HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: lybrand@VNET.IBM.COM (David Lybrand)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.pen
Subject: PenPoint slow to wake on NCR 3125 ?
Date: 28 Aug 92 11:33:57 GMT
Organization: IBM Corp, Boca Raton, FL

In <1992Aug27.212924.20842@morrow.stanford.edu> Richard Acuff writes:
>
>1. Why does PenPoint take an extra 7 seconds to wake up over DOS?
>
>2. What does PenPoint need to do that takes 11.7 seconds and lots of
>   disk rattling when standing by?
>
>3. Why does the disk have to spin at all for wake-up?
>
PenPoint takes great pains to protect the user from data loss while in
standby, since the user may very well walk away from the machine while
it's in that mode.  Thus it flushes all file-system buffers before entering
standby.  If the disk had spun-down before the attempt to go to standby,
there would be time spent spinning it up before the buffers can be flushed.
I still think the time is a bit longer than you'd expect, and I think that
GO will be investigating these performance concerns SOMEday...

The disk spin-up on wake-up is really a function of the MIL.  Probably
that the NCR MIL is automatically doing a spin-up on the resume call
to the disk device.  In all fairness, it's hard for the MIL to decide WHEN
it should spin-up the disk, since the disk had been spun up at suspend
time (going into standby).  Thus it's probably returning it to the same
state it was in prior to the suspend.

But it's possible that PenPoint is refreshing it's filesystem buffers
at that time, so this is probably another "safety feature" resulting from
the previous flushing of the buffers.
  DPL
Additionally, PenPoint repaints the screen on resume, which takes a bit
longer than a DOS resume which "assumes" that the VGA memory is intact.
  DPL
Newsgroups: comp.sys.pen
From: ericbe@microsoft.com (Eric Berman)
Subject: Re: Any DOS-based handwritten digit recognition packages?
Date: 03 Sep 92 15:46:38 GMT
Organization: Microsoft Corporation
Distribution: comp
Keywords: handwriting recognition

In article <184es0INN4b6@iraul1.ira.uka.de> kdh@i31s17.ira.uka.de (Klaus Hartenstein) writes:
>In article <19821@drutx.ATT.COM>, djm@druhi.ATT.COM (MarinelliD) writes:
>|> I am looking for a DOS-based handwritten-digit recognition
>|> algorithm for the numerals 0-9.  If it is part of a more
>|> capable alphanumeric recognizer that's fine, but I'll probably
>|> want to pare it down.  Not interested in an operating system,
>|> just a recognition package. 
>|> 
|> Please post your thoughts to the net.  Thanks

I think it was the April issue of Dr. Dobbs Journal in which Ron Avitzur
describes his handwritine recognition system.  It's fairly easy to implement,
and if I recall correctly (somebody correct me if I'm mistaken), he placed
it into the public domain.  It requires training from the ground up for each
user, but otherwise should be able to do what you want.

--Eric Berman
From: S_Page@GO.COM
Newsgroups: comp.sys.pen
Subject: Canadian (Ontario) chapter of WPDO forming
Date: 29 Aug 92 03:17:47 GMT

Marco Accardo asked me to forward this to the various mailing lists that
would be interested:

Call to PenPoint developers in the southern Ontario region who are
interested in attending/becoming involved in the first Canadian chapter of
the Worldwide PenPoint Developers Organization.  We would like to hear from
you!  If you are interested please notify by voice or FAX at:

     QuantumLynx Corporation
     190 Roxton Drive
     Waterloo, Ontario
     Canada N2T-1N8

     Voice/FAX (415)725-0299
     Attention: Marco Accardo
From: arno@applelink.apple.com (Arno Gourdol)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.pen
Subject: Re: Signature Authentification
Date: 28 Aug 92 20:59:40 GMT
Organization: University of Grenoble
X-UserAgent: Nuntius v1.1.1d9
X-XXMessage-ID: <A6C3E221DB01047E@arno.apple.com>
X-XXDate: Fri, 28 Aug 92 14:01:05 GMT


Sorry, I posted twice the same message and gave a wrong address. My
address is arno@applelink.apple.com, not arno.applelink.fr.

Arno.
--
Minds like parachutes function only when open.
And return addresses function only when valid.
Newsgroups: comp.sys.pen
From: francis@dogwood.atl.ga.us (John Stracke)
Subject: Re: Signature Authentification
Organization: National Science Center Foundation
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1992 19:56:25 GMT

In article <1992Aug28.192510.12082@pony.Ingres.COM> rion@Ingres.COM (Rion Cassidy (x3357) OGT) writes:

>In article <29840@goofy.Apple.COM> arno@applelink.apple.fr (Arno Gourdol) writes:
>>Hi,
>>
>>would you have any pointer on Signature Authentification algorithms (i.e.
>>I sign on a tablet, and the machines tells "this guy pretends to be John
>>Doe, and he really is so"). Does anybody have any such algorithms
>>(eventually for sale). What kind of parameters are important (pressure,
>>speed?)?
>>
>
>There ARE algorithms out there that claim to do this, but it is my
>understanding that they are not anywhere close to reliable in their ability
>to varify a person's signature.  This is one of those Artificial Intelligence

In a German bank (Sparkasse Oberammergau, glaube ich), I saw an ad for
an optional signature authentication service they offered: for an
extra fee, they'd enter your signature into their system, and then
have it compare the signatures on your checks with the one online.
Anybody know anything more about this? They must have thought it
reasonably reliable.

--
/===========================================================================\
|John (Francis) Stracke         |My opinions are my own.                    |
|Natl. Science Center Foundation|===========================================|
|Augusta, GA                    | Cogito ergo Spud.                         |
|francis@galois.nscf.org        |    (I think, therefore I yam.)            |
\===========================================================================/
(Formerly francis@zaphod.uchicago.edu)
-- 
/===========================================================================\
|John (Francis) Stracke         |My opinions are my own.                    |
|Natl. Science Center Foundation|===========================================|
|Augusta, GA                    | Cogito ergo Spud.                         |
From: djm@druhi.ATT.COM (MarinelliD)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.pen
Subject: Re: Any DOS-based handwritten digit recognition packages?
Keywords: handwriting recognition
Date: 1 Sep 92 16:00:18 GMT
Distribution: comp

> >I am looking for a DOS-based handwritten-digit recognition
> >algorithm for the numerals 0-9...
> 
> When you say that you want the algorithm, I assume that you mean that you
> want source code.  Good Luck!  Everything that I have heard of is trade secret
> and proprietary.
> Rion

Yes, I do mean source code.
There must be some company or university
that does offer for sale a handwritten numeral
recognition algorithm. 

Heard of any?

Dave
From: lybrand@VNET.IBM.COM (David Lybrand)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.pen
Subject: Re: Slow wake-up with 3125
Date: 1 Sep 92 11:48:10 GMT
Organization: IBM Corp, Boca Raton, FL

In <1992Aug31.231535.5596@morrow.stanford.edu> Richard Acuff writes:
>- "PP might be checking for configuration changes (eg. new floppy)."
>I would suggest that these checks should be done in the background if
>they take more than .5 seconds (like Iain Cooke).

Currently the PenPoint "resume" is a single process, so it waits for
each device to reinitialize on the resume call.  I've noticed that
even if the device tells penpoint to stage on interrupt or time,
the resume process doesn't go on to the next device until that
device returns "done" on the resume (after the staging).  Some rework
in PenPoint here has potential to speed up the resume process.

>- "PP might be refreshing it's buffers from disk." Why?  All the
>data's still in RAM, right?

On ThinkPad and on GO's Hyde, the "disk" is removable Solid State File
media.  The card could have been removed from the machine and accessed
in a different machine during standby (just as a diskette could be).

>- "PP is repainting the screen." If the hardware is keeping the screen
>memory across standby (which seems to be the case), why?  If the
>hardware doesn't save screen memory, wake-up time could be saved by
>copying out screen memory as part of stand-by and blting it back upon
>wake-up.

PenPoint does do this (it actually saves the VGA memory to a RAM buffer).
But the blt does as a second or so to startup time.

>Since we mostly seem to agree that fast wake-up is important, it would
>be nice to get to the bottom of this so at least we'll know where
>improvements are needed.

I fully agree.  I hope that GO finds the time for performance improve-
ments in this and other areas.
  DPL
Newsgroups: comp.sys.pen,ba.seminars
From: lybrand@VNET.IBM.COM (David Lybrand)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.pen
Subject: Novice question on Penpoint installation on PC
Date: 25 Aug 92 23:03:46 GMT
Organization: IBM Corp, Boca Raton, FL

In <1992Aug24.165051.2610@mri.com> Aurobindo Tripathy writes:
>My Penpoint installaton process is hitting upon the dreaded 1008...

Since that's a parity error, you might want to try removing one of
your memory sims and trying again.  If it does no good, try again
for each one.  Perhaps you'll find one of your sims to be shakey...
  DPL
From: rion@Ingres.COM (Rion Cassidy (x3357) OGT)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.pen
Subject: Re: Signature Authentification
Date: 28 Aug 92 19:25:10 GMT
Reply-To: rion@Ingres.COM (Rion Cassidy (x3357) OGT)
Organization: Ask Computer Systems Inc., Ingres Division, Alameda CA 94501

In article <29840@goofy.Apple.COM> arno@applelink.apple.fr (Arno Gourdol) writes:
>Hi,
>
>would you have any pointer on Signature Authentification algorithms (i.e.
>I sign on a tablet, and the machines tells "this guy pretends to be John
>Doe, and he really is so"). Does anybody have any such algorithms
>(eventually for sale). What kind of parameters are important (pressure,
>speed?)?
>

There ARE algorithms out there that claim to do this, but it is my
understanding that they are not anywhere close to reliable in their ability
to varify a person's signature.  This is one of those Artificial Intelligence
things that just hasn't gotten developed fully. Also consider that the 
resolution of most pen computers is much less than that which we see when
we look at a signature on paper.

Rion
Newsgroups: comp.sys.pen
From: awolfe@moo.Princeton.EDU (Andrew Wolfe)
Subject: Re: Signature Authentification
Originator: news@nimaster
Organization: Princeton University
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1992 20:48:27 GMT

CIC (a division of SRI) has an extremely effective signature authentication package.  I believe that it can be liscensed.
-- 
--------------------------------------
Andrew Wolfe
Assistant Professor
Department of Electrical Engineering
Princeton University
Newsgroups: comp.sys.pen
From: acuff@sumex-aim.stanford.edu (Richard Acuff)
Subject: Re: Slow wake-up with 3125
Organization: Stanford University
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1992 23:15:35 GMT

Thanks to all who responded to my query about 3125 standby mode.  I'll
summarize some of the points made:

The most important issue is clearly the time to wake up after pushing
the button.  I got the following information (mostly guesses, as far
as I can tell) as to why it takes so long to wake-up:

- "PP might be checking for configuration changes (eg. new floppy)."
I would suggest that these checks should be done in the background if
they take more than .5 seconds (like Iain Cooke).

- "PP might be refreshing it's buffers from disk." Why?  All the
data's still in RAM, right?

- "PP is repainting the screen." If the hardware is keeping the screen
memory across standby (which seems to be the case), why?  If the
hardware doesn't save screen memory, wake-up time could be saved by
copying out screen memory as part of stand-by and blting it back upon
wake-up.

- "My times are 'wrong', perhaps due to configuration issues." I'm
running a production 3125 with a production NCR 1.0a PenPoint, so I
don't buy it.  Even if the disk is glacial, I don't see why it's being
accessed upon wake-up.  It actually rattles around a bit, so I don't
think it's just spinning up due to the MIL.  We'll see what's
different between my machine and Lisa Stampfli's, which seems to wake
up a lot faster.

Since we mostly seem to agree that fast wake-up is important, it would
be nice to get to the bottom of this so at least we'll know where
improvements are needed.

The degree of improvement needed is another matter, and depends on how
useful you expect a machine to be.  Personally, I depend on my Sharp
Wizard enough that I find its 1.5 sec wake-up time annoyingly long--it
sure doesn't take me that long to get my pen ready.  But my "sessions"
tend to be short and frequent.  If you're thinking in terms of uses
that have long sessions, or of systems that don't need to use stand-by
mode to conserve power, then it's probably less important to you.  I
argue that current battery life is so short, we need to get all we can
out of it (I have more ideas for this that I'll post later), and going
into standby mode in the middle of meetings, etc., is one way to do
that, but it'll only work if you can get the system back quick.

I agree with the several people who have suggested that time to go to
sleep is less important than time to wake up, but I don't dismiss it
altogether.  I included it since
whatever-it's-doing-while-going-to-sleep may be related to
whatever-it's-doing-to-wake-up.  However, if you have the system set
to timeout, and are looking at the screen when it starts to go to
sleep, you'll either want to stop it, or want it to be quick so you
can get back on-line fast.

	-- Rich

Newsgroups: comp.sys.pen
From: rion@Ingres.COM (Rion Cassidy (x3357) OGT)
Subject: Re: Any DOS-based handwritten digit recognition packages?
Keywords: handwriting recognition
Reply-To: rion@Ingres.COM (Rion Cassidy (x3357) OGT)
Organization: Ask Computer Systems Inc., Ingres Division, Alameda CA 94501
Distribution: comp
Date: 31 Aug 92 22:21:51 GMT

In article <19821@drutx.ATT.COM> djm@druhi.ATT.COM (MarinelliD) writes:
>I am looking for a DOS-based handwritten-digit recognition
>algorithm for the numerals 0-9.  If it is part of a more
>capable alphanumeric recognizer that's fine, but I'll probably
>want to pare it down.  Not interested in an operating system,
>just a recognition package. 
>

When you say that you want the algorithm, I assume that you mean that you
want source code.  Good Luck!  Everything that I have heard of is trade secret
and proprietary.

Rion


Newsgroups: comp.sys.northstar
From: loomis@milton.u.washington.edu (Elaine Loomis)
Subject: N* Horizon for sale
Summary: Working Northstar Horizon system for sale
Keywords: NorthStar Horizon CP/M floppydrives Soroc
Organization: University of Washington
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1992 18:47:43 GMT

I have a Northstar Horizon (64k, 2 double density disk drives, Soroc IQ
120 terminal, PMMI internal modem, many disks, software; 2 serial, one
parallel port) for sale. If you are interested, e-mail me. A follow-up 
post will detail the software, etc. (and I will reply directly if I get
any response).

However, here are some of the details (from memory): includes NS DOS, 
NS CP/M operating systems; CP/M based "Nevada" COBOL and FORTRAN, with original
disks and manuals; an early version of WordStar, with original disks and
manuals; UCSD PASCAL with orig. disks and manuals; many versions of N* BASIC
with  etc.; and over a hundred of the peculiar, hard-sectored diskettes
that <<ONLY>> N* computers could read/write. There's lots else, but this
is the gist of it. Tonight, I'll do a complete inventory for posting/e-
mailing as I noted above. 

The system works fine, with one small glitch: a few of the keys on the SOROC
terminal exhibit what I am called is termed "keybounce" -- that is, sometimes
you get TWO characters instead of one. By a few, I mean literally 2 or 3.
I fired it up the other day and typed a few score sentences on the order of
"0123456789 quick brown dogs jumped over the lazy fox !@#$%^&*()_+[]{}\|"
and so forth to test it.

Gee - I wonder if anyone out there remembers this old system?!
							EL

PS, since I suppose I should specify a starting price, let's say
$500 or best offer (remember, this could have museum value some day!)

Newsgroups: comp.sys.northstar
From: rab@well.sf.ca.us (Bob Bickford)
Subject: Re: N* Horizon for sale
Keywords: NorthStar Horizon CP/M floppydrives Soroc
Organization: Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1992 18:05:36 GMT

In article <loomis.714941263@milton>,
 loomis@milton.u.washington.edu (Elaine Loomis) writes:
>
>            and over a hundred of the peculiar, hard-sectored diskettes
>that <<ONLY>> N* computers could read/write.

I *hate* it when people make this mistake.  Those disks may be
"peculiar" nowadays thanks to (mostly) IBM, but at the time the system
was designed and sold they were **THE** standard format in the personal 
computer industry.  Yes, I'm well aware that a few companies had
competing standards -- which later evolved into the soft-sectored
standard that IBM adopted -- but at the time the NorthStar 5" disk
format was absolutely the most common, most reliable, and most used
(outside of the 8 inchers, which of course faded away).

So it simply isn't true that "only" N* computers could read/write
these disks --- any S-100 system with a N* disk card in it (and that
was quite a lot of them) could read them, and many other companies'
systems could also read them.

BTW, when the 5" disks were introduced (by Shugart?) the *recommended*
standard format was hard-sectored, 10 sectors per track: exactly the
NorthStar format.  Soft-sectored schemes only became practical when
Western Digital came out with a chip that took care of all the hard
parts so that drive designers didn't have to cope with the difficult
design problems involved.

BTW, what price range are you asking for the Horizon etc.?

--
 Robert Bickford      "A Hacker is any person who derives joy from
 rab@well.sf.ca.us    discovering ways to circumvent limitations." rab'86
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
"I recognize that a class of criminals and juvenile delinquents has
taken to calling themselves 'hackers', but I consider them irrelevant
to the true meaning of the word; just as the Mafia calls themselves
'businessmen' but nobody pays that fact any attention."            rab'90
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Newsgroups: comp.sys.3b1
From: tsprad@rei.com (6692)
Subject: Re: problems with some files on osu-cis
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1992 00:05:42 GMT
Organization: Recognition Equipment, Inc.

bruce@sonyd1.Broadcast.Sony.COM (Bruce Lilly) writes:

>Some of the files on osu-cis seem to have been mangled.
>Specifically, in ~/att7300/csvax

I've had similar trouble with other files I've uucp'ed from uunet
from their ~/systems/att7300/csvax directory, specifically, the
version 2 gcc compiler.

>Could the person responsible for maintaining the osu-cis archives
>please look into this and post to the net when the problems have
>been resolved.  Thanks in advance.
-- 
Ted Spradley   Recognition Equipment, Inc.|Opinions are mine, not theirs.
1st choice:          ...!uunet!rei2!tsprad|
2nd choice:           3_hour_tour/SPRADLEY|
voice "mail":                 214-579-6692|
From: pusateri@duke.cs.duke.edu (Thomas Pusateri)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.3b1
Subject: Re: Ping for TCP/IP
Keywords: raw ethernet, ping, read, write
Date: 28 Aug 92 17:08:40 GMT
Organization: Duke University Computer Science Dept.; Durham, N.C.

In article <1992Aug28.143120.25887@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu>
andy@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu (Andy Poling) writes:
>
>I too spent some time on ping (a long time ago).  My recollection is the
>same - I could never successfully read raw packets.  I don't think the
>SOCK_RAW socket support is complete...

If we are ever going to solve problems like this, we are going to need either
a way to recompile the kernel source and put printf statements in it
or some type of kernel debugger to set break points and print registers
and assembly code. 

Even if we can get source some day, it would still be nice to have a kernel
debugger or monitor. Does anyone at AT&T or convergent know if there are
any development tools that could be released as well under the possible
upcoming source agreement? 

Tom Pusateri
Newsgroups: comp.sys.3b1
From: plu@math.psu.edu (Todo Simpson)
Subject: Can't read floppy
Organization: Department of Mathematics, Pennsylvania State University
Distribution: comp
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1992 03:24:23 GMT

I recently acquired a 3B1 with UNIX 3.0 installed and 3.5 on floppy.
I installed the 3.5 foundation and development sets, but when I tried
recently to read something from a floppy via the  `Office' system,
it complained that it couldn't display the floppy contents.  I went
to the shell and tried `mount /dev/rfp020 /floppie' (having created
the directory floppie for that purpose), but it said `mount: Block
device required'.  I tried `iv -i /dev/rfp020 /usr/lib/iv/FDnl' to
initialize a blank disk, then tried the mount command again, and the
same thing happened.  (iv had produced no error message.)  Is there
a quick, easy way to solve this problem?  Does it sound familiar?
Will I be able to use my floppy drive again?  Thanks in advance for
any help anyone can provide me.
--
Todd Andrew Simpson           ``That would bother me like two per cent
PSU Dept of Mathematics         of nothing at all.''  - Philip Marlowe
Newsgroups: comp.sys.3b1
From: lhawkins@olaf.wellesley.edu (Lee Hawkins)
Subject: Lots o' 7300/3b1 stuff for sale
Organization: Wellesley College
Date: Sun, 30 Aug 1992 17:44:36 GMT

Well, I've been doing my August cleaning, and it's time to get rid of
some of the 3b1 stuff that I no longer use.  If you buy all the software
at once, I will let it all go for $600.  Prices on everything marked obo 
are negotiable.  All others are FIRM.  Prices DO NOT include shipping,
COD, or (only in the case of the 7300) packing charges.  I make NO
guarantees about the condition of the 7300 or the Dos-73 board, other
than that they were working fine when I shipped them, AS FAR AS I could
tell.  I will ship these items UPS COD, and email you the price
including shipping just after I have shipped it and know the number.
Lastly, I will deliver the 7300 (and ONLY the 7300---NOT the software) within 
50 miles of Wellesley.  Alternatively, you may pick up any of the items
at a prearraged time at my office at the Observatory at Wellesley
College.


Software:

	Qty.			Description			Price ea.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
	2	ATT Unix-PC Word Processor			$25
	1	Microsoft Word v1.x				$50 obo
	1	ATT SuperCOMP 20 Spread Sheet			$25
	1	ATT Business Graphics				$25
	2	DBase III					$50 obo
	1	Microsoft Multiplan				$50 obo
	1	Samna (Spread Sheet, Database, Word proc)	$100 obo
	1	UniPlex II (Spread Sheet, Database, Word proc.) $50 obo
	2	ATT System Software and Manuals v3.51		$75
	1	ATT System Software and Manuals v3.0		$25
	1	ATT Software Devel. Utils and Manuals v3.0	$25
	

Hardware:

	Qty.			Description			Price ea.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
	1	Dos-73 Board, Manuals, and Software		$150 obo
	1	7300, 512k MB, 20Mb. HD, new battery		$300 obo


________________________________________________________________________________
R. Lee Hawkins					 lhawkins@annie.wellesley.edu
Department of Astronomy				 lhawkins@lucy.wellesley.edu
Whitin Observatory
Wellesley College                                   Ph. 617-283-2708
Wellesley, MA 02181                                 FAX 617-283-3642
________________________________________________________________________________
From: grabenst@umbc4.umbc.edu (Mr. Michael Grabenstein; ACS (GUEST))
Newsgroups: comp.sys.3b1
Subject: mice
Date: 25 Aug 92 20:00:04 GMT
Organization: Univ. of MD, Baltimore County


	Well I would like to take a survey of the surfaces on
which those of you who use the mouse use it on. I have had terrible
problems with tracking and the mouse was on a mousepad, desktop,
anything else I could think of. Well i found one more thing. I am
painting the hall and the closet shelf was in the computer room.
I put the mouse on it and presto the thing tracked beautifully!
It is a rather course and hard surface.
	Thanks :-)

Later,
	Mike
	ZMEG@AACC.bitnet
	or grabenst@umbc3.umbc.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.3b1