edu (Geoffrey M Fritz) writes:
>>>Back to folklore - what's everybody's favorite fast-converging
>>>series expansion for 'pi'?
>>
>>Simple and fast: 22/7
>                         
> How 'bout this one:    
>                      4_________
>                     \/ 2143/22

For 8 digit calculators especially, try:

          16__________
          \/ 90032221

With even the simplest calculator you can punch in 90032221, filling the 
display, and hit square root four times, and get pi, accurate to +11 places 
after the decimal.

--- Robert Bridson (using the account of jbridson)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers