HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: lstowell@pyrnova.mis.pyramid.com (Lon Stowell)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: ASSEMBLY LANGUAGE IBM
Date: 23 Nov 92 21:35:15 GMT
Reply-To: lstowell@pyrnova.pyramid.com (Lon Stowell)
Organization: Pyramid Technology Corp., Mountain View, CA

In article <1992Nov18.203029.18985@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu> jgriffit@nyx.cs.du.edu (Jonathan Griffitts) writes:
>
>Actually, this is not strictly true.
>
>Counterexample:  the 360 model 20, which implemented only a subset of the
>360 instruction set.  As I recall, it did not support fullword operations
>(halfword only), nor packed BCD memory-to-memory stuff, nor other 'fancy'
>operations.  It was basically just a 16-bit minicomputer instruction set.
>
   Yes, but the 360/20 WAS a special case.  Although it was "upward
   compatible", the only thing it could REALLY do usefully was run
   HASP.

   It had slightly less compute-horsepower than the keyboard on most
   modern terminals...

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: dagbrown@napier.uwaterloo.ca (Dave Brown)
Subject: Re: sync; sync; sync; was Re: Computer Superstition
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 20:57:51 GMT

In article <NICKEL.92Nov18181710@desaster.cs.tu-berlin.de> nickel@cs.tu-berlin.de writes:
>In article <1992Nov18.132507.22731@bnr.uk> agc@bmdhh286.bnr.ca (Alan
>Carter) writes:
>
>> How about the way that UNIX System Administrators type
>> 
>>    sync
>>    sync
>>    sync
>> 
>> at shutdown time, when one sync would be quite enough? When questioned 
>> they sometimes give the lame excuse that this gives the first one time 
>> to work! I was taught to do this, and still do, even though I have 
>> figured it out for myself that it is nonsense.
>
>Hmm, perhaps this *has* to appear regularly.
>
>The sync(1) program does nothing but invoke the sync(2) system call.
>This call writes the contents of modified disk buffers back to the
>disk. The manual (SunOS, in this case) of sync(2) states:
>
>    BUGS
>	 The writing, although scheduled, is not necessarily complete
>	 upon return from sync().
>
>An todays fast machines with fast disks this won't matter -- just type
>sync; and before you've had time to do something else the disk buffers
>will be safe.
>
>But back in the old days, it was not a bad idea to type sync three
>times (and not as "sync; sync; sync") to make sure the first call was
>completed. 

The last SunOS manual I looked at (for a Sparc IPC) recommended
typing "sync;sync" as part of the shutdown procedure...once to dump
RAM to disk, and once more to get RAM back from disk....

-- 
Dave Brown
dagbrown@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca
Phone: (519) 438-0530
"What God want, God gets.  God help us all."  --Roger Waters
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,alt.folklore.urban
From: billn@hpcvaac.cv.hp.com (bill nelson)
Subject: Re: CDs cheaper to make than cassettes?
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Company, Corvallis, Oregon USA
Date: Sat, 21 Nov 1992 09:38:43 GMT

sweeney@Ingres.COM (Tony Sweeney) writes:
: 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".

Hm, you are rigth - it is not correct. When is the time I wrote it - probably
about 1 or 2 am.  Drop out the bit about the 8 bits, and the reference to
1/2 meg and things are better, but still not perfect.

Of course, the chip does not use 16 address lines, so the discussion is
really irrelevant.

Bill
From: flax@frej.teknikum.uu.se (Jonas Flygare)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Computer Superstition
Date: 18 Nov 1992 11:52:05 GMT
Organization: Dept. of Control and Systems, Teknikum, Uppsala
Distribution: world
Reply-To: flax@mizar.docs.uu.se
NNTP-Posting-Host: frej.teknikum.uu.se

In article <10292323.7317.11306@kcbbs.gen.nz>, Murray_Moffatt@kcbbs.gen.nz (Murray Moffatt) 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?
|> 
Er, well, yes.. We no longer use Apollo around here, but there was a known
bug with the 'system' library call. Under certain circumstances it
thrashed the stack, including the return address.
Easy fix to this was to pad the stack by declaring an character array of 
size 12 or 16 (3-4 longwords would do it) to protect the return address.
I found this out while debugging some assembler code, and when a friend was
writing code along the lines of 
int foobar(char *str)
{
/* stuff */
return system(str);
}
things just wouldn't work out..

I asked him to rewrite the code as:

int foobar(char *str)
{
  char magic[12];
  /* stuff */
  return system(str);
}

and things would work, proving that you can't take magic out of
your program.. :-)

Several years after that I still see people add magic to programs
using 'system', not knowing why, but stating that it can't hurt.. :-)


--------------------------------------------------------
Jonas Flygare, 		+ Wherever you go, there you are
V{ktargatan 32 F:621	+
754 22 Uppsala, Sweden	+
From: jlothian@castle.ed.ac.uk (J Lothian)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: PDP ftp archive
Date: 23 Nov 92 14:03:52 GMT
Organization: Edinburgh University Computing Service

In article <By5x6M.DJK@NeoSoft.com>, peter@NeoSoft.com (Peter da Silva) writes:
|> In article <1992Nov22.112250.14995@news.columbia.edu> lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner) writes:
|> > Some of these same iron-moving types claim to be a vendor "for all of your
|> > DEC VT's" as if VT-100 and up is all that DEC ever made.  Someone should
|> > tell them about VT05, 50, 50H, 52, as well as some more obscure stuff like
|> > VT-20, 06, and VT8E.
|> 
|> Anyone still got a GT40 in action?

I've got a VT11/VR14, which is the guts of the GT40, 
on my 11/40. I had to rebuild the monitor PSU shortly after
getting it, so it's a bit wobbly, but it still goes. 
Any colour of graphics you like, as long as it's a shade
of green.
 
James
-- 

-------------------------------------------------------
James Lothian        |      "It's life, Jim, 
james@uk.ac.ed.caad  |   but not as we know it"
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: tmcbraye@snert.ece.uc.edu (Tim McBrayer)
Subject: Re: Superstitions: power cycling, screen savers, surge suppressors
Organization: Unversity of Cincinnati, ECE Dept
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 20:15:30 GMT

In article <1epic9INNki1@uniwa.uwa.edu.au>, john@gu.uwa.edu.au (John West) writes:
|> Because when a CD player gets hit, it goes 'BLUUURRP', and stops playing. You
|> then press the 'Play' button again. When your computer gets hit, you lose your
|> data/program/whatever it is that you don't want to lose. They don't design them
|> in because they are too expensive, and most people don't need them.
|> 
Well, when *my* CD player was hit, it went "              ", and has been making
the exact same sound ever since (i.e. nothing!)  And it wasn't even turned on!
My computer, with a cheap US$15 surge suppressor, is still humming away 
happily.

-- 
Tim McBrayer                                tmcbraye@thor.ece.uc.edu
Computer Architecture Design Laboratory     (513) 556-0904
University of Cincinnati
Xref: sparky alt.folklore.computers:16522 alt.folklore.urban:29222
From: Tim Phillips
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: How to kill chickens with your computer...
Date: 20 Nov 92 20:23:36 GMT
Organization: Bloomsbury Computing Consortium

mst@vexpert.dbai.tuwien.ac.at (Markus Stumptner) writes:

>From article <absurd-131192125246@seuss.apple.com>, by absurd@apple.apple.com (Tim Dierks, software saboteur):
>>>              This was determined empirically in                             
>>>              Australia, where a new factory                                 
>>>              generating 7-Hz tones was located too                          
>>>              close to a chicken ranch

>> 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.
 

This may be Urban Legend, but I vaguely remember a story of some police force
(the French CRS comes to mind) that thought of using a 'sound cannon' to blast
7Hz - 15Hz at rioters, to the effect that their guts would resonate and   
they would be too busy chucking their lunch to be lobbing Molotovs at the
police.
 I know that standing too near the Bass bins at a rock concert where there
is a lot of sub-sonic stuff can really hit you where you live :-)
 I wonder if sci.med has anything to say on this?

regards
>-- 
>Markus Stumptner                                mst@vexpert.dbai.tuwien.ac.at
>University of Technology Vienna                 vexpert!mst@relay.eu.net
>Paniglg. 16, A-1040 Vienna, Austria             ...mcsun!vexpert!mst
From: dunham@studentd.cl.msu.edu (Steven B Dunham)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Need Intel 8080A emulator, Interact info.
Keywords: 8080 emulator Interact
Date: 16 Nov 92 23:19:29 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: Dept. of Computer Science, Michigan State University
Originator: dunham@pacific.cps.msu.edu

Hello,
I'm thinking of writing an emulator for the computer that I learned
on.  An 8080A machine called an `Interact', which was produced by a
Michigan based company.

I was wondering if anyone knows where I can get some C or 68k source
for an emulator of the Intel 8080A.

I also was wondering if anyone else has one of these machines.  I have
yet to go through my pile of old chips to see if I still have the ROM,
by I have lots of programs on cassette.

Thanks,
Steve
dunham@studentd.cl.msu.edu
Xref: sparky alt.folklore.computers:16692 alt.folklore.urban:29430
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: How to kill chickens with your computer...
From: derek@nezsdc.icl.co.nz (Derek Tearne)
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 92 20:08:24 GMT
Organization: Fujitsu New Zealand

In article <1ep6h5INN9l7@usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu> 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.  

What a dinosaur the size of Compsagnathus?  A cute little number which, by
coincidence is usually described as 'chicken sized'.

>And, in fact, large animals on other planets have evolved to take advantage 
         ^^^^                   ^^^^^ ^^^^^^^
>of the principle.

Hmmmm.  Might I suggest that you move away from your computer screen,  open
a window and take a deep breath.  Take a peek outside.  Look at the 
sky, the roads, the trees (if they have any near you).  That sort of yucky
stuff outside is _reality_.  Check it out, it works for me.  Now look back
at your computer screen.  That is Usenet.  Learn to tell the difference -
it may be very important for you to do so later in life.


Derek "Compsagnathus - it must be overdone, it tastes like rock" Tearne 


-- 
Derek Tearne.   --   derek@nezsdc.icl.co.nz   --    Fujitsu New Zealand   -- 
Some of the more aware dinosaurs were worried about the environmental
consequences of an accident with the new Iridium enriched fusion reactor.  
"If it goes off only the cockroaches and mammals will survive..." they said.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.sys.cbm,soc.culture.nordic,soc.culture.german,soc.culture.french
From: terjej@edb.tih.no (Terje Johansen,o90b)
Subject: Re: 8-bit news (was Re: Commodore keyboard layout.)
Posting-Front-End: Winix Conference v 92.05.15  1.20 (running under MS-Windows)
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 20:21:26 GMT

In article <1992Nov23.134005.281@osf.org>, dbrooks@osf.org (David Brooks) writes:


>tt@tarzan.jyu.fi (Tapani Tarvainen) writes:
>|> I don't know how much this has been discussed in the other groups
>|> this has been cross-posted to, but we experimented with it in
>|> soc.culture.nordic some time ago (was it last spring?) and
>|> discovered that news goes 8-bit-clean to more or less every
>|> country...
>
>I remembered the particular issue with Nordic countries after I posted
>the original of this thread.  There is a *large* installed base of
>character generators and keyboards that use the 7-bit ISO-646 variants,
>where [\]{|} are used for marked vowels (did any Norwegians read that as
>a prolonged wail?).  

I read [\]{|}. It's no wail...indeed, my tounge got a triple knot
just trying do pronounce it.


If that's so, is there any concerted attempt to Do
>Something about it?  I was part of several efforts to solve this problem
>at Prime, as part of the much bigger problem of curing the high bit
>disease.  We failed and, in the case of converting local-646 to 8859,
>even failed to show that it was necessary to solve the problem.
>
>|> Anyway, here's a sample of umlauts &c: .
>
>From which I, at least, can tell that mcsun, uunet, cs.utexas.edu,
>sdd.hp.com (all major gateways) and think.com (important to us!) are clean.
>-- 
>David Brooks					dbrooks@osf.org
>Open Software Foundation			uunet!osf.org!dbrooks
>Allberall und ewig blauen licht die Fernen!  Ewig... ewig... ewig...

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

Bury me deep. The next generations will be hungry.
From: Toby Russell <tar90@ecs.soton.ac.uk>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: PDP ftp archive
Date: 20 Nov 92 10:15:49 GMT
Organization: Southampton University
Originator: tar90@chapman

I've just opened an ftp archive for PDP software so that all us PDP collectors
can swap software with one another. There currently isn't a huge amount of
stuff ( kermit, and a few games ), so it's up to you lot to upload anything
you feel might be of use.

If you have any large uploads ( > 1mb ) please mail me before you upload as
disk space is very tight !

The address is
		bright.ecs.soton.ac.uk    or
		152.78.64.201

Directory /pub/pdp

Please feel free to mail me with any comments or suggestions.


						Toby
-- 


==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==
From               :  Toby Russell	Email    : tar90@ecs.soton.ac.uk
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: thecure@mullian.ee.mu.OZ.AU (matthew aardvarkious)
Subject: Re: sync; sync; sync; was Re: Computer Superstition
Organization: Computer Science, University of Melbourne, Australia
Date: Sat, 21 Nov 1992 09:25:22 GMT

dagbrown@napier.uwaterloo.ca (Dave Brown) writes:

>In article <1992Nov19.134510.16559@uvm.edu> wollman@sadye (Garrett Wollman) writes:
>>Or today's modern operating systems which know to sync their disks
>>before rebooting or halting.  From reboot(1):
>                                          ^^^ Cool!  I want an account
>on a computer where any user can invoke reboot....

>;-)

Some of the early machines had a command called crash(1).

The logic was, that if you took away the challenge of crashing the machine,
then people wouldn't bother. It worked until people started using
computers that they knew nothing about. 

--
These are my personal views and do not reflect those of Melbourne University.
Anything I may say that may be deemed offensive and/or damaging should NOT
be redirected to administration, as they have had nothing to do with it. 
Please direct any/all complaints/enquiries to thecure@ee.mu.oz.au
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: alderson@elaine46.Stanford.EDU (Rich Alderson)
Subject: Re: net.views - futzing (was: mainframe programmers...)
Followup-To: alt.folklore.computers
Originator: alderson@leland.Stanford.EDU
Reply-To: alderson@elaine46.Stanford.EDU (Rich Alderson)
Organization: Stanford University Academic Information Resources
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 92 20:54:23 GMT

In article <721911592.4522@minster.york.ac.uk>, jb-b@minster writes:
>In-Reply-To: fj05+@andrew.cmu.edu
>
>I've posted this to comp.lang.pascal and alt.folklore.computers.
>Hope this is OK.

Since this has nought to do with pascal, I've removed that newsgroup and sent
followups to this one--although perhaps sci.lang would be better...

>RE: net.views - mainframe programmers in an open systems world
>
>I have never heard the term 'futzing' before, but I know what
>you are trying to describe. I feel that in moderation, such
>tinkering is very useful.

"Futzing" is a typical American borrowing from Yiddish.  It is used by a number
of people who know that "putzing around" is derived from the Yiddish vulgar
word "putz" meaning "penis," but who don't know that the Yiddish word "fotz"
means "cunt."

A bit of linguistic information across the pond...
-- 
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_
From: jem@sunSITE.unc.edu (Jonathan Magid)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: YKYBHTL
Date: 22 Nov 92 19:22:29 GMT
Organization: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

In article <JR9muB6w165w@mertwig.UUCP> xyzzy@mertwig.UUCP (Daniel Drucker) writes:
>
>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 :-) 
>
How do you think you will ever complete larval if you keep reading
(and posting) so much news?! Get back to work. :)

jem.


-- 
Jonathan Magid     jem@sunSITE.unc.edu       sunSITE Administrator
Virtual pizza Delivery (tm)::faxed in 30 cycles or less or you get it
----------------------------------------FREE!!!-----------------------
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: rogerj@aix.rpi.edu (Diversion (Jeff Rogers))
Subject: Re: IBM and 3
Date: Tue, 24 Nov 1992 02:06:11 GMT

jimf@centerline.com (Jim Frost) writes:


>Yea, if you call a /36 "something right" then you have serious mental
>problems.

The only experience I had with a system/36 was a COBOL course I took. (I
needed to fill up my schedule). Great combo there - an antique computer and
a Confusing Outdated Boring Obfuscated Language. I was also trying 
to help the teacher make things easier by writing a program to
run the cobol programs, so I was trying to use RPG (I think). The machine
was horrid. My old 99/4a ran faster for most applications.

Diversion
-- 
"I can see 'em                          | "Want me to create a diversion?"
    I can see 'em                       | Diversion
        Someone wake me when it's over" | rogerj@rpi.edu
From: lowen@lorc.UUCP (Lamar Owen)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: YKYBHTLW:
Summary: You Know You've Been Hacking Too Long When
Keywords: Hacking  Long
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 92 09:44:59 -0500
Organization: LORC Enterprises

You start wondering what computer executes the instructions printed on the
funny metal plates attached to the tail end of cars.

"CRP-4074... Hmmm, why would I want to create a remote process on node 4074,
particularly since all I have are nodes 17DA0 and 1B7F4 (Apollo Domain)..."

Then you start wondering what the sequence of those plates could represent
as a program--then you watch interactive debugging as two cars change
places.

Then the program crashes...

ARRRGHH...

-- 
--

Lamar Owen, Systems Consultant, GE Lighting Systems, Hendersonville, NC
***********************************************************************
 Opinions expressed herein are the author's and do not reflect policy
   or opinions of the General Electric Company or its subsidiaries.
***********************************************************************
From: lstowell@pyrnova.mis.pyramid.com (Lon Stowell)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: How to kill chickens with your computer...
Date: 16 Nov 92 21:17:24 GMT
Reply-To: lstowell@pyrnova.pyramid.com (Lon Stowell)
Organization: Pyramid Technology Corp., Mountain View, CA

In article <1992Nov13.134921.1730@guvax.acc.georgetown.edu> troberts@guvax.acc.georgetown.edu writes:
>From the help menu of Borland's Turbo C/C++ for DOS.

>       : /* Emits a 7-Hz tone for 10 seconds.                                :
    Oh yeah, riiiiiiiiight.

>       :                                                                     :
>Look   :      True story: 7 Hz is the resonant                               :
>here   :      frequency of a chicken's skull cavity.                         :
>       :      This was determined empirically in                             :
>       :      Australia, where a new factory                                 :
>       :      generating 7-Hz tones was located too                          :
>       :      close to a chicken ranch: When the                             :
>       :      factory started up, all the chickens                           :
>       :      died.                                                          :
   Allegedly 7 Hz is the resonant frequency of protoplasm in
   general, not chicken skulls.  Allegedly the French did some
   playing around with humongous horn-loaded steam-driven speakers
   generating ~7 Hz tones.  Big problem was with operator
   comfort..as 7 Hz is not at all directional.

   I'd guess that a chicken skull would resonate in the 3 KHz range
   or higher...

>Did the chickens suffer before they died?  Did they experience 
>throbbing headaches or just pass out?
>
    Humans in the area would also have been affected.  

>I really wish they had included a journal citation.  I think the
>original article would have been worth reading.

    From the National Enquirer maybe.
From: Edward.Rice@p4214.f70.n109.z1.fidonet.org (Edward Rice)
Sender: Uucp@blkcat.UUCP
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Spacewar history (was: What was the 1st computer game?)
Date: Sun, 22 Nov 1992 14:33:14 -0500

Joe Morris said to All: 

  JM> For that matter, the base model PDP-1 didn't even have integer
  JM> multiply or divide...

The base-model IBM 1620 -- and for that matter, ALL models of the IBM 1620 --
were nicknamed "CADET," which stood for "Can't Add, Doesn't Even Try."  Even
integer addition was performed using table lookup.


Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: xexeo@dxcern.cern.ch (Geraldo Xexeo)
Subject: Software Rot (Re: Computer Superstition)
Organization: CERN European Lab for Particle Physics
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 15:10:47 GMT

When I worked in my University Computer Center, we used to distribute
some in-house programs among the students. One of them had the habit
of coming back every two months because "the software was getting old,
not working any more as it was in the beggining". We always checked his
disk and the software and everything was OK, but since he was a friend,
we copied again and he used to went out satisfied (for other 2 months:-).

Of course, he was our private joke, the only person in all University
that believed in Software Rot.

    For the files,

                     Jerry

-- 
Geraldo Xexeo  | xexeo@dxcern.cern.ch        | In Virtual Reality: MindWeb 
CERN-PPE Div   | xexeo@rio.cos.ufrj.br (*)   | (*) New Brazilian e-address
1211 Geneva 23 | bt268@cleveland.freenet.edu | after December 22.
Switzerland    | gxexeo@cernvm.bitnet        | 
Xref: sparky alt.folklore.computers:16444 alt.folklore.urban:29093