HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: witczak@frith.egr.msu.edu (Mark Witczak)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Did the 80186 exist?
Date: 28 Jul 92 13:42:05 GMT
Organization: College of Engineering, Michigan State University

In article <1992Jul28.000006.27461@csi.uottawa.ca>, cbbrowne@csi.uottawa.ca (Christopher Browne) writes:
|> >In article <1992Jun26.183126.17648@shell.shell.com> pace@fmcrunch
|> (Stephen O. Pace) writes:
|> >    My question is, was there a 186?  Was this a minor revision of the 8086?
|> >    Did it die a quick death when the 286 came out?  How different was the
|> >    instruction set?
|> 
|> Certainly it did!  I think that it must have died quick when the 286
|> came out - I don't think there was much time between them.

Cabletron still uses them in their new concentrator hubs on the management board,
for things like retiming of packets, hub management, and snmp statistics.  When we 
evaluated their hub last fall we discovered that under heavy network loads the cpu
put management requests in the backseat, (they called this a feature, "under a heavy
load you want the concentrator to do its job, retrans packets, and not mess around
with management requests.")  This is all fine and dandy until you come accross the
possibility of some one jabbering on a port and you can't get in to shut his port off.

I beleive that they have come out with a RISC based management board, at a considerably 
higher price, since then.

"...it's a feature!"
mark
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: David Eby <deby@gable.cs.indiana.edu>
Subject: Re: Non Unix-OS's
Organization: Indiana University, Bloomington
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1992 19:15:01 -0500

In article <allan.712538090@kitscoty> allan@cs.UAlberta.CA (Allan Sullivan) writes:
>>In article <9207291418.AA17748@thep.lu.se> magnus@THEP.LU.SE (Magnus Olsson) writes:
>>>
>>>So, I wonder, how many non-Unix OS's are still being used on *new*
>>>multi-user hardware? Of course, there are a lot of old systems,
>>>running old OS's. And there are lots of microcomputer OS's, but let's
>>>exclude most of them by defining "OS", I mean multi-tasking, multi-user
>>>OS. 
>>>
>
>I once spent a summer programming a Qantel mini-computer which ran
>an OS called 'Best' (their wording, not mine). I didn't get into many
>of the hardware or OS details, but I do know the shell program was
>written in BASIC.
>
>This was about 1987, but I still believe the system is in use. Has
>anyone ever heard of this OS, or even Qantel?
>
>

You bet.  I "programmed" in a report language and BASIC on just such a
system.  As I recall, our site didn't install COBOL (though we had the
source) because the compiler would take up too much disk space (!) and
"we already have BASIC".  Don't know how old the machine was, but I
would guess early 1970s.

This was as recently as 1989.  Right after I left, they upgraded to an
IBM mini of some sort.  I don't have any tech details on the system,
but it was certainly multi-user.  This was at a credit union and the
Qantel was used for teller transactions among other things.  Wouldn't
bet on the multi-tasking, but I wouldn't be surprised if it had that,
too.  
-- 
David Eby
deby@garbo.cs.indiana.edu
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: jon@afs.com (Jonathan Hendry)
Subject: Re: The Turn of The Century<tm>
Distribution: USA
Date: Fri, 24 Jul 1992 15:41:03 GMT

In article <3582@cvbnetPrime.COM> gdolgner@chelsea.prime.com (Gene  
Dolgner) writes:
>In article <5663.2A685679@psycho.fidonet.org>  
jra@f160.n3603.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Jay Ashworth) writes:
>
>>Wanna make a million bucks?
>>Learn COBOL.
>>Yes.
>>COBOL.
>>The last estimate I heard was that there was $46B(!) or so of COBOL code  
that was gonna break on 01/01/2000.  Something about `00' being an invalid  
year...?
>
>I wouldn't program in COBOL for 2 MILLION DOLLARS!
>
>BTW, How many COBOL programmers does it take to screw in a light bulb?
>
>A: We don't know, but it'll take 4 programmers a week to code up the
>   procedure.
>
>:-)  :-)  :-)
>
>
>Gene Dolgner, contractor at large (I may reappear at any time!)
>gdolgner@chelsea.Prime.COM
>"Life goes slower when you graze."  -  Northern Exposure

The smarter thing to do is find out what sort of apps exist in cobol, then  
write new ones in C (or obj C or C++) which can read existing files.  
Thusly, you can sell software which will take advantage of desktop power,  
make you major bucks, and kill the mainframes for good.

2000 spells the end of the mainframe.

--
Jonathan Hendry  Anderson Financial Systems
jon@afs.com  (Nextmail Welcome!) or hendryjw@duvm.ocs.drexel.edu
"You can't run a country by a book of religion. Not by a heap or a bunch  
or a smidgen."-F.Z. "Dumb All Over"
From: thad@public.BTR.COM (Thaddeus P. Floryan)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Computers killing people?  (WAS Re: 9 track data storage???)
Date: 29 Jul 92 09:51:31 GMT
Organization: BTR Public Access UNIX, Mountain View CA

In article <1992Jul27.073420.13087@news.uiowa.edu> dsiebert@icaen.uiowa.edu (Doug Siebert) writes:
>[...]
>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?
>[...]

We had a close call in 1989 during the Loma Prieta earthquake (in Silicon
Valley).  A DEC TU78 tape drive on a DEC-20 fell over just missing one of
our operators by inches.  Our Tymnet engine fell over and destroyed the
LA36 console on a VAX; only the door broke on the Tymnet box (and hasn't
been repaired to date).

In another incident, a floppy drive on a Mac II ejected "parts" that flew
out and poked one of our documentation writers in the eye causing a medical
insurance claim.  I believe the part was a spring that had somehow become
dislodged.

And I've heard "stories" of old-time washing-machine-sized disk drives
waltzing around computer room floors and trapping operators against walls.

And what about the old story concerning the etymology of the word "bug"
as applied to computers, when Cmdr. Grace Hopper is alleged to have found
an electrocuted moth in the innards of one of the Navy's computers?  :-)

Thad Floryan [ thad@btr.com (OR) {decwrl, mips, fernwood}!btr!thad ]
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: gdoherty@unix1.tcd.ie (Eru)
Subject: Re: What does UNIX mean?
Organization: Department of Computer Science, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland
Date: Thu, 23 Jul 1992 16:09:33 GMT

In <Fa18NB2w164w@phsbbs.princeton.nj.us> carlcory@phsbbs.princeton.nj.us (Carl Corey) writes:

>michaelb@cse.fau.edu (Michael Rogero Brown) writes:

>> "Is Unix an acronym, and if so what does it mean?"
>> 
>> Well as anyone who works with Unix know, Unix is >not< an acronym,
>> but a weak pun on Multics, the OS that Ken Thompson and all the
>> others who worked on Unix used before before creating Unix.

>Anyway, the pun is that Unix (eunichs) is a castrated version of Multics

I had thought it was because while *mul*tics tried to do lots of things,
*un*ix tries to do one thing well, (ie. time share).

	Gavin.

>Carl Corey, Princeton High School BBS
>DNS: carlcory@phsbbs.princeton.nj.us      UUCP: ...!princeton!phsbbs!carlcory
>Disclaimer: Author bears full responsibility for this message.
--
"What is a finite automaton?"         / Gavin Doherty
"Deterministic or nondeterministic?" / Computer Science
"I don't know"                      / Trinity College Dublin 
"AAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!"         / gdoherty@unix1.tcd.ie 
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: rfd@po.CWRU.Edu (Richard F. Drushel)
Subject:  Mercury memory (was Re: Cathode ray memory)
Reply-To: rfd@po.CWRU.Edu (Richard F. Drushel)
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA)
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 92 18:20:42 GMT


In a previous article, jimf@centerline.com (Jim Frost) says:

>C491153@MIZZOU1.MISSOURI.EDU (John Schultz) writes:
>>Some people have mentioned using cathode ray tubes for memory.  Just how
>>was this trick accomplished?
>
>Maybe by treating the tube as a capacitor?
>
>Anyway what makes me respond to this is that mercury tubs were used
>for memory at one time.  When you want to store something in memory
>you made waves in the mercury; the waves would propagate to the other
>end of the tank relatively slowly compared to the electronics, and
>then you pick up what you put in when it gets to the other side.  This
>gave you temporary memory.

	Aha!  So *THAT'S* where Isaac Asimov got his "merc-pools"
in his positronic robot novels ("The Caves of Steel" is the one
which comes immediately to mind).  I always wondered what in the
world that meant, when everybody used a "merc-pool" for data
storage.  The implication (it's been years since I read these, so
bear with me) was that these were permanent storage devices, rather
than temporary.  I guess Asimov was extrapolating...

	Speaking of more sci-fi extrapolations which did not pan
out, remember the central computer in "Rollerball"?  The effects
people took "bubble memory" quite literally; all that is missing
is some goldfish :)
-- 
Rich Drushel ** rfd@po.CWRU.edu *** Biology Ph.D. Student ** Cleveland FreeNet
Co-Sysop, Coleco ADAM Forum --- Assistant Sysop, Science Fiction & Fantasy SIG
"Solda pung apfashat ro des-marno, / Marn ladir o armag noth yeni arno. / Hell
miryat it, / Jambo iat it, / Os lasse wei ticip kati baldo." / Old Ennish poem
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: jfo8808@ultb.isc.rit.edu (J.F. Olshefsky )
Subject: Re: Cathode ray memory
Originator: jfo8808@ultb
Organization: Rochester Institute of Technology
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1992 16:26:10 GMT
Expires: Wed, 19 Aug 1992 16:26:10 GMT

In article <9207282234.AA23821@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> C491153@MIZZOU1.MISSOURI.EDU (John Schultz) writes:
>Some people have mentioned using cathode ray tubes for memory.  Just how
>was this trick accomplished?
>

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think they work on the principle of long
phosphorus.  The idea is that since there is a threshhold voltage before
an atom of phosphorus will emit photons, you have to provide that much
energy (or more) to illuminate that atom (or group of photons).
However, once an atom fires, it requires less energy to maintain the
output of photons.  Therefore, by scanning an electron beam across the 
screen at an energy level just below the firing energy level, you can
maintain whatever image is already stored on the screen.  To add a pixel
to the image, you need to increase the energy level a little to get the
photons to be emitted.  To clear a pixel, you have to clear the screen
(for convenience sake.)  To clear the screen, you just shut off the
energy to the electron scan for enough time for the phosphorus to
release all its energy.

The phrase "long phosphorus" refers to phosphorus which will retain a
certain amount of energy (or rather, dissipate slowly).  This makes the
phosphorus fade very slowly (see:  oscilloscopes, Tektronic 4040
terminals, etc.)  Phosphorus used in TV's and CRT's today fades very
quickly, so you'd need to scan awfully fast to maintain an image.

I'm being rather bold in trying to explain this, since I really don't
know.  I happened to get an old [redundant word] Tektronic 4040
terminal, which used such a "storage tube."  I had to adjust the knobs
and stuff inside -- the key being the one controlling the threshhold
level.  If I set it too low, nothing would be displayed (or it would,
but would dissipate over time).  If I set it too high, the display would
go green, and I couldn't see anything.  Eventually, I got the darn thing
set right.  I even got it to successfully use an 2400 bps. modem with
MNP-5 / compression / etc. which provided an effective rate of 9600 bps.

The neatest thing about it (simply because this doesn't work on modern
CRT's) was that I could vary the character postitions horizontally and
vertically.  I could tweak the pots while text was being displayed, and
it would make the line of text wavy.  The cool part is that it would
stick -- that is, the whole screen would stay the same, except the
characters that I displayed at the offset locations would stay where
they were when they were displayed.

'nuff said.

-- 
     --- Jayce                         | Sometimes a mile is just a kilometer
         jfo8808@ultb.isc.rit.edu      | taken as hexadecimal.
         JFO8808@ritvax.isc.rit.edu    |
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Non Unix-OS's
From: liam@durie.amigans.gen.nz (Liam Greenwood)
Date: 31 Jul 92 19:08:23 GMT+12
Distribution: world
Organization: It's Home, really...

In article <9207291418.AA17748@thep.lu.se> magnus@THEP.LU.SE (Magnus Olsson) writes:
>
>So, I wonder, how many non-Unix OS's are still being used on *new*
>multi-user hardware? Of course, there are a lot of old systems,
>running old OS's. And there are lots of microcomputer OS's, but let's
>exclude most of them by defining "OS", I mean multi-tasking, multi-user
>OS.
>
    Exec on the Unisys 1100/2200 and Gladiator Series mainframes, MCP on the
Unisys A-series mainframes, VM??? on the IBM 37xx mainframes, DCP/OS on the
Unisys range of DCPs, AS/400's OS, all I can think of off-hand.
--
 Liam Greenwood ------ liam@durie.amigans.gen.nz ------ Wanganui, N.Z.
                Don't tell my Mother I'm a programmer,
              she thinks I'm a piano player in a brothel

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: pt@geovision.gvc.com (Paul Tomblin)
Subject: Re: Mitel Name
Reply-To: pt@geovision.gvc.com
Organization: Not officially GeoVision Systems Inc., Ottawa, Ontario
Distribution: na
Date: Fri, 24 Jul 1992 02:58:11 GMT

soley@trooa.enet.dec.com (Norman Soley) writes:
>In article <1992Jul22.181558.14155@geovision.gvc.com>, pt@geovision.gvc.com (Paul Tomblin) writes...
>>I just heard from a friend that the name for Mitel came from
>>"Mike and Terry's Lawnmowers".  Evidently, the two founders supported

>I've heard that one repeated frequently. Why not try calling Mike 
>Cowpland's office? He's the "Mike" in question, I believe he's head honcho 
>at Corel Systems now.

What?  Make a phone call in the same building, when I could cost the net
'hundreds, if not thousands of dollars'?  Surely you jest.

Yes, Mike is head of Corel - you should see the nice cars that appear in his
parking spot!  I guess it beats selling lawnmowers.

I guess I just have to fill some bytes here, otherwise I won't be
maintaining the tradition of net.abuse, according some newby who took
violent offence when I told him that it wasn't necessary to keep 66
lines of quoted text in a posting where he asked a 5 word question
about something mentioned in the last 4 lines of the original post.  Oh
well - I've plonked him now, so I don't have to read his abuse.

-- 
Paul Tomblin, pt@geovision.gvc.com or {uunet,revcan}!geovision!pt
(This is not an official opinion of GeoVision Systems Inc.)
"A witty .signature proves nothing" - Voltaire (sort of)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: phillips@swanee.ee.uwa.oz.au (Christopher Phillips)
Subject: Re: MS-LOSS Stupidity (Wasn't: Computer Button Sayings)
Organization: Elec Eng, Univ of Western Australia
Date: 21 Jul 92 14:21:40 GMT

lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner) writes:
...
>the latest crop of Sierra games, although it's cute to see slimy walls with
>MCGA details scanned in and the slime "sweats" as in SQ4.  But in Sierra
>games, there is no motion other than your player moving under your control.
>The Apogee games often have quite a few things moving at once.

I take it I am supposed to be impressed that 'quite a few things are moving
at once'.

sigh.


--
Christopher Jam	__________________________________________________
'Another day, another try.  But remember, SHOOT OR DIE!' -turrican
phillips@swanee.ee.uwa.oz.au		c64 forever!!!!
------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: sjvn@access.digex.com (Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols)
Subject: Re: What does UNIX mean?
Organization: Express Access Public Access UNIX, Greenbelt, Maryland USA
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1992 15:06:21 GMT

Pournelle continues to appear in Byte for the simple reason that
his column is, by far, the most popular piece in the magazine.

-- 
Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols
sjvn@access.digex.com
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: shaggy@eskimo.celestial.com (David Case)
Subject: Re: Today's Games Destined to be Classics
Organization: -> ESKIMO NORTH (206) For-Ever <-
Date: Thu, 23 Jul 1992 22:18:06 GMT

Anybody out there ever play "Rescue on Fractalus"?  Hottest game I ever
saw on an 8-bit...  It was a futuristic flight simulator game were you
had to save downed pilots on a *very* rocky planet.  The game had
*fractal* landscapes, you could fly through canyons etc, and the update
rate was really quite good (especially for an 8-bit machine!)  I think
Lucasfilm came out with it.  I used to play it for hours at a stretch on
my old CoCo...
-- 
---
        //   "Bass players have bigger phallic symbols"--Myself       //
      \X/  shaggy@eskimo.celestial.com   Spudboy, and proud of it!  \X/

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: rick@qucdnee.ee.queensu.ca
Subject: Re: Two-sided CD's *DO* exist! (was Re: Life after CDs)
Organization: Queen's University EE Department
Date: Tue, 28 Jul 1992 17:48:29 GMT

In article <1992Jul28.031414.4267@portal.vpharm.com>, dap@portal.vpharm.com (David A. Pearlman) writes:
>>
>>	Anybody remember who the group was that came out with a 3-sided LP?
>>	I remember the technology, but can't remember who did it.

> As someone else already noted, that album was by Monty Python: "Matching
> Tie and Handkerchief." Note that this only applied to original pressings
> of the album. When Arista reissued the album in the '80's, the mysterious
> "3rd side" disappeared. 
> 

yup. in at least one issue of Mad magazine, they included a floppy vinyl 
record with something like 6 tracks on one side. the tracks were all 
identical for quite some time; only the endings differed. made it 
maddening as hell. :-)

rp
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Rick Pim                                            bitnet:rick@qucdnee
Department of Electrical Engineering         rick@qucdnee.ee.queensu.ca
Queen's University, Kingston                     (bitnet:rick@qucdnast)
(613) 545-6772                               (rick@bill.phy.queensu.ca)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
"Do you think there's a God?"
"Well, SOMEbody's out to get me!"
From: magnus@THEP.LU.SE (Magnus Olsson)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Pournelle (was: What does UNIX mean?)
Date: 30 Jul 92 08:30:15 GMT

In <jimf.711984648@centerline.com> jimf@centerline.com (Jim Frost) writes:

>When he tries Pournelle is a pretty good writer, but he's usually a
>confused and underinformed user.  It's amazing to me that Byte still
>gives him that much magazine space.

Well, maybe because most of their readers are confused and
underinformed users? 

I think we'll have to accept the sad fact that Byte isn't a magazine
for hackers anymore, but for "power users". And as users go, Pournelle
is quite highly powered. In addition to that, he knows how to write,
and when he actually has something to tell (rather than just rattling
off a long list of buying recommendations) he does it well. 

I used to enjoy his columns more a few years ago, when he wrote more
about weird combinations of hardware than he does today, and less
about getting the latest release of FOO-WRITE to work with all his
memory managers and device drivers...

-- 
Magnus Olsson                   | \e+      /_
Dept. of Theoretical Physics    |  \  Z   / q
University of Lund, Sweden      |   >----<           
Internet: magnus@thep.lu.se     |  /      \===== g
Bitnet: THEPMO@SELDC52          | /e-      \q
From: terry@spcvxb.spc.edu (Terry Kennedy, Operations Mgr.)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: 9 track data storage???????????????READ/NEW/FOLLOWUP
Date: 24 Jul 92 11:28:35 GMT
Organization: St. Peter's College, US

In article <6682204@zl2tnm.gen.nz>, don@zl2tnm.gen.nz (Don Stokes) writes:
> The operators greeted this new monster with a certain amount of fear, having
> previously dealt with a TU77; also a Pertec drive, but that one had been
> a real problem child.

  Yup - one bad tech can maladjust one of these "for life". Almost all of the
adjustments interact with others (that's why the factory puts sealant on the
screw heads - so they can see which ones have been fooled with). There is a
DEC PDP-11 diagnostic which you can use as a go/no go test - it does all sorts
of _terrible_ things to the drive and if the drive is the least mal-adjusted
you'll get an emergency unload. I amazed some visiting DEC types who wanted
to "run some tests to accept the system for maintenance" and they said they
would run this test until it failed. They also said that would take about 5
minutes. They stopped it manually after about an hour 8-)

	Terry Kennedy		Operations Manager, Academic Computing
	terry@spcvxa.bitnet	St. Peter's College, Jersey City, NJ USA
	terry@spcvxa.spc.edu	+1 201 915 9381
From: Charlie_Gibbs@mindlink.bc.ca (Charlie Gibbs)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Numeric weekdays (was: Americans who can't spell
Date: 23 Jul 92 00:28:30 GMT
Organization: MIND LINK! - British Columbia, Canada
Distribution: world

In article <14kapkINNj8s@early-bird.think.com> sandee@Think.COM
(Daan Sandee) writes:

>Actually, in those cases where the weekday is a numeric, like in airline
>schedules, Monday is 1. In the U.S.

     In true hackish form, I have no trouble reconciling this with
calendars which have Sunday as the leftmost column.  It's column zero.
I encode days of the week accordingly.

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

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: felix@crowfix.com (Felix Finch)
Subject: Re: 9 track data storage???????????????
Organization: Scarecrow Repair, Dutch Flat.
Date: Sun, 26 Jul 1992 15:18:07 GMT
	<1992Jul21.202940.25411@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu>
	<1992Jul25.162351.25568@lugb.latrobe.edu.au>

>>>>> Mitch Davis writes:

> (Robert Davis) writes:
>>BTW, they make very good frisbees.  Other uses include using them as 
>>wrapping ribbons for Christmas packages, streamers, wall decorations, 
>>adjustable-height (stackable) foot-rests, etc.  The uses for these tapes
>>are unlimited!  ...they're also useful for storing computer data.

>  o I fitted my kite with new tails
>  o I (just today!) roped off an area of our open-plan[tm] garden so the
>    kiddies in the neighborhood wouldn't walk all over my new seedlings
>  o Typing one end to the side of a train...
>  o A portable braille printer.

	When in the Navy, 73-76, I used to dump tapes into the ocean
from the fantail of my carrier (Navy recycling method :-).  One way
was to launch it like a frisbee, but holding on to the tape.  When it
hit the water, if you'd given it enough pre-immersion spin, it would
sometimes unwind all the way without snapping.  I always figured the
tape I wa sleft holding was as close as I'd ever get to seeing a
homeward bound pennant.

	Another way was to unwind a couple of hundred feet, enough to
catch the wind (at 20 knots behind a carrier, there's plenty of
turbulence).  Then mount the reel on a mop (er, swab) handle, hold the
swab with both hands, and let 'er rip!  Just be reeeeel careful to
keep the reel well centered and away from each hand.  Once the tape
ran off the reel, dismount the reel.  The tape floated in the air for
longer than you might expect.
-- 

            ... _._. ._ ._. . _._. ._. ___ .__ ._. . .__. ._ .. ._.
   Felix Finch, scarecrow repairer / felix@crowfix.com / uunet!crowfix!felix
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers