HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: nancy@genie.slhs.udel.edu (Nancy Lebovitz)
Subject: email button catalogue
Organization: UDel, School of Life & Health Sciences
Date: Sun, 26 Jul 1992 21:03:43 GMT

I've heard that some of the folks on the group would like to get
my email button catalogue--just drop me a note at nancy@genie.slhs.
udel.edu.

rw-rw-rw-: The file protection of the beast.

We all live in a yellow subroutine.

Life would be so much easier if we could just look at the source code.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: 9 track data storage???????????????
From: don@zl2tnm.gen.nz (Don Stokes)
Date: 22 Jul 92 21:39:15 GMT
Distribution: world
Organization: The Wolery

terry@spcvxb.spc.edu (Terry Kennedy, Operations Mgr.) writes:
>   No, you could also supervise your dinner from when it began life through
> the processing and delivery to the market while waiting. This amazes me -
> it's slower than TU58's (really! I have both a 750 w/ TU58's and a MVII w/
> TK50). Booting from RX33's is _lots_ faster. Most peculiar.

*Building* Standalone Backup is a different story.  It takes hours with
TU58s, if it works at all.  A TK50 takes just a few minutes -- one of the
few cases I know where reading something takes significantly longer than
writing it.  Don't get me started about the TU58 -- it's one of the most
brain damaged cartridge tape subsystems in the known universe.

Maybe I should put an RX50 drive or something on my VAXstation (he says,
endangering the life of yet another DECmate's chassis... 8-) just for booting
Standalone....

--
Don Stokes, ZL2TNM (DS555)                        don@zl2tnm.gen.nz (home)
Network Manager, Computing Services Centre            don@vuw.ac.nz (work)
Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand              +64-4-495-5052
From: steve@dbaccess.com (Steve Suttles)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: You know you've been hacking too long...
Date: 23 Jul 92 06:18:00 GMT
Organization: Cross Access Corp., Santa Clara, CA

in article <1WIHFC4@taronga.com>, peter@taronga.com (Peter da Silva) says:
> 
> In article <1992Jul19.161326.867@dscomsf.desy.de> hallam@zeus02.desy.de writes:
>>Anyone else logged onto a machine to issue a `show time' command when
>>one is wearing a perfectly good watch?
> 
> Well, I have had a clock in the room with my computer for some weeks now and
> I *still* use the "date" command to see what time it is.
>
Has anyone else had the unpleasant experience of having to work on several
machines, not all in the same time zones, and because of routinely needing
to check timestamps on this file or another, -known- what the current time
was from a `show time' command, and been wrong?  I cancelled one meeting
I mistakenly realized quite suddenly that I was a half hour late, and also
rushed off to an appointment and apologized for being not more than 45 minutes
early.

I've reinstated a clock window on my X station to prevent such right-brain/
brain-left problems.

sas
-- 
Steve Suttles                Internet:  steve@dbaccess.com      Dr. DCL is IN!
CROSS ACCESS Corporation     UUCP: {uunet,mips}!troi!steve     Yo speako TECO!
2900 Gordon Ave, Suite 100   fax: (408) 735-0328              Talk data to me!
Santa Clara, CA 95051-0718   vox: (408) 735-7545   HA! It's under 4 lines NOW!
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: richk@grebyn.com (Richard Krehbiel)
Subject: Re:  Life machines?
Organization: Grebyn Timesharing
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1992 04:23:56 GMT

In article <liam.052a@durie.amigans.gen.nz> liam@durie.amigans.gen.nz (Liam Greenwood) writes:
>In article <1992Jul20.003128.28058@news.uiowa.edu> dsiebert@icaen.uiowa.edu (Doug Siebert) writes:
>>
>>Possibly, with two caveats.  One, you shouldn't allow use of extra hardware
>>unrelated to the processor in question.  So an Amiga benchmark shouldn't allow
>>use of a dedicated graphics chip.  Otherwise, where would we be with other
>    But the Blitter isn't a dedicated graphics chip. Better described as a
>support processor with specialist graphics capabilities.

To illustrate, the Amiga blitter is used not only to draw lines and
move images, but it is also used to perform MFM data encoding and
decoding for the floppy disk.

-- 
Richard Krehbiel                                 richk@grebyn.com
OS/2 2.0 will do for me until AmigaDOS for the 386 comes along...
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: IBM vs. world terminology (was: What does dd stand for?)
From: ecmtwhk@ccu1.aukuni.ac.nz (Thomas Koenig)
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1992 04:37:24 GMT
Organization: University of Auckland, New Zealand.

thad@public.BTR.COM (Thaddeus P. Floryan) writes:

>And let's add one more that really perplexed us when attempting to install
>from scratch an IBM AIX box last year:

>partition	minidisk

Minidisk? That is standard VM terminology, for the virtual disks you set
up for use by the operating systems running under VM.

That probably migrated via AIX/370, which requires VM as host operating
system (last time I looked, IBM had not got an independent UNIX on
multiprocessor systems running yet...)
-- 
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: jgd@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (John G Dobnick)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: 9 track data storage???????????????
Date: 25 Jul 92 03:33:29 GMT
Reply-To: jgd@csd4.csd.uwm.edu
Organization: University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee
Originator: jgd@csd4.csd.uwm.edu

From article <1992Jul21.130209.14030@terminator.cc.umich.edu>, by sarr@sinshan.citi.umich.edu (Sarr J. Blumson):
> In article <1992Jul21.000446.10940@news.columbia.edu> lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner) writes:
>>
>>There is also something about the lower-speed formatting that can get confused
>>if you write even-parity data zeroes, because it can't tell the data's there.
>>Perhaps someone can point out which formats are prone to this, because I think
>>some don't have the problem.
>>
> 200 and 556 bpi 7 track tapes (I believe 800s and all 9 tracks went to
> phase encoding) use a Non Return to Zero scheme where a one bit is a
> flux change and a zero bit is nothing.  Since there is no independent
> timing information on the tape a long string of zeros can cause loss
> of synchronization.  I may have the details fuzzy but this is the idea
> anyway.

Phase encoding was only at 1600 9-track.  800 9-track was still NRZI.
The problem with NRZI is that long strings of zeros (zeroes? :-) ) could
cause data de-syncronization, since there were no timing pulses to
clock the data characters.  (Only the "1"s were recorded, by a flux
reversal.)  Phase encoding was the solution to that -- each and _every_
character had a flux reversal, and hence the data was "self clocking".

In reading my old manuals on *real* tape drives :-), I noticed something
I was unaware of before.  At 6250, the data is actully recorded in
NRZI mode!  You learn something new every day.  (Of course, the 
data is recorded in "groups" of characters, hence the name -- Group 
Coded Recording mode, with all sorts of fancy ECC-like encoding done
to allow for data recovery "on the fly" in the face of dropped bits.)

> Returning briefly to the original questionon, 9 track drives for just
> about anything ("ISA" machines even) are easilt found in the small
> adds in the back of glossy mags like Byte.

9-track tape still seems to be the best way to transfer data.  My
personal preference is labelled tapes (so we have the block size and
blocking factors -- which _always_ seem to get lost otherwise). 
Strict ASCII encoding (none of that "binary" stuff) seems best.
Lacking anything else, IBM labelled tapes, in EBCDIC yet, are better
than "arbitrary" format, by far.

-- 
John G Dobnick                          ATTnet: (414) 229-5727
Computing Services Division             INTERNET: jgd@uwm.edu
University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee     UUCP: uunet!uwm!jgd

"Knowing how things work is the basis for appreciation,
and is thus a source of civilized delight."  -- William Safire
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Terminal intrinsics
From: don@zl2tnm.gen.nz (Don Stokes)
Date: 30 Jul 92 07:39:24 GMT
Distribution: world
Organization: The Wolery

lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner) writes:
> On the DECmate series there is a recent change to the slushware (v 422) that
> allows an additional mode in the terminal emulator: type II terminal with
> these keys (and all other relevant changed keys) set at type I values.  This
> is sometimes referred to as VT-220 8-bit with 7-bit controls, but in this
> case the terminal emulator still responds to all 7 or 8 bit coming in; this
> merely refers to what goes *out* when you press a key.

The DECmate's "VT227" mode (at least under WPS-8) strips the high bit, so
the multinational character set is only available using shifts.  A VT2xx/3xx
in "7 bit mode" differs only from one in "8 bit mode" in what keystrokes
send, ie the both 7 and 8 bit control codes are understood in either mode
(assuming the comm port is set up to allow an 8 bit data path).

> So, the answer is that an LK-201 *may* have a BS key.

"May", but it's not really in a useful place (like the VT100 or worse) and
if you enable it, you usually lose the function keys.  The VT320 has an
option to have the <X] key send either backspace or delete (defaulting to
delete).  I should have said the VT2xx only as a DEL key, but do note that
the keyboard was not originally intended to have a BS key.  

The scan codes on the keyboard are a bit of a red herring unless you're
building something that uses a DEC keyboard, and at the price DEC charge
for a bare keyboard, you'd be crazy to unless you already had a good supply
of the things.

Personally, I find having ESC, BS & LF where God intended them to be (see
the VT100 keyboard) preferable, but then I'm a sysprog at heart and a bit
inclined to want to do tricky things with anything I lay my hands on....
I also have a low opinion of the feel and maintainability (none) of the
LK201 -- if you get a beverage anywhere near them they suck it between the
membranes of the keyboard, at which point you might as well throw it away.
They're quite unfixable -- the only thing you can do is keep the circuit
board from them and pair keyboards with dead logic to ones with polluted
keymats to make good ones.  I think they're spungy and horrible too; the
later DEC keyboards are much better.

--
Don Stokes, ZL2TNM (DS555)                        don@zl2tnm.gen.nz (home)
Network Manager, Computing Services Centre            don@vuw.ac.nz (work)
Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand              +64-4-495-5052
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: ivie@cc.usu.edu (CP/M lives!)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Mercury memory (was Re: Cathode ray memory)
Date: 31 Jul 92 09:53:10 MDT
Organization: Utah State University

In article <1992Jul31.045954.25930@u.washington.edu>, fetrow@biostat.washington.edu (David Fetrow) writes:
> 
>  I recall reading a paper by someone who realized that delay-line memory
> could also work with light-pipe (although you need some very long cables
> and some very fast circuits) so we may see the return of delay-line memory
> someday soon.

A friend once told me about a research project he was involved with that
involved storing bits in a laser beam bounced off the moon.

Roger Ivie
ivie@cc.usu.edu
From: jaap@alice.att.com (jaap)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: What does UNIX mean?
Date: 21 Jul 92 16:27:25 GMT
Article-I.D.: alice.23260
Reply-To: jaap@alice.UUCP ()
Organization: AT&T, Bell Labs

From a footnote in the preface to ``The Unix Programming Environment''
by Kernighan & Pike:

\(dg \s-2UNIX\s0 is a trademark of Bell Laboratories. ``\s-2UNIX\s0'' is
\fInot\fP an acronym, but a weak pun on \s-2MULTICS\s0, the operating
system that Thompson and Ritchie worked on before \s-2UNIS\s0.
From: barmar@think.com (Barry Margolin)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Computers on TV
Date: 27 Jul 1992 20:03:07 GMT
Organization: Thinking Machines Corporation, Cambridge MA, USA
Distribution: alt
NNTP-Posting-Host: telecaster.think.com

In article <Bs283t.CD9@watserv1.uwaterloo.ca> dp35@mc1adm.UWaterloo.ca (Greg Moore) writes:
>What was funny is that she pronounced it "Jiga-bytes".

While most computer people seem to pronounce "giga" with a hard G,
according to the dictionaries I've read, soft G is the correct
pronunciation.  Remember when Doc in the "Back to the Future" movies talked
about how many gigawatts he needed for the flux capacitor?

Maybe those of us in the supercomputer industry should avoid the problem by
talking only about terabytes and teraflops.  For things that haven't
reached that level we can use fractions or decimals (e.g. a CM-200 can do
around .03 teraflops (that's probably not the actual number)), which will
help us think in terms of our current goals.
-- 
Barry Margolin
System Manager, Thinking Machines Corp.

barmar@think.com          {uunet,harvard}!think!barmar
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: merlyn@digibd.com (Merlyn LeRoy)
Subject: Re: Basic -> C (was: Wumpus source in C!)
Organization: DigiBoard Incorporated, Eden Prairie, MN
Date: Thu, 23 Jul 1992 15:16:33 GMT

maynard@esther.msc.cornell.edu (Maynard J. Handley) writes:
>In article <1992Jul14.120134.26962@mullet.gu.uwa.edu.au>,
>john@mullet.gu.uwa.edu.au (John West) writes:
>>magnus@THEP.LU.SE (Magnus Olsson) writes:
>>>>A few years ago one of the entries to the IOCCC was an obfuscated C
>>>>program that translated BASIC into obfuscated C. Gack. If you can find an
>>>>archive, check it out.

>Does this thing actually work. Once I and a friend compiled it (yes we were
>flabberghasted that it actually compiled) but it didn't actually do
>anything. It interpreted Basis in the sense that i thing it followed the
>control flow, but it didn't nothing more than that.

Yes, it actually works, but it has very limited error checking (i.e. none).
It turns the BASIC code into a big C switch() state machine.  It correctly
runs the LANDER.BAS program that comes with it, but since it doesn't do
string variables, many BASIC programs will not work, or require modifications
(the recent WUMPUS.BAS uses string variables).  The author of the BASIC
to C compiler (and 1989's BASIC interpreter) is:

	Diomidis Spinellis
	Imperial College, University of London
	Myrsinis 1
	GR-145 62 Kifissia
	Greece

---
Merlyn LeRoy
From: magnus@THEP.LU.SE (Magnus Olsson)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: What does UNIX mean?
Date: 21 Jul 92 11:22:33 GMT
Organization: Theoretical Physics, Lund University, Sweden

In article <14548@umd5.umd.edu>, matthews@oberon.umd.edu (Mike Matthews) 
writes:
> 
> You think THAT's bad?  There's some psychology (?) book out there somewhere
> in use by some colleges that claims that Unix is a word processor.

And if you think that's bad, what about this one? I saw it in a
*technical* book or magazine somewhere (but to be fair, it was
"technical" == "general electronics" != "computer technical"), and the
author said something like (quoting from memory)

"A few years ago, there was a lot of excitement about a programming
language [sic] called Unix, but it was a big flop - it seems to have
been just media hype. Nobody talks about Unix anymore". 

Sheesh. 


On a related note, the leading regional newspaper has a weekly column
for computer hobbyists, written by some journalist who's apparently
playing around with a little Basic programming on his PC at home, but
who hasn't - judging from his columns - much more experience. When
writing about different languages, he mentioned assembly language, and
amde the remark that "it's only for experts, since you need to use the
difficult DEBUG program, and know how to write to absolute disk
sectors".  His latest column was about his woes installing OS/2 (he
whined bitterly about not getting it to work without having read the
manual first). Before starting to whine, however, he boasted about his
technical competence - apparently he had installed several expansion
cards, and could replace IC's inside his radio, or something like
that. 

-- 
Magnus Olsson                   | \e+      /_
Dept. of Theoretical Physics    |  \  Z   / q
University of Lund, Sweden      |   >----<           
Internet: magnus@thep.lu.se     |  /      \===== g
Bitnet: THEPMO@SELDC52          | /e-      \q
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Subject: Re: dinosaur horsepower
Reply-To: lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner)
Organization: Columbia University
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1992 19:43:47 GMT

In article <1992Jul30.140329.9868@alliant.com> werme@alliant.com (Ric Werme) writes:
>In article <1992Jul28.155852.23608@sctc.com> smith@sctc.com (Rick Smith) writes:
>>I was a fan of papertape myself. (5 points: can you spot the pun?)
>
>"The only thing worse than fan-fold paper tape is non-fan-fold
>paper tape."  - Bob Clements

Give that man a 5 year supply of chad.

cjl
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: werme@alliant.com (Ric Werme)
Subject: Re: dinosaur horsepower
Organization: Alliant Computer Systems Corp.
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1992 14:03:29 GMT

In article <1992Jul28.155852.23608@sctc.com> smith@sctc.com (Rick Smith) writes:
>I was a fan of papertape myself. (5 points: can you spot the pun?)

"The only thing worse than fan-fold paper tape is non-fan-fold
paper tape."  - Bob Clements

-- 
| A pride of lions               | Eric J Werme                 |
| A gaggle of geese		 | 77 Tater St			|
| An odd lot of programmers      | Mont Vernon NH  03057	|
| A Constitution of Libertarians | Phone: 603-673-3993		|
From: marques@vax.oxford.ac.uk
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Computers on TV (was: Re: computers in movies)
Date: 26 Jul 92 20:15:37 GMT
Distribution: alt
Organization: Oxford University Library Automation Team

In article <1992Jul24.132133.4247@webo.dg.com>, kahn@emav131.webo.dg.com (Mike Kahn) writes:
> I don't know if this has been mentioned here yet but awhile ago I was 
> flipping through the channels on my TV and I came across an old episode
> of "Fantasy Island".  They had this "computer genius" (and I use the term
> lightly) there who had this computer that was a supposed matchmaker.  It
> was kinda neat looking with alot of flashing lights and beeping noises.
> At any rate, at one point in the show the computer broke and the "genius"
> said to someone "I'm pretty sure I've got it narrowed down to the memory
> interface or the cathode ray."  Obviously this scriptwriter's only knowledge

Believe it or not but cathode ray tubes were once used as random access 
storage devices on very early computers.

> of a computer didn't go beyond his pocket calculator.  I could just see it
> "Well here's some real technical sounding words: memory, interface, cathode,
> and ray."
> -Mike Kahn
-- 
Jose Marques, Systems Programmer
 %INCLUDE STDDIS; /* Standard Disclaimer */
From: peterk@public.sub.org (Peter Kittel)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Americans who can't spell
Date: 22 Jul 92 11:33:44 GMT
Organization: Public News & Mailserver, Commodore Germany PM UNIX, Frankfurt

grog@adagio.UUCP (Greg Lehey) writes:
>In article <1992Jul17.142603.5599@public.sub.org> peterk@public.sub.org (Peter Kittel) writes:
>>
>>Exactly. In German, the date of today is pronounced (directly translated)
>>as "17th 7th 92". Very short and efficient. Ok, you might argue that
>          ^^^
>No, that's not German, that's an abomination. In German, the months have 
>names.

Huch? IMHO my above statement is fully correct. In normal conversation,
when you are fast, or even in every business talk I can remember, this
is the normal way to pronounce it. As I said, month names are typically
longer than this.

>So presumably you're going to replace the names of the days of the
>week by numbers too.

Oh beware, please not :-)  But did you realize that Americans use 3-letter
abbreviations for weekdays and Germans only such with 2 letters? Hurray,
one of the few cases, where German is shorter and more efficient than
American! These cases are admittedly in the *extreme* minority.

>I only work from 2 to 6, sometimes on a 7, but never on a 1.

Huch? You work from tuesday to saturday, but never on a monday???
You see, this is also special for Germany (and for other countries
perhaps also?): The first day of a week is defined the monday, *not*
sunday like in US. This is an *official* definition.

From your name I guess you're not a native German. So don't take this
as a flame, but as hints.

-- 
Best regards, Dr. Peter Kittel  // E-Mail to  \\  Only my personal opinions... 
Commodore Frankfurt, Germany  \X/ {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!cbmger!peterk
                                   or  peterk@public.sub.org
From: aki@cruzio.santa-cruz.ca.us
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: You know you've been hacking too long...
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 92 11:18:33 PDT
Reply-To: aki@cruzio.santa-cruz.ca.us

In article <h7mmb2d@lynx.unm.edu>, tkogoma@triton.unm.edu (Gym Z. Quirk) writes:
> BTW, do any of you digital watch afficianato's find yourselves
> rounding times to the nearest 5 minutes when people ask you the time?
> 


Of course not.  They usually ask for the _time_,  not for your estimate of
how to round it off. :)

Aki,;  the proud owner of _NO_ wrist watch.
-- 
/  Phone: 408-662 9664   Fax: 662 9676  |  "Aki" pronounced: Ah-Key. I know  \ 
\  125 Searidge Ct #D, Aptos, CA 95003  |  what I'm doing most of the time.  /
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: dbrooks@osf.org (David Brooks)
Subject: Re: Life machines?
Followup-To: alt.folklore.computers
Reply-To: dbrooks@osf.org (David Brooks)
Organization: Open Software Foundation
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 1992 21:29:11 GMT

Charlie_Gibbs@mindlink.bc.ca (Charlie Gibbs) writes:
>     My first Life program ran on a Univac 9300 (their answer to the
>IBM 360/20).  We didn't have terminals, or even disk - it was strictly
>a card-based system at the time.  I'd print my output on the line
>printer.

John Horton Conway, who developed the game in the late 60's, originally
computed the generations by hand, a laborious and error-prone task that
consumed vast quantities of the Cambridge Mathematical Lab's research
students.  Then one student (hello Robin Fairbairns, John Francis, can you
remember who?) hacked up a program for Titan which produced successive
generations on a lineprinter.  The rest is computing history.

We soon got it flying along on the PDP-7's CRT, 2^17 cells per side,
arbitrarily restricted to 25 gps.
-- 
David Brooks					dbrooks@osf.org
Open Software Foundation			uunet!osf.org!dbrooks
Six more months!  Six more months!