HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: jcmorris@mwunix.mitre.org (Joe Morris)
Subject: 1960's vintage advertisements (was: 1960 Bernoulli Disk Drive)
Organization: The MITRE Corporation
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 18:10:55 GMT

rfd@po.CWRU.Edu (Richard F. Drushel) writes:

[discussion of 1960 magazine ad]

>	Many of the other ads in this journal are (to me, at any
>rate) surprisingly sexist.  One from Eldorado Electronics says
>"How Do You Measure and Sort?  This way --> [woman sitting in
>front of giant 'scope] or this way --> [tiny box; line drawings
>of woman and 'scope with Xs drawn through them]" (p. 1410).  Another
>shows a Bob Dobbs type lounging against a Benson-Lehner computer,
>leering at a pretty keypunch operator; a comic-strip word balloon
>from the man has punchtape and punchcard holes, while the woman
>says "I was beginning to think you'd never ask!" (p. 1264).

That was a rather unfortunate characteristic of many of the ads of
the period.  One I remember was for (some company I forget) bragging
that its languages "included Dumb Blonde".

Several years ago Datamation magazine for its 25th (?) anniversary issue
reprinted some of the vintage advertisments from its early days.  A few
of the ads which the editor wanted to use could not be printed because
the companies involved refused -- from embarrassment -- to permit their
republication.

OTOH, there were some really beautiful ads back then.  One of the most
popular -- to the point that many readers cut them out and posted them
on office walls -- were from Honeywell.  Some artist would take
computer components -- wires, resistors, circuit boards, and whatever
else came to hand -- and used them to create extremely well-done
animal figures.  You could even buy posters of them; one ad (for both
Honeywell machines *and* the posters) made the artwork the main headline:
it went something like "One duck. One horse. One cow. One dog. One buck."
(advertising a poster of four figures for $1. -- obviously a long time ago.)

Joe Morris /  MITRE
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,alt.folklore.urban
From: sweeney@Ingres.COM (Tony Sweeney)
Subject: Re: CDs cheaper to make than cassettes?
Reply-To: sweeney@Ingres.COM (Tony Sweeney)
Organization: Ask Computer Systems Inc., Ingres Division, Alameda CA 94501
Date: 20 Nov 92 16:13:32 GMT

In article <1992Nov18.202016.24690@hpcvaac.cv.hp.com> billn@hpcvaac.cv.hp.com (bill nelson) writes:
>
>Why is it due to the buss? You can only directly select 64K locations with
>a 16 bit word. Multiply that by 8 bits (for 8 bit words) and you come up
>to less than 1/2 meg as the direct limit. Of course, by indirect addressing,
>you could address 64,000 pages of about 1/2 meg each or about 32000Meg of
>memory.
>
>Bill

Am I the only one to find it difficult to believe that the nonsense
above was written by someone who knows how to work a computer? I'd put
the guy right, only I have a suspicion he's "newbie trawling".

Tony "used to build microcontrollers for money" Sweeney.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: eugene@wilbur.nas.nasa.gov (Eugene N. Miya)
Subject: Re: World's Toughest Computers
Organization: NAS, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA
Date: Tue, 24 Nov 92 02:02:19 GMT

For a while, various companies haev toughness ads:  I remeber the
Apple fire ad with the cat near the remains.  H-P had a calculator
which went thru a snow blower.  I have a hard time believing an
the 400 is that tough.  We have a real need in our helicopter
research to place microprocessors on the instrumented tips of helicopter
rotor blades to see what's happening out there.  We need a micro which can
withstand 800-1600 Gs.  Obviously the pin out is the major problem,
but I've not heard from the helicopter guys for a while, so they must have
met their needs.  I guess I should ask them who the vendor is.....

--eugene miya, NASA Ames Research Center, eugene@orville.nas.nasa.gov
  Resident Cynic, Rock of Ages Home for Retired Hackers
  {uunet,mailrus,other gateways}!ames!eugene
Second Favorite email message: Returned mail: Cannot send message for 3 days
A Ref: Mathematics and Plausible Reasoning, vol. 1, G. Polya
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,alt.folklore.urban
From: billn@hpcvaac.cv.hp.com (bill nelson)
Subject: Re: How to kill chickens with your computer...
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Company, Corvallis, Oregon USA
Date: Sat, 21 Nov 1992 09:46:27 GMT

mst@vexpert.dbai.tuwien.ac.at (Markus Stumptner) writes:
: 
: > Who would build a factory to produce 7 Hz tones?  What's the market?
: 
: Well, the military of course.  No doubt some super secret project that
: blew its cover because of this flaw.  I wonder what else resonates at
: this frequency.

How about repeated postings to a.f.u.?

Bill "Who me? Repeat myself? Never!" Nelson
From: idf@cs.bham.ac.uk (Ian Fitchet)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: IBM and 3
Date: 21 Nov 92 23:49:37 GMT
Organization: School of Computer Science, University of Birmingham


 On 21 Nov 92, Diversion (Jeff Rogers) wrote

> Is this just coincidence? Or does IBM only get things right in multiples of
> 3?

 Bad luck comes in threes, it seems IBM can't get enough of it.

 Not that I'm a fan of the big blue, for this posting an independent
observer.

--
Cheers,

	Ian

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ian Fitchet     				      I.D.Fitchet@cs.bham.ac.uk
School of Computer Science
Univ. of Birmingham, UK, B15 2TT
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: hees@cubic.com (Phil Hees)
Subject: Re: base -2 arithmetic (was: Re: Trinary)
Organization: Cubic Tomato Corp.
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 92 20:54:43 GMT

pete@minster.york.ac.uk writes:
>In article <3ug2TB6w165w@mertwig.UUCP> xyzzy@mertwig.UUCP (Daniel
>Drucker) writes:
>:    Daniel Max P. Drucker            | #define SLOGAN Hey! Lets port it to COBOL!
>:    The 14 year old LISP/C++ genius. | Disclaimer: I don't know COBOL.
>: 
>Aha. BIFF GR0WS UP!!!!! 
>Or is it more a case Mr Drucker being an admirer of D000G1E H0WSSSER!!!! 

More like Ensign Wesley Crusher.  :)

Daniel, you might want to tone your .sig down a bit.  There are quite
a few _real_ geniuses reading this newsgroup, and they don't go around
flaunting it quite so openly.  Someone might ask you for proof.

Besides, _Real_ geniuses know COBOL (even if they refuse to use it).

--
Phil Hees
hees@cubic.com
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: colombo@bronco.fnal.gov
Subject: Re: World's Toughest Computers
Organization: Fermilab Computing Division
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 16:37:04 GMT


When the shuttle Challenger went down, a (core) memory module was
recovered after being in the ocean for a week, it was still readable.

-- 
 ___________________________________________________________________________
 *****  *   *  From the e-net desk of: Rick Colombo CD/DCD/DSG    *    *
 *      **  *  Fermi Nat'l Acc'l Lab   708-840-8225 Fermilab     * *   *
 ***    * * *  P.O. Box 500   MS 369   Feynman Computer Center  *****  *
 *      *  **  Batavia, Ill. USA 60510 Colombo@fnal.fnal.gov    *   *  *****
 *     Of course I speak for Fermilab, Congress and the President... NOT !!!
From: sbyrnes@rice.edu (Steven Byrnes)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Superstitions: power cycling, screen savers, surge suppressors
Date: 22 Nov 92 23:04:35 GMT
Reply-To: sbyrnes@rice.edu (Steven Byrnes)
Organization: Locutus

On Sun, 22 Nov 1992 15:42:05 GMT, Peter da Silva said:

> I take it you've never used a monitor more than a few years old. I had an
> ADM3A with ";login:" permanently burned into the phosphor, and we have a
> bunch of monitors at work with ghostly images of login screens, editors,
> and spreadsheets burned into the phosphor. That Emacs status line is very
> distinctive.

We have an "old" NeXT cube upstairs here that has the login box permanently
burned into the screen.  It's just barely visible, but you really notice it
when you have a terminal, or other white window, open right over it.
Pitty.

Steven
From: xyzzy@mertwig.UUCP (Daniel Drucker)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: YKYBHTL
Date: Sun, 22 Nov 92 10:00:30 EST
Organization: Odd Parity Hacker's Group


> ... when you, when reading the new hackers dictionary appendix
> 'portrait of J. Random Hacker' (or something like that) you
> notice that you possess most of the traits described and when
> you move alone (I was living with my parents at the time) you
> start acquiring the rest at an unnerving speed...
> 

I was pretty relieved when I read that book (yes, I read the book before 
I knew about the file; I think I'm about halfway through larval stage :-) 


--  "Xyzzy T. Plugh"                               mertwig!xyzzy@jaflrn.uucp
                     Amateur radio callsign pending
        Daniel Max P. Drucker, the 14 year old networks wizard.

"Difficulty! It's the single simplest machine in the entire Universe!" -HHGTTG
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: andrew@cyfrak.rdt.monash.edu.au (Andrew Moore)
Subject: Re: CM5 pic - terribly sorry gentlemen, it's a dud
Reply-To: andrew.moore@rdt.monash.edu.au
Organization: Monash University, Melb., Australia.
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 11:25:52 GMT

scott@ryptyde.cts.com (Scott McClure) writes:

>pgut1@cs.aukuni.ac.nz (Peter Gutmann) writes:

...
>>Peter.

Thanks for trying Peter.

>Geez... Even Cray Research isn't that snobby about their posters.
>Don't they even have promo shots that could be scanned?

Yeah, I have to agree, TMC, this is a real snob attitude.

Got the address of the lawyer critter (or others) at TMC that we can
write to and complain ?

>Scott

Look, I know me having a CM-5 poster (or copy or whatever) is not going
to mean TMC sells another machine, or even another 1/1,000 of a machine
but, having these sort of "publicity devices" (thats what Cray call
them) available mean people remember that machine instead of a DEC Mpp
or some other companies engine.  Such material gives good PR to
the company ultimately that may mean something to the bottom line.

I am trying heavily to emphasis that printing/distributing n posters
will NOT guarantee m sales, even where n:m is 1^10:1 I am saying TMC
would be seen as a pack of snobs (for want of a better word) as well as
losing in the PR department too !

I'll just go back to drooling over my Cray (poster) collection.

(and no, this not an invite for people to say how they drool over their
real Cray collection, but I am sure someone will say they do :-) )

cheers,
Andrew.

(an absolute addict of "sexy" computer pictures.)

-- 
    Andrew Moore      |    Department of Robotics and Digital Technology
Ph:  +61 3 573 2063   |  Caulfield Campus, Monash Uni, VIC 3145, Australia
Fax: +61 3 573 2345   |       E-Mail:  andrew.moore@rdt.monash.edu.au 
 Be interested in the future, you will be spending the rest of your life there.
From: pd@x.co.uk (Paul Davey)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Fortune
Date: 16 Nov 92 18:34:53 GMT
Organization: Not a lot
X-Disclaimer: This is not the view of IXI Ltd unless explicitly stated.
X-Copyright: The author asserts the right of paternity in this message.

>>>>> On 13 Nov 92 03:33:22 GMT, jpfleger@csugrad.cs.vt.edu (Jim Pfleger) said:

Jim> I called the number and the area code has changed to 510.  I called
Jim> THAT number and it was disconnected.  Does anyone know what was
Jim> originally at this number?

Well, upto sometime in the last year if you called that number you got
a UCB campus voice information server (of some sort) which gave the
time as well as some other information.

A pity the number and area code has changed. 
But then the time it gave me was 7 hours out :-)

It's been in the fortune file for a long time (10 years maybe?).

--
    Regards,			IXI            Internet: pd@x.co.uk
	Paul Davey		Vision Park    UUCP:     pd@ixi.uucp
				Cambridge      Bang:     ...!uunet!ixi!pd
 "These are interesting times"	CB4 4ZR, UK    Tel:      +44 223 236 555
From: ags@seaman.cc.purdue.edu (Dave Seaman)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Computer Superstition
Date: 20 Nov 92 19:34:32 GMT
Organization: Purdue University

In article <10292323.7317.11306@kcbbs.gen.nz>  writes:
> We've all heard of common superstitions such as not walking under  
ladders 
> and throwing salt over your left shoulder if you spill some, but are 
> there any superstitions to do with computers?

[Do you remember me? I used to combat the dreaded line-eater bug.]
Years ago there was a bug in some versions of the news software that  
caused articles beginning with whitespace to have initial blocks of text  
deleted. Long after the bug was fixed, a large percentage of all news  
postings continued to exhibit bracketed "line-eater-proof" first lines  
like the one above.
  
--
Dave Seaman
ags@seaman.cc.purdue.edu
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: RICHARD@ttt.kth.se
Subject: Re: Phone number delete (was: You know you've been hacking too long...)
Organization: Department of TeleTransmission Theory
	<1992Nov12.210731.15566@pollux.lu.se>
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 09:35:00 GMT

In article <1992Nov12.210731.15566@pollux.lu.se> magnus@thep.lu.se (Magnus Olsson) writes:

   It should of course be possible to make telephones that store the number
   being dialled in an internal memory, and don't actually dial it until
   you press a special "dial" key. In that case, it would be possible even

Oh, an "Enter" key!

I can already see the announcement: "The latest in phones! With incorporated
IBM-PC compatible computer and WordStar for editing the number!"

I mean, there do exist seewing machines with some kind of computer inside.

   to do real editing of the number before dialling. But I suppose that
   such phones would be too hard to get used to for the computer
   illiterate masses... :-/

Probably.

--
!+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++!
! Richard Levitte, System manager         ! tel: int+46-8-790 64 23           !
! Royal Institute of Technology           ! fax: int+46-8-791 76 54           !
! Department of Telecommunication Theory  ! Internet: richard@ttt.kth.se      !
! S-100 44 Stockholm, Sweden              !                                   !
!-----------------------------------------------------------------------------!
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.sys.cbm
From: terjej@edb.tih.no (Terje Johansen,o90b)
Subject: Re: Commodore keyboard layout.
Posting-Front-End: Winix Conference v 92.05.15  1.20 (running under MS-Windows)
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 11:20:52 GMT

In article <1992Nov18.235137.17841@cs.umb.edu>, edwardp@ra.cs.umb.edu (Edward P. Piecewicz) writes:


>In article <1992Nov17.214421.22889@tamsun.tamu.edu> n029gg@tamuts.tamu.edu (Adam Roach) writes:
>
>
>>The Commodore 64's keyboard was identical around the world. 
>>I'm sure that if we had off world colonies using sanskrit,
>>the same '64's would have been shipped there. This goes a long way
>>towards explaining why we had a British pound symbol on our '64's
>>over here in the States. Additionally, I might like to point out
>>that the layout of the C-64's keyboard had almost nothing to
>>do with prevailing standards for typewriter keyboards.
>
>Was the British Pound key on the U.S. C64 computers, intentional??  It was
>the first (and still is) the computer I ever saw with a Pound key on it.
>
> - Ed
>
>-- 
>Internet:  edwardp@cs.umb.edu                                  - guest user -
>Member and Activist:  The Boston Computer Society
>
>"activist":  The BCS definition of the word "volunteer." 


hmmmm...works nicely. Keyboard is a Tallgrass Tech.

-- 
Terje Johansen at Trondheim College of Engineering, Norway.

Bury me deep. The next generations will be hungry.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Computer Superstition
From: Murray_Moffatt@kcbbs.gen.nz (Murray Moffatt)
Date: 19 Nov 92 02:01:57 GMT
Organization: Kappa Crucis Unix BBS, Auckland, New Zealand

We've all heard of common superstitions such as not walking under ladders 
and throwing salt over your left shoulder if you spill some, but are 
there any superstitions to do with computers?

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: kolstad@cae.wisc.edu (Joel Kolstad)
Subject: Re: Superstitions: power cycling, screen savers, surge suppressors
Organization: U of Wisconsin-Madison College of Engineering
Date: 23 Nov 92 22:02:39 CST

In article <DNiPuB2w165w@mertwig.UUCP> xyzzy@mertwig.UUCP (Daniel Drucker) writes:
>dpbsmith@world.std.com (Daniel P. B. Smith) writes:
>
>> Surge suppressors.  Again, I have to wonder why the manufacturers don't
>> design them in; it should be the responsibility of the computer's own
>> power supply to handle this. And why should a PC need a surge suppressor,
>> but not a CD player, a VCR, a video game machine, etc. all of which contain
>> similar electronics?
>
>They all should.

I make a lot of lab equipment around here, and more and more of it is
becoming computerized.  In those boxes, I use surge suppresors, and so do
the people who do jobs similar to my own over in Physics.  I do think it
has a lot to do with it, though -- consumer goods are HIGHLY parts-cost
minimized, whereas a lot of the lab equipment we do here is mostly custom
work, so most of the cost is tied up in engineering time, and adding $5 to
the actual cost of materials for the box doesn't add much to the total
cost.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,alt.folklore.urban
From: viking@iastate.edu (Dan Sorenson)
Subject: Re: How to kill chickens with your computer...
Organization: Iowa State University, Ames IA
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 04:04:05 GMT

mag6@po.CWRU.Edu (Martin A. Gulaian) writes:

>>:There is no way that 7 hz would be the resonate frequency. Assume that sound
>>:travels at 900 ft/second - in the air. That means that a 7Hz sound has a
>>:wavelength of over 125 feet. Even for 1/125th wave resonance, this comes to
>>:a value over 1 foot. I have never seen any chickens with heads that large.

>7 Hz might not work on a chicken's head, but what about the body of, say,
>a dinosaur-sized creature?  It might be very effective.

>This is documented in The Garments of Caean, a book by Barrington J. Bayley.
>It tells about an actual visit to the planet of infra-sound, where giant
>saurian predators fight subsonic battles with acoustic-tile protected
>herbivores.

	It's been done.  Ever see the movie "Ben Hur?"  Aside from the
chariot race, look at the tubas and other horns carried by the legions
as they march.  Those are made of bronze.  So?

	So bronze has zero overtones.  Listen to a french horn.  Note
how it's nice and soft, a muted note with plenty of harmonics to blend
in?  Make it out of bronze, and instead of that GE Soft White sound
you get a laser beam.  The roman army used these in battle.  While the
two sides marched towards each other, deaf guys carrying tubas would
blow them and the enemy ranks often had blood coming from their ears.

	The question is, if you measured the cranial dimension of the
average human and blew the proper note, what would happen?

	Naw, I won't cross-post this to alt.tasteless...

< Dan Sorenson, DoD #1066 z1dan@exnet.iastate.edu viking@iastate.edu >
<  ISU only censors what I read, not what I say.  Don't blame them.  >
<  "This isn't an answer, it's a pagan dance around a midnight fire  >
<   written in intellectual runes." -- Rich Young                    >
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: alderson@elaine46.Stanford.EDU (Rich Alderson)
Subject: Re: IBM Series/1 Minicomputer
Originator: alderson@leland.Stanford.EDU
Keywords: IBM Series/1 computer
Reply-To: alderson@elaine46.Stanford.EDU (Rich Alderson)
Organization: Stanford University Academic Information Resources
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 92 17:15:39 GMT

In article <BxqFvv.4xv@world.std.com>, dpbsmith@world (Daniel P. B. Smith) writes:
>But I WOULD like to point out that one of IBM's biggest successes is
>getting everyone to forget their failures! Remember ... LOOK OUT, Digital,
>LOOK OUT, DG, here comes Big Blue with their OWN minicomputer!
>
>Rack that one up right along with
>
>   -- the four-inch microfloppy
>   -- the PL/I language
>   -- SAA

Hey!  Leave PL/I (or PL/1, as I first learned it) alone!

It may have violated Dijkstra's dicta all over the place, but there are still
times when I miss its power in Pascal.  (I don't *write* in C.)

But then, I like kitchen-sink tools--PL/I, EMACS, LISP, BSD...
-- 
Rich Alderson   'I wish life was not so short,' he thought.  'Languages take
                such a time, and so do all the things one wants to know about.'
                                                        --J. R. R. Tolkien,
alderson@leland.stanford.edu                              _The Lost Road_
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Computer Superstition
From: rmk@rmkhome.UUCP (Rick Kelly)
Organization: The Man With Ten Cats
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 20:00:41 GMT
Reply-To: rmk@rmkhome.UUCP (Rick Kelly)

In article <1992Nov22.235819.5597@nezsdc.icl.co.nz> andrewb@nezsdc.icl.co.nz (Andrew Bevin) writes:
>>In article <10292323.7317.11306@kcbbs.gen.nz>  writes:
>>> We've all heard of common superstitions such as not walking under  
>>ladders 
>>> and throwing salt over your left shoulder if you spill some, but are 
>>> there any superstitions to do with computers?
>
>I had a Mac with the now infamous sticky 40 meg drive. The drive would 
>occassionally stick when first started. A Apple engineer showed me how
>to overcome the problem. It involved picking up the mac and giving it 
>a sharp twist, at which point the disk would spin up and the mac would
>start booting.
>
>People were quite bemused when I had to demonstrate this before being able
>to use the Mac.

They were Quantum Pro 40s SCSI drives.  The case was out of spec lubricant
that would migrate to the landing zone and cause the heads to get stuck
when parked.  The fix was to modify the firmware to increase the current
curve on the head actuators, and yank the heads away from the landing zone
with greater force.

-- 

Rick Kelly	rmk@rmkhome.UUCP	unixland!rmkhome!rmk	rmk@frog.UUCP
From: Larry.Mc.Donald@ofa123.fidonet.org
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: question:
X-Sender: newtout 0.02 Nov 17 1992
Date: 20 Nov 92  11:20:00

 mcovingt@aisun3.ai.uga.edu 
   (Michael Covington) writes:

 > Re the original use of DACs and an oscilloscope to make the Spacewar
 > display:
 > 
 > I'd *really* like to see somebody implement that, as a gadget to be used
 > with an oscilloscope.  Good oscilloscopes are now quite abundant, even
 > if the screens are a bit small.  Let's see... maybe you could run the
 > game on a PC using the printer port for output, and alternating between
 > two DACs for X and Y axes; or maybe some custom interfacing is needed,
 > or even implement it in a microcontroller such as the Motorola 68HC11
 > series.  Any takers?

   I've got the documentation (schematics and program) for the 
last of the arcade spacewars games, which was still vector based 
but used a regular TV tube for the display and had angle 
correction circuitry added for the wide deflection angle found in 
TV kinescopes as opposed to an oscilloscopes' CRT. If anyone is 
interested, I'll gladly copy it all off for ya in trade for 
keeping me posted as to what you do with the info...



... Larry.Mc.Donald, N6ZMB, Fullerton, California!  <cough, cough>
___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.10

--- Maximus 2.00
Xref: sparky alt.folklore.computers:16402 alt.folklore.urban:29024
From: PAPAI@kcgl1.eng.ohio-state.edu (Jonathan Papai)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: HP Monitor models
Date: 19 Nov 92 00:11:28 GMT
 <1992Nov18.180256.25386@adobe.com>
Organization: The Ohio State University

From: taft@adobe.com (Ed Taft)

>Also more complicated. Many people think the earth's magnetic field is
>nice and regular and is aligned with the earth's axis. Not so. The
>north magnetic pole is somewhere in northern Canada, and the magnetic
>variation (angle between true and magnetic north) has a range of about
 ^^^^^^^^^
>25 degrees just within the continental United States.

It is called "declination".

Jon "about 3 degrees here" Papai