HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: jcmorris@mwunix.mitre.org (Joe Morris)
Subject: Re: dinosaur horsepower
Organization: The MITRE Corporation
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1992 19:04:45 GMT

lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner) writes:

>btw, it's called RUBOUT because it's the code for all ones punched.  If you
>made a mistake on a paper-tape on an ASR-33, you could backspace the tape
>and then press RUBOUT which then changed the mistake to all holes punched
>regardless of prior code.  Since RUBOUT codes are ignored, you then use the
>correct code in the next frame.  The tape gets slightly longer, but doesn't
>have to be started from scratch.

This is the technical background behind the IBM async controller design which
ignores the arrival of a hex FF character.  When the 2701 TTY2 interface
was being developed (or it may have been for the 2702...whatever) the cost
to monitor the data stream in memory was greater than the cost of putting 
it into the controller hardware.

That's another reason why for interactive users IBM's async support has
been described as half-ASCII.

>I think this convention was started with 5-level baudot tape.

Not directly.  In 5-level code, a character with all bits on is a letter-
shift order.  If you are in the middle of cutting a tape, you can use this
character without problems because if necessary you can immediately follow
it with a figs-shift (11011b).  

For (non-computer) communications like TWX you can insert an arbitrary 
number of rubouts anywhere in the message without affecting the human-readable
copy printed at the receiving machine.  This isn't necessarily true when
the recipient is a computer, however, because for many systems the rubout
character is treated as a destructive backspace.

obadditional folklore: the 8-channel paper tape used on the PDP-1 was
set up with one of the channels dedicated to the DELETE function.  Punch
that one bit and the rest of the bits at that character position were
ignored.  I never found out why, although I suspect that the designers
of the Flexowriter (ugh. bletch. barf. etc.) decided that nobody would
ever need the additional code points because everybody would always use
6-bit character codes...

Joe Morris / MITRE
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: jimf@centerline.com (Jim Frost)
Subject: Re: Terminal intrinsics
Organization: CenterLine Software, Inc.
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1992 15:57:50 GMT

smckinty@sunicnc.France.Sun.COM (Steve McKinty - Sun ICNC) writes:
>In article <jimf.712417131@centerline.com>, jimf@centerline.com (Jim Frost) writes:
>> The only thing DEC is responsible for
>> is bringing the price point of machines down to a level that mere
>> mortals could afford (and they've blown that in recent years).

>I'd blame IBM for that, not DEC. The PC (cheap & nasty compared to a PDP)
>is probably more responsible for bringing affordable computers to the masses
>than DEC.

Think back to the PDP series -- that was "affordable" computing at the
time, although still not for everyone.  The PC is round two of
downsizing and has done to DEC what DEC did to many of the mainframe
companies.

Even so, IBM took advantage of a market that was already thriving,
they didn't build it themselves.  For all practical purposes DEC
founded the mini market -- and I give them a whole lot of credit for
that since they had some very big companies to undercut.

>> [A nit, BSD UNIX was originally developed on the PDP, not the VAX,
>> although it's certainly arguable that most of the real advances in BSD
>> UNIX were done on the VAX (eg the VM system, TCP/IP, and the FFS).]

>Are you sure? I know that _Unix_ was developed on the PDP (by AT&T), but
>I thought that _BSD Unix_ was developed on the VAX by Berkeley, specifically
>to take advantage of the VM facilities in the architecture.  Besides, both
>machines came from DEC so Unix in general owes its existence to DEC.

Berkeley did original work on the PDP (based on UNIX V6); 3BSD was the
first to run on the VAX (in 1978, UNIX V7 with VM).

>> Everywhere I look where DEC was not one of the founders of a standard
>> I find that DEC's compliance is minimal if it exists at all.  For
>> example, DEC Ultrix isn't very POSIX compliant

>My experience with DEC is that they are more compliant with
>standards than most.

Well, our experiences differ.  I found that DEC was strongly behind
completely proprietary solutions (VAX/VMS in particular) and tended to
disregard standards except when they could form the standard around
something they had (the ANSI terminal sequences come to mind here).
When DEC started embracing emerging standards they tended to talk a
lot and do very little -- witness how much corporate support Ultrix
has seen.  Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing is a matter of
opinion of course.

Happy hacking,

jim frost
jimf@centerline.com
From: thad@public.BTR.COM (Thaddeus P. Floryan)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: dinosaur horsepower
Date: 29 Jul 92 10:18:18 GMT
Organization: BTR Public Access UNIX, Mountain View CA

In article <1992Jul28.155852.23608@sctc.com> smith@sctc.com (Rick Smith) writes:
>[...]
>I was a fan of papertape myself. (5 points: can you spot the pun?)

Yep.  :-)

Papertape often came fan-folded (like printer paper) in addition to
being available in spooled form.

5 more points if you can relate why some papertape was black and not
the oiled-yellow or oiled-gray varieties. (hint: this was NOT done
for cosmetic or advertising reasons).

And 10 more points if you can rationalize why the MYLAR-based tapes
were still called "papertape." :-)

Ah, papertape.  You could SEE your bytes, and nary a problem if dropped
'cause the tape was linear (contrast dropping a deck of unverified punched
cards :-)

Thad Floryan [ thad@btr.com (OR) {decwrl, mips, fernwood}!btr!thad ]
Xref: sparky alt.folklore.computers:11439 comp.sys.amiga.games:10976
From: rorschak@daimi.aau.dk (Jesper Lauridsen)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.sys.amiga.games
Subject: Re: MS-LOSS Stupidity (Wasn't: Computer Button Sayings)
Date: 18 Jul 92 15:00:33 GMT
Organization: Danish Trainspotter Society

phillips@swanee.ee.uwa.oz.au (Christopher Phillips) writes:

>I must admit though, that many classic c64 games were not well ported
>to amiga or PC. 

Sometimes one has to wonder what is on the programmers mind. Consider
Pirates!, in the C64 version sailing around the isles has a really 
good feel to it: it felt just like sailing around on an ocean, distances
and directions felt like realworld things. But the in the Amiga version
the sea is implemented as rooms (or it looks like it), when you has sailed
halfway through a screen the map is changed and you are moved into the
center of the screen - I hate it. Why did they do this? The Amiga handles
a scrolling map like that of the C64 version with ease.
-- 
I have things to do and News to read
From: dnichols@ceilidh.beartrack.com (Don Nichols (DoN.))
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Unix Roots of DOS?
Date: 30 Jul 92 00:29:41 GMT
Organization: D and D Data, Vienna Virginia

In article <13796@auspex-gw.auspex.com> guy@Auspex.COM (Guy Harris) writes:
>(Followups sent to "alt.folklore.computers".)


>Umm, if you think that the presence of a "program-counter relative"
>addressing mode makes it CISCier than average, please note that:
>
>	the PDP-11
>	the VAX
>	the Motorola 68K
>	the National Semiconductor 32K
>	the Zilog Z8000
>and probably some other instruction sets had PC-relative addressing
>modes.

	How about the Motorola 6809, or are we limiting this to 16-bit bus
chips and greater? :-) This ability was what made multi-user, multi-tasking
relatively easy on a system without hardware memory management.
-- 
Donald Nichols (DoN.)     | Voice (Days): (703) 704-2280 (Eves): (703) 938-4564
D&D Data                  |  Email: <dnichols@ceilidh.beartrack.com>
I said it - no one else   |         <dnichols@ceilidh.aes.com>
	--- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero ---
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: jgd@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (John G Dobnick)
Subject: Re: DECtape (was: Worst tape drives)
Originator: jgd@csd4.csd.uwm.edu
Reply-To: jgd@csd4.csd.uwm.edu
Organization: University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee
Date: Sat, 25 Jul 1992 04:37:02 GMT

From article <13650@mindlink.bc.ca>, by Charlie_Gibbs@mindlink.bc.ca (Charlie Gibbs):
> In article <13283@ns-mx.uiowa.edu> jones@pyrite.cs.uiowa.edu
> (Douglas W. Jones,201H) writes:
> 
>>He couldn't get the tape to read (surprise) even after he ran it forward
>>and backward a few times to get the folds and kinks out of the tape, so
>>he used his finger to press the tape against the heads.
> 
>      I remember seeing an operator in a Univac shop, pressing tape
> against the head of an old Uniservo VI C (that's pronounced Six See)
> to get it to read.

I've not only seen that done, I've _done_ it myself!  (Used a piece
of facial tissue* as a pad, though, and you had to get the "wrap angle"
right. :-)]  Saved a number of _long_ file backup runs that way.   I
always told the operators to *not* do this, however!  :-) :-) 
[Yeah, yeah -- do what I say, not what I do. I know, I know. :-) ]

We had Uniservo 12C drives (same thing as an VIII-C, but with a
byte-channel (MSA) interface instead of a word-channel interface).
The real pain with those things, aside from having to manually 
thread the tape through the machine and wrap the leader around the
takeup reel, was remembering to close the noise shield on the
r/w heads.  Forget that when writing a tape, and you "hashed" the
label.  (The "noise" on the write basically wiped out the label
area, so the tape had to be re-labelled.  Particularly annoying
when doing a long file-maintenance run, using all the drives.)
It always amazed me how one could design r/w heads with that much 
signal "spillover".   We finally got all the r/w heads replaced
with newer (and more expensive!) heads that didn't require the
noise shields.  Happy day that was!

-- 
John G Dobnick                          ATTnet: (414) 229-5727
Computing Services Division             INTERNET: jgd@uwm.edu
University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee     UUCP: uunet!uwm!jgd

"Knowing how things work is the basis for appreciation,
and is thus a source of civilized delight."  -- William Safire
From: Charlie_Gibbs@mindlink.bc.ca (Charlie Gibbs)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Pronouncing Unix names
Date: 29 Jul 92 00:24:58 GMT
Organization: MIND LINK! - British Columbia, Canada
Distribution: world

     A while back there was a thread discussing how to pronounce
".cshrc".  I don't want to get back into that one (I use the Bourne
shell myself :-).  But has anyone thought about other Unix names that
are equally difficult to pronounce?

     Like /usr, for instance.  I don't feel really comfortable
pronouncing it "user" because there might actually be a directory
somewhere by that name.  An instructor in a course I recently took
pronounced it with a short "u" sound, as in "us".  Or as in Edgar
Allan Poe's "Fall of the House of /usr".

     Another vexing one is /etc.  "Et cetera" is too unwieldy.  But
I've heard it pronounced "et-see".  Cute but effective.

Charlie_Gibbs@mindlink.bc.ca
$ cat >/etc/etc/etc/etc/ftang/zoopboing/zowie
Ni!
^D

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: Josef Moellers <mollers.pad@sni.de>
Subject: Re: Life machines?
Date: Thu, 23 Jul 1992 14:36:25 GMT
Organization: Siemens Nixdorf Info.Sys. AG, Paderborn, Germany

In <sourada.711499798@vincent1.iastate.edu> sourada@iastate.edu (Steven D Ourada) writes:

>Have any dedicated Life machines ever been built? I've heard (I think in
>Sci. Am.) that there were some cellular automata machines made, but I don't
>know if they ran Life or not.

>What's the highest rate achieved by a Life (dedicated or not)? (I don't
>know a good metric for this, probably cells/sec is the best approximation
>to one...)

How about "generations/second"?

-- 
| Josef Moellers		| c/o Siemens Nixdorf Informationssysteme AG  |
|  USA: mollers.pad@sni-usa.com	| Abt. STO-XS 113	   | Riemekestrasse   |
| !USA: mollers.pad@sni.de	| Phone: (+49) 5251 835124 | D-4790 Paderborn |
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: smills@news.weeg.uiowa.edu (MuffinHead)
Subject: Re: Computers in magazines (was movies)
Organization: University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1992 06:09:34 GMT

In the August Playboy in the "Domestic Bliss" pictorial is by far the best
setting for a Powerbook I've seen.


-- 
_____________________________________________________________________________
$ smills@umaxc.weeg.uiowa.edu $   Fish must get awfully tired of sea food.  $
$ MuffinHed@aol.com           $               -Dudley Moore, "Arthur"       $
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: zcookbruc@cc.curtin.edu.au
Subject: Re: Terminal intrinsics
Organization: Curtin University of Technology
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1992 09:24:16 GMT

In article <1992Jul29.161444.13461@news.columbia.edu>, lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner) writes:
> In article <7325210@zl2tnm.gen.nz> don@zl2tnm.gen.nz (Don Stokes) writes:
>>
>>Eh?  DEC always use DEL for delete.  It's that bloody telephone company
>>that used BS to erase characters.  I can't comment on TOPS, but I haven't
>>seen a DEC OS which uses BS as erase, and the LK201 (the standard "DEC"
>>layout) doesn't even have backspace key.  (You can press Ctrl/H if you 
>>_really_ must....  8-)
>>
> On the DECmate series there is a recent change to the slushware (v 422) that
> allows an additional mode in the terminal emulator: type II terminal with
> these keys (and all other relevant changed keys) set at type I values.  This
> is sometimes referred to as VT-220 8-bit with 7-bit controls, but in this
> case the terminal emulator still responds to all 7 or 8 bit coming in; this
> merely refers to what goes *out* when you press a key.
> 
> So, the answer is that an LK-201 *may* have a BS key.
> 
> cjl

Ever pulled a LK201 appart - it seems that with a bit of case modification
you could even have your BS where you would expect it. In fact you could
get all those keys back to where they where on the VT100 - ESC BS LF and
a few extra keys that never existed.

...BRU
Xref: sparky alt.folklore.computers:10945 alt.folklore.urban:19406
From: jeremy@sw.oz.au (Jeremy Fitzhardinge)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: Dusty Machines
Date: 22 Jul 92 03:24:50 GMT
Organization: Softway Pty Ltd

In <7YJHCBG@taronga.com> peter@taronga.com (Peter da Silva) writes:
>The coathangers are actually the larval form of bicycles.

Or shopping trollies, depending on the tide levels.  If the tides are
high, then the coathangers migrate to just off shore and do their
metamorphsis into shopping trollies.  The larval stage is very dangerous -
while most coat hangers survive, many get bent, folded, mutilated or
get turned into car radio antennas.  This naturally is seen in the many
lame and injured mature trollies about.

Otherwise they just turn into bikes.  Then they generally hang around
airports and get sucked into jet engines.

>I think you're confusing this with the spell to automatically break apart
>and bind printouts. The tractor-feed strips can accidentally reach critical
>mass and the next thing you know you're knee-deep in paper clips.

And Post-It Notes (tm).  3M claim that they were invented by a bored
materials engineer.  What really happened was that a band printer went
loco after a particularly bad cup of coffee was poured into it.
Something had to be done with all the feral pieces of sticky yellow
paper that frustrated market researchers ran down and hog-tied in
regular population control hunts...  If sales hadn't been so good, then
a modified form of myxamatosis was going to be introduced.

Anyone noticed that condoms are the neotenous form of hot water
bottles?

	J

--
jeremy@softway.sw.oz.au ph:+61 2 698 2322-x122 fax:+61 2 699 9174
What are you looking at?
I don't know, your label has fallen off.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Subject: Re: 9 track data storage???????????????
Reply-To: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Organization: Columbia University
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 1992 17:59:42 GMT

In article <jcmorris.711729630@mwunix> jcmorris@mwunix.mitre.org (Joe Morris) writes:
>lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner) writes:
>
>  [the subject is 9-track industry-standard tape drives]
>
>>                                                               Rumor
>>has it that 6250 happened because 6400 was too fast for IBM's then
>>best 370-class model, so they slowed it down.
>
>You're confusing tape density with data transmission rate.  Density (6250
>fci in this case) represents the number of bytes which can be stored in one
>linear unit (inch) of tape.  Transmission speed (which is the limiting
>factor in the channel or CPU architecture) is density times tape speed.
>You can have an incredibly dense recording density combined with an
>incredibly slow transport speed.

No, the statement stands.  At the time, IBM's fastest available drives were
rated for use with the new format when the appropriate controller was released.
6400 BPI was too fast for the channel.  They would've had to disallow their
best drives from their best format, so they chose instead to deoptimize the
format so it would work with the existing drives and existing channel
processors and CPU's.
>
>>Many DEC systems support using all nine bits as data, since they are 18 or
>>36 bits wide.
>
>Is this true for industry-standard 9-track tape?  I can't say it isn't
>since DEC occasionally designed products even more odd than usual, but
>I never heard of it.

DEC systems write a "private" image-mode format that takes advantage of all
bits.  This format exists on the PDP-10, 15, and 8 at least.  Can't say
about the -11, but I wouldn't be surprised.  If you can access all 9 bits, you
can still write a tape for a wimpy 360 using 8-bit bytes with parity.  But
only DEC machines could exchange the image-written data.

cjl
From: codrus@glia.biostr.washington.edu (Ian McCloghrie)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Computers killing people? (WAS Re: 9 track data storage???)
Date: 29 Jul 92 16:29:11 GMT
Organization: University of Washington

In <1992Jul29.010750.4962@ttinews.tti.com> hollombe@polymath.tti.com (The Polymath) writes:

>In article <1992Jul27.073420.13087@news.uiowa.edu> dsiebert@icaen.uiowa.edu (Doug Siebert) writes:
>}... tossing out the electrocution possibility and the certainty that
>}many people have been killed by computer/programmer error before (i.e., the
>}type of thing we read about in comp.risks) I wonder if anyone has ever been
>}killed by a computer?

>Do robots and their controllers count?  I think the current count of
>people done in by industrial robots is around half a dozen or so.  The
>usual cause is some idiot entering a robot's work cell without proper
>safety precautions.

	How about missiles, etc?  those are (often) computer controlled, and
certainly killed a number of people in the persian gulf recently.

--
 /~> Ian McCloghrie      | Time Traveller, betz.biostr.washington.edu 4096
< <  /~\ |~\ |~> |  | <~ | email: codrus@ucsd.edu <-> (128.95.10.119 4096)
 \_> \_/ |_/ |~\ |__| _> | Card Carrying Member, UCSD Secret Islandia Club
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: aq232@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Bill Thater)
Subject: Re: Mad drums
Reply-To: aq232@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Bill Thater)
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA)
Date: Tue, 28 Jul 92 23:41:46 GMT


In a previous article, pt@geovision.gvc.com (Paul Tomblin) says:

>tvv@tandem.com (Tom Van Vleck) writes:
>
>>I think this may be an urban legend.
>
>An urban legend in a folklore group?  Surely you jest!
>
	Sorry to destroy the illusion but I've seen one come "unglued". A 
Bryant one at that. I don't realy remember the model number, it's been a 
long time and it was on a system at the other end of a long room. But I do
remember the noise and watching the drum come flying out of the drive and 
thru a wall and down a hall, ending up against the elevators. Scared the 
living HELL outta me!
-- 
================HCF - HALT AND CATCH FIRE ==============================
	Bill Thater		aq232@Freenet.Cleveland.edu
	"Bit Pusher"			thaterw@vax.cs.hscsyr.edu
****If all else fails - read the instructions!!**************************
From: johana!tsw@apple.com (Tom Watson)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: What does dd stand for?
Date: 28 Jul 92 06:24:50 GMT
Organization: FBN/GRQ Ink.

In article <1992Jul25.011759.7655@organpipe.uug.arizona.edu>, dougw@zippy.as.arizona.edu (Doug Williams) writes:
> 
> I am interested in the derivation of the name of the Unix command dd.  My
> local Unix guru said he always assumed it stood for "device to device," but
> could not substantiate this claim.  Any guesses??
> 
> ----
> dougw@as.arizona.edu

The 'dd' is derived from IBM OS/360 (and later) JCL.  It sometimes takes
the from of:
//SYSIN DD *
Which could be equated with a 'here' document.  In the IBM JCL environment
the 'DD' (caps this time, as you need to shout to those machines) the 'DD'
stands for:  "data definition".  This is a silly ruse to get you to define
every one of your files thru the command language, so you can change them
later.  The typical program run under those versions of OS/360 (or at least
the ones that I am familiar with) usually has about 6 or so 'DD' statements
which related to all the nasty things that you need to specify with respect
to the 'file'.  This included things like:  blocking factors, record sizes,
dataset types, tape label types, and just about the kitchen sink.  It was
in this vein that the unix 'dd' was used, since it used as arguments many
of the same pieces of information that the IBM JCL statements did.  Thus
the name.

Or at least that's how I think it is, feel free to argue...
on second thought, just post...
-------
Tom Watson
johana!tsw@apple.com
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: marc@vieta.math.uni-sb.de (Marc Conrad)
Subject: clocks (was: You know you've been hacking too long...)
Organization: U of Saarbruecken, Dept. of Computational Linguistics
Date: Fri, 31 Jul 1992 16:01:50 GMT
Keywords: workstation, hacking, risks

hollombe@polymath.tti.com (The Polymath) writes:

>In article <1992Jul29.073026.1432@iti.gov.sg> hcleong@iti.gov.sg (Leong Heng Cheong) writes:

>}That's all fine and wonderful, but get this: not only do I have a watch
>}that is analog, it also has both 24 hr and 12 hr mode together.  Beat
>}that.

>When mine's in 24 hour mode it still has 12 hour mode on the analog face
>with 24 hr on the digital face -- except it's really _all_ digital.  The
>analog face is part of the LCD.

>(And it's got a stopwatch with split times and a count-down timer and a
>date display and a calendar display [this month and next] and a day
>display and 4 [count 'em] 4 alarms [Dixie, Clementine, Greensleaves and
>beeper] and two time zones [arbitrary] that it can display simultaneously
>and an incandescent lamp for night use).

>Ha!  Beat that! (-:

Yes I _can_ beat that !
I usually need no clock - but for emergency case, I have a cheap 
digital clock in my pocket. 
Last week, I realized, that it doesn't count the hours any more
(so I don't have the 12 hr - 24 hr mode problem any more)
But the minuts are counted now as before. 
It's enough to catch the bus !
And now beat that ! :-)
Marc

--
     \   /                     | Marc Conrad, Universitaet des Saarlandes 
      \ Luxemburg              | marc@math.uni-sb.de  phone: 0681 302-2297
France \|   Germany            | these opinions are not necessarily these   
        \x <---- you are here! | of the SIMATH-group (and maybe even not mine).
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers