HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: keithh@tplrd.tpl.oz.au (Keith Harwood)
Subject: Re: What was the intended advantage of using 36bits CPU?
Originator: keithh@sydrd14
Organization: Telectronics Pacing Systems
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 92 03:43:36 GMT


In article <14930@auspex-gw.auspex.com>, guy@Auspex.COM (Guy Harris) writes:
> (Followups to "alt.folklore.computers".)
> 
 . . .
> Didn't the IBM 7030 - a machine with, as I remember, 32-bit words, and
> bit addressibility - antedate the 360?  (BTW, was the 7030 a tube or
> transistor machine?  I thought it was a transistor machine, but somebody
> else here thinks it was a tube machine.)
> 
> I don't think the 7030 was a huge seller, though; I think it was a
> specialized supercomputer.  The 360 *may* have been the first
> big-selling 8-bit-byte computer, but I could believe that it wasn't....

The 7030 was also known as the Stretch. It used transistors and had 64bit words,
with addressability down to the 8bit byte (rare, in those days addresses usually
went to the word, regardless of how large the word was). The character code was
based on BCD, but I don't think it perpetrated the horrors later to appear in
EBCDIC. (BCD and EBCDIC seem to have been designed with the primary motive of
making it easy to design the decoders going from the twelve bits of a card
column to the n bits of a character code.)

Keith Harwood.
From: baldwin@carina.unm.edu (Chris Baldwin)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: dirty tricks
Date: 11 Oct 92 14:45:12 GMT
Organization: Atheist for the Development of a Better God

In article <BvvGo0.2In@unix.amherst.edu> twpierce@unix.amherst.edu (Tim Pierce) writes:
>>	rsh theirmachine stty erase t \> /dev/theirpty
>Heh.  Any reason you used 't', rather than something more ironically
>appropriate, like 'x'?
	Sure, it is a lot harder to type 'stty' and change it back when
you use 't'. I had a friend of mine that had this done to him so often
that he has a shell script with no 's's, 't's or 'y's in its name that
changes his erase character back to something rational.
-- 
"Hey, Guido! It's all so clear to me now. I'm the keeper of the cheese and
you're the lemon merchant. Getit? And he knows it! That's why he's gonna kill
us. So we gotta beat it. Yeah, before he lets loose the marmosets on us! - Ren
From: Sam.Wilson@ed.ac.uk
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: What was the intended advantage of using 36bits CPU?
Date: 15 Oct 92 13:07:14 GMT
Reply-To: Sam.Wilson@ed.ac.uk

lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner) writes:
> But what happens when it turns out you need 17 bits?  Again, the -10 is
> up to that, since it can pack two chars of 18 or less bits per word in
> byte addressing mode wasting 2 bits if 17 bits/char.  All of these machines
> that are 32 bits are going to have to round up to 32 bit/char, or are you
> still insisting on finding a need for 2^32 unique combinations?

A 8-bit-byte oriented machine could just use 24 bits.  It could also fit
19-bit characters into 24 bits, wasting 5 bits.  It or a 32-bit-word
oriented machine could fit 19-bit characters into 32 bits and waste 13
bits.  A -10 would have to waste 17, surely.  :-)

Why is it that any discussion with cjl starts off sensible enough and
ends up extremely silly?

Sam
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: winikoff@muse.cs.mu.OZ.AU (Michael David WINIKOFF)
Subject: Obfuscated C ... where?
Summary: Looking for FTP site containing Obfuscated C
Keywords: Obfuscated C Competition
Organization: Computer Science, University of Melbourne, Australia
Date: Sat, 10 Oct 1992 08:37:03 GMT

Hi! Does anyone know where I can FTP obfuscated C code from?
I know there exists an FTP site somewhere which contains the entries of the
competition since I've ftp'ed the stuff once, but can't for the life of me
remember where the site was ...

Thanks!

Michael
winikoff@muse.cs.mu.oz.au
From: Paul.Cashman@mechanic.Fidonet.org (Paul Cashman)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Wang 2200
Date: Mon, 05 Oct 92 00:44:00 PDT
Organization: Psycho: The Usenet<->Fidonet Gateway oF St. Pete Florida

                    I need HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

        I picked up a Wang 2280 drive unit for a 2200 series computer
        the other day and have not a clue on the format or the
        interface.

            It came with a 2280 mdpu ( I think thats right ) interface
        with a stack of cards in it. Some look like standard fair but
        one looks out of place. It has a female printer port on it and a
        couple of 8150s I think.

                 Any suggestions???????????

           It came with about 400 megs of platens and I beleive it a cdc
           Phenix

        Any one know this thing (I know you have all played with your
        Wang guys)

        Where can I get info on this Beast?
        Anyone need one?
                        Tanks much
                           p.c.
___
 * SLMR 2.0 * Proofread carefully to see if you any words out.
From: dan@BofA.com (Dan Brockman)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: What was the intended advantage of using 36bits CPU?
Date: 16 Oct 92 23:38:54 GMT
Organization: Bank of America, Capital Products, RMTG #5906

In article <26915@castle.ed.ac.uk> Sam.Wilson@ed.ac.uk writes:
>lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner) writes:
>> But what happens when it turns out you need 17 bits?  Again, the -10 is
>oriented machine could fit 19-bit characters into 32 bits and waste 13
>bits.  A -10 would have to waste 17, surely.  :-)

An algorithm exists, I read about it somewhere, works something like this...
Let n be the convenient number of bits, say, like a word, then use the 
first n-1 bits for 'data' representing the character you want.  If that
is enough bits to represent the character, then the nth bit is 0.  Otherwise
the nth bit is 1, and the continuation of 'data' is in the next adjacent
word in memory.  The max number of bits 'wasted' is proportional to the 
complexity of the characters.  Further, you can use short sequences of bits
for the more frequently used characters and longer sequences for the rarely
encountered.

-- 
 --------------------------------------------------------------
 Daniel Brockman             tel 415-953-0406, fax 415-622-2892
 Bank of America, Dept 5906, 555 Calif St
 San Francisco 94104 USA    email uunet!odinba!dan dan@BofA.COM
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: souva@aibn58.mpifr-bonn.mpg.de (Ignatios Souvatzis)
Subject: Re: Zork/Dungeon (was Re: MDL)
Reply-To: isouvatzis@babsy.mpifr-bonn.mpg.de
Organization: Radioastronomisches Institut der Universitaet Bonn, Bonn, FRG
Date: Sat, 10 Oct 1992 21:15:41 GMT

In article <1992Oct01.095224.25558@einoed.in-berlin.de> alh@einoed.in-berlin.de (Adrian Le Hanne) writes:

   Infocom developed much of the games on a PDP-11, i heard. Thus the Z-code
   had a 12 bit format (maybe someone can correct me here).

Hm... PDP-11 is a 16bit machine. If Zcode has a 12bit format, it would
be related  to the pdp8 and relatives,  or maybe to the 36bit machined
(pdp10 and pdp20)
--
Paper mail: Ignatios Souvatzis, Radioastronomisches Institut der 
            Universitaet Bonn, Auf dem Huegel 71, D-5300 Bonn 1, FRG
Internet:   souva@babsy.mpifr-bonn.mpg.de ignatios@cs.uni-bonn.de


Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.unix.admin
From: hm@fwi.uva.nl (Hans Mulder)
Subject: Re: WANTED: Unix administration horror stories !
Organization: FWI, University of Amsterdam
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1992 17:12:54 GMT

In <1992Oct12.194110.10926@fwi.uva.nl> casper@fwi.uva.nl (Casper H.S. Dik) writes:
>alan@spuddy.uucp (Alan Saunders) writes:

>>About inexperienced sysadmins .. One such had been on a Sun syasadmin 
>>course, and learned all about security.  One of the topics was on file
>>and group access.  On his return, he decided to put what he had learned
>>into practice, and changed the ownership of all files in /bin, /usr/bin
>>to bin.bin!  I was called in when no one could log in to the system
>>(of course /bin/login needs to be setuid root!)

>That's not true. 
>% ls -l /bin/login
>-r-xr-xr-x  1 root        40960 Jul  2 15:42 /bin/login

Errhm, Casper, did you notice that the login builtin of the shell no
longer works?  The error message is "Permission denied".

Or is that intentional?

--
Hope this helps,

Hans Mulder				hm@fwi.uva.nl
From: Jeremy_Reimer@mindlink.bc.ca (Jeremy Reimer)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Bumper sticker
Date: 9 Oct 92 08:15:33 GMT
Organization: MIND LINK! - British Columbia, Canada
Distribution: world

> Kevin Quinn writes:
>
> Msg-ID: <1992Oct9.001957.22795@pony.Ingres.COM>
> Posted: 9 Oct 92 00:19:57 GMT
>
> Org.  : Ask Computer Systems Inc., Ingres Division, Alameda CA 94501
>
> In article <1992Oct7.143936.7016@ee.ryerson.ca> iain@ee.ryerson.ca (Iain
> Campbell) writes:
> >
> >BTW, UNIX is an operating system, DOS is a file handling utility ...
> >
> Partly true.  I've seen it described more often along the lines of
> a real-time non-reentrant interrupt handler...


That's funny, I always thought it was a program loader.  :)


--
Jeremy_Reimer@ |"It turned out, as N-Man discovered later, that the black
mindlink.bc.ca | boat hadn't been after him at all.  It was full of riotous,
---------------| unemployed former James Bond villains enraged at the fall
aka THE JAGUAR!| of Communism in the Soviet Union."
---------------|
Stealth Sig#69 |  --From "N-Man #3: N-Man on Holiday"
From: lstowell@pyrnova.mis.pyramid.com (Lon Stowell)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Mechanical UARTS...was: dirty tricks
Date: 14 Oct 92 20:24:02 GMT
Reply-To: lstowell@pyrnova.pyramid.com (Lon Stowell)
Organization: Pyramid Technology Corp., Mountain View, CA

In article <1992Oct13.192530.26813@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu> gbloom@nyx.cs.du.edu (Gregory Bloom) writes:
>
>Well... Old ASR33 teletypes used to have this cylinder with little tines
>sticking up that one could encode a (16?) character message which would
>be sent in response to a WRU code - I once saw a TTY that had been hacked
>to print a rude remark when sent this character (ctrl-E?).  Then the 
>equivalent of .login was made to always send that character to the
>terminal of the victim.   The TTY also makes this sort of 'bronx-cheer'
>sound while spinning the WRU drum, adding to the effect.

    It was called the Answer-Back drum.  The 32 and 33 had it.  

    IBM had a reservation terminal for hotels that used the
    Answer-Back drum as a sequencer to scan (via IBM's old
    relay-logic) an aux keyboard for reservation request
    information.   

    Not only that, the "buffer" for the message was the tty's paper
    tape.
From: tom_vanvleck@taligent.com (Tom Van Vleck)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Early email
Date: 7 Oct 92 16:27:11 GMT
Followup-To: alt.folklore.computers
Organization: Taligent, Inc.

Rick Smith and Bobert Bernecky write about early email..

MIT's Compatible Timesharing System (CTSS) had a MAIL
command in 1965. (I helped write it.)  Multics mail descended
from that, first as an insecure facility, then reimplemented
to keep mailboxes in ring 1, then linked into the ARPANET. 

tom_vanvleck@taligent.com  (new address)
From: welch@sacral.cis.ohio-state.edu (Arun Welch)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: INQUIRY: Where is the recipe?
Date: 15 Oct 92 16:37:54 GMT
Organization: OSU-LAIR
Originator: welch@sacral.cis.ohio-state.edu

In article <Bw4HxH.MLw@acsu.buffalo.edu> dudek@acsu.buffalo.edu (David T. Dudek) writes:

   About 7 years ago, I had a copy of _The_Anarchist's_Cookbook_ which, back 
   then was just a compilation of posts to a pirate bulletin board.[...]  I
   know about the watered-down book version that is out, but I'm really not
   interested in that.  If anyone has any info, email me.

Since the book was written some years before electronic bulletin
boards existed within the greater populace, I doubt that what you've
got is the "original", but rather just someone's ripoff of the name.
My usual word of warning about TAC: Don't use any of the formulae in
it, the author intentionally put in the wrong numbers in the belief
that anyone who wishes to build bombs should bother doing their
homework and check the standard chemical reference books first. By an
interesting twist of fate William Powell, who's name is on the cover
as the author didn't write it but did do the illustrations, and isn't
getting a dime from the printings. Anarchy at it's best, IMHO.

...arun
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Arun Welch
Lisp Systems Programmer, Lab for AI Research, Ohio State University
welch@cis.ohio-state.edu
Xref: sparky alt.folklore.computers:15022 comp.unix.admin:5512
From: djs@jet.uk (David J Stevenson)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.unix.admin
Subject: Re: WANTED: Unix administration horror stories !
Date: 12 Oct 92 08:09:44 GMT
Organization: Joint European Torus

In <W1NRB20H@cc.swarthmore.edu> hirai@cc.swarthmore.edu (Eiji Hirai) writes:
>...[some deleted]
>(4) I heard this from a fellow sysadmin friend.  My friend was forced to
>work with some sysadmins who didn't have their act together.  One day, one
>of them was "cleaning" the filesytem and saw a file called "vmunix" in /.
>"Hmm, this is taking up a lot of space - let's delete it".  "rm /vmunix".

>My friend had to reinstall the entire OS on that machine after his coworker
>did this "cleanup".  Ahh, the hazards of working with sysadmins who really
>shouldn't be sysadmins in the first place.
When this happened to a colleague (when I worked somewhere else) he restored
vmunix by copying from another machine.  Unfortunately, a 68000 kernel does
not run very well on a Sparc...


-- 
+---------------------------------------------------+
| David Stevenson  djs@jet.uk   Tel: +44 235 465028 |
+---------------------------------------------------+
- Disclaimer: Please note that the above is a personal view and should not 
  be construed as an official comment from the JET project.
From: zebee@sirius.ucs.adelaide.edu.au (Zebee Johnstone)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: jargon equivallent of "gear head"?
Date: 15 Oct 92 02:41:27 GMT
Organization: The University of Adelaide
NNTP-Posting-Host: sirius.itd.adelaide.edu.au

dtalmage@guvax.acc.georgetown.edu writes:

>Do we have an equivalent to the photo community's "gear head", a 
>person who buys cameras just to have them in his bag?  A gear head, as 
>I understand it, doesn't use the equipment he owns.

We use "gadget freak"

-- 
----------------------------------------------------------------------
     Zebee Johnstone  DoD #605   | You don't own an Italian motorcycle 
     Adelaide City Council       |  - you merely have the privilege 
    zebee@itd.adelaide.edu.au    |    of paying its bills.... 
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,rec.games.int-fiction
From: mg@sbsvax.cs.uni-sb.de (Michael Greim)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Zork/Dungeon (was Re: MDL)
Summary: What's the address of the firm that sells INFOCOM games?
Date: 14 Oct 92 09:45:21 GMT
Followup-To: alt.folklore.computers
Organization: Universitaet des Saarlandes, Saarbruecken, Germany

Hello,
Seems I missed this discussion until now.

In article <1992Sep30.104700.6275@pollux.lu.se>, magnus@thep.lu.se (Magnus Olsson) writes:
= In article <1992Sep30.074947.148@news.columbia.edu> lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner) writes:
[...]
= >This "proscribes" parts of the game, and enforces where
= >you start at part 2 and part 3, etc.
= 
= That's not very nice, no. But on the other hand, the original Zork
= cave is almost too big to be playable...

Hm, once upon a time I did not even need to consult the maps to walk around.

= 
= On the other hand, nowadays you can buy the "Lost Treasures of
= Infocom" for ~$40, which contains Zork I/II/III and 17 other Infocom
= games, with no copy protection whatsoever.

I have been on the lookout for Infocom adventures for quite some time now.
In fact, last saturday I bought "Leather Godesses of Phobos" at 19.90 DM
(~ 13 US $) at a shop in Trier.
Does anyone have the address of the firm that sells these "Lost Treasures
of Infocom" in plain @-mail notation (how very antique:-) ? I'd like
to write and order a packet. A friend and I have several games, some
for C64, some for Amiga, some for PC, but there are others which we
still have not seen here in Germany yet.

	-mg
-- 
------
Michael Greim    e-mail : mg@cs.uni-sb.de    or : ...!uunet!unido!sbsvax!mg
                 @-mail : Sudstr. 22, 6602 Dudweiler, W.Germany
 .-. .-.  .-.    voice  : +49 681/302-2434
(   X   )( __)   As the Sun pulls away from the shore, and our boat sinks
 \_/ \_/  \_/    slowly in the west ...      --- Spike Jones 
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: munk@prl.philips.nl (Harm Munk)
Subject: Re: Bumper Sticker
Organization: Philips Research Laboratories Eindhoven, Netherlands
Date: Thu, 8 Oct 1992 12:34:51 GMT

>> ken mencher
>> Apple ][ Forever!!!

>TRS-80 Forever!  (I just could NOT resist....)

Exidy Sorcerer Forever (neither could I....)
From: phil@venus.ucdavis.edu (Phillip W. Wong)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: LA50 printer
Date: 17 Oct 92 00:37:01 GMT
Organization: UC Davis

Hi everyone.

I've got a DEC LA50 printer... anybody have a list of the DIP switch
settings? 

Is the interface a serial interface? If so, what type and the
required switch settings?

I'm planning to hook this thing to an SGI IRIS 310. will there be
any problems?

thanks in advance.

-phil
(phil@venus.ucdavis.edu
  -or-
 phil@venus.engr.ucdavis.edu)

[try the first one, if not, then the second. they're
re-arranging out subnets and everything is messed up!]
From: roh8@aber.ac.uk (Richard Owain Hughes)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Newbury terminals
Date: 15 Oct 92 11:00:11 GMT
Organization: University College of Wales, Aberystwyth


Has anyone got/can anyone tell me how to get a termcap entry for a Newbury
8002 terminal?

ThanX in advance,

Grim...
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.unix.admin
From: rickf@pmafire.inel.gov (Rick Furniss)
Date: Mon, 12 Oct 92 14:46:33 GMT
Organization: WINCO
Subject: Re: WANTED: Unix administration horror stories !
Summary: 
Followup-To: 
Organization: WINCO
Keywords: 


   Horror stories:
   Did this myself many years ago, and have come close to it since.

   Murphy's law #?? , preventive maintenence doesnt.

   try this one:   /etc/dump /dev/rmt/0m /dev/dsk/0s1    
             Or:   tar cvf /dev/root /dev/rmt0

   Backups on unix can be one of the most dangerous commands used,
and they are used to prevent rather than cause a problem.  If any Unix
utility were a candidate for a warning message, or error checking, this
would be it.

   Just in case you didnt catch the HORROR above,  the parameters are backworks
causing a TOTAL wipe out of the root file systems.

   More systems have been wiped out by admins, than any hacker could do in
a life time.

***** standard DISKclamer *****
personal views of my person only

CPSMEL/IA
C210 N3877Y
rickf@pmafire.inel.gov
rickf@servprod.inel.gov

-- 

***** standard DISKclamer *****
personal views of my person only

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: gnat@kauri.vuw.ac.nz (Nathan Torkington)
Subject: Re: Screen colors (Was Re: Zork/Dungeon)
Organization: Contract to CSC, Victoria Uni, Wellington, New Zealand
Date: Sat, 17 Oct 1992 04:13:20 GMT

This "most peripherals" thread has nothing to do with
rec.games.int-fiction - please watch your newsgroups lines.

Thanks,

Nat
(deputy net.pit-bull :-)
From: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Subject: Re: What was the intended advantage of using 36bits CPU?
Reply-To: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Organization: Columbia University
Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1992 05:15:33 GMT

In article <1bfq4bINNrtv@uwm.edu> anthony@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (Anthony J Stieber) writes:
>In article <1992Oct13.225620.10861@news.columbia.edu> lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner) writes:
>>rounded up value of 16 bits/char.  (Or is someone going to justify a
>>replacement character code set with 65536 unique combinations?)
>
>Yep, one of them is Unicode.  At least 16 bits is needed to handle the
>various Asian languages, plus there are lots of other characters out
>there that would be nice to have.  Right now 16 bit character support
>is mandatory in Japan.

But what happens when it turns out you need 17 bits?  Again, the -10 is
up to that, since it can pack two chars of 18 or less bits per word in
byte addressing mode wasting 2 bits if 17 bits/char.  All of these machines
that are 32 bits are going to have to round up to 32 bit/char, or are you
still insisting on finding a need for 2^32 unique combinations?

cjl
From: Charlie_Gibbs@mindlink.bc.ca (Charlie Gibbs)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Computer hate slogans
Date: 15 Oct 92 19:44:28 GMT
Organization: MIND LINK! - British Columbia, Canada
Distribution: world

In article <1992Oct15.044305.9310@u.washington.edu>
tzs@stein.u.washington.edu (Tim Smith) writes:

>        "VAX/VMS: software for the 60's"

        PS/2: yesterday's hardware today

        OS/2: yesterday's software tomorrow

Charlie_Gibbs@mindlink.bc.ca
"Intel inside" - is that meant as a warning?

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: twpierce@unix.amherst.edu (Tim Pierce)
Subject: Re: You know you've been hacking too long when...
Organization: Amherst College, Amherst MA
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1992 23:33:00 GMT

In article <1992Oct9.174821.18242@tc.cornell.edu> mdw@theory.TC.Cornell.EDU (Matt Welsh) writes:

>...when you've been working on VMS for a few hours, decide to take a break and
>switch on the TV set. "Ren and Stimpy" is on, and you wonder what the Stimpy
>command does...

What has VMS got to do with this?

-- 
____ Tim Pierce                / "You are just naive and repressed because
\  / twpierce@unix.amherst.edu /  penis envy is here and it's now and it's
 \/ (BITnet: TWPIERCE@AMHERST) /  all around you." -- Neal C. Wickham
From: brent@ssd.csd.harris.com (Brent Benson)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: What ever happened to Motorola 88000 chips
Date: 7 Oct 92 14:51:55 GMT
	<1992Oct6.224854.14746@cybernet.cse.fau.edu>
	<1992Oct7.035750.19511@sqwest.wimsey.bc.ca>
Organization: Harris Computer Systems

mch@sqwest.wimsey.bc.ca (Mark C. Henderson) writes:

>>>  I recall hearing about Motorola's follow-on to the 68000 series
>>>of CPU's, the 88000 series. It featured (initially) a CPU chip
>>>paired with twin memory managers running as cache's and IP units or
>>>somesuch. Sounded like a fascinating chip set, but it sorta faded
>>>away. Did the RISC revolution kill them off or what?
>>>
>>Motorola's 88K series is totally separate from the 68K.  In fact the 
>>88K is a RISC processor series.  There are 2 or 3 different versions
>>and they are being used as CPUs in some computers.

> In particular Data General sells computers with 88K chips in them
> (Aviion).  I can't think of any others off hand, other than the
> defunct Tektronix XD88 workstations.

Here at Harris Computer Systems we produce Night Hawk real-time
multi-processor Unix systems based on the Motorola 88K series.
Earlier machines used the 88000 chip; our current machines use the
88100, and we are about to release the 5800 series Night Hawks that
make use of the 88110 processor.

--
Brent Benson                     
Harris Computer Systems