8 Apr
2001
8 Apr
'01
10:24 a.m.
In a message dated 4/8/01 3:20:46 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
KenzieM(a)sympatico.ca writes:
<< My APPLE ][ plus came with CP/M manuals. Reading them I
found a reference to the new mini diskettes, they were
referring to 5.25" floppies.
Browsing in used book stores this weekend I found TI,
heathkit, Intel and Motorola chip reference books and a
manual for my Amstrad 1640. I'm afraid that many of the
older machines won't even be recognised as an old computer
by people who started out with a Pentium. When I ask if
they have any old hardware they say that they had a Pentium
100 but it was too old and they threw it out. >>
WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH THOSE PEOPLE?!?
i have a little shelf that has all of my old processors sitting on
it....since the machines wouldnt work....i have a processor from every
generation of the X86...some Atari processors...and i think actually a few
gaming console processors....
8 Apr
8 Apr
11:02 a.m.
Well, I for one could give you stories that would raise the hairs on the
back of your neck. I used to work in a "second-hand" computer shop,
affiliated with a recycling firm. They would take things that looked
suitable and sell them. Things that looked "interesting" would go into a
warehouse. Things that nobody knew, or obviously were "outdated" were
hammered and melted for gold. In ~1993 I once asked the guy if he had any
suitable machines to run Unix, and he said "what?". I did get a fair share
of decent stuff from this place. After about a year or so, they gave up on
anything that was non-Intel and would just melt it down regardless... I know
that several VAX 780s, 750s, and periphs meet with unfortunate fates... I
saved a 730 and an 11/73 for $100 each (no longer have them)...
The moral of the story? If there is one, it's about cluelessness being the
accepted norm, and an anti-educational mindset. "Computers? I'm ub3r7ee7
hax0r, I can take down amazon in 10 minutes!", from someone who doesn't
understand, nor could ever fathom, that some machines actually had 36-bits,
or even 17- and 18- bits, or that one time, a "bit" in a processor was
several physical devices you could actually hold... Me, I'm not that old,
but I love the machines :)
WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH THOSE PEOPLE?!?
i have a little shelf that has all of my old processors sitting on
it....since the machines wouldnt work....i have a processor from every
generation of the X86...some Atari processors...and i think actually a few
gaming console processors....
11:42 a.m.
Hmmmm.... so amazingly true. And the worse fact is that the reason most of
these cracker (notice i didn't say hacker) types get thrown in the pen is
due to their overwhelming ignorance and stupidity.
Seriously though, this is an increasing problem. Many supposedly educated
computer types still refer to a tower as a "hard drive" and a processor (be
it whatever it is) as a "Pentium".
-Lanny
----- Original Message -----
From: Billy D'Augustine <azog(a)azog.org>
To: <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org>
Sent: Sunday, April 08, 2001 5:32 PM
Subject: Re: just outta curiosity
Well, I for one could give you stories that would
raise the hairs on the
back of your neck. I used to work in a "second-hand" computer shop,
affiliated with a recycling firm. They would take things that looked
suitable and sell them. Things that looked "interesting" would go into a
warehouse. Things that nobody knew, or obviously were "outdated" were
hammered and melted for gold. In ~1993 I once asked the guy if he had any
suitable machines to run Unix, and he said "what?". I did get a fair share
of decent stuff from this place. After about a year or so, they gave up on
anything that was non-Intel and would just melt it down regardless... I
know
that several VAX 780s, 750s, and periphs meet with
unfortunate fates... I
saved a 730 and an 11/73 for $100 each (no longer have them)...
The moral of the story? If there is one, it's about cluelessness being the
accepted norm, and an anti-educational mindset. "Computers? I'm ub3r7ee7
hax0r, I can take down amazon in 10 minutes!", from someone who doesn't
understand, nor could ever fathom, that some machines actually had
36-bits,
or even 17- and 18- bits, or that one time, a
"bit" in a processor was
several physical devices you could actually hold... Me, I'm not that old,
but I love the machines :)
>
> WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH THOSE PEOPLE?!?
> i have a little shelf that has all of my old processors sitting on
> it....since the machines wouldnt work....i have a processor from every
> generation of the X86...some Atari processors...and i think actually a
few
gaming console
processors....
11:58 a.m.
No kidding. Folks often refer to thier computer in terms of what they use
it for most.
I often hear folks refer to thier computer as a "modem". I suppose they
do this because that is the main function of the machine for them - being
spammed by AOL.
Some call it thier 'hard drive'. Some call it thier 'Windows'.
I was lurking a bit today and saw some messages in this thread which
touched on this peeve of mine:
A quote from someone somewhere not on this list:
"Any sufficeintly advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic"
I suffix this with: "If you don't look under the hood".
Most people today use technology continuously but accept those
technologies as facts of nature. To most, the telephone alone - a pretty
simple peice of gear, has no underlying explanation other than magic
because they are too stupid or complacent to observe the roots of the
technology and understand it.
The herd mentality is killing creativity and hampering our understanding
of our social being. You will find many millions who say "nuclear power
and nuclear bombs are bad", but you will find that nearly noone can draw a
crude diagram of a gun-type fission bomb, explain what fission is, or
explain how a nuclear power plant works. This ignorance, in my mind,
invalidates thier opinion on any aspect of technology.
If you are illiterate, you will have a hard time voting if you get my
meaning.
Regards,
Jeff
In <000901c0c06c$6430e1e0$9515a38e@98box>, on 04/08/01
at 04:58 PM, "Lanny Cox" <chronic(a)nf.sympatico.ca> said:
Seriously though, this is an increasing problem. Many
supposedly educated
computer types still refer to a tower as a "hard drive" and a processor
(be it whatever it is) as a "Pentium".
--
-----------------------------------------------------------
Jeffrey S. Worley
President
Complete Computer Services, Inc.
30 Greenwood Rd.
Asheville, NC 28803
828-277-5959
Visit our website at HTTP://www.Real-Techs.com
THETechnoid(a)home.com
-----------------------------------------------------------
12:22 p.m.
New subject: PDP11/23 free to anyone who wants one.
I have a PDP11/23 that I've finally admitted to myself I won't fix.
It is in a slim tower BAxx case with all needed to run. I think it has
power supply issues as it will work from time to time, for a few minutes
and then freak out.
Want it? It's yours for the cost of shipping and packing materials.
Regards,
Jeff
--
-----------------------------------------------------------
Jeffrey S. Worley
President
Complete Computer Services, Inc.
30 Greenwood Rd.
Asheville, NC 28803
828-277-5959
Visit our website at HTTP://www.Real-Techs.com
THETechnoid(a)home.com
-----------------------------------------------------------
6:53 p.m.
New subject: PDP11/23 free to anyone who wants one.
I have a power supply for a tower BAxx case that probably would
work... Available for a nominal fee (to motivate me to box it up)
clint
On Sun, 8 Apr 2001 THETechnoid(a)home.com wrote:
I have a PDP11/23 that I've finally admitted to
myself I won't fix.
It is in a slim tower BAxx case with all needed to run. I think it has
power supply issues as it will work from time to time, for a few minutes
and then freak out.
Want it? It's yours for the cost of shipping and packing materials.
Regards,
Jeff
--
-----------------------------------------------------------
Jeffrey S. Worley
President
Complete Computer Services, Inc.
30 Greenwood Rd.
Asheville, NC 28803
828-277-5959
Visit our website at HTTP://www.Real-Techs.com
THETechnoid(a)home.com
-----------------------------------------------------------
1:20 p.m.
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1:38 p.m.
New subject: Magic (was Re: just outta curiosity
At 11:20 PM 4/8/01 +0100, Tony wrote:
It actually came from Arthur C. Clarke and its getting a bit scary.
Consider the quantum teleportation of photons, or stopping light, or room
temperature superconductors using carbon nanotubes, or Extreme UV
Lithography where the chips look like so much glass even with a really
powerful microscope.
There are things where you _cannot_ look under the hood without some
serious tools and to those of us who don't understand computers at all,
this is for all intents and purposes magic. Recent work in photonic
switches will yield I/O cards that look like solid black bricks. You slide
them into the case and they start working "magically". Organic LED displays
are going to put full color displays into wall paper. Touch the wall and a
window appears, on the Alps, in real time. Yup, its going to be an
interesting century.
--Chuck
"Any
sufficeintly advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic"
I suffix this with: "If you don't look under the hood".
Is this related to the the fact that I've met many people, including
computer scientists, who believe there's something magical about a
processor, and that it can't be understood in terms of simple gates and
flip-flops?
I don't know where that myth comes from, but a few hours with a
minicomputer technical manual is the best way I know to remove it :-) 
10 Apr
10 Apr
2:59 a.m.
I like to think that any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable
M. K. Peirce
Rhode Island Computer Museum, Inc.
Shady Lea, Rhode Island
"Casta est quam nemo rogavit."
- Ovid
from technology.
On Mon, 9 Apr 2001, Eric J. Korpela wrote:
"Any
sufficeintly advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic"
I suffix this with: "If you don't look under the hood".
I'm quite fond of the corellary.
"Any technology that can be distinguished from magic is insufficiently
advanced."
Eric
8 Apr
8 Apr
3:20 p.m.
On Sun, 8 Apr 2001 THETechnoid(a)home.com wrote:
Most people today use technology continuously but
accept those
technologies as facts of nature. To most, the telephone alone - a
pretty simple peice of gear, has no underlying explanation other than
magic because they are too stupid or complacent to observe the roots
of the technology and understand it.
Or maybe it never occured to them to understand what's going on inside
because it doesn't matter to them. It is a tool, just like a hammer or a
fork. How it works is inconsquential to, for instance, a mother raising 3
kids.
The herd mentality is killing creativity and hampering
our
understanding of our social being. You will find many millions who say
"nuclear power and nuclear bombs are bad", but you will find that
nearly noone can draw a crude diagram of a gun-type fission bomb,
explain what fission is, or explain how a nuclear power plant works.
This ignorance, in my mind, invalidates thier opinion on any aspect of
technology.
This sounds more like lack of good educational systems, something the US
is well known for.
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org
9 Apr
9 Apr
9:22 a.m.
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8 Apr
8 Apr
3:40 p.m.
On Sun, 8 Apr 2001 THETechnoid(a)home.com wrote:
No kidding. Folks often refer to thier computer in
terms of what they use
it for most.
. . .
Some call it thier 'hard drive'. Some call it thier 'Windows'.
So, I should call it my 'blue screen'?
"Any sufficeintly advanced technology is
indistinguishable from magic"
George Morrow suffixed it with: "or a rigged demonstration"
Speaking of which:
Does anyone here have a copy of "Quotations of Chairman Morrow"? A xerox
or disk file would be fine.
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin(a)xenosoft.com
8486
days inactive
8488
days old
12 comments
11 participants
participants (11)
-
ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk -
at258＠osfn.org -
azog＠azog.org -
chronic＠nf.sympatico.ca -
cisin＠xenosoft.com -
cmcmanis＠mcmanis.com -
Demon02554＠aol.com -
foo＠siconic.com -
korpela＠ellie.ssl.berkeley.edu -
THETechnoid＠home.com -
vaxman＠qwest.net