HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: bugs@netsys.com (Mark Hittinger)
Subject: Re: Computer Superstition
Organization: Netsys Inc.
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 05:06:04 GMT

Murray_Moffatt@kcbbs.gen.nz (Murray Moffatt) writes:

>We've all heard of common superstitions such as not walking under ladders 
>and throwing salt over your left shoulder if you spill some, but are 
>there any superstitions to do with computers?

When I see the lights flicker that means it is time to do a backup.

When I hear the disk drive change pitch that means it is time to do a backup.

When I see my field service guy come in for preventive maintenance that
means it is time to do a backup.

-----
Hey Dad, what if T-1000 was sent back to make sure that Cyberdyn had a good
offsite backup policy?
From: xyzzy@mertwig.UUCP (Daniel Drucker)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Computer Superstition
Date: Sun, 22 Nov 92 09:45:27 EST
Organization: Odd Parity Hacker's Group

sasjaa@morticia.unx.sas.com (James Adams) writes:

> 
> If a program quits working, first try re-compiling it. It probably just
> needs to be refreshed...

That actually works! I downloaded a program from a BBS, (in C source 
format) and compiled it. It worked. A week later it started giving me 
weird errors; so I deleted it and recompiled it from the source. It 
worked. Software rot, I guess..

--  "Xyzzy T. Plugh"                               mertwig!xyzzy@jaflrn.uucp
                     Amateur radio callsign pending
        Daniel Max P. Drucker, the 14 year old networks wizard.

"Difficulty! It's the single simplest machine in the entire Universe!" -HHGTTG
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: hees@cubic.com (Phil Hees)
Subject: Re: command abbreviation
Organization: Cubic Tomato Corp.
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 92 19:28:11 GMT

wingo@apple.com (Tony Wingo) writes:
>
>(actually, prior to 1970 or so, I think that _ was the mutant shift O
>character and <- was standard, though I'm not absolutely sure since before
>working on the PDP-10 I did my typing on an 029 keypunch.  Maybe someone
>older than me can clarify this point :-) ).

The original ASCII standard assigned the up-arrow to (octal) 136 and
the backarrow to (octal) 137.  A revision to the ASCII standard sometime
in the late 1960s changed these to the caret and underscore, respectively.
Naturally, not everyone changed over immediately.

--
Phil Hees
hees@cubic.com
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: dsiebert@icaen.uiowa.edu (Doug Siebert)
Subject: Re: Cute inet daemon messages
Organization: ISCA
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 04:58:46 GMT

In article <1992Nov19.005052.17289@tc.cornell.edu> mdw@theory.TC.Cornell.EDU (Matt Welsh) writes:
>Here's something I got today when I connected to SMTP on crash.canon.co.uk:
>
>"220 crash.canon.co.uk SMTP ready and waiting for your hot-mail-injection baby"
>
>I'm not kidding; try it yourself. I'm wondering if this is a standard 220
>message from some deranged version of SMTP, or if it's a hack on the part of
>the system admins there. :)


My local favorite:

"220 chop.isca.uiowa.edu Sendmail NeXT-1.0 (From Sendmail 5.52)/NeXT-2.0 bent
over and ready at Wed, 18 Nov 92 22:55:23 GMT-0600"

Its just a feature of the local sendmail.cf file, so anyone can alter this by
altering their sendmail.cf file.


>Another cute thing, that I've seen in one strain of SMTP, when you use the
>"slave" command:
>
>100 Kinky, kinky. I don't support such perversions.


That's builtin.  Anyone know what the 'slave' command is/was supposed to be?

-- 
/-----------------------------------------------------------------------------\
| Doug Siebert                             | "I don't have to take this abuse |
| Internet:  dsiebert@isca.uiowa.edu       |  from you - I've got hundreds of |
| NeXTMail:  dsiebert@chop.isca.uiowa.edu  |  people waiting in line to abuse |
|     ICBM:  41d 39m 55s N, 91d 30m 43s W  |  me!"  Bill Murray, Ghostbusters |
\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------/
From: tbruseha@hollywood.ems.cdc.com (Tom Brusehaver)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: ASSEMBLY LANGUAGE IBM
Date: 20 Nov 92 18:55:40 GMT
Organization: Empros Systems International, a division of Control Data

In article <1992Nov19.230823.9763@spatula.rent.com> azog@spatula.rent.com (Billy D'Augustine) writes:

[stuff about intel junk deleted (read EE times about Intel patent war)]
>
>And then whats the point in making this wonderful hardware, if you dont
...
>instrict to IBM mainframes. Else why would CICS be a layered product and
>not a base installation option? 
>
>The 9121 above has four ESCON channels (IBMs name for fiber optic disk
>channels), which is pretty impressive. But in 1991, just last year, we
>finally got rid of our card punch/reader. 
>
Did you really get rid of it, or did you just replace the physical
unit (card reader/punch) with something else?  Arent most devices
attatched to a 360 class mainframe (or sorry 390) through SNA still
considered card readers and punchers (I haven't actually messed with
VSE, only MVS)?

I worked at a place with another mainframe attatched to an IBM
mainframe (the other one ran Unix). There were 3 punch, 3 reader
devices and 1 printer device on the IBM side; 2 async devices (and 2
tons of software) on the Unix side.

>My point is why have progress at all, if you dont take advantage of it?
>
Progress??  30 years of the same architecture?  sorry. :-(
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: dp@world.std.com (Jeff DelPapa)
Subject: Re: World's Toughest Computers
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 21:00:39 GMT

>What are some stories that you have heard about them?
>
>
>I have two stories for you about the IBM AS/400's ruggedness:
>
>1.  An AS/400 was being delivered for a field test.  The workmen
>who were loading the truck neglected to secure the large computer
>and it toppled out of the truck landing on its back in 	the site
>parking lot.  The system was taken back to the lab and checked 
>out.  After the power was turned on, the system ran normally.

This may be UL, but I am told that mid 70's HP minicomputers got a 4
foot drop test, DISKS SPINNING. Certainly any mil spec computer would
have to withstand a drop at least as severe as out of a truck,
otherwise they wouldn't be able to airdrop them.

<dp>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.sys.cbm
From: dagbrown@undergrad.math.waterloo.edu (Dave Brown)
Subject: Re: Commodore keyboard layout.
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Sun, 22 Nov 1992 21:14:39 GMT

In article <ERU.92Nov20153352@tnso04.tele.nokia.fi> eru@tnso04.tele.nokia.fi (Erkki Ruohtula) writes:
>In article <1992Nov19.112057.2311W@viper.edb.tih.no> terjej@edb.tih.no (Terje Johansen,o90b) writes:
>>In article <1992Nov18.235137.17841@cs.umb.edu>, edwardp@ra.cs.umb.edu (Edward P. Piecewicz) writes:
>>>In article <1992Nov17.214421.22889@tamsun.tamu.edu> n029gg@tamuts.tamu.edu (Adam Roach) writes:
>>>>the same '64's would have been shipped there. This goes a long way
>>>>towards explaining why we had a British pound symbol on our '64's
>>>>over here in the States. Additionally, I might like to point out
>>>>that the layout of the C-64's keyboard had almost nothing to
>>>>do with prevailing standards for typewriter keyboards.
>>>
>>>Was the British Pound key on the U.S. C64 computers, intentional??  It was
>>>the first (and still is) the computer I ever saw with a Pound key on it.
>>>
>>> - Ed
>>
>>#########
>>hmmmm...works nicely. Keyboard is a Tallgrass Tech.
>
>Amazing: those pound signs actually appeared as pound signs
>in my GNUS window in a GNU-emacs (with the Swedish 8-bit patches
>installed) running on a Solbourne under MIT X11R5. Maybe there
>is after all hope of some day having a 8-bit clean *IX and Net...

	Even neater--when at work using a VT420, they showed up as
pound signs, and when at home using a VT100 emulator on my Amiga,
they showed up as #'s -- Hmmm...I wonder what they're going to be
now, now that I'm using my Amiga to edit this....that is,
when they finally get sent out again...


-- 
Dave Brown
dagbrown@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca
Phone: (519) 438-0530
"What God want, God gets.  God help us all."  --Roger Waters
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: connor@nexus.yorku.ca (James Connor)
Subject: Re: World's Toughest Computers
Organization: York University
Date: Sun, 22 Nov 1992 23:57:39 GMT

pete@minster.york.ac.uk writes:

|Jared Dahl (jdahl@rchland.vnet.ibm.com) wrote:
|: Which computers do you consider the most rugged?  Why?
|: What are some stories that you have heard about them?
|: 

|Although they're really basically educational CP/M boxes from the mid 
|eighties, I heard about a couple of Research Machines Link 480Zs which were
                                                       ^^^^^^^^^^^

	I heard a story about this very kind of machine, from an edition of
Personal Computer World ( a prominent British 'zine )...a trawler, off the 
coast of the north of England, pulled up two slimy seaweed covered boxes
in its nets which, when cleaned, turned out to be Link 480Z's, one of which
still worked ! (wish I could remember what i did with that mag...)


CHEERS !!!!


Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: alderson@elaine46.Stanford.EDU (Rich Alderson)
Subject: Re: World's Toughest Computers
Originator: alderson@leland.Stanford.EDU
Reply-To: alderson@elaine46.Stanford.EDU (Rich Alderson)
Organization: Stanford University Academic Information Resources
Date: Sat, 21 Nov 92 00:20:18 GMT

In article <BxzsFx.5r7@SSD.intel.com>, prp@ssd (Paul Pierce) writes:
>There was the infamous bombing of the Army Math Research Center at U.
>Wisconsin in the late 60's. (I'm sure someone there can correct this account,
>but what the hey, its folklore.) Karl Armstrong, Ken Fine, et. al. stole Tad
>Pinkerton's van (Tad was the director of the computing center), filled it with
>fertilizer soaked in gasoline, parked it next to Sterling Hall (the Physics
>department and AMRC), and set it to go off around 4AM.
>
>The blast was heard throughout the city. (Seven miles away, it woke up my
>mother). A physics grad student, Robert Fassnacht(?) was killed. Major damage
>to the building.
>
>A CDC-924 dropped through one whole floor, and when they connected it up again
>it still worked. I heard this model was originally designed for submarines,
>but the physics department got some surplus. One was still in use there in the
>mid 70s.

Interestingly enough, I saw a book this past weekend in a local Brentano's
called _Rads_, on precisely this incident.  It took place in the spring of 1970
(which I remembered, 'cause I was a college freshman at the time).

I wonder if the book (which I'm waiting for in paperback :-) will mention the
computer that survived?
-- 
Rich Alderson   'I wish life was not so short,' he thought.  'Languages take
                such a time, and so do all the things one wants to know about.'
                                                        --J. R. R. Tolkien,
alderson@leland.stanford.edu                              _The Lost Road_
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: wolff@zen.et.tudelft.nl (Rogier Wolff)
Subject: Re: CM5 pic - terribly sorry gentlemen, it's a dud
Organization: Delft University of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 00:03:33 GMT

>In article <1992Nov19.032302.12488@lugb.latrobe.edu.au> cchd@lucifer.latrobe.edu.au (Huw Davies) writes:
>>
>>I have no problem with the limited edition prints being just that,
>>limitied editions. I can't follow the logic that says a gif of a limited
>>edition print reduces in any way the value of the original. Does a gif
>>of the Mona Lisa reduce the value of the original????
>>

Anyway, I just found a reasonable picture in the november 1991 (note
1991, about one year old) issue of the Scientific American, for those
of you that have access to a Scientific American archive, and want to
know what the thing looks like instead of just talking about it.....

					Roger.
-- 
****   a 486 in V86 mode is like a VW buggy with a 6 litre V12 motor.  ****
EMail:  wolff@duteca.et.tudelft.nl   ** Tel  +31-15-783644 or +31-15-142371
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: mdw@theory.TC.Cornell.EDU (Matt Welsh)
Subject: Re: ASSEMBLY LANGUAGE IBM
Organization: Cornell Theory Center
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 19:11:48 GMT

In article <16NOV92.12250000.0072@VM1.MCGILL.CA> IEGS@MUSICB.MCGILL.CA (IEGS) writes:
>HOW COULD YOU SOLVE THIS:
>DETERMINE HOW MANY MICRO-INSTRUCTIONS ARE REQUIRE TO PERFORM
>THE ASSEMBLY INSTRUCTIONS WITH OPERATION CODES FROM 0 TO 4.
>  WRITE A (MAC-1) ASSEMBLY IBM PROGRAM TO COMPUTE X = MIN(A,B)
>{IF (A<B) X=A ELSE X=B}
>PLEASE REPLY TO MC.BER

Looks a lot like someone's working on a comp sci homework assignment. 

(Either that, or they're currently taking the exam and somehow
snuck a laptop and thinwire link in...)

mdw
From: gothick@dcs.warwick.ac.uk (Matthew B. M. Gibson)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Phone number delete (was: You know you've been hacking too long...)
Date: 22 Nov 92 15:31:42 GMT
Organization: Department of Computer Science, Warwick University, England

johnv@acix.DIALix.oz.au (John Verhoeven) writes:

>Telecom Australia (The local phone company) was selling these horrrible
>things called OPD's (the "OPD" stood for One Per Desk).  It was a
>combined phone & computer using Sinclair micro floppies based on the
>Sinclair QL I think.

>They started off at some some fantastic price in the 1000s of Aussie
>dollars.

>Nowdays you're unlucky if you can find one.

Well, a friend of mine found one in a skip a little while back, took it
home and it worked first time (maybe I should put this in the 'toughest 
computers' thread...)  They use it as an answerphone - the thing even
has a programmable speech-synth outgoing message!

>I believe they were the equivalent of the Ford Edsel in terms of runaway
>sales success :-)

Still, they're cute if you're not trying to use them for anything serious...


Matt

>--

>John Verhoeven                        johnv@acix.DIALix.oz.au      _--_|\
>Treasurer, Amiga Developers           (ALT: johnv@DIALix.oz.au)   /      \
>Association of Western Australia      Phone: (+619) 478 1406      *_.--._/

-- 
 Matthew B. M. Gibson:
 gothick@dcs.warwick.ac.uk - mgibson@nyx.cs.du.edu -  csudo@csv.warwick.ac.uk
 "Great.  I'm a million miles from home, about to be killed, with a 
  gung-ho iguana who tells me to relax"
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: peter@NeoSoft.com (Peter da Silva)
Subject: Re: Don't you hate it when...
Organization: NeoSoft Communications Services -- (713) 684-5900
Date: Sun, 15 Nov 1992 13:32:19 GMT

In article <227311@zl2tnm.gen.nz> don@zl2tnm.gen.nz (Don Stokes) writes:
> Probably not.  But note <a> that the stupid thing had been told that it had 
> a VT100 on the end

What stupid thing are we talking about? UNIX doesn't know terminfo from
/dev/null. It's up to the application to handle that sort of thing. If you
were to specify what program (version/release/...) you were using to display
the man pages perhaps we could help.

Most System-V-ish systems use "more" to page man entries. "More" doesn't know
how to translate sequences of spaces and backspaces to control sequences. If
you have "less" installed, try setting "PAGER" in your environment to "less".
If it's not installed, FTP it. If "man" doesn't use "PAGER", try just piping
"man" output to "less".

If you can't figure that out by yourself, mind if I interview for your job?
-- 
Peter da Silva.  <peter@sugar.neosoft.com>.
 `-_-'   "Meglelted mr ma a farkasodat ?"
  'U`    "Zure otsoa besarkatu al duzu gaur?"
Das kann nicht mein Zimmer sein, denn ich atme kein Ammoniak.
From: kby@cco.caltech.edu (Kimo B. Yap)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: PDP ftp archive
Date: 24 Nov 1992 05:50:20 GMT
Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
NNTP-Posting-Host: alumni.caltech.edu

More details for the -10 side:
The main difference between a 1090 and a 1091 was that a 1090 had EXTERNAL
channels an memory whereas the 1091 had INTERNAL channels and memory.  A 1090
was (more easily) upgradeable to a 1099, TOPS-10 SMP (Symmetric Multiprocessing)
one of the best timeshare implementations of such (but I'm biased).
The largest SMP site was Union Carbide (Duane Winkler) with a 5-processor
SMP site.
You could get MOS external memory for a 1090 from Ampex.
A 1099 could be with 1095 processors if you wanted the double-sized cache.
I believe 105x systems were KA based, 107x systems were KI based, and 109x
systems were KL based.-kby (fomerly @kl1026.dec.enet.com)
From: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: command abbreviation
Date: 17 Nov 92 04:39:13 GMT
Reply-To: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Organization: Columbia University

In article <OKES.92Nov16125818@SunLab40.essex.ac.uk> okes@essex.ac.uk (Simon Oke) writes:
>In article <1992Nov13.190208.17876@cubic.com> hees@cubic.com (Phil Hees) writes:
>| In addition, the standard C library routines use the same ordering.
>| For example:
>|
>|       strcpy(dest, source);
>|
>Blurgh! This is one of the things about the libraries that I *HATE*.
>I find it much easier to remember "copy src (to) dest" than the other way.
>Makes programming a 68000 fun.

Bully for you.

>
>| I always use the (dest [,dest], src [,src]) ordering for my own function
>| calls, and really get locked into this mindset, to the point that I often
>| find myself checking the man page to reassure myself that I am using the
>| correct order for the cp (Unix) or copy (VMS, DOS) commands.
>|
>You are seriously deranged!

No, you are.  Let him use whatever way he can consistently remember.  I
could take you to task on the notion that just because you like copy
commands that go source -> destination doesn't make it "right" for any
other usage.

I started on systems that go the other way, such as TOPS10.  I seldom had to
copy files, so that incidental usage was implemented consistently with the
rest of the command structure, which seemed fine at the time going as
destination <- source.

More recently I wrote my own proprietary system for the PDP-8 (with the
help of others) and made all relevant commands go both ways.  You have to
use either < or > to make it clear which way you are using, unless there
is no destination in the command.  Thus, a typical assembly might look like:

PAL BIN<SRC    or
PAL SRC>BIN

Take your pick of what makes sense to you.

cjl
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: mcovingt@aisun3.ai.uga.edu (Michael Covington)
Subject: Re: Superstitions: power cycling, screen savers, surge suppressors
Organization: AI Programs, University of Georgia, Athens
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 03:17:42 GMT

In article <By4JM8.HKA@NeoSoft.com> peter@NeoSoft.com (Peter da Silva) writes:
>In article <By3EGq.Ko6@world.std.com> dpbsmith@world.std.com (Daniel P. B. Smith) writes:
>> Surge suppressors.  Again, I have to wonder why the manufacturers don't
>> design them in;
>
>Surge supressors are consumables. After they've suppressed a surge, they have
>to be replaced.

Also, if you want to have even a *slim* chance of intercepting a big
lightning strike, you have to do it in a separate box that is a few
feet down the cable from the box that the computer is in.

The idea is to keep the kilovolts *away* from the CPU.

As for screen savers, I use the Windows screen saver for privacy rather
than for screen saving.

-- 
:-  Michael A. Covington     internet mcovingt@uga.cc.uga.edu 
:-  Artificial Intelligence Programs       phone 706 542-0358
:-  The University of Georgia                fax 706 542-0349
:-  Athens, Georgia 30602-7415 U.S.A.     amateur radio N4TMI
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: jmpierce@whale.st.usm.edu (Jimmy Malcolm Pierce)
Subject: Re: Computer Superstition
Organization: University of Southern Mississippi
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 17:18:57 GMT

In article <1992Nov18.141324.29177@jussieu.fr> yunes@fructidor.ibp.fr (The Lord) writes:
>>We've all heard of common superstitions such as not walking under ladders 
>>and throwing salt over your left shoulder if you spill some, but are 
>>there any superstitions to do with computers?
>

   'If you let a computer illiterate play with your brand new home computer,
flames will shot out of the machine, melting the keyboard !'

     Thats the one I know about, Jim.

-- 
 Jim Pierce Bach. of Sci. in Applied Computer Science USM - Gulf Park Campus 
             jmpierce@whale.st.usm.edu  Disclaimer: Standard.
From: gdoherty@unix1.tcd.ie (Eru)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Help me sleep!
Keywords: Sleep, sleep, sleep, sheep, sleep.
Date: 16 Nov 92 22:53:21 GMT
Distribution: comp
Organization: Department of Computer Science, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland

In <Bxtq4A.FI7@mentor.cc.purdue.edu> kodak@mentor.cc.purdue.edu (Jason Balicki (KodaK)) writes:



>What are some of the methods that individuals use to "get things out" of their
>heads?

Easily done; Explain it to someone else so that they end up unable to
get it out of *their* heads.

	Gavin.(Who spent two months with the "Wombles" theme tune in his head)

>--Jason Balicki
>kodak@mentor.cc.purdue.edu
--
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                             "Huh?"
Gavin Doherty, Computer Science, Trinity College Dublin, gdoherty@unix1.tcd.ie
From: koos@kzdoos.hacktic.nl (koos van den hout)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: net.views - mainframe programmers in an open systems world
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 92 21:43:48 GMT
Organization: HIN / BBS Koos z'n Doos
NewsSoftware: Rnf 0.7b

person@plains.NoDak.edu (Brett G Person ) writes:

>>OK, then.  Has anyone ever researched in how much time is wasted
>>reading/posting news compared to what is gained from it?

Hmmm... we've just tried to cover the cost of getting the news to a person...

>Maybe companies need to start adopting news reading policies. 

The 'company' (university of Utrecht) were I work has a very simple policy :

news : got none
mailing lists : DON'T.

(notice the capitalisation!)

And since the site is really nice 'BITNETable', that last one is a PITA. Got
some of the better lists at home. Other lists can't be subbed from the home
address... (somebody@site.domain.domain seems to be totally different from
samebody@samesite.bitnet)

                                        Grtx. KH

/-- Koos van den Hout ----------------------------------------------- Sysop --\
| Student Computer Science (AKA HIO)       BBS Koos z'n Doos (+31-3402-36647) |
| Inter-: koos@kzdoos.hacktic.nl                 300..14400 MNP2-5,10,V42bis) |
| net   : vandenhout@ruumtc.tcu.ruu.nl          Fido: Sysop @ 2:500/101.11012 |
| Surfnet RUUMTC::VANDENHOUT                                                  |
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers