HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: dnichols@d-and-d.com (DoN. Nichols)
Subject: Re: The Addiator
Organization: D and D Data, Vienna VA
Date: Fri, 29 Jan 1993 04:28:30 GMT

In article <1993Jan27.153442.22517@prl.dec.com> vanroy@prl.dec.com (Peter Van Roy) writes:
>I managed to get one of those ancient devices that lets you do
>addition/subtraction.  It's a rectangle about 11x17x0.5cm, with
>10 long thin slots on each side.  Each slot is for a digit, and
>one can stick a pointed object (like a pen) in the slot to enter
>numbers and do addition by sliding an internal bar up and down.
>One side is for addition, the other for subtraction.  It has a bar
>on top that you pull out to clear all digits to zero.

	I once had a similar device, with the primary difference being that
it had a sliding guide which shifted the permissible paths for the pointed
object so it would do carry (for addition), or in the other position, it
would do borrows (obviously, for subtraction).  

>The thing is rather well engineered, with a solid feel to it,
>well-oiled so the internal sliders move smoothly.

	This was sold, too, but somewhat rust-bound.  It still worked, last
I had it.  Complete with the pull-up tab at the top to reset.

>I got it from my grandfather.  I guess it was manufactured
>sometime in the first half of this century.

	Mine had to have been manufactured in the first half of the century,
since I first saw it in 1950, and it was not new then.

>Does someone know more details about this?  Such as, who is the
>manufacturer, what years were these things built, is the
>manufacturer still in business (maybe they make slide rules
>now :-)?  Where can I get more information about it?  I remember
>finding cheaper versions of these devices in the 70's in Toys 'R' Us.
>But the Addiator is the REAL THING and I presume people really used
>them in their daily work.

	I used mine occasionally till better ways came along.  I can no
longer find it. (Too many moves in my life, I guess.)  I don't even remember
the manufacturer's name (which was somewhat hard to see, anyway, between
flaking chrome, and rust.)

-- 
 Email:   <dnichols@d-and-d.com>  |  ...!uunet!ceilidh!dnichols 
		 <dnichols@ceilidh.beartrack.com>
 Donald Nichols (DoN.)  |   Voice (Days): (703) 704-2280 (Eves): (703) 938-4564
	--- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero ---
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: Charlie_Gibbs@mindlink.bc.ca (Charlie Gibbs)
Subject: Re: Smart Disk Drives (C64)
Organization: MIND LINK! - British Columbia, Canada
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1993 20:49:33 GMT

In article <1993Jan26.123031.10279@ra.msstate.edu>
jmpierce@whale.st.usm.edu (Jimmy Malcolm Pierce) writes:

>    Yes, the Atari ST was not built that strongly.. I was at a sci-fi con
>several years ago. Two guys in the dealers' room were making photo badges
>for the attendees. Things like 'Chief Engineer Star Ship Enterprise' etc.
>They had the top open when I walked by. They told me the chip sockets
>didn't have springs in them, and so they had to reseat the chips once per
>hour or the thing would crash due to thermal expansion ! DJ.
>{ They told me the official Atari help line method of curing a machine still
>  under warranty of this problem, was to drop the computer onto a sturdy
>  table. }

     Some time ago (perhaps in this very newsfroup!) someone mentioned
a move called the "Atari twist".  When the machine acted up you'd grab
the case with one hand at each end, and twist it slightly.  The flexing
would usually reseat the chips.  (Disclaimer: I've never seen this
myself; I never had an Atari, and my Amigas are too big to twist. :-)

     Speaking of thermal expansion reminds me of a small mainframe I
once worked on.  It was in a room just big enough to hold it and an
air conditioner that took up one whole wall (and made it impossible
to leave papers sitting anywhere).  Every night when we left we'd
shut everything down, and turn it on again the next morning.  The
machine was becoming quite flaky, and the CEs were constantly
reseating chips (back then a 40-pin DIP was a big chip, so these
VLSI monsters were scary to play with).  Finally they suggested
leaving everything on around the clock.  The problems disappeared.

Charlie_Gibbs@mindlink.bc.ca
"It's lonely here, there's no one left to torture."  -- Leonard Cohen

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: oxenreid@chaos.cs.umn.edu ()
Subject: Re: What one-liner, joke, saying would you like to see on a T-shirt
Organization: University of Minnesota
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1993 18:59:13 GMT

In <1993Jan27.001832.28048@klaava.Helsinki.FI> lukka@klaava.Helsinki.FI (Tuomas J Lukka) writes:

>>Error reading device MIND:
>>Sector not found.
>>A)bort R)etry I)gnore F)ail
>>
>>I'm trying to think up a UN*X version of this.....

>Write failed on /dev/brain0: filesystem full
>Write failed on /dev/brain0: filesystem full
>	TJL

I found this one in my fortuen file one day.

/dev/earth full: Remove anyone you can.
From: nickel@cs.tu-berlin.de (Juergen Nickelsen)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: You know you've been playing games too long when...
Date: 25 Jan 1993 21:56:03 GMT
Organization: STONE Project, Technical University of Berlin, Germany
Reply-To: nickel@cs.tu-berlin.de
NNTP-Posting-Host: tempest.cs.tu-berlin.de
In-reply-to: ina_craig@actew.oz.au's message of 25 Jan 93 10:31:36 EST

In article <1993Jan25.103136.186@actew.oz.au> ina_craig@actew.oz.au
(Craig Alexander) writes:

> I have heard stories of the game Tetris affecting people like this but much
> more severely. Some people have said that they have gotten to the stage where
> they can play tetris in their heads without needing a computer. 

Some time when I played Tetris excessively, I dreamt of it (and I did
*not* give me the perfectly fitting pieces in my dream). 

Some weeks ago I did the final step of buying an own computer (after
making a living from these beasts for over five years now), a PC(*).
The only game I have for it is Tetris. I wonder when I will begin
dreaming of Tetris again. At least I can already play at the highest
level for some time (until I make the fatal mistake). Beginning with
the second but highest is boring already.

(*) It's a real PC, an IBM PC (*no* XT) -- otherwise I wouldn't have
    dared to post it to alt.folklore.computers. :-)

--
Juergen Nickelsen
From: wbdst+@pitt.edu (William B Dwinnell)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Atari 1450 XLD
Date: 27 Jan 93 14:09:20 GMT
Organization: University of Pittsburgh


Yes, that was a real Atari product: the Atari Portfolio, which is
an MS-DOS plamtop, which you can get for less than $300, if I'm not
mistaken. Atari also makes (made?) a notebook version of its
ST computer, called the STacy.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: Jochen.Schmidtke@arbi.informatik.uni-oldenburg.de (Jochen Schmidtke)
Subject: Hacker=Robin Datas?
Organization: University of Oldenburg, Germany
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1993 13:02:52 GMT
Summary: Research about the role of hackers
Keywords: Hacker

Hackers as modern 'Robin Hoods'?

Hackers were still considered to be 'Robin Datas' by the media in 1986. But
at last after the "KGB-case" (some Hackers burglared western data-banks in
order to sell informations to the KGB) they were increasingly criticized
and even named saboteurs and spies.
 On the one hand hackers do a lot of enlightenment (for example hackers
from the Chaos Computer Club Hamburg) and uncover the lack of security of
great computersystems (eg. NASA-hack), on the other hand so called crashers
intrude into other systems and destroy there contained datastock.
 So, are Hackers considered to be the goodones and are crashers therefore
the badones?

In our report for the lecture 'Computer Science & Society' we wanna examine
the selfunderstanding of Hackers, the opinion of SYSOPs and other users of
computers. Who ever wants to write something on this subject, please send
us a mail to the following adress. If you wish Your answers are treated
confidentially.

In the hope of lots of answers...


				  /0\
				 /   \
				/     \
 #######################################################################
#                                                                       #
#       Jochen Schmidtke - Karl-Jaspers-Str. 7 - 2900 Oldenburg         #=
#                      Tel.: 0441 / 59 10 73                            #=
#       Email: Jochen.Schmidtke@arbi.informatik.Uni-Oldenburg.de        #=
# "Hi, ho! Hi, ho!" - Unknown Source...                                 #=
 #######################################################################==
  =======================================================================
From: v462etnn@ubvmsd.cc.buffalo.edu (David L Anderson)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: What is an IBM 5120?
Date: 25 Jan 93 19:27:00 GMT
Organization: University at Buffalo
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41

In article <1jq0rtINNogl@corax.udac.uu.se>, andersa@Riga.DoCS.UU.SE (Anders Andersson) writes...
>A local dealer (of used furniture, not computers) has a kind of
>unit looking somewhat like a DEC VT52/DECscope terminal (this is
>just a rough comparison), but with an 8-inch floppy drive, and
>labeled IBM 5120.  Guessed age: From the seventies.  Does anybody
>know what it is; an independent desktop computer, or a simple
>terminal merely for use with a larger IBM system?  If the latter,
>does the label refer to the terminal itself or to the remote
>system (which of course is not to be found with this dealer)?
>Bruce Watson's table lists IBM 5100 from 1975; is it related?
> 
Sounds like a system I got to use a little for a little while in the early
80s.  I don't recall the number, but it had a white monochrome montior and
8" disk drive enclosed in 1 unit with a detachable keyboard.  The machine had
BASIC and APL available.  
>In particular, we'd like to know whether this unit might be of
>any `historical' interest and possibly worth a closer look,
>before advising our dealer to throw it away.
>-- 
>Anders Andersson, Dept. of Computer Systems, Uppsala University
>Paper Mail: Box 325, S-751 05 UPPSALA, Sweden
>Phone: +46 18 183170   EMail: andersa@DoCS.UU.SE

David Anderson
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: strnadl@tph04.tuwien.ac.at (Christoph F.Strnadl)
Subject: Re: Pentia
Reply-To: strnadl@tph01.tuwien.ac.at
Organization: Institute for Theoretical Physics, TU Vienna
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1993 15:12:07 GMT

In article <2606@blue.cis.pitt.edu>, wbdst+@pitt.edu (William B Dwinnell) writes: 
|> Looks like YOU forgot to brush up on your Greek and Latin:

   Latin   Greek

|> Quad-, Tetra-  4
|> Quint-, Penta- 5
|> Sex-, Hex-     6
|> Hept, Sept-    7                   <===== close, but no cigar 

I assume you wanted the latin name on the left and then the greek name. This
makes the entry for "7" wrong: It should be reversed.

Reason: The language greek has no separate letter 'h'. It just has an accent,
called spiritus asper, for denoting the 'h' sound. During the transformation from
greek to latin one has the rule that a spritus asper at the beginning of a word
becomes latin 's'. Examples:  Hex  ->  Sex,  Hept -> Sept,  Hemi -> Semi,
Hyper -> Super, Hypo -> Sub, Hen -> Semel,...

-cfs 

-- 
Christoph F. Strnadl              | The term 'politically correct', co-
Institute for Theoretical Physics | opted by the white power elite as a
TU Vienna, Austria                | tool for attacking multiculturalism,
email: strnadl@tph01.tuwien.ac.at | is no longer politically correct.
From: zowie@daedalus.stanford.edu (Craig "Powderkeg" DeForest)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: hacker language articles
Date: 27 Jan 93 20:35:50 GMT
Organization: Stanford Center for Space Science and Astrophysics

In article <foo> cmcurtin@bluemoon.use.com (Matthew Curtin) writes:
   Jim Ennis <JIM@UCF1VM.BITNET> writes:
   > ...  I have a copy of the Jargon file and
   > a couple of the book references from the end of the file.  ...

   Try The New Hacker's Dictionary, edited by Eric Raymond. Published by the 
   MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-18145-2 (hardcover) ISBN 0-262-68069-6 (paperback).

Of course, we all know that _TNHD_ *is* that Jargon file, merely bound and 
prettied up and out-of-date.  Chide, chide.

--
DON'T DRINK SOAP! DILUTE DILUTE! OK!
From: wbdst+@pitt.edu (William B Dwinnell)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Pentia
Date: 27 Jan 93 04:08:25 GMT
Organization: University of Pittsburgh


Looks like YOU forgot to brush up on your Greek and Latin:
Quad-, Tetra-  4
Quint-, Penta- 5
Sex-, Hex-     6
Hept, Sept-    7
Xref: sparky alt.folklore.computers:19179 comp.lang.misc:4143
From: klaus@diku.dk (Klaus Ole Kristiansen)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.lang.misc
Subject: Re: BCPL
Keywords: where`o'where
Date: 22 Jan 93 11:27:28 GMT
Organization: Department of Computer Science, U of Copenhagen

Tony Lezard <tony@mantis.co.uk> writes:

>It had some nice syntactic elements as well. I can't think of any
>languages where you can make tests of the form

>    IF 4 <= x <= 8  $( ... $)

>(with the test succeeding if x is between 4 and 8 inclusive.)

Even COBOL does this. It's been a long time, but the syntax is
something like

if x is greater than or equal to 4 or less than or equal to 8

"is", "than", and "to" are optional. "greater or equal" is not
a >= operator, it is how the >, "or, and = operators work when
put together.

One of my teachers once worked for a company, that made a COBOL
compiler for another company. They got a complaint. This putting
operators together, and taking missing operands from the previous
expression, did not work as expected. It proved to be the customer's
expectations that were at variance with the COBOL standard.

Klaus O K
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: baylor@NEBULA.SSD.LMSC.LOCKHEED.COM
Subject: Re: Memetic Virii (was: Vestiges of Fortran, Memes, syntax)
Reply-To: baylor@NEBULA.SSD.LMSC.LOCKHEED.COM
Organization: LMSC, Sunnyvale, California
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 93 23:44:30 GMT

In article <1993Jan26.185009.3912@coe.montana.edu>, uesu03@giac1.oscs.montana.edu (Lou Glassy) writes:
>Here's a memetic virus I've noted...
>
>shrt vrbl nms wth few vwls in thm.
>[examples deleted for space/courtesy]
>where did the short variable name meme come from?  FORTRAN, with
>6-letter identifiers?  early BASIC, with 1-letter+maybe-1-digit
>identifiers?  C and Unix, because no one wanted to wait for a model 33
>teletype to print out more characters of output than were 'strictly
>necessary'... (ergo, Unix's primary command set, where almost any two
>letters in the alphabet do *something*...)...?

Sure it didn't come from "spdwrtng", a mid-70's substitute 
for shorthand with a much shorter learing curve?
Or it could come about from many programmers being abyssimal typists
and wanting just enough letters to remember what the variables were
for.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: gurakl@rebecca.its.rpi.edu (Laura J. Gurak)
Subject: Lotus marketplace: remember anything?
Organization: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy NY
Date: Thu, 28 Jan 1993 03:48:41 GMT

I am a PhD student writing a dissertation on computer privacy. Specifically,
I am looking at the debate surrounding Lotus Marketplace: Households as
that debate took place over the net.
  
I need access to archives from this newsgroup from April 1990 through March
1991. I am trying to document whether net conversations about the Lotus
product took place on this newsgroup.
  
I would be most grateful if the moderator or someone else could write
to me and tell me how I might get access to newsgroup postings 
during April 90 - March 91. The success of my research depends on me getting
access to these postings.

Also, if anyone has any recollections of the Lotus discussion on the 
net that they would like to share, or remembers posting notes to the
net, other conferences, or sending email to Lotus, I would love to
hear from you.
  
Thanks very much.
  
Laura Gurak
gurakl@rpi.edu
-- 
*****************************************************************************
Laura J. Gurak/PhD candidate/Dept. Language, Literature, and Communication
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY 12180/gurakl@rpi.edu
rhetorics of science & technology/social aspects of computing/rhet. criticism
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: thomas@datamark.co.nz (Thomas Beagle)
Subject: Re: YKYB reading Usenet too long...
Date: Thu, 28 Jan 1993 20:55:14 GMT
Organization: Datamark International Ltd.

In article <C1JBEy.40z@news.cso.uiuc.edu> mrjg8679@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Michael R James) writes:
>On vacation, I was reading a piece of paper from the management
>of our condo
>
>WELCOME TO THE COCONUTS RESORT...
>
>My first thought: "Why are they shouting?"

You think you've got problems?

I find myself pressing a non-existent space bar when I want to turn a
page in a book...
-- 
    Thomas Beagle | thomas@datamark.co.nz           Work: 64 4 233 8186
 Technical Writer | thomas@cavebbs.welly.gen.nz     Home: 64 4 499 3832
   Wellington, NZ |   A man without a woman is like tea without sugar.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: kodak@mentor.cc.purdue.edu (Jason 'KodaK' Balicki)
Subject: Re: VIC-20 returns!
Organization: Purdue University Computing Center
Date: Sat, 23 Jan 1993 05:02:49 GMT

In article <1993Jan22.143904.20940@ultb.isc.rit.edu> bmb1021@ultb.isc.rit.edu (B.M. Buck) writes:

>I shudder to ask, since youhad a hook switch, why didn't you do pulse
>dialing?  

Why, most PBX's and such required tone.  :)

It's in the past, nobody flame me.  I grew up.

>Buddha Buck            bmb1021@ultb.isc.rit.edu


-- 
Jason Balicki | kodak@mentor.cc.purdue.edu
From: holland@matt.ksu.ksu.edu (Rich Holland)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Multiple languages?
Date: 22 Jan 1993 23:21:28 -0600
Organization: Kansas State University
NNTP-Posting-Host: matt.ksu.ksu.edu

About a year ago, someone posted a largish 'hello world' printing program,
but it would compile under C, fortran, pascal, cobol, and a few more.  I
managed to lose my copy, but someone told me it was recently reposted.  Can
some kind soul point me in the right direction, or send me a copy?

e-mail replies appreciated, as my news time is limited these days.  I'll
summarize if requested.  

Thanks!

-- 
Rich Holland              | INTERNET: holland@matt.ksu.ksu.edu
100 Jardine Terr., Apt A7 | BITNET  : holland@ksuvm
Manhattan, KS  66502-3357 | UUCP    : ...!rutgers!matt.ksu.ksu.edu!holland
char*p="char*p=%c%s%c;main(){printf(p,34,p,34);}";main(){printf(p,34,p,34);}
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: pd@x.co.uk (Paul Davey)
Subject: Re: What one-liner, joke, saying would you like to see on a T-shirt
X-Disclaimer: This is not the view of IXI Ltd unless explicitly stated.
Organization: Not a lot
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1993 17:32:59 GMT
X-Copyright: The author asserts the right of paternity in this message.


Eric> #1: 			SMILE IF YOU HACK UNIX

Surely that should be 
			SMILE IF YOU GROK UNIX.

--
    Regards,			IXI            Internet: pd@x.co.uk
	Paul Davey		Vision Park    UUCP:     pd@ixi.uucp
				Cambridge      Bang:     ...!uunet!ixi!pd
 "These are interesting times"	CB4 4ZR, UK    Tel:      +44 223 236 555
From: hdavies@rx.xerox.com (Hugh J.E. Davies)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: What one-liner, joke, saying would you
Date: 22 Jan 93 14:30:49 GMT
Reply-To: hdavies@rx.xerox.com
Organization: Rank Xerox Ltd.

I have a 15 year old DECUS RSTS SIG T-shirt that reads;

I'm a twit biddler.

Regrettably it seems to have mysteriously shrunk, particularly around
the waist.
---


Regards,

Hugh.
------------------------------------------------------------------
I don't speak for Xerox. | It's no use being clever - we are all
Rank Xerox Centre, UK.   | clever here; just try to be kind - a
Huge.wgc1@rx.xerox.com   | little kind. (F.J. Foakes Jackson)
From: jimf@centerline.com (Jim Frost)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: VIC-20 returns!
Date: 22 Jan 1993 16:11:37 GMT
Organization: CenterLine Software, Inc.
NNTP-Posting-Host: 140.239.3.202

bmb1021@ultb.isc.rit.edu (B.M. Buck) writes:
>>I built a phone dialer into mine, running a relay off of one of the
>>output lines to manage on-hook/off-hook and wired the sound output
>>into the microphone so I could generate dialing sequences
[...]
>I shudder to ask, since youhad a hook switch, why didn't you do pulse
>dialing?  

What, and reduce complexity?  :-) Besides, tone dialing was much, much
faster.

jim
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: strnadl@tph04.tuwien.ac.at (Christoph F.Strnadl)
Subject: Re: Number of numbers (Was Re: PI)
Reply-To: strnadl@tph01.tuwien.ac.at
Organization: Institute for Theoretical Physics, TU Vienna
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1993 11:49:54 GMT

In article <8690@charon.cwi.nl>, dik@cwi.nl (Dik T. Winter) writes:
|> In article <1993Jan20.195603.11987@iscnvx.lmsc.lockheed.com> baylor@NEBULA.SSD.LMSC.LOCKHEED.COM writes:
|>  > >I think what that def needs is a 
|>  > >d) that says: For any positive integer n, n' - n = 1.
|> This is outside the axioms.  Whan you axiomatically define the numbers
|> the difference between a number and its successor is 1 (or rather e, the
|> unit), by definition.                   ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
					   informally speaking ;-)

Take the Peano-Axioms, which start with element 0 and construct all the
other integers by repeatedly applying the successor-function N to 0. Then
define the values of N(N(....N(0) ...)) as follows:

1 := N(0)
2 := N(N(0))
3 := N(N(N(0)))

If you define Addition in the usual recursive way, with 0 being the neutral
element (x + 0 = x), and subsequently Subtraction, one may show that
for all integers  x:  N(x) - x = N(0)

So, what you called '1' or 'unit' is just the name for the integer N(0).
Of course, when visualizing the above mentioned equality one is tempted
to construct the linear, semi-infinite chain of all integers, which -- at
not means -- is a bad concept :-) (as e.g. the theory of (partial) orderings etc.
show)

-cfs
 
-- 
Christoph F. Strnadl              | The term 'politically correct', co-
Institute for Theoretical Physics | opted by the white power elite as a
TU Vienna, Austria                | tool for attacking multiculturalism,
email: strnadl@tph01.tuwien.ac.at | is no longer politically correct.
  

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.lang.misc
From: gm115@cus.cam.ac.uk (Gabor Megyesi)
Subject: Re: BCPL
Keywords: where`o'where
Organization: U of Cambridge, England
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1993 10:33:24 GMT

In article <1993Jan20.190512.27223@ee.rochester.edu> weisberg@ee.rochester.edu (Jeff Weisberg) writes:
>I recently came across a book on BCPL (the language).  It is  in-
>teresting  to see where features of C evolved from.  I thought it
>would be interesting to give it a try, and was wondering if  any-
>one  has,  or  knows  about an implementation I could get up on a
>sun3, to try out the language, before I try  to  throw  something
>together myself.

This machine I am on at the moment has a BCPL compiler. It is not a sun3,
but the manual mentions the sun3 version, so it must exist.

Gbor Megyesi
G.Megyesi@pmms.cam.ac.uk

-- 
Gbor Megyesi
G.Megyesi@pmms.cam.ac.uk
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers