HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: 9125113g@lux.latrobe.edu.au (Mitch Davis)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: You know you've been hacking too long...
Keywords: workstation, hacking, risks
Date: 25 Jul 92 17:08:20 GMT
Organization: La Trobe University

In article <1992Jul23.152757.1506@uniwa.uwa.edu.au> gudjm@uniwa.uwa.edu.au (D John McKenna) writes:
>hallam@zeus02.desy.de (Phillip M. Hallam-Baker) writes:
>
>> 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?

I don't actually wear it, because both straps have long broken, and it
was costing me a fortune in sticky tape.  The watch sits in my pocket, 
and _yes_, I do type 'date' to get the time, because reaching into my 
pocket has so far failed to be cleared by both the FCC and the FDA.

I leave my watch on 24hr mode so I can be sure I'm setting the alarm
time to the correct side of the meridian.

On a different note, I've written a program which takes Fidonet mail
(I'm 3:634/384.6) and downloads it to my Sharp Electronic Organizer.
Gives me something to do in lectures!

Mitch.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: cc2x@vax5.cit.cornell.edu (Jeff Luszcz)
Subject: Montreal, give me your electronics
Followup-To: alt.folklore.computers
Organization: Cornell University
Date: Thu, 23 Jul 1992 19:21:22 GMT

  I'll be in Montreal on Friday with a van to pick up some electronics.
Do you have some old stuff just hanging around that you don't want anymore?
Drop me a line and maybe we can arange something,
   Thanks,
    -Jeff
From: rich@knoware.ersys.edmonton.ab.ca (Richard Hempsey)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Today's Games Destined to be Classics
Date: 25 Jul 92 00:40:24 GMT
Organization: Know Software

shaggy@eskimo.celestial.com (David Case) writes:

> Anybody out there ever play "Rescue on Fractalus"?  Hottest game I ever
> saw on an 8-bit...  It was a futuristic flight simulator game were you
> had to save downed pilots on a *very* rocky planet.  The game had
> *fractal* landscapes, you could fly through canyons etc, and the update
> rate was really quite good (especially for an 8-bit machine!)  I think
> Lucasfilm came out with it.  I used to play it for hours at a stretch on
> my old CoCo...

Whaddaya mean, `old'?  I still play mine every now and then.  That and
`Koronis Rift'.


---
Richard  at  rich@knoware.ersys.edmonton.ab.ca (preferred)
Hempsey  or  rich@ersys.edmonton.ab.ca
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Xref: sparky alt.folklore.computers:11312 comp.unix.misc:3034
From: andy@meefun.autodesk.com (Andrew Purshottam)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: SUN == "San University Net|Node"?
Date: 29 Jul 92 03:04:52 GMT
Reply-To: andy@autodesk.com
Organization: Autodesk Inc.


Hi, does anyone have definitive reference for this?  I am pretty sure
it's Stanford University Node, but local buzzword list has it as Net.
Perhaps there is someone who has copies of early Pratt/Bechtolsheim
papers with explanation of name?
--
-
Andrew V. Purshottam      /\     |  andy@autodesk.com  ...!fernwood!acad!andy 
Autodesk, Inc.	         //\\    |  (415)332-2344x2161  FAX (415) 331-8093
2320 Marinship Way      ///\\\   |  Sausalito CA 94965
"The views expressed are those of the speaker."
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,misc.wanted
From: 6o25@sdf.lonestar.org (Stephen M. Jones)
Subject: WANTED: Computer decals (repost)
Organization: sdf Public Access UNIX, Dallas--unrestricted free shell access
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 1992 14:38:12 GMT


greetings all... I am on a quest for old computer stickers... I've already
had enough responses on APPLEs so no thank you for anymore... I would like
IBM decals.. commodore, Franklin (the orange) Timex Sinclairs, TI 994a's
anything dealing with UNIX... and my most favorite one... the BELL LABS
logo... the Blue Bell! must have it... also I am looking for the AT&T
death star (hah)  Sphere...  please email me if you know where, or if you
have any... thank you


-- 
6o25@sdf.lonestar.org    ..!uunet!convex!egsner!sdf!6o25
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: sarr@sinshan.citi.umich.edu (Sarr J. Blumson)
Subject: Re: 9 track data storage???????????????
Organization: University of Michigan, CITI
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 92 13:02:09 GMT

In article <1992Jul21.000446.10940@news.columbia.edu> lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner) writes:
>
>There is also something about the lower-speed formatting that can get confused
>if you write even-parity data zeroes, because it can't tell the data's there.
>Perhaps someone can point out which formats are prone to this, because I think
>some don't have the problem.
>
200 and 556 bpi 7 track tapes (I believe 800s and all 9 tracks went to
phase encoding) use a Non Return to Zero scheme where a one bit is a
flux change and a zero bit is nothing.  Since there is no independent
timing information on the tape a long string of zeros can cause loss
of synchronization.  I may have the details fuzzy but this is the idea
anyway.

Run Length Limited disk controllers are run length limited for a
similar reason.

Returning briefly to the original questionon, 9 track drives for just
about anything ("ISA" machines even) are easilt found in the small
adds in the back of glossy mags like Byte.



(Sarr Blumson)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: felix@crowfix.com (Felix Finch)
Subject: Re: Computers in magazines (was movies)
Organization: Scarecrow Repair, Dutch Flat.
Date: Sun, 26 Jul 1992 15:04:38 GMT
	<1992Jul22.060934.26869@news.weeg.uiowa.edu>
	<1992Jul22.154431.24893@news.columbia.edu>
	<1992Jul22.232550.19540@news.weeg.uiowa.edu>

>>>>> MuffinHead said:
> (Charles Lasner) writes:
>>(MuffinHead) writes:
>>>In the August Playboy in the "Domestic Bliss" pictorial is by far the best
>>>setting for a Powerbook I've seen.

>>I hope her application doesn't crash because I don't think she can hit
>>CTL-ALT-DEL like that :-).

> PowerBook. No Alt keys there. Actually, she could probably hit the interupt 
> button with her nipple. :)

The burning question is, when is Apple going to sue for Look and Feel
violation?
-- 

            ... _._. ._ ._. . _._. ._. ___ .__ ._. . .__. ._ .. ._.
   Felix Finch, scarecrow repairer / felix@crowfix.com / uunet!crowfix!felix
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: nolan@lurch.eco.twg.com (Tom Shales was right)
Subject: Re: Computers in movies
Reply-To: nolan@twg.com
Organization: Somewhere West of Nowhere
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 1992 19:00:41 GMT


In article <1992Jul16.055606.13489@news.columbia.edu>, lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner) writes:
|>In article <8DyyNB1w165w@blackhl.hacktic.nl> koos@blackhl.hacktic.nl (Koos van den Hout) writes:
|>>allan@cs.UAlberta.CA (Allan Sullivan) writes:
[deletia]
|>>Yup, I remember that one. It aired over here once or twice. It was named 
|>>'calling P-1' because the control program was named P-1. It was modelled 
|>>after structures from the 'life' game.
[more deletia]
|>
|>I suspect that this was a "local" name for the movie; often this is done
|>when released to different markets.
|>
|>What was the best guess you have fo its earliest release anywhere?

My best guess for the release is AFTER the publication of _The Adolescence of
P1_, a base clone of which was the movie. The book was bearable - the movie
less than bearable. It's like some surfer dude produceer had a teenhack friend
who'd told him about the book and translated it downwards on the IQ scale.
Bah! Ban mass culturalization! Verb all nouns! Up the <IYFEG>!

--
Nolan "Has-thirst-for-reeeel-literature" Hinshaw
Internet: nolan@twg.com			Dingalingnet: (415)962-7197	
"... necrophilia doesn't really hurt anybody."  Rick Gordon

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: jcmorris@mwunix.mitre.org (Joe Morris)
Subject: Re: 9 track data storage???????????????
Organization: The MITRE Corporation
Date: Mon, 27 Jul 1992 14:20:09 GMT

jgd@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (John G Dobnick) writes:

>Phase encoding was only at 1600 9-track.  800 9-track was still NRZI.
>The problem with NRZI is that long strings of zeros (zeroes? :-) ) could
>cause data de-syncronization, since there were no timing pulses to
>clock the data characters.  (Only the "1"s were recorded, by a flux
>reversal.)  Phase encoding was the solution to that -- each and _every_
>character had a flux reversal, and hence the data was "self clocking".

This isn't really an issue for 9-track recording at any density, because
by definition the standard 9-track tape is recorded using odd parity.
This assures that every character will have at least one 1-bit (and thus
at least one flux reversal) to generate a pulse on the tape, and thus
provide the necessary clocking information.

Joe Morris / MITRE
From: jon%vector0.UUCP@sactoh0.SAC.CA.US (Dazed N. Confused)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Classic computer games and modern versions
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 92 22:47:59 PDT
Organization: Vector Zero

Jeremy_Reimer@mindlink.bc.ca (Jeremy Reimer) writes:

> Oh, and about the 16-bit comment... ok, I'll admit these are 16-bit
> implementations, but they run great under the 32-bit OS/2 2.0... or haven't y
> noticed that the PC finally has real multitasking and proper 32-bit power?
> (or don't you want to notice?)

     Personally, I got into _Ultima_Underworld: Stygian_Abyss_ for a couple
weeks (just long enough to seriously lower my GPA at school.. :( ).  It
reminds me a lot of Wizardry -- you walk around the maze in a volcano,
killing things.
     The problem is that it has too much of a plot and adventure type
feel.  The reason I loved Wizardry was for the simple hack&slash D&D
atmosphere, where your characters gain lots of experience.  Underworld,
although having great graphics and sound, has some serious holes in the
storyline and makes you wander around a bit too much (not to mention
the automapping -- AND the copy of the entire first level, including
the set-encounter monsters, that comes with the game!  What happened
to "challenging"?).

--Jon

   jon%vector0@sactoh0.SAC.CA.US                Life is like a what?
   PacBell.COM!sactoh0!vector0!jon
From: erd@kumiss.cmhnet.org (Ethan Dicks)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Life machines?
Distribution: world
Date: 24 Jul 92 02:02:31 EDT
Organization: Not an Organization

In article <sourada.711499798@vincent1.iastate.edu> sourada@iastate.edu (Steven D Ourada) writes:
>Have any dedicated Life machines ever been built? I've heard (I think in
>Sci. Am.) that there were some cellular automata machines made, but I don't
>know if they ran Life or not.
>
>What's the highest rate achieved by a Life (dedicated or not)? (I don't
>know a good metric for this, probably cells/sec is the best approximation
>to one...)

There are several versions of LIFE for the Amiga which use the graphics
Blitter chip for calculating the next generation, given the present
generation.  A 640x200 screen is opened and with each pixel representing
a single cell (128000 potential automata).  20 generations per second on an
Amiga 1000 (7.15MHz 68000) is pretty typical.  I have not run LIFE on
an Amiga 3000 (which has better bandwidth to the custom chip set).  Watching
LIFE on that scale with that speed is like watching timelapse photography
of bacterial colonies growing.

BTW, the hardware calculated version of LIFE was written in 1986.  Various
versions can be found on various Fish Disks.

Top 20 generations/second with 128000 possible automata!

-ethan


--
Ethan Dicks     N8TVD ! This message is brought to you by the breakfast cereal
erd@kumiss.cmhnet.org ! of Pennsic Veterans everywhere: Beerios.
                      ! "They don't stay crisp in beer, but who cares?"
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Dusty Machines
From: kilroy@acme.gen.nz (earthbound misfit, I)
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 92 10:35:36 GMT
Reply-To: kilroy@acme.gen.nz (earthbound misfit, I)
Organization: ACME BBS - Public Access Usenet, Palmerston North, New Zealand

cosc176t@menudo.uh.edu (Jason Asbahr) writes:

> In the process of returning several ancient 3b2s to service, I opened
> up a couple cases and noticed a THICK layer of dust all over
> everything. 
> 
> Well, before I take a mop to the internals, can anyone offer me their
> favorite advice on removing dust without damaging anything...?

CONTACT CLEANER!!!

Sorry, but this stuff is Ghod's Gift to electronic service-people, especially
if you're not paying for it. To be honest, I don't know what the correct name
for this stuff is, but the can I have in my hand is made my CRC(r) and is
labelled "CO Contact Cleaner, Precision Electronic Cleaning Solvent".

This stuff is great! There's nothing better than spraying streams of CRC
Contact Cleaner all over something to get it clean - although admittedly
doing that is a tad wasteful (and expensive). It's supposed to be
non-flammable, inert, etc, etc, and not damage plastics. It is a carbon
solvent, so the one thing it will attack is small pots. If you've really
got a dust problem, attacking firstly with a small clean paint brush
and then 6 or 7 cans of contact cleaner (just kidding) will do a great job.

						- k
-- 
Craig Harding            kilroy@acme.gen.nz             ACME BBS +64 63 3551342
"Jub'f Xvob?"
From: ivie@cc.usu.edu (CP/M lives!)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: IBM vs. world terminology (was: What does dd stand for?)
Date: 29 Jul 92 10:56:59 MDT
Organization: Utah State University

In article <5201@vtserf.cc.vt.edu>, valdis@vttcf.cc.vt.edu (Valdis Kletnieks) writes:
> 
> The IBM S/360 models 65 and 95 (and maybe others) had a bizzare
> creature called an "imprecise interrupt".  

Hey, this seems to be all the rage in modern RISC machines. Since this
isn't comp.arch and the Alpha guys on comp.arch don't listen to me anymore
anyway, I won't mention Alpha.

Roger Ivie
ivie@cc.usu.edu
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: hollombe@polymath.tti.com (The Polymath)
Subject: Re: Computer Relics (Was: 9 track data storage?)
Organization: The Cat Factory
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1992 00:10:51 GMT

In article <1992Jul28.162637.15904@twg.com> nolan@twg.com writes:
}
}In article <1992Jul21.205524.20552@nap.amoco.com>, pgravel@nap.amoco.com (Philip L. Gravel) writes:
}
}|>Name your favorite artifact of a by-gone era....
}
}Plugboards!

Job hopping.
10% Salary increases.
A boss who gave a damn.
A boss I could learn from.
Interesting work worth doing ...

(Sorry, I'm having a bad day ...)

The Polymath (aka: Jerry Hollombe, M.A., CDP, aka: hollombe@polymath.tti.com)
Head Robot Wrangler at Citicorp                   Turn the rascals out!
3100 Ocean Park Blvd.   (310) 450-9111, x2483     No incumbents in '92!
Santa Monica, CA  90405 {rutgers|pyramid|philabs|psivax}!ttidca!hollombe
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: werme@alliant.com (Ric Werme)
Subject: Re: DECtape (was: Worst tape drives)
Organization: Alliant Computer Systems Corp.
Date: Tue, 28 Jul 1992 15:29:04 GMT

In article <13283@ns-mx.uiowa.edu> jones@pyrite.cs.uiowa.edu (Douglas W. Jones,201H MLH,3193350740,3193382879) writes:
>From article <1992Jul22.174702.27336@news.columbia.edu>,
>by lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner):
>>
>> In all probability you were using an underpowered system where the disk
>> device was the DECtape, and are blaming software that needs a real disk
>> for something as inefficient as you attempted.
>
>But DECtape was so good at emulating disks that this happened all the time.
>There's a great story about one of the DEC PDP-10 machines at Carnegie
>Mellon University that had a disk failure on its fixed head swapping disk,
>to the operating system automatically fell back on the DECtape drive for
>swapping.  It asked the operator to mount a scratch DECtape, then, when
>that was full, it asked for another scratch tape.  The operator is supposed
>to have ended up swapping scratch tapes back and forth, not knowing what
>was going on, until the users began to complain about slow response times.

This may be a great story, but I don't believe it:

1) I was at CMU from 1968-1974, and was one of the first operators for the
   first PDP-10 (it had 5 DECtape drives and no disks) when it arrived in 1969.

2) I never would have configured the machine to swap to tape.  I don't
   remember if it was possible.  (May well have been, though.)

3) I don't recall any messages anywhere in the OS that would have
   prompted for a new scratch tape.  I did source merges for new OSes and
   a lot of development for ARPAnet and AI lab devices, so I knew the
   code pretty well.

4) Bryant drum and Burroughs disk failures generally resulted in I/O errors.
   (Sometimes they were not reported and I hated runing diagnostics because
   they'd wipe out the filesystem.)  It would be tough for the operator to
   miss it.

One thing that *did* impress me on the DECtape only system was that sometimes
when I ran TECO I would get the '*' prompt immediately and the DECtape
wouldn't spin.  Only TECO, never anything else.  It wasn't until I started
digging into OS source that I understood why.
-- 
| A pride of lions               | Eric J Werme                 |
| A gaggle of geese		 | 77 Tater St			|
| An odd lot of programmers      | Mont Vernon NH  03057	|
| A Constitution of Libertarians | Phone: 603-673-3993		|
From: sakelley@euclid.ucsd.edu (Scott Kelley)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Special Purpose machines (Was: Life machines?)
Date: 21 Jul 92 21:32:15 GMT


I haven't been following my news as closely as I should recently, so
apologies if this has been brought up...

Has anyone yet mentioned the CAM-6 cellular automata board (and its
descendants, if any?). I never had the pleasure of using one, but it was
designed specifically to run life and similar CA simulations that can be
run from a lookup table. Typically programmed in Forth. Also, somewhat
hard to get one, from what I heard. But very fast. (If I remember
correctly, you could make it run faster by disconnecting the video,
since the machine was no longer constrained by the monitor's refresh
rate). And there was talk about building an even faster one, but I never
kept track of what was going on and don't know if they were ever built.
Oh and BTW this was a board (boards?) that used an AT as a host but did
all of it's own computtion and video. (If I recall correctly, the Forth
part ran on the pc, and was used to generate lookup tables...?)

More info can be found in the book "Cellular automata machines: a new
environment for modeling" by Tommaso Toffoli and Norman Margolus. MIT
Press, 1987. Or if anyone's curious I could bring mine in and provide
more info. It's been a couple years since I read it...

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: peterk@public.sub.org (Peter Kittel)
Subject: Re: IBM vs. world terminology (was: What does dd stand for?)
Organization: Public News & Mailserver, Commodore Germany PM UNIX, Frankfurt
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 92 14:00:16 GMT

dpbsmith@world.std.com (Daniel P. B. Smith) writes:

>Notice, too, the deliberately perverse nomenclature mutations in the
>SAA CUA manual.  Apple and Microsoft use almost identical terminology
>for most elements of the GUI.  

Hope I won't get burnt too much when I add Commodore Amiga slang here:

>Apple/Microsoft  IBM                   Amiga

>Menu bar         Action bar            Menu bar
>Menu             Pull-down             Menu
>Grayed out       Unavailable emphasis  Ghosted item

Well, surprise surprise, our statistics say that Amiga is more related
to Apple/Microsoft than to IBM :-). But there are also terms where the
Amiga is really an individualist: For subdirectories, it uses "drawers"
(not folders as most of the others), and the icons are actually pictures 
of drawers. And when activated, these icons change their image to those 
of opened drawers!!!

-- 
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
From: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: 6809
Date: 31 Jul 92 15:34:06 GMT
Reply-To: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Organization: Columbia University

In article <IISAKKIL.92Jul31161905@lesti.hut.fi> iisakkil@lesti.hut.fi (Mika Iisakkila) writes:
>tgg@otter.hpl.hp.com (Tom Gardner) writes:
>
>>Given that a 6809's basic instruction execution cycle was 1us, 
>>a figure of 0.1 VAX-MIPS seems reasonable.
>
>How did you end up with this figure? Does the VAX do 10 instructions'
>worth of operations in 1 clock cycle or what? This MIPS stuff is
>really confusing, I always thought that if a machine executes 1
>million instructions per second, it is running at 1 million
>instructions per second :-)

As some have pointed out, MIPS is Meaningless Instructions Per Second.

The point is that many designs happen to have some insignificent instructions
that are atypically faster than the ones that "matter".  The worst offenders
are machines with variable-length instructions, especially the ones that
are the worst to pipeline, etc.  It is possible to contrive a situation where
a nonsense program consisting of a long sequence of trivial instructions can
be demonstrated to "execute" in some short amount of time.  Then the ad people
quote MIPS figures based on this contrived case.

Admittedly, for some machines, the figures quoted are more reasonable, but
still in many designs not all instructions take exactly the same amount of
time to execute, and may further depend on neighboring instructions to give
an accurate measurement of speed.

cjl
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Computer Relics (Was: 9 track data storage?)
From: tfarmer@datamark.co.nz (Thomas Farmer)
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1992 02:37:36 GMT
Organization: Datamark International Ltd.

In article <1992Jul21.205524.20552@nap.amoco.com> pgravel@nap.amoco.com (Philip L. Gravel) writes:

>> 	Has anyone ever heard of a "9track tape" as data storage? 
>
>Pretty soon we'll hear question like:
>
>  Has anyone heard of a paper tape?
>   "    "      "    " a punch card?
>   "    "      "    " core memory?

Has anyone heard of MS-Dos?

Has anyone heard of Unix?

Has anyone heard of main-frames?

Has anyone heard of IBM?

:-) :-) :-) * 20
-- 
    Thomas Farmer | tfarmer@datamark.co.nz    or | I use and like:
Datamark Intl Ltd | tfarmer@cavebbs.welly.gen.nz | AIX 3.1, OS/2 2.0,
 Technical Writer |   				 | Windows 3.1 &
    & PC Wrangler |   You can't beat a beagle.	 | AmigaOS 2.04.
From: terry@spcvxb.spc.edu (Terry Kennedy, Operations Mgr.)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Mad drums
Date: 28 Jul 92 09:57:19 GMT
Organization: St. Peter's College, US

In article <1992Jul27.183200.17442@tandem.com>, tvv@tandem.com (Tom Van Vleck) writes:
> I think this may be an urban legend.

  When I was in high school, we bought timesharing services from a nearby
school system. The systems were HP2000's (2000C' and 2000F). As I recall,
the C' had a drum, as well as a 23Mb disk pack. Well, one day we couldn't
get in, and when the teacher called up, she was told that the drum had
come loose and ripped things up pretty good.

  About a year later, I got to visit the computer facility and asked if this
was true or not. Well, they still had the old drum cabinet and drum there
(this was when HP made everything in battleship grey). Well, there were some
pretty hefty scratch marks on the enclosure. Apparently the drum bearing(s)
failed and it tipped.

  Later on in life I got to work on an LGP-30 (yes, I believe that's Mel's
machine and no, I'm not living my life in reverse chronological order 8-).
The '30 had a smaller drum, but having picked it up and watched the motor
try to start it, I can believe these stories.

	Terry Kennedy		Operations Manager, Academic Computing
	terry@spcvxa.bitnet	St. Peter's College, Jersey City, NJ USA
	terry@spcvxa.spc.edu	+1 201 915 9381
Xref: sparky alt.folklore.computers:11588 comp.lang.apl:905