HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: Charlie_Gibbs@mindlink.bc.ca (Charlie Gibbs)
Subject: Re: Apple IIGS being discontinued Dec 1992
Organization: MIND LINK! - British Columbia, Canada
Date: Thu, 7 Jan 1993 00:53:49 GMT

In article <1993Jan6.061801.23114@kth.se> regebro@stacken.kth.se
(Lennart Regebro) writes:

>There is no "Eject disk" button on a Mac. You're supposed to drag the disk
>icon to the trashcan. Which always makes me feel like I'm erasing the
>whole disk.

     Amen to that.  I almost lost my lunch the first time I saw
someone do that.  What a dreadful inconsistency in this wonderful
user interface: drag files and folders to the trashcan to delete
them, drag a disk to the trashcan to eject it intact.

     Fortunately, there are also both a menu selection and a command
key combination that will do the job; for my own peace of mind I
always use one of them instead.  The only problem is that the icon
stays on the desktop, and if you click on it you're dead in the
water until you re-insert the disk.  Better hope that someone
hasn't taken it away with him, 'cuz there's no "cancel" button.
Guess you gotta pull the plug from the wall, since you can't get
at that "shutdown" menu entry either.  Hope the hard disk isn't
trashed too badly...

Charlie_Gibbs@mindlink.bc.ca
"I'm cursed with hair from HELL!"  -- Night Court

Xref: sparky alt.folklore.computers:18701 alt.folklore.urban:32793 alt.religion.kibology:5666
From: etlcrcy@bugs.ericsson.se (Chris Cleverly)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,alt.folklore.urban,alt.religion.kibology
Subject: Re: Proper pronounciation of 'Kibo'
Date: 7 Jan 93 16:27:47 GMT
Distribution: inet
Organization: Ericsson Cellular Division

In article <1993Jan7.154200.19475@ericsson.se> etlanar@yogi.ericsson.se (Alan Arthur) writes:
>>--
>You wouldn't know a cunning plan if it painted itself purple and danced on the
>table singing 'Cunning plans are here again'
>

At least I'm not a fat bastard...


--
---------------------------------------     \\\\ 
| Chris Cleverley,                    |      . . 
| eltcrcy@deep-thought.ericsson.se    |       S    
---------------------------------------       ~    "...I have a cunning plan..."     
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: lachlan@dmp.csiro.au (Lachlan Cranswick)
Subject: Re: Operating Systems; retrocomputing
Organization: CSIRO Division of Mineral Products, Melbourne, AUSTRALIA
Date: Sat, 9 Jan 1993 04:23:51 GMT

sarr@sinshan.citi.umich.edu (Sarr J. Blumson) writes:

>In article <c3y1wB3w165w@mertwig.uucp> daniel%mertwig@uunet.uu.net  (Daniel Drucker) writes:
>>What was the first (high-level) language to be implemented in the ITS
>>system at MIT?
>>

>Oh, dear!  Time for the old folks to pick on young Danny again. :-)

>Young fella, there were operating systems even back in the dark ages
>when you wrote programs on cards and saw the results on paper.  They
>did things like read the cards, tell the operator what tapes to mount
>and make sure she did it, and provided some minimal system services.
               ^^^

(Good to see that women made up the great majority of
highly qualified computer operators back in the 60s.)

All the applicants for a new Systems Managers position
here just a few months ago were men.

Or is this just an indication that women were used computer
room slave labour back in the 60s?

When I was in High School (early 80s), some companies would use
work experience students (I was one) as the "qualified"
labour to load tapes etc.

-- 
  Lachlan Cranswick  -  CSIRO             _--_|\  lachlan@dmp.CSIRO.AU
  Division of Mineral Products           /      \ tel +61 3 647 0367
  PO Box 124, Port Melbourne 3207        \_.--._/ fax +61 3 646 3223
  AUSTRALIA                                    v
From: esr@snark.thyrsus.com (Eric S. Raymond)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: WANTED: list of additions/changes to Jargon 2.9.11
Date: 7 Jan 93 17:45:47 GMT

In <dsembr01.726356719@starbase.spd.louisville.edu> Darren S. Embry wrote:
> Does anyone on The Net, by change, have a list of changes and additions made
> to Version 2.9.11 of The Jargon File?

I'm going to put a change list on prep shortly, right next to the File.
-- 
					Eric S. Raymond <esr@snark.thyrsus.com>
Xref: sparky alt.folklore.computers:18771 comp.arch:12192 comp.sys.intel:2961
From: aaron@spectrx.saigon.com (Aaron Anderer - System)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.arch,comp.sys.intel
Subject: Re: NeXTstep not running on Cyrix 486DLC (was Re: Apple IIGS...)
Keywords: cyrix
Date: Wed, 06 Jan 93 20:31:49 PST
Organization: SPECTROX SYSTEMS (408)252-1005 Silicon Valley, Ca

rmk@rmkhome.UUCP (Rick Kelly) writes:

> In article <1ide2jINNru@usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu> aj923@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (P. 
> >
> >In a previous article, rmk@rmkhome.UUCP (Rick Kelly) says:
> >>
> >>Just remember that this is the first commercial OS package that is meant
> >>to only run on a 486.  It won't run on a 386, as a 386 doesn't have bswap.
> >
> >No wonder.  The 486DLC is just a 386 with a 1k cache and a coprocessor.
> >
> >I don't know how many people were suckered into buying the 486DLC, thinking
> >that they were getting 486 performance at ultra-low cost.
> However, the Cyrix 486DLC does have the complete instruction set of the
> Intel 486.  The 486DLC does not have the built in coprocessor.

I own a 486DLC-33Mhz processor (which I have pushed to 40mhz) and a cyrix
387-40mhz chip that I have on a 386-40mhz board.  Right now landmark 
gives me 130mhz and the coprocessor running at 193mhz.
I get 13.6mips and 22500 drystones and 5500k whetstones(or something like that, 
I can't remember specifics).  Personally I like the board a lot, and it runs 
very good (I have a homebrew heatsink/fan cooling system).

=====================================//
Aaron Anderer, System Operator      //     aaron@spectrx.saigon.com
SPECTROX SYSTEMS +1 408 252 1005   //          szebra!spectrx!aaron          
                                  //===============================
From: magnus@thep.lu.se (Magnus Olsson)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,sci.math
Subject: Normal numbers (was Re: Number of numbers (Was Re: PI))
Date: 4 Jan 93 13:10:15 GMT
Organization: Theoretical Physics, Lund University, Sweden

In article <726145237.AA00000@blkcat.UUCP> Edward.Rice@p4214.f70.n109.z1.fidonet.org (Edward Rice) writes:
>Magnus Olsson said to All: 
>
>  MO> Another is that a number is random if all N-digit sequences have the
>  MO> same probability of appearing in its decimal expansion. (A number that
>  MO> satisfies this is also called a "normal number").
>
>This doesn't match what I learned in stat.  The number:
> 
>    3.12345678901234567890 (repeating)
>
>has equal probability of a digit appearing, but isn't random (and the digits are
>not pseudo-random) by any interpretation of the term I have ever heard.

If you go back and read what I wrote a little more carefully, you'll
see that it says that all N-digit sequences, not just all digits, have
the same probability of appearing. That's not true for your example.

However, now that I've come to think of it, I'm not 100% sure that
even that condition is sufficient for pseudo-randomness. Does anybody
have a counterexample - a number where the decimal expansion
follows some simple rule, but all N-digit sequences have the same
probability of appearing?

              Magnus Olsson                | \e+      /_
    Department of Theoretical Physics      |  \  Z   / q
        University of Lund, Sweden         |   >----<           
 magnus@thep.lu.se, thepmo@seldc52.bitnet  |  /      \===== g
PGP key available via finger or on request | /e-      \q
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: djshaw01@starbase.spd.louisville.edu (Daniel Shaw)
Subject: Re: Apple IIGS being discontinued Dec 1992
Date: Sun, 10 Jan 1993 01:06:40 GMT
Organization: University of Louisville



>Your points regarding shutdown and the disks are valid, but not on a Mac.
>A Mac is (basiclly) a single-user system, so who else would be writing 
>to a disk but you? 
I have to disagree with you on this..most schools that use macs setup
withe appletalk....If you just shut one of the "terminals" off with out
shuting down Atalk..that "term" is dead till the net is restarted.....
and all MACII's can control multiple programs on the "term's" when
configured as a server(also appropriate software)...
From: magnus@thep.lu.se (Magnus Olsson)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Whatever happened to ... SC/MP
Date: 9 Jan 93 10:05:21 GMT
Organization: Theoretical Physics, Lund University, Sweden

In article <8567@charon.cwi.nl> dik@cwi.nl (Dik T. Winter) writes:
>In article <1993Jan7.124850.6032@pollux.lu.se> magnus@thep.lu.se (Magnus Olsson) writes:
> > Yes, the INS 8060 was the SC/MP II. There was also a SC/MP I which was
> > made in PMOS technology, if I'm not misinformed. I don't know anything
> > about that beast, though.
> > 
>According to Osbornes 4 & 8-bit Microprocessor Handbook the SC/MP I was
>ISP-8A/500 in PMOS while the SC/MP was ISP-8A/600.  

My National Semiconductor Microprocessor Data Book (from '79 or so)
lists the SC/MP II as INS8060. I don't know why National changed the
part number.

> > It is rather obvious from the 8060's architecture and instruction set
> > that it was designed as a microcontroller, not as the CPU of a home
> > computer (no stack, for example).
>
>Osborne disagrees a bit here.  The first sentence of the chapter reads:
>"SC/MP is a low-cost microprocessor that has been designed to operate
>easily in multi-microprocessor configurations."  But indeed, not for a
>home computer (multi-processor home computers?).

I expressed myself a bit badly; I shouldn't have said
"microcontroller", but "control applications". I can imagine
such applications where you need to have several  microprocessors
on a common bus performing rather simple tasks while sharing RAM. 
I don't think one should interpret "multi-processor configurations" in
the way we tend to do today.


              Magnus Olsson                | \e+      /_
    Department of Theoretical Physics      |  \  Z   / q
        University of Lund, Sweden         |   >----<           
 magnus@thep.lu.se, thepmo@seldc52.bitnet  |  /      \===== g
PGP key available via finger or on request | /e-      \q
From: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Subject: Re: Apple IIGS being discontinued Dec 1992
Reply-To: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Organization: Columbia University
Date: Tue, 5 Jan 1993 01:34:13 GMT

In article <9301040828.27@rmkhome.UUCP> rmkhome!rmk@merk.com (Rick Kelly) writes:
>
>Just to add sum info to a previous thread:
>
>After lengthy discussion on comp.arch and comp.sys.intel, it would
>appear that the only reason that NeXTStep won't boot on the Cyrix
>486DLC is probably timing.  It probably won't be fixed as Cyrix is
>probably not a big concern to NeXT.
>
Please elaborate; if you mean some form of time-out phenomenom, then the
software is defective.

cjl
Xref: sparky alt.folklore.computers:18644 comp.arch:12101 comp.sys.intel:2893
From: davidsen@ariel.crd.GE.COM (william E Davidsen)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.arch,comp.sys.intel
Subject: Re: NeXTstep not running on Cyrix 486DLC (was Re: Apple IIGS...)
Date: 6 Jan 93 13:37:05 GMT
Reply-To: davidsen@crd.ge.com (bill davidsen)
Organization: GE Corporate R&D Center, Schenectady NY

In article <1ide2jINNru@usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu>, aj923@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (P. J. Remner) writes:

| No wonder.  The 486DLC is just a 386 with a 1k cache and a coprocessor.

  Wrong on both counts. The 486SLC has the added 486 instructions, like
bswap, and does not have a coprocessor (on chip). It does report status
on some "not used" bits in the CPU, so someone checking bits which don't
matter could find a difference. I believe there actually is a defained
status bit which behaves differently, but I don't have the ref info
here, so take that as a possibility only.

| I don't know how many people were suckered into buying the 486DLC, thinking
| that they were getting 486 performance at ultra-low cost.
| -- 
| aj923@cleveland.freenet.edu (So now you listen, 'cause I'm omniscient)
                                                   ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Not omniscient, just wrong.

-- 
bill davidsen, GE Corp. R&D Center; Box 8; Schenectady NY 12345
    Keyboard controller has been disabled, press F1 to continue.
From: s.telford@ed.ac.uk (Scott Telford)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Spectrum hardware (was Re: VCS processor)
Date: 5 Jan 93 13:13:39 GMT
Organization: Edinburgh Parallel Computing Centre, University of Edinburgh, UK.

In article <jeremy.726146082@chao>, jeremy@sw.oz.au (Jeremy Fitzhardinge) writes:

> The Sinclair Spectrum has a chip known as the ULA (Uncommitted Logic Array
> - some programmable device that never seemed to have its own real name)

There were several different version (one for each board issue I
think) all made by Ferranti, with different numbers. I think the Issue
3 ULA was the 6C001. The intro booklet that came with the Spectrum
called it the "SCL" chip (Sinclair Computer Logic, or something like
that).

> which does pretty much everything the Z80 doesn't, like video.  When the
> ULA is pumping out video, and the CPU wants to use the 16k block with
> video memory in it, the ULA stops it.  How?  Not by interrupting it,
> not by adding wait states - it just turns off the CPU's clock (derived
> from the video clock in a fashion that seems to insure maximum possible
> amounts of digital hash in the video output).

8^)

I could always tell when my Spectrum had crashed from the noise
patterns from the CPU freezing on the TV display, or from the
whatever-it-was inside the case that made the quiet sizzling sound
modulated by the CPU 8^)

> The IF-1 has an interface for the MicroDrive (100 feet of sliced
> videotape in a continious loop inside a box half the size of a matchbox),
> the network (very slow token-ringish thing), and a serial port (could

Actually, the ZX-Net was more of a CSMA/CD bus network. I think the
nominal bandwidth was ~100kbit/s, but I don't know how that related to
reality. It never worked particularly well between my Speccy and QL
(despite ZX-Net compatiblity being claimed when the QL was launched -
I think they dropped that selling point later 8^)

Microdrives weren't always as bad as they were made out to be. I tried
some cartridges recently that were last written to 4-5 years ago and
got no read errors.  More than I can say for some unbranded 3.5"
floppies I bought 5 years ago 8^) Not bad for a loop of 2mm wide
videotape dragged round by a cassette-deck rubber pressure roller.


-- 
Scott Telford, Edinburgh Parallel Computing Centre,        <s.telford@ed.ac.uk>
University of Edinburgh, Mayfield Rd, Edinburgh, EH9 3JZ, UK. (+44 31 650 5978)
------- Rollin' over like a big, big cloud/Walkin' out in the Big Sky! --------
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: cpc@shell.portal.com (Chris Cebelenski)
Subject: Re: Game machine processors (was Re: Is 4004 the first microprocessor ?)
Organization: Portal Communications Company -- 408/973-9111 (voice) 408/973-8091 (data)
Date: Tue, 5 Jan 1993 03:46:54 GMT

In article <1993Jan4.021047.4690@news.columbia.edu> lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner) writes:
>In article <C0Aq5H.4K0@panix.com> pw@panix.com (Paul Wallich) writes:
> [And somewhere back when, I wrote:]
>
>>>>  As a semi related thread, does anyone know what processors were used
>>>>  in home video game systems? (Atari VCS, Magnavox Odysessy, Intelevision,
>>>>  etc.)  Past and present?
>>
>
>>The Odyssey may have used an F-8 at one point (earliest ones were
>>hardwired) but the VCS CPU was a 6502 variant, with 128 bytes of
>
>The Odyssey was *not* a digital device, much less a processor.  It is a
>non-extensible analog hack that plays rounds of ping-pong; it even lacked
>the concept of keeping score, much less displaying it.
>
>cjl

Yes, I belive that is true.  Magnavox later came out with the Odyssey-2
(or Odyssey^2).  That machine may have used an F-8.  Yes?  No?  Maybe?

cpc

Xref: sparky alt.folklore.computers:18687 comp.arch:12119 comp.sys.intel:2912
From: regebro@stacken.kth.se (Lennart Regebro)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.arch,comp.sys.intel
Subject: Re: NeXTstep not running on Cyrix 486DLC (was Re: Apple IIGS...)
Date: 7 Jan 93 11:41:03 GMT
Organization: Stacken Computer Club, Stockholm, Sweden

In article <1993Jan6.091513.7530@news.columbia.edu> lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner) writes:

>Here's a thought: If a system is designed to require a 486SX and a 487 is
>added to get back the FPU functionality, and the 487 requires the 486SX
>be present to be disabled in order for the 487 to function, would the machine
>still work if a 486DX and 487 were both installed?

The 486SX and the 486DX does not have the same pinout, and therefore it is
not possible to put a DX in a SX socket. This renders the question invalid.

If there are a DX that fits in an SX socket (there might be, considering
Intels stupid chip strategy) this DX would probably never give control to
the 487-chip, so it would probably work.


-- 
Lennart Regebro             regebro@stacken.kth.se
Stacken Computer Club       +46-8 649 18 51
Don`t call before calculating my local time, please. This is GMT +1.
From: haynes@cats.ucsc.edu (Jim Haynes)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: HISTORY OF WORD PROCESSIN
Date: 12 Jan 1993 19:18:58 GMT
Organization: University of California; Santa Cruz
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: hobbes.ucsc.edu


Well I know we were doing word processing experimentally at General
Electric in Phoenix in the 1966-68 time frame.  This ran on a Datanet 30
processor and used IBM 1050 and 2741 terminals.  I don't remember now
the name of the guy who was developing it.  I remember it had some
connection with Calvin Mooers' TRAC language; but I'm not sure if the
word processor was written in TRAC.  

Now in the 1963-1966 time frame I was working at Teletype.  We didn't have
an upper/lower case terminal in production at the time, but were working
on the Model 37 and 38 (which eventually came to market too late to be
interesting).  I believe people at Bell Labs were interested in word
processing at the time, in connection with Multics.  Even tho we didn't
have up/low terminals there was some diddling with upper-case-only word
processing on things such as the Dartmouth Time Sharing System and probably
at MIT on CTSS, the predecessor of Multics.  Note too, from the Thompson
and Ritchie papers, that the first use of Unix aside from the developers
was a word-processing system for patent applications.  This suggests that
the writing of nroff and troff and their predecessor roff was going on
at least in the early history of Unix, and probably back in Multics days.

I'm also aware of some upper-case-only work done at Burroughs - again I
forget the person's name but the software ran on B5500s and was used to
produce things like the software release notes.

Now if you want to get really ancient - this hardly qualifies as word
processing in the modern sense, but the Linotype is word processing in
the sense that the operator evens the margins and that sort of thing
as the type is being set.  And there was the Teletypesetter version of
that, where the operator did his/her thing on a paper tape punch and
then the tape could be transmitted by wire to produce a tape to run the
Linotype.  Teletype did produce an up/low printer for use in connection
with this; but it printed ragged margins since it didn't have variable-
width spacing.  It was used simply to view what was on the punched tape.

You could try to learn something about the Friden Flexowriter, the
up/low machine based on the IBM electric typewriter mechanism and using
paper tape.  These were used with some very early computers, not for
word processing but for I/O; but perhaps somebody wrote a word processing
program to take advantage of it.  Then there's the Varityper - I don't know
what one is, but I have this vague memory of hearing about something
with variable-pitch typing and maybe a paper tape that you run through
it twice to get even margins.
-- 
haynes@cats.ucsc.edu
haynes@cats.bitnet

"Ya can talk all ya wanna, but it's dif'rent than it was!"
"No it aint!  But ya gotta know the territory!"
        Meredith Willson: "The Music Man"
From: doctor@k9.UUCP (Paul Broe)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Acronym ISDN
Date: 8 Jan 93 02:22:38 GMT
Organization: Mostly Harmless...
X-NewsSoftware: GRn 1.16g (10.17.92) by Mike Schwartz & Michael B. Smith

In article <1993Jan7.144043.10372@bnr.uk> agc@bmdhh286.bnr.ca (Alan Carter) writes:
> icts1@cec2.wustl.edu (Christopher T. Schuster) writes:
> > Also, what is ISDN?  I haven't quite gotten that one yet, either!
> 
> It used to be "Innovations Subscribers Don't Need", but latterly it is
> "I Smell Dollars Now".
> 

Or the ever popular 'It Still Does Nothing'.

-- 
----
Paul Broe
Internet: broe@plains.nodak.edu
UUCP: uunet!plains!prototype!k9!doctor (My Amiga 2500/20)    AmigaUUCP 1.16D
BIX: pbroe Compu$erve: too expensive.                        AmigaOS 2.05
From: daz@hal.gnu.ai.mit.edu (David A. Z.)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Is 4004 the first microprocessor ?
Date: 6 Jan 1993 17:38:00 GMT
Organization: /etc/organization
NNTP-Posting-Host: hal.gnu.ai.mit.edu

In article <C08HAH.5LB@unix.portal.com> cpc@shell.portal.com (Chris Cebelenski) writes:
> 
> As a semi related thread, does anyone know what processors were used
> in home video game systems? (Atari VCS, Magnavox Odysessy, Intelevision,
> etc.)  Past and present?
>
	I'm not sure about the Atari 2600 or intelevision, but I had a
Magnavox Odysessy, and I can assure you that there isn't ANY PROCESSOR
in there.

	When I was young, I torn the thing apart (destroying the shields
on my otherwise nifty colectable ): and there wasn't as much as a CHIP in 
there, much less a CPU.  It was 100% discretes!

	-daz@gnu.ai.mit.edu

From: Edward.Rice@p4214.f70.n109.z1.fidonet.org (Edward Rice)
Sender: Uucp@blkcat.UUCP
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Normal numbers (was Re: Number of numbers (Was Re: PI))
Date: Mon, 04 Jan 1993 17:00:48 -0500

Magnus Olsson said to All: 

  > 3.12345678901234567890 (repeating)
  > 
  > has equal probability of a digit appearing, but isn't random (and the
  > digits are not pseudo-random) by any interpretation of the term I have
  > ever heard.
  > 
  MO> If you go back and read what I wrote a little more carefully, you'll
  MO> see that it says that all N-digit sequences, not just all digits, have
  MO> the same probability of appearing. That's not true for your example.

Oops.  Sorry -- I will read more closely.

  MO> However, now that I've come to think of it, I'm not 100% sure that
  MO> even that condition is sufficient for pseudo-randomness. Does anybody
  MO> have a counterexample - a number where the decimal expansion follows
  MO> some simple rule, but all N-digit sequences have the same probability
  MO> of appearing?

No, but this sounds not terribly unlike a problem I never bothered solving.
Posit a Hacker and a Telephone Device, and H's desire to break into the TD.
The TD sits patiently, answering the phone, and when it picks up, is prepared
to do its usual function OR to receive a 3-digit (or N-digit) executive action
sequence that makes its special controls available.  Thus, a given machine will
either take messages or, if provided with the critical tone sequence "123" (by
way of exmaple only), allow H to reprogram TD.

TD is designed in an exceptionally dumb fashion, so that if it gets a tone
input
but the tone input is wrong, it just ignores it.  Thus, any of the following
sequences would serve to drop TD into special mode: "32123", "00000123", and
so on.  A sequence of "32123" would, of course, trigger any TD with a code of
"321" or "212" or "123."

The question is, what's "God's Solution" to the problem, the very shortest
string
that tests ALL possible 3-digit sequences, allowing overlap?