HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: richg@hatch.socal.com (Rich Greenberg)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: What was the intended advantage of using 36bits CPU?
Date: 14 Oct 92 15:15:41 GMT
Organization: Hatch Usenet and E-mail.  Playa del Rey, CA

In article <jcmorris.718941410@mwunix> jcmorris@mwunix.mitre.org (Joe Morris) writes:

>The standard punched card (aka "IBM card") had twelve bits per column of 
>data, but each computer system defined the set of valid combinations of
>holes.  The BCD (Binary Coded Decimal) systems which predated the EBCDIC/
>ASCII wars usually defined 64 valid codes out of the 2**12 possibilities.
>8-bit codes (like EBCDIC and most ASCII implementations) define 256
>combinations.
>
>The only times that all 2**12 combinations were valid was where the computer
>system could read and write binary mode directly to and from punched cards:
>in this case each card hole had a one-to-one correspondence with a bit in
>memory.  Few modern systems define binary mode today...of course, few 
>modern systems define punched cards either...

Ahhhh Joe...
Your post brought some old memories to the surface.
Many years ago at an insurance company far away. . . . . .
The applications area was converting an EAM system to the computer.
As part of the conversion, they needed to read the current master
file (trays and trays of cards) onto tape.  This didn't work,
and some investigation showed that some small percentage of the
cards had "extra" punchs in them at random places.  This hadn't
bothered the EAM equipment, but  gave read checks on the IBM 2540
reader/punch.

The solution was for me to provide an assembler subroutine the
COBOL program called instead of opening the reader and reading
directly.  My routine read the card in column binary, (nb: the
2540 read the 12 bits of the card rows into the low 6 bits of
2 bytes.  To read an 80 col card, takes 160 bytes.) mash the two
halfs together into a 12 bit binary number, and use that number
as an index into a 4096 entry table.  The entries corresponding
to valid characters contained that character.  The other entries
contained some fixed value.  I don't recall if it was x'00',
x'40' (space in EBCDIC) or something else. (And does it matter
any more?)  Something like a 12 bit version of TR. (The opcode.)
-- 
                
Rich Greenberg - N6LRT - 310-649-0238 - richg@hatch.socal.com
From: dan@BofA.com (Dan Brockman)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: The need for an assem
Date: 17 Oct 92 00:06:02 GMT
Organization: Bank of America, Capital Products, RMTG #5906

In article <doctor.04c3@k9.UUCP> doctor@k9.UUCP (Paul Broe) writes:
>In article <1bju8lINN1jp@armory.centerline.com> jimf@centerline.com (Jim Frost) writes:
>> lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner) writes:
>> >>(BTW, my automatic transmission allows me to manually select gears, and
>> 
>> >That's totally bogus.  No automatic selects gears, merely you may be able
>                          ^^^^^^^^^^^^Don't be so sure...
>> >to limit the *top* gear it shifts into.
>> 
>> Clearly you've never driven the new Porshe 911 with the Tiptronic
>Clearly he never saw an automatic in some earlier Honda's. It was a two speed
>that you had to shift yourself. (Called the Honda-matic? It was in one of the
>smallest cars they built at the time. Even GM gave up on two speed automatics
>in about 1968.)

Clearly he never drove a VW automatic stick-shift like in that 1967 Bug .  It 
had an electric switch in the shift lever knob which would get stuck and 
definitely select for you the gear you would drive in.

-- 
 --------------------------------------------------------------
 Daniel Brockman             tel 415-953-0406, fax 415-622-2892
 Bank of America, Dept 5906, 555 Calif St
 San Francisco 94104 USA    email uunet!odinba!dan dan@BofA.COM
From: is@groucho.dev.uga.edu (Bob Stearns)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Wang 200-SVP software
Date: 7 Oct 92 19:23:45 GMT
Organization: University of Georgia

I tried this request once before and got no responses, so I am trying it
again just in case it never got off site.

Our local Salvation Army Office has received a donation of an old
(antique???) Wang 2200-SVP. It came without software. If you have some
version of the software you are willing to donate or copy they would
greatly appreciate it. Wang no longer has the relevant software for
distribution. Alternatively, if you can give this machine a good home,
even as a parts supply, they would gladly sell it you cheaply.

Please respond to me either in a.f.s or via e-mail.

Thanks for your time and consideration.
-- 
Bob Stearns
University of Georgia
is@groucho.dev.uga.edu
(404)542-5110
From: lenh@access.isc-br.com (Len Humbird)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Bumper Sticker
Date: 9 Oct 92 20:05:18 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: ISC-Bunker Ramo

In article <munk.718547691@prles6b>, munk@prl.philips.nl (Harm Munk) writes:
> 
> >> ken mencher
> >> Apple ][ Forever!!!
> 
> >TRS-80 Forever!  (I just could NOT resist....)
> 
> Exidy Sorcerer Forever (neither could I....)
> 
Altair 8800 Forever! (I helped solder one together!)
From: okes@essex.ac.uk (Oke S)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: hacking too long
Date: 7 Oct 92 13:59:42 GMT
	<aldavi01.718419694@starbase.spd.louisville.edu>
Organization: Department of Computer Science, University of Essex, UK.

In <1992Oct6.134852.1@cc.curtin.edu.au> sbakerjr@cc.curtin.edu.au writes:
> I was looking for a street in the local road directory and it suddenly
> occurred to me that it would be a brilliant idea to include a ^Qf function 
> in street directories.

This morning I was wondering if some friends of mine were in and I thought
'finger @3, Hamilton Road'...

--
This signature is copyright 12/6/1992 Simon Oke. All rights reserved. If you
like it and keep a copy for your own use, you owe me $20. Please pass it on
to your friends with all documentation.              Email okes@essex.ac.uk.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
This line is absolutely no use whatsoever.
From: jmpierce@whale.st.usm.edu (Jimmy Malcolm Pierce)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Computer hate slogans
Date: 13 Oct 92 01:10:44 GMT
Organization: University of Southern Mississippi

In article <1992Oct8.063254.25585@mail.cornell.edu> Joel Sumner <js17@cornell.edu> writes:
>>(Feel free to add to list.)
>
>Never forget:
>Nothing Sucks Like a VAX...
>
>(I am still looking for one of those pins to send to a friend of mine...)

     Try a local sci-fi convention. The last one I went to had two button
dealers. One had mostly sf/f buttons, but the other had about twenty computer
buttons of numerous types and operating systems and would make one for you
on request. Cost for the button was one dollar, one dollar and fifty cents
for a custom one. If he thought it was funny or he had never encountered
one like it before, he would only charge one dollar for it and add it to
his catalogue. Later, Jim.

-- 
 Jim Pierce Bach. of Sci. in Applied Computer Science
 jmpierce@whale.st.usm.edu  Disclaimer: Standard.
  "Is it the weekend yet ?" me :-)
From: ivie@cc.usu.edu (CP/M lives!)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Radio Shack testimonial
Date: 16 Oct 92 15:48:58 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: Utah State University

In article <1992Oct16.133916.27853@news.uiowa.edu>, jones@pyrite.cs.uiowa.edu (Douglas W. Jones,201H MLH,3193350740,3193382879) writes:
> 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?

Except they never seem to have what I'm looking for (yes, I'm sure that
4000 series CMOS flip-flop will work just fine next to my F logic)...
> 
> 	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.

Yes, well here in Utah, there's nowhere in the _state_ that does a good
job. Even the Heathkit center in Salt Lake doesn't carry jellybeans 
anymore. Sigh.

Roger Ivie
ivie@cc.usu.edu
Xref: sparky alt.folklore.computers:14996 sci.electronics:16927
From: bender@oobleck (Duke of Canterbury)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,sci.electronics
Subject: Re: VHS vs BETA
Date: 10 Oct 92 20:43:56 GMT
Reply-To: bender@oobleck.eng.sun.com
Organization: SPARK's R US
NNTP-Posting-Host: oobleck
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL3

smckinty@sunicnc.France.Sun.COM (Steve McKinty - Sun ICNC) writes:
: In article <1992Oct6.131809.1@cc.curtin.edu.au>, sbakerjr@cc.curtin.edu.au wr
: : VHS may well have a longer play or record time but what about the 10% drift
: : in timing that VHS systems produce ?
: 
: What 10% drift?  On record VHS is locked to the TV signal (virtually
: no drift) and on playback its usually locked to the AC supply frequency
            ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
: which can have small short-term variations, but is exceptionally
: accurate over a period of an hour or so.

No, no, no, no, NO!  Where do people get such misinformation!  If the VCR
was locked to the AC line frequency upon playback then how would any of the
following work:

	1. camcorder ON BATTERIES plays back a tape
	2. watchman/portable 8mm VCR ON BATTERIES plays back a tape on the
		built in screen
	3. I take my US/60Hz NTSC VCR and TV to a PAL country and play back
		on the NTSC TV, but the line frequency is 50Hz
	4. airplanes show a video using their 400Hz power system

I don't recall carrying around a 60Hz oscillator to feed to the VCR on
playback...

On playback the VCR gets it's sync from the control track of the tape (this
assumes a simple setup, no TBC/advanced sync/etc...).

mike

--
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
    Grashopper, you have been many years in the training, and I grow old,
    expecting the day when I receive the SIGXCPU, and _exit this world.
    I see that you are ready.
Xref: sparky alt.folklore.computers:14962 rec.games.int-fiction:492
From: avg@rodan.UU.NET (Vadim Antonov)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,rec.games.int-fiction
Subject: Re: Screen colors (Was Re: Zork/Dungeon)
Date: 9 Oct 1992 19:34:36 -0400
Organization: Berkeley Software Design
NNTP-Posting-Host: rodan.uu.net

In article <1992Oct8.003300.38853@datamark.co.nz> david@datamark.co.nz (David Rowland) writes:
>4 Million Now. A few messages back, it was 350 000 colours. Does any
>one know the exact number of colours the human eye can see?


It depends on the level of H C OH in the blood -- there are
                            5 2
numerous documented cases when species of Homo Sapiens failed
to distinguish red from green shortly after sufficient intake of
an ethanol-containing liquid.

On the other side, some chemicals are known to sufficiently
improve the colour perception. LSD is arguably one of them.
Ever saw yellow-brown plaid sky with square sun? :-)

--vadim
Xref: sparky alt.folklore.computers:15192 comp.unix.admin:5708
From: da188@city.ac.uk (The Eno)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.unix.admin
Subject: Re: WANTED: Unix administration horror stories !
Date: 16 Oct 92 15:13:35 GMT
Organization: The City University

dab@ism.isc.com (Dave Butterfield) writes:

>casper@fwi.uva.nl (Casper H.S. Dik) writes:
>>>(of course /bin/login needs to be setuid root!)
>>
>>That's not true. 

>Whether it's true or not depends on which version of Unix you're
>running.

I suppose it depends whether you have plain vanilla or chocolate unix? ;-)

Aj.
-- 
-------------------------------[ The Eno ]------------------------------------.
 JANET : da188@uk.ac.city  da188@uk.ac.city.cs
 I'net : da188@city.ac.uk  da188@cs.city.ac.uk
 BITNET: da188%city.ac.uk@cunyvm.cuny.edu   da188%cs.city.ac.uk@cunyvm.cuny.edu
From: peter@NeoSoft.com (Peter da Silva)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Total erasure of hard drive data??
Date: 9 Oct 92 12:44:07 GMT
Organization: NeoSoft Communications Services -- (713) 684-5900

In article <1992Oct9.021445.23009@samba.oit.unc.edu> jem@calypso.uucp (Jonathan Magid) writes:
> There is no excuse for the continuous rewriting of "hello world" programs.

> The GNU version is superior to all previous version. 

Yes, but the GNU version only runs on UNIX, and requires 512K of stack and
2-4 MB of VM (depending on whether shared libraries are available). It won't
run on 286 or PDP-11 systems, either, though there's a micro-gnu-hello-world
that's supposed to fit in 64K with overlays.
-- 
Peter da Silva.  <peter@sugar.neosoft.com>.
 `-_-'   "Segodnja volka obnimal?"
  'U`  
Dette kan umulig vaere mitt rom, eftersom jeg ikke puster ammoniakk.
From: lstowell@pyrnova.mis.pyramid.com (Lon Stowell)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: dirty tricks
Date: 8 Oct 92 20:29:14 GMT
Reply-To: lstowell@pyrnova.pyramid.com (Lon Stowell)
Organization: Pyramid Technology Corp., Mountain View, CA

In article <1992Oct8.020416.26405@news.uiowa.edu> dsiebert@icaen.uiowa.edu (Doug Siebert) writes:
>is normal.  Best case, the scenario goes:
>
>
>Person logs in, realizes files are all messed up, logs out, goes to someone
>else for help
>
>Person logs in while other person watches, sees nothing is wrong, gets laughed
>at by the someone else.  Logs out, goes back to where he was working.
>
>Repeat cycle until person goes to a sysadmin who will simply change to their
>directory and have a look, though a sysadmin who does su - can add to the fun!
>
>
>Not long after I wrote this, someone I know left his workstation logged in.  So
>of course I seize the opportunity to use this program, and insert it into his
>.login, and leave the program in /tmp.  I didn't attempt to hide my tracks at
>all, since I figured it was a joke.
>
     No, the BEST case scenario is that the victim grabs you by the
     throat and chokes the living fertilizer out of you, crams the
     CRT down your throat, shoves your face into the flyback, and
     then chuckles about HIS "harmless little joke" on you.

     Mixed feelings about including this, but ok,  >:-), although if
     you ever did that to MY files, you'd never do it to anyone
     again.


>this in the first place, so nothing came of it, but it was enough hassle to
>keep me from doing this again :-)
>
    yeah, some people have absolutely no sense of humor at all....
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: You know you have ... (again)
From: russells@ccu1.aukuni.ac.nz (Russell Street)
Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1992 00:04:48 GMT
Organization: University of Auckland, New Zealand.

We are packing up to move house, and realizing the cardboard box
I was carefully packing things into was now to heavy to lift,
this came to mind:
	
	split -xxxkg box

Or even worse:
	
	tar -fc house.tar house
	compress house.tar
	uuencode house.tar house.tar | split 1000
	foreach i (x??)
		mail -s $i newhouse@newplace < $i
	end

or something like that :)
If only it were that easy.

-------------------------------------------------------
And with that remark, folks, the case of the Crown vs
Russell Street (russells@ccu1.aukuni.ac.nz) was proven.

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: dp@world.std.com (Jeff DelPapa)
Subject: Re: What was the intended advantage of using 36bits CPU?
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1992 06:27:39 GMT

In article <Bw1qIp.7uD@apollo.hp.com> gardner_c@apollo.hp.com (Cal Gardner) writes:
>In article <14930@auspex-gw.auspex.com> guy@Auspex.COM (Guy Harris) writes:
>>(Followups to "alt.folklore.computers".)
>>
>>>The PDP-6 was designed and built before the days of 8 bit character codes -
>>
>>But was it designed and built before the days of 7-bit character codes?
>>The PDP-10's OS from DEC used ASCII as the character set for text (it
>>may have used SIXBIT, or whatever it was called, for symbols in
>>programming languages and object files, but it used ASCII for text); did
>>the PDP-6's OS do so as well?

As I remember the original pdp-6 was an unnatural act performed on a
pair of their older 18 bit machines. (I don't remember if it was the 3
or the 4 - I know it wasn't the five, that was a 12 bit pdp-8
precursor) Yes, lots of internal textual data lived as sixbit.
(filenames, etc..)

The original document is back home, but wasn't tx-0 (the lincon labs
"memory test device") running a multiple of 8 bits - (the document I
am referring to was a dec corporate history - they gave the tx-0 word
width in feet)

<dp>

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: regebro@stacken.kth.se (Lennart Regebro)
Subject: Help with LMI machine wanted
Summary: Need connection schemes.
Keywords: LMI Lisp Machine Inc Lambda
Organization: Stacken Computer Club, Stockholm, Sweden
Date: Sat, 10 Oct 1992 19:10:18 GMT

We have gotten our hands on a couple of machines from Lisp Machines Inc. Some
really old and mostly desintegrated ones that we have almost none hope of
getting in working order, but also some machines that are not that old.

One of these newer machines might actually already work. The problem is that
some parts is missing. So we need help with the following stuff:

1. The cables that connect the big screens with the computer are missing.
   The cables have 25 pin DIN connections in both ends but are NOT
   ordinary serial cables. Flat cables don't work either.

2. The mice have dissappeared. They are ordinary grey mice to be used with
   light tablets, like the SUN ones, but they use some kind of shielded
   modular connection.

Could anybody please point us in the right direction? Does anybody have these
kind of things lying around doing nothing in a corner? Does anybody have a
connection scheme over the cables and the mouse connections? Does anybody
know anybody that knows?

All ideas and leads are of interest.


Thanks

Lennart Regebro
Stacken Computer Club
Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden
From: jn11+@andrew.cmu.edu (Joseph M. Newcomer)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: dirty tricks
Date: 17 Oct 92 00:37:33 GMT
Organization: Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA

Excerpts from netnews.alt.folklore.computers: 8-Oct-92 Re: dirty tricks
by Steve Summit@adam.mit.ed 
> > ObFolklore: You know you've been hacking too long when it takes a while to 
> > remember growing out of these kind of tricks... (and of course there isn't
> > a lot of scope for screen hacks on a teletype).

Ahh, but the IBM 2741 "golf ball" terminal...

In doing one of my standard experiments, I discovered that the 2703 or
the software sent explicit tilt-rotate codes, and in fact the rotate
code could be sent explicitly.  Now at CMU we replaced the standard
golfball with the CMU character set golfball, that had only uppercase
letters but more special symbols than anyone had ever seen before (it
had left and right implies symbols, left and right fence (|- -|),
braces, square brackets, left and right single quotes, left and right
double quotes, etc.  All output from the computer was in uppercase, which
had to be translated to lowercase for this typeball (the uppercase had
the funnycharacters).  So I did a hack that would simply send a rotate
code, shifting the golf ball around so all output came out in
funnycharacters.  It was possible to get the device out of this state via
the ATTN key, which forced the rotate code out for the correct casification.
                                joe
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: kjenks@gothamcity.jsc.nasa.gov
Subject: Re: dirty tricks
Originator: kjenks@gothamcity
Organization: NASA/JSC/GM2, Space Shuttle Program Office
Date: Sun, 11 Oct 1992 23:05:57 GMT

In article <1992Oct8.183142.18817@athena.mit.edu> scs@adam.mit.edu (Steve Summit) writes:
>In article <ALANB.92Oct7125320@sdlhpp13.sdl.mdcbbs.com>,
>alanb@sdl.mdcbbs.com (Alan Braggins) writes:
>> Wrong group I know, but what is the Unix equivalent of VMS 
>> LOGIN/COMMAND=NOTLOGIN.COM ?

And now, Steve tells us two ways to fix it:
>     1.	Bang on control-C real fast
>
>     2.	If you have an account on a nearby and trusted host, use
>		rsh brokenhost sh -i

3.  FTP in from another machine and replace the adulterated file.

-- Ken Jenks, NASA/JSC/GM2, Space Shuttle Program Office
      kjenks@gothamcity.jsc.nasa.gov  (713) 483-4368

     "NASA turns dreams into realities and makes science fiction
      into fact" -- Daniel S. Goldin, NASA Administrator
From: kaszeta@frith.egr.msu.edu (Richard Kaszeta)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Fun Display Hacks for Sun
Date: 11 Oct 92 18:28:13 GMT
Organization: Michigan State University

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.

>BUT, speaking of that, anyone else seen any really good display hacks?

I have a program called zot (without source code) which is a sparc binary
which has many hack effects, like static, melting, vertical hold, and others.

Will UUENCODE and mail if anyone wants it.
Organization: Sophomore, Math/Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Wed,  7 Oct 1992 11:13:39 -0400 
From: Samuel Roy Helwig <sh4j+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: TI-99/4A Info wanted!


Excerpts from netnews.alt.folklore.computers: 7-Oct-92 Re: TI-99/4A Info
wanted! by Jimmy Malcolm Pierce@wha 

>      Well, the story I heard about the TI 99/4 was that certain keyboard
> sequences would short line-voltage to the keyboard, possibly killing you...
> Thats why the quick changeover from TI 99/4 to TI 99/4A. Is this true ?

    I had an early TI-99/4A and was issued (along with some long lost
explanation) a little fused box to plug into the power supply.  I forget
exactly why TI said they were needed, but they made a big deal about it
at the time.  Perhaps this is some relation to what Jimmy was talking
about.

                    --Sam
From: wingo@apple.com (Tony Wingo)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: What was the intended advantage of using 36bits CPU?
Date: 15 Oct 92 17:45:27 GMT
Followup-To: alt.folklore.computers
Organization: Apple Computer

In article <1bhgmqINN6j3@uwm.edu>, anthony@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (Anthony J
Stieber) wrote:
> 
> In article <YH7-l7B@engin.umich.edu> ftit@engin.umich.edu (Sergej Roytman) writes:
> >In article <1bfq4bINNrtv@uwm.edu> anthony@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (Anthony J Stieber) writes:
> >|In article <1992Oct13.225620.10861@news.columbia.edu> lasner@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Charles Lasner) writes:
> >|there that would be nice to have.  Right now 16 bit character support
> >|is mandatory in Japan.
> >Man!  What do the keyboards look like over there?
> 
> Apparently there were monster keyboards with hundreds (thousands?)
> of keys, but they were unworkable. 

About 18 years ago I worked for an outfit that was building a chinese
languge TELEX system for the Taiwanese army.  As I recall, it had a
ten-by-ten keyboard, with a number of overlays.  To type a character took
two keystrokes, one to indicate which overlay the operator was using, and
another to select the actual character.  Things could get a little hectic
if the characters of the message were spread across multiple overlays.

-tony

>>usual disclaimer<<
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers