HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: wheelan@cs.mcgill.ca (Bill HEELAN)
Subject: Re: You know you've been hacking too long...
Organization: SOCS, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
Date: Fri, 24 Jul 1992 17:04:25 GMT

From article <6759@charon.cwi.nl>, by dik@cwi.nl (Dik T. Winter):
> In article <1992Jul23.152757.1506@uniwa.uwa.edu.au> gudjm@uniwa.uwa.edu.au (D John McKenna) writes:
>  > Just out of curiosity... out of all of you hackers who wear a digital
>  > watch, how many have it in 24 hour mode?
>  > 
> I have, as would most (all?) people in Europe, unless they have a watch
> that refuses to be set in 24 hour mode.

    Well, French Quebec uses 24 hour time, some (maybe most?) of English
	Quebec uses AM/PM.  I use 24 hour time, if for no other reason than
	it's less confusing when you may not see the sun for long stretches
	of time. :-)

                                                     - Bill
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: ballard@panther.adelphi.edu (Terry Ballard)
Subject: Americans who can't spell
Organization: Adelphi University Swirbul Library
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1992 14:49:42 GMT


   I apologize for repeating myself, but a few weeks ago, I mentioned a 
study that we had done on typos in our university's online catalog that 
turned out to be predictors of mistakes in any English language database.  A 
number of people got back to me about this.  One of the ones who did was a 
fellow from UNISYS whose return address did not work when I tried to send 
him further information.  For anyone who wants to know, I have written up 
the study in the June issues of both Computers in Libraries and Information 
Technology and Libraries.
   Here is a list of the words that are most commonly found in databases:

         Acquistion                           
         Adminstration     
         Analyis                               
         Associaton        
         Assoication       
         Behaviorial       
         Bibiography       
         Britian           
         Characterisitics  
         Commerical        
         Committe          
         Comtemporary      
         Curriculm         
         Decisons          
         Developement      
         Ecomomic          
         Ecomonic          
         Educaton          
         Hisory            
         Intergral         
         Internatonal      
         Krushchev         
         Linquistic        
         Medival           
         Occurence         
         Ofthe             
         Pantomine         
         Philosphy         
         Psychanalysis     
         Psychanalytic     
         Questionaire      
         Reponses          
         Reseach           
         Responsiblity     
         Seventeeth        
         Techique          
         Univeristy        
         Universty         
         Withdrawl         

            
|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|
| Terry Ballard      |    ballard@panther.adelphi.edu           | 
| Systems Librarian  |    or ballard@auvax1.adelphi.edu         |
| Adelphi University |    Garden City, New York, 11530          | 
| 516-877-3547       |    Fax: 516-877-3592                     | 
|                    |                                          |
*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*
*   "Science is not about control.  It is about cultivating a   *
*   perpetual sense of wonder in the face of something that     * 
*   forever grows one step richer and subtler than our latest   *
*   theory about it.  It is about reverance, not mastery."      *
*                                                               * 
*           Richard Powers from the Gold Bug Variations         *
*                                                               *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
From: dp35@mc1adm.UWaterloo.ca (Greg Moore)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: More license places
Date: 27 Jul 92 17:58:59 GMT
Organization: University of Waterloo

>In article <1992Jul22.190939.16346@javelin.sim.es.com> gfowler@javelin.sim.es.com (Gary Fowler) writes:
>
>I saw one in Salt Lake City:
>BITMAN
>Either this person works with computers or horses.

I saw ALT 090 on a Nissan 300 ZX.
From: Charlie_Gibbs@mindlink.bc.ca (Charlie Gibbs)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Terminal intrinsics
Date: 29 Jul 92 00:26:21 GMT
Organization: MIND LINK! - British Columbia, Canada
Distribution: world

In article <l79g3dINNql3@appserv.Eng.Sun.COM> spitzak@gree.Eng.Sun.COM
(Bill Spitzak) writes:

>DEC is probably
>responsible
>for almost everything good in computers nowadays

     Perhaps, but they've since contributed a few questionable
things too.  Like the VT220 keyboard layout.  And you thought
the original IBM PC was bad.  :-(

     Then there's the way they munged the backspace key, and by
implication the OSes that listen to what it's become.  It's always
a test of my self-control to see whether I can get "stty erase ^H"
typed with no errors, because otherwise I'd probably put my foot
through the screen.  Grrr...

Charlie_Gibbs@mindlink.bc.ca
"IBM is not a necessary evil.  IBM is not necessary."  -- Ted Nelson

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: dpbsmith@world.std.com (Daniel P. B. Smith)
Subject: Scott Adams = writer of "Dilbert?"
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
Date: Sat, 25 Jul 1992 12:35:34 GMT

There is a comic strip that's been running in the Boston GLOBE for
a few years now called "Dilbert." The byline reads "by Scott Adams."
The drawing is not very skillful, but I often find the strip funny.
Dilbert can be interpreted as geekish, hackerish, or engineer-like
figure although this is never made explicit. There are occasional
references to personal computer themes -- it comes up perhaps 
more often than Oliver Wendell Jones in "Outland."  

There are frequent references to a corporate environment.
(Recently the company handed out little pads with the word
'quality' on them, and all the employees dutifully wandered
around in a hypnoid daze muttering "quality... quality..
quality...).

I wrote to the Globe asking if this was the computer game
Scott Adams but got no reply.

Anybody know?
--Daniel P. B. Smith
dpbsmith@world.std.com
From: avg@rodan.UU.NET (Vadim Antonov)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Cathode ray memory
Date: 29 Jul 1992 14:07:15 -0400
Organization: Berkeley Software Design
NNTP-Posting-Host: rodan.uu.net

In article <13317@ns-mx.uiowa.edu> jones@pyrite.cs.uiowa.edu
(Douglas W. Jones,201H MLH,3193350740,3193382879) writes:
>ILLIAC I, the IBM 701, and many other first generation
>machines used Williams tubes.

I saw the actual Williams tubes used in a military radio locator.
They basically were used to compare an old image (from the
previous revolution of the antenna) with new to separate static
objects (like hills, buildings and clouds) from moving aircrafts.
They were actually superior to digital memory systems at the time
'cause they kept analog signals including brigtness of the spot.
Refresh was also a non-issue :-)

--vadim
From: bob@pta.pyramid.com.au (Robert Vernon)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: What does dd stand for?
Date: 27 Jul 92 23:30:11 GMT
Organization: Pyramid Technology Corporation, Sydney

In article <1992Jul25.011759.7655@organpipe.uug.arizona.edu> dougw@zippy.as.arizona.edu (Doug Williams) writes:
>I am interested in the derivation of the name of the Unix command dd.  My
>local Unix guru said he always assumed it stood for "device to device," but
>could not substantiate this claim.  Any guesses??

From the man page for dd :-

	 dd - convert and copy a file

So dd stands for convert and copy.  But cc was already taken.  So they
used dd instead.  I'm sure I can remember reading this cc to dd
explanation in a man page once upon a time.  But all the versions I
have access to now don't mention it.


Bob V!
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: peterk@public.sub.org (Peter Kittel)
Subject: Re: 6809
Organization: Public News & Mailserver, Commodore Germany PM UNIX, Frankfurt
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 92 05:14:27 GMT

darcy+@ERIE.EDRC.CMU.EDU (Darcy Bullock) writes:

>Could somebody give me an estimate of the number of MIPS a 6809 is capable
>of.  I only need a verry rough estimate, say one of the following:

>a) 0.0001 MIP
>b) 0.001  MIP
>c) 0.01   MIP
>d) 0.1    MIP
>e) 1.0    MIP

As the 6809 is normally clocked at 1 (or a bit more) MHz and uses a few
cycles for one statement, it should turn out roughly at 1 MIP or a bit below,
but above 0.1 MIP.

-- 
Best regards, Dr. Peter Kittel  // E-Mail to  \\  Only my personal opinions... 
Commodore Frankfurt, Germany  \X/ {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!cbmger!peterk
                                   or  peterk@public.sub.org
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: dpbsmith@world.std.com (Daniel P. B. Smith)
Subject: Re: IBM vs. world terminology (was: What does dd stand for?)
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1992 22:05:47 GMT

When the Boca Raton group designed the PC, one of the few GOOD ideas they
had was to try to sensible terminology oriented toward normal human beings.
So they decided disk drives should be called "files," interface boards
should be called "adapters," etc. Somehow hard disks got called "hard files"

Anyway, I'm not sure just how that got into OS/2 but it's probably a 
mixture of IBM-corporado "fixed disk" plus IBM-Boca Raton "hard file."
Or then again, maybe that part of the manual was written by Microsoft
and never went through rigorous IBM QA.

Naturally, when they introduced the PS/2, they re-introduced all the
traditional nomenclature so MIS managers would get warm fuzzies and
not think they were dealing with anything unconventional.  Lo and
behold, the thing became a "system" (except when it was a "programmable
workstation"), it had a "channel," etc.  And the originally sensible idea
of calling interface boards "adapters" was derived of all value by
collapsing the terms into meaningless TLA's like CGA, EGA, PGA, VGA, XGA
etc.

Daniel P. B. Smith
dpbsmith@world.std.com
From: mak@spuddy.uucp (Mark Kellaway)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: You know you've been hacking too long...
Keywords: workstation, hacking, risks
Date: 24 Jul 92 17:14:28 GMT
Organization: Spuddy's Public Usenet Domain

In article <1992Jul23.152757.1506@uniwa.uwa.edu.au> gudjm@uniwa.uwa.edu.au (John West) writes:
>hallam@zeus02.desy
>
>> Anyone else logged onto a machine to issue a `show time' command when
>> one is wearing a perfectly good watch?
>
>Just out of curiosity... out of all of you hackers who wear a digital
>watch, how many have it in 24 hour mode?
>
>John West
>
How many hackers out there really care what the time is ?

ObYKYBHTLW...   You dont find the YKYBHTL comments absurd
-- 
*       /^\      *    mak -  mak@spuddy.uucp ...!uknet!axion!spuddy!mak
*      /\|/\     *    Remember wherever you go there you are !
*     /-<o>-\    *    Meeeeow ! Call Spud the Cat on > +44 203 638780 <
*    /__/|\__\   *    for free Usenet access in the uk
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: osicoop@bwdls138 (Doug Gould)
Subject: Re: Computers on TV
Organization: Bell Northern Research, Ottawa, Canada
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL3
Distribution: alt
Date: Mon, 27 Jul 1992 18:59:50 GMT

dp35@mc1adm.UWaterloo.ca (Greg Moore) writes:
: The season finalle of last years _Quantum_Leap_ had the person in charge
: of the computer mention that it had ? gigabytes of storage.
: 
: What was funny is that she pronounced it "Jiga-bytes".

I'm pretty sure the proper "metric" pronounciation is "jiga" for 10^9.

Then again when we're talking 'bout 1.44 "Gig" fixed disks we're really 
meaning 1.44 * 2^30.  Hmmmm...

--
Doug Gould
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Computer Relics (Was: 9 track data storage?)
From: jones@pyrite.cs.uiowa.edu (Douglas W. Jones,201H MLH,3193350740,3193382879)
Date: 29 Jul 92 16:09:14 GMT

In article <1992Jul27.192741.16732@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu>
aduell@nyx.cs.du.edu (Tony Duell) writes:
>[...]
>Talking of old storage, how many still use 8" floppies (I have them on my
>PDP11/45 (DEC RX02), CASU super C CP/M machine, FTS-88 CPM/86 machine, and

I have two RX01 drives I'm trying to get up and running.  One is probably
good, one is definitely broken.  I also have a box of virgin 8" diskettes,
single sided, single density, preformatted, as well as a pile of used ones.

For their museum value, these early diskette drives are interesting because
they represent the first generation diskette technology.

					Doug Jones
					jones@cs.uiowa.edu
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: berger@atropa (Mike Berger)
Subject: Re: Cloned computers
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Fri, 31 Jul 1992 19:35:03 GMT

sandee@Think.COM (Daan Sandee) writes:

>In article <Bs9Epo.GsJ@news.cso.uiuc.edu>, berger@atropa (Mike Berger) writes:
>|> greg@Quotron.COM (Greg "Maddog" Knauss) writes:
>|> *----
>|> Xerox, Amdahl, and CDC all made IBM mainframe clones.
>|> --
>|> 	Mike Berger

>Amdahl, certainly. Xerox, dunno. CDC - I think not.
*----
They certainly appear to have, from an old publications list.
I think it was called the Omega series.
--
	Mike Berger
	Department of Statistics, University of Illinois
	AT&TNET     217-244-6067
	Internet    berger@atropa.stat.uiuc.edu
From: mzraly@ra.cs.umb.edu (Michael S. Zraly)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Kernighen's "Why Pascal is not my favorite language"
Date: 27 Jul 92 13:33:45 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: UMass/Boston Dept. of Math & CS

In article <1992Jul23.201431.16518@cybernet.cse.fau.edu> michaelb@cse.fau.edu (Michael Rogero Brown) writes:
>I'm looking for an ftp site which has Kernighen's paper
>"Why Pascal is Not My Favorite Language".  Does anyone know
>where I can get it??

Its at research.att.com, in directory netlib/research/cstr, in file 100.Z
(PostScript format).

-- Mike

-- 
Mike Zraly		Never attribute to malice that which
mzraly@cs.umb.edu	is adequately explained by stupidity.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: peter@taronga.com (Peter da Silva)
Subject: Re: 9 track data storage???????????????
Organization: Taronga Park BBS
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 1992 03:19:55 GMT

In article <14f8tiINN9it@early-bird.think.com> sandee@Think.COM (Daan Sandee) writes:
>How the world is changing ... there must be *millions* of reels of 9-track
>tape still lying around,

We were using it for regular backups until fairly recently, and we've still
got a few tape drives for data transfer. I got some hot software on 9-track
as recently as 1989 (the Software Tools virtual operating system: sort of a
UNIX programming environment written in portable Fortran to run on
mainframes).

>(On the other hand, I don't know what "TK50" is, although I can guess.)

You don't want to know what a TK50 is. Probably the worst cartridge design
for tape transport ever.
-- 
                                                                `-_-'
                         Have you hugged your wolf today?        'U`

Peter da Silva, Taronga Park BBS, Houston, TX  +1 713 568 0480/1032
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.sys.att,comp.sys.ncr
From: fmcgee@cuuxb.att.com (~XT6561110~Frank McGee~C23~L25~6326~)
Subject: Re: Dusty Machines
Followup-To: comp.sys.att
Summary: clean them out
Reply-To: fmcgee@cuuxb.UUCP (Frank W. McGee)
Organization: NCR Corporation
Distribution: na
Date: Thu, 23 Jul 1992 20:38:18 GMT
Expires: Tue, 22 Sep 1992 05:00:00 GMT

In article <1992Jul16.024515.3308@spcvxb.spc.edu> terry@spcvxb.spc.edu (Terry Kennedy, Operations Mgr.) writes:
>In article <COSC176T.92Jul15152442@menudo.uh.edu>, cosc176t@menudo.uh.edu (Jason Asbahr) writes:
>> Well, before I take a mop to the internals, can anyone offer me their
>> favorite advice on removing dust without damaging anything...?
>
>  Way back when I was in high school, I made extra money by working in a local
>TV repair shop (not being the athletic type, it beat having a paper route, and
>paid better, too). This was back in the stone age when new sets still were
>built with more than 1 vacuum tube, and nobody had ever heard of a Japanese
>TV. Anyway, one of the first things they tought new hires was "never vacuum a
>TV set". Good advice. I follow it to this day.
>
>  If the dust isn't doing any harm (and it won't, unless it's damp or causing
>overheating) I'd suggest just leaving it. On those rare occasions where the

This is okay except for floppy and QIC tape drives.  I doubt that the
motors or heads in these devices would appreciate the dust.  We usually
recommend that customers try to keep their equipment in a clean
environment to begin with, and clean out the dust as needed.

It's important to perform regular maintenance on the tape drive, and 
observe tape life expectancy.  The tape drive should be cleaned after
every eight hours of use, and after a new tape has been used (the new
tape might deposit loose tape debris on the tape heads).  When Bell
Labs tested tapes for the StarServer E here, they found the following
general tape life guidelines for complete full-length passes :

DC 6320 - 50 full-lenth passes
DC 6525 - 30 full-lenth passes (because of the thinner media)
DC 6150 - 40 full-lenth passes
DC 600A - 30 full-lenth passes

It's a good idea to treat your tape drive well since it's usually the
only thing keeping you from a total disaster.  Keeping the inside of
the machine clean is a good idea.

-- 
Frank McGee, NCR Corporation
PM&S Naperville
nap-top!fmcgee@ccscae.ColumbiaSC.NCR.COM
From: dlyons@necis.UUCP (Dave Lyons)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Pronouncing Unix names
Date: 29 Jul 92 14:06:46 GMT
Organization: NEC Information Systems, Acton, MA

In article <1992Jul29.010902.23494@uvm.edu>, wollman@sadye (Garrett Wollman) wrote:
>>     A while back there was a thread discussing how to pronounce
>>".cshrc".
. . . <much stuff about pronouncing obviously unpronouncable stuff
deleted>
>>$ cat >/etc/etc/etc/etc/ftang/zoopboing/zowie

And you UNIX guys say DOS is weird ???????????????????????????????????
                                          -- Dave --
-- 
***************************************************************************
DaveJ Lyons       DoD #0633         dlyons@necis.nec.com  (603)878-2567 BBS
Opinions expressed are mine. My company doesn't even know I'm here (Shhhh!)
***************************************************************************
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: tkogoma@triton.unm.edu (Gym Z. Quirk)
Subject: Re: You know you've been hacking too long...
Date: Tue, 28 Jul 92 21:20:12 GMT
Organization: University of New Mexico

In article <1992Jul28.073634.29450@sq.sq.com> msb@sq.sq.com (Mark Brader) writes:
>> Some people have literally screamed when they've suddenly noticed that
>> I'm wearing two watches.
>
>No doubt they were familiar with the adage "Never go to sea with two
>chronometers; take one or three", and feared for your mental health in
>case the watches should begin to disagree.

Probably related to the old adage that:

  A man with a watch knows what time it is.
  A man with two is never sure. ;-)

BTW, do any of you digital watch afficianato's find yourselves
rounding times to the nearest 5 minutes when people ask you the time?

>Mark Brader			"Relax -- I know the procedures backwards."
>SoftQuad Inc., Toronto		"Yeah, well, that's a quick way to get killed."
>utzoo!sq!msb, msb@sq.com			-- Chris Boucher, Star Cops

-- 
Capt. Gym Z. Quirk  (Known to some as Taki Kogoma)  tkogoma@triton.unm.edu
  I'll get a life when someone demonstrates that it would be superior to
                           what I have now...
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: rolf@geoserv (Rolf Wilson)
Subject: Re: Today's Games Destined to be Classics
Reply-To: rolf@geoserv.isgs.uiuc.edu
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 1992 16:27:39 GMT
Keywords: Sigh

panisset@thunder.mcrcim.mcgill.edu (Jean-Francois Panisset) writes:

>In article <47Z8NB1w164w@phsbbs.princeton.nj.us> carlcory@phsbbs.princeton.nj.us (Carl Corey) writes:
>>mcirvin@husc10.harvard.edu (Mcirvin) writes:
>>
>>> And, of course, Star Raiders for the Ataris was considered
>>> eye-poppingly unbelievable when it first came out in 1979.  Just
>>> the streaming-stars effect swiped from Star Trek spawned a whole
>>> genre of games.  As a game, it wasn't too original:  track down
>>> the bad guys and pick them off in droves.  The difference was
>>> that, in an age when Space Invaders was the culture's standard,
>>> here was a game that actually put you in the pilot's seat during
>>> space dogfights, as stars flew by like confetti!  Remarkable
>>> stuff for its day.  It sold lots of Ataris.
>>> 
>>> >How simply we were satisfied in those days...
>>> 
>>> I got seriously hooked on Breakout and Dodge 'Em on my Atari 2600!

>I'm surprised no one has mentionned BallBlaster for the Atari yet.
>Now *there* was a game! It was sort of like a high-tech version of
>one on one soccer. You drove a pod-like device on a large playing field
>which had goal posts at both ends. The playing field had a black and white
>checkerboard texture, and although probably all sorts of nasty tricks were
>used by the people at Lucas Film, I guess you could call this the first
>game which used texture mapping. The object was to capture a ball in the
>magnetic field in front of your pod and then rush towards the opposing goal,
>at which point you would kick the ball between the goalposts. You could
>also kick the enemy pod in the hope of dislodging the ball from his field
>and grabbing it yourself. It was very fast, and you could play against
>someone else or against the computer. That one really impressed me at the
>time.

   Did it used to be called BallBlazer? I saw a crazy demo of this at a
SIGGRAPH around 1982. They had 16 joysticks hooked together, and
somehow averaged together, so that 2 teams of 16 players could compete
against each other. Two of the developers of the game stood in front
and tried to coach their "team".
-- 
Rolf Wilson     Illinois State Geological Survey    rolf@geoserv.isgs.uiuc.edu
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: spray@convex.com (Rob Spray)
Subject: Re: Cloned computers
Organization: CONVEX Computer Corporation, Richardson, Tx., USA
Date: Fri, 31 Jul 1992 19:40:32 GMT
X-Disclaimer: This message was written by a user at CONVEX Computer
              Corp. The opinions expressed are those of the user and
              not necessarily those of CONVEX.

In <Bs9Epo.GsJ@news.cso.uiuc.edu> berger@atropa (Mike Berger) writes:

>Nuclear Data had Data General Nova look-alikes.

DCC had a clone of the Data General Nova
The Redifon R2000 was a superset of the CCC (Honeywell) DDP-124
The English Electric (ICL) System 4 was a clone of the RCA Spectra/70.
The ICT 1900 was a clone of a Canadian Ferranti-Packard machine,
  or was that the other way around?  (Any other old farts out there? B-))
The first PR1ME machines were supersets of the CCC (Honeywell) DDP-516.

--Rob  spray@convex.com

"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe.  I saw attack
ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion.  I watched C-beams
glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser Gate.  All these memories
will be lost in time...like tears in rain.  Time to die."



Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers