HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: kevind@pogo.wv.tek.com (Kevin Draz)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Why Grey? Are computer unhappy objects?
Date: 9 Apr 92 07:15:12 GMT
Organization: Tektronix, Inc., Wilsonville,  OR.

>>Hm. My Mac IIcx is white. (Well, was when it was new..). Anyhaow it is not
GREY like the old Macs.  

Apple officially calls it "platinum".  I used to work for an Apple add-on
monitor company, and we made our cabinets the same color.

>You're confused.  It's the newer Macs that are grey.  All Macs before the
>II were yellow.

The Mac SE was actually the first machine to adopt the new color.  The Mac
Plus was the last of the beige/brown/whatever color.

-- 
----
kevind@pogo.wv.tek.com  | For most software publishers, quality is job 1.01.
Tektronix Color Printers|                            -- MacWeek Magazine
From: randy@raven.alaska.edu (Randy Hayman)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: You know you've been in hack mode too long when...
Date: 13 Apr 92 15:08:21 GMT
Reply-To: randy@raven.alaska.edu (Randy Hayman)
Organization: U of AK - Fairbanks



You stop by the grocery store on your way home, and write your check out in hex.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Disk and Drive incompatible....
From: rmk@rmkhome.UUCP (Rick Kelly)
Organization: The Man With Ten Cats
Date: Fri, 10 Apr 1992 22:48:34 GMT
Reply-To: rmk@rmkhome.UUCP (Rick Kelly)
Keywords: Disk 3.5 5.25 Formatting

In article <1992Apr10.060630.15107@u.washington.edu> pollock@milton.u.washington.edu (Joe Pollock) writes:
>Using a 5.25" HD drive to format and write an LD disk usually works
>quite well, if the objective is to transfer data to a computer with
>only LD drives.

This doesn't seem to work reliably under MSDOS. 



-- 

Rick Kelly	rmk@rmkhome.UUCP	unixland!rmkhome!rmk	rmk@frog.UUCP
Xref: sparky alt.folklore.computers:6449 rec.arts.sf.written:5808 comp.unix.sysv386:8675
From: richard@pegasus.com (Richard Foulk)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,rec.arts.sf.written,comp.unix.sysv386
Subject: Re: WAR GAMES II, or How I Learned To Start Worrying And Hate The Bomb
Date: 15 Apr 92 13:45:44 GMT
Organization: Pegasus,  Honolulu

In article <1193@alderan.sdata.de> chris@alderan.sdata.de (Christoph Splittgerber) writes:
>In article <1g3rDF#1Tk59P5SwGKn69bsC67T054D=eric@snark.thyrsus.com> eric@snark.thyrsus.com (Eric S. Raymond) writes:
>>In <1992Apr9.011820.6826@pegasus.com> Richard Foulk wrote:
>
>>> Nice job!
>>
>>Thanks.  To *all* of you.  The volume of fan mail has been remarkable; I'm
>>gratified that so many enjoyed this mini-epic.
>
>Ohh not again Richard, please !
>-- 

What?


-- 
Richard Foulk		richard@pegasus.com
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,talk.bizarre
From: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Subject: Re: Help me upgrade my computer
Reply-To: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Organization: Columbia University
Date: Fri, 17 Apr 1992 08:27:55 GMT

In article <tk1jx0_.gooley@netcom.com> gooley@netcom.com (Markian Gooley) writes:
>If ever I get the time & money I will buy an original IBM PC case and
>install a 50 MHz '486 motherboard and a 1 G disk in it.
>
>Mark., running out of ideas
>gooley@netcom.com

Just remember that the original PC case doesn't take baby xt-sized boards, but
rather only 5-slot boards.  There might be a few available though. :-).

cjl (user of 8-slot boards)
From: cs171wat@sdcc5.ucsd.edu (Jack Dietz)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Slashed o's (o's, not zeros)?
Date: 17 Apr 92 19:37:58 GMT

In <11440@mindlink.bc.ca> Greg_Goss@mindlink.bc.ca (Greg Goss) writes:

>My Radio Shack Pocket Computer (I guess it would be a PC-1 by analogy to later
>pc-2's) used an open zero, but decorated the upper right corner of the oh

> or something like that.  A) it's been a long time, and B) I was never an
>artist.  Are there any other systems that tried to represent the loop in the
>upper right of the script version of the capital oh?

I remember one middle school I went to used some electrostatic
printer for all the schedules (I think it was a Honeywell model or
something?)  Anyway, the zeros were unmarked, but the capital O's
had a semi-cursive loop in the upper right hand corner.

Perhaps it was the same influence?

>--
>"say NO to four-line sigs"     greg_goss@mindlink.bc.ca
--
Jack Dietz                    "molten pools of mockery
// jdietz@ucsd.edu             reflect a million sleepless nights" -- Devo
Xref: sparky alt.folklore.computers:6104 comp.unix.wizards:2107 comp.editors:1338 comp.unix.questions:5880
From: bernstei@caesar.cs.colorado.edu (Michael Bernstein)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.unix.wizards,cct.ccc,cct.cuhug,comp.editors,comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: me vs. vi survey *please read*
Date: 6 Apr 92 07:50:09 GMT
Article-I.D.: colorado.1992Apr6.075009.1292
Followup-To: comp.editors
Organization: Slaves of Evi Nemeth

I have changed the Followup-To line to point at comp.editors.  (What the hell
is this doing on *comp.unix.wizards*!?

In article <1992Mar28.203847.6480@solbourne.com> imp@solbourne.com (Warner Losh) writes:

>If you talk to almost anybody at Tech, they will tell you how badly vi
>sucks. 

Well, vi has it's problems.  It's a little mode-ridden.

>I know both editors today.  I use emacs because I can't read my mail
>with vi. 

I use Tom Christiansen's plum (ok, so it's HUGE, too)  But even so, what's
wrong with mh?

>I can't lookup something in the manual with vi. 

What's wrong with man?

>I can't
>split the screen and scroll through multiple files with both of them
>on the screen at the same time in vi (unless I'm at a workstation, but
>old habits die hard)

Yeah.  Definite problem.  Unless, as you say, you're at a workstation...

>Vi just doesn't do enough for me, so I use emacs.  Sure it
>takes longer to start the first time, but I usually only have to wait
>for it once. 

Perhaps you have enough cycles & memory.  Here in our ugrad lab, folks
thrash on some of these machines so hard (compared to machine capacity) that
*vi* occasionally gets killed.  I'm none too keen on running something with
an executable three times as large, with a full lisp interpreter (What?)

>When I'm on my workstation at work, I don't even have to
>wait for it to start, because I keep it (actually epoch) running all
>the time.

As memory gets cheaper and machines get faster, I think emacs will win.
Right now, vi still has some wins, as I have (I hope) pointed out.

Michael

Michael Bernstein                         bernstei@cs.colorado.edu
Undergraduate Operations Group (Ugrad/Ops)
Computer Science Department, The University of Colorado at Boulder
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: kenny@world.std.com (Kenneth R Crudup)
Subject: Re: Wanted: Unix license plate
Organization: Software Tool&Die, (Boston), MA
Date: Fri, 10 Apr 1992 01:40:04 GMT

In the parking lot next to OSF HQ at 11 Cambridge Center, in Cambridge, MA, I
see a blue Volkswagen Jetta (?) with the plate "UNIX V". Dunno who it belongs
to.

-- 
Kenny Crudup, Unix Systems Consultant	kenny@world.std.com
16 Plainfield St. Jamaica Plain, (Boston), MA 02130-3633
Home +1 617 524 5929 	Home Fax +1 617 983 9410
							Lick Bush in '92!
From: jcmorris@mwunix.mitre.org (Joe Morris)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Warlock
Date: 16 Apr 92 17:50:36 GMT
Article-I.D.: mwunix.jcmorris.703446636
Organization: The MITRE Corporation

jn11+@andrew.cmu.edu (Joseph M. Newcomer) writes:

>The monks of the order carry a small yellow-handled screwdriver in their
>pockets as a symbol of their order.  Their patron saint was a priest who
>sacrificed himself by bridging a high-energy transmitter tube, allowing an
>important transmission to go out.  I believe the order is something like
>"The Order of the Cathode".

Close.  It's "The Order of St. Vidicon of the Cathode".

Joe Morris
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,alt.unix.wizards,cct.ccc,cct.cuhug,comp.editors,comp.unix.questions
From: ckd@eff.org (Christopher Davis)
Subject: Re: me vs. vi survey *please read*
Organization: Electronic Frontier Foundation Tech Central
	<1992Mar23.081448.24789@casbah.acns.nwu.edu>
	<1992Mar24.105532.14855@fulcrum.bt.co.uk>
	<1992Mar24.141132.9490@Princeton.EDU>
	<CKD.92Mar29175443@loiosh.eff.org> <1992Apr7.182751.19936@cirrus.com>
Date: Fri, 10 Apr 1992 08:35:56 GMT

 Rahul> == Rahul Dhesi <dhesi@cirrus.com> 

 ckd> Yeah?  So what?  I happen to know for a fact that Mitch Kapor, who
 ckd> wrote Lotus 1-2-3...

 Rahul> Are you sure about this?  I have read that Mitch Kapor helped
 Rahul> design Lotus 1-2-3, but Jonathan Sachs wrote it.

No, not sure. I'll ask him Monday.  (I *am* sure he uses Excel, though.)
--
Christopher Davis <ckd@eff.org> |    ECONOMIC OBSERVATIONS DEPARTMENT
System Manager & Postmaster     |  "There's always something going out of
Electronic Frontier Foundation  |      business in Central Square."
+1 617 864 0665  NIC: [CKD1]    |   -Rita Marie Rouvalis <rita@eff.org>
From: mollers.pad@sni.de (Josef Moellers)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Space Shuttle Computers
Date: 14 Apr 92 13:19:46 GMT
Organization: Siemens Nixdorf Info.Sys. AG, Paderborn, Germany

There was a special issue of CACM devoted to "Computer Architecture" and
the Space Shuttle Computers a couple of years ago.

If someone's interested, I'll look it up.

--
| Josef Moellers		| c/o Siemens Nixdorf Informationssysteme AG  |
|  USA: mollers.pad@sni-usa.com	| Abt. STO-XS 113	   | Riemekestrasse   |
| !USA: mollers.pad@sni.de	| Phone: (+49) 5251 835124 | D-4790 Paderborn |
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: gbm@inmet.camb.inmet.com (George Mast)
Subject: Re: Space Shuttle Computers
Organization: Intermetrics Inc, Cambridge MA
Date: Fri, 10 Apr 1992 16:34:21 GMT

	They have four main computers (with all the software supplied by IBM)
 that contain all the software for the flight and one backup computer (software
 supplied by Rockwell and Intermetrics) that contains the software necessary to
 get them back down.  The method used is all computers monitor the results from
 the others.  If one computer gets a different answer the other three main
 computers refuse to listen to it any more during the flight.  If yet another
 gets an incorrect answer the backup computer is used to take the Shuttle back
 to the ground.  If the backup gets an incorrect answer (for example during the
 launch sequence for the first flight the backup computer did not get the same
 time syncronization as the main computers) the launch may be scrubbed but the
 backup  is (to my understanding) not used during the flight to monitor the 
 calculations but rather just the "agreement" between the computers.
-- 
# George Mast
# System Administrator
# Intermetrics, Inc.
# Huntington Beach, CA			Internet: gbm@opus.hunt.inmet.com
Organization: Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1992 00:09:14 -0400 
From: "Joseph M. Newcomer" <jn11+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Naughty bits

I don't know about GNU, unless they've Lost It and are coding in Ada.

In Ada, the implementor gets to play with the private parts of a module.
                                joe
From: ae@sei.cmu.edu (Arthur Evans)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Is SOAP a Myth??
Date: 17 Apr 92 20:19:06 GMT
Article-I.D.: sei.1992Apr17.201906.21641
Organization: Software Engineering Institute

SOAP stands for Symbolic Optimal Assembly Program, most of which is a
misnomer.  The IBM 650 was a drum machine, and each instruction
contained the address of the next instruction.  So-called "optimum"
instruction placement (more properly minimum latency) had each
instruction placed so it was passing under the read heads just as the
computer was ready for it, so as not to waste a drum rotation (about 5
milliseconds).  SOAP placed each instruction optimally on encountering
it at assembly time, but took no cognizance of loops.

Don Knuth started his computing on the 650 at Case Institute of
Technology (now Case Western Reserve), as indicated by the dedication in
his series of books (which he named after me).  He once worked out that
true optimal placement could be done with an integer programming
technique, which he published.  The time taken to run the algorithm
vastly exceeded any time that could ever be saved.

The original SOAL (about 1956 or so) was for the basic machine.  Later
SOAP II was for more advanced hardware, with such goodies as index
registers and 60 words of core memory.

While I was at Carnegie Tech (now Carnegie Mellon), I personally wrote
many thousands of instructions in SOAP.  It was great, at the time.

Art Evans
From: rvloon@cv.ruu.nl (Ronald van Loon)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Easter Egg FAQ list
Date: 13 Apr 92 11:11:43 GMT
Organization: University of Utrecht, 3D Computer Vision Research Group
Originator: rvloon@wodan.cv.ruu.nl

In <1992Apr13.084341.3452@pollux.lu.se> magnus@thep.lu.se (Magnus Olsson) writes:

| "In article <1992Apr8.034515.19368@news.iastate.edu> radish@iastate.edu (R. Hoon) writes:
| "
| ">  User? joshua!!
| ">  Greetings Professor Falken!
| ">
| ">  Would you like to play a game (Yes/No)?
| ">
| ">If you reply yes, it plays a simple number-guessing game and
| ">then tells you that you'd learn more with an Apple II than
| ">trying to break in to other people's systems.
| "
| "So, to dig a little deeper into the folklorish aspects of this:
| "
| "Has anybody got any idea why the "magic" username is "joshua!!"? 
| "And who is professor Falken?

I take it you have never seen the movie "War Games".
-- 
Ronald van Loon (rvloon@cv.ruu.nl) 3DCV Group, Utrecht, The Netherlands.

Insanity is not bad in itself as long as there is a system to it. (H.Liberg)
Healthy absurdism once in a while has never hurt anybody (me)
From: lupe@ukw.uucp (Lupe Christoph)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: More than one syntax...
Date: 16 Apr 92 21:46:28 GMT
Organization: cic

jn11+@andrew.cmu.edu (Joseph M. Newcomer) writes:

>>I'm sure that these distinctions have been muddied as various micro
>>manufacturers have mix-n-matched the syntaxes over the past decade.

>I thought the plural of 'syntax' was 'syntice' (index, indices, 
>kleenex, kleenice, etc.)

NBL. First of all, syntax is Greek while index is Latin.
Second, it's ending is -ax, not -ex.

The correct plural is syntaxeis. Now what are you gonna
do with this? ;-)
-- 
| ...!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: lsmith@cs.umn.edu (Lance "Cogsworth" Smith)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: CS Hackers?
Date: 7 Apr 92 20:26:03 GMT
Article-I.D.: cs.1992Apr7.202603.14297
Distribution: na
Organization: Little Quotes of the Poor

In article <BMCoEA.3oK@world.std.com> madd@world.std.com (jim frost) writes:
>In article <1992Mar17.051631.23128@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu>, lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner) writes:
>> Bliss is ignorance :-).
>
>...'tis folly to be wise?
>
>(A free can of diluted caffeine to the first person who can tell me
>the original work :-)

To each his suff'rings: are all men,
  Condemn'd alike to groan;
The tender for another's pain,
  Th' unfeeling for his own.

Yet ah! why should they know their fate?
Since sorrow never comes too late,
   And happiness too swiftly flies.
Thought would destroy their paradise.
No more; where ignorance is bliss,
  'Tis folly to be wise.

Thomas Gray, Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College

I prefer:

Oh, 'tis jesting, dancing drinking
  Spins the heavy world around.
If young hearts were not so clever,
Oh, they would be young for ever;
Think no more; 'tis only thinking
  Lays lads underground.

Alfred Housman, A Shropshire Lad
-- 
 Lance "Row 31 Seat 31" Smith | "We nine, we happy nine, we team of brothers
      (lsmith@cs.umn.edu)     | For he to-day that spits tobacco with me
   Stat-drunk computer nerd   | Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile
     -- and proud of it.      | This game shall improve his average."   Hrbek V
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: madd@world.std.com (Bob Nagle)
Subject: Re: "Open Systems"
Organization: The World @ Software Tool & Die
Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1992 16:18:42 GMT

wayne@backbone.uucp (Wayne Schlitt) writes:
>no, unix is a dos.  a disk-based operating system, as opposed to a COS
>or a TOS (card or tape based operating system).

My Sun 3/50 has no disks in it.  It runs completely off the network.
Does that make UNIX an NOS (network operating system)?

Most versions of UNIX *have* a DOS (where "s" means "subsystem"), but
UNIX *isn't* a DOS.  It's completely possible to implement UNIX
without any disks whatsoever.

Because of the number of possible compatible UNIX variants I tend to
consider UNIX a philosophy and not an implementation.  What you see
remains fairly constant -- how it works doesn't.

>to the best of my knowledge, IBM still sells dos.  dos/vse was the
>last version I used.  this is the only operating system on a mainframe
>computer that makes ms-dos look fancy.  

IBM does still sell it.  I'm not sure I'd call it the only mainframe
OS that makes MS-DOS look fancy -- MS-DOS has better filesystem
support than most mainframe OS's.

Happy hacking,

jim frost
madd@world.std.com
Organization: The Leader Desslok School of Diplomacy
Date: Tuesday, 7 Apr 1992 16:07:07 EDT
From: Norman St. John Polevaulter <MBS110@psuvm.psu.edu>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Easter Egg FAQ list
 <1992Apr7.130200.4562@csc.canterbury.ac.nz>

While we're at it, the new OS2.04 has its own set of secret messages.
When workbench is running, hold down control, alt, and shift, and start
selecting items from the leftmost Workbench menu. It may take a few
tries to get them, but they're in there.

And of course, going WAY back, there is the credits and anti-war message
you could coax out of a Commodore 128 by typing:

SYS 32800,123,45,6

in BASIC.

[Your blood pressure just went up.]       Mark Sachs IS: mbs110@psuvm.psu.edu
 DISCLAIMER: Penn State cares about my money, not my opinions.
  "All my father wanted to do was make a toaster you could really set the
    darkness on -- and you perverted his work into those horrible machines!"
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: hshubs@eff.org (Howard Shubs)
Subject: Re: You kyou've been in hack mode too long ...
Originator: hshubs@eff.org
Organization: Electronic Frontier Foundation
Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1992 22:45:56 GMT

In article <1992Apr15.212820.19122@kong.gsfc.nasa.gov> arensb@kong.gsfc.nasa.gov (Andrew Arensburger - RMS) writes:
>
>	On at least one occasion, I've opened a window to find a phone
>number in a file, then tried to cut & paste it to the phone...

Soon.  I think Apple's working on it.

-- 
Howard S Shubs      hshubs@eff.org      I don't represent the EFF,
The Denim Adept     hshubs@BIX.com      but I do agree with them.
From: Jay.Ashworth@f160.n3603.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Jay Ashworth)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: NET.CELEBRITIES Version Beta.33.8.3.4
Date: Sat, 11 Apr 92 11:53:00 EDT
Organization: FidoNet node 1:3603/160 - Hacker's Haven, Clearwater FL

In a msg of <Friday April 10 1992>, Mark Israel wrote to All:

 >> Mark Israel           posts in soc.singles
 MI>    No, I am not a celebrity.  You can take me off the list.

Aw, damn Mark.  The only nomination  of mine he _used, he didn't even give me credit, and now you're refusing the post.

(Well, ok, cjl too.)

Cheers,
-- jra

--  
Internet: Jay.Ashworth@f160.n3603.z1.FIDONET.ORG
UUCP: ...!uunet!ndcc!tct!psycho!160!Jay.Ashworth
Note:psycho is a free gateway between Usenet & Fidonet. For info write to
     root@psycho.fidonet.org.
From: hshubs@eff.org (Howard Shubs)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: me vs. vi survey *please read*
Date: 9 Apr 92 14:43:38 GMT
Article-I.D.: eff.1992Apr9.144338.22883
Organization: Electronic Frontier Foundation
Originator: hshubs@eff.org

In article <ku4sifINN4tn@phakt.usc.edu> eddy@phakt.usc.edu (George Edmond Eddy) writes:
>hshubs@eff.org (Howard Shubs) writes:
>
>>Heck, I'm using EMACS now, and I only know how to do four things in
>>it: get in, get out, move around, search for something.  I kinda
>>wonder if there's an EDT emulation in here somewhere.
>
>yep. ;)
>
>>Ah, but you have to map them!  In other words, they're not simply
>>available?!  
>
>creating a startup file is too difficult heh?

When you don't know how, and you don't have access to any
documentation worth anything, yes.

I mean, now that I know how to get at the EDT emulation, I don't know
how to get EMACS to come up in it every time.  <sigh>

-- 
Howard S Shubs      hshubs@eff.org      I don't represent the EFF,
The Denim Adept     hshubs@BIX.com      but I do agree with them.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,alt.hackers
From: peter@taronga.com (Peter da Silva)
Subject: Random maze generating algorithm
	Re: WANTED:  maze-generating algorithm
Organization: Taronga Park BBS
Date: Sat, 11 Apr 1992 02:43:26 GMT

It should be trivial to deduce the algorithm, but if you can't a really bad
one is in David Ahl's 101 computer games. If you can't find it, look around
and dig a new maze everywhere you haven't been yet.
-- 
/F{findfont exch scalefont setfont}def /S{moveto show}def /T{/Times-Roman F}def
6 T (Have you hugged your wolf today?)468 20 S 9 T (Taronga Park BBS)24 35 S 10
/Courier F(`-_-')488 40 S ( 'U` )488 30 S 6 T (+1 713 568 0480 2400/n/8/1)24 27
S (+1 713 568 1032 Trailblazer)24 20 S 12 T (Peter da Silva)24 45 S showpage
From: jcmorris@mwunix.mitre.org (Joe Morris)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Slashed o's (o's, not zeros)?
Date: 15 Apr 92 13:43:37 GMT
Article-I.D.: mwunix.jcmorris.703345417
Organization: The MITRE Corporation

magnus@thep.lu.se (Magnus Olsson) writes:

>In article <jcmorris.703169125@mwunix> jcmorris@mwunix.mitre.org (Joe Morris) writes:
>>Another possible reason for slashing the letter was the use of the
>>slash-oh glyph in Scandanavian languages.

>No, that's a reason for *not* slashing the letter! The
>Danish/Norwegian slashed-o (which isn't just a "glyph", but just as
>much a letter as the o without the slash) is a different letter from o
>and is pronounced totally different. If a Danish programmer would
>slash his/her o's, the result would likely be total confusion.

But I didn't say that people claimed that circle oh and circle-slash oh
were identical; as you point out, they are quite different characters
however similar the glyphs might be.  I suspect that if the issue of
the Danish/Norwegian circle-slash glyph ever was considered the response
would be to avoid slashing a digit in one alphabet and a letter in another.

I'm not saying that this *was* the reasoning; in fact I am inclined to 
accept the history which says that the slash was applied to the character
with a significantly lower frequency of use.

Regardless...most of this discussion so far (including my postings) is a
combination of deduction and personal opinion.  Can anyone on the net
offer a reliable citation of how the slashed letter came to be used in
some corners of the computer industry?

Joe Morris