HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: elf@ee.ryerson.ca (luis fernandes)
Subject: Re: Fun Display Hacks for Sun
Organization: Ryerson Polytechnical Institute, Toronto
Date: Fri, 16 Oct 1992 18:25:35 GMT

In article <BvyLxn.L95@news.cso.uiuc.edu> robm@void.ncsa.uiuc.edu (Rob McCool) writes:
>
>
>A while back I posted about two programs, decay (basic melter... yawn) and
>  another one called ferkel, where a little man comes along and pushes your
>  screen aside. I found them, and they're on ftp.uu.net under 
>  /systems/sun/sextape/decay. They're also elsewhere, like wuarchive and
>  others, and I put a copy on ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu under /outgoing/robm.

vpuzzle jumbles-up the unsuspecting user's screen like the
15-puzzle. Any site that archives comp.sources.x will have it.
From: peter@NeoSoft.com (Peter da Silva)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: What was the intended advantage of using 36bits CPU?
Date: 14 Oct 92 11:57:08 GMT
Organization: NeoSoft Communications Services -- (713) 684-5900

In article <1992Oct13.225620.10861@news.columbia.edu> lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner) writes:
> Compare this so-called inefficiency with the vast majority of 8-bit byte
> machines holding chars that are primarily 7-bit expressable ASCII chars.

Ever hear of ISO8859, Chuck? It's an 8-bit character set. Then there's
10646 which is (in some versions) up to 32 bits wide.

> Moreover, 8-bit bytes was created for EBCDIC, an admittedly highly inefficient
> char code virtually none of us use anyway.

Yeh, but they work just fine for Latin-1, a char code that just about everyone
except MS-DOS weenies uses. DOS wastes those high bits on funky non-standard
line drawing characters.

> Today there is call for extended character sets.  It appears that 7 bits
> may not be enough for a truly universal charset.  But 8 bits aren't enough
> either,

8 bits are enough for Western Europe.

> with some people calling for 9 or more bits/char.

Nope, nobody is calling for 9. Nine bits isn't enough to cover a significant
number of additional languages. After 8, you need at least 14 (as in one of the
Japanese codes) to be interesting, and you might as well go to 16 ("two bytes")
and cover the rest of the world. That's Unicode.

> PDP-10-style
> architecture is up to handling that trivially, while all 8-bit systems are
> going to have to waste the difference between the needed amount and the
> rounded up value of 16 bits/char.  (Or is someone going to justify a
> replacement character code set with 65536 unique combinations?)

"Someone" already has. Unicode, or page 1 of ISO10646. 1/4 of the combinations
are just needed to cover Japan, China, etc. And you wouldn't believe the number
of languages that have come out of the woodwork. Even with 16 bits they need
the equivalent of escapes to fit all the diacritics in, and a 32-bit set is
currently under consideration.

An extra bit here or there really isn't enough to be useful. It's like writing
a Pascal compiler in assembler.
-- 
Peter da Silva.  <peter@sugar.neosoft.com>.
 `-_-'   "Megulegetted ma mar a farkasodat ?"
  'U`  
Dette kan umulig vaere mitt rom, eftersom jeg ikke puster ammoniakk.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.unix.admin
From: mitch@cirrus.com (Mitch Wright)
Subject: Re: WANTED: Unix administration horror stories !
Followup-To: poster
Organization: Cirrus Logic Inc.
Date: Sun, 11 Oct 1992 22:02:32 GMT

I guess I should add a story (or maybe not).  Anyway, a fellow sysadmin
was looking to free up some much needed disk space.  Since it was purely
a production machine I suggested that he go through and "strip" his binaries.
Unfortunately I made the assumption that he knew what strip does and would
use it wisely -- flashes of the Bad News Bears come to mind now.
To make it short, he stripped /vmunix which didn't destroy the system, but
certainly caused some interesting problems.

   ~mitch
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: cline@cs.scarolina.edu (Ernest Cline)
Subject: Re: Connection Machine posters 
Organization: USC  Department of Computer Science
Date: 13 Oct 92 16:45:39 GMT

pt@geovision.gvc.com (Paul Tomblin) writes:

>eugene@wilbur.nas.nasa.gov (Eugene N. Miya) writes:

>>Real programmers don't need posters.
>>They MAKE their own. Others ask for THEIR posters.
>>Silly request.	;^)

>Speaking of which - can somebody post a gif or jpeg of the CM-5 poster?

Or how about a gif or jpeg of Craig Shergold?
-- 
Ernest Cline	cline@cs.scarolina.edu
Craig Shergold	shergold@postcard.guiness.com.uk
From: mallman@oucsace.cs.ohiou.edu (Mark Allman)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Bumper sticker
Date: 7 Oct 92 19:35:38 GMT
Organization: /home/ace/a/mallman/.org

In article <1992Oct7.143936.7016@ee.ryerson.ca>, iain@ee.ryerson.ca (Iain Campbell) writes:
> In article <1992Oct01.094449.22216@einoed.in-berlin.de> alh@einoed.in-berlin.de (Adrian Le Hanne) writes:
> >mdw@theory.TC.Cornell.EDU (Matt Welsh) writes:
> >
> >>In article <15858@mindlink.bc.ca> Charlie_Gibbs@mindlink.bc.ca (Charlie Gibbs) writes:
> >>>          I <heart> DOS
> >
> BTW, UNIX is an operating system, DOS is a file handling utility ...

and not a very good file handler at that .......

mark
-- 

/* Mark Allman                |  I'm a computer science student.  Whats
   mallman@ace.cs.ohiou.edu   |  your excuse?
   mallman@duce.cs.ohiou.edu  |                                         */
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: boebert@sctc.com (Earl Boebert)
Subject: Re: Oldest ARPAnet messages?
Organization: SCTC
Date: Wed, 7 Oct 1992 14:07:08 GMT

rbe@yrloc.ipsa.reuter.COM (Robert Bernecky) writes:

>In article <1992Oct3.194830.8718@sctc.com> smith@sctc.com (Rick Smith) writes:
>>There are several 'firsts' being asked about, I think. The 'first'
>>electronic mail would have been between users on a single timeshared
>>host (not to say batch users _couldn't_ use mail, just that it
>>wasn't consistent with the model of computer usage.

>When I joined I.P. Sharp Associates in the beginning of 1971, the company
>was already using email on a regular basis for all corporate, and
>some customer traffic. 

[stuff deleted]

Email was regularly used for internal traffic between developers and
management on MIT-Multics at by late 1969. I know this because I was,
as far as I have been able to find out, the first person to regularly
log into MIT-Multics from outside the Cambridge MA area. I am sure
that email was used internal to the development team even earlier than
that.  Email was also active at the Rome Air Development Center
Multics system at that time.  There also may have been a mail facility
on CTSS; if so, then "first regularly used email" could date to 1963
or 1964.

The first use for communication with (potential) customers was, as I
recall, early to mid 1970; said potential customer being Ford Motor
Co. This was one of the earliest cases of wholly independent
organizations (Ford, MIT, Honeywell) communicating via email through a
shared facility.  (RADC may have had an account at MIT during the GE
days, but I doubt that email was relied upon to the same degree.)  Tom
Van Vleck or Barry Margolin can undoubtedly correct my hazy memory of
those hectic days.

As the previous poster has noted, my friends at IP Sharp (I hacked
through college with Larry Breed and Roger Moore) were also at the
forefront of interactive timesharing and quite possibly beat the
MIT/Honeywell/Ford interaction for the title of "earliest use of email
instead of paper on a regular basis" or some such.


Earl

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: wcsjc@alfred.carleton.ca (John Coughlin)
Subject: Re: Obfuscated C ... where?
Keywords: Obfuscated C Competition
Organization: Carleton University
Date: Sat, 10 Oct 1992 17:00:07 GMT

In <9228418.26226@mulga.cs.mu.OZ.AU> winikoff@muse.cs.mu.OZ.AU (Michael David WINIKOFF) writes:
          
>Hi! Does anyone know where I can FTP obfuscated C code from?
>I know there exists an FTP site somewhere which contains the entries of the
>competition since I've ftp'ed the stuff once, but can't for the life of me
>remember where the site was ...

ftp.uu.net has them as compressed shar files in /pub/ioccc.
-- 
Flesh: John Coughlin                            Elvis ate my Cadillac
Net: wcsjc@ccs.carleton.ca     Vox: +1 613 957-2851     Fax: 990-7370
From: ghosh@cs.pitt.edu (Sunondo Ghosh)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Wanted jokes
Date: 7 Oct 92 15:28:50 GMT
Organization: Univ. of Pittsburgh Computer Science

Wanted jokes on Computers/Computer Scientists. Please mail them
to me.

Thanks,

Sunondo
(ghosh@cs.pitt.edu)

PS: I am sorry if this is not the right newsgroup to post this request.
From: ping@ping.actrix.gen.nz (Peter Ingham)
Subject: Re: Convergent Megaframe?? Anyone??
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Distribution: world,local
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]
Date: 9 Oct 92 21:32:50 GMT
Organization: Private UUCP Site

I can hear the voices dreaming... (mute@bigwpi.WPI.EDU) wrote:
> 
> How does CTOS compare to CTIX, the version of UNIX used on the
> Convergent Miniframe, Mightyframe, and Megaframe back when they were
> still called Convergent machines?
> 

I believe CTIX ran native on MiniFrame and MightyFrame, On MegaFrame, CTIX ran on 
the "Application Processor(s)" and chatted to CTOS running on the 
"Disk Processor(s)", "Cluster Processor(s)", "Storage Processor(s)" and 
"Terminal Processor(s)".

CTOS has shipped somewhere around the 1M copies mark.  Still shipping and being 
enhanced.  It was the first NON *nix OS to achieve POSIX certification!!
It will Multi-Task Windows 3.1 alongside it's own applications - nice environment.

> Does anyone besides me still use MiniFrames?
> 
> Josh Brandt
> -- 
>           ...said it was heaven just to breathe your air...   Severed Heads
>                                          - mute@wpi.wpi.edu   Joshua Brandt -

--

Cheers

    Peter S. Ingham              ping@ping.actrix.gen.nz
    Lower Hutt,  New Zealand     3:771/220.5
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: jones@pyrite.cs.uiowa.edu (Douglas W. Jones,201H MLH,3193350740,3193382879)
Subject: Re: Radio Shack testimonial
Date: Fri, 16 Oct 1992 13:39:16 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA

From article <Bw7H5x.A7E@solbourne.com>,
by kucharsk@solbourne.com (William Kucharski):
> 
> Save yer butt -- hell, if you live anywhere but the Bay Area and need chips/
> LEDs/resistors/capacitors/miscellaneous parts where else CAN you get them
> without using a catalog with a $20 or so minimum order?

	Um, here in Iowa City, we have two places that compete with Radio
	Shack, one consumer oriented, and one with a far larger inventory
	that's oriented towards supplying the needs of the various
	electronics and computer repair shops in the area.  A 20 minute
	drive takes you to Cedar Rapids (a far bigger town) where you can
	get an even bigger selection.

	Radio Shack's in the mall right across the street from my office,
	but if I want a 24 gauge wire wrap tool to fix my antique PDP-8,
	Radio Shack wouldn't even know what it was; the other retail place
	is two blocks away (oh the pain!) but I can get the 24 gauge tool
	there, and they have a far better selection of TTL and LSTTL chips,
	at roughly half Radio Shack's prices.

	Of course, Radio Shack is open Saturday and Sunday, and there are
	times when that's what matters.

				Doug Jones
				jones@cs.uiowa.edu
Xref: sparky alt.folklore.computers:15057 alt.folklore.science:3722 alt.folklore.urban:25517
From: mute@bigwpi.WPI.EDU (The Amazing Immolating Man)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Convergent Megaframe?? Anyone??
Date: 12 Oct 92 16:52:53 GMT
Organization: Worcester Polytechnic Institute
NNTP-Posting-Host: bigwpi.wpi.edu

In article <14933@auspex-gw.auspex.com> guy@Auspex.COM (Guy Harris) writes:
>                                                    (I forget whether
>there were multiple '010's running UNIX, or just one.)  The Miniframe was
>a uniprocessor version of the Megaframe; there was, I think, also a
>Microframe workstation being developed, but it emerged under a
>different name, i.e. "AT&T UNIX PC".

Actually, the UNIX PC/3b1's are very very similar to the MiniFrame-
same processor, lots of the same hardware, and even very similar
motherboards. Binaries from one will generally work on the other.

>Later *Frames had, I think, '020's and maybe later 68K machines.

The later MiniFrames were called Mini-20's, and had a 68020. They also
had a different expansion bus, even though those huge cast-iron
brackets from the Mini's were just _so_ attractive...

I didn't know CT did anything at all with Intel processors, besides
run their dumb terminals with them... The GT's, their graphic
terminals had 8086's, while the PT's, the generic programmable
terminals had 80186's. They also had 64K of RAM each.

When you had the terminals attached to a *Frame, they would, upon
receiving a getty on their RS422 port, log into the machine as either
'ptdl' or 'gtdl' and download their software into their RAM. This
would then allow them to display things... They also had
VT100-quasi-kinda-emulation that could be accessed through a nowhere-
near-self-explanatory menu system. 

They're really very smart terminals. I have several...

Josh Brandt

-- 
         Constricting viscous strings around your warm body   Front
    Holding you tight holding you tight and I feel so happy   242
                                         - mute@wpi.wpi.edu   Joshua Brandt -
From: anthony@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (Anthony J Stieber)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: What was the intended advantage of using 36bits CPU?
Date: 14 Oct 1992 00:37:31 GMT
Organization: Computing Services Division, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee
NNTP-Posting-Host: 129.89.7.4

In article <1992Oct13.225620.10861@news.columbia.edu> lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner) writes:
>rounded up value of 16 bits/char.  (Or is someone going to justify a
>replacement character code set with 65536 unique combinations?)

Yep, one of them is Unicode.  At least 16 bits is needed to handle the
various Asian languages, plus there are lots of other characters out
there that would be nice to have.  Right now 16 bit character support
is mandatory in Japan.
--
<-:(= Anthony Stieber	anthony@csd4.csd.uwm.edu   uwm!uwmcsd4!anthony
From: jn11+@andrew.cmu.edu (Joseph M. Newcomer)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Floppy Disk Labels
Date: 17 Oct 92 00:24:50 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA

Excerpts from netnews.alt.folklore.computers: 8-Oct-92 Re: Floppy Disk
Labels by Stephanie da Silva@NeoSo 
> Peter tried complaining to the company about it and basically got back that
> it was a very successful campaign (he just said it was Pizza Hut -- talk
> about your proverbial back seat drivers) and they didn't have any plans to
> discontinue this sort of promotion in the future.

Actually, they don't have an option.  Complain to your local postmaster.
It is illegal to ship anything magnetic in the mail for just the reason
that it damages other magnetic material.  The fines are substantial.
                                joe
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: kimcm@login.dkuug.dk (Kim Chr. Madsen)
Subject: Re: dirty tricks
Organization: DKnet
Date: Thu, 8 Oct 1992 15:34:32 GMT


ANother stunt I once pulled off, was by writing a DOS emulator running under
UNIX that would confuse some as they ran across it on a wyse50 terminal.
Actually it didn't do much just the start-up screen (Old Olivetti 2.3 MS-DOS),
complete with diagnostic messages etc (timed response for each line) and the
skeleton of command.com.

Sorta baffled people typing "dir" and couldn't access some files, since the
emulator refused to show more than 8 characters filename and 3 characters
extension.

C:> dir
.               <DIR> .......
..              <DIR> .......
.csh                  (actually .cshrc)
etc.etc.etc.

C:> type .csh
file not found
C:> type .cshrc		(somewhat inconsistant but what the heck!)
source /usr/local/setup/globalcshrc	(didn't change file-contents)

							Kim Chr. Madsen
Xref: sparky alt.folklore.computers:15019 comp.unix.admin:5510
From: tzs@stein.u.washington.edu (Tim Smith)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.unix.admin
Subject: Re: WANTED: Unix administration horror stories !
Date: 12 Oct 92 07:12:42 GMT
Article-I.D.: u.1992Oct12.071242.18834
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle

>(4) I heard this from a fellow sysadmin friend.  My friend was forced to
>work with some sysadmins who didn't have their act together.  One day, one
>of them was "cleaning" the filesytem and saw a file called "vmunix" in /.
>"Hmm, this is taking up a lot of space - let's delete it".  "rm /vmunix".
>
>My friend had to reinstall the entire OS on that machine after his coworker
>did this "cleanup".  Ahh, the hazards of working with sysadmins who really
>shouldn't be sysadmins in the first place.

This is why God invented chroot.  Have everything one level down, and arrange
for login to chroot everyone.  Have one link out to the real root in some
place that only competent syadmins know about.  Don't tell the incompetent
ones about this.  Furthermore, don't tell them that they are really running
chroot'ed down one level.

Alternatively, if you are on a system that can boot a kernel from a
subdirectory, but vmunix in /usr/vmunix.  Then, assuming that something
gets mounted on /usr when you go multiuser, vmunix will be safe (unless
this is a System V Unix from before they fixed the namei bug that let
you, under the right conditions, get to directories that had things
mounted on top of them...).

--Tim Smith
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
From: peter@NeoSoft.com (Peter da Silva)
Subject: Re: Thoughts
Organization: NeoSoft Communications Services -- (713) 684-5900
Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1992 11:59:31 GMT

In article <ALANB.92Oct12101140@sdlhpp2.sdl.mdcbbs.com> alanb@sdl.mdcbbs.com (Alan Braggins) writes:
> And find that if you count memory protection, virtual memory, or resource tracking
> as part of managing memory, it doesn't count either.

I didn't say it was perfect, just that it was *real*, for a definition of real
that you at least seem to have swallowed. Once you get your definitions into
the discussion, you've won...

There's glory for you.
-- 
Peter da Silva.  <peter@sugar.neosoft.com>.
 `-_-'   "Segodnja volka obnimal?"
  'U`  
Dette kan umulig vaere mitt rom, eftersom jeg ikke puster ammoniakk.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,rec.games.int-fiction
From: xeno@iastate.edu (Gary L Snethen)
Subject: Re: Screen colors (Was Re: Zork/Dungeon)
Organization: Iowa State University, Ames IA
Date: Sat, 17 Oct 1992 00:19:09 GMT

In <1992Oct13.204524.21453@news2.cis.umn.edu> thornley@mega.cs.umn.edu (David H. Thornley) writes:


>some combinations are more efficient than others.  RBG is a good choice;
>although it obviously cannot match any possible spectrum, it can simulate
>the effects very well for the human visual system, since the eye can only
>sample three frequencies (two in cats, four in bees, it varies among
>species).  Of course, beings with different visual systems will not see
>video screens, paintings, etc., in a different way.

Didn't you mean to write:  '...beings with different visual systems *will* see
video screens, paintings, etc., in a different way?'

It should be readily apparent that since bees can perceive light in the
ultraviolet spectrum (and ants in the infrared I believe) that these
creatures will find televisions far far less realistic.  Along the same lines,
nothing is special about red, green, and blue other than the fact that our
eyes react to these colors as 'primaries.'  If I picked orange and violet as
my primary colors (no, there is no need for three of them, except that we have
three different types of color sensitive cells), then I would not be able
to make out a realistic image of most scenes produced with only these colors.

Also, there aren't seven colors in the rainbow --- at least not universally.
We perceive seven very different colors because of the design of our eyes.

If we ever meet an alien race, they most likely will not think that our
televisions are all that great.

Wouldn't it be interesting if our eyes worked like our ears?  Individually
picking out thousands of different frequencies?  A television screen image
of an ocean sunset would look incredibly dull to you.  For an analogy, it would
be like listening to a chord of three different tones changing their relative
intensities as opposed to hearing the waves crash on the rocks, seagulls
chatting in the background, children playing in the water, and the wind
blowing past your ears.

And as should be apparent, you wouldn't be able to understand the 'image'
even though your eyes would be superior.  No more than you could recognize
the the tone chord droning on and on if I played it for you now.

>We covered the number of possible colors only briefly, and I don't remember
>it.  One interesting point is that the eye can differentiate far more
>colors than it can recognize; i.e., two shades might look the same when
>viewed separately, but might be easily distinguishable when together.

>DHT

>ObIntFict:  I had real problems playing Deadline because the rooms were so
>undetailed.  A room would have a bed, a table, and a chair, each totally
>without components.  I realize that this means that searching rooms in
>detail is not productive, but it ruined the image for me.

I agree...  I really didn't like Deadline too much.  It seemed to me that you
had to get lucky and be in the right place at the right times.


---Xeno
From: dick.zeitlin%acc1bbs@ssr.com (Dick Zeitlin) 
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: The need for an assem
Date: 27 Sep 92 21:23:00 GMT
Distribution: world
Organization: Advanced Computer Concepts BBS, New Rochelle, NY 914-654-1981
Reply-To: dick.zeitlin%acc1bbs@ssr.com (Dick Zeitlin) 

CL> .I drive a 5-speed manual; you sound like you drive a two-speed automatic.

I drive both.  I'm not enough of a masochist, or sufficiently
detached from reality to believe that the 5 speed manual is better
when I drive through Manhattan (NY, not Kansas) traffic.  Yes, I get
better control, POTENTIALLY better milage, etc. etc. with the manual.
But, in the situation cited, I gain nothing and sacrifice much.  If I
had to exclusively choose between manual and automatic, I'd choose
automatic. (Under normal conditions, about 80% of my driving is in the
manual.)

So what's your point?  Over the entire spectrum of usage, an automatic
is likely to be a more effective tool than a manual and an HLL
is likely to be a more effective tool than an asm.  If I had to choose
just one, it'd be an HLL.

(BTW, my automatic transmission allows me to manually select gears, and
my HLL allows me to embed inline asm code.)

        D/

 * OLX 2.2 * Real Pilots enjoy NDB approaches to minimums!
From: dboyes@is.rice.edu (David E Boyes)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Connection Machine posters
Date: 9 Oct 92 21:45:39 GMT
Organization: Rice University

In article <kenm.20@compctr.ccs.csus.edu> kenm@compctr.ccs.csus.edu (Ken Montgomery) writes:
>Why not ask one of the people who HAVE the poster to scan it and post 
>the photo? Heck, it would be better then nothing!

Because: 

   a) it's 24x36 inches. The GIF would be *huge*.

   b) Most of them are *framed* -- frame glass doesn't scan well,
      and it'd be hard to find a scanner that large.

   c) I'd rather have an original. 


Barry, who would I have to talk to at Thinking Machines to
possibly interest them in a sideline of computer art? I think I
know who I need to talk to at Cray and Sequent, but it's
interesting that these advertising posters are really developing
into a special class of commercial art.



-- 
David Boyes
dboyes@rice.edu