HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: alizard@Blue.Kludge.COM (A.Lizard)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: How to kill chickens with your computer...
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 92 02:41:41 PST
Organization: 'Lectrick Blue!, Moraga CA

> No, the original article is garbage. The story is complete UL - there may
> even be a FAQ entry.
> 
> There is no way that 7 hz would be the resonate frequency. Assume that sound
> travels at 900 ft/second - in the air. That means that a 7Hz sound has a
> wavelength of over 125 feet. Even for 1/125th wave resonance, this comes to
> a value over 1 foot. I have never seen any chickens with heads that large.
> 
> Such fractional wavelength resonances simply do not have any power in them.
> 
> Bill


While the value doesn't look right to me, either, what does the resonance
frequency of a cavity that is NOT filled with air but with whatever a
chicken uses for a brain that is suspended in fluid have to do with
the same cavity filled with air only? The increased mass in the chamber
is going to reduce the resonant frequency by QUITE a bit.

By the way, the last number I saw for the speed of sound at mean sea
level is 1150 feet/sec.

I would like someone to dig up the original article. Alternately,
who's got a chicken, a low frequency audio oscillator, an appropriate
output and input transducer (to experimentally determine resonance)

A.Lizard

--------------------------------------------------------------------
A.Lizard Internet Addresses:
alizard%tweekco%boo@PacBell.COM        (preferred)
[path]!pacbell.COM!boo!tweekco!alizard (bang path for above)
alizard@seer.mystic.com (backup)   alizard@Blue.Kludge.com (backup)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: mdw@theory.TC.Cornell.EDU (Matt Welsh)
Subject: Re: CM5 pic - terribly sorry gentlemen, it's a dud
Organization: Cornell Theory Center
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 15:37:11 GMT

In article <andrew.722085952@cyfrak.rdt.monash.edu.au> andrew.moore@rdt.monash.edu.au writes:
>Look, I know me having a CM-5 poster (or copy or whatever) is not going
>to mean TMC sells another machine, or even another 1/1,000 of a machine
>but, having these sort of "publicity devices" (thats what Cray call
>them) available mean people remember that machine instead of a DEC Mpp
>or some other companies engine.  

IBM calls them "Public Relations Hardware Accentuators, PN 389-022".

mdw

-- 
Matt Welsh    mdw@tc.cornell.edu        +1 607 253 2737
Systems Programmer, Cornell Theory Center
  "We're going away now. I fed the cat."
From: maufr@csv.warwick.ac.uk (Mr N E Plum)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: QUESTION: What was the 1st computer game?
Date: 16 Nov 1992 23:46:57 -0000
Organization: Computing Services, University of Warwick, UK
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: thyme.csv.warwick.ac.uk
Keywords: game


In article <1992Nov11.042012.16213@athena.cs.uga.edu>, mcovingt@aisun3.ai.uga.edu (Michael Covington) writes:
|> Re the original use of DACs and an oscilloscope to make the Spacewar
|> display:
|> 
|> I'd *really* like to see somebody implement that, as a gadget to be used
|> with an oscilloscope.  Good oscilloscopes are now quite abundant, even
|> if the screens are a bit small.  Let's see... maybe you could run the
|> game on a PC using the printer port for output, and alternating between
|> two DACs for X and Y axes; or maybe some custom interfacing is needed,
|> or even implement it in a microcontroller such as the Motorola 68HC11
|> series.  Any takers?
If anyone is thinking of doing this but wants some eamples of how to,
the book _The Art of Electronics_ by Horowitz & Hill (very good
electronics text book) has a case study in the back which is
to  build a data sampling device which uses a 'scope for the display.

Seems like a neat idea, especially if the screen was about the size of
a normal monitor :-)

Nicolai
From: pvs9@ibr.cs.tu-bs.de (Praktikum Verteilte Systeme)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Help with XMS mailer on my Game-Boy!
Date: 20 Nov 92 17:09:45 GMT
Reply-To: pvs9@ibr.cs.tu-bs.de (Praktikum Verteilte Systeme)
Organization: TU Braunschweig, Informatik (Bueltenweg), Germany
Originator: pvs9@nemesis.ibr.cs.tu-bs.de

All that stuff is really impressing, but how about this ?

After a long time of research, I finally found out the human brain's machine
language. Next I wrote a C compiler which creates object code in that
language. After having found a way to transfer binaries into my head, I set
off and installed Mach, X-Window, 42 LPMuds and much other stuff.
At moment, I am training my telepathic abilities to become able to access the
internet without ANY hardware. 
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: regebro@stacken.kth.se (Lennart Regebro)
Subject: Re: World's Toughest Computers
Organization: Stacken Computer Club, Stockholm, Sweden
Date: Sun, 22 Nov 1992 21:13:22 GMT

In article <STEVEV.92Nov20002943@miser.uoregon.edu> stevev@miser.uoregon.edu (Steve VanDevender) writes:

>If you count HP calculators as computers (certainly the recent
>ones, which come with 32K bytes of memory and expand to 288K,
>ought to)

When I, a couple of years ago, was selling calculators for a living I usually
showed the durability of HP28 calculators by throwing it on the floor and
then stepping on the keyboard. I did this 10-20 times with our demo HP28, and
the keyboard never failed.

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: wollman@trantor.emba.uvm.edu (Garrett Wollman)
Subject: Re: Computer Superstition
Organization: University of Vermont, EMBA Computer Facility
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 21:51:41 GMT

In article <aldavi01.722544719@starbase.spd.louisville.edu> Arlie Davis <aldavi01@starbase.spd.louisville.edu> writes:
>
>Yes, but the latest, greatest super-swanky optimizing compiler may realize
>that only the first two elements in the array are being used.  So, you have to
>use the more exotic form:
>
>	char magic[12];
>	magic[0] = magic[11];
>
>And if a compiler can squeeze /that/ down, well, I give up.

I think that before a compiler would recognize that you don't use
much of the array, it would notice that even *with* this assignment,
you still don't do anything to the array.

What you really have to do is:

	char magic[12];
	extern char *magicmagic = &magic[11];

...any compiler which optimizes this away is not compiling the C
language.

-GAWollman

-- 
Garrett A. Wollman   | Shashish is simple, it's discreet, it's brief. ... 
wollman@emba.uvm.edu | Shashish is the bonding of hearts in spite of distance.
uvm-gen!wollman      | It is a bond more powerful than absence.  We like people
UVM disagrees.       | who like Shashish.  - Claude McKenzie + Florent Vollant
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.sys.cbm,soc.culture.nordic,soc.culture.german,soc.culture.french
From: dbrooks@osf.org (David Brooks)
Subject: 8-bit news (was Re: Commodore keyboard layout.)
Reply-To: dbrooks@osf.org (David Brooks)
Organization: Open Software Foundation
Date: Sat, 21 Nov 1992 14:45:53 GMT


In alt.folklore.computers and comp.sys.cbm, edwardp@ra.cs.umb.edu (Edward P. Piecewicz) writes:
> 

eru@tnso04.tele.nokia.fi (Erkki Ruohtula) writes:
>>#########

But Peter da Silva claims Erkki writes:
>>

I got the sterling signs from Edward and Peter, but by the time Erkki's
article got to me (via a fairly tortuous path) they had been mutated into
hash marks.  Incidentally, talking about this is not helped by the American
habit of referring to hash marks as pound signs.

I have noticed more and more 8-bit characters successfully showing up in
postings, and would like to encourage the habit as much as possible, if
only to shame the software that strips the top bit into being fixed.

Consider this a call for action!  Peter's and my current sigs are test
cases...

It seems that:

a) many News gateways are now 8-bit clean -- possibly because Cnews is
   pretty much standard?
b) Many folks who use X are now on X11R5, where ISO8859-1 fonts are
   standard, and both xrn and xterm, by default, are 8-bit clean.
c) Mail transmission generally loses the top bit.
d) Most of us don't have ISO8859-1 keyboards; many keyboards that are i15d
   are engraved according to another standard.  Personally, I use trial and
   error until the right character shows up.

Briefly checking some newsgroups I don't generally read, it seems that
soc.culture.nordic has a few postings that survive and some that dont, but
many others that use the older ISO-646 option of co-opting {|} on 7-bit
terminals.  Folks in soc.culture.german seem to still rely on devices like
\"u and u".  soc.culture.french writers seem to drop the diacritics
altogether.

Hasn't this been addressed in the culture groups?

peter@NeoSoft.com (Peter da Silva) writes:
>Sure, why not?
-- 
David Brooks					dbrooks@osf.org
Open Software Foundation			uunet!osf.org!dbrooks
Allberall und ewig blauen licht die Fernen!  Ewig... ewig... ewig...
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,alt.folklore.urban
From: cline@cs.scarolina.edu (Ernest Cline)
Subject: Re: How to kill chickens with your computer...
Reply-To: cline@usceast.cs.scarolina.edu
Organization: USC  Department of Computer Science
Date: 18 Nov 92 15:47:27 GMT

billn@hpcvaac.cv.hp.com (bill nelson) writes:

|troberts@guvax.acc.georgetown.edu writes:
|:         /* Emits a 7-Hz tone for 10 seconds.
|:
|: Look         True story: 7 Hz is the resonant
|: here         frequency of a chicken's skull cavity.
|:              This was determined empirically in
|:              Australia, where a new factory
|:              generating 7-Hz tones was located too
|:              close to a chicken ranch: When the
|:              factory started up, all the chickens died.
|:
|:              Your PC may not be able to emit a 7-Hz tone. */
|:
|:         int main(void)
|:         {
|:            sound(7);
|:            delay(10000);
|:            nosound();
|:         }
|:
|: Did the chickens suffer before they died?  Did they experience 
|: throbbing headaches or just pass out?
|: 
|: I really wish they had included a journal citation.  I think the
|: original article would have been worth reading.
|
|No, the original article is garbage. The story is complete UL - there may
|even be a FAQ entry.
|
|There is no way that 7 hz would be the resonate frequency. Assume that sound
|travels at 900 ft/second - in the air. That means that a 7Hz sound has a
|wavelength of over 125 feet. Even for 1/125th wave resonance, this comes to
|a value over 1 foot. I have never seen any chickens with heads that large.
|
|Such fractional wavelength resonances simply do not have any power in them.

On the other claw, considering the way that chicken barns are built, 7Hz
might have been the resonant frequency of the hen house, leading to a huge
power build up and thus shaking the chickens to death!
--
Ernest Cline	cline@cs.scarolina.edu	"GO COCKS! BEAT CLEMSON!"
From: abw@natchez.bu.edu (Al Wesolowsky)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: How to kill chickens with your computer...
Summary: Well, Jerry Lewis *is* their comedic ideal...
Date: 21 Nov 92 18:39:33 GMT
Organization: Boston University

In article <adamsd.722304406@crash.cts.com> adamsd@crash.cts.com (Adams Douglas) writes:
+In <zlsiida.435@fs1.mcc.ac.uk> zlsiida@fs1.mcc.ac.uk (dave budd) writes:
+>I seem to recall something from about 20 to 25 years ago about a Frenchman 
+>who built a gigantic whistle that was supposed to produce a frequency (plus 
+>overtones) at around 7Hz, and when it was switched on the operator died and 
+
+But I recall a
+cover picture of an array (7 x 7?) of large metal whistles with rubber tubes
+from each of them trailing out of frame. Inside was a fairly lurid article
+dealing with the "death ray" properties of infrasonics. They mentioned 
+experimenters pointing the pictured 7 Hz. device at a tree full of monkeys
+(this may have been a French colony) and watching the monkeys fall out of 
+the trees.

...having laughed themselves to death, one presumes. 

-- 
Al B. Wesolowsky    Boston     o "En Cee Cee One Seven Oh One.... 
abw@crsa.bu.edu   University   o  No bloody 'A', 'B', 'C', or 'D'." 
abw@acs.bu.edu                 o                          M. Scott
From: ken@us.oracle.com (Ken C. Stewart)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Ackermann's function
Summary: Ackermann's function, and why the vi macros are better than FORTRAN ...
Keywords: Ackermann's function, recursion, primitive-recursive, FORTRAN, COBOL
Date: 20 Nov 92 18:39:56 GMT
Organization: Oracle Corp., Redwood Shores CA
X-Disclaimer: This message was written by an unauthenticated user
              at Oracle Corporation.  The opinions expressed are those
              of the user and not necessarily those of Oracle.

Can anyone remind me (ahem) of the definition of Ackermann's function (a pair
of mutually-recursive functions I think?)?  I saw it on the 'net years ago
that it was one of the simpler examples of a recursive function that was not
"primitive recursive", meaning, I think, that it could not be evaluated
by iterative means, as the terminating condition for the loop to evaluate it
depended on evaluating Ackermann's function ... I also seem to remember that
since it required the programming language it was expressed in to support
recursion, and since COBOL and FORTRAN (or at least some standard flavour
thereof) don't, that COBOL and FORTRAN are not general purpose programming
languages, whereas, say, vi macros are (see articles passim concerning
Universal Turing Machine simulation using vi macros).

Anyway, could some kind soul please post it, and explain what kind of
recursion it embodies if not "primitive recursion"?

Thanks!

Ken Stewart,                    Telephone:   (301) 907 2225
Technical Consultant,           Fax:         (301) 657 0037
Oracle Federal,                 Oracle*Mail: kstewart.us
Bethesda, MD 20814              Internet:    kstewart@us.oracle.com
--
Ken Stewart,                  Telephone:   (301) 907 2225
Technical Consultant,     	Fax:         (301) 657 0037
Oracle Federal,        		Oracle*Mail: kstewart.us
Bethesda, MD 20814              Internet:    kstewart@us.oracle.com
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: hamilton@cso.uiuc.edu (Wayne Hamilton)
Subject: Re: Funny Remark
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL5
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Distribution: usa
Date: Sat, 21 Nov 1992 05:23:52 GMT

kenneth m. lin (klin@ucrengr.ucr.edu) wrote:
: 
: This is from a note I got from a female classmate regarding how to use UNIX:
: 
:    When I "finger" my self on the SUN, I get no response.
:    What am I doing something wrong?     
: 
you need a client for the mood-music daemon...

--
	wayne hamilton (hamilton@osiris.cso.uiuc.edu)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: lucio@phyrql.Alt.ZA (Lucio de Re)
Subject: Re: Computer Superstition
Organization: MegaByte Digital Communications
Date: Sun, 22 Nov 1992 14:03:33 GMT

xyzzy@mertwig.UUCP (Daniel Drucker) writes:

>--  "Xyzzy T. Plugh"                               mertwig!xyzzy@jaflrn.uucp
>                     Amateur radio callsign pending
>        Daniel Max P. Drucker, the 14 year old networks wizard.
                                    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

How many 14 year old networks are out there?  Aren't you obsoleting your
trade a year at the time?
-- 
Lucio de Re (lucio@phyrql.Alt.ZA)
The supernatural does not exist, but it gives me the creeps...
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Subject: Re: PDP ftp archive
Reply-To: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Organization: Columbia University
Date: Sun, 22 Nov 1992 11:43:37 GMT

In article <1992Nov21.003656.17491@leland.Stanford.EDU> alderson@elaine46.Stanford.EDU (Rich Alderson) writes:

>>	PDP-6                  36    DEC's first really big computer.
>
>				     (only 23 were ever built, cause KO hated
>				     big MIS-type machines)

I heard it was 20, not 23.

>>	PDP-10 1967            36    A PDP-6 upgrade, great timesharing.
>
>				     Not exactly--more a revival.

Upgrade is an unfortunate word.  I think the reference is to the fact that
they are instruction-set compatible, and that time-sharing didn't really
happen on a -6.

>	Hmmph.  Leave it to the 12-bit crowd to get it wrong.

Not as far wrong as these guys posting about "PDP's" as if -11's are the
only kind!

>
>	The DEC-20 is the outgrowth of a smart decision by DEC:  License the
>	TENEX operating system written for the Dec-10 by Bolt, Beranek, and
>	Newman, which featured real demand-paged virtual memory, and sell it
>	as an *alternative to*, not a replacement for, Tops-10, which was the
>	descendant of the *batch-processing* operating system on the PDP-6 and
>	early PDP-10s.

But the -20 *is* a -10.  What's the difference between a KL-10 and the
high-end -20, the color of the cabinet?  Yes, you don't run TOPS-20 on
a KA-10, but a KL can be called anything you want.  The point is that model
numbers can be muddled, and clearly marketroids are the source of the
muddling.  Calling them all -10's would've been fine, but...

Also, what about the ill-fated Jupiter?  Wasn't that to be "doubled" again
and be renamed DECsystem-40?

cjl
From: ercm20@festival.ed.ac.uk (Sam Wilson)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: IBM and 3
Date: 23 Nov 92 11:31:49 GMT

dpbsmith@world.std.com (Daniel P. B. Smith) writes:
> Hmmm... dunno... reminiscent of Boeing and the number "7" (all their
> aircraft numbers have ENDED in "7" since, oh, I dunno, I think there
> was a 247 that was contemporary with the DC-3).

Yeah, like the 720...

(No, you may not have heard of it, it looked just like a 707.  I've
never knowingly seen one, only encountered it in books, but I wouldn't
have recognised it if I had.)

Sam
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,alt.folklore.urban
From: PAPAI@kcgl1.eng.ohio-state.edu (Jonathan Papai)
Subject: Re: How to kill chickens with your computer...
Organization: The Ohio State University
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 00:59:09 GMT

billn@hpcvaac.cv.hp.com (bill nelson) writes:


>This was discussed, to some length, a  year or so back. It is all
>based on experiments done by the French, around the time of the
>First World War, involving using low frequencies as a weapon on
>the battlefield. They found they could generate the lethal waves,
>the problem being that they are non-directional - so the person
>operating the equipment was also killed, along with the intended
>victims.
>
>Bill

	Ahem.   Actually, it was the Nazis of WW11.  Follows
stuff from authoritative sources(tm) :

.......
   Luftkanone.  Developed at Talstation Lofer, Germany, during WWII.
   Developer:  Dr. Richard Wallauscheck.

   Best quote here:

   "...design consisted of a parabolic reflector, 3.2 meters in diameter,
   having a short tube which was the combustion chamber or sound
   generator, extending to the rear from the vertex of the parabola.
   The chamber was fed at the rear by two coaxial nozzles, the outer
   nozzle emitting methane, and the central nozzle oxygen.  The length
   of the chamber was one-quarter the wavelength of the sound in air.
   Upon initiation, the first shock wave was reflected back from the
   openend of the chamber and initiated the second explosion.  The
   frequency was from 800 to 1500 impulses per second.
      The main lobe of the sound intensity pattern had a 65 degree
   angle of opening, and at 60 meters' distance on the axis a pressure
   of 1000 microbars had been measured.  No physiological experiments
   were conducted, but it was estimated that at such a pressure it
   would take from 30 to 40 seconds to kill a man.  At greater ranges,
   perhaps up to 300 meters, the effect, although not lethal, would be
   very painful and would probably disable a man for an appreciable
   length of time.  Vision would be affected, and low-level exposures
   would cause point sources of light to appear as lines." [1]

   The device was not deployed, due to complexity and lack of range.

   Also, a device that created vortices in the air, and a device that
   shot 'plugs' of air were developed at the same facility, primarily
   for low-level anti-aircraft defence.

References:

[1]   _Secret Weapons of the Third Reich_ by Leslie E. Simon (USA, ret)
      WE, Inc., Publishers (c)1971

[2]   _The Guns 1939-45_ by Ian V. Hogg
      Ballentine Books Inc. (c)1970

[3]   _Lost Victories_ by Erich von Manstein
      (Ooops, no data)

[4]   _German Secret Weapons of World War 2_ by I. V. Hogg
      ARCO Publishing Company, Inc. (c)1970

................

ObUL The author of references two and four named his daughter "Ima".



Jon "No data available for physiological effects on chickens." Papai
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: jcmorris@mwunix.mitre.org (Joe Morris)
Subject: Re: ASSEMBLY LANGUAGE IBM
Organization: The MITRE Corporation
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 13:35:32 GMT

azog@spatula.rent.com (Billy D'Augustine) writes:

>Well, for the longest time, the actual reference to the card reader
>(2901? forget), 
  ^^^^
Probably a 2501.  In general any machine numbered x9xx is a special-order
(so-called "RPQ") product, and one numbered x5xx is a card handler.  Of
course, there are more than enough exceptions to this rule.

>                was removed the system startup (a DEFINE card), but
>the physcial machine sat around for a few months. When we got rid of it,
>we rewired channel 0 (where the cardreader and printers usually live, 
>due to being such slow I/O devices). Now we have 020 as a 3422 mag reel
>drive, and 00E as a 4245 printer. Now, think about this addressing just
>a little bit. What do you think will happen when you fire up a nice
>tape sort on 020? The printer stops...

Working as designed.  A channel is (by definition) a single logical data
path.  A tape drive, once it begins operation, takes control of the 
channel until its last data transfer activity is complete.  This is
not unreasonable since few tape drives have any significant buffering
capability; once the tape is running and requires channel service it
cannot accept a delay caused by some other device hogging the channel.

In general a system should not be configured with a burst mode device
(like a tape drive) on a byte multiplexor channel...and on most systems
channel zero is always a byte multiplexor.

On some older systems you could install a special feature which 
converted the top 64 addresses on channel zero (0C0-0FF) into
four so-called "selector subchannels" which operated independently
of the lower channel zero addresses.  With the decreased cost of
channel hardware the need for this gimmick went away some time back.

>                All the password files (for CICS) are text files sitting
>somewhere on the system. To add a new password, you have to assemble this
>text file into a phase (IBMs name for an executable). The originating
>text file is in no way encrypted or protected. On that same vein, a 
>user simply cannot change his password by himself. 

Sounds like the WIJIT system I knew and loved (NOT!) on a PDP-11/45
a few years ago...

Joe Morris
Xref: sparky alt.folklore.computers:16411 comp.sys.cbm:4614
From: edwardp@ra.cs.umb.edu (Edward P. Piecewicz)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.sys.cbm
Subject: Commodore keyboard layout.
Date: 18 Nov 92 23:51:37 GMT
Organization: University of Massachusetts at Boston, Dept of Math and CS

In article <1992Nov17.214421.22889@tamsun.tamu.edu> n029gg@tamuts.tamu.edu (Adam Roach) writes:


>The Commodore 64's keyboard was identical around the world. 
>I'm sure that if we had off world colonies using sanskrit,
>the same '64's would have been shipped there. This goes a long way
>towards explaining why we had a British pound symbol on our '64's
>over here in the States. Additionally, I might like to point out
>that the layout of the C-64's keyboard had almost nothing to
>do with prevailing standards for typewriter keyboards.

Was the British Pound key on the U.S. C64 computers, intentional??  It was
the first (and still is) the computer I ever saw with a Pound key on it.

 - Ed

-- 
Internet:  edwardp@cs.umb.edu                                  - guest user -
Member and Activist:  The Boston Computer Society

"activist":  The BCS definition of the word "volunteer."