HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: li@Data-IO.COM (Phyllis Rostykus)
Subject: Basic Trivia (was Re: BAH! HUMBUG!)
Organization: Data I/O Corporation
Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1992 22:35:57 GMT

In article <1992Oct2.144213.22101@nntp.uoregon.edu> JBrandt@AAA.UOregon.EDU (Jay Brandt (Jason)) writes:
>Trivia questions: 
>Why are binary, octal and hexadecimal used in computers, rather than
>decimal?

'Cause, for simplicity, most chips use a two-rail system for their
logic, ground and power.  So there are two states that any particular gate
can go to.  With the advent of CMOS, where one transistor pulls to gnd and
the other pulls up to pwr, it got balanced, faster, and easier...  And
since the logic starts out binary, it's easier to just go to the powers of 2.

There is a three-rail system that's being experimented with, so there may
be a trinary computer in the near future.  Plus, minus, and reference.

>Why doesn't anybody bother to use base-4 (Quadral?)?

Anymore?  Or ever?  Have to admit I'm not an old coot, so I don't really
know of a time when folks used four-based reps.

Actually, a lot of people don't bother with octal anymore, either,
probably for the same reason, it's just inconvenient to work with such a
small collection of bits.  Binary's still useful because it's elementry,
but once you start grouping, might as well go bigger.  Thing is with
hexidecimal, the numbers still outnumber (ack) the letters, so it's fairly
easy to associate quickly.  Possibly one of the reasons folks don't go to
base 32. (tridecabinary?? laughter!!)

---
Phyllis Rostykus - owner of Silicon Webs, a chip designing consulting 
		   company of one.  Grin...
Newsgroups: alt.callahans
From: jmpierce@whale.st.usm.edu (Jimmy Malcolm Pierce)
Subject: Re: Our September 27th Birthday Boy!
Organization: University of Southern Mississippi
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1992 01:51:03 GMT

 { beta-testing is soooo much fun... I guess these are getting through now.. }

In article <1992Sep28.020436.10520@cs.mcgill.ca> braley@binkley.cs.mcgill.ca  (The Didi-Sprite) writes:
>Hi, John Carney!
>
>Today is a rather significant day in your life, is it not?  I rather
>think that it is!  Yes!  It is ...
>
>		     YOUR   BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!
>
>And, you thought I forgot!
>
>Not this Sprite!
>
>Happy Birthday, John ... and many, many more.
>
>Nick Chopper dropped something off to help you celebrate, and here it
>is now!

 [ delicious looking cake deleted... ]

     After letting the previous birthday boy relax from all of that dancing,
Linda asks, " John are you ready for a birthday dance ? Hmmm ?"

     "I suggest 250-300 feet up to get used to it, but Linda likes to dance
   at 3,000 feet up... " DJ.

    "Well, I provide oxygen when needed..." Linda.

    "Yeah, and later we can have some barbed-bee-que ! " Robbie.

    { mumbled... 'barbed bar-bee-que...' Linda and DJ. }

-- 
 Jim Pierce Bach. of Sci. in Applied Computer Science
 jmpierce@whale.st.usm.edu  Disclaimer: Standard.
  "Gad, I dislike beta-testing, it makes me fell all irky inside." me :-)
From: braley@binkley.cs.mcgill.ca (The Didi-Sprite)
Newsgroups: alt.callahans
Subject: Re: Holding on to the light
Date: 29 Sep 92 22:16:30 GMT
Organization: SOCS - Mcgill University, Montreal, Canada
Originator: braley@binkley.cs.mcgill.ca

In article <9w+pra+.aahz@netcom.com> aahz@netcom.com (Mean Green Dancing Machine) writes:
>In article <1992Sep28.145035.12812@terminator.cc.umich.edu> sjg@terminator.cc.umich.edu (Susan Gavula) writes:
>>
>>I am sorry if the following post is not completely coherent.  I am 
>>trying to put many conflicting feelings into words.
>>
>>   [deleted]
>>
>>I try to hang on to the light, but I feel the darkness closing in and
>>I am just so tired.
>
>Group hug!  Group hug!
>-- 

The Didi-Sprite looks up and calls out:  "Count me in!"

----<--<@

The Didi-Sprite
Montreal * Canada

braley@binkley.cs.mcgill.ca
From: jmpierce@whale.st.usm.edu (Jimmy Malcolm Pierce)
Newsgroups: alt.callahans
Subject: Re: schools re: Old Coots Test
Date: 6 Oct 92 17:42:06 GMT
Organization: University of Southern Mississippi - Gulf Park Campus

(Abner J. Mintz) writes:
>Well, Splash, most people start recovering by age 45 ...  A few lucky ones
>don't recover until they're in their 80's or 90's!   =8)
>

     "Gee, does this mean those dreams I have are all in my imagination..." DJ.

  :-) :-)

jmpierce@whale.st.usm.edu Dreamy Jim.
"Disclaimer ! I don't need no stinking disclaimer !" someone else...

-- 
 Jim Pierce Bach. of Sci. in Applied Computer Science
 jmpierce@whale.st.usm.edu  Disclaimer: Standard.
  "Is it the weekend yet ?" me :-)
From: ml5a+@andrew.cmu.edu (Mark Beirne Lively)
Newsgroups: alt.callahans
Subject: Re: Suicide (Was: Friends ... forever ...)
Date: 29 Sep 92 23:08:06 GMT
	<1a8moeINN6ci@gap.caltech.edu>
Organization: Sophomore, Mechanical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA

>Perhaps.  But does anybody know the source of the rather perverse (and
>hypocritical) attitude prevalent in much of our society that maintains that
>the harder path somehow has something intrinsic to commend it?  If taking the
>easy way is so much worse than taking the hard way, why aren't we all
out there
>raising wild crops with nothing better as farm tools than sharpened sticks?
	The reason why we think that the harder path must be the better one is
because we are all on it and to afraid to jump off.  It also has to do
with teh mind trying to main its idea of self importance shielding the
ego.  Most people when confronted with a better way of doing something
than they are used to will say that there must be soemthing wrong with
it.  Like one of the unbelieveably stupid comments I've heard made
agaisnt homosexuality  "They aren't happy they just think that they are
happy."

Friend of the one who is.
Bear aka the Lord High Rulebender aka (ML5A@ANDREW.CMU.EDU)
Newsgroups: alt.callahans
From: regan1016@bestsd.sdsu.edu (T. ELIZABETH HARVEY)
Subject: Re: Suicide (Was: Friends ... forever ...)
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.4-b1  
Organization: San Diego State University - Dept. of Redundancy Dept.
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1992 00:07:00 GMT

In article <1992Sep28.151404.18466@openage.openage.com>, gryphon@openage.openage.com (The Golden Gryphon writes...
>I will miss Arty myself, but I can't help thinking that suicide is the
>cowards way out.  I have talked many of my friends out of suicide, and they
>are mostly better for it.  I don't think suicide makes your problems go
>away, I think you will be forced to deal with them in the next life, or the
>one after that.  And then there are all the people you left behind...
> 
>...
> 
>To see this about Arty was just too much for me.  And I started thinking about
>how I would be remembered.  I don't like the idea of glorifying Arty's death.
>There were a thousand places he could have turned for help.  That includes us.
>I still think he took the easy way out.  Life is much harder than death. 
> 
I understand how you feel, Gryphon.
I knew how Regan/Arty felt about suicide.  He truly believed that the time 
would come that he would either die violently, or by his own hand.  He 
didn't have many qualms about suicide.  He seemed to think it gave him a 
measure of control.  I strenously disagreed ... maybe if we had had more 
time together ...
But we didn't.  I do know that when he came to visit me in LA May 31st, 
suicide was the last thing on his mind.  And the last time I had any 
contact with him, which was June 1st, we talked about his next visit to LA 
.. and I hear that people who are definitely suicidal don't make plans 
they don't think they will be around to fulfill.

What happened between June 1st and the day he pulled the trigger, only God 
knows.  And God knows I would have done anything to help him.  Absolutely 
anything.  But he didn't reach out to me, or any of his other friends.  I 
don't condone suicide, I've always said it was the coward's way out, but I 
know in my heart Regan wasn't a coward.  I'll never know what made him 
think it was alright to give up, or that he had no one who loved him enough 
to help.  But that doesn't change the fact that Regan Scott Pylman was an 
honourable, good man.  We should mourn for him, and we should acknowledge 
what happened and what he meant to us.  I could do no less for the man I 
loved.

To everyone who has written concerning this, I thank you.  Although I 
believe his soul departed too soon, I also believe his soul is alive and he 
can now know how much and how many people loved and cared and respected 
him.  And it's a comfort to me as well.  I do pray that the sorrow abates, 
but that you still keep Regan alive and well in your hearts.

>-- 
>The Golden Gryphon 				gryphon@openage.COM

---<--<-{@ | "I believe that before all else, I am a reasonable human being,
Elizabeth  | just as you are -- or, at all events, that I must try and 
	   | become one." _A Doll's House_, Henrik Ibsen
From: cs_b173@kingston.ac.uk (Hotchkiss F G)
Newsgroups: alt.callahans
Subject: Re: ANOTHER MIA LIST
Date: 29 Sep 92 13:16:18 GMT
Organization: Kingston University

Organization: Kingston University

I seem to have missed the MIA list again.
Is it possible to see it again please?

Kane, Captain Caffeine under another name.




>conan the librarian a.k.a. kitten           /\ /\  barbara ann 
>"my life's a soap opera, isn't yours?"      {=.=}

My life is definately a soap opera kitten, but when do I get a script 
conference?
Newsgroups: alt.callahans
From: moh2@quads.uchicago.edu (Kateri/Mary Anne)
Subject: Re: Speaker for the Dead
Reply-To: moh2@midway.uchicago.edu
Organization: University of Chicago Computing Organizations
Date: Sun, 27 Sep 1992 20:34:19 GMT

Kateri...coming back to callahans and Holomuck after a long absence,
is stunned.

"I feel like we failed him somehow.  Isn't the purpose of this place
to take care of people?"

"Please, if there's anybody else out there even *thinking* of suicide,
talk to us?"

"I'm going to miss him....he built the desert next to mine..."

 - Kateri

-- 
The autumn leaves are falling like rain.
Although my neighbors are all barbarians,
And you, you are a thousand miles away,
There are always two cups at my table.		 - A T'ang Dynasty poem
From: keulen@possum.csu.murdoch.edu.au (Mike van Keulen)
Subject: Re: BAH! HUMBUG! (was Re: Christmas is busting out all over!)
Organization: Murdoch University
Date: 30 Sep 92 04:44:14 GMT

lydick@SOL1.GPS.CALTECH.EDU (Speaker-to-Minerals) writes:

>"After all, 31 oct = 25 dec."

Splash groans and rushes to the bar ... he grabs the nearest bowl of peanuts
and hurls them accurately, and Speaker-to-Mineral's face temporarily disappears
in a haze of peanuts.

I may only be a biologist with the barest minimum of computer training, but I
managed to work that one out!

Splash!

--
***************************** Michael van Keulen *************************** 
* Snail: School of BES - Biology         e-mail: keulen@murdoch.edu.au     *
*        Murdoch University              phone:  ++ 61 (09) 360-2843 (work)*
*        Murdoch WA 6150  AUSTRALIA              ++ 61 (09) 417-3902 (home)*
*************************** "To Love is to _LIVE_!" ************************
Newsgroups: alt.callahans
From: krisj@cssc-syd.tansu.com.au (Kristina Johansson)
Subject: re: toast
Organization: AOTC - CSSC
Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1992 07:26:35 GMT

Raven swoops over to Damien.
"So you have new contacts, well i have a few words of advice.
1.  Never fall asleep with your contacts on, but if you ever do, never try
to take them off immedialtely after waking up, as they have adhered
themselves to your eyeball, and are very painful to remove.  Get your tear
glands working.
2. Avoid wearing them if you work with solvents.  My eye doctor once told me
a horror story of someones contacts actually dissolving in their eyes.
YUCK!
As for taking so long to put in, that speeds up with experience.  Hmmm,
thats all i can think of for now."

Raven then swoops over to an unoccupied barstool, and wonders where she
can offer another two cents of opinion.
From: lydick@SOL1.GPS.CALTECH.EDU (Speaker-to-Minerals)
Newsgroups: alt.callahans
Subject: Re: Question of how things were [Re: pun-o-matic]
Date: 26 Sep 1992 20:27:49 GMT
Organization: HST Wide Field/Planetary Camera
Reply-To: lydick@SOL1.GPS.CALTECH.EDU
NNTP-Posting-Host: sol1.gps.caltech.edu

In article <1992Sep21.105411.12326@ucc.su.OZ.AU>, mar@physics.su.OZ.AU (David Mar) writes:
>>[Ocelot:] I have a question for DM, or anybody who can relate this
>>question to their own profession.  I was studying astronomy a bit ago,
>>and was reminded of the fact that the light we receive has been
>>travelling for an insane amount of time.  So these things which are
>>emitting the light/wavelengths etc may no longer be there.  Okay, so the
>>question is, granted that you are an astronomer - would you want to
>>travel out there and see all of this up close?  Andromeda?  Alpha
>>Centauri?  Do you ever dream of standing at a point in space and just
>>looking at it?  What if the truth be known that these places no longer
>>exist, and we're just seeing all that light etc. that's been travelling?
>>Am I making any sense?
>
>"Perfect sense," Danger Mouse answers. "The answers to your first four
>questions are: yes! yes!! yes!!! yes!!!! Wow, it would be wonderful to
>be able to examine all those things from nearby, instead of relying on
>the feeble remnants of the light they emitted years ago.

StM looks aghast, and pulls a white jacket with *VERY* long sleeves out of his
knapsack.  Approaching DM carefully, and unfolding the jacket, he asks, "Are
you *REALLY* sure you'd like to get *CLOSE* to a quasar?"  Seeing the look DM
gives him, he realizes that to astronomers, "close" doesn't mean the same thing
it does to most of us, just as they've got their own standards for "out of
focus," and puts the jacket back in his knapsack.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This text
is included
to satisfy
the obnoxious new
software recently
installed on my
NNTP server
From: lydick@SOL1.GPS.CALTECH.EDU (Speaker-to-Minerals)
Newsgroups: alt.callahans
Subject: Re: two things
Date: 27 Sep 92 18:24:34 GMT
Reply-To: lydick@SOL1.GPS.CALTECH.EDU
Organization: HST Wide Field/Planetary Camera
NNTP-Posting-Host: sol1.gps.caltech.edu

In article <Bv2BKp.EGw@news.cso.uiuc.edu>, trumpins@alexia.lis.uiuc.edu (Barbara Trumpinski) writes:
>and....does anyone know what is inside a lava lamp to make it do what
>it does?"

I think it was mineral oil and a special wax.  The exact sort of was was
reputedly a trade secret (though I find this hard to believe.  How hard would
it be for an industrial chemist to analyze a wax?).
Newsgroups: alt.callahans
From: aahz@netcom.com (Mean Green Dancing Machine)
Subject: Re: Callahan's is for everyone
Organization: Bill 'n' Opus for Prez
Date: Tue, 6 Oct 1992 14:57:19 GMT

In article <122420131@hpfcso.FC.HP.COM> daq@hpfcso.FC.HP.COM (Doug Quarnstrom) writes:
>
>My point is that for some types of problems, callahans is not
>only useless, but it is counterproductive, as it can tend to lead
>to obsessive behavior and avoidance of solutions that might really
>help.
>
>People, keep your perspective, and admit to yourselves that callahans
>is not qualified to be a hospital for emotionally disordered 
>people.

I'll agree with what you've said, as far as it goes.  However, "peer
counseling" is a highly effective form of therapy.  The various 12-step
programs rely on this technique.

Because the Net forces a certain amount of detachment (in most people),
I believe that in many ways alt.callahans is better suited for dealing
with people's problems than a face-to-face peer counseling group.
There's a flip side, of course, in that we can't *see* if someone is
physically ill or something like that.

I think that in general we speak correctly, when we call a.c a *support* 
group -- we do very well at that, but we're not qualified to do more.
-- 
                         --- Aahz (the *other* Dan Bernstein)
                             @netcom.com 

Hugs and backrubs -- I break Rule 6

Trying to be happy is like trying to build a machine for which the only
specification is that it should run noiselessly.
Newsgroups: alt.callahans
From: keulen@possum.csu.murdoch.edu.au (Mike van Keulen)
Subject: Re: a suggestion re: That wretched bureau...
Organization: Murdoch University
Date: 29 Sep 92 08:57:14 GMT

JMPIERCE%USMCP6.bitnet@VM.TCS.Tulane.EDU (JIM PIERCE) writes:


>   "hmm. Splash, is there  local to you a 'Harbor Patrol' or 'Beach
>Patrol' office you could call ? Maybe the local Harbour Master has
>a phone you could call for the local sea conditions. Most professional
>fishermen don't exactly like to get out in sea conditions that will
>tear their nets, " Dreamy Jim.


Thanks DJ, I'll try that one - we have a system of volunteer search and rescue
groups along our coastline, and there's actually one just around the corner
from my work site.  I hadn't even considered it, truth be known.  But then, a
coastal boating forecast is supposed to give that sort of info, no?  Ciao!

Splash!


--
***************************** Michael van Keulen *************************** 
* Snail: School of BES - Biology         e-mail: keulen@murdoch.edu.au     *
*        Murdoch University              phone:  ++ 61 (09) 360-2843 (work)*
*        Murdoch WA 6150  AUSTRALIA              ++ 61 (09) 417-3902 (home)*
*************************** "To Love is to _LIVE_!" ************************
From: eesshlgb@gdr.bath.ac.uk (S H L G Bisson)
Newsgroups: alt.callahans
Subject: Re: schools re: Old Coots Test
Date: 30 Sep 92 14:43:12 GMT
Organization: School of Electrical Engineering, University of Bath, UK

In the referenced article, seawasp@vm2.cis.pitt.edu (Sea Wasp) writes:

Sea Wasp asks:

>	What I don't understand is this "form" business. What is first,
>second, etc., form?

The cartoon mouse, a product of the British educational system, looks across
the room.

"There is a tradition in British (and I suppose in what were once colonies)
of calling classes `Forms'. This, I have always understood, goes back to the 
old public schools, such as Harrow and Eton, which traditionally have used
Latin terminology, and the word is an Anglicisation of the Latin term used.

"And the word drifted into current usage..."

Ignatz smiles.

"Of course the term `public school' is an oxymoron."

---=-
Ignatz Mouse aka Simon Bisson...victim of another bookshop attack...........
-=---
Newsgroups: alt.callahans
From: keulen@possum.csu.murdoch.edu.au (Mike van Keulen)
Subject: Re: Phoenix arrives
Organization: Murdoch University
Date:  5 Oct 92 07:25:29 GMT

Splash wanders over to Phoenix and gives her a hug (a bit of steam arises from
Splash where a couple of parts of Phoenix's wings haven't cooled off
completely).  

"Welcome to the Place!
I've just read Jason's post on what's been happening to you lately ... quite a
rough ride, particularly with the ulcer to top things off.  I wish you all the
best with your studies and THE FIGHT.  Hopefully we'll see you on line again
soon" he says hopefully.  He gives her another hug, and offers: "Another Coke?"

Splash!

--
***************************** Michael van Keulen *************************** 
* Snail: School of BES - Biology         e-mail: keulen@murdoch.edu.au     *
*        Murdoch University              phone:  ++ 61 (09) 360-2843 (work)*
*        Murdoch WA 6150  AUSTRALIA              ++ 61 (09) 417-3902 (home)*
*************************** "To Love is to _LIVE_!" ************************
Newsgroups: alt.callahans
Subject: Re: Callahan's coots?
From: jwwalden@miavx1.acs.muohio.edu (P'relan)
Date: 27 Sep 92 23:33:21 -0500
Organization: Dept. of Physics

In article <1992Sep23.051136.7009@muddcs.claremont.edu>, dgreen@jarthur.claremont.edu (David Green) writes:
> Mishael, having listened to the talk of 'old coot tests' bantering back and
> forth across the Place, muses, "It occurs to me that a lot of you weren't here
> when I first found this place.  I wonder what events might qualify one for a
> 'Callahan's coot'?
> "As an introductory question: how many here remember Captain Video?  I think
> that's the only Callahan's posting I have saved just for the purpose of re-
> reading..."

P'relan looks up from his usual pile of evil-looking physics tomes, "Well, I
remember seeing you around for a while, but I tend to forget when people came
in.  I've been here since...hmmmm...maybe it's when you forget when you arrived
that you count as an old coot?"  P'relan grins, "No, actually I'm not that
senile despite the recent birthday and too much cake.  I arrived in December of
89, but Birith wasn't hatched til sometime around April of 90."

"Of course, I remember Captain Video!  I've kept a lot of posts, but I've also
lost quite a few through disk crashes so I don't have that one.  Taldin, could
you bring Captain Video (and SuperSuds I think it was) back?"

> ***********************Who ordered the muon? -- I. I. Rabi**********************

"Life wouldn't be as interesting with just one generation of elementary
particles, now, would it?" (-:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 P'relan (and Birith)      	   ``Time stand still -
 jwwalden@miavx1.acs.muohio.edu      I'm not looking back -
  or jwwalden@miavx1.bitnet	     But I want to look around me now.'' - RUSH
From: Heather_Premeau@edtng.Kenosha.WI.US (Heather Premeau)
Newsgroups: alt.callahans
Subject: Re: Pet cats
Distribution: world
Date: 26 Sep 92 22:32:07 CST
Organization: Electric Dreams: The Next Generation BBS

too slow the cat down....just pick it up and cuddle!!!  (or kick it as
David just said!)     heather

-- Via DLG Pro v0.992

Organization: Sophomore, Mechanical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
Newsgroups: alt.callahans
Date: Thu,  1 Oct 1992 08:16:08 -0400 
From: Mark Beirne Lively <ml5a+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: BAH! HUMBUG! (was Re: Christmas is busting out all over!)
	<keulen.717911940@possum>


>The air in the bar begins to cloud as more peanuts are thrown, this time at
>Jason (Thanks for the support Thyra).  Any more base-humourists?  There's
>peanuts a plenty  :-)
	I'ld be lyeing to you if I wasn't tempted to follow up with more puns.
But I don't want to appear to caustic.  After all this is a friendly
place so i thing I'll parachute off of a brigde of a building or
something(Note BASE jumping is parachuting off of certain strutucres
instaed of airplains)

Friend of the one who is.
Bear aka the Lord High Rulebender aka (ML5A@ANDREW.CMU.EDU)
Newsgroups: alt.callahans
From: li@Data-IO.COM (Phyllis Rostykus)
Subject: Re: Cultural Exchange (was Re: Schooling)
Organization: Data I/O Corporation
Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1992 22:08:36 GMT

In article <1992Oct1.224216.27280@ucc.su.OZ.AU> neilb@physics.su.OZ.AU (RiemannZeta(s)) writes:
>
>ground is firm enough he will bounce it, otherwise
>he will throw it up.

Yow.  I *like* that.

>A question that has long puzzled me about Americian Football,
>can the ball be passed as many times as you wish in one play?

It can be passed backwards as many times as you like.  It can be passed
forward only from behind the line of scrimage AND only if the linesmen are
behind the line of scrimage; but there's no limit as to how many times it
can go forward.  Hmmm... apologies if you already know the terminalogy, but
line of scrimage = where the ball first starts before the play begins
linesmen = the guys lined up on the line in front of the QB (I *think*
there are usually five...)

---
Liralen Li
li@inigo.Data-IO.com