HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: rochberg-david@CS.YALE.EDU (David Rochberg)
Subject: Re: Dinosaur noises (was: Re: dinosaur horsepower)
Organization: Yale University Undergrad Computer Science
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1992 01:05:16 GMT

In article <Bs4ns4.D7v@world.std.com> dpbsmith@world.std.com (Daniel P. B. Smith) writes:
   Along the same lines, I, for one, would certainly pay good money for a
   recording of dinosaur NOISES.

As a summer intern several years ago, I was in charge of a VAXStation
3100.  It was a clear example of confused management; we wanted it to
write TK50's and it came with 800Meg of disk, a nice color monitor,
and no TK50 drive.  However, this not-quite-dinosaur did have one
redeeming virtue.  On bootup, it spun up each external drive
individually.   The console would print:

Drive one spinning up.
<immensely cool airplane-style startup noise>
Drive two spinning up.
<another time through the noise, almost enough to make one think that
one was launching a spacecraft>

   Oh, and on side 2 (say, I can be archaic when I want to be), how about
   great video-game classic sounds of the past? The menacing Urgh Urgh Urgh
   of Space Invaders...

The Pretenders' first album (self-titled), has a song called "Space
Invaders" that uses the "menacing Urgh Urgh Urgh" to good effect.
Also, if you have the $$ for import prices and the time to track them
down, several Japanese video game companies are reputed to have
soundtrack CDs out.


   --Daniel P. B. Smith
   dpbsmith@world.std.com

-david

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: jimf@centerline.com (Jim Frost)
Subject: Re: IBM vs. world terminology (was: What does dd stand for?)
Organization: CenterLine Software, Inc.
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1992 15:50:00 GMT

dpbsmith@world.std.com (Daniel P. B. Smith) writes:
>Notice, too, the deliberately perverse nomenclature mutations in the
>SAA CUA manual.

To hell with the nomenclature, I've tried to actually use some
SAA-compliant programs.  I don't know which wizard designed their
scrollbars but I hope he's now in the salt mines.

jim frost
jimf@centerline.com
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: hollombe@polymath.tti.com (The Polymath)
Subject: Re: Computers killing people?  (WAS Re: 9 track data storage???)
Organization: The Cat Factory
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1992 01:07:50 GMT

In article <1992Jul27.073420.13087@news.uiowa.edu> dsiebert@icaen.uiowa.edu (Doug Siebert) writes:
}... tossing out the electrocution possibility and the certainty that
}many people have been killed by computer/programmer error before (i.e., the
}type of thing we read about in comp.risks) I wonder if anyone has ever been
}killed by a computer?

Do robots and their controllers count?  I think the current count of
people done in by industrial robots is around half a dozen or so.  The
usual cause is some idiot entering a robot's work cell without proper
safety precautions.

"Think of it as evolution in action." -- L. Niven

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 {rutgers|pyramid|philabs|psivax}!ttidca!hollombe
From: lupe@ukw.uucp (Lupe Christoph)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Computers killing people? (WAS Re: 9 track data storage???)
Date: 27 Jul 92 22:02:16 GMT
Organization: cic

dsiebert@icaen.uiowa.edu (Doug Siebert) writes:


>After reading this an idle thought crossed my mind, wondering that if the
>author had been hit in the head by the tape reel, would he have been remembered
>as the first person ever to be killed by a computer?  Then I got to wondering
>if ANYONE had ever been killed by computer.  I suppose it depends on how you
>define it, surely people have been electrocuted while working on a computer in
>the past.  But tossing out the electrocution possibility and the certainty that
>many people have been killed by computer/programmer error before (i.e., the
>type of thing we read about in comp.risks) I wonder if anyone has ever been
>killed by a computer?
> 
>Kind of a gruesome topic, I suppose (sorry, Mr. Bernecky :-) ) but it is late
>and it has got me to wondering...

Not exactly at the point, but the jargon file entry {scratch monkey}
applied here:

:scratch monkey: n. As in "Before testing or reconfiguring, always
   mount a {scratch monkey}", a proverb used to advise caution
   when dealing with irreplaceable data or devices.  Used to refer to
   any scratch volume hooked to a computer during any risky operation
   as a replacement for some precious resource or data that might
   otherwise get trashed.

   This term preserves the memory of Mabel, the Swimming Wonder
   Monkey, star of a biological research program at the University of
   Toronto ca. 1986.  Mabel was not (so the legend goes) your ordinary
   monkey; the university had spent years teaching her how to swim,
   breathing through a regulator, in order to study the effects of
   different gas mixtures on her physiology.  Mabel suffered an
   untimely demise one day when DEC {PM}ed the PDP-11 controlling
   her regulator (see also {provocative maintenance}).

   It is recorded that, after calming down an understandably irate
   customer sufficiently to ascertain the facts of the matter, a DEC
   troubleshooter called up the {field circus} manager responsible
   and asked him sweetly, "Can you swim?"

   Not all the consequences to humans were so amusing; the sysop of
   the machine in question was nearly thrown in jail at the behest of
   certain clueless droids at the local `humane' society.  The moral
   is clear: When in doubt, always mount a scratch monkey.
-- 
| ...!unido!ukw!lupe  (German EUNet, "bang")     |  Disclaimer:            |
| lupe@ukw.UUCP       (German EUNet, domain)     |  As I am self-employed, |
| suninfo!alanya!lupe (Sun Germany)              |  this *is* the opinion  |
| Res non sunt complicanda praeter necessitatem. |  of my employer.        |
From: ian@falcon.Centric.Com (Ian Macky)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Mad drums
Summary: Disk platters are very strong!
Keywords: disk, platter, destruction
Date: 30 Jul 92 01:51:23 GMT
Followup-To: ian@centric.com
Organization: Centric Engineering Systems

On a similar vein, has anyone else performed destructive tests on disk
platters?  We disassembled and experimented on some RP06 platters from OZ,
the late DEC-20 of the MIT AI lab.

It turns out those platters are REAL STRONG!!  Thrown 9 stories straight
down from the roof onto concrete, total fearful slicing death...   all it
did was bend over the side that contacted maybe 1/2"... otherwise it was fine.
Re-assembled the RP06 and showed it to the systems administrator.  "Had a
bad disk crash, look..."

Similarly, we took another platter and held it in the door of an elevator
that was about to go up.  Doors closed on the platter (held waist-high, say).
Elevator starts to go up.  Platter, held by outside doors, stays in position
and starts sliding towards floor...

Hits floor, all hell breaks loose.  It holds for a brief moment then folds
noisily and disappears from view.  Huge rending metallic sounds emerge from
elevator which is now jerking on its cables and bouncing around scaring the
hell out of those present (a buncha morons).  Elevator jerks to a stop
after maybe 4'.  Prying the doors open, there are large pieces of door/latch
apparatus hanging down, semi-attached, ripped free.  We climb out to the
floor we started on.

The guard, 8 floors down, heard the racket and came upstairs.  We didn't
know what happened.  We were still marveling at our stupidity of performing
the experiment from INSIDE the little metal box instead of OUTSIDE...

Kids, don't try this.  Platters are VERY STRONG!!!!

--ian
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: hollombe@polymath.tti.com (The Polymath)
Subject: Re: Computer Relics (Was:
Organization: The Cat Factory
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1992 21:43:20 GMT

}Lets make it more challenging.  Who still has any of these on a system
}running today.  How about any two?  Anybody want to go for three?  I
}have 9-track and paper tape concurrently as late as 1982 (although I
}will concede that this use was infrequent).  I have never used core
}memory, but Sperry used to give away little PCBs containing about 1K
}of memory to 'Visiting Dignitaries (tm)'.

Last I heard, the Space Shuttle is still using core memory in the AP-101's
and 9-track tape in the MMU (albeit in a non-standard drive).

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: 9125113g@lux.latrobe.edu.au (Mitch Davis)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Computer Relics (Was: 9 track data storage?)
Date: 25 Jul 92 16:32:00 GMT
Organization: La Trobe University

In article <1992Jul21.205524.20552@nap.amoco.com> pgravel@nap.amoco.com (Philip L. Gravel) writes:
>In article <83871@netnews.upenn.edu>, blewis@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Benn L. 
>Lewis) writes:
> 
>> 	Has anyone ever heard of a "9track tape" as data storage? 
>
>Name your favorite artifact of a by-gone era....

Knowing what a "puffer train" was would get me an extra point on the
hacker quotient, thus promoting me a grade.  I have "forced" every
question I could and I still need one more point.

Mitch.
From: dlyons@necis.UUCP (Dave Lyons)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Unix Roots of DOS?
Date: 21 Jul 92 18:39:40 GMT
Organization: NEC Information Systems, Acton, MA

In article <1992Jul21.063313.23751@news.columbia.edu>, lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner) wrote:
> In article <1868@sdrc.COM> scjones@thor.sdrc.com (Larry Jones) writes:
>>
>>Like Brad said, the "MS-DOS 4.0" that did multitasking was only
>>distributed in Europe and it was just distributed for a short time.  The
>>"MS-DOS 4.0" designation was re-used much later world-wide for the
>>MS-DOS-3.3-plus-large-partition-support-that-doesn't-quite-work-right-
>>most-of-the-time that we've all come to know and love.
> 
> MS-DOS 4.01 was released several times.  The version where all files are
> dated about April, 1989 is stable and functional.  I even use it today
> sometimes.

I think you have your DOS 4's mixed up.  As Larry and Brad said (see
above) there was a multitasking version of DOS 4 released in Europe
sort-of (sort-of multitasking - sort-of released) when we here in the
US were still using DOS 3.x.  Because of that limited release, there
wasn't supposed to BE a DOS 4 here in the US and Microsoft was going
to jump directly to DOS 5.  Unfortunately, MS and IBM couldn't agree
on this and IBM released PC-DOS 4.0 which had lots of bugs and is the
main cause of most of the complaints about DOS 4.  Microsoft never
released MS-DOS 4.0 but did release MS-DOS 4.01 which fixed most of
the bugs left in the IBM release.  This is the MS-DOS you're referring
to, not the European MS-DOS 4 that did multitasking referred to in the
post you were following up.
On a side note, although you may be able to squeeze out a bit more
memory with DR-DOS 6 than you can with MS-DOS 5, I've noticed a LOT
more compatibility problems with DR-DOS than with MS-DOS.  IMHO, the
small margin in memory is worth the price of using an OS where an
application WILL run as opposed to an OS where an application will
PROBABLY run.
                                         -- Dave --
-- 
***************************************************************************
DaveJ Lyons       DoD #0633         dlyons@necis.nec.com  (603)878-2567 BBS
Opinions expressed are mine. My company doesn't even know I'm here (Shhhh!)
***************************************************************************
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re:  The Turn of The Century<tm>
From: liam@durie.amigans.gen.nz (Liam Greenwood)
Date: 22 Jul 92 20:31:13 GMT+12
Distribution: world
Organization: It's Home, really...

In article <a1ou02sS1aDk01@JUTS.ccc.amdahl.com> jjh00@outs.ccc.amdahl.com (Joel J. Hanes) writes:
>jra@f160.n3603.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Jay Ashworth) writes:
>>
>> The last estimate I heard was that there was $46B(!)
>> or so of COBOL code that was gonna break on 01/01/2000.
>> Something about `00' being an invalid year...?
>
>"What will happen when the 32-bit Unix date goes negative
> in mid-January 2038 does not bear thinking about."
>                                      -- Henry Spencer
    Finally, a reason for 64 bit architecture....


(Yeah, yeah, I know that won't auto-magically fix it :-> )
--
 Liam Greenwood ------ liam@durie.amigans.gen.nz ------ Wanganui, N.Z.
                Don't tell my Mother I'm a programmer,
              she thinks I'm a piano player in a brothel

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: zcookbruc@cc.curtin.edu.au
Subject: Re: 9 track data storage???????????????READ/NEW/FOLLOWUP
Organization: Curtin University of Technology
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 1992 09:30:36 GMT

In article <83871@netnews.upenn.edu>, blewis@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Benn L. Lewis) writes:
> 
> 	Has anyone ever heard of a "9track tape" as data storage?  we are
> using TK50 here and want to get some database information from
> the National Center for Health Statistics and that is all they can give us.
>   I was thinking that they are for IBM mainframes?????
> 
> 
> 

9 Track probably still is the most common tape media around. I use it just about
every day on my '11. If you wish to port somthing to another site, it's pretty
likely that there's a 9 track close by - other media is just too likely to be
wrong.

And it's a hell of a lot less likely to eat the tape the way a TK50 would.
I one Put the bootable BRUSYS tape from DEC straight into a brand new TK50,
which promptly ate it. The DEC failed circus tech simply swapped the drive
over, and gave me a new tape - seems they keep a few around for just thoses
occasions.

Your best bet for a 9 track tape is a local UNI or maybe a large VAX site.
If you're in DECUS there'll be someone who will have one. If your not in
DECUS call your local DEC office and get a contact.

...BRU
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: hollombe@polymath.tti.com (The Polymath)
Subject: Re: What does UNIX mean?
Organization: The Cat Factory
Date: Fri, 31 Jul 1992 02:05:17 GMT

In article <josef.712418270@uranium> Josef Moellers <mollers.pad@sni.de> writes:
}In <jimf.711984648@centerline.com> jimf@centerline.com (Jim Frost) writes:
}
}>pt@geovision.gvc.com (Paul Tomblin) writes:
}>>vargish@sura.net (Nick Vargish) writes:
}>>>Jerry Pournelle writes a column for a Swedish regional newspaper?
}>>I still read his columns, but I'm no longer sure why...
}
}>I gave up on them a long time ago.  I can get the same drivel by
}>walking into any retail computer store and talking to their techie,
}>except the techie usually knows something about what he's talking
}>about.
}
}>When he tries Pournelle is a pretty good writer, but he's usually a
}>confused and underinformed user.  It's amazing to me that Byte still
}>gives him that much magazine space.
}
}They have to fill up the blanks between the ads anyhow!

Grudgingly, I have to admit he's become a bit more knowledgeable over the
years (_only_ a bit, mind you).  His perpetual name dropping and self
plugging still irritates me.  I also tend to foam at the mouth when he
praises some piece of garbageware that only began to work after he called
the president of the company and said, "This is Jerry Pournelle.  Help me
or else!"

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
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: HELP! My First Mainframe!!!
From: rmk@rmkhome.UUCP (Rick Kelly)
Organization: The Man With Ten Cats
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1992 02:14:03 GMT
Reply-To: rmk@rmkhome.UUCP (Rick Kelly)

In article <9207281944.AA24475@cabell.vcu.edu> ajp1ddw@cabell.vcu.edu (David D. Wigand) writes:
>   As I know people on this newsgroup seem to know more about the most 
>  obscure computers out there I decided to bring this question to you.
>  I have an old REI computer that has a Clearpoint board, 2 Charles River 
>  boards, and what seemed to be Two CPU's Motorola 68000L12 and Motorola
>  68000G8 on the top board (unidentified). The Clearpoint board is a
>  VERSARAM (rev. cc) with 4 megs onboard and two NCR chips: NCR 0380477
>  and NCR 0380475.  The Charles River boards have 74 Series Discrete Logic.
>  As far as we can tell it is a REI/INFOREX machine model# 6040. If anyone 
>  can confirm any of this or has any old manuals for this machine I would be 
>  very happy to hear from you.
>
>  BTW, this machine is running UNOS version D (supposedly a version of UNIX
>  System V from the mid 80's) any info on this is apprieciated.

This is a machine made by Charles River Data Systems for REI.  Charles River
still exists in Framingham, Massachusetts.  The 12 mhz 68000 is the main cpu
and the 8 mhz 68000 is the serial i/o processor.  The Clearpoint board is an
ECC memory board.  This system, with the addition of extra serial boards could
handle 20 or 30 users.

They still make similar machines, only they have changed to VME bus.  To find
out more write to jtb@frog.UUCP (Jim Brown).

I worked for CRDS for most of the last decade, and hacked a lot of code on
those machines.  

-- 

Rick Kelly	rmk@rmkhome.UUCP	unixland!rmkhome!rmk	rmk@frog.UUCP
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: greg@saltydog.dpsi.com (Gregory R. Travis)
Subject: Re: 9 track data storage???????????????
Organization: Data Parallel Systems, Inc
Date: 21 Jul 92 14:13:45 GMT

In <13269@ns-mx.uiowa.edu> jones@pyrite.cs.uiowa.edu (Douglas W. Jones,201H MLH,3193350740,3193382879) writes:

>A 9-track tape is 1/2 inch wide, stored on reels that are up to about a
>foot in diameter, with thousands of feet of tape per reel.  Typically,
>data is recorded at 400, 800, 1600 or 6250 bits per inch (you can guess
>the age of a system by the lowest density it can deal with).

Ahh, yessssss...  I don't remember any 400BPI 9-tracks, but I certainly
remember 200 and 552 (or was it 556?  My memory fades...)BPI 7-tracks!
Ahh, almost 6MB on a 2400 foot reel.

Ahh, ahh, ahh.  Back when men were men and disk drives were electro-hydraulic.
I remember, as a young kid, forgetting to clamp down the hub lock on a
7/9 track tape on a CDC tape drive (forgot the model, but it was one of the
old ones with a manual door and loading procedure).  That tape spun around
in there and took out quite a bit of hardware with it.  I never forgot
the hub lock after that.

I still have a bunch of 9-tracks in the back of my car...

greg
--
Gregory Reed Travis				D  P  S  I
Data Parallel Systems Incorporated   greg@dpsi.com (For MX mailers only!)
Bloomington, IN			     greg@indiana.edu (For the others)
From: tgg@otter.hpl.hp.com (Tom Gardner)
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1992 08:53:00 GMT
Subject: Re: 6809
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, Bristol, UK.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers

Given that a 6809's basic instruction execution cycle was 1us, 
a figure of 0.1 VAX-MIPS seems reasonable.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: rfd@po.CWRU.Edu (Richard F. Drushel)
Subject: Re: Scott Adams = writer of "Dilbert?"
Reply-To: rfd@po.CWRU.Edu (Richard F. Drushel)
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA)
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 92 18:03:50 GMT


In a previous article, dpbsmith@world.std.com (Daniel P. B. Smith) says:

>There is a comic strip that's been running in the Boston GLOBE for
>a few years now called "Dilbert." The byline reads "by Scott Adams."
>The drawing is not very skillful, but I often find the strip funny.
>Dilbert can be interpreted as geekish, hackerish, or engineer-like
>figure although this is never made explicit. There are occasional
>references to personal computer themes -- it comes up perhaps 
>more often than Oliver Wendell Jones in "Outland."  

	I have a "CONFIDENTIAL" publication from the U.S. Navy (WW2
vintage, 1944) entitled "Carrier Sense", which was a brief handbook
for aircraft carrier pilots on the dos and don'ts of flying in the
Pacific.  It is illustrated with "MAD Magazine"-type line art
featuring a hapless clod named Dilbert--the Navy's answer to Private
Snafu, I guess.  Dilbert is the bad example all good pilots are to
avoid like the plague.  At the end of this handbook is a listing of
other "Sense" publications, for things like prisoner etiquette if you
are captured, navigation, radar, etc.  I wonder if the geekish
associations of the name "Dilbert" came from this source.  (I never
heard "Dilbert" as a real-life name.)

	Followups to alt.history.ww2 :)
-- 
Rich Drushel ** rfd@po.CWRU.edu *** Biology Ph.D. Student ** Cleveland FreeNet
Co-Sysop, Coleco ADAM Forum --- Assistant Sysop, Science Fiction & Fantasy SIG
"Solda pung apfashat ro des-marno, / Marn ladir o armag noth yeni arno. / Hell
miryat it, / Jambo iat it, / Os lasse wei ticip kati baldo." / Old Ennish poem
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: IBM vs. world terminology (was: What does dd stand for?)
From: ecmtwhk@ccu1.aukuni.ac.nz (Thomas Koenig)
Date: Mon, 27 Jul 1992 07:12:36 GMT
Organization: University of Auckland, New Zealand.

esr@snark.thyrsus.com (Eric S. Raymond) writes:

>   The UNIX `dd(1)' was
>   designed with a weird, distinctly non-UNIXy keyword option syntax
>   reminiscent of IBM System/360 JCL (which had an elaborate DD `Data
>   Definition' specification for I/O devices)

When I learned JCL, I was told that DD stood for Dataset Definition
(which makes a bit more sense, given that that is exactly what it does...)

Why is it that MVS terminology is so different from the rest of the
world? Look at a few examples:

file		dataset
disk		DASD
formatting	DASDi
file handle	file (well, TSO also calls it that; usually it's ddname)
core dump	abend
booting		IPL
directory	partitioned data set (well, sort of, anyway)

...and so on... it's a small wonder that they call a program a program...
-- 
Thomas Koenig, ecmtwhk@ccu1.aukuni.ac.nz, ib09@rz.uni-karlsruhe.de
The joy of engineering is to find a straight line on a double logarithmic
diagram.
From: lupe@ukw.uucp (Lupe Christoph)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: 9 track data storage???????????????
Date: 22 Jul 92 17:22:57 GMT
Organization: cic

avg@rodan.UU.NET (Vadim Antonov) writes:

>Unix tape interface is heavily infuenced by
>pecularities of 9-track tape format (say, impossibility to write safely in the
>middle of tape files or double tape mark as end-of-tape indicator) and
>looks, hm, strange when applied to modern streaming tapes.

If you are referring to the impossibility to write in the middle
of a QIC tape, that has a better reason than just backwards
crampability. QIC tapes have an erase head that covers the
entire tape. Hence you cannot write to a QIC tape, except after
the EOM (or anywhere on the first track).

At least on SunOS, QIC tapes do not have a double file mark
as EOM. There is a HW EOM indicator. In fact I have just seen
a bugfix that allows you to space *beyond* a double TM with
the SunOS st driver. There must be a couple of special tapes
out there that are recorded this way.

BTW, I believe I recall that a very early rev of
this driver wrote a double TM on close. If you used the
non-rewinding device, it let the tape stay there, so that
you continued to write *after* the double TM!
-- 
| ...!unido!ukw!lupe  (German EUNet, "bang")     |  Disclaimer:            |
| lupe@ukw.UUCP       (German EUNet, domain)     |  As I am self-employed, |
| suninfo!alanya!lupe (Sun Germany)              |  this *is* the opinion  |
| Res non sunt complicanda praeter necessitatem. |  of my employer.        |
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers