test-drb June 2011

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

141 participants
161 discussions

The ULTIMATE VS. Re: Useless thread, RE:Religion, Re: Nazi System 360/370 book...

by ragooman＠gmail.com

On Thu, Jun 16, 2011 at 2:41 PM, Zane H. Healy <healyzh at aracnet.com> wrote: > I've really basically given up on this... > > > At 10:54 AM -0700 6/16/11, Christian Liendo wrote: > >> Top Posting vs. Bottom Posting >> > > CISC vs RISC ;)

14 years, 1 month

Nazi System 360/370 book...

by trenchdweller＠att.net

Reino was an instructor at Cal Poly SLO when I was studying computer science there in the 1970's. He was a nice old guy. I learned 360 BAL from his class. I think he passed away in 2006. If I'm not mistaken I contributed to the writing of that book. I doubt he was a nazi. Paul > So my wife wanted to show me a book tonight. Turned out it was one > of mine, she'd noticed something interesting. > > System 360/370 > Job Control Language > and the > Access Methods > by Reino Hannula > > What's up with the Swastika on the spine of the book? It's made up > of little triangles, but it's definitely a swastika. Very strange.

14 years, 1 month

Life, the Universe and all that other stuff

by wbblair3＠yahoo.com

Bringing this back more on topic (but still not exactly about "classic" computing): 2011 Isaac Asimov Memorial Debate on The Theory of Everything http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYeN66CSQhg That is a fantastically interesting symposium to watch in its entirety, but these parts relate to reality as a computer simulation: Dr. Jim Gates at: 0:09:20 Who he is 1:00:21 What he's found 1:34:15 More specifics about what he's found (binary error correction codes in string theory equations) In the Science Channel show Through the Wormhole, another scientist found that certain characteristics of quantum mechanics can be explained by reality being a computer simulation. He noted that within the next fifty years, the computational power of the human brain will be available in a laptop that consumes the same amount of power or less and that this rate of growth in computational power far exceeds evolutionary increases in the human brain size/computational power being limited currently by the size of the birth canal. He extrapolates that process over billions of years to posit a higher intelligence programming a mega-computer to create our reality. Wild stuff to think about. In another Science Channel show on the nature of reality, I believe it was stated that a room-sized quantum computer may have the power of a conventional computer the size of the universe. As a result of this and the limitations of growth in biological computational power through evolutionary means (although biological intelligence created in vitro may be a means around this once we actually understand the nature biological intelligence), the most likely form of an advanced technological civilization would be a computer with AI. So, any ET civilization older than ours that we'd contact would most likely be AI. Dr. Gates stated in his introduction that Asimov's stories had inspired him to become a scientist. Here's one of them that follows the above conjectures, a story which blew my mind when I read it as a youngster: The Last Question by Isaac Asimov http://www.multivax.com/last_question.html

14 years, 1 month

Looking for Nissho N1100 PDP-11 CPU upgrade documentation

by staylor＠mrynet.com

I've recently acquired a Nissho N1100 CPU upgrade for a UNIBUS PDP-11. Does anyone have documentation on this boardset? (If responding directly to me via email, please use bub7734 at yahoo.com -- I can't manage to get a subscription approved for that address, so can't post from there) TIA! -scott

14 years, 1 month

Life, the Universe and all that other stuff (was RE: Nazi System 360/370 book...)

by IanK＠vulcan.com

> -----Original Message----- > From: cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctalk- > bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Zane H. Healy > Sent: Wednesday, June 15, 2011 6:34 PM > To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts > Subject: Re: Nazi System 360/370 book... > > At 2:34 PM -0400 6/15/11, Evan Koblentz wrote: > >>Most of the time I spend time trying to understand why an otherwise > >>intelligent person could come to such unsupported conclusions about > >>some things. It's as if their logical thinking breaks down, and is no > >>longer around when faith steps into the room. > > > >That's exactly how I feel about "God". I cannot grasp why otherwise > >intelligent, rational people -- especially techies -- suspend their > >common sense to believe in an invisible man in the sky. > > > >I welcome a debate with anyone here who claims that believing in > >god(s) is somehow "different". > > I can't grasp how otherwise intelligent, rational people, especially techies, > don't believe in God. The alternative is illogical, as we understand better > than most, just how complex things really are. > That's an importantly profound observation about the question at hand. Considering the idea of 'least hypothesis', the idea of a consciousness behind the nature of the Universe - i.e. God - seems to be far more straightforward than the mass of conflicting hypotheses to explain the origin of the Universe and the (known) life forms within it. Taken one by one, and within constraints, many of those hypotheses do make sense - for instance, the idea of natural selection. That makes sense as the dynamics of a working system. But the origin of the system it assumes as its basis is not well explained by that same hypothesis, nor are apparently 'disruptive' events within it, e.g. the rise of human-order intelligence (or even the existence of higher-order life). Unfortunately, 'belief in God' is too often tied to 'belief' in a lot of other stuff, much of which seems to be contrived to ensure that those who work in the business of Organized Religion don't miss any meals. That tends to give it a bad name, especially among thinking people. I will argue there's a difference between 'unsupported conclusions' and 'faith.' The latter is more similar to selection of a set of axioms. Axioms are exempt from proof (although showing one is invalid is good for nuking anything premised thereupon), but should be atomic in nature to be useful in logical discourse. Once you show a proof for an article of faith, it enters into the realm of 'known facts.' Unsupported conclusions seem disjoint from the realm of 'known facts' and even from that of 'faith,' assumed to be self-evident without a supporting framework of axioms, hypothesis and logical process. (See, social conservatives.) Given the nature of this discussion, I'm going to the effort to make the following disclaimer: the above is my personal opinion and does not represent the official or casual opinion of my employer. -- Ian

14 years, 1 month

Vintage Portable Computing Suggestions?

by mark＠wickensonline.co.uk

Guys, I used a Cambridge Z88 for Retrochallenge last year (see http://www.retrochallenge.org for last competition) whilst on holiday. The summer challenge runs in the month of July - entries will be welcome anytime by email to me mark at wickensonline dot co dot uk. This year I'd like to use a different, portable computing device to document this year's summer challenge, and possibly include a little programming. My criteria are: * no larger than a Cambridge Z88. * daylight readable screen. * operates on batteries. * preferably with some kind of programming language/environment. I'd welcome suggestions from members of the list as to what I could take this year that would be fun to explore but also practical enough to use day to day to write text for the website. I will take a laptop for uploading text via wifi, so some sort of PC connectivity is a must (although this could be as simple as an RS232 cable). Many thanks, Mark

14 years, 1 month

convert RX01 to RX02?

by chrise＠pobox.com

A couple of the items we "saved" this weekend from the garage in MN included both an RX01 and an RX02 floppy system. Unfortunately, the mice got to the RX02 before we did and really had quite the palacial estate inside the cardboard box with foam packing that held the unit. Needless to say, everything that comes out of a mouse pretty much covered this drive system. Mouse effluent #1 turned the whole thing to #2. It looks to be a total loss. However, the RX01, in another box, was tightly wrapped in plastic and appears to have survived. Also obtained were a spare set of RX02 "formatter" boards, which are the electronics that go in the chassis and sit above the drives. Does anyone know if a pair of RX01 drives and power supply can be converted to an RX02 by just changing the formatter boards in the chassis? Were the drives themselves different? or did they get to double density by just changing the formatter? Chris -- Chris Elmquist

14 years, 1 month

convert RX01 to RX02?

by jonas＠otter.se

On Mon, 13 Jun 2011, Chris Elmquist <chrise at pobox.com> wrote: > Unfortunately, the mice got to the RX02 before we did and really had > quite the palacial estate inside the cardboard box with foam packing > that held the unit. Needless to say, everything that comes out of a > mouse pretty much covered this drive system. Mouse effluent #1 turned > the whole thing to #2. It looks to be a total loss. That's why one needs a cat /Jonas

14 years, 1 month

MAINDEC for Alpha?

by tshoppa＠wmata.com

> Is there something like MAINDEC for Alpha? > I have an AS1000 that randomly goes catatonic and > I'd like to try to narrow down what's going on. On some occasions if running VMS, ANAL/ERROR can have useful tidbits. (Or ANAL/ERROR/ELV TRANSLATE on newer versions of VMS. Or DECEvent/Diagnose.) But... it's just an AS1000. Flaky memory and/or flaky sockets and/or crappy power supplies will be the majority of failures. Tim.

14 years, 1 month

Off-topic, but important: My mail seems to have been hacked

by madcrow.maxwell＠gmail.com

I got home and logged into my Gmail today only to find a pile of undelived/blocked message reports and a popup box saying something about a login from China. Apparently somebody managed to steal my account info and use it as a spam zombie. As I participate in many retrocomputing groups, I figured that this might be as good a place as any to let folks know what has happened as I try to clean up this mess. Mike

14 years, 1 month

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test-drb June 2011