HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: peter@ferranti.com (peter da silva)
Subject: Re: The need for an assembler (was: Favorite CPU)
Organization: Xenix Support, FICC
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1992 16:29:41 GMT

In article <1992Sep8.095000.16053@news.columbia.edu> lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner) writes:
> In article <AX0JNS5@taronga.com> peter@taronga.com (Peter da Silva) writes:
> >In article <1992Sep4.042704.21287@news.columbia.edu> lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner) writes:
> >>The non-portability of code to incompatible architectures is well known and
> >>usually an acceptable tradeoff to writers of assembly code.

> >	People who write applications in assembly code are people who
> >	are willing to trade off a factor of 10 or more in a few years
> >	for a factor of two in a portion of the code today.

> No, not a translation at all, just some self-serving words you dredged up
> to twist my statement.

> The factor of two may be more or even less improvement today.  But the 
> improvement follows you.  You are attempting an old and incorrect argument
> that *never* works: that the new models are better because they have
> new and wonderful features that make you stop using the old ones.

No, because running 8088 code in a 32-bit system is simply slower. Or are you
saying that people won't buy 80486es because they don't need the new and
wonderful features? If so, I've got an XT motherboard I'll be happy to sell
you.

> The
> truth is that for any "family" of machines, the "meat and potatoes" of
> the code is the same for all models.  You can get little tweaks along the
> way *if* you are willing to create incompatible versions, but the operative
> word is *little*.

Except for the 8086 family, where the switch from the 80286 to the 80386 was
a quantum leap improvement. The 80286 emulation mode is not nearly as fast,
and (except for programs under 64K) the 8088 mode is even slower.

I'm running software on the 80286 and 80386 today, as we speak, and the
performance increase I see going from the 80286 model to the 80386 model
is never less than a factor of 4 for reasonable sized code.

Yes, the old code runs faster on the new CPU than the old one. But a simple
recompile and it runs faster still. Many times faster.

> more than a few people have indicated that
> 15 years seems to be a good number for one's expectation of the "lifetime"
> of a family of machines, which is more than enough time to permit the
> devotion of intimate machine knowledge only obtained in assembler.

Your 15 years is up. Now what?

> Moreover,
> you take all your knowledge with you to the new machine.

Just none of the code.

Personally, I'm tired of reinventing the wheel.
-- 
Peter da Silva                                               `-_-'
Ferranti Intl. Ctls. Corp.                                    'U` 
Sugar Land, TX  77487-5012
+1 713 274 5180                                   Har du kramat din varg idag?
Xref: sparky alt.folklore.computers:13678 comp.lang.c:13275
From: tada@athena.mit.edu (Michael J Zehr)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: bogosort revisited (with source)
Date: 6 Sep 92 16:43:14 GMT
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Okay, deterministic and horrible:

Generate all sorted lists of length N of numbers drawn from the domain
of the elements you're sorting.*  (for example, all sorted lists of 2^32
bit patterns.)  (there are a lot of them, bounded by 2^32^N for this
example.)** Check to see if the list contains exactly the elements you're
trying to sort.  (Do this by some O(N^2) algorithm.)

This is now O(n^2 * K^N) where K is the number of unique elements of the
data type that the sort will handle.  Furthermore, it's deterministic.

-michael j zehr

_______
* If you want, generate all sets instead of just the sorted one.  Then
you get horrible space as well as time characteristics!

** I couldn't quickly come up with the closed form of this expression,
but I only had about ten minutes to spare.  Can someone else do better?
It looks really messy after N>3...
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.dcom.modems
From: phamtom@seas.gwu.edu (Dzung L. Pham)
Subject: Line sharing on Zoom ?
Organization: George Washington University
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1992 18:08:37 GMT
Expires: Wed, 30 Sep 1992 04:00:00 GMT

A recent issue of PCWORLD stated that Zoom Telephonics VFX modems now have line
sharing capabilities.  This means supposedly that if you subscribe to this
service from your telephone company, your line will be given three different
phone numbers:  one phone number for fax calls, one number for data (modem)
calls, and one number for voice calls.  The point is that the ring for each
type of call will be different.  The magazine article says that the new Zoom
modems will be able to recognize each type of ring and answer accordingly 
(letting voice calls pass through).  

I purchased a Zoom VFX/v.32bis modem but my manual (which seems to be a manual
for an older model) says absolutely nothing about line sharing capabilities.
However, if the magazine article is correct, this function would certainly be
quite useful.

I'd appreciate any information or suggestions about how I could find out
some more information.

-- Dzung Pham (phamtom@seas.gwu.edu)



Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.os.cpm
From: gjw@access.digex.com (Gregory Watson)
Subject: Re: Please help me identify this Kaypro!
Keywords: HELP!
Organization: Express Access Online Communications, Greenbelt, MD USA
Distribution: usa
Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1992 02:35:08 GMT

In article <1992Sep13.233104.27654@noose.ecn.purdue.edu> kharber@ecn.purdue.edu (Keith A Harber) writes:
>I have the following Kaypro portable computer.  It has a Z80 in it, runs
>CP/M, and has no hard drive--I think it only has 128k ram.

	It is a 4Mhz Z80A with 64K.
>
>"Kaypro" in blue on sides of machine, blue keyboard.  "Kaypro" on top
>left of keyboard.  Front of computer has gray CRT, displays green text on
>black background.  A blue "1" is near the 2 disk drives A and B, which are
>half height drives mounted VERTICALLY on the right.  On the back of the
>machine, underneath the handle, is "KAYPRO 1" in blue, next to it is a 
>sticker with Kaypro 2 on it, along with FCC ID CUL7XLKP2.  The serial #
>on the back of the machine is 391875.  Other than the reset button, power
>switch, fuse, power input, and brightness controls, there is the following:
>
>J2, six pin phone type connector
>J3, serial printer output port
>J4, Modem I/O port (serial)
>J5, Keyboard 4 pin phone type connector
>J6, Parallel Printer output port
>
>I'd appreciate any help in identifying this Kaypro, someone told me that
>Kaypro maybe just had a few Kaypro 1's for testing/prototype purposes, and
>it evolved into the Kaypro 2 and this one was modified to be a 2.
>
>Thanks!
>
>Keith Harber
>kharber@ed.ecn.purdue.edu
>
	No, it really is a Kaypro 1.  The Kaypro 1 was introduced
around 1985 or so.  It came after all of the Kaypro 2's.  A brief
description of what is has is: 64K, 2 Ds/DD disk drives, 2 serial, 1
parallel, came with CP/M and Perfect Writer.  It has what was called
the "Universal Roms", which was when Kaypro finally got around to
standardizing the roms in all of the machines.

	I have one of them sitting downstairs, along with an original
II'83 and all of the documentation if that can help.  I've also
cross-posted this to comp.os.cpm (which is why I left in so much of
the article.  Apologies to those who get concerned about that sort of
thing.)

			Gregory Watson
			gjw@access.digex.com
			gjw1@midway.uchicago.edu (if the above fails)


Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,bit.listserv.win3-l,comp.os.ms-windows
From: aduell@nyx.cs.du.edu (Tony Duell)
Subject: Re: Ye Olde Secrete Screene Cheete Sheete (long; 1300+ lines)
X-Disclaimer: Nyx is a public access Unix system run by the University
	of Denver for the Denver community.  The University has neither
	control over nor responsibility for the opinions of users.
Organization: Nyx, Public Access Unix at U. of Denver Math/CS dept.
Date: Sun, 6 Sep 92 16:07:50 GMT


Thanks for the list of software Easter Eggs. I have however, never seen an
analagous list for hardware - undocumented, useful, and sometimes humorous
features in hardware. Here are a few, perhaps someone would like to start
a list
1) IBM PC-XT motherboard (64K-256K system board.)
  The address decoder prom has 3 tables in it that are never used. By 
adding links E1-E2 and E3-E4, and possibly moving the links E5-E8,
you can 
  A) have 128K-512K using the rare 128K drams
  B) have 16K-64K using 4816 drams
  C) have 256K - 640K all on the motherboard - save a slot...

2) IBM CGA card and 100% compatables
   There is a 3rd Colour set in the 320*200 mode. You get it only on an
RGB monitor (not on a composite), by attempting to display a monochrome
mode (i.e. set the color burst disable bit)
   The well-known 100*160 in 16 colors mode I don't know how to get this -
can someone please enlighten me

3) Genuine IBM parallel port and MDA card. 
  By cutting the OE pin on the 74LS374 output latch, and linking it to the
unused output of the control latch, it is possible to have a
bi-directional printer port

4) DEC GT40/VT11.
  a) There is a link on the Bus controller that increses the vertical
resolution from 768 to 1024. You then have to tweak the monitor, giving an
non-square grid.
  b) There is the facility to add boot-roms to the bus controller board.
You fill the 4 14 pin spaces with 8881's, the 16 pin sp[aces with the
ROMs, and move 2 links

5) DEC VT100 and expanded versions.
  a) The LED's on the keyboard are controlled by 4 bits of an 8-bit
register. one of the other bits controls the bell. you can address this as
a higher-numbered LED.
  b) not strictly an easter egg. The Graphics connector on a base VT100
can be decoded and used as a parallel outut port

6) DEC RX02
  There are pins on an inverter chip, pulled high through an set of
resistors. Pulled low, they disable the microcode sequencer and the
microcode roms, for diagnostics

7) DEC PDP11/10S
  Undocumented links on the CPU boards a) Disable the internal serial
port, allowing a DL11 to be used for the console b) disable the bus
arbitor, allowing the device to be used as a parallel slave CPU

That will do for now. Anyone else have some useful undocumented features?
-tony 'PDP11 Hacker' Duell
ard@siva.bris.ac.uk

Xref: sparky alt.folklore.computers:13823 comp.unix.misc:3614
From: bcc@lanai.Eyring.COM (Brian Cooper)
Subject: Re: Sneakers
Organization: Eyring Corp.
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 92 04:20:26 GMT

In article <1992Sep14.025648.8533@udel.edu> elkins@daffy.cis.udel.edu (Robert Elkins) writes:
>I just saw the movie this afternoon.  Could be a vt52; at least they used 
>an acoustic modem; usually Hollywood messes up pretty bad when it comes to
>computer technical stuff.

Since I haven't seen the flick, I can't render judgement.  However, the 
difference between a VT52 and a VT100 is pretty major.  Among other things,
a VT52 is BIG.  It doesn't have a detachable keyboard, and there is room   
inside the case for a thermal printer plus a sizeable roll of paper.  There
was enough surface area on top for quite a lot of junk!  The VT-100 has a
detachable keyboard, colored mostly grey and black.  The VT-52 had mostly
blue, red, and grey in its color scheme.  The two terminals don't look anything
like each other.  Which one was in the show?  Actually, if you are talking
the 1969 time frame, I'm not sure that they even had VT-52's -- I started
hacking in 1976 and I think that VT-52's were pretty new then.  They were
preceded by VT-50's (looked a lot the same, but only had 12 lines instead
of 24) and I think the model before that was like VT-05, but I never saw
one of those.


-- 
Brian Cooper	bcc@Eyring.COM
Eyring Corp.	+1 801-375-2434 or 1 800 YES PDOS
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.unix.misc
From: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Subject: Re: The need for an assembler (was: Favorite CPU)
Reply-To: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Organization: Columbia University
Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1992 07:48:43 GMT

In article <ALANB.92Sep9123721@swordfish.sdl.mdcbbs.com> alanb@sdl.mdcbbs.com (Alan Braggins) writes:
>>>>>> On 8 Sep 92 09:40:05 GMT, lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner) said:
>
>> Who cares if code written for one O/S does/does not run on another one.  When
>> more than a few egocentric usenet types are using your code, then you can
>> criticize what goes on.  In the mean time, most of these machines are *not*
>> being used for what you imaginge they are used for.
>
>Customers. Yours might be happy running under just DOS. Mine expect my code
>to run on VMS and several different Unix flavours, and some of it under DOS
>and MVS as well. Most of these people don't even have Usenet access.

That's fine; also maybe their performance expectations as to effective machine
speed are virtually non-existent.  On some machines, interpretive BASIC is
good enough to get away with for some applications.

>
>Since your "these machines" has no referent, what they are being used for
>is indeterminate.

The reference was to the fact that the vast majority of machines capable
of running MS-DOS actually do so.

>--
>Alan Braggins, Shape Data (A Division of EDS Ltd), Cambridge, UK +44-223-316673
>   "Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced."
> "My employer does not necessarily share my views - but I'm working on it."

cjl




Newsgroups: alt.folklore.ghost-stories,alt.folklore.urban
From: lbarnes@alexia.lis.uiuc.edu (Laura L. Barnes)
Subject: Re: Ghost writing...
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1992 19:19:58 GMT

FYI, the publisher of the V.C. Andrews books (I believe that it is Pocket 
Books), has trademarked the name.  V.C. Andrews was once a living, breathing 
human being, but she died and the publisher retained the rights to her name 
because it sells books.  If you look on the books, the author is actually V.C.
Andrews TM, who is actually some poor "ghost writer".

Laura
From: jma@reef.cis.ufl.edu (John 'Vlad' Adams)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.ghost-stories
Subject: Re: College Ghosts
Date: 10 Sep 92 02:22:33 GMT
Organization: Univ. of Florida CIS Dept.

Did egl1@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu really type:
> 
> I HATE stories like this.  I usually worry for a few minutes about
> looking out the window, thinking I'll see someone (probably very pale
> and dead) looking in.  Just one of my idiosyncracies.

If that bothers you, don't think about turning around and seeing who (or
what) is standing behind you...
-- 
John Adams - Sysop - Beachside BBS.  (Amiga/Cyber/Fido/UUCP)     _
Internet: jma@cis.ufl.edu      John_Adams%lamia.uucp@ufl.edu  _ // Amiga
Fidonet: 1:3612/57.0         UUCP: uflorida!lamia!John_Adams  \X/ Forever
Cybernet: 57:2163/57.0  AT&T: 1-904-492-2305 (Pensacola, FL)
From: egl1@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu (Elizabeth G. Levy)
Subject: Re: Ghost writing...
Reply-To: egl1@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu (Elizabeth G. Levy)
Organization: Columbia University
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1992 02:48:37 GMT

In article <BuJrEC.9rp@bunyip.cc.uq.oz.au> fernee@newton.physics.uq.oz.au (Mark Fernee) writes:
>In article <1992Sep12.234823.1@vmsb.is.csupomona.edu>, cvetp036@vmsb.is.csupomona.edu writes:
>|> BTW, for you H.P. Lovecraft readers out there, any truth behind the dreaded
>|> Necronomicon? I HAD a copy of that I bought at a bookstore, just for the hell
>   ^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>|> of it.
>|> 
>|> 
>
>What ever you do DON'T READ IT or you go irreversibly INSANE.
>
>Mark.

Dang.  Wish someone told me sooner.  <gibber, gibber>


--
"It's a Drake's Coffee Cake....  I have another one, but I'm saving
it for _later_."
From: cgc2646@usl.edu (Cech Claude G)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.ghost-stories
Subject: Re: Sort of a ghost poem
Date: 7 Sep 92 02:52:23 GMT
Organization: University of Southwestern Louisiana

In article <1992Sep6.194612.12165@news.nd.edu> smacmanu@tolkien.helios.nd.edu (stephen macmanus) writes:
>
>     This is my first post to the newsgroup. While not as scary as some of the
>stories I have read here, I enjoyed this and thought I would share it.
>
>
>     [Noyes' _The Highwayman_ omitted]
>                                                      
>    Sorry for the length of this. Perhaps alt.poetry or something would have
>been better. It's also better when the italics are included. One of the
>limitations of the net. :-)
>
>                                                         Stephen
> 

Stephen - you may be interested in knowing that that this wonderful poem
was put to music in the '60s by Phil Ochs.  You might also be interested
in Burger's _Lenore_, first translated into English by William Taylot (in   
1796).  The popularity of _Lenore_ in Germany says much about German
literature's (and film's, if we are to go by _Nosferatu_) interest in the
occult.

Cheers 
			- Claude
From: FURRJK@vtvm1.cc.vt.edu
Subject: (none)
Organization: The Ohio State University Department of Computer and Information Science
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1992 04:38:48 GMT


The charter of alt.folklore.ghost-stories is as follows:

Alt.folklore.ghost-stories is intended to provide a forum for discussion and
posting of ghost stories, both personal experiences and those which have been
passed on from others.  "Ghost stories" can include local retellings of the
"Vanishing Hitchhiker" legend, popular local ghost legends, personal experi-
ences, stories told to you in dark rooms on Halloween, classic ghost story
plot and narrative elements, and so forth.  The purpose of all this is to
allow those interested in ghost stories to discuss and enjoy them with one
another.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.ghost-stories
From: aa595@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Dan Duvall)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.ghost-stories
Subject: Re: College Ghosts
Date: 10 Sep 1992 14:51:05 GMT
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio (USA)
NNTP-Posting-Host: slc5.ins.cwru.edu


A friend of mine at Miami U. in Ohio had a hell of a scare about
three years ago. His dorm room was, according to campus rumor,
the site of a murder in the 1950's... a drunk resident heard that
his girlfriend was cheating on him, and he shot the guy she was
allegedly sleeping with. He then shot himself in the bathroom
located between my friend's room and another room.

This bathroom has mirrors on two walls opposite each other, so
you can see an "infinity tunnel" of reflections by lookin'
into either mirror. One morning around 3am, my friend was brushing
his teeth. He SWEARS that he saw a reflection of a guy holding a
pistol... the guy was standing behind him, but the reflection was
about 3 or 4 mirrors back "into" the infinity tunnel.

He didn't sleep for two days.   :)

-- 
aa595@cleveland.freenet.edu  ///  WANTED:  Tull tickets for
:::::::Dan Doooovall:::::::  ///          Chicago (10/10/92)
From: ken@batman.austin.ibm.com
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.ghost-stories
Subject: Re: College Ghosts
Date: 8 Sep 92 17:11:42 GMT
Reply-To: ken@netmail.austin.ibm.com
Organization: IBM, Austin


I heard that the math building at Texas Tech in Lubbock, TX
was also haunted. Seems one of the women on the janitorial
staff was cleaning the building and caught someone burgling
the building. The guy freaked and killed her.

This much of the story is true - there was, evidently, a
maid murdered in the math building in the 1960's. The story
goes on that the guy beheaded her, and they found her head
in a fish tank. This starts getting a bit folkloric, but I
intend to research it.

Anyway, supposedly now her ghost haunts the math building,
although I've yet to hear a specific story about an encounter
with her.

But I *did* see the "spirit photo" of the head under the desk
that was taken at Tech! CREEPY!


THIS POSTING DOES NOT REPRESENT THE OPINIONS OF MY EMPLOYERS.
-------------------------------------------------------------
"... watch from high atop Tokyo Tower as the twisted world
you created explodes in rivers of blood and endless pain..."
    -Tom Servo, announcer, monster action playset commercial
-------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.ghost-stories
From: garrem@aix.rpi.edu (Matthew Olsen Garretson)
Subject: Re: arm ripped off
Organization: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY
Date: Sun, 13 Sep 1992 00:53:25 GMT

In article <1992Sep6.204858.12421@news.nd.edu> () writes:
>i'm from north new jersey, looking for information on "hooker man". this is

I was camping in Sandy Hook, NJ during a bike trip, and was told about
someone like this. I can't remember the deatils, but your mentioning it
reminded me a little. I think the version I heard had him carrying a
machete or scithe or something. Not too sure, though.
-- 
Matt Garretson                       :-)                          garrem@rpi.edu
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.ghost-stories
From: garrem@aix.rpi.edu (Matthew Olsen Garretson)
Subject: Summer camp ghost legend
Organization: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY
Date: Sun, 13 Sep 1992 02:12:01 GMT

Years ago I used to go to a camp in Connecticut called Camp Womposet. One
day we were told about a former camper who had cut some fingers off in
the woodshop that the camp has. I guess he died, because his ghost
supposedly haunts the woods around the camp. He was called "x-finger
Willie" (where x=an integer > 0 and < 10).  Pretty spooky for us young
kids, I guess.

Anyway, late that night, after everyone was asleep in their tents, there
was a lot of commotion outside, and people were started running around
and yelling/screaming. I was just becoming conscious, but I thought I
could make out stuff like "It's x-finger Willie!". There was a lot of
laughter as well. I poked my head out of the tent and saw that there was
general chaos out there. There also seemed to be quite a few dogs running
around. People started yelling stuff like "Ack! Werewolves!" and running
all over the place. The moon was bright so I could get a good view of the
proceedings.

After things calmed down (through no help of the counselors) the truth
was revealed.  A pack of dogs had run through camp barking, and had decided
to stick around and wake everyone up. That unusual occurrance, combined
with a campful of over-energetic kids with wild imaginations and inclinations
towards havoc-wreaking basically created a hilarious scene of confusion. Hell,
that's what camp is for, I guess.

BTW there's a ghost story on Nikelodeon right now. 
-- 
Matt Garretson                       :-)                          garrem@rpi.edu
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.ghost-stories
From: jdawson@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Jonathan A Dawson)
Subject: Re: Ouija Boards
Organization: The Ohio State University
Distribution: usa
Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1992 21:57:49 GMT

In article <1992Sep15.075607.11787@uwm.edu> spice@convex.csd.uwm.edu (James G Spice) writes:
>The name mentioned above still accompanies the "game".  Funny, but I
>never noticed it before.  I don't recall the name either, but I'll
>post it soon if someone else doesn't, and we'll see if someone can
>come up with some history of this guy.
>
>-- 
>--------------------------------------     Jim Spice
>And we're off, like a dirty shirt!         U. of Wisconsin -- Milwaukee
>		--Lester Earnest Spice     Dept. of Political Science
>======================================     spice@convex.csd.uwm.edu

I remember always noticing this on the board.  I got mine in about 4th
grade (and I haven't used it since 7th grade).  The name is William Fuld
if I remember correctly (not very likely though ;-).

One of the girls in my elementary school had one too and the "spirit" that
moved it identified itself as "William Fuld", so that's probably why I
remember it.

The last time I used mine, my brother and I got a book with a magic circle
in it, drew out the symbols on paper, put them around the board, put
two lit candles on both sides, turned out all the lights, and started
"calling".  A few seconds later, both candles went out.  There were
no windows or currents in the room to do it, but the needle never moved
either.

Jonathan Dawson
jdawson@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.ghost-stories