HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: johnv@acix.DIALix.oz.au (John Verhoeven)
Subject: Re: Phone number delete (was: You know you've been hacking too long...)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]
Date: 20 Nov 92 06:37:04 WST
Organization: ACix - Private UUCP Node, Cloverdale, Western Australia.

RICHARD@ttt.kth.se wrote:
> In article <1992Nov12.210731.15566@pollux.lu.se> magnus@thep.lu.se (Magnus Olsson) writes:
> >  It should of course be possible to make telephones that store the number
> >  being dialled in an internal memory, and don't actually dial it until
> >  you press a special "dial" key. In that case, it would be possible even
>
>   Oh, an "Enter" key!
>
> I can already see the announcement: "The latest in phones! With incorporated
> IBM-PC compatible computer and WordStar for editing the number!"

Too late...

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 unlucky if you can find one.

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

--

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

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: Tony.Duell@launchpad.unc.edu (Tony Duell)
Subject: Re: PDP ftp archive
Organization: University of North Carolina Extended Bulletin Board Service
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 21:42:17 GMT


Well, I'm still running a VT55 as the console on my PDP11/45. Thats the
Graphics model of the VT52 - it has the VT52 board set with an extra board
screwed to it. That is actually a Hex-heioght flip-chip styled board, but
alll external connections are made by soldered-on cacbles terminating in
0.1" spacing connectors, not by the edge connectors on the board. My VT55
also has the electrolytic printer, which I haven't got working yet.
 Last summer, I wire-wrapped a new backplane so that I could fit a VT11
board set into the PDP11/10, and thus build a GT40. Got lunar-lander to
run on that after a bit of hacking...
-tony 'PDP11 Hacker' Duell
ard@siva.bris.ac.uk

--
   The opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the University of
     North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Campus Office for Information
        Technology, or the Experimental Bulletin Board Service.
           internet:  laUNChpad.unc.edu or 152.2.22.80
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Don't you hate it when...
From: don@zl2tnm.gen.nz (Don Stokes)
Date: 15 Nov 92 21:06:37 GMT
Distribution: world
Organization: The Wolery

peter@NeoSoft.com (Peter da Silva) writes:

Who pulled your chain?  I think you've picked the wrong target Peter.  Or
failed to read back on the thread.  Or failed to read my .sig.  Or all three.

> 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.

Yeah, right.  From now on, when I buy a unix system, I'll leave out all the
utilities, because they're not part of "unix".  Great, now I've something 
slightly less useful than my pocket calculator.  A unix system is the sum of
its parts -- less parts is less unix.  Quibbling over it doesn't solve
anything.  

> 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?

Only if you can tell me where "unix" appears in my title.  I'm not paid to
understand unix. 

However, I do, and I'm perfectly aware of all you've so kindly (and
redundantly) pointed out.  It doesn't alter the fact that a part of a
standard "unix"* distribution does something sufficiently absurd that I
felt it worth pointing out as an object of deserved ridicule. 

Why do unix bigots _always_ say "that's not unix" when you point out a minor
absurdity as a figure of fun?  <sigh>


* IRIX, and I _did_ state that in an earlier post, although I don't know
  offhand _exactly_ which version, only that it's current.  (I don't actually
  care -- I don't use that machine much.)

--
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: redmond+@cs.cmu.edu (Redmond English)
Subject: HELP! Need kermit for WANG CS2200
Organization: School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 18:20:21 GMT



Hello,

  I've been asked to see if I can find kermit (or any other
communications program) that will allow a WANG CS2200 to 
exchange files with a PC-clone.


  I checked the columbia kermit archives, but they don't
list anything for WANG mainframes - any help would be
much appreciated!

                        Red/.
From: pt@geovision.gvc.com (Paul Tomblin)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: base -2 arithmetic (was: Re: Trinary)
Date: 17 Nov 92 14:18:33 GMT
Reply-To: pt@geovision.gvc.com
Organization: Not officially GeoVision Systems Inc., Ottawa, Ontario

exspes@gdr.bath.ac.uk (P E Smee) writes:
>In the referenced article, hees@cubic.com (Phil Hees) writes:
>>pete@minster.york.ac.uk writes:
>>>In article <3ug2TB6w165w@mertwig.UUCP> xyzzy@mertwig.UUCP (Daniel
>>>Drucker) writes:
>>>[signature claiming he's a genius]
>>[Comment that he's not a genius, and he's probably offending those who are]

>Close.  I'd claim that REAL (TM) geniuses *knew* COBOL, realised why
>they wished they didn't, and promptly forgot it, retaining only the  
>memory that they weren't supposed to learn it again.

Actually, I'd claim a real genius is someone who _doesn't_ post a claim that
a base `n' number system means that it uses the digits `0' through `n-1',
and that therefore base `-2' is impossible, as our budding boy genius did a
week or so ago.

I've made a few factual errors on the net myself, but at least I never did
them in a post with a sig claiming that I was a genius!

-- 
Paul Tomblin, pt@geovision.gvc.com
(This is not an official opinion of GeoVision Systems Inc.)
A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone
  -- Henry David Thoreau.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: Jeffrey Luszcz <jrl2@cornell.edu>
Subject: Re: What about a pdp-8? (was: value of a p
X-Xxdate: Tue, 17 Nov 92 00: 39:11 GMT
Nntp-Posting-User: jrl2@cornell.edu
Organization: Cornell University
X-Useragent: Nuntius v1.1.1d7
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 21:36:10 GMT

In article <1992Nov17.100426.20955@spectrum.xerox.com> Hugh J.E. Davies,
hdavies@rx.xerox.com writes:
>
>On which note, can you still buy an '11 from DEC???
>
>---
  From what I've heard you can still buy pdp-11 from DEc, I beleive they
sell
 2 Qbus and 1 Unibus pdp-11a still, (an 83 and 93?) I'm not sure on the
numbers
though,
   -Jeff
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: pt@geovision.gvc.com (Paul Tomblin)
Subject: Re: World's Toughest Computers
Reply-To: pt@geovision.gvc.com
Organization: Not officially GeoVision Systems Inc., Ottawa, Ontario
Date: Sat, 21 Nov 1992 21:49:54 GMT

pashley@sdcc13.ucsd.edu (Montykins) writes:

>It worked fine, except that the on/off switch was a little close to
>a live wire, which can be a shocking experience <rim shot>.

I thought we'd already done the "Worlds Toughest Computer Operators" thread?

-- 
Paul Tomblin, pt@geovision.gvc.com (Not an official statement of GVSI)
"All rights and all wrongs have long since blown away/For causes are ashes
where children lie slain/Yet the damed UDL and the cruel IRA/Will tomorrow go
murdering again" - Stan Rogers "The House of Orange"
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: kevind@pogo.wv.tek.com (Kevin Draz)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: HP Monitor models
Date: 18 Nov 92 09:24:06 GMT
Followup-To: alt.folklore.computers
Organization: Tektronix, Inc., Wilsonville,  OR.


In article <1992Nov12.172127.25913@rz.uni-karlsruhe.de> ib09@rz.uni-karlsruhe.de (Thomas) writes:
>Just noticed something very weird in an installation booklet for a
>HP monitor. It was for the models 1734C and 1734D (probably got the
>number wrong here), and stated that "1734C is sold in the northern
>hemisphere and 1734D in the southern hemisphere".
>
>I really can't think of an explanation for that... 

Has to do with the degauss coil.  The Earth's magnetic field is enough to
distort either very large or very high quality color displays.  When I sold
home electronics as a summer job one year, our 30 inch color TV's had a
small switch in the back for Northern or Southern hemispheres.  

Reminds me of the color monitor geometry & convergence calibration
procedures used for a Mac big-screen display company I once worked for.  The
procedure began with "1. Face East" (referring to the device).  I was sure
it was a joke, until it was explained to me that when the shadow mask is
parallel to the N-S magnetic field, it provides the most central skew of
adjustments point for an arbitrary position of usage in the field.

Reality is often stranger than fiction!

KD
-- 
----
kevind@pogo.wv.tek.com  | For most software publishers, quality is job 1.01.
Tektronix Color Printers|                            -- MacWeek Magazine
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: madden@deja-vu.aiss.uiuc.edu (Paul Q Madden)
Subject: Re: IBM and 3
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Sun, 22 Nov 1992 14:23:03 GMT

rebill01@ulkyvx.louisville.edu (Russell E. Billings) writes:

>In article <2=21ck@rpi.edu>, rogerj@aix.rpi.edu (Diversion (Jeff Rogers)) writes:
>> Is there something that IBM loves about the number 3? Didja ever notice how
>> alot of ibm equipment starts with the number 3? Like system 36, 360, 370,
>> 3090, 3270, etc. I'm sure people with more knowledge could give more
>> examples (someone just mentioned IBM disk drives that were numbered 33xx)

>The big number right now is the 85xx line.  Take a look at any PS/2 and you
>will see 8550 (mod50), 8580 (mod80), 8514 (16" XGA Monitor) and so on.  Also,
>take a close look at any IBM Proprinter, and you will see 420x.

Though i don't have one handy to check, wasn't the original PC
model number 5150? I'd call that a pretty successful line.

Cheers,
paul

-- 
------| paul madden | pmadden@uiuc.edu | po box 2827 champaign il 61825 |------
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: boebert@sctc.com (Earl Boebert)
Subject: Re: Ackermann's function
Keywords: Ackermann's function, recursion, primitive-recursive, FORTRAN, COBOL
Organization: SCTC
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 21:18:17 GMT

chapman@cs.cornell.edu (Richard Chapman) writes:

>ken@us.oracle.com (Ken C. Stewart) writes:

>>Can anyone remind me (ahem) of the definition of Ackermann's function (a pair
>>of mutually-recursive functions I think?)?  

>The Ackermann function: 

>	f(0,y)  = y + 1
>	f(x+1,0) = f(x,1)
>	f(x+1,y+1) = f(x,f(x+1,y))

[exchange on recursion deleted]

>While recursion is not allowed in FORTRAN, you can implement it
>yourself in a FORTRAN program by explicitly implementing a stack and
>handling it all yourself. Now, whether or not FORTRAN has recursion
>has little to do with the expressive power of the language; since
>on-line storage and memory are finite, the most you can implement in
>any language on any computer is a function that could be implemented by
>a finite-state automaton (which is a far smaller class than the Turing
>computable functions). However, barring the finite memory limit. If
>you assume you have infinite memory size, and each location can hold
>an arbitrarily large integer, all you need to implement all the
>computable functions are: load a memory location with zero, increment
>contents of a memory location, conditional jump, and transfer contents of one
>memory location to another. All these are operations which FORTRAN and
>COBOL are both capable of.


From CACM 8:2, February 1965:


INTEGER FUNCTION ACKER(M,N)

C COMPUTE ACKERMANN'S FUNCTION, DEFINED BY
C ACKER(0,N) = N+1
C ACKER(M+1,0) = ACKER(M,1)
C ACKER(M+1,N+1) = ACKER(M,(ACKER(M+1,N))
C SIZE OF VALUE AND PLACE TABLES IS ONE MORE THAN LARGEST M EXPECTED

INTEGER VALUE(6), PLACE(6)

C TEST FOR ZERO M

IF (M .NE. 0) GO TO 1
ACKER = N+1
RETURN

C NON-ZERO M, INITIALIZE FOR ITERATION

1 VALUE = 1
PLACE = 0

C ITERATION LOOP, GET NEW VALUE

2 VALUE = VALUE+1
PLACE = PLACE+1

C PROPAGATE VALUE

DO 4 I=1,M
IF (PLACE(I) .NE. 1) GO TO 3

C INITIATE NEW LEVEL

VALUE(I+1) = VALUE
PLACE(I+1) = 0
IF (I .EQ. M) GO TO 5
GO TO 2

3 IF (PLACE(I+1) .NE VALUE(I+1)) GO TO 2
VALUE(I+1) = VALUE

4 PLACE(I+1) = PLACE(I+1)+1

C CHECK FOR END OF ITERATION

5 IF (PLACE(M+1) .NE. N) GO TO 2
ACKER = VALUE
RETURN
END

Written by H. Gordon Rice, one of the founders of Computer Sciences
Corp. He noted with satisfaction that computing ACKER (5,0) = 65,533
required less than 10 seconds on a Univac 1107.  And yes, people used
to write stuff like that above for a living :-)

Earl
From: cchd@lucifer.latrobe.edu.au (Huw Davies)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: HP Monitor models
Date: 19 Nov 92 03:11:26 GMT
Organization: La Trobe University

In article <184253@pyramid.pyramid.com> lstowell@pyrnova.pyramid.com (Lon Stowell) writes:
>In article <1992Nov12.172127.25913@rz.uni-karlsruhe.de> ib09@rz.uni-karlsruhe.de (Thomas) writes:
>>Just noticed something very weird in an installation booklet for a
>>HP monitor. It was for the models 1734C and 1734D (probably got the
>>number wrong here), and stated that "1734C is sold in the northern
>>hemisphere and 1734D in the southern hemisphere".
>>
>>I really can't think of an explanation for that... 
>
>   o  The Coriolis force on the electrons is sufficient to distort
>      display?

No.

>   o  The different orientation of the earth's magnetic field is
>      sufficient to distort the display?

Yes.

-- 
  Huw Davies           | Huw.Davies@latrobe.edu.au
  Computing Services   | Phone: +61 3 479 1500   Fax: +61 3 479 1999
  La Trobe University  | I own an Alfa to keep me poor in a monetary
  Melbourne Australia  | sense, but rich in so many other ways
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: pt@geovision.gvc.com (Paul Tomblin)
Subject: Re: Need Intel 8080A emulator, Interact info.
Reply-To: pt@geovision.gvc.com
Organization: Not officially GeoVision Systems Inc., Ottawa, Ontario
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 14:31:31 GMT

xyzzy@mertwig.UUCP (Daniel Drucker) writes:

>How about a Commodore 64 Emulator? Is such a thing possible, or are the 
>disks too different? I'd like to run Commodore software on my MS-DOS 
>(don't laugh, I have to use it) machine.

The disk formats are too different, from what I've been told.  (Commode was
about the only company out there that used MFM encoding).  One thing I
thought of once, but never did, was to get an IEEE-488 (AKA HP-IB) card for
my PClone, and try sending commands to my old Commodore 2031 disk drive.
Fortunately, I didn't have enough important data on my C=64 to make that
worth it.  Instead, I borrowed an RS-232 card/cable for my C=64, and
null-modem'ed everything over.

Ah - good old `Batteries Included': They made a thing called the `Bus Card',
that plugged into the cartridge slot, and allowed me to use Pet peripherals
(IEEE-488 parallel bus) and a generic printer (Centronics parallel port) on
my C=64, plus gave me BASIC 4.0, so I didn't have to mess around with sending
commands to port 15, and all that crap.  (I never used a 1541 disk drive,
except when I wanted to prove to a friend that my 2031 was at least 4 times
faster)

They also made a cable that plugged into the `User Port' and had the smarts
in it to make it into an RS-232C port.

Too bad they decided to concentrate on writing word processors instead of
making nifty hardware hacks.

-- 
Paul Tomblin, pt@geovision.gvc.com
(This is not an official opinion/statement of GeoVision Systems Inc.)
"AIX: It'll remind you of UNIX" - Geoff Collyer.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: yunes@fructidor.ibp.fr (The Lord)
Subject: Re: Computer Superstition
Organization: UFR d'Informatique - Universite PARIS 7
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 14:13:24 GMT

>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?

Never walk on CPU board nor throw water onto the POWER supply...

-- 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You jump in front of my car when you know all the time    | Yunes Jean-Baptiste
Ninety miles an hour girl, is the speed I drive.          | LITP
You tell me it's all right, You don't mind a little pain, | IBP
You say you just want me to take you for a ride.          | Universite Paris 7
                                                          | 2, Place Jussieu
You're just like,                                         | 75251 Paris cedex 5
Crosstown traffic, So hard to get through to you,         | France
Crosstown traffic, I don't need to run over you,          | Tel: 44.27.28.40
Crosstown traffic, All you do is slow me down,            |
And I'm tryin' to get on the other side of town.          | yunes@litp.ibp.fr
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: mschenk@research.ptt.nl (Mike Schenk +31 70 33 23926)
Subject: RE: COMPUTER SUPERSTITION
Organization: PTT Research
Date: Sun, 22 Nov 1992 08:59:59 GMT

In article <2391.738.uupcb@freddy.ersys.edmonton.ab.ca>, jerome.yuzyk@freddy.ersys.edmonton.ab.ca (Jerome Yuzyk)  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 a command sequence doesn't work the first time, typing it HARDER will
>   work for subsequent attempts.
>  
>   The machine understands when a command line is complete (and user sits
>   staring at command line instead of pressing [Enter])

Something similar  but not really superstition is that I always 
seem to attract the bugs in a system. And not just with computers 
but with everything. But with computers it is the most obvious. I 
always complain about bugs or funny things which my colleagues 
have never encountered.

    Mike
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: dp@world.std.com (Jeff DelPapa)
Subject: Re: Wanted: Altair 800 or Imsai 8080 and Modem
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 06:14:25 GMT

In article <BxqFnI.D4M@undergrad.math.waterloo.edu> dagbrown@napier.uwaterloo.ca (Dave Brown) writes:
>In article <1992Nov12.055704.11469@fcom.cc.utah.edu> bcc@lanai.Eyring.COM (Brian Cooper) writes:
>>Of course, other baud rates in those early boxes were 75, 110, and 150.
>>Working at 110 baud would make you very tired, very quickly.  I think that
>>110 was what was meant above, not 100 baud.
>
>Yeah, but why 110 baud, of all baud rates? (Is this a bit like
>the 6250bpi on a tape thread a while back?)  Why even _bother_ with
>it?
>
>
>-- 
>Dave Brown
>dagbrown@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca
>Phone: (519) 438-0530
>"What God want, God gets.  God help us all."  --Roger Waters

It was 10 CPS - 8 data bits, 1 start bit, *2* stop bits, 11 bits/char
yielded 110 baud... (and I remember some later models that used 1.5
stop bits.. 75 baud was a holdover from the Baudot days)
<dp>

Xref: sparky alt.folklore.computers:16263 alt.folklore.urban:28626 talk.bizarre:38175
From: bd@fluent@dartmouth.EDU (Brice Dowaliby)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,alt.folklore.urban,talk.bizarre
Subject: Re: Jackpotting ATMs for $$$$
Date: 15 Nov 92 14:12:24 GMT
Reply-To: bd%fluent@dartmouth.EDU
Distribution: usa
Organization: Fluent Inc., Lebanon NH

kodak@mentor.cc.purdue.edu (Jason Balicki (KodaK)) writes:

>In article <9211112318.18@rmkhome.UUCP> rmk@rmkhome.UUCP (Rick Kelly) writes:
>>In article <1992Nov11.183645.15704@tc.cornell.edu> mdw@theory.TC.Cornell.EDU (Matt Welsh) writes:
>>>In article <Mf0=nre00iUx8=Zlc8@andrew.cmu.edu> Samuel Roy Helwig <sh4j+@andrew.cmu.edu> writes:
>>>>    ATM == Automatic Teller Machine
>>>>                --Sam
>>>Why, thank you Sam. I'm glad you cleared that up for us all.
>
>>And all along I thought it stood for:
>
>>	Atonally Tormented Mustard
>
>>Rick Kelly	rmk@rmkhome.UUCP	unixland!rmkhome!rmk	rmk@frog.UUCP
>
>Hmmm.  Every time I step up to one I feel like I'm being ripped off by the
>Atrocious Testicle Masher.

Jason, you're standing too close to the machine...
-- 
   Brice Dowaliby, Fluent Inc., 10 Cavendish Court, Lebanon, NH  03766
                         bd%fluent@dartmouth.edu        
             I don't speak for them, they don't speak for me
                              DoD # 0698
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Subject: Re: ASSEMBLY LANGUAGE IBM
Reply-To: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Organization: Columbia University
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 05:03:27 GMT

In article <1992Nov18.203029.18985@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu> jgriffit@nyx.cs.du.edu (Jonathan Griffitts) writes:
>lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner) writes:
>>                                                           As someone posted
>>earlier, the binary of any program from the beginning will run on each and
>>every model.  This assumes that the implied O/S functions are present, as
>
>Actually, this is not strictly true.
>
>Counterexample:  the 360 model 20, which implemented only a subset of the
>360 instruction set.  As I recall, it did not support fullword operations
>(halfword only), nor packed BCD memory-to-memory stuff, nor other 'fancy'
>operations.  It was basically just a 16-bit minicomputer instruction set.
>
>As far as I know, though, it WAS upward compatible to the other 360s.
>

A weak example though, because it was around early on, and known to be
incompatible with the rest of the models as you stated.  The argument is
that *newer* models are compatible, not existent older incompatible machines
that masquerade as compatible due to their name.  Had 360/20 been brought
out much later, you would have a point, but since it was not a follow-on
product in the sense we mean here, it doesn't change anything.

I believe it was the Interdata model 1, but some machine was introduced in
the early '70's.  An early program written for it was a binary-compatible
360/20 simulator.  The programmers admitted that what they did was a 
quick and dirty program, yet it ran *faster* as such than the actual 36/20!

cjl
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers