HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: adam@owlnet.rice.edu (Adam Justin Thornton)
Subject: Re: What one-liner, joke, saying would you like to see on a T-shirt
Organization: Milo's Meadow
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1993 21:48:38 GMT

In article <73925@cup.portal.com> sunday@cup.portal.com (Sunday and Associates) writes:
>>	We are preparing a commercial release of T-shirts intended for
>>the Usenet civilization and related societies. We would like to solicit
>>your thoughts about what *saying*, slogan, one-liner, joke (including
>>visual) you would like to see on a t-shirt. 
>>	Remember there is a front and a back to any shirt.
>>	If something you suggest is used we'd make a contribution to a
>>charity of your choice.

"finger me; I have a .plan"

Adam
-- 
"And in the heartbreak years that lie ahead, |++| adam@rice.edu |++| Cthulhu
 Be true to yourself and the Grateful Dead." --Joan Baez  | 64,928 | fthagn!
"Very often, a common stone, thrown away and despised, is worth more than
 a cow." -- Paracelsus | If these were Rice's opinions I'd shoot myself.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: vanroy@prl.dec.com (Peter Van Roy)
Subject: The Addiator
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation - Paris Research Laboratory
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1993 15:34:42 GMT

I managed to get one of those ancient devices that lets you do
addition/subtraction.  It's a rectangle about 11x17x0.5cm, with
10 long thin slots on each side.  Each slot is for a digit, and
one can stick a pointed object (like a pen) in the slot to enter
numbers and do addition by sliding an internal bar up and down.
One side is for addition, the other for subtraction.  It has a bar
on top that you pull out to clear all digits to zero.

The thing is rather well engineered, with a solid feel to it,
well-oiled so the internal sliders move smoothly.

I got it from my grandfather.  I guess it was manufactured
sometime in the first half of this century.

Does someone know more details about this?  Such as, who is the
manufacturer, what years were these things built, is the
manufacturer still in business (maybe they make slide rules
now :-)?  Where can I get more information about it?  I remember
finding cheaper versions of these devices in the 70's in Toys 'R' Us.
But the Addiator is the REAL THING and I presume people really used
them in their daily work.

Thanks much,

Peter

----------------------------------------------------------------
Peter Van Roy
Digital Equipment Corporation          Net: vanroy@prl.dec.com
Paris Research Laboratory              Tel: (33) (1) 47 14 28 65
85, avenue Victor Hugo                 Fax: (33) (1) 47 14 28 99
92500 Rueil-Malmaison Cedex           Home: (33) (1) 30 61 41 29
France
----------------------------------------------------------------
From: alecm@coyote.uk.sun.com (Alec Muffett - Sun IS -  System Administrator)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Vestiges of FORTRAN, Memes and Syntax
Date: 28 Jan 1993 14:18:07 GMT
Organization: Sun Microsystems (UK) Ltd
Distribution: world
Reply-To: alecm@coyote.uk.sun.com
NNTP-Posting-Host: coyote.uk.sun.com

In article 62941@qut.edu.au,  fisher@qut.edu.au writes:
>The evidence must favour mathematical custom as I did maths long before
>computer languages existed and the convention then was the start of the
>alphabet (a,b,c,..) for constants, end of the alphabet (..,x,y,z) for
>variables and middle (i,j,k..) for summation indexes. 

I'm not arguing with you about "which came first" - I'm arguing "which
propagated the convention most amongst computer programmers...". I'd
have to be crazy(ier) to argue with you about the former.

Spot the difference ?

>However if you are going to insist on the custom stemming from a 
>computer language, 

Ooooohhh... throwing down the gauntlet, eh? "if you are going to insist..."  

-  a classic opening move for a flame war... read it as "listen you
ignorant moron, rave on if it'll make you feel any better, but..." and
you can almost taste the flame-grilled programmer... 8-)

>it was not originated by Fortran. A language called 
>Mercury Auto Code used on the Mercury long predated Fortran and 
>had the convention that integers began with I,J,K etc. The range was not 
>the same as Fortran. I think it began with I but ended with something 
>other than N.

Now, this _is_ interesing, and the right sort of topic for discussion.
Is the language documented anywhere ?

---
Alec Muffett (alec.muffett@sun.co.uk) Sun Microsystems IR, Bagshot, Surrey, UK
                         #include <stddisclaimer.h>
From: torbenm@diku.dk (Torben AEgidius Mogensen)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: VIC-20 returns!
Date: 21 Jan 93 12:36:25 GMT
Organization: Department of Computer Science, U of Copenhagen

terjej@edb.tih.no (Terje Johansen,o90b) writes:

>As a joke and as a remembrance of my first computer-days,
>I bought a VIC-20 with a cassette-player yesterday.
>Any ideas what I can use it for, except for doorstop and to scare 
>the shit out of future grandchildren?

>Hell, humorous suggestions will also be appreciated - just remember
>that with 3.5k Ram there are SOME limits to what can be done...

You can try to port SML of New Jersey to it ;-).
- Oh. It was 3.5 Kilo-byte, not 3.5 Mega-byte ;-).
(As if 3.5MB would be enough :-\ ).

You can try to build a really powerful micro system into the cabinet
and scare the hell out of computer people.

	Torben Mogensen (torbenm@diku.dk)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: oxenreid@chaos.cs.umn.edu ()
Subject: Re: What one-liner, joke, saying would you like to see on a T-shirt
Organization: University of Minnesota
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1993 19:08:14 GMT

How about 

Front: "Looking for X?"
Back: "Ask me!"
From: daniel@mertwig.uucp (Daniel Drucker)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: You know you've been playing games too long when...
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 93 13:41:12 EST
Reply-To: daniel%mertwig@uunet.uu.net  (Daniel Drucker)
Organization: Abnormalities of Reality

frankj@ifi.uio.no (Frank Tore Johansen) writes:

> >> EPILEPSY WARNING: READ BEFORE USING YOUR NES OR SUPER NES
> >> Consult your physician if you experience any of the following symptoms whi
> >> playing video games: altered vision, muscle twitching, other involuntary
> >> movements, loss of awareness of your surroundings, mental confusion, and/o
> >> convulsions.
> >
> >Of course, the search for most of these conditions are among the _goals_ of
> >video game players....

And designers...



--
Daniel Drucker        N2SXX | The number PI (3.14...) and all included
daniel%mertwig@uunet.uu.net | digits are (C) 1993 by BigCorp, and use
                            | without written consent is prohibited.

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.sys.unisys
From: dpbsmith@world.std.com (Daniel P. B. Smith)
Subject: Re: HISTORY OF WORD PROCESSING
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
Date: Thu, 28 Jan 1993 01:25:05 GMT

wex@bigmax.ulowell.edu

>Can anybody date WordStar (no jokes please) I know the original
>was done by J. R. Barnaby on an Imsai (I think) but don't
>remember when; surely the first PC Word Processing Program.

Hmmm... an Imsai?  I wonder.  The first microcomputer word processor I
ever heard about was Electric Pencil. "Fire in the Valley" attributes
it to Michael Shrayer and dates it at 1976.

By golly, "Fire in the Valley" says that Seymour Rubinstein left IMSAI
to found MicroPro, and its first products were SuperSort and WordMaster,
by "Rob Barnaby."  "The second was a text editor that Barnaby had begun
working on while still at IMSAI."  The release date for Word Master
seems to be September 1978 but it seems to have been just a text editor;
"MicroPro was inundated with requests for a word processor like
Electric Pencil.  WordStar was the elaboration of WordMaster into an
actual word processor."  They indicated it was released in mid-1979.

EasyWriter for the Apple ][ was another early product.  Fire in the Valley
doesn't seem to have a date, but it was roughly contemporary with WordStar.

The first word processor for the IBM PC was definitely EasyWriter.  It was
one of the product actually marketed by IBM, along with PC-DOS and 
Visicalc.  WordStar was distinctly later.

I remember an article or letter or something by Steve Wozniak, in
Softalk I think, probably circa 1980, in which he complains bitterly about
having tried all the [native-mode] word processors available for the Apple ][
and not finding any of them much good.  "You have to go to CP/M [i.e. WordStar]
and that makes me mad."  Peeling rated all the Apple WP programs at the time
and said, of WordStar, "this is the blow-away program."  They recommended
it despite its high cost and the need to buy a Microsoft SoftCard add-in
to enable the Apple to run CP/M.

-- 
Daniel P. B. Smith
dpbsmith@world.std.com
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: saddler@bcstec.ca.boeing.com (Ray, just Ray)
Subject: Re: What one-liner, joke, saying would you like to see on a T-shirt
Organization: Boeing Computer Services Northwest Operations
Distribution: usa
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1993 01:57:29 GMT

sunday@cup.portal.com (Sunday and Associates) writes:
>	We are preparing a commercial release of T-shirts intended for
>the Usenet civilization and related societies.

Cool!

>	If something you suggest is used we'd make a contribution to a
>charity of your choice.

Aids research.

Altho not gut-busters, here's a start:

- Visualize Whirlled Peas  <-- I'd buy that one!
- You have new mail.
- $rm -r /
- /earth is 98% full, please delete anyone you can

-- 
Ray E. Saddler III             ___ ___ ___ ___     ___  "they say Confucius
P.O. Box 24346 M/S 2L-21      /__//  //__  /  /\ //  _   does his crossword
Seattle, WA  98124-0346 USA  /__//__//__ _/_ /  //__/    with a pen"   Tori
saddler@bcstec.ca.boeing.com    Computer Services       "Hello Earth!" KaTe
From: dcampbel@neumann.une.edu.au (King Arthur)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: You REALLY know when you've been playing games too long....
Date: 27 Jan 93 04:30:08 GMT

What about when you've been playing Moria for months on end and all those
nasty letters that have been chasing you around and around and around start
to take on a greater meaning. There is no way I am going to start a 
sentence with the letter...umm...err..second letter of the alphabet!
That nasty balrog is out there waaiting to get me, so when you send in
your articles please be kind. No capital b's please!

King Arthur
(aka Killer beetle, Icky thing, Naga, Golem     Ant lion, Rodent, Tick, Harpy,
u, Rodent).
From: samuel@front.se
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: You know you've been playing games too long when...
Date: 25 Jan 93 02:35:05 MET
Distribution: world
Organization: Samuel Gustaf Siren

In article <1993Jan25.103136.186@actew.oz.au>, ina_craig@actew.oz.au (Craig 
Alexander) writes:

> I have heard stories of the game Tetris affecting people like this but much
> more severely. Some people have said that they have gotten to the stage where
> they can play tetris in their heads without needing a computer. 

I have heard about a fellow who was putting suitcases in the trunk of his
car. When his companion asked "How do you expect to fit all those big 
suitcases in that small trunk ?", his answer was "That's no problem, 
you just pack them like this, and when the bottom level is filled it 
will just...".
/SS
-- 
All opinions and questions are my own ! /SS
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: khill@leven.appcomp.utas.edu.au (Katrina Hill)
Subject: Re: You know you've been playing games too long when...
Organization: University of Tasmania at Launceston
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 93 06:08:53 GMT

In article <1k3n18INNt4h@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov>, urban@sideshow.jpl.nasa.gov (Michael P Urban) writes:
>
>I have found that several hours of doing _anything_ with a high level of
>repetitious sensory input -- pinball, playing Tetris, or Spider, or even
>performing at the local Renaissance Faire, where the input is a lot
>more varied, will `resonate' on the old brain-cells long after the
>stimulation has ceased.  For me, two or three aspirins will deaden
>this effect sufficiently to permit deep sleep; others have reported
>good results with Tylenol as well.
>
	This was also big in Australia this morning, apparently it causes
	epileptic siezures in those people who suffer the form of epilepsy
	the makes them react to any flickering lights ie like strobe...
	i have a brain damaged epileptic cousin and he isn't allowed to 
	play computer games for long periods of time, but he has siezures
	a lot.

	A doctor this morning was sort of "basically" [i'm no authority]
	saying it MAY happens to 1 in 10 epileptics. The journalists were the
	panicy kind and wanted to know the general "should we burn them in a 
	big pile or not?" questions that go with this type of issue.

	Aussie journo's tend to over simplify what they do not know!!

	Kat
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: phr@telebit.com (Paul Rubin)
Subject: Re: Vestiges of FORTRAN, Memes and Syntax (Was: Re: i is for iteration)
Organization: Telebit Corporation; Sunnyvale, CA, USA
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1993 08:28:51 GMT

In article <1jgvadINN5ir@uk-news.uk.sun.com> alecm@coyote.uk.sun.com (Alec Muffett - Sun IS -  System Administrator) writes:


   >Does anyone know the circumstances that surround "i" being adopted as
   >the most common name for a variable in a loop, "for(i = 0; i < 10;
   >i++)" and so on. Is it simply becuase it is the first letter of
   >"iterate" or do the reasons run deeper than that?

   I believe (definitely the case in my instance) that it's from FORTRAN.

   Since any variable with a name starting with a letter in the range
   [I-N] was automatically INteger, without having to undergo formal
   declaration, you could safely:

	   DO 30, I=1,10
   C	-WHATEVER-
   30	CONTINUE

   Hence "I" was the easiest integer "scratch variable" name that you
   could use as a name in a DO loop...

   It therefore follows why "J" is the usually the next most common
   loop-variable name (when iterating within an outer loop), and why
   people rarely chose scratch variable names in the ranges [A-HO-W].
   Variables X, Y, and Z were (are?) rarely used for anything other than
   cartesian coordinates, for obvious reasons...

Come on.  FORTRAN in turn inherited the convention from traditional
mathematical usage that goes back for centuries.  Let n be a positive
integer...
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: thayne@unislc.uucp (Thayne Forbes)
Subject: YKYBHTLW
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]
Summary: You know you've been hacking too long when
Organization: HomeVax
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1993 18:04:06 GMT

I don't know if anyone mentioned this last time but...
You know you've been hacking too long when you can remember your
ethernet (not ip) address.  I was tweaking a config file this
morning, and I was rather distressed when I was able to remember
that mine is 00 AA 00 02 98 50.  I think I will go home now and
take an asprin.

-- 
Thayne Forbes         thayne@unislc.slc.unisys.com
Unisys Unix Support Engineering,    Salt Lake City.
From: koos@kzdoos.hacktic.nl (Koos van den Hout)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Common FORTRAN bug (Was Re: i is for iteration)
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 93 23:15:27 GMT+2
Organization: HIN / BBS Koos z'n Doos
NewsSoftware: Rnf 0.73b

samuel@front.se writes:

>> Yes, and the shortest way to write losing FORTRAN code was (still is :-)
>> 
>>       DO 10 I=1.10
>>       ...
>>   10  CONTINUE
>
>Yes, this example is well known. It is said that a [unmanned] USA
>spacecraft crashed on Mars back in the 60's or 70's because of such a
>bug. Does anybody know if this is a true story ? 

I located this story in 'Software engineering' from 'J.C. van Vliet' (Dutch
book).

According to this book the rocket should go to Venus but never got there,
and the code should have been :

DO 100 I = 1,3

and was programmed as :

DO 100 I = 1.3

But the book doesn't mention any sources for this story (and the rest of
the book is overloaded with literature references...)

                                        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   : kvdhout@hut.nl                        Fido: Sysop @ 2:500/101.11012 |
| Schurftnet : KILL !!!                    (We want callers!!!)               |
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: dnichols@d-and-d.com (DoN. Nichols)
Subject: Re: What one-liner, joke, saying would you like to see on a T-shirt
Organization: D and D Data, Vienna VA
Date: Fri, 29 Jan 1993 02:47:50 GMT

In article <JSC.93Jan27210333@scorch.doc.ic.ac.uk> jsc@doc.ic.ac.uk (Stephen Crane) writes:
>/*
> * you are not expected to understand this
> */
>(So sue me AT & T)

	Do you want the "(So sue me" part in the T-shirt too?  I think it
belongs. :-)


-- 
 Email:   <dnichols@d-and-d.com>  |  ...!uunet!ceilidh!dnichols 
		 <dnichols@ceilidh.beartrack.com>
 Donald Nichols (DoN.)  |   Voice (Days): (703) 704-2280 (Eves): (703) 938-4564
	--- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero ---
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.lang.misc
From: dbrooks@osf.org (David Brooks)
Subject: Re: BCPL
Reply-To: dbrooks@osf.org (David Brooks)
Organization: Open Software Foundation
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1993 18:46:03 GMT

stephen@acm.org writes:
>|No; in C, a pointer always knows what type it is pointing to, so "add 1"
>|is actually compiled as "add sizeof base type".  In BCPL, there is not
>|necessarily any information around at compile time as to what the
>|programmer had in mind for this variable; all variables are declared
>|without type.  "Add 1" always has to do just that.
>
>You are forgetting that there is a compiler. A compiler is under no
>compulsion to do what you THINK it's going to do, so long as the effect
>is the same. Two sensible BCPL compilation techniques (with similar
>results) would be, (a) to recover the type information by analysis (as
>is done in modern lisp and OO compilers) and compile the same code as C
>would (inserting casts, of course, if there are any effective puns); or
>(b) propagate all the addressing shifts upstream in the hope that they
>"top out" against constants, effectively generating the same code again.

Well, I don't want to get into a pointless argument about a virtually
obsolete :-( language.  I'll just point out that BCPL features (a) separate
compilation and (b) no type declarations.  So a procedure parameter's
actual type is not necessarily known at thetime of compilation.

Absent a very smart object format and linker, there is no way to recover
the type information in the way you suggest.
-- 
David Brooks					dbrooks@osf.org
Open Software Foundation			uunet!osf.org!dbrooks
Shine out, fair sun, with all your heat!  Black winter freezes to his seat...
The boneless fish close quaking lies...the stars in icicles arise!
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.lang.misc
From: tcrook@u.cc.utah.edu (Tom Crook)
Subject: Jovial J3B
Organization: University of Utah Computer Center Student Mail Machine
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 93 14:17:45 GMT

I originally posted this in comp.ada.  I was told that
alt.folklore.computers and comp.lang.misc might be good places to post
it also.

I am looking for contacts of people or companies that might have
knowledge or availability of Jovial J3B compilers.  Note that Jovial
J3B is an earlier version of the Jovial language.  Lots of avionics
and other embedded systems use the more common Jovial J73, but J3B is
harder to find.  The place where I work when I'm not being a student
has to maintain F-16 A/B software.  The old SofTech compiler we have
only runs on IBM VM/CMS release 4 and IBM OS.  We need to try and find
one that would run under newer IBM VM releases or even on other
platforms such as VAX/VMS or Unix.

Even rumors might be useful at this point.  We've exhausted all leads
such as the Ada/JUG newsletter.  If you know someone who worked on J3B
compilers years ago, let me know.

Thanks
-- 
 /~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~/
 | Thomas Crook                  He that hath no beard is less than a man   |
 | tcrook@u.cc.utah.edu                            --William Shakespeare    |
/__________________________________________________________________________/
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: jfe@alchemy.TN.Cornell.EDU (Brian Chung)
Subject: Re: You know you've been playing games too long when...
Organization: Cornell Theory Center
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1993 04:53:35 GMT

>>
>>>I have heard stories of the game Tetris affecting people like this but much
>>>more severely. Some people have said that they have gotten to the stage where
>>>they can play tetris in their heads without needing a computer. 
>>
>>
	It's worse that that in Cornell.  Hundreds if not thousands of
students have reported having Tetris dreams after getting addicted.  >
>
>


-- 
T. H. Brian Chung               | Happiness is...
jfe@alchemy.tn.cornell.edu      | "Tea, Earl Grey, hot."
jfe@cornella.bitnet             | 210 Lake St. Apt. 11-A
CESR10::THC                     | Ithaca, NY 14850
From: jarnot@kin.lap.upenn.edu (Kevin J. Jarnot)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: hacker language articles
Date: 23 Jan 93 23:25:07 GMT
Organization: University of Pennsylvania, Language Analysis Center

In article <93021.155838JIM@UCF1VM.BITNET> JIM@UCF1VM.BITNET (Jim Ennis) writes:
>  I am trying to assist a friend in writing a paper about the history of
> computer hacker/user language.  I have a copy of the Jargon file and
> a couple of the book references from the end of the file.  I am looking
> for any suggested magazine articles which the net might know of which
> describes instances of hacker language or how the language came about.


Try Stephen Levy's "Hackers" and Karla Jenning's "The Devouring
Fungus".  Both have sections of the origins of hackerspeak.



Kevin

-- 
Kevin J. Jarnot (jarnot@kin.lap.upenn.edu)      | "The monkey-boys are evil - 
Lead Programmer/Analyst/Keyboardist             | Lord Whorfin is supreme..."
Univ. of Pennsylvania Language Analysis Center  |  
3700 Market St, Suite 202  Phila, PA 19104      |       "Vita Non Jerk"
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,misc.wanted
From: john
Subject: Wanted: HAKMEM
Organization: U of G in A
Date: Sun, 24 Jan 1993 05:08:15 GMT

I'm trying to get a copy of HAKMEM (MIT-AIM 239).  If I get it
d'reckly from MIT through an inter-library loan it'll cost me
about 30 bucks!  I was hopin' I could find a copy somewhere else
that might be a little cheaper.  I would prefer a double-sided
copy if possible.

Also I'm looking for a copy of "Software Wars" by Mark Crispin.

If anyone has any info on either of these I'd greatly appreciate it.

Thanks,
 john

jball@athena.cs.uga.edu
From: wbdst+@pitt.edu (William B Dwinnell)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: You know you've been playing games too long when...
Keywords: lemmings games
Date: 24 Jan 93 12:29:18 GMT
Organization: University of Pittsburgh


   You know you've been playing games too long when...
...you keep a gaxx glass of water and a sponge nearby, to keep your 
eyes wet!
From: dudek@acsu.buffalo.edu (The Cybard=)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: You know you've been playing games too long when...
Date: 26 Jan 93 18:55:52 GMT
Organization: UB

...you dream in 640x480x256 VGA!


-- 
David Thomas Dudek /  v098pwxs@ubvms.bitnet     \     __   _ The Cybard
 State University / dudek@sun.acsu.buffalo.edu   \   /  `-' )      ,,, 
   of New York   / "If music be the food of love, \  | | ()|||||||[:::}
    @ Buffalo   /   play on!" - Wm. Shakespeare    \ `__.-._)      '''