HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: dp35@mc1adm.UWaterloo.ca (Greg Moore)
Subject: Re: GUI or Gooey?
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Thu, 13 Aug 1992 17:30:06 GMT

In article <chris.713429346@rufus> chris@state.COM.AU (Chris Keane) writes:
>Exactly the opposite for me. People who pronounce it gee-you-eye
>all seem to be from the OSF cabal and therefore get up my nose.
>Gooey forever!
>
Gooey up your nose?!?!?  Eweey Gooey Good!
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: rdippold@cancun.qualcomm.com (Ron Dippold)
Subject: Re: Non Unix-OS's
Organization: Qualcomm, Inc., San Diego, CA
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 1992 14:59:56 GMT

tbruseha@kafka.ems.cdc.com (Tom Brusehaver) writes:
>So although IBM might have come up with a different implementation, it
>wasn't better.  Remember CP/M 3.0 can deal with 1.0 Megabytes of
>memory, and DOS (all versions) can only deal with 640K. 

Not true in the slightest.  That 640K is a hardware imposed limitation
caused by firmly planting video memory at that location.  If you limit
the video to text mode only or monochrome only, you get more memory
available.   DOS 5 allows unused portions of the memory above 640K to
be used by programs and to hold resident programs.

Not that I wasn't glad to ditch it, but it just ain't so.
-- 
Adapt.  Enjoy.  Survive.
From: neeri@iis.ethz.ch (Matthias Neeracher)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Computer History/Biography/NonFiction Book List  (Version 1.0)
Date: 20 Aug 92 10:25:13 GMT
	<1992Aug19.185510.6661@news.columbia.edu>
Organization: Integrated Systems Laboratory, ETH, Zurich

In article <1992Aug19.185510.6661@news.columbia.edu> lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner) writes:
>
>Hows' about Big Blue (forget the author)

 Big Blue : IBM's use and abuse of power
 / Richard Thomas DeLamarter
 New York : Dodd, Mead & Company, 1986
 XVIII, 393 p. : tab. ; 24 cm
 ISBN 0-396-08515-6

an interesting book, which does, however, not talk much about computer
technology, as it focuses more on IBMs selling strategies.

Matthias

-----
Matthias Neeracher                                   neeri@iis.ethz.ch
   "No, what he didn't like about heroes was that they were usually
    suicidally gloomy when sober and homicidally insane when drunk."
                          -- Terry Pratchett, _The Colour of Magic_
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: dp35@mc1adm.UWaterloo.ca (Greg Moore)
Subject: Re: You know you've been working with computers too long...
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1992 18:04:51 GMT

You say the store is about 1K away.  Meaning that it's probably 1024 meters.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: maynard@esther.msc.cornell.edu (Maynard J. Handley)
Subject: Re: Your co-worker may be an alien
Organization: Cornell-Materials-Science-Center
Distribution: na
Date: Mon, 17 Aug 1992 04:37:26 GMT


>Actually the great leader was very upset to learn about the article and
>have
>our cov...er...forget you heard that earthma...er..what I mean to say is
>*IF*
>the list was true, I'll bet *IF* there was a great leader he/she/(it)
>would
>be very angry our...er..the aliens cover was blown.

One wonders- if the aliens talk this way, maybe George Bush is one of
them!

Maynard Handley
Organization: Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Mon, 17 Aug 1992 13:54:46 -0400 
From: Pat_Barron@transarc.com
Subject: Re: CASIO watch display question
	<1992Aug17.080423.15673@donau.et.tudelft.nl>

wolff@zen.et.tudelft.nl (Rogier Wolff) writes:
> Which means that a hard reset (pull the bateries out for about a second)
> will fix the problem. (A watch uses about 0.5 uA, the light on the order of 
> mA (I guess about 1 to 10.) The light could have a very big influence on
> the battery power.....)

The light does draw a lot of power - almost certainly enough to
confuse the watch if it's already got an almost-dead battery.

A "hard reset" on one of these watches, though, is somewhat more
involved than simply pulling the battery for a few seconds.  On mine
(a CASIO DBC-60 "Data Bank"), after pulling the battery (or replacing
a dead battery with a new one), there is a set of "reset contacts"
that you have to short momentarily to reset the watch.  I recently had
to replace my battery, and until I did the reset, the watch was in
"nonsense display; buttons don't do anything" mode, even with a brand
new battery.  Resetting it woke it up right away.

--Pat.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Subject: Re: Need a copy of Creation of World in IBM JCL
Reply-To: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Organization: Columbia University
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 1992 02:33:55 GMT

In article <5520@mccuts.uts.mcc.ac.uk> zzassgl@uts.mcc.ac.uk (Geoff Lane) writes:
>
>I used to have a listing of an IBM JCL job which described the creation of
>the world in terms of IBM JCL commands.  Does anyone have a copy they can
>send me?

Since you don't have it anymore, I guess it was:

DISP=(OLD,DELETE)

cjl
From: ivie@cc.usu.edu (CP/M lives!)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: The need for an assembler (was: Favorite CPU)
Date: 16 Aug 92 20:11:22 MDT
Organization: Utah State University

In article <1992Aug15.215427.5726@yrloc.ipsa.reuter.COM>, rbe@yrloc.ipsa.reuter.COM (Robert Bernecky) writes:
> 
> a. Non-code can't have any bugs in it.

I'll disagree with this one. When's the last time you had to fix a bug by
_removing_ code. Obviously, most bugs are in the code that isn't there...

Roger Ivie
ivie@cc.usu.edu
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: jpenne@ee.ualberta.ca (Jerry Penner)
Subject: Re: The need for an assembler (was: Favorite CPU)
Summary:  trying to get off this thread with a little humor
Organization: University Of Alberta, Edmonton Canada
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1992 00:31:21 GMT

repo@depo.UUCP (repo man) writes:

[... a lot of level headed comments by repo man deleted ...]

>Must everyone know exactly how a microwave works, to determine the precise
>time and setting required to produce the perfect cheeseburger?  The answer is
					  ^^^^^^^
>no.  Most people couldn't care less HOW it works, only that their burger
>comes out neither over nor undercooked.  The whole idea is to be productive,
>and that is entirely subjective.

Ahh, but this is a bad example.  You are using the wrong tool,
because to make the perfect cheeseburger, you need a bar-b-que, not a
microwave.  :-)

-- 
Jerry Penner   jpenne@ee.ualberta.ca   Try a 1-line .sig today.
From: Volker.Kaechele@quattro.stgt.sub.org (Volker Kaechele)
Sender: FredMail@quattro.stgt.sub.org
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: You know you've been hacking too long...
Date: Sun, 16 Aug 1992 22:02:00 +0100

> Speaking of screen color, I've noticed somthing interesting on a computer
> where I work.  The screen display has alternating lines of red and
> light-blue text on a dark-blue background. I wear very thick glasses, and
> as I move my head, the red letters seem to move around while the light
> blue letters stand still.
 
That's a bug in the light (or in our optical system?). The refraction of red
light is less than the refraction of the other colors, so the lens of the eye
has to crook (right word?) itself more to focus the red letters (or whatever).
 
Chow-Chow
 
Volker

 * Origin: Aber da unten war's warm! Es war schoen! (2:244/55)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Zuse Computers
From: ecmtwhk@ccu1.aukuni.ac.nz (Thomas Koenig)
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1992 07:17:33 GMT
Organization: University of Auckland, New Zealand.

peterk@public.sub.org (Peter Kittel) writes:

[about the Z2 and Z3]

>They were fully programmable and used
>punched film tape as program input medium. By using more than one
>reader for these and pasted loops, they already could do jumps and
>branches and subroutines in these programs.

Didn't the expression 'loop' as used in programming originate from these
pasted paper loops?

Zuse's views about the von Neumann architecture are also quite
interesting. When that concept was introduced, he did not like the
complete freedom of jumping around in the whole address space, he feared
that this would make programs too unreliable. I'd call that pretty far-
sighted...

Does anyone have information about the architecture of the early Zuse
machines?
-- 
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: aze@first.gmd.de (Andre' Zehl)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Zuse Computers
Date: 20 Aug 92 13:33:59 GMT

peterk@public.sub.org (Peter Kittel) writes:

>xexeo@dxlaa.cern.ch (Geraldo Xexeo) writes:

>>Zuse work was parallel to the one done in USA, independent creation and
>>used much less money. The program showed some machines and a copy
>>of Z1, that was made and installed in a Museum in Germany.

>No, that must be a Z2 or Z3. One of these (don't know it precisely) is
>shown fully functional in the Deutsches Museum in Munich. There they also
>have one of the later models with vacuum tubes.

There is a modell of Zuse's machine in the "Museum fuer Verkehr und
Technik" at Berlin, too. I don't know which it is, but I think they are 
trying to keep it working. 

Greetings,

--
Andre'_________________________________________________________________________
	 			      crusoe@cs.tu-berlin.de [aze@first.gmd.de]
From: phil@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG (Phil Gustafson)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: SAGE
Date: 15 Aug 92 21:26:13 GMT
Organization: Famed Parquet Floor

In article <1992Aug13.225433.1408@nas.nasa.gov> eugene@wilbur.nas.nasa.gov (Eugene N. Miya) writes:
>
>A sesssion was devoted to SAGE at the History of Personal Workstations
>Conference, ed. Adele Goldberg, ACM Press.  Includes photos of the
>light gun, the light cannon, and I think a video tape exists of this session
>as well (also ACM).

The last SAGE was retired and declassified in 1983(!), and large chunks of
it are on display at the Computer Museum in Boston.  Well worth a visit.

>That good?  You'd have to start a war to find out.

So, by some tautological reasoning, SAGE worked just fine.  You could say
the same about lots of really stupid weapons we've had, though.

phil

-- 
|play: phil@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG; {ames|pyramid|vsi1}!zorch!phil                |
|work: (Under Construction)              | Phil Gustafson                   |
| "Never give up!  Never!  Never!  Never!"                                  |
|                                          H. Ross Perot, 1992              |
Xref: sparky alt.folklore.computers:12668 comp.edu:1287 comp.human-factors:1801 comp.misc:3260 comp.programming:2360
From: esr@snark.thyrsus.com (Eric S. Raymond)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.edu,comp.human-factors,comp.misc,comp.programming
Subject: Re: Indentation
Date: 17 Aug 92 15:44:34 GMT
Distribution: world

I joined this thread late.  I assume someone has mentioned occam?

I can see some fairly serious risks coming from the combination of scoping-by-
indentation and editors that either insert or expand tab characters.  Has
anyone actually been bitten by this?
-- 
					Eric S. Raymond <esr@snark.thyrsus.com>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: rbe@yrloc.ipsa.reuter.COM (Robert Bernecky)
Subject: Re: 1401
Reply-To: rbe@yrloc.ipsa.reuter.COM (Robert Bernecky)
Organization: Snake Island Research Inc, Toronto
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 92 05:05:14 GMT

In article <Bt1n7w.4oF@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG> phil@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG (Phil Gustafson) writes:
>In article <1992Aug13.202908.16052@tandem.com> VanVleck_Tom@tandem.com writes:
>>Tim Phillips writes:
>>|> (I could write scads more about 7090s and 1401s; IMHO the 7090 was a great
>>|>  machine, the 1401 a P.I.T.A.  :-) )
>>
>>My opinion's different.  While I loved the 7094, I still think the
>>1401 was the last computer that Really Worked.  No smoke, no mirrors,
>>no suspension of disbelief required.  I mean, the 1401 did stuff you
>>could explain to your mom.  You could step it through the decoding of
>>instructions, watch it move characters, and so on. None of this
>>"operating system" stuff, no "libraries," nothing up its sleeve.
>
YES!
A delight! 
I didn't think so at the time of course, but I didn't then realize that
all newer machines would be even MORE tasteless.

The 1041 allowed stuff like:
a. One-line programs (These included the entire operating system, 
   for you whimps who think that DOS is part of the hardware, pTUI)
   to compute stuff like: factorials to 132 places (because that was
   how wide the printer would print one line, and beyond that the
   program wouldn't fit in 80 characters), pi, and other math functions.

b. Read data files and select them into several different files.
   (Of course, the files were cards, and a cabinet full was
    80 characters/card * 3000cards/drawer * 20 drawers/file, or
    lessee here, 4800000, or an IMMENSE 5 MEGABYTES per cabinet/file.
    Mind boggling storage density. Of course, then they invented tape
    and disk, where you could store a total of 7 (yes, friends, count em,
    seven) megabytes on a SINGLE disk...
    But they didn't call them bytes then either...

c. Play tunes on the printer. 

d. Write entire systems that fit into 4k, including the nonexistent
   operating system.

e. Play audio games(I don't recall any video games, except with tape
   drives) with "sense switches". Sense switches are toggle switches
   which the program can interrogate under program control. Jim Field,
   my old colleague who now works for SITA, says that sense switchs
   are the wave of the future for PCs, who are stuck with dumb editors
   for config.sys, autoexec.bat, etc.

Robert Bernecky      rbe@yrloc.ipsa.reuter.com  bernecky@itrchq.itrc.on.ca 
Snake Island Research Inc  (416) 368-6944   FAX: (416) 360-4694 
18 Fifth Street, Ward's Island
Toronto, Ontario M5J 2B9 
Canada
From: helen@nomad.urich.edu (Helen C. O'Boyle)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: CASIO watch display question
Summary: it is malfunctioning ... what is wrong?
Date: 16 Aug 92 04:55:15 GMT
Organization: University of Richmond

I was trying to read my CASIO scientific calculator watch in the
dark, and was pressing the "let there be light" button.  It didn't
seem to be doing much good, so I held it down for a while, hoping
that it would get brighter.  It didn't.  After a couple seconds,
NO light was eminating from the watch.  When I could next look at
the display a few minutes later, it had an unrecognizable hieroglyphic
in the first digit of the number which displays in the upper left
corner, and a seven next to that.  Over on the upper right, it had
"8-20", which was the day's date.  Underneath, where the time is
usually displayed, there was the following:  "8:01050".  In other
words, it appears that an extra digit snuck in somewhere.  It was
about 8:25 when I did, whatever I did, with the light button.

NOW....
- the light still won't light (yes, I've tried it in the dark to
  make sure)
- pushing none of the buttons has any effect at all on the display
  (since I had set the beep off, I can't even tell for sure if the
  watch is recognizing the buttons)
- the watch display is really frozen with that slightly-messed-up
  set of LCD segments

When my CASIO's have needed new batteries in the past, the LCD panel
has simply stopped displaying anything.  Is the above just another
symptom of a nearly-dead battery, or is it necessary to take the thing
in for service?

Sorry if this doesn't seem relevant to a.f.c (although it *is* one of
those nifty old CASIO's with the programmers' base conversions and
math on them ;-), but lacking an alt.casio.hacker-watches group, I
couldn't think of a better place to post.
-- 
Helen C. O'Boyle            | Grad student at Virginia Commonwealth Univ,
U of R Usenet News support  | where they don't let students READ Usenet
helen@nomad.urich.edu       | News, let alone maintain it!
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: kirchner@uklira.informatik.uni-kl.de (Reinhard Kirchner)
Subject: Re: Zuse Computers ( Zuse book )
Organization: University of Kaiserslautern, Germany
Date: Fri, 14 Aug 1992 08:58:08 GMT

From article <1992Aug13.175222.15554@cs.cornell.edu>, by chapman@cs.cornell.edu (Richard Chapman):
> 
> Or can anyone suggest a book that describes Zuse's work? Thanks,

There is a book by Himself:

Der Computer, mein Lebenswerk

I have it at home, don't remember the publisher. I've got it signed by Him
when he visited our university.

Reinhard Kirchner
Univ. Kaiserslautern, Germany
kirchner@informatik.uni-kl.de
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: charless@sco.com (Charlie Stross)
Subject: Re: Smallest computer (Re: CASIO watch)
X-Mailer: SCO Portfolio 2.0
Date: Fri, 21 Aug 1992 16:45:42 +0000


Summary: 
Expires: 
Followup-To: 
Distribution: 
Organization: The Somewhat Contagious Operation, Inc.
Keywords: 

In article <IISAKKIL.92Aug18001619@vipunen.hut.fi> iisakkil@vipunen.hut.fi (Mika Iisakkila) writes:
>zowie@daedalus.stanford.edu (Craig "Powderkeg" DeForest) writes:
>
>>Actually, this is a big problem for the Casio data banks and large
>>calculators.  The light is controlled through *software*.
>
>OK, time for another thread. What was the _smallest_ computer
>(embedded controllers included in definition) you have ever
>programmed? Anyone ever done a program for a watch?
>
>My record is a hand-held terminal for a sort of data acquisition
>system with 3 push-buttons and a 7-segment display. Size about
>30x60x15 mm. It had a 80C31 inside, so it fits the definition of
>"computer" quite easily. It had a back-up battery and could work as a
>stand-alone system, although not for very long.

I've never handled one, but there's an interesting gadget
used by the British Army; it's called the ``Mousetrap'',
it's about ten centimetres square, comes with an LCD display,
touch-sensitive keypads, 1Mb of RAM, Tempest-grade shielding, 
and an i860 (!). The Army selected it to run specialised battle 
management software, so it's designed to be infantry-proof and 
_very_ portable -- sufficiently so that it's smaller than the 
optional QWERTY keypad that plugs into it. It may not be
the smallest, but it probably packs more MIPS/kg than anything
else around. The picture I saw of it resembled a Gameboy ...

Wandering slightly off the question, I have an interesting watch; 
the Seiko UC-3000. It has a 10x4 matrix display and a detachable 
qwerty keyboard; the keyboard is used to address 8K of on-board 
RAM which stores a month-long scheduler and a memo pad. I'm 
pretty sure there's something processor-ish inside it, if for no 
other reason than that it would be cheaper (I think) to use an 
off-the-shelf processor than design a dedicated CMOS smart enough 
to do the job. The battery it takes ain't exactly small for a 
watch -- it's quite a chunky old thing -- which adds to my 
suspicions.

If anyone knows of a development system for this watch, I'd be 
prepared to pay for one. Alternatively, if anyone knows of 
another watch which is fully programmable while on the move, lemme 
know. It sure beats counting the fields on a long train journey 
...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Charlie Stross aka charless@scol.sco.com ..... UNIX oriented text mangler
WARNING: The opinions voiced in the preceding electronic document are the
product of a warped mind. Take two before meals.
From: bob@sna.so.umist.ac.uk (Bob Nutter)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Need info on GTCO Corp. tablet
Date: 20 Aug 92 11:21:59 GMT
Organization: UMIST Department of Computation, PO Box 88, Manchester, UK

Hi,

I've got a GTCO Corporation Digi-Pad 5 digitising tablet, but no info on it. Can
anyone help with commands, serial/parallel port details, etc.? It was originally
on a Sigma terminal, if that helps.

bob
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
bob nutter, computer officer    | "If there's no class divides, then how
UMIST dept of computation       |  come you're standing here waiting for
po box 88 manchester m60 1qd uk |  a bus when someone drives past in a
tel:+44 61 200 3343             |  car worth the price of a house?"
email:b.nutter@umist.ac.uk      |
From: witczak@frith.egr.msu.edu (Mark Witczak)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Copy of Ritchie's "Why Pascal Is Not My Favorite..."?
Date: 20 Aug 92 18:35:40 GMT
Organization: College of Engineering, Michigan State University

In article <3304@creatures.cs.vt.edu>, alanlb@bethesda.cs.vt.edu (Alan L. Batongbacal) writes:
|> Does somebody out there have a copy of this?
|> 
|> alan l. batongbacal
|> alanlb@csgrad.cs.vt.edu

Try anonymous ftp at research.att.com
From: fetrow@biostat.washington.edu (David Fetrow)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Osborne
Date: 20 Aug 92 01:28:11 GMT
Organization: Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Univ. of Wash.

In article <1992Aug19.222046.3406@ttinews.tti.com> hollombe@polymath.tti.com (The Polymath) writes:
>
>IBM had no part in Osborne's downfall.  They went belly-up through sheer,
>gross mismanagement and were probably just this side of a class-action suit
>by the customers when it happened.  Good riddance, IMHO.
>

 There was quite an interesting book about the fall of Osborne written by
Dvorak and Adam Osborne! I don't have the thing in front of me but it opened
with a facsimile of a letter from an ex-executive of the company threatening
dire consequences if certain things were said. I liked that.

 Can't be sure what was true and what was wasn't of course but it sure was
an interesting read!

 It helps to know that, up until recently, Osborne had the record for fastest
growth of a computer company. They still hold the record for steepest fall.

-- 
 - dave fetrow-					fetrow@biostat.washington.edu

"Non-disclosure: In exchange for a sniff of the vapor, you are forbidden
                 to tell anyone how it smells."
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers