HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: smith@sctc.com (Rick Smith)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: History flame
Date: 17 Apr 92 19:34:12 GMT
Organization: SCTC

ivie@cc.usu.edu (CP/M lives!) writes:

>By the way, I've been looking into a lot of old machine and finding lots of
>interesting stuff. It really annoys me that all of the history books seem to
>talk about the _people_ rather than the _machines_. 

I think it's because much of the computer history writing is done by
trained historians rather than engineering types. Historians are
trained to examine people and organizations for the most part.  They
usually don't have the training or experience to appreciate the
nuances of different computer architectures or programming techniques.
Most of the stuff written by engineering types seems to be memoirs,
which tends to focus on the individual's narrow experiences.  Maybe
the ongoing recession in computers will free up some engineering types
to better address the history stuff. But then, maybe the economy will
improve.

>I've been very impressed with a number of these old machines I've been looking
>at. 

My favorite is the Whirlwind. It looks just like a PDP-11 without the
address modes :->

After looking at the first generation you begin to suspect that we
haven't done much other than reduce hardware costs in the past 40
years.

Rick.
smith@sctc.com    arden hills, minnesota
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: wex@cs.ulowell.edu (Paul M. Wexelblat)
Subject: Memo No. 239  (aka HAKMEM)
Originator: wex@cs.ulowell.edu
Keywords: HAKMEM
Reply-To: wex@cs.ulowell.edu
Organization: Univ. of Lowell CS Dept.
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1992 15:25:42 GMT


In response to several queries, I now have my copy at my desk

Note, It is NOT in machine readable form, it is > 100 pages
with oodles of formulae, pictures and occasional schematics.

(If I can ever get the OCR software not to hang the Mac II, I may be
able to get something distributable; The work was done under
ARPA and ONR funding and the cover allows reproduction "for any
purpose of the United States Government.")

I seem to remember a suppliment but that is not in my binder, I'll
look further...

I am willing to simple queries about the contents, but have a heart,
I'll never get my dissertation completed if there's too much,
I started the prerequisites in '60 (undergrad) and look how long it's taking.

OTOH, Let me tell you about Irving, the first Logo Turtle...
-- 
Nothing happens here

	...Wex
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: dnichols@ceilidh.beartrack.com (Don Nichols (DoN.))
Subject: Re: Mel: Fact or Fiction?
Organization: D and D Data, Vienna Virginia
Date: Sat, 11 Apr 1992 18:28:33 GMT

In article <1992Apr7.204225.29833@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu> lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner) writes:

	[ ... ]
>
>Demos are often produced under marginal circumstances.  Without Mel, there
>was no demo.  This is obviously true, or else the company would have used
>the former version that never cheated as opposed to the one they requested
>which always cheated instead of selectively so.  From a management
>perspective, blame Mel's boss for not maintaining "version control" :-).
>
>In any case, can someone date the year that core-memory machines made
>NEW computers based on drum memory be passe?
>
>cjl

	I thought that the program would cheat or not cheat depending on the
stat of s sense switch.  What Mel got backwards was who was favored by the
cheating.  The management wanted to be able to boost the egos of prospective
customers by letting them win easily, but when the sense switch was set, the
machine would cheat so that *IT* won, making it imposible for the customer
to win.

-- 
Donald Nichols (DoN.)     | Voice (Days): (703) 704-2020 (Eves): (703) 938-4564
D&D Data                  |  Email: <dnichols@ceilidh.beartrack.com>
I said it - no one else   |         <dnichols@ceilidh.aes.com>
	--- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero ---
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: dbrooks@osf.org (David Brooks)
Subject: Re: WAR GAMES II, or How I Learned To Start Worrying And Hate The Bomb
Organization: Open Software Foundation
Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1992 18:07:44 GMT

In article <1g6mk2#07hLYC9OhKwQ53jrFN1cr96y=eric@snark.thyrsus.com>, eric@snark.thyrsus.com (Eric S. Raymond) writes:
|> In <1992Apr14.061838.27862@sq.sq.com> Mark Brader wrote:
|> > Personally, I'm waiting for the sequel -- where Eric reveals the *fourth*
|> >name on the bingo-card report.  Evidently this one led into such senstitive
|> > areas that it had to be hushed up!
|> 
|> Sorry, the true explanation is much more mundane.  The number above the fourth
|> name had been disconnected.

You *thought* it had been disconnected.  Didn't you realize the
"disconnected" recording was your cue to key in all those numbers
Pamela Miller had been connected with?
-- 
David Brooks				dbrooks@osf.org
Systems Engineering, OSF		uunet!osf.org!dbrooks
From: Jay.Ashworth@f160.n3603.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Jay Ashworth)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Sig style
Date: Fri, 10 Apr 92 11:19:00 EDT
Organization: FidoNet node 1:3603/160 - Hacker's Haven, Clearwater FL

In a msg of <Friday April 10 1992>, Peter da Silva wrote to All:

 PdS> /F{/Times-Roman findfont exch scalefont setfont}def
 PdS> /M{moveto}def /S{show}def 8 F 24 24 M (Sugar Land, TX  77487-5012; +1
 PdS> 713 274 5180)S 60 0 rmoveto(`-_-')S 12 F 24 32 M (Peter da Silva,
 PdS> Ferranti International Controls Corporation)S 0 -6 rmoveto 20 F ( Have
 PdS> you hugged your wolf today?)S showpage

Delightful.  But you oughtta use a nicer font...

Cheers,
-- jra

--  
Internet: Jay.Ashworth@f160.n3603.z1.FIDONET.ORG
UUCP: ...!uunet!ndcc!tct!psycho!160!Jay.Ashworth
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Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: ckd@eff.org (Christopher Davis)
Subject: Re: me vs. vi survey *please read*
Organization: Electronic Frontier Foundation Tech Central
	<1992Mar23.081448.24789@casbah.acns.nwu.edu>
	<1992Mar24.105532.14855@fulcrum.bt.co.uk>
	<1992Mar24.141132.9490@Princeton.EDU>
Date: Sun, 29 Mar 1992 22:55:50 GMT

 KS>  == Kartik Subbarao <subbarao@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> 
 igb> == igb@fulcrum.bt.co.uk (Ian G Batten) writes:

 igb> And I hear that Bill Joy uses emacs, anyway.

 KS> Blasphemy! Didn't he *write* vi?

Yeah?  So what?  I happen to know for a fact that Mitch Kapor, who wrote
Lotus 1-2-3, not only uses Excel, he uses it on a Mac.  (Of course,
1-2-3 wasn't available on the Mac until recently...)
--
Christopher Davis <ckd@eff.org> |    ECONOMIC OBSERVATIONS DEPARTMENT
System Manager & Postmaster     |  "There's always something going out of
Electronic Frontier Foundation  |      business in Central Square."
+1 617 864 0665  NIC: [CKD1]    |   -Rita Marie Rouvalis <rita@eff.org>
From: matthews@oberon.umd.edu (Mike Matthews)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Disk and Drive incompatible....
Keywords: Disk 3.5 5.25 Formatting
Date: 9 Apr 92 17:20:25 GMT
Organization: /etc/organization

In article <1992Apr9.153427.18218@solbourne.com> imp@solbourne.com (Warner Losh) writes:
>Well, almost.  The media is almost the same, but the permeability of
>the HD disks is slightly higher.  There is a potential for problems if
>you use LD disks at HD densities, since the media is not capable of
>reliablely recording data at those rates.  However, HD disks should
>work OK at LD densities.

Personal experience (both on my own disks and in trying to fix others) says
otherwise.  Well, if you use an HD disk formatted LD in an HD drive bad things
will happen (if the computer will let you do that at all).  The signal
strengths are different and you'll "wipe out" data.

>Warner Losh		imp@Solbourne.COM

Mike
From: Jay.Ashworth@f160.n3603.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Jay Ashworth)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Why Grey? Are computer unhappy objects?
Date: Sun, 12 Apr 92 11:53:00 EDT
Organization: FidoNet node 1:3603/160 - Hacker's Haven, Clearwater FL

In a msg of <Sunday April 12 1992>, Billy D'Augustine wrote to All:

 BD> You know, Ive been following this thread for some time now, but so far
 BD> I havent seen a explanation as to _why_ computers are mostly grey?

As an incipient marketroid, I'll take a hack at this one...

it's expensive to make cases in more than one color.  As computers have gotten cheaper and cheaper, it's become more of a percentage of the price to have a custom colored case, both in materials and in labor.

Given this, you need to decide what color to make the case.  White is too hard to keep clean, black is too morbid (unless you're a hacker...), so they tend to pick beige and grey.  Grey clashes with less.

Makes sense?

Cheers,
-- jra

--  
Internet: Jay.Ashworth@f160.n3603.z1.FIDONET.ORG
UUCP: ...!uunet!myrddin!tct!psycho!160!Jay.Ashworth
Note:psycho is a free gateway between Usenet & Fidonet. For info write to
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From: matthews@oberon.umd.edu (Mike Matthews)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Why Grey? Are computer unhappy objects?
Date: 17 Apr 92 14:01:01 GMT
Organization: /etc/organization

In article <70280.29ECEE27@psycho.fidonet.org> Jay.Ashworth@f160.n3603.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Jay Ashworth) writes:
>Given this, you need to decide what color to make the case.  White is too hard
>to keep clean, black is too morbid (unless you're a hacker...), so they tend
>to pick beige and grey.  Grey clashes with less.

I've listened to this thread with great interest so far, but I feel compelled
to comment on this recurring "black is morbid" theme.

The NeXTs are NOT morbid.  They're sleek.  They're cool.

It's one of the reasons I bought the computer (a very minor one, more like
icing on the cake).

While some people may have this wild notion that black machines are morbid 
(I won't mention the skull and crossbones directories I have), some of us
actually like it.

Just had to add the other side of the story. :-)
 
>Cheers,
>-- jra

Tally ho,
Mike
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: GA.MCL@forsythe.stanford.edu (Mark C. Lawrence)
Subject: Re: Slashed o's (o's, not zeros)?
Organization: Stanford University, California, USA
Distribution: usa
Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1992 01:32:06 GMT

In article <magyar.703160688@hss>,
magyar@hss.caltech.edu (Ted Turo'cy) writes:
>... in which the 'o' was slashed.  What caught my eye was a footnote (from the
>original story) which said something to the effect that "it was common
>computing practice for printers to slash o's so that there would be no
>confusion with zeroes".  Well, as far as I can remember (~10 yrs), I've
>only seen _zeroes_ slashed, and never o's (except, of course, in those
>languages which have the slashed-o as a character...)...

The practice of slashing zeros originated in the communications field
before there were any computers.  This is why Teletype (tm) machines
and the like have slashes through their zeros.  In the time (~30
yrs.) I've been involved with computing I have never seen a printer
with slashes through the letter O; usually they just had different
shapes (letter squarish, numeral oval, for example).

There was a common practice at Stanford ~20-25 yrs. ago of doing the
slashed-letter thing; back when we had a keypunch dept. they called
for this use on the keypunch coding forms.  I don't know where or how
this started; I remember being disgusted by it, having (in my ham
radio days) learned the communications convention.  Of course, having
two opposite conventions produced some ambiguity.  The keypunch
department and the coding forms are long gone, and the terminal
(VT100 clone) I'm typing this on has slashed zeros.

Mark C. Lawrence
Systems Programmer
Stanford Data Center
Stanford, CA 94305-4136
(415) 723-4976
From: callum@bain3.bain.oz.au (Callum Gibson)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: You know you've been in hack mode too long when...
Date: 13 Apr 92 07:13:57 GMT
Organization: Bain & Company, Sydney, AUSTRALIA

in article <4jtj67k@lynx.unm.edu>, evilted@vesta.unm.edu says:
> find . -pen HiLiter -print
> additions?

One that happened to me:  I was reading a page of text (on paper) and when I'd
finished the page pressed the spacebar...

regards,
    Callum
-- 
Callum Gibson                           callum@bain3.bain.oz.au
Eyeball Temporary Analyst/Programmer    BH : +61 2 258 1620
Fixed Income Division                   Fax: +61 2 258 1000
Bain & CO, Sydney, Australia.           AH : :-)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: colinm@alfred.carleton.ca (Colin McFadyen)
Subject: Re: CP-6?
Organization: Carleton University
Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1992 01:20:43 GMT

In <wcsjc.703199828@cunews> wcsjc@alfred.carleton.ca (John Coughlin) writes:

>In <9671@bnr-rsc.UUCP> christo@bcarh803.BNR.CA (Mark Christopher) writes:

>>I don't recall much about the on-line help.  What I do remember is that
>>the text for the various errors the system spewed out were looked up in
>>a file.  A friend of mine told me that one April 1st, the error messages
>>magically became some strange combination of pig-latin and rhyming slang...

>God!  Another computer Urban Legend!

He must have found the !HELP (SWITCHAWOO) WHATS_A_SWITCHAWOO. ;-)

Colin McFadyen.
From: hshubs@eff.org (Howard Shubs)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Space Shuttle Computers
Date: 17 Apr 92 15:09:35 GMT
Organization: Electronic Frontier Foundation
Originator: hshubs@eff.org

In article <70662.29EDBA01@psycho.fidonet.org> Jay.Ashworth@f160.n3603.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Jay Ashworth) writes:
>In a message of <Tuesday April 14 1992>, snail@lsl.co.uk wrote to All:
>
> >>>> or a 68000 on it anytime soon.  I would be willing to bet my career
> >>>> that the shuttle will never say INTEL INSIDE.
>
> scu> or MOTOROLA INSIDE would be a damn sight better. That large snail sig
>
>Question here...
>
>Anybody have any opinions on the fact that Intel won't even admit their chips _have_ bugs, whilst  Motorola _posts_ theirs to the net every week?


I didn't know this, but it doesn't surprise me.  I tend to trust Motorola
more than Intel anyway.

A few years ago, I decided that I should know more about the 680n0 family
and about the 80n86 family, so I wrote both companies.  I wrote Intel a
few days before I wrote Motorola.  I told both companies that I was a
programmer looking for information on these chips.

A week passed, and I got a thick envelope from Motorola.  It contained all
kinds of information on the entire 680n0 family, from both a hardware and
a software POV.  A few days later, I received an envelope from Intel.  It
had a price list, some marketing info, and a card asking what I thought
of their response.

You can imagine what I told them.

It seems to me that while both companies are interested in making a profit,
which I have no problem with, Intel acts like IBM (surprise surprise) and
Motorola acts _friendly_.  In both cases, their chips reflect their general
attitude, with Intel chips being a PITA to program and Motorola chips being
easy to program.

Given the choice, I know which company I'll buy from.  I wish that the
68000 had been available in quantity a few months earlier, so IBM would've
used it.  If that had happened, I get the impression that Intel wouldn't
exist anymore.  And no loss, IMHO.

I wonder about one thing, though.  How much of Intel's attitude is due to
the fact that IBM owns a large part of them?  Perhaps Motorola would've
been corrupted similarly?  If so, perhaps we're better off with things as
they are.
-- 
Howard S Shubs      hshubs@eff.org      I don't represent the EFF,
The Denim Adept     hshubs@BIX.com      but I do agree with them.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: jch+@cs.cmu.edu (Jonathan Hardwick)
Subject: Re: You know you've been in hack mode too long when...
Date: Fri, 17 Apr 92 01:06:33 GMT
Organization: School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon

Charlie_Gibbs@mindlink.bc.ca (Charlie Gibbs) writes:
>      I once heard that someone's ID was stolen by a person who
> committed further crimes and was caught.  The criminal record was
> entered against the original victim's SSN, which caused him no end
> of problems.  When he tried to get his record cleared, he was told
> (by a bureaucrat no doubt) that that couldn't be done, and that
> he'd have to get a new SSN.
> 
>      I can't remember where or when this was supposed to have
> happened.  It might be an Urban Legend, but considering how
> bureaucracies work I wouldn't be too sure.

See back issues of comp.risks (they're available for FTP).  This sort
of thing happens all the time...

Jonathan H.
Organization: Freshman, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Mon,  6 Apr 1992 22:45:46 -0400 
From: Joseph Wei-Cheng Ku <jk73+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: Why Grey? Are computer unhappy objects?
	<11999@ns-mx.uiowa.edu>

don't forget that the NeXT's are black. more morbid than all other computers.

-jk
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: wcsjc@alfred.carleton.ca (John Coughlin)
Subject: Re: CP-6?
Organization: Carleton University
Date: Thu, 9 Apr 1992 14:16:58 GMT

In <colinm.702762324@cunews> colinm@alfred.carleton.ca (Colin McFadyen) writes:

>>   Ah yes, the CP-6. It was built by Honeywell. It is now a Bull CP-6 as
>> Honeywell gave up on the computer end and gave it all to their
>> subsidiary Bull. It has an editor called IBEX that, IMHO, is even worse
>                             ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>The editor is called EDIT (surprise).  IBEX is a command processor like
>shell.  It may be worse but it is probably the most powerful line-editor
>around.  One of the development programmers has written an editor called
>FSE (full screen edit) that can use emacs commands.  Much better.

EDIT has a TECO flavour to it, and like TECO, you either love it or
hate it.  Loving it of course involves learning some of the more
advanced commands, which is something (l)users seldom bother with.

FSE is a great editor.  6EDIT, the screen editor sold with CP-6, sucks
like an industrial Hoover.
From: jps@dworkin.wustl.edu (James Sterbenz)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Why Grey? Are computer unhappy objects?
Date: 9 Apr 92 18:11:44 GMT
Organization: Washington University,  St Louis MO

In article <11999@ns-mx.uiowa.edu> jones@pyrite.cs.uiowa.edu (Douglas W. Jones,201H MLH,3193350740,3193382879) writes:
>aduell@isis.cs.du.edu (Tony Duell):

>> The official PDP11 colours are 'Marroon and Burgundy' at leat according to
>> my DEC options catalogue. Othe DEC machine colours are :
>> PDP8 - Yellow/brown
>> PDP12 - two-tone green (I have just been given a preliminary PDP12 use
>> manual that someone was going to throw out :-))

>I have a PDP-12 nameplate on top of my IBM RT workstation.  The light green
>is a light pea grean color, something of a spring green, and the darker shade
>is Army green.  The relay rack itself was black.  Only  the nameplate across
>the top of the rack had the "official colors".  I rescued my nameplate off
>of the rack after someone else had gutted the rack of all electronics.

>Most PDP-11 racks were the same -- the official colors were on a stripe
>across the cabinet top (on the nameplates), and there was sometimes a matching
>stripe across the console panel above the display lights.

Actually the color code extended to the consoles including the binary
switches (on the earlier machines that used them like the early -8's
and -11's) with the colors alternating in groups of 3 (for octal).
Its been a while, but it seems like really BIG machines like the 10 
that had loads of racks with light panel probalby had the color 
stripes on some of the other display panels.  Trivia: anyone remember 
the color scheme on the PDP-10 (since we've covered all the other 
families...)?

Trivia2: what were the standard colors available for the 360 and 
370 systems (large IBM shops frequently ordered each system in 
a different color and color coded channels (back when they were
stan alone boxes!) control units, and other I/O devices to match.





--
James Sterbenz  IBM HPCC       (High Performance Computing and Communications)
                472 Wheelers Farms Rd. MS93           jpgs@watson.vnet.ibm.com
                Milford CT 06460-1844 USA                      +1 203 783 4380
From: mwt@bcm.tmc.edu (Man Wei Tam)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: You kyou've been in hack mode too long ...
Date: 12 Apr 1992 04:51:32 GMT

... you start dreaming code

MWT
.
From: jc@cs.kun.nl (Jan Christiaan van Winkel)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Those wackhy K&R guys
Date: 10 Apr 92 09:50:47 GMT
Organization: University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands

Look up in the index of The C programming Language FIRST edition:

Squirrel, pg 131.

On pg 131, a binary tree manipulation algorithm is described!

JC
-- 
___  __  ____________________________________________________________________
   |/  \   Jan Christiaan van Winkel                     jc@phoibos.cs.kun.nl
   |       Alternative e-mail addresses: jc@oreo.atcmp.nl and jc@atcmp.nl
__/ \__/ ____________________________________________________________________
Xref: sparky alt.folklore.computers:6332 rec.arts.sf.written:5710 comp.unix.sysv386:8555
From: max@underg.UUCP (Max Cray)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,rec.arts.sf.written,comp.unix.sysv386
Subject: Re: WAR GAMES II, or How I Learned To Start Worrying And Hate The Bo
Date: Fri, 10 Apr 92 14:40:03 EDT
Organization: Underground Computing Foundation

tneff@bfmny0.BFM.COM (Tom Neff) writes:

> I was embarrassed at it, to tell the truth.  If the lady under the
> mountain is allowed to send in reader response cards bearing her real
> work address, then by definition it shouldn't be too awe-inspiring to
> get one.  I bet any number of other companies have received them in the
> past without feeling the need to go on about it here at essay length.
> 
> I also bet that if the book ad warned prospective respondents that
> their names and addresses would be selected at random and rebroadcast
> worldwide over Usenet, there'd be a lot fewer cards received.
> 
> Just another piece of fan mail :-)

Oh lighten up! It was fun to read.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers