HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: grog@adagio.UUCP (Greg Lehey)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun.misc,alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: what is halt_and_catch_fire?
Date: 19 Aug 92 17:33:37 GMT
Followup-To: comp.sys.sun.misc
Organization: LEMIS, Schellnhausen 2, W-6324 Feldatal, Germany

In article <jhb.714204920@bizet> jhb@maths.su.oz.au (John Brownie) writes:
>In <ESH.92Aug18152818@boron.tekbspa.com> esh@boron.tekbspa.com (Edward S. Hirgelt) writes:
>
>>[Discussion about _halt_and_catch_fire() in locore.o of in SunOS.]
>
>>The probably reference is to a series of IBM 360 instruction mnemonics
>>that circulated many a year ago. I saw them in my IBM Assembly language
>>class in school about 1970 (yes, we used punched cards).
>>The list goes on. Someone must have posted these in the past?
>
>This isn't the original list, but another that I found some years ago:
> (etc)

I've just been unpacking some old books, and found one entitled
``Assemblers and BAL'' by Ivan Flores, published in 1971. Many of
these listed instructions, including HCF, are reproduced in Appendix
F, pages 406-407.
-- 
Greg Lehey                       | Tel: +49-6637-1488              
LEMIS                            | Fax: +49-6637-1489
Schellnhausen 2, W-6324 Feldatal, Germany
*** NOTE ***: Headers are mangled - reply to grog%lemis@Germany.EU.net
From: hanson@pogo.fnal.gov (Steve Hanson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun.misc
Subject: Re: How to make focus follow cursor
Date: 20 Aug 92 15:02:27 GMT
Organization: FERMILAB, Batavia, IL

In <1992Aug20.010609.24466@BofA.com> karl@BofA.com (Karl Nicholas) writes:

>>window I place the cursor in pop to the top
>>without having to click on the title bar?
>>


>  Try hitting the "front" key as you move the cursor
>around. Probably not exactly what you want, but I think
>you will like it.

>Karl.

Perhaps more useful- If you really want this (personally I find it
real annoying) you can set
olwm.AutoRaise	True

In your	 .Xdefaults file. You should look at the man page for olwm
for these sorts of options.  This is assuming you're using olwm
as a window manager.
-- 
Steve Hanson - FERMILAB, Batavia, Il.
hanson@pogo.fnal.gov or hanson@fnal.fnal.gov
From: JSALAS@vmtecqro.qro.itesm.mx
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun.misc
Subject: SUN networking
Date: 20 Aug 92 23:20:04 GMT
Article-I.D.: vmtecqro.16849F3C4.JSALAS
Organization: Instituto Tecnologico de Monterrey, Campus Queretaro

Hi everybody,
My  computer architecture teacher has suggested me that a SUN network can achie
ve the same (or ever overpass) performance that a CM5, proved that exits a high
 bandwidth data and control connection between the SUN. And nothing to talk abo
ut the price!!!
Opinions will be appreciated. Thanks.
                                         Joaquin SALAS
jsalas at vmtecqro.qro.itesm.mx
 
Xref: sparky comp.sys.sun.misc:3685 comp.sys.sun.admin:5538
From: chris@gargoyle.uchicago.edu (Chris Johnston)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun.misc,comp.sys.sun.admin
Subject: Re: SUMMARY: CASE tool(s) for SUN
Date: 14 Aug 92 15:03:46 GMT
Organization: AM Investors, Chicago


    We really like codecenter and objectcenter from centerline
(formerly saber-c and saber-c++).  We find it catches an entire
category of run time bugs which are difficult to catch any other way.

    Initially, some people are put off by its copious lint like
comments, but it provides a major productivity boost and noone here
would work with out it.  I use it everyday and would never work
anywhere with out it.


    Centerline will let you use/evaluate the full product free for 30
days.  US telephone numbers: sales 617-498-3000, fax 617-868-6655 or
support@centerline.com.

cj
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun.misc,alt.folklore.computers
From: esh@boron.tekbspa.com (Edward S. Hirgelt)
Subject: Re: what is halt_and_catch_fire?
Organization: Direct Interfaces Corporation @ Teknekron
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 1992 23:28:18 GMT

[Discussion about _halt_and_catch_fire() in locore.o of in SunOS.]

The probably reference is to a series of IBM 360 instruction mnemonics
that circulated many a year ago. I saw them in my IBM Assembly language
class in school about 1970 (yes, we used punched cards).

I've forgotten the mnemonics, but I remember some of the instructions:

    Halt and Catch Fire
    Convert to Roman Numerals
    Seek and Scar Disk
    Backspace and stretch tape

The list goes on. Someone must have posted these in the past?

Enjoy,
Ed
--
Ed Hirgelt			esh@tss.com
Direct Interfaces Corporation
San Jose, Ca.
Xref: sparky comp.sys.sun.misc:3826 comp.sys.sun.hardware:3995
From: green@ponder.csci.unt.edu (Mike Green - Unix Support)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun.misc,comp.sys.sun.hardware
Subject: Trade RS/6000 for Sun Sparc
Date: 21 Aug 92 16:17:19 GMT
Article-I.D.: ponder.green.714413839
Distribution: na
Organization: University of North Texas

Our department has decided to eliminate the IBM RiscSystem/6000 from our
supported platforms list.  As a result we would like to dispose of the systems
which we have currently installed.  State purchasing regulations prevent the
direct sale of these systems so we are looking for an organization interested
in a "like-for-like" exchange for Sun workstations.  The systems are configured
as follows:

IBM RS/6000-520 (1 available)
	32 MB Memory
	355 MB Disk
	CD-ROM, Internal
	8mm tape, Internal
	High performance 8-bit 3D graphics adaptor (Sabine)
	19" 6091-19 color monitor
	Ethernet adaptor

IBM RS/6000-320 (2 available)
	16 MB Memory
	160 MB Disk
	120 MB Disk
	High performance 8-bit 3D graphics adaptor (Sabine)
	16" 5081-16 color monitor
	Ethernet adaptor

IBM Xstation 120 (4 available)
	2 MB System Memory
	1 MB Video Memory
	16" 8514 Color Monitor

An ideal swap would be for a minimally configured SparcStation 10 and two
ELC's, although other systems are a definate possibility.  There is no
requirement that the systems must have similar configurations (i.e. we
would be happy to trade color for monochrome systems), only that they
be workstation for workstation.  The Xstation's can be addressed separately.
We would like to trade the systems as a complete set, but might be
convinced to break them up for the right offer.

--

Mike Green					green@ponder.csci.unt.edu
Research Systems Support			817-565-3076
University of North Texas
Department of Computer Science

* All of these systems have been under IBM maintenance since delivery.

* All equipment and peripherals is IBM equipment purchased from IBM.

* Software licenses cannot be transferred and would be the responsibility of the
  purchaser.  Educational institutions can get the software at nominal cost
  through the Education Software Consortium.
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun.misc
From: scs@lokkur.dexter.mi.us (Steve Simmons)
Subject: Re: Why does OW leave all kind of garbage in tmp?
Organization: Inland Sea
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 92 11:24:09 GMT

ables@hal.com (King Ables) writes:

>> If you delete the lost+found directory there are ways to get it back, but
>> arbitrarily removing it is not a very good idea.

>If you delete your lost+found directory and fsck had saved corrupted
>data there that you want, it's gone.  You can make a *new* lost+found
>directory which the appropriate amount of available file slots so that
>fsck can use it again if it wants to, but you can't get *those* data files
>back.

Simply recreating the directory is not enough.  You need to create it
with enough empty slots that lots of found files can be placed in it
without requiring any actual disk space allocation.

Some systems have a utility to create lost+found directories with all
the empty slots.  Suns don't appear to (or its somewhere I haven't looked),
but you can do the same job with the csh commands:

    mkdir lost+found
    cd lost+found
    touch {0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9}{0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9}{0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9}
    rm *

This will create 1000 slots, which is probably sufficient.  :-)


Another useful lost+found tool is this script:

======================= clip here ==============================
LOG=log
for MOUNT in `gawk '{ if ( $3 == "4.2" ) print $2 }' < /etc/fstab`
do
	if [ -d $MOUNT/lost+found ] ; then
		cd $MOUNT/lost+found
		if [ 2 != `ls -a | wc -l` ] ; then
			echo There are files to look at in $MOUNT/lost+found.
		fi
	else
		echo Warning -- no lost+found directory in $MOUNT.
	fi
done > $LOG
if [ 0 != `wc -l < $LOG` ] ; then
	mail -s "Lost+Found Errors Found At Boot" root < $LOG
fi
rm -f $LOG
======================= clip here ==============================

It uses gawk, but should work perfectly well with awk.  The best place
for it is one of your rc files after the fscks are done.  If there are
any missing lost+found directories or any found files in those
directories, root will be sent mail about it.
-- 
 "Voodoun is a very interesting religion for the whole family, even those
  members of it who are dead."
		-- "Good Omens", by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun.misc
From: mv@dasc.nl (Martin Viet)
Subject: would like to have Maxtor XT-PO-12S format.dat
Organization: Data Sciences B.V.
Date: Wed, 12 Aug 1992 11:26:12 GMT

I would like to have a format.dat entry for a Maxtor XT-PO-12S
1,2 GB disk drive.

Thanks,
Martin Viet, Data Sciences, Amsterdam
mv@dasc.nl
#include <stddisclaimer.h>       This might not be the view of my employer.
From: wtm@uhura.neoucom.edu (Bill Mayhew)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun.misc
Subject: Re: How to make focus follow cursor
Date: 22 Aug 92 13:49:21 GMT
Organization: Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine

I don't like foucs follows mouse because it always seems like I
happen to be typing where I leave my mouse, then I move my mouse
and invariably forget to keep it within the intended window.

I picked click to activate in preferences, which is almost right.
What I would like to know is that if there is an option to make a
window that you just lauched to automatically become the active
window.  It is really annoying to have to click on a command tool
one has just opened in order to be able to type.


-- 
Bill Mayhew      NEOUCOM Computer Services Department
Rootstown, OH  44272-9995  USA    phone: 216-325-2511
wtm@uhura.neoucom.edu   (140.220.1.1)
From: km@mathcs.emory.edu (Ken Mandelberg)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun.misc
Subject: Re: Why is initial screen I/O so slow?
Date: 12 Aug 92 15:23:55 GMT
Reply-To: km@mathcs.emory.edu
Organization: Emory University, Dept of Math and CS

One of the Sun firmware developers gave a talk at a recent Usenix on the
"openprom". Although, it wasn't the point of his talk, since the prom
does have the code for the raw /dev/console terminal emulation he did
address the slow scrolling. What he said was that the widely held
belief that the slow scrolling was a consequence of the Forth interpter being
slow was not correct. It turns out there was a bug in the terminal emulation
code that they didn't notice until after the prom was frozen. I think it 
was something like they were reading or writing from some very expensive
location continually in the code. He said that the scrolling speed was
much improved in recent versions of the prom that fixed the bug. 

As everyone has noted, in most cases the slow scrolling of the full screen
console is not a real concern. Tha prom driver is not used at all
once a window system takes over the framebuffer and does its own terminal
emulations. 

---
Ken Mandelberg      | km@mathcs.emory.edu          PREFERRED
Emory University    | {rutgers,gatech}!emory!km    UUCP 
Dept of Math and CS | km@emory.bitnet              NON-DOMAIN BITNET  
Atlanta, GA 30322   | Phone: Voice (404) 727-7963, FAX 727-5611
From: wayne@jahangir.UUCP (wayne)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun.misc
Subject: Re: halt and catch fire?
Date: 17 Aug 92 21:45:34 GMT
Organization: MDC, NYC


    I have a sparc/2 running SunOs 4.1.2 
and ...

nm /vmunix | egrep halt_and 


gets me nothing.
From: ojuarez@mtecv2.mty.itesm.mx (Octavio Juarez Espinosa)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun.misc
Subject: looking info about high rate networks for SUN
Summary: Help
Keywords: SUN networks
Date: 12 Aug 92 14:03:37 GMT
Organization: I.T.E.S.M. Campus Monterrey




Hi,

I'll appreciate if you send me information about high rate networks
withs SUN's Thanks in advance.

Sincerely,

Octavio Juarez Espinosa

ojuarez@mtecv2.mty.itesm.mx

-- 
Octavio Juarez Espinosa
Gabriel Valerio 1134 
Saltillo, Coahuila    CP 25000
Mexico  email ojuarez@mtecv2.mty.itesm.mx
From: jhall@nmsu.edu (HALL)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun.misc
Subject: Printer Problems
Date: 13 Aug 92 19:41:53 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: NMSU

1.  Thanks to everyone who has been so helpful.

2.  I have another problem.
Has anyone out there connected an old HP laser jet to an IPC.
I could use some help.  I cant get the printer to respond to anything
someones printcap might help...please respond by mail...
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun.misc
From: lwv26@cas.org (Larry W. Virden)
Subject: Re: Why is initial screen I/O so slow? (=NeWS!)
Followup-To: comp.sys.sun.misc
Reply-To: lvirden@cas.org (Larry W. Virden)
Organization: Nedriv Software and Shoe Shiners, Uninc.
Date: Fri, 14 Aug 1992 08:04:25 GMT

Oh, I don't know - NeWS seems to be talked about quite a bit in 
comp.windows.news ...
-- 
Larry W. Virden                 UUCP: osu-cis!chemabs!lvirden
Same Mbox: BITNET: lvirden@cas  INET: lvirden@cas.org
Personal: 674 Falls Place,   Reynoldsburg, OH 43068-1614
America Online: lvirden@aol.com
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun.misc
From: johnj@welchgate.welch.jhu.edu (John A. Johnston)
Subject: How the story ends: Getting SUN sales to return calls
Organization: Johns Hopkins Univ. Welch Medical Library
Date: Fri, 21 Aug 1992 16:04:29 GMT


So, when you finally do get a good working relationship with your
Sun salescritter what happens?

Well - once you are at the point that you and your Sales rep are well
aware of your needs and environment and you are used to how Sun (wrt
the rep) behaves, and everyone is content ...

They change your Sales rep!  Usually at their end of year which is of
course just before your end of year when you need to order stuff quick
and your new guy has only been with the company 3 months ...  and they
ask me why I drink.

-johnj

Xref: sparky comp.sys.sun.misc:3807 alt.folklore.computers:12820
From: jbc@linus.mitre.org (John B. Campbell)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun.misc,alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: what is halt_and_catch_fire?
Date: 20 Aug 92 19:11:44 GMT
	<ESH.92Aug18152818@boron.tekbspa.com>
Organization: Research Computer Facility, The MITRE Corporation, Bedford MA

In article <ESH.92Aug18152818@boron.tekbspa.com> esh@boron.tekbspa.com (Edward S. Hirgelt) writes:

>
>   [Discussion about _halt_and_catch_fire() in locore.o of in SunOS.]

>   The probably reference is to a series of IBM 360 instruction mnemonics
>   that circulated many a year ago. I saw them in my IBM Assembly language
>   class in school about 1970 (yes, we used punched cards).

>   I've forgotten the mnemonics, but I remember some of the instructions:

>       Halt and Catch Fire
>       Convert to Roman Numerals
>       Seek and Scar Disk
>       Backspace and stretch tape

>   The list goes on. Someone must have posted these in the past?

I *knew* there was a reason I saved that excerpt from DATAMATION back in the
early sixties.  HCF was at the end of the list they published:

BH	Branch & Hang
IIB	Ignore Inquiry & Branch
TDB	Transfer & Drop Bits
DO	Divide and overflow
SRZ	Subtract and Reset to Zero
PI	Punch Invalid       (invalid card punch codes were a
                             nuisance-aborted the batch job)
SSJ	Select Stacker and Jam  (as did a jammed reader)
FSRA	Forms Skip and Run Away  (paper tape that controlled the
                                  vertical tabbing of the printer 
                                  had a habit of breaking and making
                                  printer acquire a mind of its own.)
RASC	Read and Shred Card
SRSD	Seek Record and Scar Disk
BST	Backspace & Stretch Tape
RIRG	Read Inter-Record Gap
UER	Update & Erase Record
EM	Emulate 407              (407 was an early model line printer
                                  used to list cards.  Lots of jokes
                                  went around about million dollar
                                  360s doing nothing but card-to print jobs.)
SPSW	Scramble Program Status Word
EIOC	Execute Invalid Op Code
EROS	Erase Read-only Storage
PBC	Print and Break Chain
CM	Circulate Memory
MLR	Move & Lose Record
CRN	Convert to Roman Numerals
DMPK	Destroy Memory Protect Key
DC	Divide and Conquer
EPI	Execute Programmer Immediate
LCC	Load and Clear Core
HCF	Halt & Catch Fire
--
****************************************************************
*                                      *                       *
* John B. Campbell                     *   This space          *
* MITRE Corporation                    *                       *
* Bedford, MA 01730                    *   intentionally       *
* (617)271-3434                        *                       *
* <jbc@mitre.org>                      *   blank.              *
*                                      *                       *
****************************************************************
Xref: sparky comp.sys.sun.misc:3700 comp.windows.news:462 comp.windows.x:15270
From: baby@info.polymtl.ca (Philippe Grant)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun.misc,comp.windows.news,comp.windows.x
Subject: Re: Why is initial screen I/O so slow? (=NeWS!)
Date: 13 Aug 92 20:51:30 GMT
	<1992Aug10.170900.6655@nenufar.saclay.cea.fr>
	<1992Aug10.232537.16251@sq.sq.com>
Organization: Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal, Canada

In article <1992Aug10.232537.16251@sq.sq.com> lee@sq.sq.com (Liam R. E. Quin) writes:


>   You can get a small speed-up by disabling the "OpenWinsow 3" banner at 
>   startup.
>
>   -- 
>   Liam Quin, lee@sq.com, SoftQuad, Toronto, 416 239-4801

...and would you share the wealth?
How would a common mortal go about
disabling this banner?

--
Philippe Grant                     | If it ain't broke,
Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal    | DON'T FIX IT!!!
baby@info.polymtl.ca               | Including this signature!
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun.misc
From: reetz@news.colorado.edu (Mike Reetz)
Subject: Experiences with Maxtor Tahiti R/W Optical...??
Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder
Date: Mon, 17 Aug 1992 19:48:33 GMT

Any experiences (good/bad) with the Maxtor Tahiti drives?  Are drivers
needed?  I heard that a driver is only needed for the 1G mode.

Is the standard sd drive sufficient?  How is formatting, flipping of
the disk handled?  via a umount, eject, flip, insert, mount type
sequence?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

-- 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mike Reetz                          boulder.colorado.edu!morse!reetz
ConferTech International            (800) 525-8244 or (303) 235-5378 (voice
2801 Youngfield, Golden, CO 80401   (303) 237-5151 (switchboard)        mail)
Xref: sparky comp.sys.sun.misc:3730 alt.folklore.computers:12659
From: jcs@zoo.bt.co.uk (John C Sager)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun.misc,alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: what is halt_and_catch_fire?
Date: 17 Aug 92 13:28:19 GMT
Organization: British Telecommunications plc

In <1992Aug14.181623.16695@exlog.com>,
mcdowell@exloghou.exlog.com (Steve McDowell) writes:

> Out of idle curiosity more than anything, can anyone tell me
> what calls the _halt_and_catch_fire() routine in locore.o?

> What does this routine do? A quick poke at it with adb leaves
> me terribly confused, as it seems to be an endless loop that 
> adds adds 2 meaningless numbers.

> Anybody?

Dunno why SunOS should have this, though it's not in the sun4 (Sparc) version.

I was told once that one of the unused opcodes on the original Motorola 6800
would put the processor into a halt mode in such a way that a particular
part of the chip got very hot & burned out, and this was called, jokingly,
halt-and-catch-fire. It may however be apocryphal.
Any comment out there??

John C Sager					Mail:	B67 G18, BT Labs
Email:	jcs@zoo.bt.co.uk				Martlesham Heath
Tel:	+44 473 642623					IPSWICH  IP5 7RE
Fax:	+44 473 637614					England
From: dyer@spdcc.com (Steve Dyer)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun.misc
Subject: SunPC demo (and the real thing)
Date: 22 Aug 92 19:49:16 GMT
Article-I.D.: spdcc.1992Aug22.194916.4272
Organization: S.P. Dyer Computer Consulting, Cambridge MA

I received a CD with a demo (but full-featured) version of the SunPC
product on it.  (I presently have Sun's Dos Windows, though I don't use
it much.)  Anyway, I am trying to use the demo version on an ELC.  Now,
I *know* this doesn't have a real floppy drive on it, but that didn't
seem to matter with DW.  Trying to run the demo, I can't seem to get
any further than the "can't find /dev/rfd0a" error window.  It seems
to require a real character floppy device, and won't settle for a file.

Any clues?


-- 
Steve Dyer
dyer@ursa-major.spdcc.com aka {ima,harvard,rayssd,linus,m2c}!spdcc!dyer
From: hsingh@Turing.chem.uh.edu (Harpreet Singh)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun.misc
Subject: Wanted wordprocessing software on Sun Sparc Station
Date: 14 Aug 92 19:14:43 GMT
Article-I.D.: menudo.1992Aug14.191443.18263
Organization: Dept. of Chemistry


As the title says, I want a wordprocessing similar to 
MS-word, MacWrite etc on the sun Sparc Notebook running 
openwindows.

Thanks,
Harpreet
--
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%   Harpreet Singh                      e-mail: hsingh@hobbes.chem.uh.edu  %
%   @University Of Houston              v-mail: (713) 748-7292             %
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun.misc
From: jhall@nmsu.edu (HALL)
Subject: Mounting a Floppy
Organization: NMSU
Distribution: usa
Date: Thu, 13 Aug 1992 00:53:22 GMT

Hello,

I have several users who need access to a floppy drive on an IPC.
I cant always be there to mount and unmount this for them ( nor do
I want to be there ).  I am being pressured by the department head to
just give the root password to these people.  I really dont want to do this
Especially because one of them never remembers to log out.

Anyway, I have seen the discussion of programs that will allow someone
to mount/umount the floppy for themselves.  I really need something like this.

Please send me mail if you can help.  

Thanks.

jhall@nmsu.edu
From: cherniac@bbn.com (Natasha Cherniack)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun.misc
Subject: Indexing man pages
Date: 13 Aug 92 20:39:14 GMT
Organization: BBN Systems and Technology, Inc.

Does anyone know of any software that can run on Sun workstations (3, 4) 
running SunOS that provide indexing capabilites?  In particular, I'm interested
in finding out about any existig automated mechanisms for creating reasonable 
indices from UNIX manual pages.  In the past, I have used UNIX's ptx in
conjunction with awk and yacc but I've encountered some problems when the 
things that are being indexed exceed a certain length.  Please email.

Thanks

Natasha Cherniack
cherniac@bbn.com
From: snail@lsl.co.uk
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun.misc
Subject: Re: what is halt_and_catch_fire?
Date: 20 Aug 92 15:00:33 GMT
Organization: Laser-Scan Ltd., Cambridge

> A little bit of topic, but interesting none the less.  The Apple][ plus
> had a register in the C0xx range ( the actual addresses escape me right 
> now ) that if you poked into it, would physically burn out 2 gate chips.
> Apple][ developers called this the "Smoke Poke"

Yes, an early version of the Commodore Pet computer (6502 based) had a
register ( a VIA, CIA or some such) that if you wrote the wrong value into it, 
would result in an internal crystal frying itself and the end of your PET....

snail@lsl.co.uk      

Interviewer: "What's the most satisfying thing about being in
              The Sisters Of Mercy?"
Eldritch:    "When I collapse at the end of it..."
Interviewer: "Do you mean that?"
Eldritch:    "Yeah...."
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun.misc