HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: ercm20@festival.ed.ac.uk (Sam Wilson)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: thoughts
Date: 29 Sep 92 11:38:39 GMT
Distribution: alt

jeff.zeitlin@execnet.com (jeff zeitlin) writes:
> RF::>Hah!  Cambridge does that _much_ better.  For example, Trumpington Rd.
>   ::>turns into Trumpington St., King's Parade, Trinity St., and finally
>   ::>St. John's St., all inside a km.  St. John's St. seems to be about 50m
>   ::>long.  Of course, our streets/roads do change their names as they pass
>   ::>through the "suburbs" (if you can count Cambridge as an urbis), but we
>   ::>do have high-frequency naming too.

There is a street/road/what have you in Edinburgh that, in the course of
about 2.5 mi is Craigmillar Park, Mayfield Gardens, Minto Street,
Newington Road, South Clerk Street, Clerk Street, St.  Patrick Square,
St Patrick Street (about 20 yards), Nicholson Street, Nicholson Square,
Nicholson Street again, South Bridge and North Bridge.  (I may be doing
it an injustice in the Nicholson Square area - it may be that addresses
in that stretch are all actually in Nicholson Street even though they
face onto Nicholson Square.) Most people just call it the Bridges. 

>   I'm sure that you have more strangenesses in Cambridge than I do in
>   New Rochelle, NY, but there is one place in New Rochelle where the
>   name of a street changes for exactly _half_ of one block - and the
>   half is the south side of an east-west segment!  The Columbus
>   Elementary School is on Washington Avenue.  St. Joseph's Church,
>   _directly_across_the_street_ is on Carniato Plaza.

We have this sort of thing as well except that the addresses usually
refer to one building or row and don't necessarily end at road junctions
(of course we don't have regular blocks like 'planned' cities!).  An
example that comes to mind are the various name attached to blocks of
Leith Walk, the long street that runs from the city centre down to the
(formerly separate, now part of the city) port of Leith. 

>   Incidentally, in Manhattan, West 12th Street crosses West 12th
>   Street.  I still haven't figured that one out...

I don't think we've got anything quite like that - crazy New Yorkers!

Sam
From: gadbois@cs.utexas.edu (David Gadbois)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Producing "Zippy the Pinhead" picture on a Symbolics
Date: 5 Oct 1992 18:59:48 -0500
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu

   From: schnitzi@cs.ucf.edu (Mark Schnitzius)
   Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1992 15:01:48 GMT

   I heard a rumor that there is something you can do to a Symbolics
   LISP machine to make a picture of Zippy the Pinhead appear on the
   screen.  It was supposedly left by the original programmers as a
   joke.  Does anyone know anything about this?  How is it done?

When I got to MCC in 1989, I found an archive there that had a bunch
of bitmap pictures of both serious and silly things including one of
the famous Pinhead.  The pictures seem to have originated at MIT.

At the time, I was working for the Knowledge-Based Natural Language.
The interface to the group's software was mapped to Select-&.  (The
lispms have a user interface paradigm that involves "programs" that
take over input and output handling for the screen.  You switch
between programs by hitting the Select key and then the key mapped to
the program you want.  It sounds sort of clunky in these days of
multi-windowed displays, but it is pretty easy to use and helps avoid
confusion as to what activity is getting input.)  It was pretty
easy to type the wrong shift key when switching to this program, but
for historical reasons folks were not willing to change it.  I wrote a
little hack that put up a window and displayed the Zippy picture
inside it and mapped it to Select-7.  Whenever someone missed holding
down the shift key while switching to the KBNL program, they got a
nice, smiling picture of Zippy.  I'm not sure if this code ever made
it outside MCC, but it is such an obvious hack that I would not be
surprise if other folks had done the same thing independently.

There are a couple of other neat hacks involving these pictures.  One
is the "Bob attack."  At some random time, little mugshots of Bob
Dobbs (of the Church of the Subgenius fame) start to tile over the
victim's screen and then all disappear at once when the screen fills
up with grinning pictures of Bob.  Doug Lenat still occasionally is
the victim of these attacks even though the person we blame for the
hack (yes, you, Gumby) has long since left MCC.  The other one
involves a series of pictures of Max Headroom that flash on the
victim's screen in succession to form a little animation.

Now, if only I could find out who hacked Clive Dawson with the fake
email message last April Fool's, I'll buy him a beer.

--David Gadbois
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Empty boxes (was Re: DEC Part numbers) 
From: mdh@gaya.gp.co.nz (Martin D. Hunt)
Date: 26 Sep 92 20:35:20 +1200
Organization: Wellington, New Zealand

In article <1992Sep24.214942.90194@vaxc.cc.monash.edu.au>, bull@vaxc.cc.monash.edu.au writes:
> 
>         Here at Monash Uni (Melbourne), we bought some Decstations (several
> dozen). They were delivered on forklift pallettes, and as they were unpacked
> , we kept finding empty boxes, but with legitimate part numbers printed on
> them. 

I hope you measured them all to make sure that they were the correct size 
as listed on the Bill of Materials, and checked that the correct bar code 
label was affixed (again as listed in the BOM), and that you had the 
correct amount of bubble wrap (often listed as Cronel, with its own part 
number on the BOM). DEC BOMs are fun, and it took us ages to work out what 
the mysterious Cronel was :-)

-- 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Martin D. Hunt	The opinions expressed above are mine, and mine alone, and
Wellington	do not imply any endorsement by anyone I work for or know.
New Zealand	USEnet at home : martinh@gaya.gp.co.nz
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: eru@tnso04.tele.nokia.fi (Erkki Ruohtula)
Subject: Re: Real men don't use Pascal
Organization: /user1/u2/eru/.organization
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1992 16:09:29 GMT

In article <1992Sep29.042314.12022@cheops.qld.tne.oz.au> logier@cheops.qld.tne.oz.au (Rob Logie) writes:
>Real Programmers Don't Use PASCAL
...repost of famous article deleted...

Thanks, but this version is missing the bibliography! Is there a
more complete ASCII file around?

(I have the full article, but unfortunately only as a lineprinter
 hardcopy, I had hoped to get plain-ASCII version of the text... No,
 I don't have a scanner available...)
--
Erkki Ruohtula     / Nokia Telecommunications Oy
eru@tele.nokia.fi / P.O. Box 33 SF-02601 Espoo, Finland
(My private opinions, of course.)

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: david@indetech.com (David Kuder)
Subject: Re: Thoughts
Organization: Independence Technologies, Inc. Fremont, CA
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1992 05:18:47 GMT

In article <1992Sep22.234825.18806@monu6.cc.monash.edu.au> parry@yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au (Tom J Parry) writes:
>But then again we are dealing with a place that has a road called 
>'High Street Road'. I suppose that we have so many High Streets that a
>'High Street' is now enough of a concept in its own right that it can have
>a road named after it!

In suburban Philadelphia (Bucks County) there is  rather major street
names Street Road (or is it a major road?).  Makes for fun times when
giving directions.
-- 
David A. Kuder                                           Nothing pithy today
510 438-2003  {uunet,sun,sharkey,pacbell}!indetech!david  david@indetech.com
From: mschenk@research.ptt.nl (Mike Schenk +31 70 33 23926)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: dirty tricks
Date: 6 Oct 92 09:15:01 GMT
Organization: PTT Research

In article <1992Oct5.221317.25928@ee.ryerson.ca>, elf@ee.ryerson.ca (luis fernandes) writes:
> In article <1992Sep27.164747.16092@rchland.ibm.com> jdahl@rchland.vnet.ibm.com (Jared Dahl) writes:
> [...]
>>I used to change the parity and baud rate on our vt220 terminals
>>in our lab.  When turned on, they responded with gibberish and 
>>the normal "idiot newbie" responded by trying to find another
>>terminal.  I never waited for a terminal after I started doing this.
>>
> Along the same lines...

[great story deleted]

I used to do something similar in university but it was much 
simpler. We used PCs for some projects. At one of those I added a 
sentence to autoexec.bat whcih just changed the prompt to a 
message which stated that this PC was reserved for some 
(non-existent) project. Because all projects had numbers nobody 
knew that it did not exist. This PC was nearly allmost free!

    Mike
From: ddb@tdkt.kksys.com (David Dyer-Bennet)
Sender: FredGate@tdkt.kksys.com
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Screen Colors (was Re: Zork/dungeon)
Date: Sat, 03 Oct 1992 12:50:18 -0600

 GLS> Hmmm... First I was going to question why you suspected this was
 GLS> unbelievable... since 24 bit graphics (16 million colors) has been around
 GLS> for a long time...  But now it hits me...

 GLS> That would be 4096 x 4096 resolution...  Pretty snazzy monitor!

Hmmm; some years ago I saw a monitor at Digital Productions that I was told had
4000-line vertical resolution.  Since I've never seen a monitor that had less
horizontal than vertical (okay, okay, setting aside portrait format monitors)
and since it was backed by a 24-bit frame buffer, I could have actually seen 16
million colors on screen.  I doubt I did, though; all the pictures I saw had
considerable areas of essentially the same color.

(As I remember it, they were now ordering the 4000-line version on all new
units, since it cost very little more than the older 2000-line version.  Only
$5000 more.  Sheesh.)

 * Origin: "It's only a small apple..." -- Harry Ugol (1:282/341.0)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: hollombe@polymath.tti.com (The Polymath)
Subject: Re: Total erasure of hard drive data??
Organization: The Cat Factory
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1992 19:05:19 GMT

In article <1992Sep23.205814.10809@leland.Stanford.EDU> edremy@leland.Stanford.EDU (eric remy) writes:

}ObFolklore(Gripe): Any other system manager types have to deal with that
}one group of people (Out of a mostly (computer) literate crowd.) who
}_absolutely_ cannot grasp computers?  We're talking frequent calls to
}"unfreeze the computer"  (Hold screen button pressed) or "deal with a
}runaway program"? (Control-C or -Y usually works)   Any ideas, serious
}or not, appreciated....

It's not only system managers.  Some of us have to work with such bozos.

Quote from one shining example:

"How do I convert an integer variable [in C] from decimal to hex?"

The same person also wrote a move-cursor function for a VT-100 that was
over 150 lines long, in Pascal.  I later re-wrote it in 6 lines (and
included some bounds checking he'd left out).

The really horrifying thing is this guy has a BSCS and, when last heard
from, was _teaching_ CS at some private school.  There oughta be a law ...

Then there's the bozette they sent to work in my robot lab.  The woman was
flat out incapable of following even the simplest directions.  After
having to restore controller memory from backup for the third time because
she did something the user's manual said, in bold print, not to do, I
printed the relevant instructions out in 36 pt type and taped it to the
controller's front panel.  The next week I had to restore from backups
again.

I finally managed to get her barred from the robot lab, but not before she
botched a demo she shouldn't have done in the first place.  The VP who saw
it pretty much killed the project.  I was never consulted.  She was
recently promoted ... )-:

Then there was the time I spent three hours trying, in vain, to explain to
a new hire how "if ... then ... else ..." works.  He, at least, was fired
a few months later.

The Polymath (aka: Jerry Hollombe, M.A., CDP, aka: hollombe@polymath.tti.com)
Head Robot Wrangler at Citicorp                   Turn the rascals out!
3100 Ocean Park Blvd.   (310) 450-9111, x2483     No incumbents in '92!
Santa Monica, CA  90405
From: marques@vax.oxford.ac.uk
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Bumper Sticker
Date: 5 Oct 92 14:38:52 GMT
Organization: Oxford University Library Automation Team

In article <BvI89L.GIt@rice.edu>, adam@owlnet.rice.edu (Adam Justin Thornton) writes:
> In article <1992Oct2.091252.16662@infodev.cam.ac.uk> rf@cl.cam.ac.uk (Robin Fairbairns) writes:
> 
>>Probably the 360 one.  The subject of possibly the most impossible
>>question I've ever had in a job interview (this one at IBM Hursley
>>Labs in Winchester): "If we gave you a document set for DOS and told
>>you to sit down with it, what would you do?"
> 
> Hire a forklift?  Rent a bigger apartment?  Run screaming?
> 

Pick out the SCS manual and throw the rest away.
                                                
> Adam
> -- 
> "Man is conceived in sin and born in corruption and he passeth from the
>  stink of the didie to the stench of the shroud.  There is _always_
>  something." -- Robert Penn Warren | Vote Cthulhu in '92! | adam@rice.edu
> If Rice shared my opinions I wouldn't have this disclaimer | 64,928
-- 
Jose Marques, Systems Programmer
 %INCLUDE STDDIS; /* Standard Disclaimer */
From: dev-null@lorc.UUCP (The NULL device)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: dirty tricks (was: The funniest bug)
Date: Mon, 28 Sep 92 14:19:23 EDT
Organization: LORC Enterprises

aldavi01@starbase.spd.louisville.edu (Arlie Davis) writes:
> lrwx------   1 aldavi01 emacsstu       9 Jun  6 12:43 .signature -> /dev/null

Since you insist on feeding me so many dead bits, I must remark about your
normal .signature (before you took the wise route and put a REAL device as
the link!): when you bit-bucketed .signature, I had heartburn for weeks.  Now,
since your .signature receives input from me, I have a good way of relieving
the inevitable bit-gas that results from ingesting too many dead bits.

<<<<Belch>>>> ---->> 1001110011110001111101010001110001101110001110100101000101
(Better now...)

dev-null@lorc.UUCP
From: gs@TEETOT.ACUSD.EDU (Greg Simon)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Bumper Sticker
Date: 1 Oct 92 19:46:59 GMT


>     Seen on a car last weekend:
>
>          I <heart> DOS
>
>j     Scary.
>
>Charlie_Gibbs@mindlink.bc.ca
>I hate DOS, but I use it - twice a day.

What version of DOS are they refering to ???

:-) just kidding..

Greg Simon -- Univ. of San Diego Electrical Engineering


Newsgroups: alt.folklore.ghost-stories
From: cvantwrp@news.weeg.uiowa.edu (Cyndi Van Antwerp)
Subject: Automatic Writing ~ 22
Organization: University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA
Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1992 16:37:24 GMT

Cosma Rohilla Shalizi writes:

   "Ghost writing" is when one person writes a story for another, to be
published under the latter's name. What you're talking about is _automatic_
writing - when a person writes without conscious control or even (I think;
memory grows hazy) knowledge of what they are writing. Bridie Murphy was not
an automatic writer. She was a woman who claimed to be the reincarnation of
an 18th or 19th century Irish girl named Bridie Murphy - all "confirmed"
through hypnosis. The case was something of a sensation in the 1950s, but
on investigation was found to be - how shall we put this? - less than iron-
clad. Deliberate fraud was never, to my knowledge, proved, but... You
can get the details from Martin Gardner's _Fads and Fallacies in the Name of
Science_, currently being published by Dover Books.
   Lots of people have claimed to have written books through automatic
writing, Ouija boards, etc. Most of these are so horribly written and so
fully of usually mediumistic garbage as to provide a good reason NOT to
committ suicide. Anything would be better than having to churn out those pot-
boilers... :)

******************

You are right, thank you, I _was_ thinking of automatic writing--it's been
a lot of years since I read about this case, but I'm sure Bridie Murphy
(in the book I read anyway) did some automatic writing through her medium.
I think she also contacted her through the ouija board, but I will try
to find the book you suggested.  I can't even remember the name of the 
book I read, but it was one of those _Stranger than Science_ or something
of that nature.  I do distinctly remember reading that someone had 
published a book they'd done through "automatic writing" and insisted
that was the way it was written--I thought it was written by Bridie
Murphy, but must be mistaken.
 
-- 
Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.
					-- John Lennon

Cyndi Van Antwerp
From: uslave@mcl.ucsb.edu (Sir Prize!!!)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.ghost-stories
Subject: Re: Cthulhu for Prez!!
Date: 3 Oct 92 03:47:41 GMT


>In <1992Oct1.181814.10424@news.columbia.edu> egl1@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu (Elizabeth G. Levy) writes:

>And what about all the other lords of chaos, eh?

>My Lord Arioch and Queen Xiombarg of Swords would be a winner.
>A female Veep.  Well, kinda....

You think Cthulhu is a Melnibonean Lord of Chaos??!?  Hah!!!  He eats lowlife
sissy wimps like them for breakfast!

Does Cthulhu have a running mate?  Perhaps Yog-Sothoth, or maybe H***** (after
all, his name *is* unspeakable!)?  Or maybe he just plain doesn't need one?


*        *      *     *     *    *   *  *  * * ** ** *** **** ****** *********
   Jesse Chang  (Sir Prize!!!)            INTERNET:  uslave@mcl.mcl.ucsb.edu *
   "-.-- -.-- --.." "Technology - high, on the leading edge of life."  -Rush *
*         *       *      *     *    *   *  *  * ** ** *** **** ****** ********
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.ghost-stories
From: scarrobi@shearson.com (Steve Carrobis)
Subject: Re: Ghost Story special on TV
Reply-To: scarrobi@shearson.com
Organization: Lehman Brothers, Inc.
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1992 20:29:47 GMT

yes i saw that special ..
i had a hard time believing the one house that the yvideotaped ...
F/X being the way they are today ... hmmm i wonder 


 Steve C.

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.ghost-stories
From: trifid@agora.rain.com (Roadster Racewerks)
Subject: Re: Real Indian warning...
Organization: Open Communications Forum
Date: Sun, 27 Sep 1992 08:22:06 GMT



The "lack of evidence" for homo sap in the Americas before 10,000 from present
era is weakening steadily... Some very interesting carbon dating results seem
to agree with the less popular theory that man has been here for at least
30,000 years. To my non-archelogical mind, it seems that only the inherent 
conservatism of science is keeping this from being recognized....

Suze
From: hkelly@edsr.eds.com (Kelly Shuldberg)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.ghost-stories
Subject: Re: Cthulhu for Prez!!
Date: 30 Sep 92 17:20:26 GMT
Organization: EDS Research


Since "Cthulhu" violates the syllable structure of any language I'm
familiar with, I'd be intersted in knowing how it is to be pronounced?

h. kelly shuldberg
hkelly@edsr.eds.com
Albuquerque, NM
From: toma@hyperion.gsfc.nasa.gov (Tom Atwater)
Subject: Re: Automatic Writing ~ 22
Organization: Code 916, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Date: Mon, 5 Oct 1992 18:20:49 GMT

In article <1992Oct2.163724.20476@news.weeg.uiowa.edu> cvantwrp@news.weeg.uiowa.edu (Cyndi Van Antwerp) writes:
>Cosma Rohilla Shalizi writes:
>   Lots of people have claimed to have written books through automatic
>writing, Ouija boards, etc. Most of these are so horribly written and so
>fully of usually mediumistic garbage...

On the other hand, there are also many books that have been written using
information garnered from non-physical sources that turn out to be of very
high quality, e.g. the works of Jane Roberts.

Have you by any chance read any of these?

For example, "The World View of Paul Cezanne: A Psychic Interpretation",
by Jane Roberts, Prentice Hall, c.1979. This book is a highly technical
treatise on art, and was favorably reviewed by "American Artist"
magazine. It consists of information received by Roberts in trance
from Cezanne's 'world view', or information left behind by him as he
progressed to elsewhere.

>Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.
>					-- John Lennon

You may say that I'm a dreamer
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.ghost-stories
From: harsh@flammulated.owlnet.rice.edu (Anish Harshad Masharani)
Subject: Re: Cthulhu for Prez!!
Followup-To: alt.folklore.ghost-stories
Organization: Rice University, Houston, Texas
	<1992Sep29.151119.1@ulkyvx.louisville.edu>
	<1aavvdINN8kc@agate.berkeley.edu> <6510@blue.cis.pitt.edu.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 1 Oct 1992 05:49:27 GMT

Here here!! I'm sur we'd like to see it!
--
Both God and the government watch over us constantly,
	but we don't pay God taxes.

					The King of Fools

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.ghost-stories
From: pol30546@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Peder Larsen)
Subject: Re: My Very Own Street Light Story
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Mon, 5 Oct 1992 21:21:01 GMT

devol@lims01.lerc.nasa.gov (WILLIAM DEVOL) writes:

>It happened!  While I was on vacation in Cancun, Mexico, my wife and I were 
>waiting for a bus to take us downtown late in the evening when the street 
>light we were standing under winked out.  All the other lights remained on. 

	What was the original post about Street Lights?  I don't mean to
be a spoiled sport, but this happens all the time where I'm from.  My friends
told me it had something to do with scaring away thieves (or something) so
certain lights go off and on from time to time.  I never inquired further 
though as to why they do this.

Xref: sparky alt.folklore.ghost-stories:567 alt.horror:4260
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.ghost-stories,alt.horror
Subject: Re: Cthulhu for Prez!!
From: tarheit@jupiter.cse.utoledo.edu (timothy arheit)
Date: 3 Oct 92 00:53:15 EST

jdahl@rchland.vnet.ibm.com (Jared Dahl) writes:
: I just saw a tee-shirt the other day that said
: 
: Why accept a lesser evil?
: CTHULHU for President 1992!
: 
: Jared Dahl
: -- 

We've had the following as a door sign for the past year:

		Cthulhu and Satan 92'
When you are tired of choosing the lesser of two evils.



+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
++  Tim Arheit				I killed him and he forgave me,	   ++
++  University of Toledo	 	why did he have to be so nice	   ++
++  Electrical Engineering     		about it?           -DW            ++
++  tarheit@jupiter.cse.utoledo						   ++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
From: marleyt@ccit.arizona.edu (Marley Treadwell)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.ghost-stories
Subject: ghost story by joe
Date: 1 Oct 92 23:18:55 GMT
Followup-To: alt.folklore.ghost-stories
Distribution: world,local
Organization: University of Arizona

Joel 
   That story of yours sent chills down my spine. Great! story.
I am from Tucson and will give you a number of ones famous for this area
later.

Marley treadwell
University of Arizona
email: Marleyt@ccit.arizona.edu
2nd email: Marley@hacks.arizona.edu
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.ghost-stories
From: fnord@panix.com (Cliff Heller)
Subject: Re: Cthulhu for Prez!!
Date: Sat, 3 Oct 1992 17:28:43 GMT
Organization: Right Bleedin' Church of Libertine Obfuscatology

In <uslave.718084061@mcl> uslave@mcl.ucsb.edu (Sir Prize!!!) writes:


>>In <1992Oct1.181814.10424@news.columbia.edu> egl1@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu (Elizabeth G. Levy) writes:

>>And what about all the other lords of chaos, eh?

>>My Lord Arioch and Queen Xiombarg of Swords would be a winner.
>>A female Veep.  Well, kinda....

NOT!  As if!

Indeed Cthulhu would chomp heavily upon them, and that stupid hand that
holds the scale balancing law and chaos too.


Lovecraft was certainly only recounting ancient lore when he wrote, rather
than spacing out on heroin the way Moorcock was.

I mean, really, only a drug induced mind could come up with the name
Xiombarg.

Next.


-- 
    / \      Reverend fnord                 | "King Kong died for your sins!"
   /   \     fnord@panix.com                | 
  / <0> \                                   | "Don't just eat a hamburger, 
 /_______\   Church of Obfuscatology, Inc.  |  eat the HELL out of it!"
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.ghost-stories