>then took the extra time messing
>with the control marks along the edge.
>
>I don't know if the changed control marks had anything to do
>with it, but we never got the results back.
I've heard (but never been able to test), that if you rub chapstick, or
similar semi reflective goo, along the control lines of a ScanTron form,
that it can't track where to check for an answer. Supposedly if this is
done for exams (or similar right/wrong scoreing items), it will fail to
see any answers, and thus not consider any wrong, so it will think
everything is correct, giving you a perfect score.
Now, I openly believe that something like chapstick can keep it from
tracking where to look for an answer, but I find it harder to believe
that ScanTron has their systems set to assume everything is correct, and
only deduct those it finds wrong (seems like a setup like that would be
way to easy to bypass... so I would think they would assume a score of
Zero, and add up the right answers instead).
Anyone have a ScanTron system they can try it on.... I have always
wondered if it was true, or just one of those school age rumors.
-chris
<http://www.mythtech.net>
Can anyone help this guy?
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 08 Mar 2002 11:38:36 -0800
From: John Kaur <digitg(a)flash.net>
To: vcf(a)vintage.org
Subject: cdc 9766 disk drive
Am looking for a cdc 9766 disk drive, removable pack, 300 mb, series #
is BK-7A1A in working condition. One I am running on my old pdp-11 has
spindle bearing problems. I live is Tucson, Arizona. Willing to pay,
but need soon. John Kaur, 520-622-1006.
--
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org
* Old computing resources for business and academia at www.VintageTech.com *
> > Too bad you didn't go to my high school, 1980-1982...
>
> I graduated in 1982.
Ah, same time frame I was working for the schools
(having graduated in 1975).
> We didn't have any fancy scanners for scoring tests, our
> teachers had to do that by hand. We did have a lot of the
> scanned tests for standardized testing and such, but of
> course those all were sent off for scoring.
Indiana has had a strong committment to education
during most of my life. We insitiuted a state-wide
system for tracking student progress in basic skills
beginning in 1980, and we did a good job, but failed
to pilot the system; if you think you know something
about what sysadmins call "lusers", imagine a group
of people who talk all day to 2nd graders then you
have to explain a command-driven interface to them...
...to make a long story short, basic skills testing
got bad press from teachers in Indiana, even before
the parents started getting a more accurate idea of
how their kids were actually performing.
-dq
> Anyone have a ScanTron system they can try it on.... I have always
> wondered if it was true, or just one of those school age rumors.
Thanks, Chris.... ScanTron was the small unit we had, and
now I remember writing a suite of code at RETS to drive
another one, this time, in BASIC and COBOL...
The big scanner we had was a NCS Sentry , but can't recall
the model number...
-dq
Well, I dug it out and brought it home. I am willing to part it out.
What I have is a 9845B with no monitor, interfaces, paper cover, Roms or Rom
Carts. It does have it's tape drives and a good keyboard
I am willing to sell or trade parts. I saved it mainly to see what it looks
like inside. I have wanted to take it apart for years.
I used to have several and kept this for parts. Now this is the only one I
have left, sniff.
Please contact me off list at
whoagiii(a)aol.com
I will ship parts internationally.
Thanks,
Paxton
Astoria, OR 97103
USA
> That reminds me of the time in High School when they had all
> of us in the 12th grade fill out this scanned form asking
> all sorts of information I didn't think they needed. The form
> was the type filled out with a #2 pencil and optically scanned.
> I filled mine out (more or less correct, leaving answers I
> didn't want to give blank), then took the extra time messing
> with the control marks along the edge.
>
> I don't know if the changed control marks had anything to do
> with it, but we never got the results back.
Too bad you didn't go to my high school, 1980-1982...
We had two such scanners- a little one that you fed a master
into that had "the answers" and then subsequently the student
answer forms, and it checked and marked them directly.
Then we had a monster that was also programmable, but wrote
out a 9-track tape that we'd load onto the Kennedy on the Prime...
but IIRC, we could not get it to deal with the multiple marks.
So I had to write a PL/I program that would always mark
wrong any question with multiple answers.
;)
> Christopher Smith wrote:
>
>> From: Doc Shipley [mailto:doc@mdrconsult.com]
>> Everything VMS I've looked at says the DEQNA is unsupported in
VMS
>> >v5.2. Is that unsupported as in "don't call DEC/Compaq/HP", or
>> unsupported as in "it don't work"? Am I stuck with NetBSD then?
Does
>> anyone know if NBSD will mop-boot over the DEQNA? I don't have
VMS
>> older than 6.2.
>
>ISTR that's correct, and that's unsupported as in "We never could
get it
>to work right, so you're on your own..." The suggested solution
I've
>seen is to replace it with a DELQA board. :)
The warnings about "we'll soon de-support the DEQNA"
started in release notes round about 1987. It lasted
for at least another five years.
Ethernet drivers used to use an interface called FFI
- allegedly Flaming Fast Interface but that was presumably
just for management consumption :-)
Round about V5.4[-x] or V5.5[-x] this interface
was replaced with a new shinier one (whose
name I've either forgotten or never knew) and
at that point the DEQNA was stated to have stopped
working. I never actually tested this, but the DECnet
folks (in whose group I was working) told me
it just plain would not work - by design.
The DEQNA was DEC's first Qbus ethernet interface
and was IIRC basically a LANCE chip on a Qbus card,
the LANCE chip being essentially a DEUNA-in-a-chip.
The DEUNA was DEC's first ethernet interface.
The DELQA was the result of what they learned
from that experience. The Turbo-DELQA was a ROM
upgrade that improved performance further.
Antonio
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Allison [mailto:ajp166@bellatlantic.net]
> >ISTR that's correct, and that's unsupported as in "We never
> could get it
> >to work right, so you're on your own..." The suggested
> solution I've
> >seen is to replace it with a DELQA board. :)
> Wrong! Unsupported means don't call if it don't work. It
That is more or less what I said, I think. :) I didn't mean that
they didn't work at all, just that they'd had a lot of problems
with them (so I hear), and replaced them because of it.
> does not mean
> it will not work. It does work and if the DEQNA is working
> as it should
> (some dont) with few problems. It was done to retire the DEQNA as a
> then very old design that was replaced by the better, lower
> cost DELQA.
> You can get away with a DEQNA as late as 5.4-4, I'm running one!
Tried 5.5? I have that version, so it would be interesting to know.
Chris
Christopher Smith, Perl Developer
Amdocs - Champaign, IL
/usr/bin/perl -e '
print((~"\x95\xc4\xe3"^"Just Another Perl Hacker.")."\x08!\n");
'
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Chad Fernandez [mailto:fernande@internet1.net]
> I have one friend that refers to me as owning a Univax.
If you own _one_ VAX, it may be more proper -- UniVAX, as
opposed to a VAXCluster. :)
Chris
Christopher Smith, Perl Developer
Amdocs - Champaign, IL
/usr/bin/perl -e '
print((~"\x95\xc4\xe3"^"Just Another Perl Hacker.")."\x08!\n");
'
>
> Some detective work revealed the source of the errors.
> The dye used in the blue punch cards was slightly hygroscopic.
> The absorbed water made all the blue cards slightly longer than
> the rest, just long enough to throw off the reader.
>
Years ago, in the book "Steal this Book", Abbie Hoffman
suggested that anytime you end up with a punch card, in
order to be a troublemaker, soak the card in some solution
that, once the card is dried, has cause it to shrink
uniformly so that it will jam the reader.
As you can see, he wasn't much of a "fan" of "the system".
-dq
