test-drb October 2011

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QBUS PDP 11's available free in Yorkshire (UK)

by silvercreekvalley＠yahoo.com

All the machines have gone now. Thanks to the list for the interest.

13 years, 1 month

Working as a systems programmer on IBM big iron

by vintagecoder＠aol.com

Responding to myself and Rich: I said: >> If somebody was actually a sysprog *at the time in an IBM shop* and >> can tell what was released and when they started copyrighting things, >> then great. Rich said: > I *know* what I'm talking about, with regard to access to IBM sources. I > was at SHARE in San Francisco when the great OCO debate heated up again, > and still have my button reading "When source is outlawed, only outlaws > will have source" in my collection. I remember the discussions of the > changes in US copyright law, including court cases, which allowed program > sources to be copyrighted and have the copyrights stand up, in > _ComputerWorld_ and _Datamation_ and other trade rags. So, since you were, what was the last release that was not copyrighted and what was the first release that was? And when was the change to OCO? Thank you.

13 years, 1 month

Eagle TTL/MDA monitor and generic CGA monitors available

by chrism3667＠yahoo.com

15$ each plus shippage. Both work well. CGA (Microway or something like that) may need a convergence adjustment though, not egregious, it's easy to do on big monitors, I'm sure it will be on this unit too.

13 years, 1 month

John McCarthy

by aek＠bitsavers.org

We just heard over at CHM that John died last night.

13 years, 1 month

moving IBM Sys 23/Datamaster, Atari stuff, other...

by chrism3667＠yahoo.com

Datamaster -50$ plus shippage. It's going somewhere THIS WEEK, perhaps a dumpster if there's no interest. It weighs 95 lbs.It's dirty and has seen enough use to burn the screen a box of Atari 800xl stuff, cpu doesn't work, that's all I know, there's also a disk drive and printer in box, mostly pretty clean w/Atari covers, but cords are dirty - 15$ + also an atari 800xl in original box, not sure of details, could investigate 15$ + NIB Atart printer, contemporary w/the 800xl, 5$ + will combine shipping of course Hyperion, very yellow (almost orange), small crack in upper left corner, DOESN'T WORK, it did a few years ago. Perhaps something simple 20$ + I'll add more stuff tomorrow I'm in New Jersey

13 years, 1 month

Sr. Server Engineer (Vintage Systems) at Living Computer, Museum,

by ken＠seefried.com

I know I will regret dipping my toe in this argument, because I'll dump some facts on very well established classiccmop groupthink, but hopeful it will help the few listmember who aren't yet reality-immune on this topic. I'm on my second decade as a hiring manager of one sort or another, from Fortune 10 companies to startups, and I'm a non-degreed candidate for these roles. And I was married to a IT recruiter for a decade. This is a US perspective, BTW...non US markets are more or less different. In particular, the UK isn't so different. It's the party line of course to blame HR in general and the recruiters in particular for being "gatekeepers" and not realizing how amazing the non-degreed candidate is. That's bullshit. The recruiters are *paid* to place people, and since much first tier recruiting has been outsourced, a placement is often the only source of compensation for these folks. Recruiters are continually looking for ways to fit a square peg in a round hole. The first thing a recruiter does when they get a requirement is to say "what of this are you flexible on?". You have no idea how far they will push this. "You want a programmer. My candidate has a computer", "You need a security expert? My candidate worked mall security for 5 years". "Project management? My candidate managed a Pizza Hut." These are not exaggerations, they are personal antidotes. Anyone who's ever signed up for a job search site knows how wide a net the recruiters cast. Recruiters are sales people, often not good ones, usually working on commission, trying to sell a hiring manager on whatever they have in the queue, no matter how bad a match. Period. Full stop. Conversely, it's very rare that a hiring manager says "I don't care how good a match the candidate is, if they don't have a degree, I don't want them". It happens, usually with a junior manager who hasn't been around the block a couple of times, but it's not the norm. Any of us who have been around for a bit all know that there are good candidates in any candidate pool. But there's a reason we all put "BS required" in those ads, and it is because it's a filter. It's not a have/not have filter. It's an asshole/not asshole filter. Hate to break it to folks, but getting through HR without a degree isn't that hard (been there, done that), but if your answer to "so you don't have a degree" is "let me read you the riot act about how stupid you are to require a degree", "degree requirements are bullshit and you should rely on the intangible things I think make me awesome" or "degrees are a waste of time, and the fact that most of your employees have one has no bearing on the fact that I'm in a special category", then don't be surprised if the HR drone says "I don't care how much I've got to make mortgage this month, I'm not going to try and sell this assclown to the hiring manager. There's a dozen other folks in the queue who can at least fake being a reasonable human being". So, bottom line, if you're "perfect" for the jobs, but you think you are continually getting turned down because you don't have a degree, you're wrong. You're either *really* not perfect, or you're toxic waste from a personality/attitude standpoint. Usually the later. Yes, I know...you're different/special/unique and none of this applies to you. SOP for this list. I'm just telling you what I've learned from dozens of HR orgs, a couple of hundred slots I've been responsible for filling and several thousand candidates I've had to weed through. Not that that matters.

13 years, 1 month

Mathematica/NeXT - Re: Spreadsheets (was Microsoft flamage)

by mtapley＠swri.edu

At 2:20 -0500 10/25/11, Toby clarified: >You can run Mathematica on a NeXT without any optical drive or media (I >have a licence & have done so, on a slab). Right! I'm running Mma 3.0.2.0 on my NeXT 040 Cube (NeXTStep 3.2) right now. However I think it's significantly harder to find Mathematica 3.0 for NeXTStep than NeXTStep 1.0, which is why I suggested the latter route. -- - Mark 210-379-4635 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Large Asteroids headed toward planets inhabited by beings that don't have technology adequate to stop them: Think of it as Evolution in Fast-Forward.

13 years, 1 month

Outlook in comparison

by cisin＠xenosoft.com

I am changing my opinion on Outlook. I just experienced the State Farm Insurance "Secure Messaging Center". In comparison, Outhouse is MAGNIFICENT! For example, the State Farm system will not permit cc'ing an email address outside of their system (my own!). What's so frigging secret about an insurance claim?? The State Farm system times out after 15 minutes while composing a message. When it times out, there is NO warning. No "1 minute until doom". No "want to extend/continue?". No "want to save?" No automatic save of compositions in progress! Their "systems programmers" have told them that their hands are tied, and that it isn't possible to implement those "features"! When I first started using PINE, I wasn't completely satisfied. But each "Modern" system that I've tried has made me appreciate it more. And this State Farm system makes Outhouse look good. -- Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin at xenosoft.com

13 years, 1 month

Dennis Ritchie has died

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

Dennis Ritchie, co-creator of C and heavily involved in the creation of UNIX, has died. He was 70, and he was one of my heroes. RIP, Dennis Ritchie. -Dave -- Dave McGuire New Kensington, PA

13 years, 1 month

Spreadsheets (was Microsoft flamage)

by jonas＠otter.se

On Fri, 21 Oct 2011 21:09:01 +0100 (BST), ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell) wrote: > Interesting. This is not at all well-known (I know people who use Excel > and who need complex numbers who haven't found this...) > > I must look into this and see just what it does. In particular, is a > complex number something that's sotred in oen cell or two (if the > latter, it's a kludge!)? Do the normal arithmetic operators work with > them or do you have special functions (written in prefix as opposed to > infix notation) to do this? I'm not really sure since I found this by Googling, but it seems as if you have to enter complex numbers by entering a function. You can't just type "5+j8" into a cell, you have to go via a dialog box. The number will be displayed as "5+8j" (you can use anything you like instead of "j", it is an argument to the function and presumably[hopefully] does not take part in any calculations. What happens if you use "j" for one number and "i" for another, and then add them, is open to speculation. Could be interesting...) Any arithmetic operators have to be expressed via functions. In other words, clumsy to say the least, but it may actually work. Excel functions and macros, of course, are another subject. IMHO the designer of that functionality must have been an evil, embittered sadist who probably grew up pulling the wings off insects and attaching firecrackers to the tails of cats. /Jonas

13 years, 1 month

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test-drb October 2011