HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: thecure@mullian.ee.mu.OZ.AU (matthew aardvarkious)
Subject: features of wyse 60 temrinals?
Organization: Computer Science, University of Melbourne, Australia
Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1992 13:01:28 GMT

Re peoples. (ain't usenet grand)

I sit here on my room-mates wyse 60 while he uses my amiga 2000 with 
68030 and 11 meg of ram and 200 meg h/drive to play asteroids (sigh..)
and I rooly want to know what can be done with this terminal..

occasionally it slips into "insert mode" , and the screen slows down,
and I have to do a ctrl-insrt (wierd) to bring it back. there are
a few screen sizes, auto answerback etc.

there have to be some c00l, things you can do with this terminal ( I
luuuuurve the keyboard.) (like what's the aux port for?)

we don't have a manual - sigh. 

(oooh - ctrl-capslock brings up a menu! calculator, alarm clock,
calendar, etc. w1ld!)

lemme know , etc..

L8r.
--
These are my personal views and do not reflect those of Melbourne University.
Anything I may say that may be deemed offensive and/or damaging should NOT
be redirected to administration, as they have had nothing to do with it. 
Please direct any/all complaints/enquiries to thecure@ee.mu.oz.au
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.unix.admin
From: casper@fwi.uva.nl (Casper H.S. Dik)
Subject: Re: WANTED: Unix administration horror stories !
Organization: FWI, University of Amsterdam
Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1992 22:33:39 GMT

peter@NeoSoft.com (Peter da Silva) writes:

>In article <1992Oct13.175936.25382@fwi.uva.nl> casper@fwi.uva.nl (Casper H.S. Dik) writes:
>> In current environments there is no need for a login command in the
>> shell.

>There never was. I don't understand why the shell treated login and newgrp
>specially in V7. It was terribly inconvenient. In older environments I use
>a version of newgrp that works like "su", and if you want to get the effect
>of the shell "login" command there's always "exec login".

Once upon a long ago, we had one PDP 11 to do Unix on. It was
connected through some crummy port selector (with not enough lines)
and there weren't enough terminals. Using the built-in login was
useful, but exec login would have done the trick. (Except that
my login is no longer set-uid, so ...)

>> My version of login does a:
>> `if (geteuid() != 0) { fprintf(stderr,"Permission denied\n"); exit(1); }'

>Just dike the "login" builtin right out. It's a waste of bytes.

Replacing /bin/login on all our machines to enhance logging and
implement access controls, we can make time for that.
But installing new versions of all shells, yuck.

But someday someone should remove the login and newgrp built-in
from sh/csh etc.

Casper

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.unix.admin
From: gfowler@javelin.sim.es.com (Gary Fowler)
Subject: Re: WANTED: Unix administration horror stories !
Organization: Evans & Sutherland Computer Corporation
Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1992 14:38:09 GMT

Once I was going to make a new file system using mkfs.  The device I wanted to
make it on was /dev/c0d1s8.  The device name that I used, however, was
/dev/c0d0s8 which held a very important application.  I had always been a little
annoyed by the 10 second wait that mkfs has before it actually makes the file
system.  I'm sure glad it waited that time though.  I probably waited 9.9
seconds before I realized my mistake and hit that DEL key just in time.  That
was a near disaster avoided.

Another time I wasn't so lucky.  I was a very new SA, and I was trying to clean
some junk out of a system.  I was in /usr/bin when I noticed a sub directory
that didn't belong there.  A former SA had put it there.  I did an ls on it and
determined that it could be zapped.  Forgetting that I was still in /usr/bin, I
did an rm *.  No 10 second idiot proofing with rm.  Now if some one would only
create an OS with a "Do what I mean, not what I say" feature.

Gary "Experience is what allows you to recognize a mistake the second time you
make it." Fowler
Xref: sparky alt.folklore.computers:15051 comp.unix.admin:5547
From: casper@fwi.uva.nl (Casper H.S. Dik)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.unix.admin
Subject: Re: WANTED: Unix administration horror stories !
Date: 12 Oct 92 19:41:10 GMT
Organization: FWI, University of Amsterdam

alan@spuddy.uucp (Alan Saunders) writes:

>About inexperienced sysadmins .. One such had been on a Sun syasadmin 
>course, and learned all about security.  One of the topics was on file
>and group access.  On his return, he decided to put what he had learned
>into practice, and changed the ownership of all files in /bin, /usr/bin
>to bin.bin!  I was called in when no one could log in to the system
>(of course /bin/login needs to be setuid root!)

That's not true. 
% ls -l /bin/login
-r-xr-xr-x  1 root        40960 Jul  2 15:42 /bin/login

This on SunOS 4.1.x with a hacked login.
Root ownership of most files is preferred, BTW.
All commands executed by root should be owned by
root and reside in directories owned by root. Otherwise,
a non-root user can get to root far too easily.
This is especially true in NFS environments.

Casper

PS: In case you're wondering why login need not be set-uid root:
getty/rlogind/telnetd run as root, those execute login.
You cannot remove the set-uid bit from a standard login, as
it will call setreuid(2) and exec the user's shell without checks.
This can be confusing if a user types login in his/her shell.
From: agc@bmdhh298.bnr.ca (Alan Carter)
Subject: Re: Convergent Megaframe?? Anyone??
Organization: BNR-Europe-Limited, Maidenhead, England
Distribution: world,local
Date: Fri, 09 Oct 1992 12:15:21 GMT

In article <1992Oct7.004745.3821@arizona.edu>, petrisko@evax2.engr.arizona.edu (William Petrisko) writes:
|> Anyone here heard of a Convergent Technologies Megaframe?
|> 
|> I've got two of 'em.  I feel lucky....no installable OS.
|> 
|> Suggestions?  (besides using them for coffee tables, which i already am.)

I remember these things. They came out around the same time as the
Motorola 8000 Series boxes. VMEbus and a 680?0 processor. I think
there was something about there being a relationship between the two,
one based on the other or some such. If you can find the Motorola OS
then, it *might* help you.

   Just a guess, Alan

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
   Maidenhead itself is too snobby to be pleasant. It is the haunt of the
   river swell and his overdressed female companion. It is the town of showy
   hotels, patronized chiefly by dudes and ballet girls. 

   Three Men In A Boat, Jerome K. Jerome, 1889
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: "leo richardson" <UKI6@DKAUNI2.BITNET>
Subject: Difference between 80386 and i386DX?
Organization: University of Karlsruhe, Germany
Date: Fri, 16 Oct 1992 08:42:38 GMT

Hi,

is there any difference between the intel 80386 and the i386DX, or
is it just the name?

leo/2
From: tlukka@vipunen.hut.fi (Tuomas Lukka)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: You know you have ...
Date: 12 Oct 92 17:27:41 GMT
Organization: Helsinki University of Technology, Finland

.. been hacking too long when under immense stress, the following sequence
of thought occurs
'My load averages seem to be higher than ever before, the scheduler might
die any moment, and I'm running out of swap space... better kill off
some low-priority unimportant user processes'

	TJL
-- 
 /--\  TJL -- Tuomas J. Lukka  tlukka@vipunen.hut.fi IIIIIIIII -------    Just
/-\ o\        Puistokaari 1E18  _________--------------------+    I  J     go
\o \-/        00200 Helsinki    --------I GONE FISHING AGAIN ->   I        to
 \__/  SIGh.. Finland T. +358-0-6923924 /---------------------    L___    sleep..
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,rec.games.int-fiction
From: rdippold@qualcom.qualcomm.com (Ron Dippold)
Subject: Re: Screen colors (Was Re: Zork/Dungeon)
Organization: Qualcomm, Inc., San Diego, CA
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1992 17:48:23 GMT

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 medium.  I know that for many printed colors, you can
take a background of some 24-bit color value, then impose a shape on
it in which the color varies only in the lsb of one of the RGB
components, and people can observe the shape.  For monitors, however,
there is less discrimination.  I would tend to doubt the 350,000
colors, since the 256,000 available for VGA are so easily
distinguishable from each other.
-- 
This quote intentionally left blank.
From: jn11+@andrew.cmu.edu (Joseph M. Newcomer)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Stupid terminal tricks
Date: 17 Oct 92 01:42:12 GMT
Organization: Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA

Then there was the infamous "stuck cursor key" problem on TOPS-10.

TOPS-10 was able to run with the user files on DECtape and only
a transient file area for users (we used it that way for quite a while
at CMU!).  One of the logout options was to delete all files on the
hard disk.  The logout command was 'kjob', abbreviated 'k'.  If you
just typed 'kjob', it prompted for the type of logout, for example,
'f' for 'fast' logout, another option (I forget what) that deleted
scratch files that might be on the disk, etc.  And of course, the
option to delete all the files, 'k'.  This was a dangerous option.  If
you selected it, you had to confirm it with 'y', or the word "kill",
which could be abbreviated "k".

On TOPS-10, an escape character could terminate buffered line input,
same as newline.

So our poor victim accidently hit one of the cursor keys on the terminal,
which was defective, and it sent the sequence <ESC>K<ESC>K<ESC>K<ESC>K...
and he watched an entire day's work evaporate.

The logout program was modified that same evening to disable forever the
"kill files" option.  
                                joe
Xref: sparky alt.folklore.computers:15190 comp.unix.admin:5704
From: grog@lemis.uucp (Greg Lehey)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.unix.admin
Subject: Re: WANTED: Unix administration horror stories !
Date: 16 Oct 92 11:44:14 GMT
Followup-To: alt.folklore.computers
Organization: LEMIS, W-6324 Feldatal, Germany

In article <16055@umd5.umd.edu> matthews@oberon.umd.edu (Mike Matthews) writes:
>The moral?  *NEVER* move something important.  Copy, VERIFY, and THEN delete.

Something like this bit me just yesterday. I'm currently trying to
work out how ISC Unix/386 handles COFF files, and discovered the
/shlib directory, which I suspected wasn't really used (*wrong*). So,
to try it out, I did:

+ root adagio:/ 819 -> mv shlib slob
+ root adagio:/ 820 -> xterm
+ /usr/bin/X11/xterm: Can not access a needed shared library

So far, so good. So, put it back:

+ root adagio:/ 821 -> mv slob shlib
+ /bin/mv: Can not access a needed shared library

Oops! So, tried it from a different system, but didn't have
permission, so:

+ root adagio:/ 822 -> chmod 777 slob
+ /bin/chmod: Can not access a needed shared library

OK, so let's just cp them across.

+ root adagio:/ 823 -> cd slob
+ root adagio:/slob 824 -> mkdir /shlib
+ /bin/mkdir: Can not access a needed shared library
+ root adagio:/slob 825 ->

Then I wrote a program which just did a link(2) of the directories.
Yes, gcc and ld didn't have any problems, but even after the link was
in place, it still didn't work. I had to reboot (but nothing else),
after which it did work. No idea why that made any difference.
-- 
Greg Lehey                       | Tel: +49-6637-1488              
LEMIS                            | Fax: +49-6637-1489
Schellnhausen 2, W-6324 Feldatal, Germany
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: pt@geovision.gvc.com (Paul Tomblin)
Subject: Reinventing the Wheel (was Re: Total erasure of hard drive data??)
Reply-To: pt@geovision.gvc.com
Organization: Not officially GeoVision Systems Inc., Ottawa, Ontario
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1992 12:21:27 GMT

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. 

>Any additional work on this project is just reinventing the wheel.

Yes, but we don't want to have to Copyleft apply to any derivative programs,
like "Hello Canada", or "goodbye, cruel world", so we have to write our own.

-- 
Paul Tomblin, pt@geovision.gvc.com or {uunet,revcan}!geovision!pt
(This is not an official opinion of GeoVision Systems Inc.)
"Beebelbrox, over here!" "No, Beebelbrox over here, who you?"
"A friend." "Anybody's friend in particular, or just well disposed to people?"
From: jmpierce@whale.st.usm.edu (Jimmy Malcolm Pierce)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Total erasure of hard drive data??
Date: 8 Oct 92 01:44:21 GMT
Organization: University of Southern Mississippi

(The Polymath) writes:
>Then there was the time I spent three hours trying, in vain, to explain to
>a new hire how "if ... then ... else ..." works.  He, at least, was fired
>a few months later.

     Gee Polymath, you should have to explain the Turbo Pascal 6.0 debug
menus to new Computer Science Majors who wont listen... 
Or the Computer Science Minor student a couple of years ago who couldn't 
figure out the proper method of using a 'while not eof do' loop in Pascal
... Ack ! He needed to read in a data file from floppy and had just spent
two hours in class being told just how to do it, with examples !
  DJ

-- 
 Jim Pierce Bach. of Sci. in Applied Computer Science
 jmpierce@whale.st.usm.edu  Disclaimer: Standard.
  "Is it the weekend yet ?" me :-)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: erics@sco.COM (eric smith)
Subject: Re: Zilog System 8000
Organization: The Santa Cruz Operation, Inc.
Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1992 23:35:34 GMT


souva@aibn58.mpifr-bonn.mpg.de (Ignatios Souvatzis) writes:

>The OS was called Zeus, which stands for Zilogs extended unix system?

I think that was "enhanced".

>The software corp. I once worked for had one, with a 100+/-5% full 10M
>hard disk. The OS was some kind of early BSD.

No, it was Version 7, and later System III, I believe.

-----
Eric Smith
erics@sco.com
erics@infoserv.com
CI$: 70262,3610

Xref: sparky alt.folklore.computers:14981 sci.electronics:16906
From: lowen@lorc.UUCP (Lamar Owen)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,sci.electronics
Subject: Re: VHS vs BETA
Date: Fri, 09 Oct 92 07:54:22 EDT
Organization: LORC Enterprises

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.
> 
> 10% drift would produce very audible distortion of the soundtrack, at least.

Just how much distortion?  Well, let's see... a 10% drift would cause the sound
to waver by how many half-steps?  A half step is a drift of the twelth root of
two... Well, since the twelth root of two is approximately 1.05, the sixth root
of two is 1.12... Thus, a 10% drift would produce nearly a whole step distortion
in the signal.  Now, I have nearly perfect pitch, and my hi-fi VCR (used for
audio recording, of course!) has never been more than an eighth of a step off.
In fact, I have never been able to discern any off-ness because my pitch 
resolution is only a quarter step anyway.  How do I *know* that it's not been
any further off?  Simple: I used an accurate frequency counter.

> Steve

--

Lamar Owen, Systems Consultant, GE Lighting Systems, Hendersonville, NC
***********************************************************************
 Opinions expressed herein are the author's and do not reflect policy
   or opinions of the General Electric Company or its subsidiaries.
***********************************************************************
From: kevinq@Ingres.COM (Kevin Quinn)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Bumper sticker
Date: 9 Oct 92 00:19:57 GMT
Reply-To: kevinq@Ingres.COM (Kevin Quinn)
Organization: Ask Computer Systems Inc., Ingres Division, Alameda CA 94501

In article <1992Oct7.143936.7016@ee.ryerson.ca> iain@ee.ryerson.ca (Iain Campbell) writes:
>
>BTW, UNIX is an operating system, DOS is a file handling utility ...
>
Partly true.  I've seen it described more often along the lines of 
a real-time non-reentrant interrupt handler...


kbq

--
Kevin Quinn                         | kevinq@ingres.com
                                    | {mtzinu,pacbell,ll-winken,sun}!ingres.com
My opinions are my own.  Should you think otherwise, think again.
From: dudek@acsu.buffalo.edu (David T. Dudek)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: INQUIRY: Where is the recipe?
Date: 14 Oct 92 17:58:25 GMT
Organization: UB

About 7 years ago, I had a copy of _The_Anarchist's_Cookbook_ which, back 
then was just a compilation of posts to a pirate bulletin board.  I have a
faded printout of the entire thing, but I was wondering if there was an
updated online version somewhere.  I tried archie, but that was no help.  I
know about the watered-down book version that is out, but I'm really not
interested in that.  If anyone has any info, email me.

 
-- 
David Thomas Dudek /  v098pwxs@ubvms.bitnet     \     __   _ The Cybard
 State University / dudek@sun.acsu.buffalo.edu   \   /  `-' )      ,,, 
   of New York   / "If music be the food of love, \  | | ()|||||||[:::}
    @ Buffalo   /   play on!" - Wm. Shakespeare    \ `__.-._)      '''
From: chardi@p4.cs.man.ac.uk (Ian Chard)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Thoughts
Date: 16 Oct 92 12:55:34 GMT
Reply-To: chardi@cs.man.ac.uk
Organization: Department of Computer Science, University of Manchester

In article <1992Oct13.064151.13920@lugb.latrobe.edu.au>, 9120800f@lux.latrobe.edu.au (EDSECOMBE Andrew) writes:
|> Can I please just make a request to all of you that write these
|> 'amazingly humourous' IBM( International Bum Merchants)/ Crapintosh
|> comparisons.
|>  I take it upon myself to put what many of the sane people here believe
|> 
|> 		" WHO GIVES A FLYING F**K !!!!!!"
|> (expletive deleted to keep the powers that be at this end happy)
|>
|> I mean really, would you like thirty cents so that you can call someone
|> who really gives a shit, and stop bothering the rest of us that would
|> like some light relief from the humdrum of everyday life.

There's nothing like constructive criticism, well thought-out argument and
considered opinions to raise the tone of the conversation.

-- 

[ Ian Chard, Systems Integration |  "Kryten, unpack Rachel and get out the    ]
[ University of Manchester, UK   |  puncture repair kit."                     ]
[ Email:    chardi@cs.man.ac.uk  |                -- Rimmer (un-H), Red Dwarf ]
From: jn11+@andrew.cmu.edu (Joseph M. Newcomer)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: What was the intended advantage of using 36bits CPU?
Date: 17 Oct 92 02:55:07 GMT
Organization: Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA

Ah, yes, ASA (The American Standards Association) now ANSI (American
National Standards Institute).  The "standard code" was first called
the "ASA Code", then the "ANSI Code" (the name of the organization changed
in the middle of the commentary period) and finally "ASCII" (American
Standard Code for Information Interchange", prompting one frustrated
writer to pen a little poem (which I have long forgotten) asking how
an organization could be expected to standardize a code when they couldn't
even standardize the /name/ of the code!
                                joe
From: ldr@veritech.mv.com (Lee D. Rothstein)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Mean-looking iron: design decision or just cool stuff
Date: 6 Oct 92 17:42:44 GMT
Reply-To: ldr@veritech.mv.com
Organization: VeriTech; IEEE Computer Society, NH


In article <RLK.92Oct2210817@underprize.think.com> rlk@underprize.think.com
writes:

>In article <1aeaovINNg21@uniwa.uwa.edu.au> gujn@uniwa.uwa.edu.au (Jeremy >
>Nelson) writes:

[...]
>>Perhaps Thinking Machines could advertise their machines by having a
>>competition for some CM-5 posters?
 
>They actually made a CM5 poster
>Robert Krawitz <rlk@think.com>  Thinking Machines Corp.         (617)234-2116

KSR (Kendall Square Research has distributed 3-dimensional model of their
KSR-1 MP system.  The model is a kit of composed of cardboard pieces with
photo images of the KSR-1 components.  Mine sits on s shelf on my Computer
Memorobilia Wall of Fame, along with the Sun Catalyst Miller Planisphere, the
Mips R4000 chip paper weight (its got more MIPS than any other paper weight
I own!), the Interop globe Yo Yo (what goes around in networking comes
around, I guess), the "Digital is a software company" mug (they wish), the HP
mug (I sure wish they had given me a Snakes 7XX, instead), and my pin
collection featuring among many other the MS-mouse, OSF "Freedom by Design",
and DEC ALL-IN-1 (all what in 1?) and MAILbus.  I'd love a CMx memento to add
to the august "crowd".

The "wall" never fails to get a rise out of clients.

  /-----------------------------------------------------------\
 /Lee D. Rothstein                                 603-424-2900\
/ VeriTech: IT Verification & Leadership      Fax: 603-424-8549 \
\ 7 Merrymeeting Drive               Email: ldr@veritech.mv.com /
 \Merrimack, NH 03054-2934            IEEE Computer Society, NH/
  \-----------------------------------------------------------/
Xref: sparky alt.folklore.computers:15101 comp.unix.admin:5601
From: wietse@wzv.win.tue.nl (Wietse Venema)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.unix.admin
Subject: Re: WANTED: Unix administration horror stories !
Date: 13 Oct 92 22:26:34 GMT
Followup-To: alt.folklore.computers
Organization: Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands

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.

If login is executable only for root processes (getty, telnetd, etc.)
it does not have to be set-uid.

	Wietse
From: nec10@cus.cam.ac.uk (N.E. Cole)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: English "Torch TRIPLEX"
Keywords: English "Torch TRIPLEX"
Date: 12 Oct 92 21:57:10 GMT
Organization: U of Cambridge, England

I'm trying to get a working TORCH TRIPLEX system together
It was a UNIX system V machine with 68010/20 20/40/80MB
HD and SCSI. It also ran OPENTOP, a graphical interface of sorts
I had a dead machine but canibalised it for HD etc before
I decided it might be interesting to own one. The TORCH
company has long since disappeared (1986?), they look like 
interesting machines (built in ethernet, phone connections etc)
Has anyone out there ever come across such a machine or want 
to get rid of one (working or not) (or what?)

Nick
Computer-OP
Comp Lab
U of Cambridge, England
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: gjw@access.digex.com (Gregory Watson)
Subject: Re: Stupid error messages  (was "Any key" et al)
Organization: Express Access Online Communications, Greenbelt, MD USA
Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1992 01:49:30 GMT


	The old IBM Dos 3.0 manuals also had a particularly stupid
description.  The description for General Failure Error was "An error
of a type not otherwise described here."  How useful :-)

			Gregory Watson
			gjw@access.digex.com
			gjw1@midway.uchicago.edu (if the above fails)
Xref: sparky alt.folklore.computers:14971 rec.games.int-fiction:499