From: mww@merant.com (Michael Wojcik)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 29 Sep 1999 16:33:46 GMT
Organization: MERANT Inc.
Lines: 37
Message-ID: <7stf1a$26t0@news1.newsguy.com>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <+JrqN2BSco0Y8OoWtpgs0D0lIq5u@4ax.com> <37F0970C.FFE37EDA@inthan.be> <7squt8$10e@news2.newsguy.com> <zJ8I3.1870$L85.108215@ptah.visi.com> <7ssht4$c3j$1@gondor.sdsu.edu> <7sstc2$rvf$3@winter.news.rcn.net>
Reply-To: michael.wojcik@merant.com
NNTP-Posting-Host: p-094.newsdawg.com
X-Newsreader: xrn 9.00
Originator: mww@lorelei-n
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!isdnet!newsfeed.cwix.com!pln-e!spln!extra.newsguy.com!newsp.newsguy.com!mww


In article <7sstc2$rvf$3@winter.news.rcn.net>, jmfbahciv@aol.com writes:
> <snip>
> 
> I'd consider hiring that commentor :-).  One of our best
> developers had a style of coding, debugging, etc.  His
> last step after months or years of the development effort
> was to comment his code (that was his 5% that never seemed
> to get done).  All of this would have been fine, except...
> he was one of those who never remembered what he did yesterday...
> let alone last month or last year.   For a while (until those
> nefarious editors required PCed commentary), one could find
> a comment "beats the shit outta me", one of his favorite
> expressions.

I recall a comment to the effect of "if this works, I'll kill
myself" in the X Windows source some years back.  I don't know
if it's still there (this was the standard MIT X11 R2? 3?
distribution).  Or if the author's alive, for that matter, since
as I recall the code in question did.

I've written some comments I quite liked.  A couple of times I
did algorithm analyses on project bits just out of curiosity,
and put the results in comments.  The algorithms in question
weren't key to performance, so the comments were really just
there to edify the curious reader.

No doubt the a.f.c crowd has many an amusing comment story.


--
Michael Wojcik          	        michael.wojcik@merant.com
AAI Development, MERANT                 (block capitals are a company mandate)
Department of English, Miami University

It wasn't fair; my life was now like everyone else's.
   -- Eric Severance

######

From: Jim Stewart <jstewart@jkmicro.com>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Wed, 29 Sep 1999 11:09:19 -0700
Organization: http://www.jkmicro.com
Lines: 33
Message-ID: <F4B9D782557865DD.E86AEF5831278EE4.9CBD8217956DA1E4@lp.airnews.net>
X-Orig-Message-ID: <37F255CF.DA2E6C27@jkmicro.com>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <+JrqN2BSco0Y8OoWtpgs0D0lIq5u@4ax.com> <37F0970C.FFE37EDA@inthan.be> <7squt8$10e@news2.newsguy.com> <zJ8I3.1870$L85.108215@ptah.visi.com> <7ssht4$c3j$1@gondor.sdsu.edu> <7sstc2$rvf$3@winter.news.rcn.net> <7stf1a$26t0@news1.newsguy.com>
Reply-To: jstewart@jkmicro.com
Abuse-Reports-To: abuse at airmail.net to report improper postings
NNTP-Proxy-Relay: library1.airnews.net
NNTP-Posting-Time: Wed Sep 29 13:07:08 1999
NNTP-Posting-Host: ![+Ee1k-W/JVUa$EFO).@srF& (Encoded at Airnews!)
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.61 [en] (Win98; I)
X-Accept-Language: en
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news.maxwell.syr.edu!news.airnews.net!cabal10.airnews.net!cabal1.airnews.net!news-f.iadfw.net!usenet



Michael Wojcik wrote:
> 
> In article <7sstc2$rvf$3@winter.news.rcn.net>, jmfbahciv@aol.com writes:
> > <snip>
> >
> > I'd consider hiring that commentor :-).  One of our best
> > developers had a style of coding, debugging, etc.  His
> > last step after months or years of the development effort
> > was to comment his code (that was his 5% that never seemed
> > to get done).  All of this would have been fine, except...
> > he was one of those who never remembered what he did yesterday...
> > let alone last month or last year.   For a while (until those
> > nefarious editors required PCed commentary), one could find
> > a comment "beats the shit outta me", one of his favorite
> > expressions.
> 
> I recall a comment to the effect of "if this works, I'll kill
> myself" in the X Windows source some years back.  I don't know
> if it's still there (this was the standard MIT X11 R2? 3?
> distribution).  Or if the author's alive, for that matter, since
> as I recall the code in question did.
> 
> I've written some comments I quite liked.  A couple of times I
> did algorithm analyses on project bits just out of curiosity,
> and put the results in comments.  The algorithms in question
> weren't key to performance, so the comments were really just
> there to edify the curious reader.
> 
> No doubt the a.f.c crowd has many an amusing comment story.

When you see the comment "There Be Dragons", you know you're in trouble.

######

Date: 30 Sep 99 09:15:03 -0800
From: "Charlie Gibbs" <cgibbs@sky.bus.com>
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
References: <7ssht4$c3j$1@gondor.sdsu.edu> <7sstc2$rvf$3@winter.news.rcn.net> <7stf1a$26t0@news1.newsguy.com> <F4B9D782557865DD.E86AEF5831278EE4.9CBD8217956DA1E4@lp.airnews.net> <7svhhi$ske$4@winter.news.rcn.net>
Message-ID: <583.942T177T5553274@sky.bus.com>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Lines: 17
X-Newsreader: THOR 2.5a (Amiga;TCP/IP)
NNTP-Posting-Host: news.skybus.com
X-Trace: 30 Sep 1999 09:59:41 -0800, news.skybus.com
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!uunet!ams.uu.net!tank.news.pipex.net!pipex!newsfeed.direct.ca!east1.newsfeed.sprint-canada.net!news.westel.com!news.skybus.com!204.244.247.117

In article <7svhhi$ske$4@winter.news.rcn.net> jmfbahciv@aol.com
(jmfbahciv) writes:

>>When you see the comment "There Be Dragons", you know you're in
>> trouble.
>
>Nah, the better one is, "This'll never happen".

I write that one as "This should never happen."  I learned
early in my career that "never" is usually about 6 months.
From that day forward I refused to let a customer gloss over
a gap in programming specifications with the phrase "Don't
worry about it; it'll never happen."

--
cgibbs@sky.bus.com (Charlie Gibbs)
Remove the first period after the "at" sign to reply.

######

From: jmfbahciv@aol.com
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Thu, 30 Sep 99 09:19:21 GMT
Organization: UltraNet Communications, Inc.
Lines: 42
Message-ID: <7svhhi$ske$4@winter.news.rcn.net>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <+JrqN2BSco0Y8OoWtpgs0D0lIq5u@4ax.com> <37F0970C.FFE37EDA@inthan.be> <7squt8$10e@news2.newsguy.com> <zJ8I3.1870$L85.108215@ptah.visi.com> <7ssht4$c3j$1@gondor.sdsu.edu> <7sstc2$rvf$3@winter.news.rcn.net> <7stf1a$26t0@news1.newsguy.com> <F4B9D782557865DD.E86AEF5831278EE4.9CBD8217956DA1E4@lp.airnews.net>
X-Trace: 6ZmvEYjZdYh0h1R7cPcJ2aV+hqk8uXYLQqSd7QQrDQI=
X-Complaints-To: abuse@rcn.com
NNTP-Posting-Date: 30 Sep 1999 11:28:50 GMT
X-Newsreader:  News Xpress Version 1.0 Beta #4
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news.maxwell.syr.edu!feed1.news.rcn.net!rcn!d7

In article 
<F4B9D782557865DD.E86AEF5831278EE4.9CBD8217956DA1E4@lp.airnews.net>,
   Jim Stewart <jstewart@jkmicro.com> wrote:
>
>
>Michael Wojcik wrote:
>> 
>> In article <7sstc2$rvf$3@winter.news.rcn.net>, jmfbahciv@aol.com writes:
>> > <snip>
>> >
>> > I'd consider hiring that commentor :-).  One of our best
>> > developers had a style of coding, debugging, etc.  His
>> > last step after months or years of the development effort
>> > was to comment his code (that was his 5% that never seemed
>> > to get done).  All of this would have been fine, except...
>> > he was one of those who never remembered what he did yesterday...
>> > let alone last month or last year.   For a while (until those
>> > nefarious editors required PCed commentary), one could find
>> > a comment "beats the shit outta me", one of his favorite
>> > expressions.
>> 
>> I recall a comment to the effect of "if this works, I'll kill
>> myself" in the X Windows source some years back.  I don't know
>> if it's still there (this was the standard MIT X11 R2? 3?
>> distribution).  Or if the author's alive, for that matter, since
>> as I recall the code in question did.
>> 
>> I've written some comments I quite liked.  A couple of times I
>> did algorithm analyses on project bits just out of curiosity,
>> and put the results in comments.  The algorithms in question
>> weren't key to performance, so the comments were really just
>> there to edify the curious reader.
>> 
>> No doubt the a.f.c crowd has many an amusing comment story.
>
>When you see the comment "There Be Dragons", you know you're in trouble.

Nah, the better one is, "This'll never happen".

/BAH

Subtract a hundred and four for e-mail.

######

From: jmfbahciv@aol.com
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Thu, 30 Sep 99 09:23:05 GMT
Organization: UltraNet Communications, Inc.
Message-ID: <7svhu5$ske$5@winter.news.rcn.net>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <+JrqN2BSco0Y8OoWtpgs0D0lIq5u@4ax.com> <37F0970C.FFE37EDA@inthan.be> <7squt8$10e@news2.newsguy.com> <zJ8I3.1870$L85.108215@ptah.visi.com> <7ssht4$c3j$1@gondor.sdsu.edu> <7sstc2$rvf$3@winter.news.rcn.net> <7stf1a$26t0@news1.newsguy.com>
X-Trace: aETL0Wn8vXyxIzttAv8SB6dpSITH/qIOHHUeQ0tXv/g=
X-Complaints-To: abuse@rcn.com
NNTP-Posting-Date: 30 Sep 1999 11:35:33 GMT
X-Newsreader:  News Xpress Version 1.0 Beta #4
Lines: 47
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news.belnet.be!colt.net!dispose.news.demon.net!demon!feed1.news.rcn.net!rcn!d7

In article <7stf1a$26t0@news1.newsguy.com>,
   mww@merant.com (Michael Wojcik) wrote:
>
>In article <7sstc2$rvf$3@winter.news.rcn.net>, jmfbahciv@aol.com writes:
>> <snip>
>> 
>> I'd consider hiring that commentor :-).  One of our best
>> developers had a style of coding, debugging, etc.  His
>> last step after months or years of the development effort
>> was to comment his code (that was his 5% that never seemed
>> to get done).  All of this would have been fine, except...
>> he was one of those who never remembered what he did yesterday...
>> let alone last month or last year.   For a while (until those
>> nefarious editors required PCed commentary), one could find
>> a comment "beats the shit outta me", one of his favorite
>> expressions.
>
>I recall a comment to the effect of "if this works, I'll kill
>myself" in the X Windows source some years back.  I don't know
>if it's still there (this was the standard MIT X11 R2? 3?
>distribution).  Or if the author's alive, for that matter, since
>as I recall the code in question did.

<chuckle>  Old farts just know what that programmer went 
through.  That's a comment that just has to have a really
good war story behind it.  

>
>I've written some comments I quite liked.  A couple of times I
>did algorithm analyses on project bits just out of curiosity,
>and put the results in comments.  The algorithms in question
>weren't key to performance, so the comments were really just
>there to edify the curious reader.

We had one or two people who liked to do that sort of thing.
I'm sure their commentary was appreciated by customers who
needed to modify the code :-).

>
>No doubt the a.f.c crowd has many an amusing comment story.
>
I hope they write them :-).

/BAH


Subtract a hundred and four for e-mail.

######

From: jmfbahciv@aol.com
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Thu, 30 Sep 99 09:26:50 GMT
Organization: UltraNet Communications, Inc.
Lines: 47
Message-ID: <7svhvi$ske$6@winter.news.rcn.net>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <+JrqN2BSco0Y8OoWtpgs0D0lIq5u@4ax.com> <37F0970C.FFE37EDA@inthan.be> <7squt8$10e@news2.newsguy.com> <zJ8I3.1870$L85.108215@ptah.visi.com> <7ssht4$c3j$1@gondor.sdsu.edu> <7sstc2$rvf$3@winter.news.rcn.net> <7stf1a$26t0@news1.newsguy.com>
X-Trace: aETL0Wn8vXz3rhyNZStQP+gEszTHlNl8P7f/atLUHY4=
X-Complaints-To: abuse@rcn.com
NNTP-Posting-Date: 30 Sep 1999 11:36:18 GMT
X-Newsreader:  News Xpress Version 1.0 Beta #4
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!nyc-news-feed1.bbnplanet.com!washdc3-snh1.gtei.net!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.gtei.net!feed1.news.rcn.net!rcn!d7

In article <7stf1a$26t0@news1.newsguy.com>,
   mww@merant.com (Michael Wojcik) wrote:
>
>In article <7sstc2$rvf$3@winter.news.rcn.net>, jmfbahciv@aol.com writes:
>> <snip>
>> 
>> I'd consider hiring that commentor :-).  One of our best
>> developers had a style of coding, debugging, etc.  His
>> last step after months or years of the development effort
>> was to comment his code (that was his 5% that never seemed
>> to get done).  All of this would have been fine, except...
>> he was one of those who never remembered what he did yesterday...
>> let alone last month or last year.   For a while (until those
>> nefarious editors required PCed commentary), one could find
>> a comment "beats the shit outta me", one of his favorite
>> expressions.
>
>I recall a comment to the effect of "if this works, I'll kill
>myself" in the X Windows source some years back.  I don't know
>if it's still there (this was the standard MIT X11 R2? 3?
>distribution).  Or if the author's alive, for that matter, since
>as I recall the code in question did.

<chuckle>  Old farts just know what that programmer went 
through.  That's a comment that just has to have a really
good war story behind it.  

>
>I've written some comments I quite liked.  A couple of times I
>did algorithm analyses on project bits just out of curiosity,
>and put the results in comments.  The algorithms in question
>weren't key to performance, so the comments were really just
>there to edify the curious reader.

We had one or two people who liked to do that sort of thing.
I'm sure their commentary was appreciated by customers who
needed to modify the code :-).

>
>No doubt the a.f.c crowd has many an amusing comment story.
>
I hope they write them :-).

/BAH


Subtract a hundred and four for e-mail.

######

From: hshubs@mindspring.com (Howard S Shubs)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Thu, 30 Sep 1999 10:11:51 -0500
Organization: MindSpring Enterprises
Lines: 15
Message-ID: <hshubs-3009991011510001@user-33qsdkl.dialup.mindspring.com>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <+JrqN2BSco0Y8OoWtpgs0D0lIq5u@4ax.com> <37F0970C.FFE37EDA@inthan.be> <7squt8$10e@news2.newsguy.com> <zJ8I3.1870$L85.108215@ptah.visi.com> <7ssht4$c3j$1@gondor.sdsu.edu> <7sstc2$rvf$3@winter.news.rcn.net> <7stf1a$26t0@news1.newsguy.com> <F4B9D782557865DD.E86AEF5831278EE4.9CBD8217956DA1E4@lp.airnews.net> <7svhhi$ske$4@winter.news.rcn.net>
NNTP-Posting-Host: c7.ae.36.95
X-Server-Date: 30 Sep 1999 15:11:52 GMT
Mail-Copies-To: never
X-Newsreader: MT-NewsWatcher 2.4.4
X-Face: "S"r{U%bs].&Ud}Pc~<qT-k!*znQD|gj[,+)#DaY~AsjVL[UlRXi&y]]1#_De
        VoZ=w,7@[GOQ'x"{;Ee<>~~0a]M:t5l>>EN\1Faw10M9NK1Xq59wo7-"s0S+[{etQorO
        /Nf-Ci"i9v'MT!R8)J]N[4|2&x1r^Iq&{SB"6dknr0=+6UFb.>+{zMn_1=rw&/V+"d@*
        ZS5\LoW_
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!isdnet!sunqbc.risq.qc.ca!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!su-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.gtei.net!firehose.mindspring.com!hshubs

In article <7svhhi$ske$4@winter.news.rcn.net>, jmfbahciv@aol.com wrote:

>In article 
><F4B9D782557865DD.E86AEF5831278EE4.9CBD8217956DA1E4@lp.airnews.net>,
>   Jim Stewart <jstewart@jkmicro.com> wrote:
>>
>>When you see the comment "There Be Dragons", you know you're in trouble.
>
>Nah, the better one is, "This'll never happen".

The worst was "What the h*** was I doing here??"
-- 
Howard S Shubs      hshubs@mindspring.com    hshubs@bix.com
The Denim Adept     Is this the right room for an argument?
SPAM: uce@ftc.gov   postmaster@[127.0.0.1]   abuse@[127.0.0.1]

######

From: Alexandre Pechtchanski <alex*@*rockvax.rockefeller.edu>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Organization: Rockefeller University Hospital (GCRC), New York
Message-ID: <Sn3zN=OL4HBrEAEJusqPbz63dwh3@4ax.com>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <+JrqN2BSco0Y8OoWtpgs0D0lIq5u@4ax.com> <37F0970C.FFE37EDA@inthan.be> <7squt8$10e@news2.newsguy.com> <zJ8I3.1870$L85.108215@ptah.visi.com> <7ssht4$c3j$1@gondor.sdsu.edu> <7sstc2$rvf$3@winter.news.rcn.net> <7stf1a$26t0@news1.newsguy.com> <F4B9D782557865DD.E86AEF5831278EE4.9CBD8217956DA1E4@lp.airnews.net> <7svhhi$ske$4@winter.news.rcn.net>
X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 1.6/32.525
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Lines: 15
Date: Thu, 30 Sep 1999 11:11:48 -0400
NNTP-Posting-Host: 129.85.24.56
X-Trace: rockyd.rockefeller.edu 938704360 129.85.24.56 (Thu, 30 Sep 1999 11:12:40 EDT)
NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 30 Sep 1999 11:12:40 EDT
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!enews.sgi.com!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!newsfeed.nyu.edu!rockyd.rockefeller.edu!not-for-mail

On Thu, 30 Sep 99 09:19:21 GMT, jmfbahciv@aol.com wrote:

>In article 
><F4B9D782557865DD.E86AEF5831278EE4.9CBD8217956DA1E4@lp.airnews.net>,
>   Jim Stewart <jstewart@jkmicro.com> wrote:
>>
>>When you see the comment "There Be Dragons", you know you're in trouble.
>
>Nah, the better one is, "This'll never happen".

I know I am in trouble when I see _error message_ "This'll never happen" appear
in the running program ;-)

[ When replying, remove *'s from address ]
Alexandre Pechtchanski, Systems Manager, RUH, NY

######

From: Charles Richmond <richmond@plano.net>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Thu, 30 Sep 1999 17:54:53 +0000
Organization: Cannine Computer Center
Lines: 32
Message-ID: <37F3A3ED.8A94E14F@plano.net>
References: <7ssht4$c3j$1@gondor.sdsu.edu> <7sstc2$rvf$3@winter.news.rcn.net> <7stf1a$26t0@news1.newsguy.com> <F4B9D782557865DD.E86AEF5831278EE4.9CBD8217956DA1E4@lp.airnews.net> <7svhhi$ske$4@winter.news.rcn.net> <583.942T177T5553274@sky.bus.com>
Reply-To: richmond@plano.net
X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.03 (Macintosh; I; 68K)
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!skynet.be!remarQ-easT!rQdQ!supernews.com!remarQ.com!corp.supernews.com!not-for-mail

Charlie Gibbs wrote:
> 
> I write that one as "This should never happen."  I learned
> early in my career that "never" is usually about 6 months.
> From that day forward I refused to let a customer gloss over
> a gap in programming specifications with the phrase "Don't
> worry about it; it'll never happen."
> 
I got that error message before...the run produced a *number* for
an error message...like "ERROR 47".  And when you look up "ERROR 47"
the manual says "THIS ERROR WILL NEVER OCCUR".  Really helpful...

I was looking through some FORTRAN code, and came across a comment
put in by the previous maintainer of the code.  The comment went
something like this:

C  It took me a long time to understand the following code, and 
C  it's going to take you a long time too, because I am *not*
C  going to tell you how it works.

Another comment that was posted on a.f.c years ago was a little
ASCII drawing of a skull and cross-bones.  After the drawing, the
comment said:  "Warning:  If you think you understand the following
code, you don't!!!"  and then something to the effect of modifying
this code at your own risk.  (I have this somewhere, but it would
probably take *weeks* to find.)  I thought that it should add:
"Abandon all hope, ye who modify this code!!!"

-- 
+-------------------------------------------------------------+
|     Charles and Francis Richmond     <richmond@plano.net>   |
+-------------------------------------------------------------+

######

From: Charles Richmond <richmond@plano.net>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Thu, 30 Sep 1999 17:56:39 +0000
Organization: Cannine Computer Center
Lines: 32
Message-ID: <37F3A457.407FC0BF@plano.net>
References: <7ssht4$c3j$1@gondor.sdsu.edu> <7sstc2$rvf$3@winter.news.rcn.net> <7stf1a$26t0@news1.newsguy.com> <F4B9D782557865DD.E86AEF5831278EE4.9CBD8217956DA1E4@lp.airnews.net> <7svhhi$ske$4@winter.news.rcn.net> <583.942T177T5553274@sky.bus.com>
Reply-To: richmond@plano.net
X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.03 (Macintosh; I; 68K)
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newsfeed.icl.net!newspeer.clara.net!news.clara.net!remarQ-uK!rQdQ!supernews.com!remarQ.com!corp.supernews.com!not-for-mail

Charlie Gibbs wrote:
> 
> I write that one as "This should never happen."  I learned
> early in my career that "never" is usually about 6 months.
> From that day forward I refused to let a customer gloss over
> a gap in programming specifications with the phrase "Don't
> worry about it; it'll never happen."
> 
I got that error message before...the run produced a *number* for
an error message...like "ERROR 47".  And when you look up "ERROR 47"
the manual says "THIS ERROR WILL NEVER OCCUR".  Really helpful...

I was looking through some FORTRAN code, and came across a comment
put in by the previous maintainer of the code.  The comment went
something like this:

C  It took me a long time to understand the following code, and 
C  it's going to take you a long time too, because I am *not*
C  going to tell you how it works.

Another comment that was posted on a.f.c years ago was a little
ASCII drawing of a skull and cross-bones.  After the drawing, the
comment said:  "Warning:  If you think you understand the following
code, you don't!!!"  and then something to the effect of modifying
this code at your own risk.  (I have this somewhere, but it would
probably take *weeks* to find.)  I thought that it should add:
"Abandon all hope, ye who modify this code!!!"

-- 
+-------------------------------------------------------------+
|     Charles and Francis Richmond     <richmond@plano.net>   |
+-------------------------------------------------------------+

######

From: Charles Richmond <richmond@plano.net>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Thu, 30 Sep 1999 18:08:41 +0000
Organization: Cannine Computer Center
Lines: 32
Message-ID: <37F3A729.552E907A@plano.net>
References: <7ssht4$c3j$1@gondor.sdsu.edu> <7sstc2$rvf$3@winter.news.rcn.net> <7stf1a$26t0@news1.newsguy.com> <F4B9D782557865DD.E86AEF5831278EE4.9CBD8217956DA1E4@lp.airnews.net> <7svhhi$ske$4@winter.news.rcn.net> <583.942T177T5553274@sky.bus.com>
Reply-To: richmond@plano.net
X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.03 (Macintosh; I; 68K)
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!skynet.be!newsfeed.stanford.edu!remarQ73!rQdQ!supernews.com!remarQ.com!corp.supernews.com!not-for-mail

Charlie Gibbs wrote:
> 
> I write that one as "This should never happen."  I learned
> early in my career that "never" is usually about 6 months.
> From that day forward I refused to let a customer gloss over
> a gap in programming specifications with the phrase "Don't
> worry about it; it'll never happen."
> 
I got that error message before...the run produced a *number* for
an error message...like "ERROR 47".  And when you look up "ERROR 47"
the manual says "THIS ERROR WILL NEVER OCCUR".  Really helpful...

I was looking through some FORTRAN code, and came across a comment
put in by the previous maintainer of the code.  The comment went
something like this:

C  It took me a long time to understand the following code, and 
C  it's going to take you a long time too, because I am *not*
C  going to tell you how it works.

Another comment that was posted on a.f.c years ago was a little
ASCII drawing of a skull and cross-bones.  After the drawing, the
comment said:  "Warning:  If you think you understand the following
code, you don't!!!"  and then something to the effect of modifying
this code at your own risk.  (I have this somewhere, but it would
probably take *weeks* to find.)  I thought that it should add:
"Abandon all hope, ye who modify this code!!!"

-- 
+-------------------------------------------------------------+
|     Charles and Francis Richmond     <richmond@plano.net>   |
+-------------------------------------------------------------+

######

From: jmfbahciv@aol.com
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Fri, 01 Oct 99 10:28:23 GMT
Organization: UltraNet Communications, Inc.
Lines: 21
Message-ID: <7t29v9$pa3$2@winter.news.rcn.net>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <+JrqN2BSco0Y8OoWtpgs0D0lIq5u@4ax.com> <37F0970C.FFE37EDA@inthan.be> <7squt8$10e@news2.newsguy.com> <zJ8I3.1870$L85.108215@ptah.visi.com> <7ssht4$c3j$1@gondor.sdsu.edu> <7sstc2$rvf$3@winter.news.rcn.net> <7stf1a$26t0@news1.newsguy.com> <F4B9D782557865DD.E86AEF5831278EE4.9CBD8217956DA1E4@lp.airnews.net> <7svhhi$ske$4@winter.news.rcn.net> <Sn3zN=OL4HBrEAEJusqPbz63dwh3@4ax.com>
X-Trace: BzyuqRXfVnbV3kQ6R5WeY51r8PhTefGwz7qki/ZO7HE=
X-Complaints-To: abuse@rcn.com
NNTP-Posting-Date: 1 Oct 1999 12:38:01 GMT
X-Newsreader:  News Xpress Version 1.0 Beta #4
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!isdnet!howland.erols.net!outgoing.news.rcn.net.MISMATCH!feed1.news.rcn.net!rcn!d2

In article <Sn3zN=OL4HBrEAEJusqPbz63dwh3@4ax.com>,
   Alexandre Pechtchanski <alex*@*rockvax.rockefeller.edu> wrote:
>On Thu, 30 Sep 99 09:19:21 GMT, jmfbahciv@aol.com wrote:
>
>>In article 
>><F4B9D782557865DD.E86AEF5831278EE4.9CBD8217956DA1E4@lp.airnews.net>,
>>   Jim Stewart <jstewart@jkmicro.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>When you see the comment "There Be Dragons", you know you're in trouble.
>>
>>Nah, the better one is, "This'll never happen".
>
>I know I am in trouble when I see _error message_ "This'll 
>never happen" appear in the running program ;-)

Yup.  And, before you open up the source to fix the problem,
you pray that it was written by a maintainer, not the author.

/BAH

Subtract a hundred and four for e-mail.

######

From: jmfbahciv@aol.com
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Fri, 01 Oct 99 10:29:41 GMT
Organization: UltraNet Communications, Inc.
Lines: 22
Message-ID: <7t2a1n$pa3$3@winter.news.rcn.net>
References: <7ssht4$c3j$1@gondor.sdsu.edu> <7sstc2$rvf$3@winter.news.rcn.net> <7stf1a$26t0@news1.newsguy.com> <F4B9D782557865DD.E86AEF5831278EE4.9CBD8217956DA1E4@lp.airnews.net> <7svhhi$ske$4@winter.news.rcn.net> <583.942T177T5553274@sky.bus.com>
X-Trace: BzyuqRXfVnZhLBepsQ/TgXl7NsGlIEPu/Ag+NgseFA4=
X-Complaints-To: abuse@rcn.com
NNTP-Posting-Date: 1 Oct 1999 12:39:19 GMT
X-Newsreader:  News Xpress Version 1.0 Beta #4
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!isdnet!netnews.com!feed1.news.rcn.net!rcn!d2

In article <583.942T177T5553274@sky.bus.com>,
   "Charlie Gibbs" <cgibbs@sky.bus.com> wrote:
>In article <7svhhi$ske$4@winter.news.rcn.net> jmfbahciv@aol.com
>(jmfbahciv) writes:
>
>>>When you see the comment "There Be Dragons", you know you're in
>>> trouble.
>>
>>Nah, the better one is, "This'll never happen".
>
>I write that one as "This should never happen."  I learned
>early in my career that "never" is usually about 6 months.
>From that day forward I refused to let a customer gloss over
>a gap in programming specifications with the phrase "Don't
>worry about it; it'll never happen."
>
<grumble, mumble,...>  Nobody ever told me that.  Oh, what
I could have done if I had known that never was only 6 months.

/BAH

Subtract a hundred and four for e-mail.

######

From: jmfbahciv@aol.com
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Fri, 01 Oct 99 10:33:33 GMT
Organization: UltraNet Communications, Inc.
Lines: 45
Message-ID: <7t2a90$pa3$4@winter.news.rcn.net>
References: <7ssht4$c3j$1@gondor.sdsu.edu> <7sstc2$rvf$3@winter.news.rcn.net> <7stf1a$26t0@news1.newsguy.com> <F4B9D782557865DD.E86AEF5831278EE4.9CBD8217956DA1E4@lp.airnews.net> <7svhhi$ske$4@winter.news.rcn.net> <583.942T177T5553274@sky.bus.com> <37F3A457.407FC0BF@plano.net>
X-Trace: Jx9zWsiSPFHzyMfesZz1AcAsk39NZCjciOYyRYFilXg=
X-Complaints-To: abuse@rcn.com
NNTP-Posting-Date: 1 Oct 1999 12:43:12 GMT
X-Newsreader:  News Xpress Version 1.0 Beta #4
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news.belnet.be!colt.net!newsfeed.icl.net!isdnet!howland.erols.net!outgoing.news.rcn.net.MISMATCH!feed1.news.rcn.net!rcn!d2

In article <37F3A457.407FC0BF@plano.net>,
   Charles Richmond <richmond@plano.net> wrote:
>Charlie Gibbs wrote:
>> 
>> I write that one as "This should never happen."  I learned
>> early in my career that "never" is usually about 6 months.
>> From that day forward I refused to let a customer gloss over
>> a gap in programming specifications with the phrase "Don't
>> worry about it; it'll never happen."
>> 
>I got that error message before...the run produced a *number* for
>an error message...like "ERROR 47".  And when you look up "ERROR 47"
>the manual says "THIS ERROR WILL NEVER OCCUR".  Really helpful...
>
>I was looking through some FORTRAN code, and came across a comment
>put in by the previous maintainer of the code.  The comment went
>something like this:
>
>C  It took me a long time to understand the following code, and 
>C  it's going to take you a long time too, because I am *not*
>C  going to tell you how it works.

Oh, I _like_ that one. :-)  Did you do it?


>Another comment that was posted on a.f.c years ago was a little
>ASCII drawing of a skull and cross-bones.  After the drawing, the
>comment said:  "Warning:  If you think you understand the following
>code, you don't!!!"  and then something to the effect of modifying
>this code at your own risk.  (I have this somewhere, but it would
>probably take *weeks* to find.)  I thought that it should add:
>"Abandon all hope, ye who modify this code!!!"
>

Yup.  I wrote something similar when I coded the ACTDAE 
(accounting daemon) on TOPS10.   People didn't seem to
understand double indexing into a data base definitions
generated by a macro.  JMF took one look, threw up his
hands, and said he wouldn't touch it with a 20 foot pole.
I never really knew if I had programmed a bunch of worms
or something very clever....and he would never tell me :-).

/BAH

Subtract a hundred and four for e-mail.

######

From: jmfbahciv@aol.com
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Fri, 01 Oct 99 10:35:04 GMT
Organization: UltraNet Communications, Inc.
Lines: 11
Message-ID: <7t2abp$pa3$5@winter.news.rcn.net>
References: <7ssht4$c3j$1@gondor.sdsu.edu> <7sstc2$rvf$3@winter.news.rcn.net> <7stf1a$26t0@news1.newsguy.com> <F4B9D782557865DD.E86AEF5831278EE4.9CBD8217956DA1E4@lp.airnews.net> <7svhhi$ske$4@winter.news.rcn.net> <583.942T177T5553274@sky.bus.com> <37F3A729.552E907A@plano.net>
X-Trace: Jx9zWsiSPFF5a0ClGKZ9lksLDPjUsJXvcyVUD/8uKEU=
X-Complaints-To: abuse@rcn.com
NNTP-Posting-Date: 1 Oct 1999 12:44:41 GMT
X-Newsreader:  News Xpress Version 1.0 Beta #4
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!isdnet!howland.erols.net!outgoing.news.rcn.net.MISMATCH!feed1.news.rcn.net!rcn!d2

In article <37F3A729.552E907A@plano.net>,
   Charles Richmond <richmond@plano.net> wrote:
>Charlie Gibbs wrote:
<snip>

Hey, Charles.  Your ISP seems to have developed a stutter.
Or did you double-click three times :-).

/BAH

Subtract a hundred and four for e-mail.

######

From: glass2@glass2.lexington.ibm.com
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 1 Oct 1999 15:22:36 GMT
Organization: IBM Austin 
Lines: 51
Message-ID: <7t2jjs$1lcm$1@ausnews.austin.ibm.com>
References: <7ssht4$c3j$1@gondor.sdsu.edu> <7sstc2$rvf$3@winter.news.rcn.net> <7stf1a$26t0@news1.newsguy.com> <F4B9D782557865DD.E86AEF5831278EE4.9CBD8217956DA1E4@lp.airnews.net> <7svhhi$ske$4@winter.news.rcn.net> <583.942T177T5553274@sky.bus.com> <37F3A457.407FC0BF@plano.net>
Reply-To: wa4qal@vnet.ibm.net
NNTP-Posting-Host: glass2.cv.lexington.ibm.com
X-Newsreader: IBM NewsReader/2 2.0
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!isdnet!newsfeed.nyu.edu!news.idt.net!nyd.news.ans.net!abq.news.ans.net!news-w.ans.net!news.chips.ibm.com!newsfeed.btv.ibm.com!rtpnews.raleigh.ibm.com!ausnews.austin.ibm.com!not-for-mail

In <37F3A457.407FC0BF@plano.net>, Charles Richmond <richmond@plano.net> writes:
>Charlie Gibbs wrote:
>>
>> I write that one as "This should never happen."  I learned
>> early in my career that "never" is usually about 6 months.
>> From that day forward I refused to let a customer gloss over
>> a gap in programming specifications with the phrase "Don't
>> worry about it; it'll never happen."
>>
>I got that error message before...the run produced a *number* for
>an error message...like "ERROR 47".  And when you look up "ERROR 47"
>the manual says "THIS ERROR WILL NEVER OCCUR".  Really helpful...
>
>I was looking through some FORTRAN code, and came across a comment
>put in by the previous maintainer of the code.  The comment went
>something like this:
>
>C  It took me a long time to understand the following code, and
>C  it's going to take you a long time too, because I am *not*
>C  going to tell you how it works.
>
>Another comment that was posted on a.f.c years ago was a little
>ASCII drawing of a skull and cross-bones.  After the drawing, the
>comment said:  "Warning:  If you think you understand the following
>code, you don't!!!"  and then something to the effect of modifying
>this code at your own risk.  (I have this somewhere, but it would
>probably take *weeks* to find.)  I thought that it should add:
>"Abandon all hope, ye who modify this code!!!"
>
>--
>+-------------------------------------------------------------+
>|     Charles and Francis Richmond     <richmond@plano.net>   |
>+-------------------------------------------------------------+

In about 1993, I was maintaining an ancient piece of code, and
came upon my favorite comment.  It said:

 /* The following two lines are a temporary fix for the */
 /* blah-blah problem.                      21 Sep 1971 */

You can be very sure that I didn't touch those two lines of
code!  I figured that if that temporary fix had been good
enough for 22 years, that they were good enough for another
couple.  :*)

Dave

P.S. Standard Disclaimer: I work for them, but I don't speak for them.

P.S. Those two lines are still in there today!

######

From: neil@platypus.NOSPAM.force9.co.uk (Neil Sluman)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Message-ID: <MPG.125b2d5598a947ff989695@usenet.force9.net>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <+JrqN2BSco0Y8OoWtpgs0D0lIq5u@4ax.com> <37F0970C.FFE37EDA@inthan.be> <7squt8$10e@news2.newsguy.com> <zJ8I3.1870$L85.108215@ptah.visi.com> <7ssht4$c3j$1@gondor.sdsu.edu> <7sstc2$rvf$3@winter.news.rcn.net> <7stf1a$26t0@news1.newsguy.com> <F4B9D782557865DD.E86AEF5831278EE4.9CBD8217956DA1E4@lp.airnews.net> <7svhhi$ske$4@winter.news.rcn.net> <Sn3zN=OL4HBrEAEJusqPbz63dwh3@4ax.com>
Organization: Chunderware
X-Newsreader: MicroPlanet Gravity v2.10
Lines: 19
Date: Fri, 1 Oct 1999 18:23:39 +0100
NNTP-Posting-Host: 212.56.95.221
X-Complaints-To: abuse@plus.net.uk
X-Trace: stones 938798532 212.56.95.221 (Fri, 01 Oct 1999 18:22:12 BST)
NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 01 Oct 1999 18:22:12 BST
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!landlord!stones.POSTED!not-for-mail

In article <Sn3zN=OL4HBrEAEJusqPbz63dwh3@4ax.com>, 
alex*@*rockvax.rockefeller.edu says...
> On Thu, 30 Sep 99 09:19:21 GMT, jmfbahciv@aol.com wrote:
> 
> >In article 
> ><F4B9D782557865DD.E86AEF5831278EE4.9CBD8217956DA1E4@lp.airnews.net>,
> >   Jim Stewart <jstewart@jkmicro.com> wrote:
> >>
> >>When you see the comment "There Be Dragons", you know you're in trouble.
> >
> >Nah, the better one is, "This'll never happen".
> 
> I know I am in trouble when I see _error message_ 
> "This'll never happen" appear
> in the running program ;-)
> 
A FOAF had "Error code 172:  This error code reserved for future use"
_______
Neil S.

######

From: slaur@sekunda.pp.utu.fi (Sam Laur)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 1 Oct 1999 19:01:05 GMT
Organization: Paskamasiina.
Lines: 15
Message-ID: <7t30dh$69n$1@ankka.csc.fi>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7stf1a$26t0@news1.newsguy.com> <F4B9D782557865DD.E86AEF5831278EE4.9CBD8217956DA1E4@lp.airnews.net> <7svhhi$ske$4@winter.news.rcn.net>
NNTP-Posting-Host: sekunda.pp.utu.fi
X-Newsposter: Pnews 4.0-test52 (20 Jan 97)
Originator: slaur@khitomer.pp.utu.fi ((null))
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!skynet.be!news.algonet.se!newsfeed1.telenordia.se!algonet!newsfeed1.funet.fi!newsfeed2.funet.fi!news2.funet.fi!not-for-mail

In article <7svhhi$ske$4@winter.news.rcn.net>,  <jmfbahciv@aol.com> wrote:
>Nah, the better one is, "This'll never happen".

In the Motorola app-note AN460 there are some interesting comments in the
assembly source provided... On page 19, there is this code:
	BNE NOTD		INC BMJD only ever executes once, at midnight
	INC BMJD		on the night of Thu/Fri 22/23 Apr 2038.

Now, this is the time that the RDS MJD day number goes to 65536. Another
epoch that may cause problems in equipment, though how many RDS-using FM
stations there will be in 2038? (Exactly the same reasoning that is behind
the Y2K madness now :))
-- 
/* Sam Laur   slaur@sekunda.pp.utu.fi */
/* Carpe noctem!      Carpe tenebras! */

######

From: genew@shuswap.net (Gene Wirchenko)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Fri, 01 Oct 1999 19:20:21 GMT
Organization: Okanagan Internet Junction
Lines: 18
Message-ID: <37f4f1ef.2419869@news.shuswap.net>
References: <7ssht4$c3j$1@gondor.sdsu.edu> <7sstc2$rvf$3@winter.news.rcn.net> <7stf1a$26t0@news1.newsguy.com> <F4B9D782557865DD.E86AEF5831278EE4.9CBD8217956DA1E4@lp.airnews.net> <7svhhi$ske$4@winter.news.rcn.net> <583.942T177T5553274@sky.bus.com> <7t2a1n$pa3$3@winter.news.rcn.net>
Reply-To: genew@shuswap.net
NNTP-Posting-Host: salmonarm3-28.shuswap.net
X-Trace: news.junction.net 938805597 2160 206.87.124.110 (1 Oct 1999 19:19:57 GMT)
X-Complaints-To: abuse@junction.net
NNTP-Posting-Date: 1 Oct 1999 19:19:57 GMT
X-Newsreader: Forte Free Agent 1.1/32.230
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news.belnet.be!newspump.monmouth.com!newspeer.monmouth.com!cyclone.bc.net!news.junction.net!not-for-mail

jmfbahciv@aol.com wrote:

[snip]

><grumble, mumble,...>  Nobody ever told me that.  Oh, what
>I could have done if I had known that never was only 6 months.

     It makes up for "Real Soon Now" being months or years.  Snip off
one and add to the other.

Sincerely,

Gene Wirchenko

Computerese Irregular Verb Conjugation:
     I have preferences.
     You have biases.
     He/She has prejudices.

######

From: genew@shuswap.net (Gene Wirchenko)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Fri, 01 Oct 1999 19:20:22 GMT
Organization: Okanagan Internet Junction
Lines: 31
Message-ID: <37f4f23d.2498328@news.shuswap.net>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <+JrqN2BSco0Y8OoWtpgs0D0lIq5u@4ax.com> <37F0970C.FFE37EDA@inthan.be> <7squt8$10e@news2.newsguy.com> <zJ8I3.1870$L85.108215@ptah.visi.com> <7ssht4$c3j$1@gondor.sdsu.edu> <7sstc2$rvf$3@winter.news.rcn.net> <7stf1a$26t0@news1.newsguy.com> <F4B9D782557865DD.E86AEF5831278EE4.9CBD8217956DA1E4@lp.airnews.net> <7svhhi$ske$4@winter.news.rcn.net> <Sn3zN=OL4HBrEAEJusqPbz63dwh3@4ax.com> <7t29v9$pa3$2@winter.news.rcn.net>
Reply-To: genew@shuswap.net
NNTP-Posting-Host: salmonarm3-28.shuswap.net
X-Trace: news.junction.net 938805599 2160 206.87.124.110 (1 Oct 1999 19:19:59 GMT)
X-Complaints-To: abuse@junction.net
NNTP-Posting-Date: 1 Oct 1999 19:19:59 GMT
X-Newsreader: Forte Free Agent 1.1/32.230
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news.maxwell.syr.edu!cyclone.bc.net!news.junction.net!not-for-mail

jmfbahciv@aol.com wrote:

>In article <Sn3zN=OL4HBrEAEJusqPbz63dwh3@4ax.com>,
>   Alexandre Pechtchanski <alex*@*rockvax.rockefeller.edu> wrote:
>>On Thu, 30 Sep 99 09:19:21 GMT, jmfbahciv@aol.com wrote:
>>
>>>In article 
>>><F4B9D782557865DD.E86AEF5831278EE4.9CBD8217956DA1E4@lp.airnews.net>,
>>>   Jim Stewart <jstewart@jkmicro.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>When you see the comment "There Be Dragons", you know you're in trouble.
>>>
>>>Nah, the better one is, "This'll never happen".
>>
>>I know I am in trouble when I see _error message_ "This'll 
>>never happen" appear in the running program ;-)
>
>Yup.  And, before you open up the source to fix the problem,
>you pray that it was written by a maintainer, not the author.

     My attitude to that sort of code is that it will be.  If I have
to change it once, I may have to again.  It's rewrite bait.

Sincerely,

Gene Wirchenko

Computerese Irregular Verb Conjugation:
     I have preferences.
     You have biases.
     He/She has prejudices.

######

Date: 01 Oct 99 15:29:38 -0800
From: "Charlie Gibbs" <cgibbs@sky.bus.com>
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
References: <7svhhi$ske$4@winter.news.rcn.net> <583.942T177T5553274@sky.bus.com> <37F3A457.407FC0BF@plano.net> <7t2jjs$1lcm$1@ausnews.austin.ibm.com> <KhX1N407tyKGLibwWn0mrSEaM=t5@4ax.com>
Message-ID: <1388.943T1944T9295189@sky.bus.com>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Lines: 40
X-Newsreader: THOR 2.5a (Amiga;TCP/IP)
NNTP-Posting-Host: news.skybus.com
X-Trace: 1 Oct 1999 16:01:06 -0800, news.skybus.com
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news-fra1.dfn.de!news0.de.colt.net!colt.net!newsfeed.icl.net!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!u-2.maxwell.syr.edu!east1.newsfeed.sprint-canada.net!news.westel.com!news.skybus.com!204.244.247.129

In article <KhX1N407tyKGLibwWn0mrSEaM=t5@4ax.com>
alex*@*rockvax.rockefeller.edu (Alexandre Pechtchanski) writes:

>On 1 Oct 1999 15:22:36 GMT, glass2@glass2.lexington.ibm.com wrote:
>
>[ snip ]
>>In about 1993, I was maintaining an ancient piece of code, and
>>came upon my favorite comment.  It said:
>>
>> /* The following two lines are a temporary fix for the */
>> /* blah-blah problem.                      21 Sep 1971 */
>>
>>You can be very sure that I didn't touch those two lines of
>>code!  I figured that if that temporary fix had been good
>>enough for 22 years, that they were good enough for another
>>couple.  :*)
>>
>>Dave
>>
>>P.S. Standard Disclaimer: I work for them, but I don't speak for them.
>>
>>P.S. Those two lines are still in there today!

>My father, a civil engineer, is fond of telling this story of
>temporary structures:
>In the yard of one Florence palazzos stands a bathtub, temporary
>left there in 1575.

Hence a tenet of my personal philosophy:

    Treat your every move as if it were irrevocable;
    it probably is, whether you realize it or not.

This explains my opposition to quick-and-dirty systems.  A "one-shot"
report is one that a manager only wants once... this week.  "Say, I
_like_ this report.  Have a copy on my desk every Monday morning."

--
cgibbs@sky.bus.com (Charlie Gibbs)
Remove the first period after the "at" sign to reply.

######

From: Alexandre Pechtchanski <alex*@*rockvax.rockefeller.edu>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Organization: Rockefeller University Hospital (GCRC), New York
Message-ID: <KhX1N407tyKGLibwWn0mrSEaM=t5@4ax.com>
References: <7ssht4$c3j$1@gondor.sdsu.edu> <7sstc2$rvf$3@winter.news.rcn.net> <7stf1a$26t0@news1.newsguy.com> <F4B9D782557865DD.E86AEF5831278EE4.9CBD8217956DA1E4@lp.airnews.net> <7svhhi$ske$4@winter.news.rcn.net> <583.942T177T5553274@sky.bus.com> <37F3A457.407FC0BF@plano.net> <7t2jjs$1lcm$1@ausnews.austin.ibm.com>
X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 1.6/32.525
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Lines: 27
Date: Fri, 01 Oct 1999 16:14:08 -0400
NNTP-Posting-Host: 129.85.24.56
X-Trace: rockyd.rockefeller.edu 938808849 129.85.24.56 (Fri, 01 Oct 1999 16:14:09 EDT)
NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 01 Oct 1999 16:14:09 EDT
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newsfeed.nyu.edu!rockyd.rockefeller.edu!not-for-mail

On 1 Oct 1999 15:22:36 GMT, glass2@glass2.lexington.ibm.com wrote:

[ snip ]
>In about 1993, I was maintaining an ancient piece of code, and
>came upon my favorite comment.  It said:
>
> /* The following two lines are a temporary fix for the */
> /* blah-blah problem.                      21 Sep 1971 */
>
>You can be very sure that I didn't touch those two lines of
>code!  I figured that if that temporary fix had been good
>enough for 22 years, that they were good enough for another
>couple.  :*)
>
>Dave
>
>P.S. Standard Disclaimer: I work for them, but I don't speak for them.
>
>P.S. Those two lines are still in there today!

My father, a civil engineer, is fond of telling this story of temporary
structures:
In the yard of one Florence palazzos stands a bathtub, temporary left there in
1575.

[ When replying, remove *'s from address ]
Alexandre Pechtchanski, Systems Manager, RUH, NY

######

From: hawk@hawkins.cba.uni.edu (Richard E. Hawkins)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 1 Oct 1999 16:52:04 -0500
Organization: House of Hawkins
Lines: 35
Message-ID: <7t3ae4$m44$1@hawkins.cba.uni.edu>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7svhhi$ske$4@winter.news.rcn.net> <Sn3zN=OL4HBrEAEJusqPbz63dwh3@4ax.com> <7t29v9$pa3$2@winter.news.rcn.net>
NNTP-Posting-Host: hawkins.cba.uni.edu
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!skynet.be!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.physics.uiowa.edu!news.uni.edu!not-for-mail

In article <7t29v9$pa3$2@winter.news.rcn.net>,  <jmfbahciv@aol.com> wrote:
>   Alexandre Pechtchanski <alex*@*rockvax.rockefeller.edu> wrote:

>>On Thu, 30 Sep 99 09:19:21 GMT, jmfbahciv@aol.com wrote:

>>>   Jim Stewart <jstewart@jkmicro.com> wrote:

>>>>When you see the comment "There Be Dragons", you know you're in trouble.

>>>Nah, the better one is, "This'll never happen".

>>I know I am in trouble when I see _error message_ "This'll 
>>never happen" appear in the running program ;-)

>Yup.  And, before you open up the source to fix the problem,
>you pray that it was written by a maintainer, not the author.

Is it possible to write code *without* these?  I usually have a few of
these, though they get deleted by the time I'm done . . .

$*)^%)(

Since when does debian have the AOL bug of requiring more new content
than quoted message???  Next year's job is definitely at someplace
with a more up to date computer, so that I can bo back to BSD and 
build everything from source, denannyfied . . .

and while I'm at it, the "milllions & millions" warning eats it, too.


-- 
Prof. Richard E. Hawkins, Esq.   
                                               hawk@hawkins.cba.uni.edu
(319) 266-7114                        http://eyry.econ.iastate.edu/hawk
These opinions will not be those of UNI until it pays my retainer.

######

From: mww@merant.com (Michael Wojcik)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 1 Oct 1999 21:49:42 GMT
Organization: MERANT Inc.
Lines: 32
Message-ID: <7t3a9m$280n@news1.newsguy.com>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <+JrqN2BSco0Y8OoWtpgs0D0lIq5u@4ax.com> <37F0970C.FFE37EDA@inthan.be> <7squt8$10e@news2.newsguy.com> <zJ8I3.1870$L85.108215@ptah.visi.com> <7ssht4$c3j$1@gondor.sdsu.edu> <7sstc2$rvf$3@winter.news.rcn.net> <7stf1a$26t0@news1.newsguy.com> <F4B9D782557865DD.E86AEF5831278EE4.9CBD8217956DA1E4@lp.airnews.net> <7svhhi$ske$4@winter.news.rcn.net>
Reply-To: michael.wojcik@merant.com
NNTP-Posting-Host: p-529.newsdawg.com
X-Newsreader: xrn 9.00
Originator: mww@lorelei-n
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!skynet.be!209.155.56.21.MISMATCH!pln-e!spln!extra.newsguy.com!newsp.newsguy.com!mww


In article <7svhhi$ske$4@winter.news.rcn.net>, jmfbahciv@aol.com writes:
> In article 
> <F4B9D782557865DD.E86AEF5831278EE4.9CBD8217956DA1E4@lp.airnews.net>,
>    Jim Stewart <jstewart@jkmicro.com> wrote:

> >When you see the comment "There Be Dragons", you know you're in trouble.

> Nah, the better one is, "This'll never happen".

Actually, that can be a good sign, when it indicates defensive
programming.  "If I understand the algorithm and data set completely,
and I've implemented everything correctly, then we can never reach
this code path - but I'm coding for it just in case I'm not perfect,
or some external agent corrupts program execution."

I'm heartily in favor of that sort of thing.  It's always better for
the app to say "I don't know how I got here, so I'm giving up" than
for it to just randomly stumble around - particularly since the
latter can often happen silently (especially if it's running under
a laissez-faire OS).


--
Michael Wojcik          	        michael.wojcik@merant.com
AAI Development, MERANT                 (block capitals are a company mandate)
Department of English, Miami University

Therefore, it is possible to enjoy further by using under the
Netscape 2.0.  However, Netscape will hangup at sometimes.  You
should give it up.
   -- roro

######

From: mww@merant.com (Michael Wojcik)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 1 Oct 1999 21:59:31 GMT
Organization: MERANT Inc.
Lines: 36
Message-ID: <7t3as4$2nfv@news2.newsguy.com>
References: <7ssht4$c3j$1@gondor.sdsu.edu> <7sstc2$rvf$3@winter.news.rcn.net> <7stf1a$26t0@news1.newsguy.com> <F4B9D782557865DD.E86AEF5831278EE4.9CBD8217956DA1E4@lp.airnews.net> <7svhhi$ske$4@winter.news.rcn.net> <583.942T177T5553274@sky.bus.com> <37F3A729.552E907A@plano.net> <7t2abp$pa3$5@winter.news.rcn.net>
Reply-To: michael.wojcik@merant.com
NNTP-Posting-Host: p-578.newsdawg.com
X-Newsreader: xrn 9.00
Originator: mww@lorelei-n
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!skynet.be!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!su-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.gtei.net!pln-w!spln!extra.newsguy.com!newsp.newsguy.com!mww


In article <7t2abp$pa3$5@winter.news.rcn.net>, jmfbahciv@aol.com writes:
> In article <37F3A729.552E907A@plano.net>,
>    Charles Richmond <richmond@plano.net> wrote:
> >Charlie Gibbs wrote:
> <snip>
> 
> Hey, Charles.  Your ISP seems to have developed a stutter.
> Or did you double-click three times :-).

Actually, Barb, I saw one of your messages pop up three times in this
thread too.  Usually it's a problem with a news transfer agent
somewhere - not necessarily at the sender's or the recipient's
adjacent hop.  If your reader shows the full headers, you can
sometimes tell where the problem is by comparing the Path headers
from the duplicated posts.

Since Usenet gets propagated in a somewhat, um, stochastic fashion,
this sort of thing is to be expected.  It doesn't happen more often
because the protocol contains some decent checks for it; more
extensive checks would impair performance, and aren't necessary.

My newsfeed comes from Newsguy, and they filter their feeds for
duplicates and spam and whatnot (I see *much* less spam since I
switched from our corporate feed to Newsguy), so I was kind of
surprised to see two dups in one day.


--
Michael Wojcik          	        michael.wojcik@merant.com
AAI Development, MERANT                 (block capitals are a company mandate)
Department of English, Miami University

If Mokona means for us to eat this, I, a gentle person, will become
angry!
   -- Umi (CLAMP & unknown translator), _Magic Knight Rayearth_

######

From: jshaffer@mail.csrlink.net (Jim Shaffer, Jr.)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 1 Oct 1999 23:16:02 -0500
Organization: Rational Irrationalists
Lines: 13
Message-ID: <37f85768.164492554@news.uplink.net>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7stf1a$26t0@news1.newsguy.com> <F4B9D782557865DD.E86AEF5831278EE4.9CBD8217956DA1E4@lp.airnews.net> <7svhhi$ske$4@winter.news.rcn.net> <7t30dh$69n$1@ankka.csc.fi>
Reply-To: jshaffer@mail.csrlink.net
NNTP-Posting-Host: 209.173.98.28
NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 01 Oct 1999 23:15:08 CDT
X-Trace: newscene.newscene.com 938837708 209.173.98.28 (Fri, 01 Oct 1999 23:15:08 CDT)
X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 1.5/32.451
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!skynet.be!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!newsfeed.stanford.edu!novia!sequencer.newscene.com!not-for-mail

On 1 Oct 1999 19:01:05 GMT, slaur@sekunda.pp.utu.fi (Sam Laur) wrote:

>Now, this is the time that the RDS MJD day number goes to 65536. Another
>epoch that may cause problems in equipment, though how many RDS-using FM
>stations there will be in 2038? (Exactly the same reasoning that is behind
>the Y2K madness now :))

Actually, the U.S. will probably just be starting to use RDS by then...

-- 
Williamsport Area Computer Club <http://www.sunlink.net/wacc>
Susquehanna Valley Amateur Astronomers <http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Hangar/2999/svaa.html>
Personal Home Page <http://woodstock.csrlink.net/~jshaffer>

######

From: genew@shuswap.net (Gene Wirchenko)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Sat, 02 Oct 1999 00:40:34 GMT
Organization: Okanagan Internet Junction
Lines: 32
Message-ID: <37f50bf3.9071416@news.shuswap.net>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <+JrqN2BSco0Y8OoWtpgs0D0lIq5u@4ax.com> <37F0970C.FFE37EDA@inthan.be> <7squt8$10e@news2.newsguy.com> <zJ8I3.1870$L85.108215@ptah.visi.com> <7ssht4$c3j$1@gondor.sdsu.edu> <7sstc2$rvf$3@winter.news.rcn.net> <7stf1a$26t0@news1.newsguy.com> <F4B9D782557865DD.E86AEF5831278EE4.9CBD8217956DA1E4@lp.airnews.net> <7svhhi$ske$4@winter.news.rcn.net> <Sn3zN=OL4HBrEAEJusqPbz63dwh3@4ax.com> <MPG.125b2d5598a947ff989695@usenet.force9.net>
Reply-To: genew@shuswap.net
NNTP-Posting-Host: salmonarm3-22.shuswap.net
X-Trace: news.junction.net 938824796 9274 206.87.124.104 (2 Oct 1999 00:39:56 GMT)
X-Complaints-To: abuse@junction.net
NNTP-Posting-Date: 2 Oct 1999 00:39:56 GMT
X-Newsreader: Forte Free Agent 1.1/32.230
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news.belnet.be!newsfeeds.belnet.be!news.belnet.be!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!cyclone.bc.net!news.junction.net!not-for-mail

neil@platypus.NOSPAM.force9.co.uk (Neil Sluman) wrote:

>In article <Sn3zN=OL4HBrEAEJusqPbz63dwh3@4ax.com>, 
>alex*@*rockvax.rockefeller.edu says...
>> On Thu, 30 Sep 99 09:19:21 GMT, jmfbahciv@aol.com wrote:
>> 
>> >In article 
>> ><F4B9D782557865DD.E86AEF5831278EE4.9CBD8217956DA1E4@lp.airnews.net>,
>> >   Jim Stewart <jstewart@jkmicro.com> wrote:
>> >>
>> >>When you see the comment "There Be Dragons", you know you're in trouble.
>> >
>> >Nah, the better one is, "This'll never happen".
>> 
>> I know I am in trouble when I see _error message_ 
>> "This'll never happen" appear
>> in the running program ;-)
>> 
>A FOAF had "Error code 172:  This error code reserved for future use"

     If anyone wants to start up a company making terrible software,
I've got the slogan for you:
          The future is now.

Sincerely,

Gene Wirchenko

Computerese Irregular Verb Conjugation:
     I have preferences.
     You have biases.
     He/She has prejudices.

######

From: Mike Swaim <swaim@gemini.c-com.net>
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <+JrqN2BSco0Y8OoWtpgs0D0lIq5u@4ax.com> <37F0970C.FFE37EDA@inthan.be> <7squt8$10e@news2.newsguy.com> <zJ8I3.1870$L85.108215@ptah.visi.com> <7ssht4$c3j$1@gondor.sdsu.edu> <7sstc2$rvf$3@winter.news.rcn.net> <7stf1a$26t0@news1.newsguy.com> <F4B9D782557865DD.E86AEF5831278EE4.9CBD8217956DA1E4@lp.airnews.net> <7svhhi$ske$4@winter.news.rcn.net> <7t3a9m$280n@news1.newsguy.com>
Organization: PointeCom
User-Agent: tin/pre-1.4-980818 ("Laura") (UNIX) (FreeBSD/2.2.8-RELEASE (i386))
Lines: 24
Message-ID: <UXdJ3.30481$d71.875932@news4.giganews.com>
NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 01 Oct 1999 21:18:28 CDT
X-Trace: sv1-F3V04a4n2wdjXPBt205pIVH/eozh1VIij2XOLSSKaBRc0C0iZJnP/thnVPoTe6pt+kInVu887bsjow0!dj4PiE0Kkno=
X-Complaints-To: abuse@GigaNews.Com
X-Abuse-Info: Please be sure to forward a copy of ALL headers
X-Abuse-Info: Otherwise we will be unable to process your complaint properly
Date: Sat, 02 Oct 1999 02:18:28 GMT
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!skynet.be!cyclone.bc.net!newsfeed.direct.ca!nntp2.giganews.com!news4.giganews.com.POSTED!gemini.c-com.net!swaim

Michael Wojcik <mww@merant.com> wrote:
: I'm heartily in favor of that sort of thing.  It's always better for
: the app to say "I don't know how I got here, so I'm giving up" than
: for it to just randomly stumble around - particularly since the
: latter can often happen silently (especially if it's running under
: a laissez-faire OS).

  One of my current projects is an application to bridge data from a new
system to an existing system. The new system is a good exercise on how not
to do software development, and while it feeds data into 4 or 5 other
systems, it's not happy doing so, and niether is any of the other systems.
I currently have three broad classes of error messages:
1) That'll have to be bridged manually,
2) I have no idea what you want me to do with this,
3) Invalid/missing data.

(And people from one of the other systems ambushed me by having a meeting
in my cubicle. I got them to go away by convincing them that we weren't
the right people to have the meeting.)

-- 
Mike Swaim, Avatar of Chaos: Disclaimer:I sometimes lie.
Home: swaim@c-com.net
Alum: swaim@alumni.rice.edu  Quote: "Boingie"^4 Y,W&D

######

From: jmfbahciv@aol.com
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Sat, 02 Oct 99 08:04:29 GMT
Organization: UltraNet Communications, Inc.
Lines: 30
Message-ID: <7t4ltq$s0h$2@winter.news.rcn.net>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <+JrqN2BSco0Y8OoWtpgs0D0lIq5u@4ax.com> <37F0970C.FFE37EDA@inthan.be> <7squt8$10e@news2.newsguy.com> <zJ8I3.1870$L85.108215@ptah.visi.com> <7ssht4$c3j$1@gondor.sdsu.edu> <7sstc2$rvf$3@winter.news.rcn.net> <7stf1a$26t0@news1.newsguy.com> <F4B9D782557865DD.E86AEF5831278EE4.9CBD8217956DA1E4@lp.airnews.net> <7svhhi$ske$4@winter.news.rcn.net> <Sn3zN=OL4HBrEAEJusqPbz63dwh3@4ax.com> <7t29v9$pa3$2@winter.news.rcn.net> <37f4f23d.2498328@news.shuswap.net>
X-Trace: I/r1awZnBmVH2kahel428P+2wHZXOvC/oYlsmKjWBI0=
X-Complaints-To: abuse@rcn.com
NNTP-Posting-Date: 2 Oct 1999 10:14:18 GMT
X-Newsreader:  News Xpress Version 1.0 Beta #4
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news.maxwell.syr.edu!feed1.news.rcn.net!rcn!d15

In article <37f4f23d.2498328@news.shuswap.net>,
   genew@shuswap.net (Gene Wirchenko) wrote:
>jmfbahciv@aol.com wrote:
>
>>In article <Sn3zN=OL4HBrEAEJusqPbz63dwh3@4ax.com>,
>>   Alexandre Pechtchanski <alex*@*rockvax.rockefeller.edu> wrote:
>>>On Thu, 30 Sep 99 09:19:21 GMT, jmfbahciv@aol.com wrote:
>>>
>>>>In article 
>>>><F4B9D782557865DD.E86AEF5831278EE4.9CBD8217956DA1E4@lp.airnews.net>,
>>>>   Jim Stewart <jstewart@jkmicro.com> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>When you see the comment "There Be Dragons", you know you're in 
trouble.
>>>>
>>>>Nah, the better one is, "This'll never happen".
>>>
>>>I know I am in trouble when I see _error message_ "This'll 
>>>never happen" appear in the running program ;-)
>>
>>Yup.  And, before you open up the source to fix the problem,
>>you pray that it was written by a maintainer, not the author.
>
>     My attitude to that sort of code is that it will be.  If I have
>to change it once, I may have to again.  It's rewrite bait.
Unfortunately, we usually didn't have that luxury :-(.

/BAH

Subtract a hundred and four for e-mail.

######

From: jmfbahciv@aol.com
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Sat, 02 Oct 99 10:25:51 GMT
Organization: UltraNet Communications, Inc.
Lines: 41
Message-ID: <7t4u6r$71t$1@winter.news.rcn.net>
References: <7ssht4$c3j$1@gondor.sdsu.edu> <7sstc2$rvf$3@winter.news.rcn.net> <7stf1a$26t0@news1.newsguy.com> <F4B9D782557865DD.E86AEF5831278EE4.9CBD8217956DA1E4@lp.airnews.net> <7svhhi$ske$4@winter.news.rcn.net> <583.942T177T5553274@sky.bus.com> <37F3A729.552E907A@plano.net> <7t2abp$pa3$5@winter.news.rcn.net> <7t3as4$2nfv@news2.newsguy.com>
X-Trace: apjePoNJkM55k5GnYsoUJXyIrEHXLDlV7L2rfyHFSiw=
X-Complaints-To: abuse@rcn.com
NNTP-Posting-Date: 2 Oct 1999 12:35:39 GMT
X-Newsreader:  News Xpress Version 1.0 Beta #4
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news.maxwell.syr.edu!feed1.news.rcn.net!rcn!d15

In article <7t3as4$2nfv@news2.newsguy.com>,
   mww@merant.com (Michael Wojcik) wrote:
>
>In article <7t2abp$pa3$5@winter.news.rcn.net>, jmfbahciv@aol.com writes:
>> In article <37F3A729.552E907A@plano.net>,
>>    Charles Richmond <richmond@plano.net> wrote:
>> >Charlie Gibbs wrote:
>> <snip>
>> 
>> Hey, Charles.  Your ISP seems to have developed a stutter.
>> Or did you double-click three times :-).
>
>Actually, Barb, I saw one of your messages pop up three times in this
>thread too.  

I wonder if that was the one when the ISP paused for a very long
time.  This newsgroup software got converted to a non-Unix
(my speculation from [non]performance data) when my ISP was
bought out.  I thought I saw the message get shipped twice.

>Usually it's a problem with a news transfer agent
>somewhere - not necessarily at the sender's or the recipient's
>adjacent hop.  If your reader shows the full headers, you can
>sometimes tell where the problem is by comparing the Path headers
>from the duplicated posts.

Yup, I learned about that a while ago :-).  But I didn't see 
any others (I've seen more since) so I wanted to know if he
had the stutter as a part of my keeping up with data 
propogation studies.  It's an old habit of mine to keep
track of bit flows, eruptions, and evolutions.

I wasn't yelling at the guy.  I truly wanted to know.

/BAH

<snip>

/BAH

Subtract a hundred and four for e-mail.

######

From: jmfbahciv@aol.com
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Sat, 02 Oct 99 10:28:55 GMT
Organization: UltraNet Communications, Inc.
Lines: 27
Message-ID: <7t4uci$71t$2@winter.news.rcn.net>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <+JrqN2BSco0Y8OoWtpgs0D0lIq5u@4ax.com> <37F0970C.FFE37EDA@inthan.be> <7squt8$10e@news2.newsguy.com> <zJ8I3.1870$L85.108215@ptah.visi.com> <7ssht4$c3j$1@gondor.sdsu.edu> <7sstc2$rvf$3@winter.news.rcn.net> <7stf1a$26t0@news1.newsguy.com> <F4B9D782557865DD.E86AEF5831278EE4.9CBD8217956DA1E4@lp.airnews.net> <7svhhi$ske$4@winter.news.rcn.net> <Sn3zN=OL4HBrEAEJusqPbz63dwh3@4ax.com> <MPG.125b2d5598a947ff989695@usenet.force9.net>
X-Trace: apjePoNJkM7ll+Wnbg58RMrIavWM2Nz34CcSb1Syj8M=
X-Complaints-To: abuse@rcn.com
NNTP-Posting-Date: 2 Oct 1999 12:38:42 GMT
X-Newsreader:  News Xpress Version 1.0 Beta #4
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!isdnet!netnews.com!feed1.news.rcn.net!rcn!d15

In article <MPG.125b2d5598a947ff989695@usenet.force9.net>,
   neil@platypus.NOSPAM.force9.co.uk (Neil Sluman) wrote:
>In article <Sn3zN=OL4HBrEAEJusqPbz63dwh3@4ax.com>, 
>alex*@*rockvax.rockefeller.edu says...
>> On Thu, 30 Sep 99 09:19:21 GMT, jmfbahciv@aol.com wrote:
>> 
>> >In article 
>> ><F4B9D782557865DD.E86AEF5831278EE4.9CBD8217956DA1E4@lp.airnews.net>,
>> >   Jim Stewart <jstewart@jkmicro.com> wrote:
>> >>
>> >>When you see the comment "There Be Dragons", you know you're in 
trouble.
>> >
>> >Nah, the better one is, "This'll never happen".
>> 
>> I know I am in trouble when I see _error message_ 
>> "This'll never happen" appear
>> in the running program ;-)
>> 
>A FOAF had "Error code 172:  This error code reserved for future use"

One just knows that this programmer never got done with his
"to do" list or lost it. :-)

/BAH

Subtract a hundred and four for e-mail.

######

From: jmfbahciv@aol.com
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Sat, 02 Oct 99 10:36:13 GMT
Organization: UltraNet Communications, Inc.
Lines: 39
Message-ID: <7t4uq8$71t$3@winter.news.rcn.net>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <+JrqN2BSco0Y8OoWtpgs0D0lIq5u@4ax.com> <37F0970C.FFE37EDA@inthan.be> <7squt8$10e@news2.newsguy.com> <zJ8I3.1870$L85.108215@ptah.visi.com> <7ssht4$c3j$1@gondor.sdsu.edu> <7sstc2$rvf$3@winter.news.rcn.net> <7stf1a$26t0@news1.newsguy.com> <F4B9D782557865DD.E86AEF5831278EE4.9CBD8217956DA1E4@lp.airnews.net> <7svhhi$ske$4@winter.news.rcn.net> <7t3a9m$280n@news1.newsguy.com>
X-Trace: 1R6/xuFtFP5aBwohSz2KifFlAhT7ZoNy2h8Dpr6izwA=
X-Complaints-To: abuse@rcn.com
NNTP-Posting-Date: 2 Oct 1999 12:46:00 GMT
X-Newsreader:  News Xpress Version 1.0 Beta #4
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!isdnet!netnews.com!feed1.news.rcn.net!rcn!d15

In article <7t3a9m$280n@news1.newsguy.com>,
   mww@merant.com (Michael Wojcik) wrote:
>
>In article <7svhhi$ske$4@winter.news.rcn.net>, jmfbahciv@aol.com writes:
>> In article 
>> <F4B9D782557865DD.E86AEF5831278EE4.9CBD8217956DA1E4@lp.airnews.net>,
>>    Jim Stewart <jstewart@jkmicro.com> wrote:
>
>> >When you see the comment "There Be Dragons", you know you're in 
trouble.
>
>> Nah, the better one is, "This'll never happen".
>
>Actually, that can be a good sign, when it indicates defensive
>programming.  "If I understand the algorithm and data set completely,
>and I've implemented everything correctly, then we can never reach
>this code path - but I'm coding for it just in case I'm not perfect,
>or some external agent corrupts program execution."

Well, that attitude was at the heart of TOPS10s philosophy.
Whenever I got that message, or breakpoint, I just knew I
was going to have a very bad day....actually, month.

>
>I'm heartily in favor of that sort of thing.  It's always better for
>the app to say "I don't know how I got here, so I'm giving up" than
>for it to just randomly stumble around - particularly since the
>latter can often happen silently (especially if it's running under
>a laissez-faire OS).

TW was incredibly lazy :-).  It was much better to stop the
computer than mess around tromping all over MFDs, UFDs, and
data on the disks.  He didn't mind fixing disks by hand
once in a while, but he did mind fixing all of the on-line
disks if it was his code that munged them.

/BAH

Subtract a hundred and four for e-mail.

######

From: jmfbahciv@aol.com
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Sat, 02 Oct 99 10:38:48 GMT
Organization: UltraNet Communications, Inc.
Lines: 20
Message-ID: <7t4uv3$71t$4@winter.news.rcn.net>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <+JrqN2BSco0Y8OoWtpgs0D0lIq5u@4ax.com> <37F0970C.FFE37EDA@inthan.be> <7squt8$10e@news2.newsguy.com> <zJ8I3.1870$L85.108215@ptah.visi.com> <7ssht4$c3j$1@gondor.sdsu.edu> <7sstc2$rvf$3@winter.news.rcn.net> <7stf1a$26t0@news1.newsguy.com> <F4B9D782557865DD.E86AEF5831278EE4.9CBD8217956DA1E4@lp.airnews.net> <7svhhi$ske$4@winter.news.rcn.net> <7t3a9m$280n@news1.newsguy.com> <UXdJ3.30481$d71.875932@news4.giganews.com>
X-Trace: a0IB4lVGLg1v4yK91NVpYKNiVVJ/gcnOMPBDLe5G5Z4=
X-Complaints-To: abuse@rcn.com
NNTP-Posting-Date: 2 Oct 1999 12:48:35 GMT
X-Newsreader:  News Xpress Version 1.0 Beta #4
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!nyc-news-feed1.bbnplanet.com!washdc3-snh1.gtei.net!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.gtei.net!feed1.news.rcn.net!rcn!d15

In article <UXdJ3.30481$d71.875932@news4.giganews.com>,
   Mike Swaim <swaim@gemini.c-com.net> wrote:
>Michael Wojcik <mww@merant.com> wrote:

>: I'm heartily in favor of that sort of thing.  It's always better for
>: the app to say "I don't know how I got here, so I'm giving up" than
>: for it to just randomly stumble around - particularly since the
>: latter can often happen silently (especially if it's running under
>: a laissez-faire OS).
>
>  One of my current projects is an application to bridge data from a new
>system to an existing system. 
<snip hints of trouble :-)>

Ahem, isn't that the wrong way around?  Our customers wanted
tools to go from old systems to new ones.

/BAH

Subtract a hundred and four for e-mail.

######

From: jmfbahciv@aol.com
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Sat, 02 Oct 99 10:47:12 GMT
Organization: UltraNet Communications, Inc.
Lines: 57
Message-ID: <7t4ver$71t$5@winter.news.rcn.net>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7svhhi$ske$4@winter.news.rcn.net> <Sn3zN=OL4HBrEAEJusqPbz63dwh3@4ax.com> <7t29v9$pa3$2@winter.news.rcn.net> <7t3ae4$m44$1@hawkins.cba.uni.edu>
X-Trace: eCoBzXR6qhYT/AtSAGcARj5Uze87/AU0FBCJIw7G/jo=
X-Complaints-To: abuse@rcn.com
NNTP-Posting-Date: 2 Oct 1999 12:56:59 GMT
X-Newsreader:  News Xpress Version 1.0 Beta #4
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news.maxwell.syr.edu!feed1.news.rcn.net!rcn!d15

In article <7t3ae4$m44$1@hawkins.cba.uni.edu>,
   hawk@hawkins.cba.uni.edu (Richard E. Hawkins) wrote:
>In article <7t29v9$pa3$2@winter.news.rcn.net>,  <jmfbahciv@aol.com> wrote:
>>   Alexandre Pechtchanski <alex*@*rockvax.rockefeller.edu> wrote:
>
>>>On Thu, 30 Sep 99 09:19:21 GMT, jmfbahciv@aol.com wrote:
>
>>>>   Jim Stewart <jstewart@jkmicro.com> wrote:
>
>>>>>When you see the comment "There Be Dragons", you 
>>>>>know you're in trouble.
>
>>>>Nah, the better one is, "This'll never happen".
>
>>>I know I am in trouble when I see _error message_ "This'll 
>>>never happen" appear in the running program ;-)
>
>>Yup.  And, before you open up the source to fix the problem,
>>you pray that it was written by a maintainer, not the author.
>
>Is it possible to write code *without* these? 

Without what?  Maintainers? :-)

The real answer is no--not if the coding convention requires
a skip return to indicate success.  We had an operating system
that had one of those conventions.  It was a RPITA.
 

> I usually have a few of
>these, though they get deleted by the time I'm done . . .

Well, it depends on the task.  For instance, if my program
has done all it's supposed to do in setting up data for input
(file exists, contains appropriate data, can be read, etc.)
and I go read, read, read, munch, munch, read, read, hiccup,
that hiccup should have never happened.  Now I really have
to figure out if I want to swallow anything that I've munched
or if I want to start over, or if I just want some human
being to make the decision for me.

>
>$*)^%)(
>
>Since when does debian have the AOL bug of requiring more new content
>than quoted message???  Next year's job is definitely at someplace
>with a more up to date computer, so that I can bo back to BSD and 
>build everything from source, denannyfied . . .
>
>and while I'm at it, the "milllions & millions" warning eats it, too.
>
HUH?  Are you having troubles?

/BAH


Subtract a hundred and four for e-mail.

######

From: hawk@hawkins.cba.uni.edu (Richard E. Hawkins)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 2 Oct 1999 10:24:50 -0500
Organization: House of Hawkins
Lines: 19
Message-ID: <7t5843$ogl$1@hawkins.cba.uni.edu>
References: <7ssht4$c3j$1@gondor.sdsu.edu> <583.942T177T5553274@sky.bus.com> <37F3A729.552E907A@plano.net> <7t2abp$pa3$5@winter.news.rcn.net>
NNTP-Posting-Host: hawkins.cba.uni.edu
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!uunet!ams.uu.net!ffx.uu.net!finch!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.physics.uiowa.edu!news.uni.edu!not-for-mail

In article <7t2abp$pa3$5@winter.news.rcn.net>,  <jmfbahciv@aol.com> wrote:
>In article <37F3A729.552E907A@plano.net>,
>   Charles Richmond <richmond@plano.net> wrote:
>>Charlie Gibbs wrote:
><snip>

>Hey, Charles.  Your ISP seems to have developed a stutter.
>Or did you double-click three times :-).

Double click?  With the heels, to get back from Oz to Kansas?
Nobody could possibly be reading *this* of all newsgroups
with something that needs a rodent, could they? :)


-- 
Prof. Richard E. Hawkins, Esq.   
                                               hawk@hawkins.cba.uni.edu
(319) 266-7114                        http://eyry.econ.iastate.edu/hawk
These opinions will not be those of UNI until it pays my retainer.

######

From: Charles Richmond <richmond@plano.net>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Sat, 02 Oct 1999 16:17:44 +0000
Organization: Cannine Computer Center
Lines: 11
Message-ID: <37F63028.1D5485D6@plano.net>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <+JrqN2BSco0Y8OoWtpgs0D0lIq5u@4ax.com> <37F0970C.FFE37EDA@inthan.be> <7squt8$10e@news2.newsguy.com> <zJ8I3.1870$L85.108215@ptah.visi.com> <7ssht4$c3j$1@gondor.sdsu.edu> <7sstc2$rvf$3@winter.news.rcn.net> <7stf1a$26t0@news1.newsguy.com> <F4B9D782557865DD.E86AEF5831278EE4.9CBD8217956DA1E4@lp.airnews.net> <7svhhi$ske$4@winter.news.rcn.net> <Sn3zN=OL4HBrEAEJusqPbz63dwh3@4ax.com> <MPG.125b2d5598a947ff989695@usenet.force9.net> <37f50bf3.9071416@news.shuswap.net>
Reply-To: richmond@plano.net
X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.03 (Macintosh; I; 68K)
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!news-peer-europe.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!howland.erols.net!news.idt.net!attmtf!ip.att.net!remarQ-easT!rQdQ!supernews.com!remarQ.com!corp.supernews.com!not-for-mail

Gene Wirchenko wrote:
> 
> I've got the slogan for you:
>           The future is now.
> 
> Sincerely,
How about:  "It just doesn't get any better than this."

+-------------------------------------------------------------+
|     Charles and Francis Richmond     <richmond@plano.net>   |
+-------------------------------------------------------------+

######

From: Charles Richmond <richmond@plano.net>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Sat, 02 Oct 1999 16:23:29 +0000
Organization: Cannine Computer Center
Lines: 18
Message-ID: <37F63182.E0CE00BE@plano.net>
References: <7ssht4$c3j$1@gondor.sdsu.edu> <7sstc2$rvf$3@winter.news.rcn.net> <7stf1a$26t0@news1.newsguy.com> <F4B9D782557865DD.E86AEF5831278EE4.9CBD8217956DA1E4@lp.airnews.net> <7svhhi$ske$4@winter.news.rcn.net> <583.942T177T5553274@sky.bus.com> <37F3A729.552E907A@plano.net> <7t2abp$pa3$5@winter.news.rcn.net>
Reply-To: richmond@plano.net
X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.03 (Macintosh; I; 68K)
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news-fra1.dfn.de!news0.de.colt.net!colt.net!newspeer.clara.net!news.clara.net!remarQ-uK!rQdQ!supernews.com!remarQ.com!corp.supernews.com!not-for-mail

jmfbahciv@aol.com wrote:
> 
> In article <37F3A729.552E907A@plano.net>,
>    Charles Richmond <richmond@plano.net> wrote:
> >Charlie Gibbs wrote:
> <snip>
> 
> Hey, Charles.  Your ISP seems to have developed a stutter.
> Or did you double-click three times :-).
> 
Sorry about that.  I kept getting a pop-up that said something like:
"Server cannot honor your request at this time.  Try again later."
It seems that every time I tried, the server *did* post a message.

-- 
+-------------------------------------------------------------+
|     Charles and Francis Richmond     <richmond@plano.net>   |
+-------------------------------------------------------------+

######

From: Charles Richmond <richmond@plano.net>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Sat, 02 Oct 1999 16:28:07 +0000
Organization: Cannine Computer Center
Lines: 46
Message-ID: <37F63297.55CEAB2F@plano.net>
References: <7svhhi$ske$4@winter.news.rcn.net> <583.942T177T5553274@sky.bus.com> <37F3A457.407FC0BF@plano.net> <7t2jjs$1lcm$1@ausnews.austin.ibm.com> <KhX1N407tyKGLibwWn0mrSEaM=t5@4ax.com> <1388.943T1944T9295189@sky.bus.com>
Reply-To: richmond@plano.net
X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.03 (Macintosh; I; 68K)
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!enews.sgi.com!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!newsfeed.axxsys.net!remarQ-easT!rQdQ!supernews.com!remarQ.com!corp.supernews.com!not-for-mail

Charlie Gibbs wrote:
> 
> In article <KhX1N407tyKGLibwWn0mrSEaM=t5@4ax.com>
> alex*@*rockvax.rockefeller.edu (Alexandre Pechtchanski) writes:
> 
> >On 1 Oct 1999 15:22:36 GMT, glass2@glass2.lexington.ibm.com wrote:
> >
> >[ snip ]
> >>In about 1993, I was maintaining an ancient piece of code, and
> >>came upon my favorite comment.  It said:
> >>
> >> /* The following two lines are a temporary fix for the */
> >> /* blah-blah problem.                      21 Sep 1971 */
> >>
> >>You can be very sure that I didn't touch those two lines of
> >>code!  I figured that if that temporary fix had been good
> >>enough for 22 years, that they were good enough for another
> >>couple.  :*)
> >>
> 
> >My father, a civil engineer, is fond of telling this story of
> >temporary structures:
> >In the yard of one Florence palazzos stands a bathtub, temporary
> >left there in 1575.
> 
> Hence a tenet of my personal philosophy:
> 
>     Treat your every move as if it were irrevocable;
>     it probably is, whether you realize it or not.
> 
> This explains my opposition to quick-and-dirty systems.  A "one-shot"
> report is one that a manager only wants once... this week.  "Say, I
> _like_ this report.  Have a copy on my desk every Monday morning."
> 
Yes, I have re-worked a program that was supposed to be "throw away" software.
Fortunately, I was able to track down the original programmer, who still worked
for the company.  He was able to remember an amazing amount, considering the time
elapsed since he wrote it.  He even came up with some notes on the software.

The problem with "throw away" software is...people forget to *throw* it away!!!
I read somewhere that programs of 100+ lines just do *not* get thrown out.

-- 
+-------------------------------------------------------------+
|     Charles and Francis Richmond     <richmond@plano.net>   |
+-------------------------------------------------------------+

######

From: Charles Richmond <richmond@plano.net>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Sat, 02 Oct 1999 16:37:17 +0000
Organization: Cannine Computer Center
Lines: 25
Message-ID: <37F634BD.95F88075@plano.net>
References: <7ssht4$c3j$1@gondor.sdsu.edu> <583.942T177T5553274@sky.bus.com> <37F3A729.552E907A@plano.net> <7t2abp$pa3$5@winter.news.rcn.net> <7t5843$ogl$1@hawkins.cba.uni.edu>
Reply-To: richmond@plano.net
X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.03 (Macintosh; I; 68K)
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newsfeed.icl.net!newspeer.clara.net!news.clara.net!remarQ-uK!rQdQ!supernews.com!remarQ.com!corp.supernews.com!not-for-mail

Richard E. Hawkins wrote:
> 
> In article <7t2abp$pa3$5@winter.news.rcn.net>,  <jmfbahciv@aol.com> wrote:
> >In article <37F3A729.552E907A@plano.net>,
> >   Charles Richmond <richmond@plano.net> wrote:
> >>Charlie Gibbs wrote:
> ><snip>
> 
> >Hey, Charles.  Your ISP seems to have developed a stutter.
> >Or did you double-click three times :-).
> 
> Double click?  With the heels, to get back from Oz to Kansas?
> Nobody could possibly be reading *this* of all newsgroups
> with something that needs a rodent, could they? :)
> 
Since the computer mouse was patented around 1970, I think that
computer rodentia are a time-honored method of entering information.
That means that the mouse has been squeaking around for about 30 years.
(To get back to Kansas, you have to double click and keep repeating:
"There's no place like ROM...There's no place like ROM...")

-- 
+-------------------------------------------------------------+
|     Charles and Francis Richmond     <richmond@plano.net>   |
+-------------------------------------------------------------+

######

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
From: kevin@vailstar.com (Kevin Michael Vail)
Date: Sat, 2 Oct 1999 20:49:37 -0400
Message-ID: <1dz2ej8.8cdzihybte0wN@[192.168.0.4]>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7qjlnv$r1l$1@nnrp1.deja.com> <37ced3ff@195.34.192.13> <37CF1B3C.3BB0@xpert.net> <uob4r7.n5.ln@mycomputer.invalid.us> <37d7cf96.175975182@mindmeld.idcomm.com> <37da20ae.15732201@news.netcomuk.co.uk> <938077627.22137.0.nnrp-13.c2de7f0d@news.demon.co.uk> <+JrqN2BSco0Y8OoWtpgs0D0lIq5u@4ax.com> <37F0970C.FFE37EDA@inthan.be> <7squt8$10e@news2.newsguy.com> <zJ8I3.1870$L85.108215@ptah.visi.com> <7ssht4$c3j$1@gondor.sdsu.edu> <7sstc2$rvf$3@winter.news.rcn.net> <7stf1a$26t0@news1.newsguy.com> <F4B9D782557865DD.E86AEF5831278EE4.9CBD8217956DA1E4@lp.airnews.net> <7svhhi$ske$4@winter.news.rcn.net> <7t3a9m$280n@news1.newsguy.com> <UXdJ3.30481$d71.875932@news4.giganews.com>
Organization: The Vail-Starn Family
X-Face: 5!tfUy?b,\Mh8up",rDEyx`86g9e1<DPh"QzkY"j!+H6'}GRkv+FpX`"~w<ufUCcEc!+R*X
 L0aoMj,ut]"r/e&Wh'{Kj,b@bZ4h9-dR7)LBOu)7vs,E<l'$Wa(^t(D::9zKMC8nVGsjpLEvDo6x9u
 ^V*]8RUntF%Y>r2U^R4.E
User-Agent: MacSOUP/2.4
NNTP-Posting-Host: vailstar.his.com
Lines: 21
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!isdnet!netnews.com!newspeer1.nac.net!nntp.frontiernet.net!nntp.gctr.net!news4.his.com!kevin

Mike Swaim <swaim@gemini.c-com.net> wrote:

[snip]

> I currently have three broad classes of error messages:
> 1) That'll have to be bridged manually,
> 2) I have no idea what you want me to do with this,
> 3) Invalid/missing data.

All error messages fall into these three classes.  I call them "What?",
"How?", and "Sorry!, after the only three error messages that TRS-80
Level I Basic had:

"What?"  (I have no idea what you want me to do with this.)
"How?"   (I know what you want but it's not possible.)
"Sorry!" (I know what you want and I tried, but failed.  Bummer.)

But I've never seen them laid out quite so clearly before!
-- 
Kevin Michael Vail    | When people are going to a mountain, they should
kevin@vailstar.com    | forget the molehills.   --Tenzing Norgay

######

From: Luc Van der Veken <lucvdv@null.net>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Organization: .
Message-ID: <0kr2N4=5EPq7=cBLJuNoBZHYfon7@4ax.com>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7svhhi$ske$4@winter.news.rcn.net> <Sn3zN=OL4HBrEAEJusqPbz63dwh3@4ax.com> <7t29v9$pa3$2@winter.news.rcn.net> <7t3ae4$m44$1@hawkins.cba.uni.edu>
X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 1.6/32.525
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Lines: 21
Date: Sat, 02 Oct 1999 20:52:48 +0200
NNTP-Posting-Host: 212.123.10.65
X-Complaints-To: abuse@pandora.be
X-Trace: afrodite.telenet-ops.be 938890411 212.123.10.65 (Sat, 02 Oct 1999 20:53:31 MET DST)
NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 02 Oct 1999 20:53:31 MET DST
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news-fra1.dfn.de!news0.de.colt.net!colt.net!newsfeeds.belnet.be!news.belnet.be!afrodite.telenet-ops.be!not-for-mail

Richard E. Hawkins posted:

> Since when does debian have the AOL bug of requiring more new content
> than quoted message???

You call that a bug???

Take a look around, for instance, the microsoft.public.win2000.*
newsgroups (where I spent some time lately) - after five minutes,
you'll be convinced that it's a feature (and let me warn you, if
you should decide to really go there, *don't* use any words like
"netiquette" and "acceptable use", don't even ask them politely
to adjust their posting habits, unless you want to draw a series
of flames).

BTW, are you sure it's debian?  At least one of my (3) ISP's
(uunet.be) refuses posts that don't meet that criterium (but only
for posts exceeding a certain minimum length).
According to netcraft, their news server is running BSD (in case
you meant 'debian' in that direction).

######

From: Luc Van der Veken <lucvdv@null.net>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Organization: .
Message-ID: <YlX2N6h8WOIpShdFWw6UujpSlqOQ@4ax.com>
References: <+JrqN2BSco0Y8OoWtpgs0D0lIq5u@4ax.com> <37F0970C.FFE37EDA@inthan.be> <7squt8$10e@news2.newsguy.com> <zJ8I3.1870$L85.108215@ptah.visi.com> <7ssht4$c3j$1@gondor.sdsu.edu> <7sstc2$rvf$3@winter.news.rcn.net> <7stf1a$26t0@news1.newsguy.com> <F4B9D782557865DD.E86AEF5831278EE4.9CBD8217956DA1E4@lp.airnews.net> <7svhhi$ske$4@winter.news.rcn.net> <Sn3zN=OL4HBrEAEJusqPbz63dwh3@4ax.com> <MPG.125b2d5598a947ff989695@usenet.force9.net> <7t4uci$71t$2@winter.news.rcn.net>
X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 1.6/32.525
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Lines: 31
Date: Sat, 02 Oct 1999 21:19:30 +0200
NNTP-Posting-Host: 212.123.10.65
X-Complaints-To: abuse@pandora.be
X-Trace: afrodite.telenet-ops.be 938892014 212.123.10.65 (Sat, 02 Oct 1999 21:20:14 MET DST)
NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 02 Oct 1999 21:20:14 MET DST
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!skynet.be!newsfeeds.belnet.be!news.belnet.be!afrodite.telenet-ops.be!not-for-mail

jmfbahciv@aol.com posted:

[attrib's so deep that I lost my way in them - sorry]

> >> >> "There Be Dragons"
> >> > "This'll never happen".
> >> 
> >> I know I am in trouble when I see _error message_ 
> >> "This'll never happen" appear
> >> in the running program ;-)
> >> 
> >A FOAF had "Error code 172:  This error code reserved for future use"
> 
> One just knows that this programmer never got done with his
> "to do" list or lost it. :-)

I've been watching this thread for days, wondering how my own

 // Let's hope this never happens

would be looked upon.  Not that I lost my ToDoList or was too
lazy to complete my code as far as I could - the condition can
only be caused by another piece of code (not my own) not doing
what's expected, and it gets handled as cleanly as I can: meaning
cutting the losses for all sides (especially our own) to a
minimum (the project handles credits, as in "you now have $nnnn
left on your account"...)

I really wish I could write "This'll never happen" there, but I
haven't got the courage (never challenge Murphy - you'll lose :-)

######

From: hshubs@mindspring.com (Howard S Shubs)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Sun, 03 Oct 1999 00:26:36 -0500
Organization: MindSpring Enterprises
Lines: 9
Message-ID: <hshubs-0310990026360001@user-33qsdvq.dialup.mindspring.com>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <+JrqN2BSco0Y8OoWtpgs0D0lIq5u@4ax.com> <37F0970C.FFE37EDA@inthan.be> <7squt8$10e@news2.newsguy.com> <zJ8I3.1870$L85.108215@ptah.visi.com> <7ssht4$c3j$1@gondor.sdsu.edu> <7sstc2$rvf$3@winter.news.rcn.net> <7stf1a$26t0@news1.newsguy.com> <F4B9D782557865DD.E86AEF5831278EE4.9CBD8217956DA1E4@lp.airnews.net> <7svhhi$ske$4@winter.news.rcn.net> <Sn3zN=OL4HBrEAEJusqPbz63dwh3@4ax.com> <MPG.125b2d5598a947ff989695@usenet.force9.net> <37f50bf3.9071416@news.shuswap.net> <37F63028.1D5485D6@plano.net> <37f6a55a.1965056@news.shuswap.net>
NNTP-Posting-Host: c7.ae.37.fa
X-Server-Date: 3 Oct 1999 05:26:36 GMT
Mail-Copies-To: never
X-Newsreader: MT-NewsWatcher 2.4.4
X-Face: "S"r{U%bs].&Ud}Pc~<qT-k!*znQD|gj[,+)#DaY~AsjVL[UlRXi&y]]1#_De
        VoZ=w,7@[GOQ'x"{;Ee<>~~0a]M:t5l>>EN\1Faw10M9NK1Xq59wo7-"s0S+[{etQorO
        /Nf-Ci"i9v'MT!R8)J]N[4|2&x1r^Iq&{SB"6dknr0=+6UFb.>+{zMn_1=rw&/V+"d@*
        ZS5\LoW_
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newsfeed.usit.net!remarQ-easT!supernews.com!remarQ.com!news.mindspring.net!firehose.mindspring.com!hshubs

In article <37f6a55a.1965056@news.shuswap.net>, genew@shuswap.net wrote:

>          Where do you want to go today?

Macintosh.
-- 
Howard S Shubs      hshubs@mindspring.com    hshubs@bix.com
The Denim Adept     Is this the right room for an argument?
SPAM: uce@ftc.gov   postmaster@[127.0.0.1]   abuse@[127.0.0.1]

######

From: David Scheidt <dscheidt@enteract.com>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 3 Oct 1999 01:01:52 GMT
Organization: EnterAct Corp.
Lines: 17
Message-ID: <7t69u0$tg9$1@news.enteract.com>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7svhhi$ske$4@winter.news.rcn.net> <Sn3zN=OL4HBrEAEJusqPbz63dwh3@4ax.com> <7t29v9$pa3$2@winter.news.rcn.net> <7t3ae4$m44$1@hawkins.cba.uni.edu>
NNTP-Posting-Host: shell-1.enteract.com
X-Trace: news.enteract.com 938912512 30217 207.229.143.40 (3 Oct 1999 01:01:52 GMT)
X-Complaints-To: usenet@news.enteract.com
NNTP-Posting-Date: 3 Oct 1999 01:01:52 GMT
User-Agent: tin/pre-1.4-19990624 ("Dawnrazor") (UNIX) (FreeBSD/3.2-STABLE (i386))
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!enews.sgi.com!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!newsfeed.enteract.com!betanews.enteract.com!not-for-mail

Richard E. Hawkins <hawk@hawkins.cba.uni.edu> wrote:

: Since when does debian have the AOL bug of requiring more new content
: than quoted message???  Next year's job is definitely at someplace

That's most often a server configuration issue, and not a client-side one.

: with a more up to date computer, so that I can bo back to BSD and 
: build everything from source, denannyfied . . .

You can build FreeBSD on anything it runs on, and you can fit /usr/src and
/usr/obj.  It takes a while on a 20Mhz 386 with 8MB of ram, and nfs mounted
/usr, though.

-- 
dscheidt@enteract.com
"[C]ows are extremely mammalian."  -- Dr I. A. York

######

From: genew@shuswap.net (Gene Wirchenko)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Sun, 03 Oct 1999 01:09:50 GMT
Organization: Okanagan Internet Junction
Lines: 23
Message-ID: <37f6a55a.1965056@news.shuswap.net>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <+JrqN2BSco0Y8OoWtpgs0D0lIq5u@4ax.com> <37F0970C.FFE37EDA@inthan.be> <7squt8$10e@news2.newsguy.com> <zJ8I3.1870$L85.108215@ptah.visi.com> <7ssht4$c3j$1@gondor.sdsu.edu> <7sstc2$rvf$3@winter.news.rcn.net> <7stf1a$26t0@news1.newsguy.com> <F4B9D782557865DD.E86AEF5831278EE4.9CBD8217956DA1E4@lp.airnews.net> <7svhhi$ske$4@winter.news.rcn.net> <Sn3zN=OL4HBrEAEJusqPbz63dwh3@4ax.com> <MPG.125b2d5598a947ff989695@usenet.force9.net> <37f50bf3.9071416@news.shuswap.net> <37F63028.1D5485D6@plano.net>
Reply-To: genew@shuswap.net
NNTP-Posting-Host: salmonarm3-16.shuswap.net
X-Trace: news.junction.net 938912956 3305 206.87.124.98 (3 Oct 1999 01:09:16 GMT)
X-Complaints-To: abuse@junction.net
NNTP-Posting-Date: 3 Oct 1999 01:09:16 GMT
X-Newsreader: Forte Free Agent 1.1/32.230
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news-fra1.dfn.de!fu-berlin.de!newsfeed.direct.ca!cyclone.bc.net!news.junction.net!not-for-mail

Charles Richmond <richmond@plano.net> wrote:

>Gene Wirchenko wrote:
>> 
>> I've got the slogan for you:
>>           The future is now.
>> 
>> Sincerely,
>How about:  "It just doesn't get any better than this."

     I see there is competition in the slogan market.  In choosing
from me, Mr. Richmond, and anyone else, remember what you are trying
to accomplish.  IOW,
          Where do you want to go today?

Sincerely,

Gene Wirchenko

Computerese Irregular Verb Conjugation:
     I have preferences.
     You have biases.
     He/She has prejudices.

######

From: jmfbahciv@aol.com
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Sun, 03 Oct 99 08:40:05 GMT
Organization: UltraNet Communications, Inc.
Lines: 26
Message-ID: <7t7ccs$ka4$4@winter.news.rcn.net>
References: <7ssht4$c3j$1@gondor.sdsu.edu> <583.942T177T5553274@sky.bus.com> <37F3A729.552E907A@plano.net> <7t2abp$pa3$5@winter.news.rcn.net> <7t5843$ogl$1@hawkins.cba.uni.edu>
X-Trace: mL3mhO7I/zI2AZgq8K9niVakwnkb9oc9Ah6j6pdw2B8=
X-Complaints-To: abuse@rcn.com
NNTP-Posting-Date: 3 Oct 1999 10:50:04 GMT
X-Newsreader:  News Xpress Version 1.0 Beta #4
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news-fra1.dfn.de!news0.de.colt.net!colt.net!newsfeed.icl.net!newspump.monmouth.com!newspeer.monmouth.com!netnews.com!feed1.news.rcn.net!rcn!d14

In article <7t5843$ogl$1@hawkins.cba.uni.edu>,
   hawk@hawkins.cba.uni.edu (Richard E. Hawkins) wrote:
>In article <7t2abp$pa3$5@winter.news.rcn.net>,  <jmfbahciv@aol.com> wrote:
>>In article <37F3A729.552E907A@plano.net>,
>>   Charles Richmond <richmond@plano.net> wrote:
>>>Charlie Gibbs wrote:
>><snip>
>
>>Hey, Charles.  Your ISP seems to have developed a stutter.
>>Or did you double-click three times :-).
>
>Double click?  With the heels, to get back from Oz to Kansas?

Chuckle.  I just hoped he wasn't offended; it didn't occur to
me until after I'd posted that those magical red shoes had heels.

>Nobody could possibly be reading *this* of all newsgroups
>with something that needs a rodent, could they? :)
>
Well, I must admit that I do (although I hate it).  However,
it's an upside-down rodent.

/BAH


Subtract a hundred and four for e-mail.

######

From: jmfbahciv@aol.com
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Sun, 03 Oct 99 08:45:52 GMT
Organization: UltraNet Communications, Inc.
Lines: 46
Message-ID: <7t7cno$ka4$5@winter.news.rcn.net>
References: <+JrqN2BSco0Y8OoWtpgs0D0lIq5u@4ax.com> <37F0970C.FFE37EDA@inthan.be> <7squt8$10e@news2.newsguy.com> <zJ8I3.1870$L85.108215@ptah.visi.com> <7ssht4$c3j$1@gondor.sdsu.edu> <7sstc2$rvf$3@winter.news.rcn.net> <7stf1a$26t0@news1.newsguy.com> <F4B9D782557865DD.E86AEF5831278EE4.9CBD8217956DA1E4@lp.airnews.net> <7svhhi$ske$4@winter.news.rcn.net> <Sn3zN=OL4HBrEAEJusqPbz63dwh3@4ax.com> <MPG.125b2d5598a947ff989695@usenet.force9.net> <7t4uci$71t$2@winter.news.rcn.net> <YlX2N6h8WOIpShdFWw6UujpSlqOQ@4ax.com>
X-Trace: BOqzcJdYHrtm28W+vcDLz3RIwLtaKjliIumz2TnYHT4=
X-Complaints-To: abuse@rcn.com
NNTP-Posting-Date: 3 Oct 1999 10:55:52 GMT
X-Newsreader:  News Xpress Version 1.0 Beta #4
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news.maxwell.syr.edu!feed1.news.rcn.net!rcn!d14

In article <YlX2N6h8WOIpShdFWw6UujpSlqOQ@4ax.com>,
   Luc Van der Veken <lucvdv@null.net> wrote:
>jmfbahciv@aol.com posted:
>
>[attrib's so deep that I lost my way in them - sorry]

That's OK, we're all friends here.

>
>> >> >> "There Be Dragons"
>> >> > "This'll never happen".
>> >> 
>> >> I know I am in trouble when I see _error message_ 
>> >> "This'll never happen" appear
>> >> in the running program ;-)
>> >> 
>> >A FOAF had "Error code 172:  This error code reserved for future use"
>> 
>> One just knows that this programmer never got done with his
>> "to do" list or lost it. :-)
>
>I've been watching this thread for days, wondering how my own
>
> // Let's hope this never happens
>
>would be looked upon.  Not that I lost my ToDoList or was too
>lazy to complete my code as far as I could - the condition can
>only be caused by another piece of code (not my own) not doing
>what's expected, and it gets handled as cleanly as I can: meaning
>cutting the losses for all sides (especially our own) to a
>minimum (the project handles credits, as in "you now have $nnnn
>left on your account"...)
>
>I really wish I could write "This'll never happen" there, but I
>haven't got the courage (never challenge Murphy - you'll lose :-)
>

Oh,yeah.  I'd forgotten about having to be so paranoid that
one's code-collaborators had to be taken with a ton of salt.
Our group didn't run into that very much because we stayed
small.  Our ideal group number was three; two to do the
work and one to keep them honest :-).

/BAH

Subtract a hundred and four for e-mail.

######

From: Luis Fernandes <elf@ee.ryerson.ca>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 03 Oct 1999 10:45:08 -0400
Organization: Ryerson Polytechnic University
Lines: 16
Sender: elf@genesis
Message-ID: <x0n1u0wljf.fsf@ee.ryerson.ca>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <+JrqN2BSco0Y8OoWtpgs0D0lIq5u@4ax.com> <37F0970C.FFE37EDA@inthan.be> <7squt8$10e@news2.newsguy.com> <zJ8I3.1870$L85.108215@ptah.visi.com> <7ssht4$c3j$1@gondor.sdsu.edu> <7sstc2$rvf$3@winter.news.rcn.net> <7stf1a$26t0@news1.newsguy.com> <F4B9D782557865DD.E86AEF5831278EE4.9CBD8217956DA1E4@lp.airnews.net> <7svhhi$ske$4@winter.news.rcn.net> <Sn3zN=OL4HBrEAEJusqPbz63dwh3@4ax.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: sulfur.ee.ryerson.ca
X-Newsreader: Gnus v5.6.42/Emacs 19.34
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!newscore.univie.ac.at!skynet.be!cyclone.bc.net!torn!news.ryerson.ca!not-for-mail

>>>>> "alex" == Alexandre Pechtchanski <alex*@*rockvax.rockefeller.edu> writes:

    alex> I know I am in trouble when I see _error message_ "This'll
    alex> never happen" appear in the running program ;-)

On a project I worked a few years ago, there was this X widget that
for some reason (un-reproducible) displayed "Shouldn't happen".

I searched every single line of code (find -exec grep) in my source
tree for that string and sub-strings (even ignored case) of that
string and we couldn't find it. I even searched the X source tree--
nothing.

It still happens to this date. 

(I am not making this up.)

######

From: "Martin.Schoenert" <Martin.Schoenert@debitel.net>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
References: <7ssht4$c3j$1@gondor.sdsu.edu> <583.942T177T5553274@sky.bus.com> <37F3A729.552E907A@plano.net> <7t2abp$pa3$5@winter.news.rcn.net> <7t5843$ogl$1@hawkins.cba.uni.edu> <37F634BD.95F88075@plano.net>
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Sun, 3 Oct 1999 11:11:43 +0200
Lines: 19
X-Priority: 3
X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.2314.1300
X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2314.1300
Organization: debitel.net - der Onlinedienst
X-NNTP-Posting-Host: 62.52.240.11
X-NNTP-Posting-Date: 03 Oct 1999 11:10:34 MET DST
NNTP-Posting-Host: mwnews.dnsg.net
Message-ID: <37f71d88.0@news.ivm.net>
X-Trace: 3 Oct 1999 11:10:32 +0100, mwnews.dnsg.net
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!newsfeeds.belnet.be!news.belnet.be!colt.net!newspeer.clara.net!news.clara.net!btnet-peer!btnet!newspush.london1.eu.level3.net!newspush1.amsterdam.level3.net!newspush1.frankfurt.level3.net!level3eu!news-in.ivm.net!news.ivm.net!mwnews.dnsg.net

Charles Richmond <richmond@plano.net> wrote in message
news:37F634BD.95F88075@plano.net...

     (To get back to Kansas, you have to double click and keep repeating:
    "There's no place like ROM...There's no place like ROM...")

Which brings us back to error messages.
Instead of "This should never happen", my code contained the message:

"Toto, I don't think we are in Kansas anymore."

Sure enough it did show up years later.

Later, Martin.

-- .- .-. - .. -.  .-.. --- ...- . ...  .- -. -. .. -.- .-
Martin Schönert, Martin.Schoenert@debitel.net

######

From: Dave Daniels <a__fake__address@127.0.0.1>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Sun, 03 Oct 1999 11:27:26 +0100
Organization: None
Lines: 22
Message-ID: <494b27fd86a__fake__address@127.0.0.1>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <+JrqN2BSco0Y8OoWtpgs0D0lIq5u@4ax.com> <37F0970C.FFE37EDA@inthan.be> <7squt8$10e@news2.newsguy.com> <zJ8I3.1870$L85.108215@ptah.visi.com> <7ssht4$c3j$1@gondor.sdsu.edu> <7sstc2$rvf$3@winter.news.rcn.net> <7stf1a$26t0@news1.newsguy.com> <F4B9D782557865DD.E86AEF5831278EE4.9CBD8217956DA1E4@lp.airnews.net> <7svhhi$ske$4@winter.news.rcn.net> <Sn3zN=OL4HBrEAEJusqPbz63dwh3@4ax.com> <MPG.125b2d5598a947ff989695@usenet.force9.net> <37f50bf3.9071416@news.shuswap.net> <37F63028.1D5485D6@plano.net>
NNTP-Posting-Host: useraw49.uk.uudial.com
X-Trace: lure.pipex.net 938955874 29893 62.188.138.195 (3 Oct 1999 13:04:34 GMT)
X-Complaints-To: abuse@uk.uu.net
NNTP-Posting-Date: 3 Oct 1999 13:04:34 GMT
User-Agent: Pluto/1.11k  (RISC-OS/3.8)
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!newsfeeds.belnet.be!news.belnet.be!newsfeed.icl.net!newspeer.clara.net!news.clara.net!remarQ-uK!remarQ.com!supernews.com!tank.news.pipex.net!pipex!tube.news.pipex.net!pipex!argonet.co.uk!argbq79

In article <37F63028.1D5485D6@plano.net>,
   Charles Richmond <richmond@plano.net> wrote:
> How about:  "It just doesn't get any better than this."

I have thought of a slogan for the company I work for:

   "Sapping the will to live"

But I don't think that management would consider it "on message".

Dave

-- 
ANTISPAM: Please note that the email address above is false. My
correct address is:

    dave_daniels<at>argonet<dot>co<dot>uk

Please replace the <at> and <dot>s with @ and . respectively when
replying - Thanks!

######

From: hshubs@mindspring.com (Howard S Shubs)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Sun, 03 Oct 1999 11:44:11 -0500
Organization: MindSpring Enterprises
Lines: 10
Message-ID: <hshubs-0310991144110001@user-33qsdva.dialup.mindspring.com>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7svhhi$ske$4@winter.news.rcn.net> <Sn3zN=OL4HBrEAEJusqPbz63dwh3@4ax.com> <7t29v9$pa3$2@winter.news.rcn.net> <7t3ae4$m44$1@hawkins.cba.uni.edu> <0kr2N4=5EPq7=cBLJuNoBZHYfon7@4ax.com> <938966789.21339.0.nnrp-10.9e98d142@news.demon.co.uk>
NNTP-Posting-Host: c7.ae.37.ea
X-Server-Date: 3 Oct 1999 16:44:10 GMT
Mail-Copies-To: never
X-Newsreader: MT-NewsWatcher 2.4.4
X-Face: "S"r{U%bs].&Ud}Pc~<qT-k!*znQD|gj[,+)#DaY~AsjVL[UlRXi&y]]1#_De
        VoZ=w,7@[GOQ'x"{;Ee<>~~0a]M:t5l>>EN\1Faw10M9NK1Xq59wo7-"s0S+[{etQorO
        /Nf-Ci"i9v'MT!R8)J]N[4|2&x1r^Iq&{SB"6dknr0=+6UFb.>+{zMn_1=rw&/V+"d@*
        ZS5\LoW_
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!naxos.belnet.be!news.belnet.be!newspump.monmouth.com!newspeer.monmouth.com!remarQ-easT!supernews.com!remarQ.com!news.mindspring.net!firehose.mindspring.com!hshubs

In article <938966789.21339.0.nnrp-10.9e98d142@news.demon.co.uk>, Ian
Stirling <root@mauve.demon.co.uk> wrote:

>Often a 20 line post, can be answered perfectly adequately in 2 lines.

That's why you -cut down on the quoted text-.
-- 
Howard S Shubs      hshubs@mindspring.com    hshubs@bix.com
The Denim Adept     Is this the right room for an argument?
SPAM: uce@ftc.gov   postmaster@[127.0.0.1]   abuse@[127.0.0.1]

######

From: jml@spellbooksoftware.com (J. Michael Looney)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 3 Oct 1999 14:38:50 GMT
Organization: Spellbook Software
Lines: 27
Sender: FOOTBALL@charlie.bcgsystems.com
Message-ID: <7t7ppq$403$1@ionews.ionet.net>
References: <7ssht4$c3j$1@gondor.sdsu.edu> <583.942T177T5553274@sky.bus.com> <37F3A729.552E907A@plano.net> <7t2abp$pa3$5@winter.news.rcn.net> <7t5843$ogl$1@hawkins.cba.uni.edu> <37F634BD.95F88075@plano.net> <37f71d88.0@news.ivm.net>
NNTP-Posting-Host: charlie.bcgsystems.com
X-Newsreader: WinVN 0.99.9 (Released Version) (x86 32bit)
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!news.datacomm.ch!newscore.gigabell.net!news-fra.pop.de!newsfeed.tli.de!remarQ-easT!supernews.com!remarQ.com!nntp.abs.net!ionews.ionet.net!not-for-mail

In article <37f71d88.0@news.ivm.net>, Martin.Schoenert@debitel.net says...
>
>Charles Richmond <richmond@plano.net> wrote in message
>news:37F634BD.95F88075@plano.net...
>
>     (To get back to Kansas, you have to double click and keep repeating:
>    "There's no place like ROM...There's no place like ROM...")
>
>Which brings us back to error messages.
>Instead of "This should never happen", my code contained the message:
>
>"Toto, I don't think we are in Kansas anymore."
>

For a while I was told that "Our Software does not have fatal errors, period".  
Ok, so the term "Film at 11:00" started showing up in the places where more or 
less normal software would say "Fatal Error".




--
Silliness is the last refuge of the doomed  P. Opus
Geek Code: GAT d-- s:- a39 UL+++ P++ L+++ E- W+++ N++ K++ w++ O- M- V-- PS+ 
PE++ Y PGP t++ 5 X R+++ tv+ b++++ DI+++ D G+ e+ h--- r+++ y+++(**)
Bob Code: KPkKtpdh- lWdH ECs-d++ m5 CPEIVW B-18 Ol LS SC+++ T- A7LAT H8o b13 D1

######

From: Ian Stirling <root@mauve.demon.co.uk>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Sun, 03 Oct 1999 16:06:29 GMT
Message-ID: <938966789.21339.0.nnrp-10.9e98d142@news.demon.co.uk>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7svhhi$ske$4@winter.news.rcn.net> <Sn3zN=OL4HBrEAEJusqPbz63dwh3@4ax.com> <7t29v9$pa3$2@winter.news.rcn.net> <7t3ae4$m44$1@hawkins.cba.uni.edu> <0kr2N4=5EPq7=cBLJuNoBZHYfon7@4ax.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: mauve.demon.co.uk
X-NNTP-Posting-Host: mauve.demon.co.uk:158.152.209.66
X-Trace: news.demon.co.uk 938966789 nnrp-10:21339 NO-IDENT mauve.demon.co.uk:158.152.209.66
X-Complaints-To: abuse@demon.net
User-Agent: tin/pre-1.4-980818 ("Laura") (UNIX) (Linux/2.2.5 (i586))
Originator: root@mauve.demon.co.uk
Lines: 19
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!isdnet!newsfeed.icl.net!dispose.news.demon.net!demon!news.demon.co.uk!demon!mauve.demon.co.uk!root

Luc Van der Veken <lucvdv@null.net> wrote:
>Richard E. Hawkins posted:

>> Since when does debian have the AOL bug of requiring more new content
>> than quoted message???

>You call that a bug???

>Take a look around, for instance, the microsoft.public.win2000.*
>newsgroups (where I spent some time lately) - after five minutes,
>you'll be convinced that it's a feature (and let me warn you, if

Yes, it's a bug.

Often a 20 line post, can be answered perfectly adequately in 2 lines.

Something like quoted text +20 must be less than the response, 
is much less irritating.

######

From: Luc Van der Veken <lucvdv@null.net>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Organization: .
Message-ID: <T4f3Ny8T1+CzTJAr3Rjn5GoDezen@4ax.com>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7svhhi$ske$4@winter.news.rcn.net> <Sn3zN=OL4HBrEAEJusqPbz63dwh3@4ax.com> <7t29v9$pa3$2@winter.news.rcn.net> <7t3ae4$m44$1@hawkins.cba.uni.edu> <0kr2N4=5EPq7=cBLJuNoBZHYfon7@4ax.com> <938966789.21339.0.nnrp-10.9e98d142@news.demon.co.uk>
X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 1.6/32.525
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Lines: 24
Date: Sun, 03 Oct 1999 19:05:44 +0200
NNTP-Posting-Host: 212.123.10.65
X-Complaints-To: abuse@pandora.be
X-Trace: afrodite.telenet-ops.be 938970387 212.123.10.65 (Sun, 03 Oct 1999 19:06:27 MET DST)
NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 03 Oct 1999 19:06:27 MET DST
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!newsfeeds.belnet.be!news.belnet.be!afrodite.telenet-ops.be!not-for-mail

Ian Stirling posted:

> Yes, it's a bug.

I'll agree for "evil" ;-)

How can it be a bug, if it's intended behaviour?

> Often a 20 line post, can be answered perfectly adequately in 2 lines.

Agreed, but that's not the point (at least IMO).  It's not the
amount of new text that's important, it's the amount of
superfluous OLD text left in that is.  If, of those 20 lines,
more than 20% is really necessary to make the reply
understandable, there's either something wrong with the original
poster, or he had a heck of a lot to say.
Also keep in mind that 99% of the people reading your follow-up
have also seen the first post, and those that haven't can move
back up to it.

And BTW, I thought that those rules were introduced to save us
from 146 lines with 27 levels of unsnipped quotes with a mere "Me
too!" at the bottom.

######

From: jeffreyb@gwis2.circ.gwu.edu (Jeffrey Boulier)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Organization: The George Washington University
Lines: 15
Message-ID: <7t8966$48h@gwis2.circ.gwu.edu>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7svhhi$ske$4@winter.news.rcn.net> <Sn3zN=OL4HBrEAEJusqPbz63dwh3@4ax.com> <x0n1u0wljf.fsf@ee.ryerson.ca>
Date: 3 Oct 1999 15:01:26 -0400
NNTP-Posting-Host: 128.164.127.252
X-Complaints-To: news@nit.gwu.edu
X-Trace: grover.nit.gwu.edu 938976550 128.164.127.252 (Sun, 03 Oct 1999 14:49:10 EDT)
NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 03 Oct 1999 14:49:10 EDT
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!uunet!ams.uu.net!ffx.uu.net!hermes.visi.com!news-out.visi.com!nntp.primenet.com!nntp.gctr.net!su-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!washdc3-snf1!news.gtei.net!grover.nit.gwu.edu!not-for-mail

In article <x0n1u0wljf.fsf@ee.ryerson.ca>,
Luis Fernandes  <elf@ee.ryerson.ca> wrote:
>I searched every single line of code (find -exec grep) in my source
>tree for that string and sub-strings (even ignored case) of that
>string and we couldn't find it.

grep has problems getting information properly out of binary files. Use
"strings" on the binary first.

Try something like 

find / -print | xargs -n1 -I{} strings {} | grep -i "error message"

			Yours in Unix Geekdom,
			   Jeffrey Boulier

######

From: Mike Swaim <swaim@gemini.c-com.net>
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <+JrqN2BSco0Y8OoWtpgs0D0lIq5u@4ax.com> <37F0970C.FFE37EDA@inthan.be> <7squt8$10e@news2.newsguy.com> <zJ8I3.1870$L85.108215@ptah.visi.com> <7ssht4$c3j$1@gondor.sdsu.edu> <7sstc2$rvf$3@winter.news.rcn.net> <7stf1a$26t0@news1.newsguy.com> <F4B9D782557865DD.E86AEF5831278EE4.9CBD8217956DA1E4@lp.airnews.net> <7svhhi$ske$4@winter.news.rcn.net> <7t3a9m$280n@news1.newsguy.com> <UXdJ3.30481$d71.875932@news4.giganews.com> <7t4uv3$71t$4@winter.news.rcn.net>
Organization: PointeCom
User-Agent: tin/pre-1.4-980818 ("Laura") (UNIX) (FreeBSD/2.2.8-RELEASE (i386))
Lines: 36
Message-ID: <apPJ3.765$mR5.38371@news6.giganews.com>
NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 03 Oct 1999 15:55:34 CDT
X-Trace: sv1-4E146R83jd3MOtbhWYprK9XBW98s3d4pOI/EyiVLi6n4CmL4j36oluRv+FWlAkU8UsXjfmt/ysZW2KN!/I//6uZDyHc=
X-Complaints-To: abuse@GigaNews.Com
X-Abuse-Info: Please be sure to forward a copy of ALL headers
X-Abuse-Info: Otherwise we will be unable to process your complaint properly
Date: Sun, 03 Oct 1999 20:55:34 GMT
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newsfeed.direct.ca!nntp2.giganews.com!news6.giganews.com.POSTED!gemini.c-com.net!swaim

jmfbahciv@aol.com wrote:
: In article <UXdJ3.30481$d71.875932@news4.giganews.com>,
:    Mike Swaim <swaim@gemini.c-com.net> wrote:
:>  One of my current projects is an application to bridge data from a new
:>system to an existing system. 
: <snip hints of trouble :-)>

: Ahem, isn't that the wrong way around?  Our customers wanted
: tools to go from old systems to new ones.

  The systems do different things. For example data from a transaction
might take the following path.

Sitara -> DCAF II
V         V
CPR       Faxman
V
ERMS
V
SIFT

  Each of these systems provides a different function, and they were more
or less designed independantly, which led to headaches. Subsquently, the
company decided to standardize on common codes for things, and have all
"constant" data, like commodities, deal terms, and the like, reside in one
database. Sitara and DCAF II both took this approach, and bridging data
between them was realitively easy. 
  The new system (which goes live in "two weeks" [an apparant invariant])
was apparantly designed in a vacuum, so bridging it to the 4+ systems
immediately downstream from it has been "exciting." (Friday, the Solarc
people ambushed me by having a meeting in my cubicle.)

-- 
Mike Swaim, Avatar of Chaos: Disclaimer:I sometimes lie.
Home: swaim@c-com.net
Alum: swaim@alumni.rice.edu  Quote: "Boingie"^4 Y,W&D

######

From: greg@apple2.com
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Message-ID: <greg-0310992326150001@oshar.war-of-the-worlds.org>
References: <7ssht4$c3j$1@gondor.sdsu.edu> <583.942T177T5553274@sky.bus.com> <37F3A729.552E907A@plano.net> <7t2abp$pa3$5@winter.news.rcn.net> <7t5843$ogl$1@hawkins.cba.uni.edu> <37F634BD.95F88075@plano.net> <37f71d88.0@news.ivm.net>
Organization: II Infinitum
X-Newsreader: MT-NewsWatcher 2.4.4
X-Face: &@UA7$)=n9C7!qu%-5s},3tR@NEy+B>8PW"^,8?A>%."0{J2c1Yr]NKw';5/(
 J\r@/{UADjCdE~iRnOEOfbre(/1Y=$TS3Wt7B`a4sz,<EEumhL.DtryQ+!QoI8LE-v.s
 ;?26oj<q7"[b?Ouo
Lines: 19
NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 03 Oct 1999 23:28:21 CDT
X-Trace: sv1-ZXjIVLugqJZN8OZd+EvAojDYf1QZVgmZ1faLQOt3nzumMSZ7Hw0vDwAgcKPSQRy9VJ+AkbMFtVWN9vb!AjGw1oBriSg=
X-Complaints-To: abuse@GigaNews.Com
X-Abuse-Info: Please be sure to forward a copy of ALL headers
X-Abuse-Info: Otherwise we will be unable to process your complaint properly
Date: Sun, 03 Oct 1999 23:26:13 -0500
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!skynet.be!howland.erols.net!outgoing.news.rcn.net.MISMATCH!feed1.news.rcn.net!rcn!nntp2.giganews.com!news6.giganews.com.POSTED!greg

In article <37f71d88.0@news.ivm.net>,
"Martin.Schoenert" <Martin.Schoenert@debitel.net> wrote:

> Which brings us back to error messages.
> Instead of "This should never happen", my code contained the message:
>
> "Toto, I don't think we are in Kansas anymore."
>
> Sure enough it did show up years later.

Makes me want to put the message, "Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer, do,"
as a theoretically unreachable error condition.  Or maybe, "I still have
the utmost confidence in the mission."

-- 
Nine quadrillion, nine hundred ninety-nine trillion, nine hundred ninety-nine
billion, nine hundred ninety-nine million, nine hundred ninety-nine thousand,
one hundred eighteen bottles of beer.  You take one down, pass it around, nine
quadrillion, nine hundred ninety-nine trillion, nine hundred ninety-nine

######

From: David Warman <lanwolf@lanwolf.com>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Mon, 04 Oct 1999 01:50:50 -0700
Organization: Bleeding Edge Arts
Lines: 32
Message-ID: <37F86A6A.4BEA5C25@lanwolf.com>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <+JrqN2BSco0Y8OoWtpgs0D0lIq5u@4ax.com> <37F0970C.FFE37EDA@inthan.be> <7squt8$10e@news2.newsguy.com> <zJ8I3.1870$L85.108215@ptah.visi.com> <7ssht4$c3j$1@gondor.sdsu.edu> <7sstc2$rvf$3@winter.news.rcn.net> <7stf1a$26t0@news1.newsguy.com> <F4B9D782557865DD.E86AEF5831278EE4.9CBD8217956DA1E4@lp.airnews.net> <7svhhi$ske$4@winter.news.rcn.net> <hshubs-3009991011510001@user-33qsdkl.dialup.mindspring.com>
Reply-To: lanwolf@lanwolf.com
NNTP-Posting-Host: www.lanwolf.com
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.5 [en] (WinNT; I)
X-Accept-Language: en
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!newsfeeds.belnet.be!news.belnet.be!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newsfeed.cwix.com!solaris.cc.vt.edu!news.vt.edu!news.seanet.com!not-for-mail

I think the worst I found was in some code I was evaluating.
One file, about 1000 lines of code, had precisely one comment:

/* I dont know why this works */

Howard S Shubs wrote:

> In article <7svhhi$ske$4@winter.news.rcn.net>, jmfbahciv@aol.com wrote:
>
> >In article
> ><F4B9D782557865DD.E86AEF5831278EE4.9CBD8217956DA1E4@lp.airnews.net>,
> >   Jim Stewart <jstewart@jkmicro.com> wrote:
> >>
> >>When you see the comment "There Be Dragons", you know you're in trouble.
> >
> >Nah, the better one is, "This'll never happen".
>
> The worst was "What the h*** was I doing here??"
> --
> Howard S Shubs      hshubs@mindspring.com    hshubs@bix.com
> The Denim Adept     Is this the right room for an argument?
> SPAM: uce@ftc.gov   postmaster@[127.0.0.1]   abuse@[127.0.0.1]

--
Dave Warman
====================================================
Warman's First Law:
     Everything that can be configured, must be
Corollary:
  Defaults aren't

######

From: benh@lsl.co.uk (Ben Hutchings)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 4 Oct 1999 13:05:36 GMT
Organization: Laser-Scan Ltd.
Lines: 16
Message-ID: <7ta8n0$avd@relay.lsl.co.uk>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7svhhi$ske$4@winter.news.rcn.net> <Sn3zN=OL4HBrEAEJusqPbz63dwh3@4ax.com> <7t29v9$pa3$2@winter.news.rcn.net> <7t3ae4$m44$1@hawkins.cba.uni.edu> <0kr2N4=5EPq7=cBLJuNoBZHYfon7@4ax.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: lsla1a.lsl.co.uk
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2]
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!newsfeeds.belnet.be!news.belnet.be!colt.net!newsfeed.icl.net!nntp.news.xara.net!xara.net!gxn.net!tank.news.pipex.net!pipex!eyre.news.uk.uu.net!plug.news.pipex.net!pipex!bowl.news.pipex.net!pipex!warm.news.pipex.net!pipex!news.lsl.co.uk!benh

Luc Van der Veken (lucvdv@null.net) wrote:
: Richard E. Hawkins posted:

: > Since when does debian have the AOL bug of requiring more new content
: > than quoted message???

: You call that a bug???
<snip>
: BTW, are you sure it's debian?
<snip>

It's not.  I run a private news server (inn) on a Debian system, and I
know that by default there are no restrictions on quoted-new ratio.

-- 
Any opinions expressed are my own and not necessarily those of Laser-Scan.

######

From: scottw@bmtech.co.uk_DELETE_THIS (Scott Wheeler)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Mon, 04 Oct 1999 15:48:07 GMT
Message-ID: <37f9cb88.1635662288@192.168.0.1>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <+JrqN2BSco0Y8OoWtpgs0D0lIq5u@4ax.com> <37F0970C.FFE37EDA@inthan.be> <7squt8$10e@news2.newsguy.com> <zJ8I3.1870$L85.108215@ptah.visi.com> <7ssht4$c3j$1@gondor.sdsu.edu> <7sstc2$rvf$3@winter.news.rcn.net> <7stf1a$26t0@news1.newsguy.com> <F4B9D782557865DD.E86AEF5831278EE4.9CBD8217956DA1E4@lp.airnews.net> <7svhhi$ske$4@winter.news.rcn.net> <Sn3zN=OL4HBrEAEJusqPbz63dwh3@4ax.com> <MPG.125b2d5598a947ff989695@usenet.force9.net>
NNTP-Posting-Host: bmtech.demon.co.uk
X-NNTP-Posting-Host: bmtech.demon.co.uk:158.152.102.124
X-Trace: news.demon.co.uk 939051891 nnrp-13:22234 NO-IDENT bmtech.demon.co.uk:158.152.102.124
X-Complaints-To: abuse@demon.net
X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 1.5/32.451
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Lines: 13
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!skynet.be!newspeer.ebone.net!diablo.theplanet.net!dispose.news.demon.net!demon!news.demon.co.uk!demon!bmtech.demon.co.uk!not-for-mail

On Fri, 1 Oct 1999 18:23:39 +0100, neil@platypus.NOSPAM.force9.co.uk
(Neil Sluman) wrote:

>A FOAF had "Error code 172:  This error code reserved for future use"

I've used msgs of the form "WARNING - pink giraffe with whipped cream
- failed to open XYZ.INI to store configuration". The idea was to get
the users to remember at least *something* of the error msg if they
telephoned to say it was broken.

Scott
-- 
(please de-mung address if replying by email)

######

From: scottw@bmtech.co.uk_DELETE_THIS (Scott Wheeler)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Mon, 04 Oct 1999 15:51:15 GMT
Message-ID: <37facc96.1635932116@192.168.0.1>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <+JrqN2BSco0Y8OoWtpgs0D0lIq5u@4ax.com> <37F0970C.FFE37EDA@inthan.be> <7squt8$10e@news2.newsguy.com> <zJ8I3.1870$L85.108215@ptah.visi.com> <7ssht4$c3j$1@gondor.sdsu.edu> <7sstc2$rvf$3@winter.news.rcn.net> <7stf1a$26t0@news1.newsguy.com> <F4B9D782557865DD.E86AEF5831278EE4.9CBD8217956DA1E4@lp.airnews.net> <7svhhi$ske$4@winter.news.rcn.net> <hshubs-3009991011510001@user-33qsdkl.dialup.mindspring.com> <37F86A6A.4BEA5C25@lanwolf.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: bmtech.demon.co.uk
X-NNTP-Posting-Host: bmtech.demon.co.uk:158.152.102.124
X-Trace: news.demon.co.uk 939052079 nnrp-04:24055 NO-IDENT bmtech.demon.co.uk:158.152.102.124
X-Complaints-To: abuse@demon.net
X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 1.5/32.451
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Lines: 14
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!isdnet!newsfeed.icl.net!dispose.news.demon.net!demon!news.demon.co.uk!demon!bmtech.demon.co.uk!not-for-mail

On Mon, 04 Oct 1999 01:50:50 -0700, David Warman <lanwolf@lanwolf.com>
wrote:

>I think the worst I found was in some code I was evaluating.
>One file, about 1000 lines of code, had precisely one comment:

5000 lines of Pascal, 600 globals (all fundamental types, of course),
3 locals, and one comment:

	(* midlertidig *)

Scott
-- 
(please de-mung address if replying by email)

######

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <hshubs-3009991011510001@user-33qsdkl.dialup.mindspring.com> <37F86A6A.4BEA5C25@lanwolf.com> <37facc96.1635932116@192.168.0.1>
Organization: Plethora . Net - More net, less spam!
X-Newsreader: trn 4.0-test70 (17 January 1999)
From: seebs@plethora.net (Peter Seebach)
Lines: 15
Message-ID: <zI4K3.3854$L85.277427@ptah.visi.com>
Date: Mon, 04 Oct 1999 16:36:47 GMT
NNTP-Posting-Host: 205.166.146.8
X-Complaints-To: abuse@plethora.net
X-Trace: ptah.visi.com 939055007 205.166.146.8 (Mon, 04 Oct 1999 11:36:47 CDT)
NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 04 Oct 1999 11:36:47 CDT
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!uunet!ams.uu.net!ffx.uu.net!hermes.visi.com!news-out.visi.com!ptah.visi.com!not-for-mail

In article <37facc96.1635932116@192.168.0.1>,
Scott Wheeler <scottw@bmtech.co.uk_DELETE_THIS> wrote:
>5000 lines of Pascal, 600 globals (all fundamental types, of course),
>3 locals, and one comment:

>	(* midlertidig *)

What's that mean?

-s
-- 
Copyright 1999, All rights reserved.  Peter Seebach / seebs@plethora.net
C/Unix wizard, Pro-commerce radical, Spam fighter.  Boycott Spamazon!
Will work for interesting hardware.  http://www.plethora.net/~seebs/
Visit my new ISP <URL:http://www.plethora.net/> --- More Net, Less Spam!

######

From: mww@merant.com (Michael Wojcik)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 4 Oct 1999 16:39:02 GMT
Organization: MERANT Inc.
Lines: 29
Message-ID: <7tal76$13ta@news1.newsguy.com>
References: <7ssht4$c3j$1@gondor.sdsu.edu> <583.942T177T5553274@sky.bus.com> <37F3A729.552E907A@plano.net> <7t2abp$pa3$5@winter.news.rcn.net> <7t5843$ogl$1@hawkins.cba.uni.edu> <37F634BD.95F88075@plano.net>
Reply-To: michael.wojcik@merant.com
NNTP-Posting-Host: p-177.newsdawg.com
X-Newsreader: xrn 9.00
Originator: mww@lorelei-n
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!isdnet!howland.erols.net!news.pbi.net.MISMATCH!cyclone.pbi.net!165.113.238.17!pln-w!spln!extra.newsguy.com!newsp.newsguy.com!mww


In article <37F634BD.95F88075@plano.net>, Charles Richmond <richmond@plano.net> writes:

> Since the computer mouse was patented around 1970, I think that
> computer rodentia are a time-honored method of entering information.
> That means that the mouse has been squeaking around for about 30 years.

I have to admit that my newsreader (xrn, modified for street racing)
is mouse-aware, though I rarely click on anything, since xrn wisely
kept most of rn's keyboard commands.  But I'm using a Sun optical
mouse, which ought to count for something, since Sun now seems to
be shipping mechanical mice just as the gods intended.

> (To get back to Kansas, you have to double click and keep repeating:
> "There's no place like ROM...There's no place like ROM...")

I always thought that was "There's no place like Rolm".  (Double-
click the pound button, then....  Hey, that's almost on-topic.)


--
Michael Wojcik          	        michael.wojcik@merant.com
AAI Development, MERANT                 (block capitals are a company mandate)
Department of English, Miami University

You brung in them two expert birdwatchers ... sayin' it was to keep us from
makin' dern fools of ourselfs ... whereas it's the inherent right of all to
make dern fools of theirselfs ... it ain't a right held by you official types
alone.  -- Walt Kelly

######

From: frode.gill@agresso.no (Frode Gill)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 4 Oct 1999 16:45:05 GMT
Organization: Agresso Group ASA
Lines: 18
Message-ID: <8E55BAC02frodegillagressono@10.47.9.122>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <hshubs-3009991011510001@user-33qsdkl.dialup.mindspring.com> <37F86A6A.4BEA5C25@lanwolf.com> <37facc96.1635932116@192.168.0.1> <zI4K3.3854$L85.277427@ptah.visi.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: agrproxy.agresso.no
X-Trace: oslo-nntp.eunet.no 939055505 3755 195.1.61.4 (4 Oct 1999 16:45:05 GMT)
X-Complaints-To: newsmaster@eunet.no
NNTP-Posting-Date: 4 Oct 1999 16:45:05 GMT
User-Agent: Xnews/2.09.30
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news-feed.ifi.uio.no!Norway.EU.net!not-for-mail

seebs@plethora.net (Peter Seebach) wrote in
news:<zI4K3.3854$L85.277427@ptah.visi.com> 

>In article <37facc96.1635932116@192.168.0.1>,
>Scott Wheeler <scottw@bmtech.co.uk_DELETE_THIS> wrote:
>>5000 lines of Pascal, 600 globals (all fundamental types, of course),
>>3 locals, and one comment:
>
>>     (* midlertidig *)
>
>What's that mean?


(* temporary *)    , In Norwegian.


-- 
Frode Gill

######

From: Pete Fenelon <pete@fenelon.com>
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com>   <37F0970C.FFE37EDA@inthan.be> <7squt8$10e@news2.newsguy.com> <zJ8I3.1870$L85.108215@ptah.visi.com> <7ssht4$c3j$1@gondor.sdsu.edu> <7sstc2$rvf$3@winter.news.rcn.net> <7stf1a$26t0@news1.newsguy.com> <F4B9D782557865DD.E86AEF5831278EE4.9CBD8217956DA1E4@lp.airnews.net> <7svhhi$ske$4@winter.news.rcn.net> <hshubs-3009991011510001@user-33qsdkl.dialup.mindspring.com> <37F86A6A.4BEA5C25@lanwolf.com> <brucehoult-0410992214110001@bruce.bgh>
User-Agent: tin/pre-1.4-19990216 ("Styrofoam") (UNIX) (Linux/2.0.36 (i586))
Date: Mon, 4 Oct 1999 19:50:44 +0100
Message-ID: <4usat7.rc2.ln@fenelon.com>
Lines: 29
NNTP-Posting-Host: man-006.dialup.zetnet.co.uk
X-Trace: news.zetnet.co.uk 939064696 25060 news@194.247.41.7
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!newsfeeds.belnet.be!news.belnet.be!newsfeed.icl.net!newspeer.clara.net!news.clara.net!peer.news.zetnet.net!master.news.zetnet.net!not-for-mail

Bruce Hoult <brucehoult@pobox.com> wrote:
> In article <37F86A6A.4BEA5C25@lanwolf.com>, lanwolf@lanwolf.com wrote:

>> I think the worst I found was in some code I was evaluating.
>> One file, about 1000 lines of code, had precisely one comment:
>> 
>> /* I dont know why this works */

> Possibly from a previous maintainer, not the orginal author?  I've
> certainly written comments like that myself, when trying to fix inherited
> code.

A former colleague seemed to like leaving comments reading
/* GOK */
in his code.

GOK, of course, stands for "God Only Knows". Those who've maintained his
earlier C++ code are generally of the opinion that even God didn't know.

I did once leave a comment in some rather hairy code manipulating 
parse-trees of Ada programs to the effect of "i can't prove this function
performs the correct transformation in one pass but if you can find any
case where it won't i'll buy you a box of jaffa cakes", but that was
when I was working in academia. Probably couldn't even have afforded the
jaffa cakes even if someone could (A) find the code and (B) do the proof. :)

pete
-- 
pete@fenelon.com "there's no room for enigmas in built-up areas" (HMHB)

######

From: brucehoult@pobox.com (Bruce Hoult)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Mon, 04 Oct 1999 22:14:11 +1300
Organization: The Internet Group Ltd
Lines: 12
Message-ID: <brucehoult-0410992214110001@bruce.bgh>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <+JrqN2BSco0Y8OoWtpgs0D0lIq5u@4ax.com> <37F0970C.FFE37EDA@inthan.be> <7squt8$10e@news2.newsguy.com> <zJ8I3.1870$L85.108215@ptah.visi.com> <7ssht4$c3j$1@gondor.sdsu.edu> <7sstc2$rvf$3@winter.news.rcn.net> <7stf1a$26t0@news1.newsguy.com> <F4B9D782557865DD.E86AEF5831278EE4.9CBD8217956DA1E4@lp.airnews.net> <7svhhi$ske$4@winter.news.rcn.net> <hshubs-3009991011510001@user-33qsdkl.dialup.mindspring.com> <37F86A6A.4BEA5C25@lanwolf.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: macinnat.static.star.net.nz
X-Newsreader: MT-NewsWatcher 2.4.4
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!ihug.co.nz!brucehoult

In article <37F86A6A.4BEA5C25@lanwolf.com>, lanwolf@lanwolf.com wrote:

> I think the worst I found was in some code I was evaluating.
> One file, about 1000 lines of code, had precisely one comment:
> 
> /* I dont know why this works */

Possibly from a previous maintainer, not the orginal author?  I've
certainly written comments like that myself, when trying to fix inherited
code.

-- Bruce

######

From: Charles Richmond <richmond@plano.net>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Mon, 04 Oct 1999 23:18:07 +0000
Organization: Cannine Computer Center
Lines: 24
Message-ID: <37F935AF.47B62BE6@plano.net>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <+JrqN2BSco0Y8OoWtpgs0D0lIq5u@4ax.com> <37F0970C.FFE37EDA@inthan.be> <7squt8$10e@news2.newsguy.com> <zJ8I3.1870$L85.108215@ptah.visi.com> <7ssht4$c3j$1@gondor.sdsu.edu> <7sstc2$rvf$3@winter.news.rcn.net> <7stf1a$26t0@news1.newsguy.com> <F4B9D782557865DD.E86AEF5831278EE4.9CBD8217956DA1E4@lp.airnews.net> <7svhhi$ske$4@winter.news.rcn.net> <hshubs-3009991011510001@user-33qsdkl.dialup.mindspring.com> <37F86A6A.4BEA5C25@lanwolf.com>
Reply-To: richmond@plano.net
X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.03 (Macintosh; I; 68K)
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!uunet!ams.uu.net!grolier!209.249.97.47.MISMATCH!remarQ-easT!rQdQ!supernews.com!remarQ.com!corp.supernews.com!not-for-mail

David Warman wrote:
> 
> I think the worst I found was in some code I was evaluating.
> One file, about 1000 lines of code, had precisely one comment:
> 
> /* I dont know why this works */
> 
I believe that Dennis Ritchie posted that he and others had put
a comment similar to this in an early version of UNIX.  I think
it was something about a process scheduling algorithm, but I can
*not* find the URL for the WEB page where he explains it.

There is a legendary FORTRAN II compiler written by Peter Sampson.
(I think it was Sampson--I can *not* find the reference now.)
This compiler was written in assembly language and had only *one*
comment.  The comment was on the definition of an octal constant.
The comment was "R.I.P. J.S.B.".  When the octal number was converted
to decimal, it was the year that Johann Sebastian Bach died.  (This was
mentioned in Steven Levy's book _Hackers_.)

-- 
+-------------------------------------------------------------+
|     Charles and Francis Richmond     <richmond@plano.net>   |
+-------------------------------------------------------------+

######

From: Torsten Poulin <torsten@diku.ANTISPAM.dk>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Mon, 4 Oct 1999 23:36:21 +0200
Organization: Ginnungagap
Lines: 9
Message-ID: <mk6bt7.ti6.ln@platon.poulin.dk>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <hshubs-3009991011510001@user-33qsdkl.dialup.mindspring.com> <37F86A6A.4BEA5C25@lanwolf.com> <37facc96.1635932116@192.168.0.1> <zI4K3.3854$L85.277427@ptah.visi.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: firewall.poulin.dk
X-Trace: news101.telia.com 939073326 9826 194.19.185.98 (4 Oct 1999 21:42:06 GMT)
X-Complaints-To: abuse@telia.dk
NNTP-Posting-Date: 4 Oct 1999 21:42:06 GMT
X-Newsreader: TIN 1.4
User-Agent: tin/pre-1.4-19990413 ("Endemoniada") (UNIX) (Linux/2.2.5-22 (i586))
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!newsfeeds.belnet.be!news.belnet.be!news-feed.inet.tele.dk!bofh.vszbr.cz!newsfeed101.telia.com!news101.telia.com!not-for-mail

Peter Seebach <seebs@plethora.net> wrote:

>>	(* midlertidig *)

> What's that mean?

It's Danish for interim or temporary.

-Torsten

######

From: slavins.at.hearsay.demon.co.uk@localhost (Simon Slavin)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Mon, 04 Oct 1999 23:39:23 +0100
Organization: First Sirian Bank
Message-ID: <B41EEB2B9668174804@hearsay.demon.co.uk>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7svhhi$ske$4@winter.news.rcn.net> <Sn3zN=OL4HBrEAEJusqPbz63dwh3@4ax.com> <7t29v9$pa3$2@winter.news.rcn.net> <7t3ae4$m44$1@hawkins.cba.uni.edu> <7t69u0$tg9$1@news.enteract.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: hearsay.demon.co.uk
X-NNTP-Posting-Host: hearsay.demon.co.uk:194.222.24.177
X-Trace: news.demon.co.uk 939076747 nnrp-13:5052 NO-IDENT hearsay.demon.co.uk:194.222.24.177
X-Complaints-To: abuse@demon.net
Lines: 17
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!skynet.be!dispose.news.demon.net!demon!news.demon.co.uk!demon!hearsay.demon.co.uk!user

In article <7t69u0$tg9$1@news.enteract.com>,
David Scheidt <dscheidt@enteract.com> wrote:

> You can build FreeBSD on anything it runs on, and you can fit /usr/src and
> /usr/obj.  It takes a while on a 20Mhz 386 with 8MB of ram, and nfs mounted
> /usr, though.

But it's /excellent/ for testing disc drives to see which ones will
fail in their first 96 hours of use.  That's why we donated money to
FreeBSD even though our customers wanted Windows.

Simon.
-- 
http://www.hearsay.demon.co.uk | John Peel:
No junk email please.          |  [My daughter] has modelled herself on you.
                               | Courtney Love:
                               |  Oh, I'm so sorry.

######

From: "Gerard S." <gerardS@prairietech.net>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <+JrqN2BSco0Y8OoWtpgs0D0lIq5u@4ax.com> <37F0970C.FFE37EDA@inthan.be> <7squt8$10e@news2.newsguy.com> <zJ8I3.1870$L85.108215@ptah.visi.com> <7ssht4$c3j$1@gondor.sdsu.edu> <7sstc2$rvf$3@winter.news.rcn.net> <7stf1a$26t0@news1.newsguy.com> <F4B9D782557865DD.E86AEF5831278EE4.9CBD8217956DA1E4@lp.airnews.net> <7svhhi$ske$4@winter.news.rcn.net> <hshubs-3009991011510001@user-33qsdkl.dialup.mindspring.com> <37F86A6A.4BEA5C25@lanwolf.com> <37F935AF.47B62BE6@plano.net>
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Lines: 21
X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 4.72.2120.0
X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V4.72.2120.0
Message-ID: <ngfK3.473$Jk.3169@newsfeed.slurp.net>
Date: Mon, 4 Oct 1999 23:41:16 -0500
NNTP-Posting-Host: 208.149.16.140
X-Trace: newsfeed.slurp.net 939098259 208.149.16.140 (Mon, 04 Oct 1999 23:37:39 CDT)
NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 04 Oct 1999 23:37:39 CDT
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news-fra1.dfn.de!news0.de.colt.net!colt.net!newsfeed.icl.net!newsfeed.slurp.net!not-for-mail

One of the funnier comments I ever read was in an IBM microfiche for MFT
(release 13 or so?)....
I was tracing down why MFT produced a DAR dump, and I read...


*** when control gets to this point, kiss your ass goodbye.
(followed immediately by an ABEND macro, as I recall.)

heh heh heh


Made my day and the FE's also  (well, it WAS funny at the time...).   Ya had to
have a sense of humor trying to explain in the weekly re-cap meeting why the
production system decided to eat dirt that day.


Gerard S.

######

From: gah@ugcs.caltech.edu (glen herrmannsfeldt)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 5 Oct 1999 01:07:28 GMT
Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
Lines: 12
Message-ID: <7tbj0g$kt0@gap.cco.caltech.edu>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <+JrqN2BSco0Y8OoWtpgs0D0lIq5u@4ax.com> <37F0970C.FFE37EDA@inthan.be> <7squt8$10e@news2.newsguy.com> <zJ8I3.1870$L85.108215@ptah.visi.com> <7ssht4$c3j$1@gondor.sdsu.edu> <7sstc2$rvf$3@winter.news.rcn.net> <7stf1a$26t0@news1.newsguy.com> <F4B9D782557865DD.E86AEF5831278EE4.9CBD8217956DA1E4@lp.airnews.net> <7svhhi$ske$4@winter.news.rcn.net> <Sn3zN=OL4HBrEAEJusqPbz63dwh3@4ax.com> <MPG.125b2d5598a947ff989695@usenet.force9.net> <37f9cb88.1635662288@192.168.0.1>
NNTP-Posting-Host: xeno.ugcs.caltech.edu
X-Newsreader: NN version 6.5.0 #3 (NOV)
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!skynet.be!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!uchinews!nntp-server.caltech.edu!gah

scottw@bmtech.co.uk_DELETE_THIS (Scott Wheeler) writes:

>On Fri, 1 Oct 1999 18:23:39 +0100, neil@platypus.NOSPAM.force9.co.uk
>(Neil Sluman) wrote:

>>A FOAF had "Error code 172:  This error code reserved for future use"

I know a popular computer with messages like "Error -2 occurred" along
with a little picture of a bomb.  It is very hard to find the book that
explains what "Error -2" (always negative numbers) means.

-- glen

######

From: David Rifkind <drifkind@acm.deleteme.org>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Organization: Subnormal Intelligence
Message-ID: <zbz5N+oSarr2NS17UrwpR2iGqRNH@4ax.com>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <37f50bf3.9071416@news.shuswap.net> <37F63028.1D5485D6@plan <494b27fd86a__fake__address@127.0.0.1> <7tc87g$mdm$1@nntp1.u.washington.edu>
X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 1.6/32.525
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Lines: 26
Date: Tue, 05 Oct 1999 01:56:55 -0700
NNTP-Posting-Host: 216.161.144.252
X-Trace: news.uswest.net 939113653 216.161.144.252 (Tue, 05 Oct 1999 03:54:13 CDT)
NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 05 Oct 1999 03:54:13 CDT
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!newscore.univie.ac.at!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news-out.uswest.net!news.uswest.net!not-for-mail

On 5 Oct 1999 07:09:36 GMT, dpeschel@u.washington.edu (Derek Peschel)
wrote:
>In article <494b27fd86a__fake__address@127.0.0.1>,
>Dave Daniels  <a__fake__address@127.0.0.1> wrote:
>
>>I have thought of a slogan for the company I work for:
>>
>>   "Sapping the will to live"
>
>Citibank actually had a contest for a new slogan.  I thought of two
>great ones:
>
>	"CITI + BANK = CITIBANK"
>and
>	"It could be worse."
>
>BTW the winning slogan was completely unmemorable and far too wordy.  It did
>contain the word "globality", which I found an interesting surprise.

A computer company where I once worked was looking for a name for a
spin-off engineering company.  I suggested Catatronics.  For some reason
they didn't take it.

-- 
"Generally speaking, things have gone about as far as they can possibly
go when things have got about as bad as they reasonably get."

######

From: Dennis Ritchie <dmr@bell-labs.com>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Tue, 05 Oct 1999 05:09:09 +0100
Organization: Bell Labs, Lucent Technologies
Lines: 12
Message-ID: <37F979E4.6669@bell-labs.com>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <+JrqN2BSco0Y8OoWtpgs0D0lIq5u@4ax.com> <37F0970C.FFE37EDA@inthan.be> <7squt8$10e@news2.newsguy.com> <zJ8I3.1870$L85.108215@ptah.visi.com> <7ssht4$c3j$1@gondor.sdsu.edu> <7sstc2$rvf$3@winter.news.rcn.net> <7stf1a$26t0@news1.newsguy.com> <F4B9D782557865DD.E86AEF5831278EE4.9CBD8217956DA1E4@lp.airnews.net> <7svhhi$ske$4@winter.news.rcn.net> <hshubs-3009991011510001@user-33qsdkl.dialup.mindspring.com> <37F86A6A.4BEA5C25@lanwolf.com> <37F935AF.47B62BE6@plano.net>
Reply-To: dmr@bell-labs.com
NNTP-Posting-Host: cebu.cs.bell-labs.com
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.01 (Win95; U)
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!news-peer-europe.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!howland.erols.net!news-out.worldnet.att.net.MISMATCH!wn3feed!wn4feed!worldnet.att.net!207.24.196.41!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!news

Charles Richmond wrote:

> > /* I dont know why this works */

> I believe that Dennis Ritchie posted that he and others had put
> a comment similar to this in an early version of UNIX.  I think
> it was something about a process scheduling algorithm, but I can
> *not* find the URL for the WEB page where he explains it.

  http://cm.bell-labs.com/cm/cs/who/dmr/odd.html

	Dennis

######

From: dpeschel@u.washington.edu (Derek Peschel)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 5 Oct 1999 06:58:44 GMT
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle
Lines: 37
Message-ID: <7tc7j4$76e$1@nntp1.u.washington.edu>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <0kr2N4=5EPq7=cBLJuNoBZHYfon7@4ax.com> <938966789.21339.0.nnrp-10.9e98d142@news.demon.co.uk> <T4f3Ny8T1+CzTJAr3Rjn5GoDezen@4ax.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: saul6.u.washington.edu
X-Trace: nntp1.u.washington.edu 939106724 7374 (None) 140.142.17.35
X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu
NNTP-Posting-User: dpeschel
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news.maxwell.syr.edu!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!dpeschel

In article <T4f3Ny8T1+CzTJAr3Rjn5GoDezen@4ax.com>,
Luc Van der Veken  <lucvdv@null.net> wrote:

>Agreed, but that's not the point (at least IMO).  It's not the
>amount of new text that's important, it's the amount of
>superfluous OLD text left in that is.  If, of those 20 lines,
>more than 20% is really necessary to make the reply
>understandable, there's either something wrong with the original
>poster, or he had a heck of a lot to say.

Your point is good.  I still am not convinced that the news software should
actually _enforce_ that quote-to-reply ratio.  There may simply be a time
when you want to break the rule and you can't.  Also, posts with extra blank
lines look really ugly.

>Also keep in mind that 99% of the people reading your follow-up
>have also seen the first post, and those that haven't can move
>back up to it.

That's normally true (and I usually rely on it).  Too bad our server
sometimes expires articles before I can read them.  Having a bigger piece of
the original article to read (in those particular cases) would be wonderful!

Quoting massive amounts of text doesn't bother me if it's consistently done. 
However, people use a mishmash of styles (Usenet-style quoting with various
characters, Supercite quoting, AOL quoting) and placements (above, below,
interspersed) and when they are mixed, messages get very ugly very fast.
I especially hate to see a number of "quotes below" replies, followed by one
"quotes above" reply, followed by more "quotes below" replies.

>And BTW, I thought that those rules were introduced to save us
>from 146 lines with 27 levels of unsnipped quotes with a mere "Me
>too!" at the bottom.

Me... uh, never mind. :)

-- Derek

######

From: dpeschel@u.washington.edu (Derek Peschel)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 5 Oct 1999 07:04:57 GMT
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle
Lines: 20
Message-ID: <7tc7up$ma8$1@nntp1.u.washington.edu>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <Sn3zN=OL4HBrEAEJusqPbz63dwh3@4ax.com> <MPG.125b2d5598a947ff989695@usenet.force9.net> <37f50bf3.9071416@news.shuswap.net>
NNTP-Posting-Host: saul6.u.washington.edu
X-Trace: nntp1.u.washington.edu 939107097 22856 (None) 140.142.17.35
X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu
NNTP-Posting-User: dpeschel
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!newscore.univie.ac.at!europa.netcrusader.net!128.223.220.30!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!dpeschel

In article <37f50bf3.9071416@news.shuswap.net>,
Gene Wirchenko <genew@shuswap.net> wrote:
>neil@platypus.NOSPAM.force9.co.uk (Neil Sluman) wrote:

>>A FOAF had "Error code 172:  This error code reserved for future use"
>
>     If anyone wants to start up a company making terrible software,
>I've got the slogan for you:
>          The future is now.

Although I see what you're getting at, my brain instinctively reads that as
a positive slogan ("We're ahead of our time").  Maybe I've been seeing too
much Apple advertising.

To relate to Neil's message -- One advantage: I would expect your
hypothetical company not to have undocumented, reserved items... Hmm, on the
other hand that might mean that there could be no room for expansion in
their software and we'd be stuck with the same data formats forever.

-- Derek

######

From: dpeschel@u.washington.edu (Derek Peschel)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 5 Oct 1999 07:09:36 GMT
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle
Lines: 18
Message-ID: <7tc87g$mdm$1@nntp1.u.washington.edu>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <37f50bf3.9071416@news.shuswap.net> <37F63028.1D5485D6@plan <494b27fd86a__fake__address@127.0.0.1>
NNTP-Posting-Host: saul6.u.washington.edu
X-Trace: nntp1.u.washington.edu 939107376 22966 (None) 140.142.17.37
X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu
NNTP-Posting-User: dpeschel
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!skynet.be!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!dpeschel

In article <494b27fd86a__fake__address@127.0.0.1>,
Dave Daniels  <a__fake__address@127.0.0.1> wrote:

>I have thought of a slogan for the company I work for:
>
>   "Sapping the will to live"

Citibank actually had a contest for a new slogan.  I thought of two
great ones:

	"CITI + BANK = CITIBANK"
and
	"It could be worse."

BTW the winning slogan was completely unmemorable and far too wordy.  It did
contain the word "globality", which I found an interesting surprise.

-- Derek

######

From: jmfbahciv@aol.com
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Tue, 05 Oct 99 09:13:56 GMT
Organization: UltraNet Communications, Inc.
Lines: 18
Message-ID: <7tcn4s$br2$3@autumn.news.rcn.net>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <+JrqN2BSco0Y8OoWtpgs0D0lIq5u@4ax.com> <37F0970C.FFE37EDA@inthan.be> <7squt8$10e@news2.newsguy.com> <zJ8I3.1870$L85.108215@ptah.visi.com> <7ssht4$c3j$1@gondor.sdsu.edu> <7sstc2$rvf$3@winter.news.rcn.net> <7stf1a$26t0@news1.newsguy.com> <F4B9D782557865DD.E86AEF5831278EE4.9CBD8217956DA1E4@lp.airnews.net> <7svhhi$ske$4@winter.news.rcn.net> <Sn3zN=OL4HBrEAEJusqPbz63dwh3@4ax.com> <MPG.125b2d5598a947ff989695@usenet.force9.net> <37f9cb88.1635662288@192.168.0.1>
X-Trace: qIERkzhigLKJXGoIZvuPinn5AALTX/OItNAKELCfDJ8=
X-Complaints-To: abuse@rcn.com
NNTP-Posting-Date: 5 Oct 1999 11:24:12 GMT
X-Newsreader:  News Xpress Version 1.0 Beta #4
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!isdnet!netnews.com!feed1.news.rcn.net!rcn!d15

In article <37f9cb88.1635662288@192.168.0.1>,
   scottw@bmtech.co.uk_DELETE_THIS (Scott Wheeler) wrote:
>On Fri, 1 Oct 1999 18:23:39 +0100, neil@platypus.NOSPAM.force9.co.uk
>(Neil Sluman) wrote:
>
>>A FOAF had "Error code 172:  This error code reserved for future use"
>
>I've used msgs of the form "WARNING - pink giraffe with whipped cream
>- failed to open XYZ.INI to store configuration". The idea was to get
>the users to remember at least *something* of the error msg if they
>telephoned to say it was broken.
>

What a neat idea :-).  

/BAH

Subtract a hundred and four for e-mail.

######

From: jmfbahciv@aol.com
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Tue, 05 Oct 99 09:21:29 GMT
Organization: UltraNet Communications, Inc.
Lines: 53
Message-ID: <7tcnj1$br2$4@autumn.news.rcn.net>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <0kr2N4=5EPq7=cBLJuNoBZHYfon7@4ax.com> <938966789.21339.0.nnrp-10.9e98d142@news.demon.co.uk> <T4f3Ny8T1+CzTJAr3Rjn5GoDezen@4ax.com> <7tc7j4$76e$1@nntp1.u.washington.edu>
X-Trace: 7rGgoL+mKdG8Aud+p3NsEWpcYk81OFTnGF9B9Ttf/V8=
X-Complaints-To: abuse@rcn.com
NNTP-Posting-Date: 5 Oct 1999 11:31:45 GMT
X-Newsreader:  News Xpress Version 1.0 Beta #4
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!newsfeeds.belnet.be!news.belnet.be!newsfeed.icl.net!newspump.monmouth.com!newspeer.monmouth.com!netnews.com!feed1.news.rcn.net!rcn!d15

In article <7tc7j4$76e$1@nntp1.u.washington.edu>,
   dpeschel@u.washington.edu (Derek Peschel) wrote:
>In article <T4f3Ny8T1+CzTJAr3Rjn5GoDezen@4ax.com>,
>Luc Van der Veken  <lucvdv@null.net> wrote:
>
>>Agreed, but that's not the point (at least IMO).  It's not the
>>amount of new text that's important, it's the amount of
>>superfluous OLD text left in that is.  If, of those 20 lines,
>>more than 20% is really necessary to make the reply
>>understandable, there's either something wrong with the original
>>poster, or he had a heck of a lot to say.
>
>Your point is good.  I still am not convinced that the news software 
should
>actually _enforce_ that quote-to-reply ratio.  There may simply be a time
>when you want to break the rule and you can't.  Also, posts with extra 
blank
>lines look really ugly.

I add blank lines so that my screen doesn't have wall to wall
characters.  There's a reason that computer text used blank
lines to separate paragraphs.  It for readability.

>>Also keep in mind that 99% of the people reading your follow-up
>>have also seen the first post, and those that haven't can move
>>back up to it.
>
>That's normally true (and I usually rely on it).  Too bad our server
>sometimes expires articles before I can read them.  Having a bigger piece 
of
>the original article to read (in those particular cases) would be 
wonderful!

I can't back up to the previous article with this software.  My
technique has been to save the data base on a day to day basis.
And I only save one week's worth (7 files--foo.mon, foo.tue, etc.).

>
>Quoting massive amounts of text doesn't bother me if it's consistently 
done. 
>However, people use a mishmash of styles (Usenet-style quoting with 
various
>characters, Supercite quoting, AOL quoting) and placements (above, below,
>interspersed) and when they are mixed, messages get very ugly very fast.
>I especially hate to see a number of "quotes below" replies, followed by 
one
>"quotes above" reply, followed by more "quotes below" replies.

I don't like posts that don't have a RM of 72 or so.

/BAH

Subtract a hundred and four for e-mail.

######

From: Alexandre Pechtchanski <alex*@*rockvax.rockefeller.edu>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Organization: Rockefeller University Hospital (GCRC), New York
Message-ID: <hQb6N0n42eLSmmiU4mnjXVHjeiS3@4ax.com>
References: <+JrqN2BSco0Y8OoWtpgs0D0lIq5u@4ax.com> <37F0970C.FFE37EDA@inthan.be> <7squt8$10e@news2.newsguy.com> <zJ8I3.1870$L85.108215@ptah.visi.com> <7ssht4$c3j$1@gondor.sdsu.edu> <7sstc2$rvf$3@winter.news.rcn.net> <7stf1a$26t0@news1.newsguy.com> <F4B9D782557865DD.E86AEF5831278EE4.9CBD8217956DA1E4@lp.airnews.net> <7svhhi$ske$4@winter.news.rcn.net> <hshubs-3009991011510001@user-33qsdkl.dialup.mindspring.com> <37F86A6A.4BEA5C25@lanwolf.com> <37facc96.1635932116@192.168.0.1>
X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 1.6/32.525
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Lines: 24
Date: Tue, 05 Oct 1999 10:17:49 -0400
NNTP-Posting-Host: 129.85.24.56
X-Trace: rockyd.rockefeller.edu 939133071 129.85.24.56 (Tue, 05 Oct 1999 10:17:51 EDT)
NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 05 Oct 1999 10:17:51 EDT
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news-fra1.dfn.de!bignews.mediaways.net!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newsfeed.nyu.edu!rockyd.rockefeller.edu!not-for-mail

On Mon, 04 Oct 1999 15:51:15 GMT, scottw@bmtech.co.uk_DELETE_THIS (Scott
Wheeler) wrote:

>On Mon, 04 Oct 1999 01:50:50 -0700, David Warman <lanwolf@lanwolf.com>
>wrote:
>
>>I think the worst I found was in some code I was evaluating.
>>One file, about 1000 lines of code, had precisely one comment:
>
>5000 lines of Pascal, 600 globals (all fundamental types, of course),
>3 locals, and one comment:
>
>	(* midlertidig *)

And, of course, the famous quote from "Real programmers don't use Pascal": the
only comment in many thousand line-long assembler code next to an octal constant
03443:  "R.I.P.L.V.B."

When the code needed fixing, a young programmer spent some time deciphering the
comment - as the only one, it _had_ to be crucial to understanding of the code!
Imagine his disappointment ...

[ When replying, remove *'s from address ]
Alexandre Pechtchanski, Systems Manager, RUH, NY

######

From: scottw@bmtech.co.uk_DELETE_THIS (Scott Wheeler)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Tue, 05 Oct 1999 10:34:07 GMT
Message-ID: <37f9d3a2.1703272926@192.168.0.1>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <hshubs-3009991011510001@user-33qsdkl.dialup.mindspring.com> <37F86A6A.4BEA5C25@lanwolf.com> <37facc96.1635932116@192.168.0.1> <zI4K3.3854$L85.277427@ptah.visi.com> <mk6bt7.ti6.ln@platon.poulin.dk>
NNTP-Posting-Host: bmtech.demon.co.uk
X-NNTP-Posting-Host: bmtech.demon.co.uk:158.152.102.124
X-Trace: news.demon.co.uk 939119449 nnrp-14:5052 NO-IDENT bmtech.demon.co.uk:158.152.102.124
X-Complaints-To: abuse@demon.net
X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 1.5/32.451
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Lines: 16
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!isdnet!newsfeed.icl.net!dispose.news.demon.net!demon!news.demon.co.uk!demon!bmtech.demon.co.uk!not-for-mail

On Mon, 4 Oct 1999 23:36:21 +0200, Torsten Poulin
<torsten@diku.ANTISPAM.dk> wrote:

>>>	(* midlertidig *)
>
>> What's that mean?
>
>It's Danish for interim or temporary.

The code came from the Riso lab in Denmark, so I think this is right.
I've been asking for years - best explanation I got was "middle loop".
Thanks for the illumination!

Scott
-- 
(please de-mung address if replying by email)

######

From: scottw@bmtech.co.uk_DELETE_THIS (Scott Wheeler)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Tue, 05 Oct 1999 10:34:07 GMT
Message-ID: <37f9d3a2.1703272926@192.168.0.1>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <hshubs-3009991011510001@user-33qsdkl.dialup.mindspring.com> <37F86A6A.4BEA5C25@lanwolf.com> <37facc96.1635932116@192.168.0.1> <zI4K3.3854$L85.277427@ptah.visi.com> <mk6bt7.ti6.ln@platon.poulin.dk>
NNTP-Posting-Host: bmtech.demon.co.uk
X-NNTP-Posting-Host: bmtech.demon.co.uk:158.152.102.124
X-Trace: news.demon.co.uk 939119449 nnrp-14:5052 NO-IDENT bmtech.demon.co.uk:158.152.102.124
X-Complaints-To: abuse@demon.net
X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 1.5/32.451
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Lines: 16
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!isdnet!newsfeed.icl.net!dispose.news.demon.net!demon!news.demon.co.uk!demon!bmtech.demon.co.uk!not-for-mail

On Mon, 4 Oct 1999 23:36:21 +0200, Torsten Poulin
<torsten@diku.ANTISPAM.dk> wrote:

>>>	(* midlertidig *)
>
>> What's that mean?
>
>It's Danish for interim or temporary.

The code came from the Riso lab in Denmark, so I think this is right.
I've been asking for years - best explanation I got was "middle loop".
Thanks for the illumination!

Scott
-- 
(please de-mung address if replying by email)

######

Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!usenet
From: Neil Franklin <neil@franklin.ch.remove>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 06 Oct 1999 00:17:38 +0200
Organization: My own Private Self
Lines: 18
Sender: neil@chonsp.franklin.ch
Message-ID: <6u670lwiyl.fsf@chonsp.franklin.ch>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <+JrqN2BSco0Y8OoWtpgs0D0lIq5u@4ax.com>
        <37F0970C.FFE37EDA@inthan.be> <7squt8$10e@news2.newsguy.com>
        <zJ8I3.1870$L85.108215@ptah.visi.com> <7ssht4$c3j$1@gondor.sdsu.edu>
        <7sstc2$rvf$3@winter.news.rcn.net> <7stf1a$26t0@news1.newsguy.com>
        <F4B9D782557865DD.E86AEF5831278EE4.9CBD8217956DA1E4@lp.airnews.net>
        <7svhhi$ske$4@winter.news.rcn.net>
        <hshubs-3009991011510001@user-33qsdkl.dialup.mindspring.com>
        <37F86A6A.4BEA5C25@lanwolf.com> <37F935AF.47B62BE6@plano.net>
X-Newsreader: Gnus v5.3/Emacs 19.34

Charles Richmond <richmond@plano.net> writes:
>
> There is a legendary FORTRAN II compiler written by Peter Sampson.
> (I think it was Sampson--I can *not* find the reference now.)
> This compiler was written in assembly language and had only *one*
> comment.  The comment was on the definition of an octal constant.
> The comment was "R.I.P. J.S.B.".  When the octal number was converted
> to decimal, it was the year that Johann Sebastian Bach died.  (This was
> mentioned in Steven Levy's book _Hackers_.)

It was an music generation program, not an compiler. That is why JSBs
date got this special treatment.

And this was on MITs PDP-1, to add a bit of topicality.


--
Neil Franklin, neil@franklin.ch.remove http://neil.franklin.ch/

######

From: dpeschel@u.washington.edu (Derek Peschel)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 5 Oct 1999 21:53:57 GMT
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle
Lines: 45
Message-ID: <7tds1l$14pg$1@nntp1.u.washington.edu>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <T4f3Ny8T1+CzTJAr3Rjn5GoDezen@4ax.com> <7tc7j4$76e$1@nntp1.u.washington.edu> <7tcnj1$br2$4@autumn.news.rcn.net>
NNTP-Posting-Host: saul4.u.washington.edu
X-Trace: nntp1.u.washington.edu 939160437 37680 (None) 140.142.17.37
X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu
NNTP-Posting-User: dpeschel
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!skynet.be!newsfeed.direct.ca!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!dpeschel

In article <7tcnj1$br2$4@autumn.news.rcn.net>,  <jmfbahciv@aol.com> wrote:
>In article <7tc7j4$76e$1@nntp1.u.washington.edu>,
>   dpeschel@u.washington.edu (Derek Peschel) wrote:
>>In article <T4f3Ny8T1+CzTJAr3Rjn5GoDezen@4ax.com>,
>>Luc Van der Veken  <lucvdv@null.net> wrote:

>>>Agreed, but that's not the point (at least IMO).  It's not the
>>>amount of new text that's important, it's the amount of
>>>superfluous OLD text left in that is.  If, of those 20 lines,
>>>more than 20% is really necessary to make the reply
>>>understandable, there's either something wrong with the original
>>>poster, or he had a heck of a lot to say.
>>
>>Your point is good.  I still am not convinced that the news software 
>should
>>actually _enforce_ that quote-to-reply ratio.  There may simply be a time
>>when you want to break the rule and you can't.  Also, posts with extra 
>blank
>>lines look really ugly.
>
>I add blank lines so that my screen doesn't have wall to wall
>characters.  There's a reason that computer text used blank
>lines to separate paragraphs.  It for readability.

I wasn't clear enough.

I meant that posts with _lots of_ extra blank lines _to satisfy the
enforcement of the quote-to-reply ratio_ look really ugly.  They usually
have a block of empty space at the very end.  If the signature ever
arrives, it looks like it's floating in outer space.

>I don't like posts that don't have a RM of 72 or so.

Is this closely related to the fact that posts with narrower right
margins (like my last one) get wrapped by your software? :)

I have used slightly wider margins than usual this time.  I hope that
works well for you.

What do you
think of the
posts with very
short lines?

-- Derek

######

From: Torsten Poulin <torsten@diku.ANTISPAM.dk>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Tue, 5 Oct 1999 23:50:02 +0200
Organization: Ginnungagap
Lines: 21
Message-ID: <aqrdt7.7t7.ln@platon.poulin.dk>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <hshubs-3009991011510001@user-33qsdkl.dialup.mindspring.com> <37F86A6A.4BEA5C25@lanwolf.com> <37facc96.1635932116@192.168.0.1> <zI4K3.3854$L85.277427@ptah.visi.com> <mk6bt7.ti6.ln@platon.poulin.dk> <37f9d3a2.1703272926@192.168.0.1>
NNTP-Posting-Host: firewall.poulin.dk
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
X-Trace: news101.telia.com 939160564 12011 194.19.185.98 (5 Oct 1999 21:56:04 GMT)
X-Complaints-To: abuse@telia.dk
NNTP-Posting-Date: 5 Oct 1999 21:56:04 GMT
X-Newsreader: TIN 1.4
User-Agent: tin/pre-1.4-19990413 ("Endemoniada") (UNIX) (Linux/2.2.5-22 (i586))
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!uunet!ams.uu.net!do.de.uu.net!newsfeed.tli.de!news-feed.inet.tele.dk!bofh.vszbr.cz!newsfeed101.telia.com!news101.telia.com!not-for-mail

Scott Wheeler <scottw@bmtech.co.uk_delete_this> wrote:

>>It's Danish for interim or temporary.

> The code came from the Riso lab in Denmark, so I think this is right.
> I've been asking for years - best explanation I got was "middle loop".

:-)

A nice try.  At least your informant got close with middle, but the loop
part was simply a wild guess.  He for sure isn't a native speaker of Danish.
Midlertidig is an adjective derived from the word imidlertid, which quite
literally means "in the mean time".

> Thanks for the illumination!

You are welcome!  From your description of the, er, "quality" of the code
combined with the Risø origin, I guess that it was produced by a physicist
without much in the way of programming expertise.  *Shudder*

-Torsten

######

From: brucehoult@pobox.com (Bruce Hoult)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Wed, 06 Oct 1999 11:03:30 +1300
Organization: The Internet Group Ltd
Lines: 11
Message-ID: <brucehoult-0610991103300001@bruce.bgh>
References: <+JrqN2BSco0Y8OoWtpgs0D0lIq5u@4ax.com> <37F0970C.FFE37EDA@inthan.be> <7squt8$10e@news2.newsguy.com> <zJ8I3.1870$L85.108215@ptah.visi.com> <7ssht4$c3j$1@gondor.sdsu.edu> <7sstc2$rvf$3@winter.news.rcn.net> <7stf1a$26t0@news1.newsguy.com> <F4B9D782557865DD.E86AEF5831278EE4.9CBD8217956DA1E4@lp.airnews.net> <7svhhi$ske$4@winter.news.rcn.net> <hshubs-3009991011510001@user-33qsdkl.dialup.mindspring.com> <37F86A6A.4BEA5C25@lanwolf.com> <37facc96.1635932116@192.168.0.1> <hQb6N0n42eLSmmiU4mnjXVHjeiS3@4ax.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: macinnat.static.star.net.nz
X-Newsreader: MT-NewsWatcher 2.4.4
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!uunet!ams.uu.net!ffx.uu.net!hermes.visi.com!news-out.visi.com!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!ihug.co.nz!brucehoult

In article <hQb6N0n42eLSmmiU4mnjXVHjeiS3@4ax.com>, Alexandre Pechtchanski
<alex*@*rockvax.rockefeller.edu> wrote:

> And, of course, the famous quote from "Real programmers don't use Pascal": the
> only comment in many thousand line-long assembler code next to an octal
constant
> 03443:  "R.I.P.L.V.B."

JSB, I think you'll find...

-- Bruce

######

From: hnsngr@sirius.com (Ron Hunsinger)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Message-ID: <hnsngr-ya023180000510991741520001@news.swbell.net>
References: <+JrqN2BSco0Y8OoWtpgs0D0lIq5u@4ax.com> <37F0970C.FFE37EDA@inthan.be> <7squt8$10e@news2.newsguy.com> <zJ8I3.1870$L85.108215@ptah.visi.com> <7ssht4$c3j$1@gondor.sdsu.edu> <7sstc2$rvf$3@winter.news.rcn.net> <7stf1a$26t0@news1.newsguy.com> <F4B9D782557865DD.E86AEF5831278EE4.9CBD8217956DA1E4@lp.airnews.net> <7svhhi$ske$4@winter.news.rcn.net> <hshubs-3009991011510001@user-33qsdkl.dialup.mindspring.com> <37F86A6A.4BEA5C25@lanwolf.com> <37facc96.1635932116@192.168.0.1> <hQb6N0n42eLSmmiU4mnjXVHjeiS3@4ax.com>
Organization: ErsteSoft
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Content-transfer-encoding: 8bit
X-Newsreader: Yet Another NewsWatcher 2.3.1
Lines: 26
Date: Tue, 05 Oct 1999 17:41:52 -0700
NNTP-Posting-Host: 216.103.86.8
X-Complaints-To: abuse@swbell.net
X-Trace: typhoon01.swbell.net 939170435 216.103.86.8 (Tue, 05 Oct 1999 17:40:35 PDT)
NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 05 Oct 1999 17:40:35 PDT
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!skynet.be!newsfeed.stanford.edu!paloalto-snf1.gtei.net!su-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.gtei.net!cyclone.pbi.net!151.164.30.35!cyclone.swbell.net!typhoon01.swbell.net.POSTED!not-for-mail

In article <hQb6N0n42eLSmmiU4mnjXVHjeiS3@4ax.com>, Alexandre Pechtchanski
<alex*@*rockvax.rockefeller.edu> wrote:

> And, of course, the famous quote from "Real programmers don't use Pascal": the
> only comment in many thousand line-long assembler code next to an octal
constant
> 03443:  "R.I.P.L.V.B."

At one shop where I worked, a lot of the page-break code was based on the
assumption that you could fit 62 lines of text on a page. (11 inches at 6
lines per inch, minus 4 lines around the paperfold.)

The programmer had been told that magical constants were a bad idea. All
constants should be given a meaningful name.

So he included the line:

    77  SIXTY-TWO   PIC 99 COMP VALUE 62.

And sure enough, a few years later, the company decided to switch from
11-inch to 8.5 inch paper as the default page size. So naturally the
constant got rewritten:

    77  SIXTY-TWO   PIC 99 COMP VALUE 48.

-Ron Hunsinger

######

From: Michael Davidson <md@sco.com>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Tue, 05 Oct 1999 21:58:25 -0700
Organization: SCO
Lines: 13
Message-ID: <37FAD6F1.6A4E@sco.com>
References: <+JrqN2BSco0Y8OoWtpgs0D0lIq5u@4ax.com> <37F0970C.FFE37EDA@inthan.be> <7squt8$10e@news2.newsguy.com> <zJ8I3.1870$L85.108215@ptah.visi.com> <7ssht4$c3j$1@gondor.sdsu.edu> <7sstc2$rvf$3@winter.news.rcn.net> <7stf1a$26t0@news1.newsguy.com> <F4B9D782557865DD.E86AEF5831278EE4.9CBD8217956DA1E4@lp.airnews.net> <7svhhi$ske$4@winter.news.rcn.net> <hshubs-3009991011510001@user-33qsdkl.dialup.mindspring.com> <37F86A6A.4BEA5C25@lanwolf.com> <37facc96.1635932116@192.168.0.1> <hQb6N0n42eLSmmiU4mnjXVHjeiS3@4ax.com> <brucehoult-0610991103300001@bruce.bgh>
Reply-To: md@sco.com
NNTP-Posting-Host: nermal.research.sco.com
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.04 (Win95; I)
To: Bruce Hoult <brucehoult@pobox.com>
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!isdnet!remarQ-easT!supernews.com!remarQ.com!newsswitch.lcs.mit.edu!uchinews!newsfeed.stanford.edu!paloalto-snf1.gtei.net!su-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.gtei.net!cyclone.pbi.net!132.147.128.45!hobbes.sco.com!not-for-mail

Bruce Hoult wrote:

> > 03443:  "R.I.P.L.V.B."
> 
> JSB, I think you'll find...

No ...

03443 is definitely LVB  (1770 - 1827)

you must have been thinking of:

03326 which would be JSB (1685 - 1750)

######

Message-ID: <37FAC0B6.86173FFC@net66.com>
From: Mark Statzer <mstatz@net66.com>
Organization: Helena Handbasket
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.61 [en] (Win98; U)
X-Accept-Language: en
MIME-Version: 1.0
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <T4f3Ny8T1+CzTJAr3Rjn5GoDezen@4ax.com> <7tc7j4$76e$1@nntp1.u.washington.edu> <7tcnj1$br2$4@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7tds1l$14pg$1@nntp1.u.washington.edu>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Lines: 16
NNTP-Posting-Host: 206.139.83.116
X-Trace: typ12.nn.bcandid.com 939180219 206.139.83.116 (Tue, 05 Oct 1999 23:23:39 EDT)
NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 05 Oct 1999 23:23:39 EDT
Date: Tue, 05 Oct 1999 22:23:34 -0500
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!isdnet!howland.erols.net!gate.bcandid.com.MISMATCH!gw12.nn.bcandid.com!gate.bCandid.com!typ12.nn.bcandid.com.POSTED!not-for-mail



Derek Peschel wrote:
> 
> What do you
> think of the
> posts with very
> short lines?

Um...Atari 400, large font running BobTerm, 300 baud?

Mark "Still typing in ATASCII" Statzer

-- 
*NOTE*  I am not responsible for equipment damage due to reeeealy
dumb children with no parental supervision, and access to a hammer.

######

From: genew@shuswap.net (Gene Wirchenko)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Wed, 06 Oct 1999 01:01:11 GMT
Organization: Okanagan Internet Junction
Lines: 33
Message-ID: <37fa8b76.27302926@news.shuswap.net>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <Sn3zN=OL4HBrEAEJusqPbz63dwh3@4ax.com> <MPG.125b2d5598a947ff989695@usenet.force9.net> <37f50bf3.9071416@news.shuswap.net> <7tc7up$ma8$1@nntp1.u.washington.edu>
Reply-To: genew@shuswap.net
NNTP-Posting-Host: salmonarm3-33.shuswap.net
X-Trace: news.junction.net 939171631 19356 206.87.124.115 (6 Oct 1999 01:00:31 GMT)
X-Complaints-To: abuse@junction.net
NNTP-Posting-Date: 6 Oct 1999 01:00:31 GMT
X-Newsreader: Forte Free Agent 1.1/32.230
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!enews.sgi.com!paloalto-snf1.gtei.net!su-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.gtei.net!newsfeed.direct.ca!cyclone.bc.net!news.junction.net!not-for-mail

dpeschel@u.washington.edu (Derek Peschel) wrote:

>In article <37f50bf3.9071416@news.shuswap.net>,
>Gene Wirchenko <genew@shuswap.net> wrote:
>>neil@platypus.NOSPAM.force9.co.uk (Neil Sluman) wrote:
>
>>>A FOAF had "Error code 172:  This error code reserved for future use"
>>
>>     If anyone wants to start up a company making terrible software,
>>I've got the slogan for you:
>>          The future is now.
>
>Although I see what you're getting at, my brain instinctively reads that as
>a positive slogan ("We're ahead of our time").  Maybe I've been seeing too
>much Apple advertising.

     "Where do you want to go today?" can be read positively, too.

>To relate to Neil's message -- One advantage: I would expect your
>hypothetical company not to have undocumented, reserved items... Hmm, on the
>other hand that might mean that there could be no room for expansion in
>their software and we'd be stuck with the same data formats forever.

     They'd do both, of course.

Sincerely,

Gene Wirchenko

Computerese Irregular Verb Conjugation:
     I have preferences.
     You have biases.
     He/She has prejudices.

######

From: genew@shuswap.net (Gene Wirchenko)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Wed, 06 Oct 1999 01:01:14 GMT
Organization: Okanagan Internet Junction
Lines: 20
Message-ID: <37fa8c43.27507728@news.shuswap.net>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <hshubs-3009991011510001@user-33qsdkl.dialup.mindspring.com> <37F86A6A.4BEA5C25@lanwolf.com> <37facc96.1635932116@192.168.0.1> <zI4K3.3854$L85.277427@ptah.visi.com> <mk6bt7.ti6.ln@platon.poulin.dk>
Reply-To: genew@shuswap.net
NNTP-Posting-Host: salmonarm3-33.shuswap.net
X-Trace: news.junction.net 939171632 19356 206.87.124.115 (6 Oct 1999 01:00:32 GMT)
X-Complaints-To: abuse@junction.net
NNTP-Posting-Date: 6 Oct 1999 01:00:32 GMT
X-Newsreader: Forte Free Agent 1.1/32.230
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news.maxwell.syr.edu!cyclone.bc.net!news.junction.net!not-for-mail

Torsten Poulin <torsten@diku.ANTISPAM.dk> wrote:

>Peter Seebach <seebs@plethora.net> wrote:
>
>>>	(* midlertidig *)
>
>> What's that mean?
>
>It's Danish for interim or temporary.

     So when will that final comment be removed?

Sincerely,

Gene Wirchenko

Computerese Irregular Verb Conjugation:
     I have preferences.
     You have biases.
     He/She has prejudices.

######

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <37f50bf3.9071416@news.shuswap.net> <7tc7up$ma8$1@nntp1.u.washington.edu> <37fa8b76.27302926@news.shuswap.net>
Organization: Plethora . Net - More net, less spam!
X-Newsreader: trn 4.0-test70 (17 January 1999)
From: seebs@plethora.net (Peter Seebach)
Lines: 13
Message-ID: <%mBK3.4201$L85.329992@ptah.visi.com>
Date: Wed, 06 Oct 1999 05:46:35 GMT
NNTP-Posting-Host: 205.166.146.8
X-Complaints-To: abuse@plethora.net
X-Trace: ptah.visi.com 939188795 205.166.146.8 (Wed, 06 Oct 1999 00:46:35 CDT)
NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 06 Oct 1999 00:46:35 CDT
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!naxos.belnet.be!news.belnet.be!newspump.monmouth.com!newspeer.monmouth.com!hermes.visi.com!news-out.visi.com!ptah.visi.com!not-for-mail

In article <37fa8b76.27302926@news.shuswap.net>,
Gene Wirchenko <genew@shuswap.net> wrote:
>     "Where do you want to go today?" can be read positively, too.

Yes.  The best thing to do is alter the screensaver to read
	"Where do you want Microsoft to go today?"

-s
-- 
Copyright 1999, All rights reserved.  Peter Seebach / seebs@plethora.net
C/Unix wizard, Pro-commerce radical, Spam fighter.  Boycott Spamazon!
Will work for interesting hardware.  http://www.plethora.net/~seebs/
Visit my new ISP <URL:http://www.plethora.net/> --- More Net, Less Spam!

######

From: jmfbahciv@aol.com
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Wed, 06 Oct 99 09:08:33 GMT
Organization: UltraNet Communications, Inc.
Lines: 70
Message-ID: <7tfb74$9lt$2@autumn.news.rcn.net>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <T4f3Ny8T1+CzTJAr3Rjn5GoDezen@4ax.com> <7tc7j4$76e$1@nntp1.u.washington.edu> <7tcnj1$br2$4@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7tds1l$14pg$1@nntp1.u.washington.edu>
X-Trace: KPek3dm0oIKLMZSLIUywHmp3IWGxW3AAqEQb0v6mYr0=
X-Complaints-To: abuse@rcn.com
NNTP-Posting-Date: 6 Oct 1999 11:19:00 GMT
X-Newsreader:  News Xpress Version 1.0 Beta #4
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news.maxwell.syr.edu!feed1.news.rcn.net!rcn!d11

In article <7tds1l$14pg$1@nntp1.u.washington.edu>,
   dpeschel@u.washington.edu (Derek Peschel) wrote:
>In article <7tcnj1$br2$4@autumn.news.rcn.net>,  <jmfbahciv@aol.com> wrote:
>>In article <7tc7j4$76e$1@nntp1.u.washington.edu>,
>>   dpeschel@u.washington.edu (Derek Peschel) wrote:
>>>In article <T4f3Ny8T1+CzTJAr3Rjn5GoDezen@4ax.com>,
>>>Luc Van der Veken  <lucvdv@null.net> wrote:
>
>>>>Agreed, but that's not the point (at least IMO).  It's not the
>>>>amount of new text that's important, it's the amount of
>>>>superfluous OLD text left in that is.  If, of those 20 lines,
>>>>more than 20% is really necessary to make the reply
>>>>understandable, there's either something wrong with the original
>>>>poster, or he had a heck of a lot to say.
>>>
>>>Your point is good.  I still am not convinced that the news software 
>>should
>>>actually _enforce_ that quote-to-reply ratio.  There may simply be a 
time
>>>when you want to break the rule and you can't.  Also, posts with extra 
>>blank
>>>lines look really ugly.
>>
>>I add blank lines so that my screen doesn't have wall to wall
>>characters.  There's a reason that computer text used blank
>>lines to separate paragraphs.  It for readability.
>
>I wasn't clear enough.
>
>I meant that posts with _lots of_ extra blank lines _to satisfy the
>enforcement of the quote-to-reply ratio_ look really ugly.  They usually
>have a block of empty space at the very end.  If the signature ever
>arrives, it looks like it's floating in outer space.

Oh!  So that's why that happens.  I always wondered why people
would waste so much time hitting <cr-lf>s when they posted.  
That activity was usually an expression of anger in my shop :-).
"Take that!  You GD computer! and that! and THAT!"

>
>>I don't like posts that don't have a RM of 72 or so.
>
>Is this closely related to the fact that posts with narrower right
>margins (like my last one) get wrapped by your software? :)

Yeah.  I really hate software that inserts <cr-lf>s without
my OK.  So, to make the post look neat, I spend quite a bit
of my energy reformatting.  It's not my style to post a
messy looking piece; I guess it's something I picked up 
when I was getting everybody in DEC to do their documentation
in bits rather than typed paper.


>
>I have used slightly wider margins than usual this time.  I hope that
>works well for you.

Yup :-).  Thank you.

>
>What do you
>think of the
>posts with very
>short lines?

I think they're trying to be a smart ass :-).  

/BAH

Subtract a hundred and four for e-mail.

######

From: jmfbahciv@aol.com
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Wed, 06 Oct 99 09:12:46 GMT
Organization: UltraNet Communications, Inc.
Message-ID: <7tfbf1$9lt$3@autumn.news.rcn.net>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <37f50bf3.9071416@news.shuswap.net> <7tc7up$ma8$1@nntp1.u.washington.edu> <37fa8b76.27302926@news.shuswap.net> <%mBK3.4201$L85.329992@ptah.visi.com>
X-Trace: N/S6zlsjPUSdKaP3jMdr0rd9iqwB18PBMvWcM6DIiLg=
X-Complaints-To: abuse@rcn.com
NNTP-Posting-Date: 6 Oct 1999 11:23:13 GMT
X-Newsreader:  News Xpress Version 1.0 Beta #4
Lines: 14
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!newsfeeds.belnet.be!news.belnet.be!newsfeed.icl.net!dispose.news.demon.net!demon!feed1.news.rcn.net!rcn!d11

In article <%mBK3.4201$L85.329992@ptah.visi.com>,
   seebs@plethora.net (Peter Seebach) wrote:
>In article <37fa8b76.27302926@news.shuswap.net>,
>Gene Wirchenko <genew@shuswap.net> wrote:
>>     "Where do you want to go today?" can be read positively, too.
>
>Yes.  The best thing to do is alter the screensaver to read
>	"Where do you want Microsoft to go today?"

That's a very good idea.  One-plus:  It e-mails the answer.

/BAH

Subtract a hundred and four for e-mail.

######

From: Matt Curtin <cmcurtin@interhack.net>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 06 Oct 1999 10:20:27 -0400
Organization: The Ohio State University Dept. of Computer and Info. Science
Lines: 10
Message-ID: <xlxvh8ktvtg.fsf@gold.cis.ohio-state.edu>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <hshubs-3009991011510001@user-33qsdkl.dialup.mindspring.com> <37F86A6A.4BEA5C25@lanwolf.com> <37facc96.1635932116@192.168.0.1> <zI4K3.3854$L85.277427@ptah.visi.com> <mk6bt7.ti6.ln@platon.poulin.dk> <37fa8c43.27507728@news.shuswap.net>
NNTP-Posting-Host: gold.cis.ohio-state.edu
X-Face: L"IcL.b%SDN]0Kql2b`e.}+i05V9fi\yX#H1+Xl)3!+n/3?5`%-SA-HDg<IT;O8XnF>Pk9uTk<3dv^J5DCgal)-E{`zN#*o6F|y>r)\<<ui53(fC)EM]42*oF|P@Hm"Z+GK%"b#q'ycf=2s5%NNR0S;8"vcNN"O;O}YpB{&^1xazqDMg^v!6LS7S"5|}2uTl$NKV5}Bkca{M|Y^cZD@{1
X-Accept-Language: en-US,en,ru,de
X-Newsreader: Gnus v5.6.45/XEmacs 21.1 - "20 Minutes to Nikko"
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news.maxwell.syr.edu!news.cis.ohio-state.edu!not-for-mail

>>>>> On Wed, 06 Oct 1999 01:01:14 GMT,
    genew@shuswap.net (Gene Wirchenko) said:

Gene>      So when will that final comment be removed?

Probably even after the time when Apple doesn't have an "interim" CEO
anymore.

-- 
Matt Curtin cmcurtin@interhack.net http://www.interhack.net/people/cmcurtin/

######

From: jcmorris@jmorris-pc.MITRE.ORG (Joe Morris)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 6 Oct 1999 13:35:13 GMT
Organization: The MITRE Corporation
Lines: 25
Message-ID: <7tfj6h$f2f$1@top.mitre.org>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <T4f3Ny8T1+CzTJAr3Rjn5GoDezen@4ax.com> <7tc7j4$76e$1@nntp1.u.washington.edu> <7tcnj1$br2$4@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7tds1l$14pg$1@nntp1.u.washington.edu> <37FAC0B6.86173FFC@net66.com>
Reply-To: jcmorris@linus.mitre.org
NNTP-Posting-Host: jmorris-pc.mitre.org
X-Trace: top.mitre.org 939216913 15439 128.29.251.13 (6 Oct 1999 13:35:13 GMT)
X-Complaints-To: usenet@news.mitre.org
NNTP-Posting-Date: 6 Oct 1999 13:35:13 GMT
X-Newsreader: NN version 6.5.0 (NOV)
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newsswitch.lcs.mit.edu!world!blanket.mitre.org!news.mitre.org!jmorris-pc.MITRE.ORG!jcmorris

Back in the '70s there was a mod to OS/360 called "Executor", written
mostly by Addison Fischer (he's the Fischer of "Fischer International",
the vendor of Watchdog).  Executor allowed users to submit normal
OS/360 jobs (with certain restrictions) and ran them with significantly
less time spent in the OS job scheduling and allocation time (which could
be a good fraction of a minute even for a trivial job).

The program source was well-commented with lots of embedded documentation
boxed by asterisks at the start of each internal section, which might be
only one or two pages of code.  In one source module, however, between
two sections he had inserted:

    EJECT
 *****************************************
 *                                       *
 *          THIS SPACE FOR RENT          *
 *                                       *
 *****************************************
    EJECT

The joke looks a little flat here, and probably more so if you aren't
used to dealing with assembler or compiler listings, but in its original
context it was a howler.

Joe Morris

######

From: john@ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au (John "West" McKenna)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 6 Oct 1999 13:43:18 +0800
Organization: The University of Western Australia
Lines: 43
Message-ID: <7tenhm$b2d$1@mermaid.ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <+JrqN2BSco0Y8OoWtpgs0D0lIq5u@4ax.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: mermaid.ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au
X-Newsreader: NN version 6.5.0 CURRENT #118
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!isdnet!howland.erols.net!newspeer.monmouth.com!intgwpad.nntp.telstra.net!news1.optus.net.au!optus!news.uwa.edu.au!not-for-mail

scottw@bmtech.co.uk_DELETE_THIS (Scott Wheeler) writes:

>On Mon, 04 Oct 1999 01:50:50 -0700, David Warman <lanwolf@lanwolf.com>
>wrote:

>5000 lines of Pascal, 600 globals (all fundamental types, of course),
>3 locals, and one comment:

>	(* midlertidig *)

I once had to maintain a mess of C written by someone who'd taught himself
Z80 assembly sometime in the 70s and never learnt anything since.  No
pointers, no matter how useful they'd be (everything is in static arrays).
All variables are global, defined in random files (probably whichever one
was open in the editor when he decided it was needed), and extern declared
in every file that might use it (no .h files for us!).  Almost never passed
parameters to functions - everything went through globals.

There were a couple of locals buried in there somewhere.  One particularly
sly bug involved a local:

function frog() {
  int ch;

  do {
    do_some_things;
    ch=get_button();
    do_some_other_things;
  } while (ch!=27);
}

get_button() is a function, declared as returning an int, that scans the
keyboard (among other things).

So why does this bit of code loop forever?  Because get_button() doesn't
really return anything.  It sets the global variable ch.

This would have been easy to spot if I'd been able to compile with warnings
switched on (why isn't get_button returning anything?).  But the compiler
was giving up after the first thousand or so.  It took me a week to clean
up the code enough to compile without warnings.

John West

######

From: scottw@bmtech.co.uk_DELETE_THIS (Scott Wheeler)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Wed, 06 Oct 1999 14:17:47 GMT
Message-ID: <37fb57c8.1802698643@192.168.0.1>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <hshubs-3009991011510001@user-33qsdkl.dialup.mindspring.com> <37F86A6A.4BEA5C25@lanwolf.com> <37facc96.1635932116@192.168.0.1> <zI4K3.3854$L85.277427@ptah.visi.com> <mk6bt7.ti6.ln@platon.poulin.dk> <37f9d3a2.1703272926@192.168.0.1> <aqrdt7.7t7.ln@platon.poulin.dk>
NNTP-Posting-Host: bmtech.demon.co.uk
X-NNTP-Posting-Host: bmtech.demon.co.uk:158.152.102.124
X-Trace: news.demon.co.uk 939219326 nnrp-10:20656 NO-IDENT bmtech.demon.co.uk:158.152.102.124
X-Complaints-To: abuse@demon.net
X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 1.5/32.451
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
Lines: 25
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!newsfeeds.belnet.be!news.belnet.be!skynet.be!dispose.news.demon.net!demon!news.demon.co.uk!demon!bmtech.demon.co.uk!not-for-mail

On Tue, 5 Oct 1999 23:50:02 +0200, Torsten Poulin
<torsten@diku.ANTISPAM.dk> wrote:

>You are welcome!  From your description of the, er, "quality" of the code
>combined with the Risø origin, I guess that it was produced by a physicist
>without much in the way of programming expertise.  *Shudder*

Little expertise, but much experience - I was a physicist myself at
the time, and I'd required the source from them because I'd had
problems with earlier HP BASIC programs from the same source years
previously. This turned out to be by the same hand: most of the
variables called A9, M9$ etc. No idea what the significance of "9" was
originally. Actually in some ways I was impressed that he/she got such
a large unstructured program to work: from what I could tell, the bug
rate was only about 1/2500LOC.

The hardware it was running (a thermoluminescence oven for
archaeological dating of pottery and sediments) was a different story.
Risø got the dimensions wrong for the receptacles for the 40mCi beta
radiation source, so they were too small. Rather than reaming them out
a bit, they asked us to use a lathe to turn down the source!

Scott
-- 
(please de-mung address if replying by email)

######

From: mfg@ee.ed.ac.uk (Michael F Gordon)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 6 Oct 1999 15:26:04 GMT
Organization: Edinburgh University
Lines: 20
Message-ID: <7tfpmc$nk3$1@scotsman.ed.ac.uk>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <+JrqN2BSco0Y8OoWtpgs0D0lIq5u@4ax.com> <7tenhm$b2d$1@mermaid.ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au>
NNTP-Posting-Host: hop2-ee-net2.ee.ed.ac.uk
X-Trace: scotsman.ed.ac.uk 939223564 24195 129.215.80.225 (6 Oct 1999 15:26:04 GMT)
X-Complaints-To: usenet@scotsman.ed.ac.uk
NNTP-Posting-Date: 6 Oct 1999 15:26:04 GMT
X-No-Archive: yes
X-Newsreader: NN version 6.5.0 #1 (NOV)
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!skynet.be!news-lond.gip.net!news.gsl.net!gip.net!colt.net!newsfeed.icl.net!nntp.news.xara.net!xara.net!gxn.net!server6.netnews.ja.net!newsfeed.ed.ac.uk!mfg

In <7tenhm$b2d$1@mermaid.ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au> john@ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au (John "West" McKenna) writes:
>I once had to maintain a mess of C written by someone who'd taught himself
>Z80 assembly sometime in the 70s and never learnt anything since.  No
>pointers, no matter how useful they'd be (everything is in static arrays).

Reminds me of a DOS program I had to fix a few years ago.  It was basically
a straight translation from some sort of BASIC to C, which meant that there
were no structures - where you'd expect an array of structures there were
several separate arrays, one for each member of the structure - and no
pointers - everything was done by array index.  My favourite bit was
what was effectively a linked list implemented with fwd[] and back[]
arrays holding the index in the other arrays of the next record.  Happily,
fixing all the places where the code allocated strlen(s) bytes for a copy
of a string rather than strlen(s)+1 got rid of most of the crashes, so
I didn't have to dig too deeply into this code.


Michael Gordon
--
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum viditur.

######

From: dpeschel@u.washington.edu (Derek Peschel)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 6 Oct 1999 17:34:27 GMT
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle
Lines: 11
Message-ID: <7tg173$i8a$1@nntp1.u.washington.edu>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7tds1l$14pg$1@nntp1.u.washington.edu> <37FAC0B6.86173FFC@net66.com> <7tfj6h$f2f$1@top.mitre.org>
NNTP-Posting-Host: saul5.u.washington.edu
X-Trace: nntp1.u.washington.edu 939231267 18698 (None) 140.142.17.40
X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu
NNTP-Posting-User: dpeschel
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!naxos.belnet.be!news.belnet.be!newspump.monmouth.com!newspeer.monmouth.com!netnews.com!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newsfeed.cwix.com!nuq-peer.news.verio.net!news.verio.net!sea-feed.news.verio.net!feed.news.verio.net!news.u.washington.edu!dpeschel

In article <7tfj6h$f2f$1@top.mitre.org>,
Joe Morris <jcmorris@linus.mitre.org> wrote:

>                          Executor allowed users to submit normal
>OS/360 jobs (with certain restrictions) and ran them with significantly
>less time spent in the OS job scheduling and allocation time (which could
>be a good fraction of a minute even for a trivial job).

Is that CPU time or wall-clock time?

-- Derek

######

Sender: lynn@LYNNPC
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7tds1l$14pg$1@nntp1.u.washington.edu> <37FAC0B6.86173FFC@net66.com> <7tfj6h$f2f$1@top.mitre.org> <7tg173$i8a$1@nntp1.u.washington.edu>
Reply-To: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@adcomsys.net>
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@adcomsys.net>
Message-ID: <u670jlscd.fsf@adcomsys.net>
Organization: Wheeler&Wheeler
Lines: 19
User-Agent: Gnus/5.070097 (Pterodactyl Gnus v0.97) Emacs/20.4
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Date: Thu, 07 Oct 1999 04:15:26 GMT
NNTP-Posting-Host: 209.63.28.138
X-Complaints-To: support@adcomsys.net
X-Trace: news-west.eli.net 939269726 209.63.28.138 (Wed, 06 Oct 1999 22:15:26 MDT)
NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 06 Oct 1999 22:15:26 MDT
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!enews.sgi.com!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news.he.net!easynews!news-west.eli.net!not-for-mail


would be wall clock ... on 360/65, a three step fortran (compile step,
link-edit step, and execution step) could be over a minute ... even
for null program ... with almost all job scheduler.

before WATFOR ... our shop did a custom monitor that would do all
three steps under monitor control (involving only single job scheduler
step instead of three) ... but when WATFOR came along ... it was
significantly better. 

the other was to almost triple the thruput of job scheduler by careful
tuning ... compared to standard system ... as per:

http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/94.html#18

-- 
--
Anne & Lynn Wheeler   | lynn@adcomsys.net, lynn@garlic.com
 http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/ http://www.adcomsys.net/lynn/

######

From: jmfbahciv@aol.com
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Thu, 07 Oct 99 09:13:22 GMT
Organization: UltraNet Communications, Inc.
Lines: 31
Message-ID: <7thvsd$8c8$2@autumn.news.rcn.net>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <hshubs-3009991011510001@user-33qsdkl.dialup.mindspring.com> <37F86A6A.4BEA5C25@lanwolf.com> <37facc96.1635932116@192.168.0.1> <zI4K3.3854$L85.277427@ptah.visi.com> <mk6bt7.ti6.ln@platon.poulin.dk> <37f9d3a2.1703272926@192.168.0.1> <aqrdt7.7t7.ln@platon.poulin.dk> <37fb57c8.1802698643@192.168.0.1>
X-Trace: 4/spiNvnZ6dCVSyKH1vZ0hvLKgt3vhE1u4+SLq+k2D0=
X-Complaints-To: abuse@rcn.com
NNTP-Posting-Date: 7 Oct 1999 11:23:57 GMT
X-Newsreader:  News Xpress Version 1.0 Beta #4
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news.maxwell.syr.edu!feed1.news.rcn.net!rcn!d15

In article <37fb57c8.1802698643@192.168.0.1>,
   scottw@bmtech.co.uk_DELETE_THIS (Scott Wheeler) wrote:
>On Tue, 5 Oct 1999 23:50:02 +0200, Torsten Poulin
><torsten@diku.ANTISPAM.dk> wrote:
>
>>You are welcome!  From your description of the, er, "quality" of the code
>>combined with the Risø origin, I guess that it was produced by a 
physicist
>>without much in the way of programming expertise.  *Shudder*
>
>Little expertise, but much experience - I was a physicist myself at
>the time, and I'd required the source from them because I'd had
>problems with earlier HP BASIC programs from the same source years
>previously. This turned out to be by the same hand: most of the
>variables called A9, M9$ etc. No idea what the significance of "9" was
>originally. Actually in some ways I was impressed that he/she got such
>a large unstructured program to work: from what I could tell, the bug
>rate was only about 1/2500LOC.
>
>The hardware it was running (a thermoluminescence oven for
>archaeological dating of pottery and sediments) was a different story.
>Risø got the dimensions wrong for the receptacles for the 40mCi beta
>radiation source, so they were too small. Rather than reaming them out
>a bit, they asked us to use a lathe to turn down the source!

Oh, that we could have solved all our software problems with
a lathe.

/BAH

Subtract a hundred and four for e-mail.

######

From: vicw@sonydnse.com
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Thu, 07 Oct 1999 15:29:33 GMT
Organization: Deja.com - Before you buy.
Lines: 14
Message-ID: <7tie89$quo$1@nnrp1.deja.com>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <hshubs-3009991011510001@user-33qsdkl.dialup.mindspring.com> <37F86A6A.4BEA5C25@lanwolf.com> <37facc96.1635932116@192.168.0.1> <zI4K3.3854$L85.277427@ptah.visi.com> <mk6bt7.ti6.ln@platon.poulin.dk> <37f9d3a2.1703272926@192.168.0.1> <aqrdt7.7t7.ln@platon.poulin.dk> <37fb57c8.1802698643@192.168.0.1> <7thvsd$8c8$2@autumn.news.rcn.net>
NNTP-Posting-Host: 195.232.82.98
X-Article-Creation-Date: Thu Oct 07 15:29:33 1999 GMT
X-Http-User-Agent: Mozilla/4.04 [en] (WinNT; I)
X-Http-Proxy: 1.0 SEUBPEBASPROXY, 1.0 x43.deja.com:80 (Squid/1.1.22) for client 195.232.82.98
X-MyDeja-Info: XMYDJUIDvicmax
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!newspump.monmouth.com!newspeer.monmouth.com!nntp2.deja.com!nnrp1.deja.com!not-for-mail

In article <7thvsd$8c8$2@autumn.news.rcn.net>,
  jmfbahciv@aol.com wrote:
> Oh, that we could have solved all our software problems with
> a lathe.

You can - it's just a case of deciding which engineers to insert into
the chuck...

Vic ;)



Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.

######

From: Charles Richmond <richmond@plano.net>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Fri, 08 Oct 1999 07:47:56 +0000
Organization: Cannine Computer Center
Lines: 62
Message-ID: <37FDA1AC.F101358E@plano.net>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <+JrqN2BSco0Y8OoWtpgs0D0lIq5u@4ax.com>  	        <37F0970C.FFE37EDA@inthan.be> <7squt8$10e@news2.newsguy.com>  	        <zJ8I3.1870$L85.108215@ptah.visi.com> <7ssht4$c3j$1@gondor.sdsu.edu>  	        <7sstc2$rvf$3@winter.news.rcn.net> <7stf1a$26t0@news1.newsguy.com>  	        <F4B9D782557865DD.E86AEF5831278EE4.9CBD8217956DA1E4@lp.airnews.net>  	        <7svhhi$ske$4@winter.news.rcn.net>  	        <hshubs-3009991011510001@user-33qsdkl.dialup.mindspring.com>  	        <37F86A6A.4BEA5C25@lanwolf.com> <37F935AF.47B62BE6@plano.net> <6u670lwiyl.fsf@chonsp.franklin.ch>
Reply-To: richmond@plano.net
X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.03 (Macintosh; I; 68K)
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newsswitch.lcs.mit.edu!remarQ-easT!rQdQ!supernews.com!remarQ.com!corp.supernews.com!not-for-mail

Neil Franklin wrote:
> 
> Charles Richmond <richmond@plano.net> writes:
> >
> > There is a legendary FORTRAN II compiler written by Peter Sampson.
> > (I think it was Sampson--I can *not* find the reference now.)
> > This compiler was written in assembly language and had only *one*
> > comment.  The comment was on the definition of an octal constant.
> > The comment was "R.I.P. J.S.B.".  When the octal number was converted
> > to decimal, it was the year that Johann Sebastian Bach died.  (This was
> > mentioned in Steven Levy's book _Hackers_.)
> 
> It was an music generation program, not an compiler. That is why JSBs
> date got this special treatment.
> 
Looking at the passage in the _Hackers_ book, it is *not* clear that the
Sampson music program contained the RIPJSB comment.  Below is the relevant
paragraph from page 43:

----------

"You can create art and beauty on a computer."

"Sampson's music program was an example.  But to hackers, the art of the
program did not reside in the pleasing sounds emanating from the on-line
speaker.  The code of the program held a beauty of its own. (Samson, though,
was particulary obscure in refusing to add comments to his source code explaining
what he was doing at a given time.  One well-distributed program Samson
wrote went on for hundreds of assembly language instructions, with only one
comment beside an instruction which contained the number 1750.  The comment
was RIPJSB, and people racked their brains about its meaning until someone figured
out that 1750 was the year Bach died, and that Samson had written an abbreviation
for Rest In Peace Johann Sebastian Bach.)"

----------

Unless you have another source of info on this, IMHO this does *not* specify which
program had the RIPJSB comment.  Now...later in _Hackers_ (pages 121-122), the
Great Subway Hack is discussed.  In this, Samson used the computer to schedule a
trip on the New York City subway system to cover the entire system in record time...
he failed.

A related story is told in _Techniques of Program Structure and Design_,
by Ed Yourdon (yuck!!!) on pages 10 and 11.  It seems that a programmer (who
is *not*
named) wrote a FORTRAN II compiler with only one comment "R.I.P. L.V.B."--and this
was on a constant definition of octal 3443--the death year of Ludwig von Beethoven.

In the footnote, it says that this programmer was off doing something like the Great
Subway Hack when this compiler needed fixing.  IMHO this is a twisted version
of the
Peter Samson story--with some facts maybe changed intentionally.  So that is
why I
said that the comment was in a FORTRAN II compiler.   (Whew....that was the
long way
around to explain my position!)
on pages 10 and 11, 

-- 
+-------------------------------------------------------------+
|     Charles and Francis Richmond     <richmond@plano.net>   |
+-------------------------------------------------------------+

######

From: jmfbahciv@aol.com
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Fri, 08 Oct 99 08:37:23 GMT
Organization: UltraNet Communications, Inc.
Lines: 24
Message-ID: <7tki59$m62$1@autumn.news.rcn.net>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <hshubs-3009991011510001@user-33qsdkl.dialup.mindspring.com> <37F86A6A.4BEA5C25@lanwolf.com> <37facc96.1635932116@192.168.0.1> <zI4K3.3854$L85.277427@ptah.visi.com> <mk6bt7.ti6.ln@platon.poulin.dk> <37f9d3a2.1703272926@192.168.0.1> <aqrdt7.7t7.ln@platon.poulin.dk> <37fb57c8.1802698643@192.168.0.1> <7thvsd$8c8$2@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7tie89$quo$1@nnrp1.deja.com>
X-Trace: 9iJSXlOu1JzIoo9nlOZNKLRo0lxfO5THbKTb/Y6eM1Y=
X-Complaints-To: abuse@rcn.com
NNTP-Posting-Date: 8 Oct 1999 10:48:09 GMT
X-Newsreader:  News Xpress Version 1.0 Beta #4
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news-fra1.dfn.de!news0.de.colt.net!colt.net!newsfeed.icl.net!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!feed1.news.rcn.net!rcn!d4

In article <7tie89$quo$1@nnrp1.deja.com>, vicw@sonydnse.com wrote:
>In article <7thvsd$8c8$2@autumn.news.rcn.net>,
>  jmfbahciv@aol.com wrote:
>> Oh, that we could have solved all our software problems with
>> a lathe.
>
>You can - it's just a case of deciding which engineers to insert into
>the chuck...
>
>Vic ;)

ROTFL.  If you guys don't read the PDP10 newsgroup, there
was another post of TW's diary written when he was "interfacing"
with the hardware engineers.  Since we (JMF and I) were around
when he was actually going through that particular hell, I also
have the memories of when he would come back from a debugging
session or a foray into hardware engineering to figure out
why the hardware was acting the way it was.  

TW would have enjoyed lathing very much.  :-)

/BAH

Subtract a hundred and four for e-mail.

######

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> 
      <hshubs-3009991011510001@user-33qsdkl.dialup.mindspring.com> 
      <37F86A6A.4BEA5C25@lanwolf.com> 
      <37facc96.1635932116@192.168.0.1> 
      <zI4K3.3854$L85.277427@ptah.visi.com> 
      <mk6bt7.ti6.ln@platon.poulin.dk> 
      <37f9d3a2.1703272926@192.168.0.1> 
      <aqrdt7.7t7.ln@platon.poulin.dk> 
      <37fb57c8.1802698643@192.168.0.1> 
      <7thvsd$8c8$2@autumn.news.rcn.net>
From: jata@aepiax.net (Julian Thomas)
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Message-ID: <37fe190b$2$wg$mr2ice@news.epix.net>
X-Newsreader: MR/2 Internet Cruiser Edition for OS/2 v1.66 b66 
Lines: 23
Date: Fri, 08 Oct 1999 16:17:18 GMT
NNTP-Posting-Host: 199.224.125.43
X-Complaints-To: abuse@epix.net
X-Trace: news1.epix.net 939399438 199.224.125.43 (Fri, 08 Oct 1999 12:17:18 EDT)
NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 08 Oct 1999 12:17:18 EDT
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news.maxwell.syr.edu!news-peer1.sprintlink.net!news-in-east1.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!news-xfer.epix.net!news1.epix.net!not-for-mail

In <7thvsd$8c8$2@autumn.news.rcn.net>, on 10/07/99 
   at 09:13 AM, jmfbahciv@aol.com said:

>Oh, that we could have solved all our software problems with a lathe.

Not a lathe, but many years back I had written a large 650 program (one
pass of a compiler) that had a bug.  Turned out it was a defective
optimization mechanism that was working too hard.

I fixed it by removing 2 cards from the source deck and reassembling; one
of the other programmers was grumbling mightily about how easy I had it -
that time!
 
-- 
 Julian Thomas: jt . epix @ net  http://home.epix.net/~jt
 remove letter a for email (or switch . and @)
 Boardmember of POSSI.org - Phoenix OS/2 Society, Inc  http://www.possi.org
 In the beautiful Finger Lakes Wine Country of New York State!
 -- --
 Why does the hardware keep getting faster, and the software slower?

######

From: jcmorris@jmorris-pc.MITRE.ORG (Joe Morris)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 8 Oct 1999 20:29:15 GMT
Organization: The MITRE Corporation
Lines: 18
Message-ID: <7tlk6r$9j9$1@top.mitre.org>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <hshubs-3009991011510001@user-33qsdkl.dialup.mindspring.com> <37F86A6A.4BEA5C25@lanwolf.com> <37facc96.1635932116@192.168.0.1> <zI4K3.3854$L85.277427@ptah.visi.com> <mk6bt7.ti6.ln@platon.poulin.dk> <37f9d3a2.1703272926@192.168.0.1> <aqrdt7.7t7.ln@platon.poulin.dk> <37fb57c8.1802698643@192.168.0.1> <7thvsd$8c8$2@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7tie89$quo$1@nnrp1.deja.com> <7tki59$m62$1@autumn.news.rcn.net>
Reply-To: jcmorris@linus.mitre.org
NNTP-Posting-Host: jmorris-pc.mitre.org
X-Trace: top.mitre.org 939414555 9833 128.29.251.13 (8 Oct 1999 20:29:15 GMT)
X-Complaints-To: usenet@news.mitre.org
NNTP-Posting-Date: 8 Oct 1999 20:29:15 GMT
X-Newsreader: NN version 6.5.0 (NOV)
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!skynet.be!newsfeed.icl.net!easynet-tele!easynet.net!tank.news.pipex.net!pipex!uunet!zur.uu.net!nyc.uu.net!world!blanket.mitre.org!news.mitre.org!jmorris-pc.MITRE.ORG!jcmorris

jmfbahciv@aol.com writes:

>ROTFL.  If you guys don't read the PDP10 newsgroup, there
>was another post of TW's diary written when he was "interfacing"
>with the hardware engineers.  Since we (JMF and I) were around
>when he was actually going through that particular hell, I also
>have the memories of when he would come back from a debugging
>session or a foray into hardware engineering to figure out
>why the hardware was acting the way it was.  

That sounds a lot like the stories that Herb Grosch used to tell
of his time at IBM when some of the early prototypes of the IBM
mainframes were first beginning to emerge: far too frequently
mornings for the programming staff would be spent trying to debug
problems that were the result of unannounced design changes installed
the previous evening by the engineers.

Joe Morris

######

From: jcmorris@jmorris-pc.MITRE.ORG (Joe Morris)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 8 Oct 1999 21:01:03 GMT
Organization: The MITRE Corporation
Lines: 42
Message-ID: <7tlm2f$a3m$1@top.mitre.org>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7tds1l$14pg$1@nntp1.u.washington.edu> <37FAC0B6.86173FFC@net66.com> <7tfj6h$f2f$1@top.mitre.org> <7tg173$i8a$1@nntp1.u.washington.edu>
Reply-To: jcmorris@linus.mitre.org
NNTP-Posting-Host: jmorris-pc.mitre.org
X-Trace: top.mitre.org 939416463 10358 128.29.251.13 (8 Oct 1999 21:01:03 GMT)
X-Complaints-To: usenet@news.mitre.org
NNTP-Posting-Date: 8 Oct 1999 21:01:03 GMT
X-Newsreader: NN version 6.5.0 (NOV)
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!newsfeeds.belnet.be!news.belnet.be!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newsfeed.cwix.com!newshub.northeast.verio.net!news-feeds.jump.net!world!blanket.mitre.org!news.mitre.org!jmorris-pc.MITRE.ORG!jcmorris

dpeschel@u.washington.edu (Derek Peschel) writes:

>In article <7tfj6h$f2f$1@top.mitre.org>,
>Joe Morris <jcmorris@linus.mitre.org> wrote:

>>                          Executor allowed users to submit normal
>>OS/360 jobs (with certain restrictions) and ran them with significantly
>>less time spent in the OS job scheduling and allocation time (which could
>>be a good fraction of a minute even for a trivial job).

>Is that CPU time or wall-clock time?

Wall-clock.  The problem was that the processing of each job in the
normal OS/360 environment consisted of:

 * Read and recognize the JOB card
 * Read the EXEC (start of job step) card
 * Read and process the DD cards (I/O allocation)
 * Allocate all of the requested I/O resources
 * Load the specified program into memory
 * Run the user's program
 * flush the card input until a JCL card is found
 * If it is another EXEC card, start a new step
 * If it is any other card end the current job.

In typical systems many of these steps consisted of multiple memory
loads, causing massive overhead percentages for short student-type
jobs because of the time required to locate, allocate memory for, 
read into memory, relocate, and finally abandon each core load.
(This is the same problem that WATFOR was designed to address
under 7040 IBSYS.)  With Executor, in return for giving up some of the
more unusual (for students) capabilities, most of the overhead processing
was done in a single resident core load, allowing the process to run
at an acceptable speed.

Much of its speed came from allocating resources when Executor was
first invoked and then reusing them for each job.  That was fine for
most users, but if one of the students tried to be too fancy it could
leave behind a poison pill for the next user, or it could crash
the entire Executor partition.

Joe Morris

######

From: phil@ricochet.net (phil)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Sat, 09 Oct 1999 06:38:29 GMT
Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com
Lines: 26
Message-ID: <37fee0e9.12050277@news.ricochet.net>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7tds1l$14pg$1@nntp1.u.washington.edu> <37FAC0B6.86173FFC@net66.com> <7tfj6h$f2f$1@top.mitre.org> <7tg173$i8a$1@nntp1.u.washington.edu> <7tlm2f$a3m$1@top.mitre.org>
X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com
X-Newsreader: Forte Free Agent 1.11/32.235
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!uunet!ams.uu.net!grolier!209.249.97.47.MISMATCH!remarQ-easT!rQdQ!supernews.com!remarQ.com!corp.supernews.com!not-for-mail

On 8 Oct 1999 21:01:03 GMT, jcmorris@jmorris-pc.MITRE.ORG (Joe Morris)
wrote:

>dpeschel@u.washington.edu (Derek Peschel) writes:
>
>>In article <7tfj6h$f2f$1@top.mitre.org>,
>>Joe Morris <jcmorris@linus.mitre.org> wrote:
>
>>>                          Executor allowed users to submit normal
>>>OS/360 jobs (with certain restrictions) and ran them with significantly
>>>less time spent in the OS job scheduling and allocation time (which could
>>>be a good fraction of a minute even for a trivial job).
>
>>Is that CPU time or wall-clock time?
>
>Wall-clock.  The problem was that the processing of each job in the
>normal OS/360 environment consisted of:
>
>Joe Morris

I can believe this. IIRC, there was a big deal when  the 370 cobol
complier was made reusable by allowing its image to remain loaded
while it compiled a sequence of individual programs.

phil.

######

From: jmfbahciv@aol.com
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Sat, 09 Oct 99 11:16:00 GMT
Organization: UltraNet Communications, Inc.
Lines: 37
Message-ID: <7tnfqt$8kq$1@autumn.news.rcn.net>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <hshubs-3009991011510001@user-33qsdkl.dialup.mindspring.com> <37F86A6A.4BEA5C25@lanwolf.com> <37facc96.1635932116@192.168.0.1> <zI4K3.3854$L85.277427@ptah.visi.com> <mk6bt7.ti6.ln@platon.poulin.dk> <37f9d3a2.1703272926@192.168.0.1> <aqrdt7.7t7.ln@platon.poulin.dk> <37fb57c8.1802698643@192.168.0.1> <7thvsd$8c8$2@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7tie89$quo$1@nnrp1.deja.com> <7tki59$m62$1@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7tlk6r$9j9$1@top.mitre.org>
X-Trace: XcKuHvFFxWAmjJtiWCTbcrVjkqeLU0UuykEvX4ZC9lU=
X-Complaints-To: abuse@rcn.com
NNTP-Posting-Date: 9 Oct 1999 13:26:53 GMT
X-Newsreader:  News Xpress Version 1.0 Beta #4
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!isdnet!netnews.com!feed1.news.rcn.net!rcn!d10

In article <7tlk6r$9j9$1@top.mitre.org>,
   jcmorris@jmorris-pc.MITRE.ORG (Joe Morris) wrote:
>jmfbahciv@aol.com writes:
>
>>ROTFL.  If you guys don't read the PDP10 newsgroup, there
>>was another post of TW's diary written when he was "interfacing"
>>with the hardware engineers.  Since we (JMF and I) were around
>>when he was actually going through that particular hell, I also
>>have the memories of when he would come back from a debugging
>>session or a foray into hardware engineering to figure out
>>why the hardware was acting the way it was.  
>
>That sounds a lot like the stories that Herb Grosch used to tell
>of his time at IBM when some of the early prototypes of the IBM
>mainframes were first beginning to emerge: far too frequently
>mornings for the programming staff would be spent trying to debug
>problems that were the result of unannounced design changes installed
>the previous evening by the engineers.

Yup.  Strange things happen at night.  

JMF's first big project was the opposite.  The customer had
much money to spend and the object was to get flavors of
computers to talk to each other (something that didn't happen
back then without sneaker power).  There were lots of 
unexplained hardware glitches.  After hours of debugging
the software, JMF and his cronies would go to the hotel to
sleep.  When they arrived at the site in the morning, there
would be mysterious inscriptions in the log book and the
glitches didn't happen anymore.  JMF always held that
particular field service guy in awe because it just seemed
that the guy could walk through the machine room and all of
those computer critters would immediately begin to behave.

/BAH

Subtract a hundred and four for e-mail.

######

Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!usenet
From: Neil Franklin <neil@franklin.ch.remove>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 09 Oct 1999 18:03:28 +0200
Organization: My own Private Self
Lines: 43
Sender: neil@chonsp.franklin.ch
Message-ID: <6uso3kser3.fsf@chonsp.franklin.ch>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <+JrqN2BSco0Y8OoWtpgs0D0lIq5u@4ax.com>
        <37F0970C.FFE37EDA@inthan.be> <7squt8$10e@news2.newsguy.com>
        <zJ8I3.1870$L85.108215@ptah.visi.com> <7ssht4$c3j$1@gondor.sdsu.edu>
        <7sstc2$rvf$3@winter.news.rcn.net> <7stf1a$26t0@news1.newsguy.com>
        <F4B9D782557865DD.E86AEF5831278EE4.9CBD8217956DA1E4@lp.airnews.net>
        <7svhhi$ske$4@winter.news.rcn.net>
        <hshubs-3009991011510001@user-33qsdkl.dialup.mindspring.com>
        <37F86A6A.4BEA5C25@lanwolf.com> <37F935AF.47B62BE6@plano.net>
        <6u670lwiyl.fsf@chonsp.franklin.ch> <37FDA1AC.F101358E@plano.net>
X-Newsreader: Gnus v5.3/Emacs 19.34

Charles Richmond <richmond@plano.net> writes:
>
> Neil Franklin wrote:
> >
> > Charles Richmond <richmond@plano.net> writes:
> > >
> > > There is a legendary FORTRAN II compiler written by Peter Sampson.
> > > The comment was "R.I.P. J.S.B.".  When the octal number was converted
> > > to decimal, it was the year that Johann Sebastian Bach died.  (This was
> > > mentioned in Steven Levy's book _Hackers_.)
> >
> > It was an music generation program, not an compiler. That is why JSBs
> > date got this special treatment.
> >
> Looking at the passage in the _Hackers_ book, it is *not* clear that the
> Sampson music program contained the RIPJSB comment.  Below is the relevant

In fact I would say it is clear that it is not the music program.


> paragraph from page 43:

Thanks for the page number for re-reading.


> "Sampson's music program was an example.  But to hackers, the art of the
> what he was doing at a given time.  One well-distributed program Samson
> wrote went on for hundreds of assembly language instructions, with only one
> comment beside an instruction which contained the number 1750.  The comment

I doubt a professional writer would use "One ..." when refering to the
same program.


> Unless you have another source of info on this,

No further information. Just Hackers, which I read about 3 years ago.

Damn bitrot.


--
Neil Franklin, neil@franklin.ch.remove http://neil.franklin.ch/

######

Sender: eric@ruckus.brouhaha.com
From: Eric Smith <eric-no-spam-for-me@brouhaha.com>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <hshubs-3009991011510001@user-33qsdkl.dialup.mindspring.com> <37F86A6A.4BEA5C25@lanwolf.com> <37facc96.1635932116@192.168.0.1> <zI4K3.3854$L85.277427@ptah.visi.com> <mk6bt7.ti6.ln@platon.poulin.dk> <37f9d3a2.1703272926@192.168.0.1> <aqrdt7.7t7.ln@platon.poulin.dk> <37fb57c8.1802698643@192.168.0.1> <7thvsd$8c8$2@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7tie89$quo$1@nnrp1.deja.com> <7tki59$m62$1@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7tlk6r$9j9$1@top.mitre.org> <7tnfqt$8kq$1@autumn.news.rcn.net>
X-Disclaimer: Everything I write is false.
Organization: Eric Conspiracy Secret Labs
X-Eric-Conspiracy: There is no conspiracy.
Date: 09 Oct 1999 23:09:56 -0700
Message-ID: <qhwvsveogb.fsf@ruckus.brouhaha.com>
X-Newsreader: Gnus v5.5/Emacs 20.3
NNTP-Posting-Host: ruckus.brouhaha.com
X-Trace: 9 Oct 1999 23:32:40 -0800, ruckus.brouhaha.com
Lines: 16
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news-fra1.dfn.de!news0.de.colt.net!colt.net!dispose.news.demon.net!demon!nntp.primenet.com!nntp.gctr.net!enews.sgi.com!news.sgi.com!news.spies.com!ruckus.brouhaha.com

jmfbahciv@aol.com writes:
> There were lots of unexplained hardware glitches.  After hours of
> debugging the software, JMF and his cronies would go to the hotel to
> sleep.  When they arrived at the site in the morning, there would be
> mysterious inscriptions in the log book and the glitches didn't happen
> anymore.

I'm not convinced that such things can really be credited to hardware
engineers.  At least, not the usual ones I've worked with.  On the
rare occasions that I've seen such things, I've always assumed that it
was the effect of "hardware gnomes".  I've often wished for a reliable
way to attract them.

Actually, I have on occasion worked with some damn good hardware
engineers.  But they didn't usually do their miracle fixes overnight;
they were mostly done in the daytime.

######

From: jmfbahciv@aol.com
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Sun, 10 Oct 99 07:55:42 GMT
Organization: UltraNet Communications, Inc.
Lines: 24
Message-ID: <7tpofn$5cm$1@autumn.news.rcn.net>
References: <37f9d3a2.1703272926@192.168.0.1> <aqrdt7.7t7.ln@platon.poulin.dk> <37fb57c8.1802698643@192.168.0.1> <7thvsd$8c8$2@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7tie89$quo$1@nnrp1.deja.com> <7tki59$m62$1@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7tlk6r$9j9$1@top.mitre.org> <7tnfqt$8kq$1@autumn.news.rcn.net> <qhwvsveogb.fsf@ruckus.brouhaha.com>
X-Trace: d1g03GLWCzOYMFKqzJFv0xbyNC0GpZygchJIu7rD9FY=
X-Complaints-To: abuse@rcn.com
NNTP-Posting-Date: 10 Oct 1999 10:06:47 GMT
X-Newsreader:  News Xpress Version 1.0 Beta #4
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news.maxwell.syr.edu!netnews.com!feed1.news.rcn.net!rcn!d5

In article <qhwvsveogb.fsf@ruckus.brouhaha.com>,
   Eric Smith <eric-no-spam-for-me@brouhaha.com> wrote:
>jmfbahciv@aol.com writes:
>> There were lots of unexplained hardware glitches.  After hours of
>> debugging the software, JMF and his cronies would go to the hotel to
>> sleep.  When they arrived at the site in the morning, there would be
>> mysterious inscriptions in the log book and the glitches didn't happen
>> anymore.
>
>I'm not convinced that such things can really be credited to hardware
>engineers.  At least, not the usual ones I've worked with.  On the
>rare occasions that I've seen such things, I've always assumed that it
>was the effect of "hardware gnomes".  I've often wished for a reliable
>way to attract them.
>
>Actually, I have on occasion worked with some damn good hardware
>engineers.  But they didn't usually do their miracle fixes overnight;
>they were mostly done in the daytime.

<grin>  Then you didn't work with old DECies.

/BAH

Subtract a hundred and four for e-mail.

######

From: Matt Curtin <cmcurtin@interhack.net>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 11 Oct 1999 11:35:41 -0400
Organization: The Ohio State University Dept. of Computer and Info. Science
Lines: 12
Message-ID: <xlxg0zhlxki.fsf@gold.cis.ohio-state.edu>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <hshubs-3009991011510001@user-33qsdkl.dialup.mindspring.com> <37F86A6A.4BEA5C25@lanwolf.com> <37facc96.1635932116@192.168.0.1> <zI4K3.3854$L85.277427@ptah.visi.com> <mk6bt7.ti6.ln@platon.poulin.dk> <37f9d3a2.1703272926@192.168.0.1> <aqrdt7.7t7.ln@platon.poulin.dk> <37fb57c8.1802698643@192.168.0.1> <7thvsd$8c8$2@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7tie89$quo$1@nnrp1.deja.com> <7tki59$m62$1@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7tlk6r$9j9$1@top.mitre.org> <7tnfqt$8kq$1@autumn.news.rcn.net> <qhwvsveogb.fsf@ruckus.brouhaha.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: gold.cis.ohio-state.edu
X-Face: L"IcL.b%SDN]0Kql2b`e.}+i05V9fi\yX#H1+Xl)3!+n/3?5`%-SA-HDg<IT;O8XnF>Pk9uTk<3dv^J5DCgal)-E{`zN#*o6F|y>r)\<<ui53(fC)EM]42*oF|P@Hm"Z+GK%"b#q'ycf=2s5%NNR0S;8"vcNN"O;O}YpB{&^1xazqDMg^v!6LS7S"5|}2uTl$NKV5}Bkca{M|Y^cZD@{1
X-Accept-Language: en-US,en,ru,de
X-Newsreader: Gnus v5.6.45/XEmacs 21.1 - "20 Minutes to Nikko"
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news.maxwell.syr.edu!news.cis.ohio-state.edu!not-for-mail

>>>>> On 09 Oct 1999 23:09:56 -0700,
    Eric Smith <eric-no-spam-for-me@brouhaha.com> said:

Eric> On the rare occasions that I've seen such things, I've always
Eric> assumed that it was the effect of "hardware gnomes".  I've often
Eric> wished for a reliable way to attract them.

As far as I know, the only reliable way to attract them is to make no
attempt to measure them or their influence.

-- 
Matt Curtin cmcurtin@interhack.net http://www.interhack.net/people/cmcurtin/

######

From: nailed_barnacleSPAMFREE@hotmail.com (barnacle)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Mon, 11 Oct 1999 15:51:56 GMT
Organization: [posted via Easynet Ltd]
Lines: 19
Message-ID: <7tt11m$vrk$1@quince.news.easynet.net>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <hshubs-3009991011510001@user-33qsdkl.dialup.mindspring.com> <37F86A6A.4BEA5C25@lanwolf.com> <37facc96.1635932116@192.168.0.1> <zI4K3.3854$L85.277427@ptah.visi.com> <mk6bt7.ti6.ln@platon.poulin.dk> <37f9d3a2.1703272926@192.168.0.1> <aqrdt7.7t7.ln@platon.poulin.dk> <37fb57c8.1802698643@192.168.0.1> <7thvsd$8c8$2@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7tie89$quo$1@nnrp1.deja.com> <7tki59$m62$1@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7tlk6r$9j9$1@top.mitre.org> <7tnfqt$8kq$1@autumn.news.rcn.net> <qhwvsveogb.fsf@ruckus.brouhaha.com> <xlxg0zhlxki.fsf@gold.cis.ohio-state.edu>
NNTP-Posting-Host: nbarnes.easynet.co.uk
X-Trace: quince.news.easynet.net 939657078 32628 194.154.98.206 (11 Oct 1999 15:51:18 GMT)
X-Complaints-To: abuse@easynet.net
NNTP-Posting-Date: 11 Oct 1999 15:51:18 GMT
X-Newsreader: News Xpress 2.01
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!isdnet!newsfeed.icl.net!easynet-tele!easynet.net!quince.news.easynet.net!egbert

In article <xlxg0zhlxki.fsf@gold.cis.ohio-state.edu>, Matt Curtin <cmcurtin@interhack.net> wrote:
>>>>>> On 09 Oct 1999 23:09:56 -0700,
>    Eric Smith <eric-no-spam-for-me@brouhaha.com> said:
>
>Eric> On the rare occasions that I've seen such things, I've always
>Eric> assumed that it was the effect of "hardware gnomes".  I've often
>Eric> wished for a reliable way to attract them.
>
>As far as I know, the only reliable way to attract them is to make no
>attempt to measure them or their influence.
>

Aha! Quantum gnomes!


--
barnacle

http://www.nbarnes.easynet.co.uk

######

From: lingman@wcars05r.ca.nortel.com (Danny Lingman)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 12 Oct 1999 19:30:09 GMT
Organization: Northern Telecom
Lines: 22
Message-ID: <7u0281$3lh$1@bcarh8ab.ca.nortel.com>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <hshubs-3009991011510001@user-33qsdkl.dialup.mindspring.com> <37F86A6A.4BEA5C25@lanwolf.com> <37facc96.1635932116@192.168.0.1> <zI4K3.3854$L85.277427@ptah.visi.com> <8E55BAC02frodegillagressono@10.47.9.122>
NNTP-Posting-Host: wcars05r.ca.nortel.com
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news.maxwell.syr.edu!howland.erols.net!torn!qcarh002.nortelnetworks.com!bcarh189.ca.nortel.com!bmerhc5e.ca.nortel.com!bcarh8ab.ca.nortel.com!wcars05r.ca.nortel.com!lingman

In article <8E55BAC02frodegillagressono@10.47.9.122>, frode.gill@agresso.no (Frode Gill) writes:
|> seebs@plethora.net (Peter Seebach) wrote in
|> news:<zI4K3.3854$L85.277427@ptah.visi.com> 
|> 
|> >In article <37facc96.1635932116@192.168.0.1>,
|> >Scott Wheeler <scottw@bmtech.co.uk_DELETE_THIS> wrote:
|> >>5000 lines of Pascal, 600 globals (all fundamental types, of course),
|> >>3 locals, and one comment:
|> >
|> >>     (* midlertidig *)
|> >
|> >What's that mean?
|> 
|> 
|> (* temporary *)    , In Norwegian.
|> 

Gack - We had one guy at a previous job (you out there Uli?) that
wrote his comments in German. (Of course, he was the only one on
the team that spoke German)

Dan.

######

From: scottw@bmtech.co.uk_DELETE_THIS (Scott Wheeler)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Wed, 13 Oct 1999 11:52:06 GMT
Message-ID: <38047103.2398982394@192.168.0.1>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <hshubs-3009991011510001@user-33qsdkl.dialup.mindspring.com> <37F86A6A.4BEA5C25@lanwolf.com> <37facc96.1635932116@192.168.0.1> <zI4K3.3854$L85.277427@ptah.visi.com> <8E55BAC02frodegillagressono@10.47.9.122> <7u0281$3lh$1@bcarh8ab.ca.nortel.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: bmtech.demon.co.uk
X-NNTP-Posting-Host: bmtech.demon.co.uk:158.152.102.124
X-Trace: news.demon.co.uk 939815367 nnrp-10:23516 NO-IDENT bmtech.demon.co.uk:158.152.102.124
X-Complaints-To: abuse@demon.net
X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 1.5/32.451
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Lines: 19
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!newsfeeds.belnet.be!news.belnet.be!newsfeed.icl.net!dispose.news.demon.net!demon!news.demon.co.uk!demon!bmtech.demon.co.uk!not-for-mail

On 12 Oct 1999 19:30:09 GMT, lingman@wcars05r.ca.nortel.com (Danny
Lingman) wrote:

>Gack - We had one guy at a previous job (you out there Uli?) that
>wrote his comments in German. (Of course, he was the only one on
>the team that spoke German)

I get that all the time - I'm PHB for a number of European research
projects. German's not too bad as you can get dictionaries easily (or
use SYSTRAN sometimes) - Danish and other less popular languages are a
bit more difficult. One unexpected issue is variable names - I
remember trying to find out if "pippo" had any meaning in some Italian
code. Turned out it was the equivalent of "foo"- try finding that in
an English dictionary!

Scott

-- 
(please de-mung address if replying by email)

######

From: Luc Van der Veken <lucvdv@null.net>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Organization: .
Message-ID: <z9EEOJwuwZqRpfO2gofSxoKzxqLl@4ax.com>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <hshubs-3009991011510001@user-33qsdkl.dialup.mindspring.com> <37F86A6A.4BEA5C25@lanwolf.com> <37facc96.1635932116@192.168.0.1> <zI4K3.3854$L85.277427@ptah.visi.com> <8E55BAC02frodegillagressono@10.47.9.122> <7u0281$3lh$1@bcarh8ab.ca.nortel.com> <38047103.2398982394@192.168.0.1>
X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 1.6/32.525
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Lines: 14
Date: Wed, 13 Oct 1999 20:49:15 +0200
NNTP-Posting-Host: 212.123.10.181
X-Complaints-To: abuse@pandora.be
X-Trace: afrodite.telenet-ops.be 939840602 212.123.10.181 (Wed, 13 Oct 1999 20:50:02 MET DST)
NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 13 Oct 1999 20:50:02 MET DST
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!uunet!ams.uu.net!grolier!news-raspail.gip.net!news.gsl.net!gip.net!newsfeeds.belnet.be!news.belnet.be!afrodite.telenet-ops.be!not-for-mail

Scott Wheeler posted:

> bit more difficult. One unexpected issue is variable names - I
> remember trying to find out if "pippo" had any meaning in some Italian
> code. Turned out it was the equivalent of "foo"- try finding that in
> an English dictionary!

In Dutch, "Pipo the clown" used to be a children's TV show - and
generally (at least in Flanders) a "pipo" is someone of uncertain
mental health and/or intelligence, or someone who just did
something stupid - "Hey Pipo, what are you doing?" is a milder
way to ask someone "Did you think before doing that, or were you
afraid to overwork your brain?"

######

From: Geoff Field <geoff_field@my-deja.com>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Thu, 14 Oct 1999 02:54:10 GMT
Organization: Deja.com - Before you buy.
Lines: 33
Message-ID: <7u3gkd$phv$1@nnrp1.deja.com>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <hshubs-3009991011510001@user-33qsdkl.dialup.mindspring.com> <37F86A6A.4BEA5C25@lanwolf.com> <37facc96.1635932116@192.168.0.1> <zI4K3.3854$L85.277427@ptah.visi.com> <8E55BAC02frodegillagressono@10.47.9.122> <7u0281$3lh$1@bcarh8ab.ca.nortel.com> <38047103.2398982394@192.168.0.1>
NNTP-Posting-Host: 203.17.17.3
X-Article-Creation-Date: Thu Oct 14 02:54:10 1999 GMT
X-Http-User-Agent: Mozilla/4.6 [en] (WinNT; I)
X-Http-Proxy: 1.0 proxy.invetech.com.au:88 (Squid/1.1.22), 1.0 x36.deja.com:80 (Squid/1.1.22) for client 203.22.164.192, 203.17.17.3
X-MyDeja-Info: XMYDJUIDgeoff_field
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!skynet.be!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!nntp2.deja.com!nnrp1.deja.com!not-for-mail

In article <38047103.2398982394@192.168.0.1>,
  scottw@bmtech.co.uk_DELETE_THIS (Scott Wheeler) wrote:
> On 12 Oct 1999 19:30:09 GMT, lingman@wcars05r.ca.nortel.com (Danny
> Lingman) wrote:
>
> >Gack - We had one guy at a previous job (you out there Uli?) that
> >wrote his comments in German. (Of course, he was the only one on
> >the team that spoke German)
>
> I get that all the time - I'm PHB for a number of European research
> projects. German's not too bad as you can get dictionaries easily (or
> use SYSTRAN sometimes) - Danish and other less popular languages are a
> bit more difficult. One unexpected issue is variable names - I
> remember trying to find out if "pippo" had any meaning in some Italian
> code. Turned out it was the equivalent of "foo"- try finding that in
> an English dictionary!
>
> Scott

Hah!  You think you have troubles!  We have some source code here (for
an assembly-language program) with the comments in Japanese.  Kanji to
make it worse.  Good thing it's a paper copy rather than the electronic
file (plus we have a Japanese translator on staff).

Geoff

--
Geoff Field of XXXXia
Professional geek, amateur stage-levelling gauge


Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.

######

From: jmfbahciv@aol.com
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Thu, 14 Oct 99 08:28:29 GMT
Organization: UltraNet Communications, Inc.
Lines: 28
Message-ID: <7u4bub$al2$3@autumn.news.rcn.net>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <hshubs-3009991011510001@user-33qsdkl.dialup.mindspring.com> <37F86A6A.4BEA5C25@lanwolf.com> <37facc96.1635932116@192.168.0.1> <zI4K3.3854$L85.277427@ptah.visi.com> <8E55BAC02frodegillagressono@10.47.9.122> <7u0281$3lh$1@bcarh8ab.ca.nortel.com> <38047103.2398982394@192.168.0.1>
X-Trace: eKYUOuo045x2UZA8kYDe8ak9lpOfylMtmoelwExc+JQ=
X-Complaints-To: abuse@rcn.com
NNTP-Posting-Date: 14 Oct 1999 10:40:11 GMT
X-Newsreader:  News Xpress Version 1.0 Beta #4
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!news-peer-europe.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!netnews.com!feed1.news.rcn.net!rcn!d6

In article <38047103.2398982394@192.168.0.1>,
   scottw@bmtech.co.uk_DELETE_THIS (Scott Wheeler) wrote:
>On 12 Oct 1999 19:30:09 GMT, lingman@wcars05r.ca.nortel.com (Danny
>Lingman) wrote:
>
>>Gack - We had one guy at a previous job (you out there Uli?) that
>>wrote his comments in German. (Of course, he was the only one on
>>the team that spoke German)
>
>I get that all the time - I'm PHB for a number of European research
>projects. ...

What's a PHB?  I would record some guesses here for amusement's
sake but don't wish to offend you :-).  I can think of two at
the moment.

> ...German's not too bad as you can get dictionaries easily (or
>use SYSTRAN sometimes) - Danish and other less popular languages are a
>bit more difficult. One unexpected issue is variable names - I
>remember trying to find out if "pippo" had any meaning in some Italian
>code. Turned out it was the equivalent of "foo"- try finding that in
>an English dictionary!

Neat!  :-)  I wonder what foo is in other languages.

/BAH

Subtract a hundred and four for e-mail.

######

From: pm215@watchdragon.demon.co.uk (Peter Maydell)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 14 Oct 1999 23:50:25 +0100
Organization: dragon cluster
Message-ID: <7u5mnh$fj$1@watchdragon.demon.co.uk>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7u0281$3lh$1@bcarh8ab.ca.nortel.com> <38047103.2398982394@192.168.0.1> <7u4bub$al2$3@autumn.news.rcn.net>
Reply-To: pmaydell@chiark.greenend.org.uk
NNTP-Posting-Host: watchdragon.demon.co.uk
X-NNTP-Posting-Host: watchdragon.demon.co.uk:158.152.121.201
X-Trace: news.demon.co.uk 939978273 nnrp-01:16589 NO-IDENT watchdragon.demon.co.uk:158.152.121.201
X-Complaints-To: abuse@demon.net
X-Newsreader: trn 4.0-test72 (19 April 1999)
Lines: 22
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!newsfeeds.belnet.be!news.belnet.be!colt.net!dispose.news.demon.net!demon!news.demon.co.uk!demon!watchdragon.demon.co.uk!not-for-mail

 <jmfbahciv@aol.com> wrote:
>In article <38047103.2398982394@192.168.0.1>,
>   scottw@bmtech.co.uk_DELETE_THIS (Scott Wheeler) wrote:
>>One unexpected issue is variable names - I
>>remember trying to find out if "pippo" had any meaning in some Italian
>>code. Turned out it was the equivalent of "foo"- try finding that in
>>an English dictionary!
>
>Neat!  :-)  I wonder what foo is in other languages.

The Jargon File (under 'metasyntactic variable') gives:
 foo, bar, zot              Helsinki University of Technology, Finland.
 blarg, wibble              New Zealand.
 toto, titi, tata, tutu     France.
 pippo, pluto, paperino     Italy.  Pippo /pee'po/ and Paperino 
          /pa-per-ee'-no/ are the Italian names for Goofy and Donald Duck.
 aap, noot, mies            The Netherlands.  These are the first words 
              a child used to learn to spell on a Dutch spelling board.

You just have to look in the right reference books :->

Peter Maydell

######

From: hshubs@mindspring.com (Howard S Shubs)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Fri, 15 Oct 1999 00:07:08 -0500
Organization: MindSpring Enterprises
Lines: 12
Message-ID: <hshubs-1510990007090001@user-33qsdtj.dialup.mindspring.com>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <hshubs-3009991011510001@user-33qsdkl.dialup.mindspring.com> <37F86A6A.4BEA5C25@lanwolf.com> <37facc96.1635932116@192.168.0.1> <zI4K3.3854$L85.277427@ptah.visi.com> <8E55BAC02frodegillagressono@10.47.9.122> <7u0281$3lh$1@bcarh8ab.ca.nortel.com> <38047103.2398982394@192.168.0.1> <7u4bub$al2$3@autumn.news.rcn.net>
NNTP-Posting-Host: c7.ae.37.b3
X-Server-Date: 15 Oct 1999 05:07:06 GMT
Mail-Copies-To: never
X-Newsreader: MT-NewsWatcher 2.4.4
X-Face: "S"r{U%bs].&Ud}Pc~<qT-k!*znQD|gj[,+)#DaY~AsjVL[UlRXi&y]]1#_De
        VoZ=w,7@[GOQ'x"{;Ee<>~~0a]M:t5l>>EN\1Faw10M9NK1Xq59wo7-"s0S+[{etQorO
        /Nf-Ci"i9v'MT!R8)J]N[4|2&x1r^Iq&{SB"6dknr0=+6UFb.>+{zMn_1=rw&/V+"d@*
        ZS5\LoW_
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!skynet.be!remarQ-easT!remarQ.com!supernews.com!news.mindspring.net!firehose.mindspring.com!hshubs

In article <7u4bub$al2$3@autumn.news.rcn.net>, jmfbahciv@aol.com wrote:

>What's a PHB?  I would record some guesses here for amusement's
>sake but don't wish to offend you :-).  I can think of two at
>the moment.

Pointy-haired boss.  It's a term from Dilbert.  I can't imagine why he'd
call himself that.
-- 
Howard S Shubs      hshubs@mindspring.com    hshubs@bix.com
The Denim Adept     Is this the right room for an argument?
SPAM: uce@ftc.gov   postmaster@[127.0.0.1]   abuse@[127.0.0.1]

######

From: jmfbahciv@aol.com
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Fri, 15 Oct 99 08:59:18 GMT
Organization: UltraNet Communications, Inc.
Lines: 38
Message-ID: <7u724c$qsd$2@autumn.news.rcn.net>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7u0281$3lh$1@bcarh8ab.ca.nortel.com> <38047103.2398982394@192.168.0.1> <7u4bub$al2$3@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7u5mnh$fj$1@watchdragon.demon.co.uk>
X-Trace: HJIQCY2X4124K15gYjAfr8tJ7+6E3czGGHsrtabBD0I=
X-Complaints-To: abuse@rcn.com
NNTP-Posting-Date: 15 Oct 1999 11:11:08 GMT
X-Newsreader:  News Xpress Version 1.0 Beta #4
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!isdnet!netnews.com!feed1.news.rcn.net!rcn!d1

In article <7u5mnh$fj$1@watchdragon.demon.co.uk>,
   pm215@watchdragon.demon.co.uk (Peter Maydell) wrote:
> <jmfbahciv@aol.com> wrote:
>>In article <38047103.2398982394@192.168.0.1>,
>>   scottw@bmtech.co.uk_DELETE_THIS (Scott Wheeler) wrote:
>>>One unexpected issue is variable names - I
>>>remember trying to find out if "pippo" had any meaning in some Italian
>>>code. Turned out it was the equivalent of "foo"- try finding that in
>>>an English dictionary!
>>
>>Neat!  :-)  I wonder what foo is in other languages.
>
>The Jargon File (under 'metasyntactic variable') gives:
> foo, bar, zot              Helsinki University of Technology, Finland.
> blarg, wibble              New Zealand.

I like blarg.  It sorta has the sound that a piece of gear
might make when everything goes wrong...blaarrrrggggghhhhh.

Oh, no, wait a minute...that was _me_ making that sound.

> aap, noot, mies            The Netherlands.  These are the first words 
>              a child used to learn to spell on a Dutch spelling board.
>

None of those are familiar.  My folks wouldn't let me
learn Dutch (they needed it so they could talk in front
of me when I was little).

>You just have to look in the right reference books :->

Ah, and the people of these newsgroups like to teach, too :-).

Thanks.

/BAH

Subtract a hundred and four for e-mail.

######

From: john@ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au (John "West" McKenna)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 15 Oct 1999 18:48:23 +0800
Organization: The University of Western Australia
Lines: 12
Message-ID: <7u70pn$p71$1@mermaid.ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7u0281$3lh$1@bcarh8ab.ca.nortel.com>
     <38047103.2398982394@192.168.0.1> <7u4bub$al2$3@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7u5mnh$fj$1@watchdragon.demon.co.uk>
NNTP-Posting-Host: mermaid.ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au
X-Newsreader: NN version 6.5.0 CURRENT #118
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!intgwpad.nntp.telstra.net!news1.optus.net.au!optus!news.uwa.edu.au!not-for-mail

pm215@watchdragon.demon.co.uk (Peter Maydell) writes:

>The Jargon File (under 'metasyntactic variable') gives:
> foo, bar, zot              Helsinki University of Technology, Finland.
> blarg, wibble              New Zealand.
[and more...]

frog, fish, womble, bing     Computer Club at the University of Western Australia.
(and spread elsewhere since.  I suspect the MUD community has picked up some of it)

John West

######

From: TonyLima@ms.spacebbs.com (Tony Lima)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Mon, 18 Oct 1999 03:54:20 GMT
Organization: None
Lines: 19
Message-ID: <381f9431.99004179@news.spacebbs.com>
References: <7ssht4$c3j$1@gondor.sdsu.edu> <583.942T177T5553274@sky.bus.com> <37F3A729.552E907A@plano.net> <7t2abp$pa3$5@winter.news.rcn.net> <7t5843$ogl$1@hawkins.cba.uni.edu>
Reply-To: TonyLima@ms.spacebbs.com
X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com
X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 1.5/16.451
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news.maxwell.syr.edu!nntp.ntr.net!remarQ60!rQdQ!supernews.com!remarQ.com!corp.supernews.com!not-for-mail

On 2 Oct 1999 10:24:50 -0500, hawk@hawkins.cba.uni.edu
(Richard E. Hawkins) wrote:

>In article <7t2abp$pa3$5@winter.news.rcn.net>,  <jmfbahciv@aol.com> wrote:
>>In article <37F3A729.552E907A@plano.net>,
>>   Charles Richmond <richmond@plano.net> wrote:
>>>Charlie Gibbs wrote:
>><snip>
>
>>Hey, Charles.  Your ISP seems to have developed a stutter.
>>Or did you double-click three times :-).
>
>Double click?  With the heels, to get back from Oz to Kansas?
>Nobody could possibly be reading *this* of all newsgroups
>with something that needs a rodent, could they? :)

Guilty.  Of course, the machine is a 1987 vintage 386, so it
qualifies for membership here. - Tony (who reluctantly
pulled the plug on his true-blue XT about 18 months ago)

######

From: gigawalt@iaehv.iae.nl (Walter Belgers)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 18 Oct 1999 14:03:58 GMT
Organization: The TimeWasters
Lines: 20
Message-ID: <7uf9ce$t46$1@news.IAEhv.nl>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7u4bub$al2$3@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7u5mnh$fj$1@watchdragon.demon.co.uk> <7u724c$qsd$2@autumn.news.rcn.net>
NNTP-Posting-Host: iaehv.iae.nl
X-Newsreader: trn 4.0-test70 (17 January 1999)
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!cam-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.gtei.net!hermes.visi.com!news-out.visi.com!feed2.nntp.acc.ca!feed.nntp.acc.ca!novia!calwebnntp!news.IAEhv.nl!not-for-mail

In article <7u724c$qsd$2@autumn.news.rcn.net>,  <jmfbahciv@aol.com> wrote:
>>>Neat!  :-)  I wonder what foo is in other languages.
>>The Jargon File (under 'metasyntactic variable') gives:
>> aap, noot, mies            The Netherlands.  These are the first words 
>>              a child used to learn to spell on a Dutch spelling board.
>None of those are familiar.  My folks wouldn't let me
>learn Dutch (they needed it so they could talk in front
>of me when I was little).

I'm Dutch and I don't use aap, noot, mies. In fact, all people I know
use their own set. I like weird words like bras, fliep, frtnbf, bla,
blaat, bref, zut. (frtnbf I stole from LaTeX)
Mostly because I like strange words which I occasionally steal or make up.
(Recently, somebody introduced a toilet cleaner named 'bref' which hey
clearly stole from me ;-)

Walter.
-- 
Walter Belgers -=- Walter.Belgers@iae.nl -=- http://www.iae.nl/users/gigawalt
echo '16i[q]sa[ln0=aln100%Pln100/snlbx]sb0D0A2020544C415741474947snlbxq' | dc

######

From: Luc Van der Veken <lucvdv@null.net>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Organization: .
Message-ID: <fUYLOMchZdvVw+EJ4Ic5xkN5+kWM@4ax.com>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7u4bub$al2$3@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7u5mnh$fj$1@watchdragon.demon.co.uk> <7u724c$qsd$2@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7uf9ce$t46$1@news.IAEhv.nl>
X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 1.6/32.525
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Lines: 14
Date: Mon, 18 Oct 1999 18:16:57 +0200
NNTP-Posting-Host: 212.123.10.153
X-Complaints-To: abuse@pandora.be
X-Trace: afrodite.telenet-ops.be 940263466 212.123.10.153 (Mon, 18 Oct 1999 18:17:46 MET DST)
NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 18 Oct 1999 18:17:46 MET DST
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!skynet.be!newsfeeds.belnet.be!news.belnet.be!afrodite.telenet-ops.be!not-for-mail

Walter Belgers posted:

> (Recently, somebody introduced a toilet cleaner named 'bref' which hey
> clearly stole from me ;-)

Come on now - "recently" and "bref" hardly mix - it's at least 5
years old (at least here in Belgium).

Oops - I got it now.  You meant recent for this group  ;-)


I'm afraid my own imagination isn't so lively - I don't often get
beyond 'file', 'fff' and 'x'.

######

From: jmfbahciv@aol.com
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Tue, 19 Oct 99 08:31:52 GMT
Organization: UltraNet Communications, Inc.
Lines: 35
Message-ID: <7uhi23$5bt$1@autumn.news.rcn.net>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7u4bub$al2$3@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7u5mnh$fj$1@watchdragon.demon.co.uk> <7u724c$qsd$2@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7uf9ce$t46$1@news.IAEhv.nl>
X-Trace: 48Ce+1v2/A17CZwaIg4FMWxyP8qdtW1QHLij1Bz4M88=
X-Complaints-To: abuse@rcn.com
NNTP-Posting-Date: 19 Oct 1999 10:44:19 GMT
X-Newsreader:  News Xpress Version 1.0 Beta #4
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!newsfeeds.belnet.be!news.belnet.be!newsfeed.nacamar.de!howland.erols.net!outgoing.news.rcn.net.MISMATCH!feed1.news.rcn.net!rcn!d7

In article <7uf9ce$t46$1@news.IAEhv.nl>,
   gigawalt@iaehv.iae.nl (Walter Belgers) wrote:
>In article <7u724c$qsd$2@autumn.news.rcn.net>,  <jmfbahciv@aol.com> wrote:
>>>>Neat!  :-)  I wonder what foo is in other languages.
>>>The Jargon File (under 'metasyntactic variable') gives:
>>> aap, noot, mies            The Netherlands.  These are the first words 
>>>              a child used to learn to spell on a Dutch spelling board.
>>None of those are familiar.  My folks wouldn't let me
>>learn Dutch (they needed it so they could talk in front
>>of me when I was little).
>
>I'm Dutch and I don't use aap, noot, mies. In fact, all people I know
>use their own set. I like weird words like bras, fliep, frtnbf, bla,
>blaat, bref, zut. (frtnbf I stole from LaTeX)

<grin>  That one (frtnbf) has got to cause throat damage.

>Mostly because I like strange words which I occasionally steal or make up.
>(Recently, somebody introduced a toilet cleaner named 'bref' which hey
>clearly stole from me ;-)

There are a few that I see on the newsgroup that give me a
similar feeling :-).  One of my duties at work was to read
the MCO (Monitor Change Order) file at our weekly Tuesday
morning meeting.  Programmers who wanted to make a change
to the monitor wrote up a symptom, analysis, cure scenario
using all the cybercrud to make the description short.
Rather than spell out all those labels, I would pronounce
them phonetically.  Some of those let me swear quite a bit
[very pleased emoticon here].  Others sounded as if we
were from outer space.

/BAH

Subtract a hundred and four for e-mail.

######

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was  Testing job applicants)
From: bmarcum@iglou.com
X-Everything: Net-Tamer V 1.08X
NNTP-Posting-Host: lou-ts10-83.iglou.com
X-Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: lou-ts10-83.iglou.com
Message-ID: <380d07e6@news.iglou.com>
Date: 19 Oct 1999 20:08:06 -0500
X-Trace: 19 Oct 1999 20:08:06 -0500, lou-ts10-83.iglou.com
Lines: 18
X-Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: news-incoming.iglou.com
Organization: IgLou Internet Services, Inc.
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!newscore.univie.ac.at!howland.erols.net!news-out.digex.net.MISMATCH!dca1-hub1.news.digex.net!dca1-feed3.news.digex.net!intermedia!news.iglou.com!lou-ts10-83.iglou.com



On 1999-10-14 jmfbahciv@aol.com said:
   >In article <38047103.2398982394@192.168.0.1>,
   >scottw@bmtech.co.uk_DELETE_THIS (Scott Wheeler) wrote:
   >>On 12 Oct 1999 19:30:09 GMT, lingman@wcars05r.ca.nortel.com (Danny
   >>Lingman) wrote:
   >>>Gack - We had one guy at a previous job (you out there Uli?) that
   >>>wrote his comments in German. (Of course, he was the only one on
   >>>the team that spoke German)
   >>I get that all the time - I'm PHB for a number of European research
   >>projects. ...
   >What's a PHB?  I would record some guesses here for amusement's
   >sake but don't wish to offend you :-).  I can think of two at
   >the moment.
I think he means "pointy haired boss" (Dilbert).

Net-Tamer V 1.08X - Test Drive

######

From: jmfbahciv@aol.com
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was  Testing job applicants)
Date: Wed, 20 Oct 99 07:45:11 GMT
Organization: UltraNet Communications, Inc.
Lines: 23
Message-ID: <7uk3ms$i0l$3@autumn.news.rcn.net>
References: <380d07e6@news.iglou.com>
X-Trace: d+ePNfnFY2nIabLBYUdujQNz9k7vx2vAsF2tdtNBa30=
X-Complaints-To: abuse@rcn.com
NNTP-Posting-Date: 20 Oct 1999 09:57:48 GMT
X-Newsreader:  News Xpress Version 1.0 Beta #4
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news.maxwell.syr.edu!feed1.news.rcn.net!rcn!d15

In article <380d07e6@news.iglou.com>, bmarcum@iglou.com wrote:
>
>
>On 1999-10-14 jmfbahciv@aol.com said:
>   >In article <38047103.2398982394@192.168.0.1>,
>   >scottw@bmtech.co.uk_DELETE_THIS (Scott Wheeler) wrote:
>   >>On 12 Oct 1999 19:30:09 GMT, lingman@wcars05r.ca.nortel.com (Danny
>   >>Lingman) wrote:
>   >>>Gack - We had one guy at a previous job (you out there Uli?) that
>   >>>wrote his comments in German. (Of course, he was the only one on
>   >>>the team that spoke German)
>   >>I get that all the time - I'm PHB for a number of European research
>   >>projects. ...
>   >What's a PHB?  I would record some guesses here for amusement's
>   >sake but don't wish to offend you :-).  I can think of two at
>   >the moment.
>I think he means "pointy haired boss" (Dilbert).

Yup.  He told me. :-)  I not up to my Dilbertisms.

/BAH

Subtract a hundred and four for e-mail.

######

From: drifkind@acm.deleteme.org (David Rifkind)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7u4bub$al2$3@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7u5mnh$fj$1@watchdragon.demon.co.uk> <7u724c$qsd$2@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7uf9ce$t46$1@news.IAEhv.nl> <7uhi23$5bt$1@autumn.news.rcn.net>
Organization: Subnormal Intelligence
User-Agent: slrn/0.9.5.7 (Windows)
Lines: 24
Message-ID: <3QaP3.976$j4.55643@news.uswest.net>
Date: Wed, 20 Oct 1999 03:39:43 GMT
NNTP-Posting-Host: 216.161.144.252
X-Trace: news.uswest.net 940390783 216.161.144.252 (Tue, 19 Oct 1999 22:39:43 CDT)
NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 19 Oct 1999 22:39:43 CDT
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!enews.sgi.com!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news-out.uswest.net!news.uswest.net!drifkind

On Tue, 19 Oct 99 08:31:52 GMT, jmfbahciv@aol.com wrote:
>In article <7uf9ce$t46$1@news.IAEhv.nl>,
>   gigawalt@iaehv.iae.nl (Walter Belgers) wrote:
>>In article <7u724c$qsd$2@autumn.news.rcn.net>,  <jmfbahciv@aol.com> wrote:
>>>>>Neat!  :-)  I wonder what foo is in other languages.
>>>>The Jargon File (under 'metasyntactic variable') gives:
>>>> aap, noot, mies            The Netherlands.  These are the first words 
>>>>              a child used to learn to spell on a Dutch spelling board.
>>>None of those are familiar.  My folks wouldn't let me
>>>learn Dutch (they needed it so they could talk in front
>>>of me when I was little).
>>
>>I'm Dutch and I don't use aap, noot, mies. In fact, all people I know
>>use their own set. I like weird words like bras, fliep, frtnbf, bla,
>>blaat, bref, zut. (frtnbf I stole from LaTeX)
>
><grin>  That one (frtnbf) has got to cause throat damage.

A Dutch friend used to claim that Dutch isn't a language--it's a throat
condition.

-- 
"I know, I know.  I behaved like an absolute bounder and a cad.  It's
the only way you can enjoy yourself these days!"

######

From: jmfbahciv@aol.com
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Wed, 20 Oct 99 07:46:34 GMT
Organization: UltraNet Communications, Inc.
Lines: 33
Message-ID: <7uk3pf$i0l$4@autumn.news.rcn.net>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7u4bub$al2$3@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7u5mnh$fj$1@watchdragon.demon.co.uk> <7u724c$qsd$2@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7uf9ce$t46$1@news.IAEhv.nl> <7uhi23$5bt$1@autumn.news.rcn.net> <3QaP3.976$j4.55643@news.uswest.net>
X-Trace: d+ePNfnFY2lxxshDkx3514wbiVzyysg1vKrRyjEv3J0=
X-Complaints-To: abuse@rcn.com
NNTP-Posting-Date: 20 Oct 1999 09:59:11 GMT
X-Newsreader:  News Xpress Version 1.0 Beta #4
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!newspeer.te.net!news.indigo.ie!news-out.cwix.com!newsfeed.cwix.com!feed1.news.rcn.net!rcn!d15

In article <3QaP3.976$j4.55643@news.uswest.net>,
   drifkind@acm.deleteme.org (David Rifkind) wrote:
>On Tue, 19 Oct 99 08:31:52 GMT, jmfbahciv@aol.com wrote:
>>In article <7uf9ce$t46$1@news.IAEhv.nl>,
>>   gigawalt@iaehv.iae.nl (Walter Belgers) wrote:
>>>In article <7u724c$qsd$2@autumn.news.rcn.net>,  <jmfbahciv@aol.com> 
wrote:
>>>>>>Neat!  :-)  I wonder what foo is in other languages.
>>>>>The Jargon File (under 'metasyntactic variable') gives:
>>>>> aap, noot, mies            The Netherlands.  These are the first 
words 
>>>>>              a child used to learn to spell on a Dutch spelling 
board.
>>>>None of those are familiar.  My folks wouldn't let me
>>>>learn Dutch (they needed it so they could talk in front
>>>>of me when I was little).
>>>
>>>I'm Dutch and I don't use aap, noot, mies. In fact, all people I know
>>>use their own set. I like weird words like bras, fliep, frtnbf, bla,
>>>blaat, bref, zut. (frtnbf I stole from LaTeX)
>>
>><grin>  That one (frtnbf) has got to cause throat damage.
>
>A Dutch friend used to claim that Dutch isn't a language--it's a throat
>condition.
>
And, despite being the daughter of a pair of them, I can't 
duplicate it :-).  I think it's an art that has to be started
very young.

/BAH

Subtract a hundred and four for e-mail.

######

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: bdc@world.std.com (Brian Chase)
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Message-ID: <FJz6IL.1En@world.std.com>
Date: Thu, 21 Oct 1999 22:59:09 GMT
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7u5mnh$fj$1@watchdragon.demon.co.uk> <7u724c$qsd$2@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7uf9ce$t46$1@news.IAEhv.nl>
Organization: HappyNet Bungalow
Lines: 29
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news.maxwell.syr.edu!hermes.visi.com!news-out.visi.com!uunet!ffx.uu.net!world!bdc

In article <7uf9ce$t46$1@news.IAEhv.nl>,
Walter Belgers <gigawalt@iaehv.iae.nl> wrote:
>In article <7u724c$qsd$2@autumn.news.rcn.net>,  <jmfbahciv@aol.com> wrote:

>>>>Neat!  :-)  I wonder what foo is in other languages.
>>>The Jargon File (under 'metasyntactic variable') gives:
>>> aap, noot, mies            The Netherlands.  These are the first words 
>>>              a child used to learn to spell on a Dutch spelling board.

>>None of those are familiar.  My folks wouldn't let me
>>learn Dutch (they needed it so they could talk in front
>>of me when I was little).

>I'm Dutch and I don't use aap, noot, mies. In fact, all people I know
>use their own set. I like weird words like bras, fliep, frtnbf, bla,
>blaat, bref, zut. (frtnbf I stole from LaTeX)

I think Sweden's IKEA, or at least their U.S. division of the company has
cornered the market on coming up with silly nonsense words to describe
things.  I'm going to start using IKEA furniture names for all my
variables.

See the furnishings section under
http://www.ikea-usa.com/content/main.asp?tab=1 

-brian.
-- 
--- Brian Chase | bdc@world.std.com | http://world.std.com/~bdc/ -----
      Are you absolutely sure that you want to do this? [ny] y

######

From: Janne Rinta-Manty <jrm@iki.fi>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 22 Oct 1999 12:25:40 +0300
Organization: University of Helsinki
Lines: 11
Message-ID: <xkn66zz692j.fsf@tahkokari.cs.Helsinki.FI>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7u5mnh$fj$1@watchdragon.demon.co.uk> <7u724c$qsd$2@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7uf9ce$t46$1@news.IAEhv.nl> <FJz6IL.1En@world.std.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: tahkokari.cs.helsinki.fi
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
X-Trace: oravannahka.helsinki.fi 940584428 22616 128.214.48.213 (22 Oct 1999 09:27:08 GMT)
X-Complaints-To: usenet@news.helsinki.fi
NNTP-Posting-Date: 22 Oct 1999 09:27:08 GMT
User-Agent: Gnus/5.070097 (Pterodactyl Gnus v0.97) Emacs/20.3
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!newsfeeds.belnet.be!news.belnet.be!newsgate.cistron.nl!het.net!news.tele2.nl!newsfeed1.swip.net!swipnet!newsfeed2.funet.fi!128.214.205.17.MISMATCH!news.helsinki.fi!not-for-mail

Brian Chase 1999-10-21T22:59:09Z:
BC> I think Sweden's IKEA, or at least their U.S. division of the
BC> company has cornered the market on coming up with silly nonsense
BC> words to describe things.  I'm going to start using IKEA furniture
BC> names for all my variables.

Well, those silly nonsense words seem to be Swedish (person/place
names, ordinary nouns/adjectives)... (I didn't check them all though.)

-- 
Janne Rinta-Mänty

######

From: john@ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au (John "West" McKenna)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 23 Oct 1999 10:21:36 +0800
Organization: The University of Western Australia
Lines: 18
Message-ID: <7ur63g$8sp$1@mermaid.ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7u5mnh$fj$1@watchdragon.demon.co.uk>
     <7u724c$qsd$2@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7uf9ce$t46$1@news.IAEhv.nl>
     <FJz6IL.1En@world.std.com> <3810D9F7.3E22D8F1@mbox301.swipnet.se>
NNTP-Posting-Host: mermaid.ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au
X-Newsreader: NN version 6.5.0 CURRENT #118
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!intgwpad.nntp.telstra.net!news1.optus.net.au!optus!news.uwa.edu.au!not-for-mail

Ronnie Sahlberg <ronnie.sahlberg@mbox301.swipnet.se> writes:

>Brian Chase wrote:
 
>> I think Sweden's IKEA, or at least their U.S. division of the company has
>> cornered the market on coming up with silly nonsense words to describe
>> things.  I'm going to start using IKEA furniture names for all my
>> variables.

>They are only nonsense to people illiterate in swedish :-)

Swedish, the only language in the world to be entirely comprised of silly
nonsense words.

Thinking about some of the nonsense I speak at times, perhaps I should move
over there...

John West

######

From: Lars Janqqvist <joseph61.spam.spam.spam.eggs.and.spam@ix.netcom.com>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Sun, 24 Oct 1999 13:52:20 -0700
Organization: The Etruscan Hegemony
Lines: 22
Message-ID: <VVoTOPVmIPxbCJ8=pBIfrTorzUC3@4ax.com>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7u4bub$al2$3@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7u5mnh$fj$1@watchdragon.demon.co.uk> <7u724c$qsd$2@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7uf9ce$t46$1@news.IAEhv.nl>
NNTP-Posting-Host: d1.6e.e3.69
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-Server-Date: 23 Oct 1999 20:52:45 GMT
X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 1.6/32.525
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!newspeer.te.net!news.indigo.ie!news-out.cwix.com!newsfeed.cwix.com!news.maxwell.syr.edu!news.mindspring.net!newsfeed.mindspring.net!firehose.mindspring.com!not-for-mail

On 18 Oct 1999 14:03:58 GMT, gigawalt@iaehv.iae.nl (Walter
Belgers) wrote:

>I'm Dutch and I don't use aap, noot, mies. In fact, all people I know
>use their own set. I like weird words like bras, fliep, frtnbf, bla,
>blaat, bref, zut. (frtnbf I stole from LaTeX)
>Mostly because I like strange words which I occasionally steal or make up.

When I had COBOL in school one of the things the prof stressed
was using *meaningful* names for data-names.  "You have
thirty-one charaters, people, call it 'SUB-CLASS-PRE-REORDER-AMT'
not Zee-Dee-Pee-Que!"  Of course, every program I turned in to
him, and mostly every program I've written since then, has had
some kind of data item named ZDPQ.



*******************************
"You can't believe everything 
you read on the internet."
    --Pierre Salinger
*******************************

######

From: genew@shuswap.net (Gene Wirchenko)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Sun, 24 Oct 1999 21:24:52 GMT
Organization: Okanagan Internet Junction
Lines: 29
Message-ID: <38112cb0.37972192@news.shuswap.net>
References: <xkn66zz692j.fsf@tahkokari.cs.Helsinki.FI> <19991022162130.08884.00000034@ngol01.aol.com>
Reply-To: genew@shuswap.net
NNTP-Posting-Host: salmonarm3-11.shuswap.net
X-Trace: news.junction.net 940800287 3821 206.87.124.93 (24 Oct 1999 21:24:47 GMT)
X-Complaints-To: abuse@junction.net
NNTP-Posting-Date: 24 Oct 1999 21:24:47 GMT
X-Newsreader: Forte Free Agent 1.1/32.230
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!skynet.be!newsfeed.direct.ca!newsfeed.bctel.net!news.junction.net!not-for-mail

autismuk@aol.com (AutismUK) wrote:

>Brian Chase 
>
>>I think Sweden's IKEA, or at least their U.S. division of the
>>company has cornered the market on coming up with silly nonsense
>>words to describe things.  I'm going to start using IKEA furniture
>>names for all my variables.
>
>I think Micro$oft already does this. It calls things lplplpszName
>(is this Gaelic ?). And the sentence "If you were happy running

     Hungarian and an illiterate form of one dislect at that.

>Windows 3.1 on your 386 PC you'll be happy with Windows 95"
>must have been written in some alien language ; it can't be
>english.

     The sentence makes perfect sense to me.  I thought Windows 3.1
was way too slow to be useful on a 386.

Sincerely,

Gene Wirchenko

Computerese Irregular Verb Conjugation:
     I have preferences.
     You have biases.
     He/She has prejudices.

######

From: autismuk@aol.com (AutismUK)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Lines: 24
NNTP-Posting-Host: ladder07.news.aol.com
X-Admin: news@aol.com
Date: 24 Oct 1999 21:48:46 GMT
References: <38112cb0.37972192@news.shuswap.net>
Organization: AOL, http://www.aol.co.uk
X-Newsreader: Session Scheduler
Message-ID: <19991024174846.09005.00000371@ngol01.aol.com>
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!newspeer.te.net!news.indigo.ie!news-out.cwix.com!newsfeed.cwix.com!portc03.blue.aol.com!audrey04.news.aol.com!not-for-mail

In article <38112cb0.37972192@news.shuswap.net>, genew@shuswap.net (Gene
Wirchenko) writes:

>>Windows 3.1 on your 386 PC you'll be happy with Windows 95"
>>must have been written in some alien language ; it can't be
>>english.
>
>     The sentence makes perfect sense to me.  I thought Windows 3.1
>was way too slow to be useful on a 386.

Really ? You can set up a perfectly adequate WP system on 
3.1 (esp. 3.11 or WfWg) ; I used to develop CASE tools on a 
386DX/20.

The statement is a bald faced lie ; Windows 95 simply will not
work at remotely the same rate. Still, Micro$oft are prone to
bold faced lies.

Those of us who are older can remember Gem on an 8086. Or
if you want to see how it can be done, try an ARM machine.

######

From: genew@shuswap.net (Gene Wirchenko)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Sun, 24 Oct 1999 22:36:09 GMT
Organization: Okanagan Internet Junction
Lines: 29
Message-ID: <381389a2.4542875@news.shuswap.net>
References: <38112cb0.37972192@news.shuswap.net> <19991024174846.09005.00000371@ngol01.aol.com>
Reply-To: genew@shuswap.net
NNTP-Posting-Host: salmonarm3-35.shuswap.net
X-Trace: news.junction.net 940804562 5162 206.87.124.117 (24 Oct 1999 22:36:02 GMT)
X-Complaints-To: abuse@junction.net
NNTP-Posting-Date: 24 Oct 1999 22:36:02 GMT
X-Newsreader: Forte Free Agent 1.1/32.230
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!newspeer.te.net!news.indigo.ie!news-out.cwix.com!newsfeed.cwix.com!newsfeed.direct.ca!newsfeed.bctel.net!news.junction.net!not-for-mail

autismuk@aol.com (AutismUK) wrote:

>In article <38112cb0.37972192@news.shuswap.net>, genew@shuswap.net (Gene
>Wirchenko) writes:
>
>>>Windows 3.1 on your 386 PC you'll be happy with Windows 95"
>>>must have been written in some alien language ; it can't be
>>>english.
>>
>>     The sentence makes perfect sense to me.  I thought Windows 3.1
>>was way too slow to be useful on a 386.
>
>Really ? You can set up a perfectly adequate WP system on 
>3.1 (esp. 3.11 or WfWg) ; I used to develop CASE tools on a 
>386DX/20.

     YMMV.  I thought it way to slow to be useful.  Thank goodness for
DOS.

[snip]

Sincerely,

Gene Wirchenko

Computerese Irregular Verb Conjugation:
     I have preferences.
     You have biases.
     He/She has prejudices.

######

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: bdc@world.std.com (Brian Chase)
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Message-ID: <FK4zG2.H5s@world.std.com>
Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1999 02:12:02 GMT
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7uf9ce$t46$1@news.IAEhv.nl> <FJz6IL.1En@world.std.com> <3810D9F7.3E22D8F1@mbox301.swipnet.se>
Organization: HappyNet Bungalow
Lines: 20
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!newsfeed.online.be!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!tank.news.pipex.net!pipex!uunet!zur.uu.net!ffx.uu.net!world!bdc

In article <3810D9F7.3E22D8F1@mbox301.swipnet.se>,
Ronnie Sahlberg  <ronnie.sahlberg@mbox301.swipnet.se> wrote:
>Brian Chase wrote:

>> I think Sweden's IKEA, or at least their U.S. division of the company has
>> cornered the market on coming up with silly nonsense words to describe
>> things.  I'm going to start using IKEA furniture names for all my
>> variables.

>They are only nonsense to people illiterate in swedish :-)

Sure... maybe they mean something in Swedish, but I've got a feeling that
the IKEA name of my nifty shelving unit here translates to something like 
'vegetable peeler' or 'small burrowing hairless goat' in English.

-brian.
-- 
--- Brian Chase | bdc@world.std.com | http://world.std.com/~bdc/ -----
I still remember the combination to your high school locker that I saw
   over your shoulder once!  This gives me ultimate power!  -- K.  

######

From: Luc Van der Veken <lucvdv@null.net>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Organization: .
Message-ID: <=X4UOL48EKgGnpnPCqk+nvtUp2ID@4ax.com>
References: <38112cb0.37972192@news.shuswap.net> <19991024174846.09005.00000371@ngol01.aol.com>
X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 1.6/32.525
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Lines: 37
Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1999 19:10:46 +0200
NNTP-Posting-Host: 212.123.10.114
X-Complaints-To: abuse@pandora.be
X-Trace: afrodite.telenet-ops.be 940871498 212.123.10.114 (Mon, 25 Oct 1999 19:11:38 MET DST)
NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1999 19:11:38 MET DST
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!isdnet!newsfeeds.belnet.be!news.belnet.be!afrodite.telenet-ops.be!not-for-mail

AutismUK posted:

> Those of us who are older can remember Gem on an 8086. Or

Yes.  But also how Ventura Publisher under GEM (the only app I
ever knew for it) was dead slow, and crashed 4 times per hour if
you tried to use more than its most basic functions.  I found it
worse than [later] Word under '95.

About word processors, the ones I liked most were WP 5.1 for DOS,
and the very first WP I ever had for Windows - don't remember the
exact version number: 5.2?
That is: liked the most AFAIR - once upon a time I was really
hooked on LeScript too, but besides its logo there's not much I
remember ;-)

Maybe it's just because I had all the commands in my fingers
though - I remember *hating* WP in the beginning, because I
couldn't get anything done without having a cheat sheet next to
me (those function key overlays always curled and got in the way,
and the command you needed was always at the other side - or were
those double-sided ones for something else?)

And flame me, call me an idiot, but Word'97 isn't that bad either
once you get used to it - just a bit slow sometimes if you don't
turn off certain features (like the won that didn't fount any
single spelling or stile errors in this hear sentence.)

[Did anyone else ever get the impression that the style checker
sometimes gets in an endless loop, causing the green curved lines
to flicker on and off your screen all the time?  I think that it
has something to do with trying to find the beginning and end of
two or more parts of a long sentence that aren't properly
separated.  Actually the last two of this paragraph are each long
enough without interpunction to make them candidates for that to
happen.]

######

From: "Charlie Gibbs" <cgibbs@sky.bus.com>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 25 Oct 99 23:40:46 -0800
Organization: http://extra.newsguy.com
Lines: 28
Message-ID: <1057.967T2322T14205267cgibbs@sky.bus.com>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7u4bub$al2$3@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7u5mnh$fj$1@watchdragon.demon.co.uk> <7u724c$qsd$2@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7uf9ce$t46$1@news.IAEhv.nl> <7uhi23$5bt$1@autumn.news.rcn.net>
NNTP-Posting-Host: p-895.newsdawg.com
X-Newsreader: THOR 2.6 (Amiga;TCP/IP)
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!su-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.gtei.net!pln-w!spln!extra.newsguy.com!newsp.newsguy.com!news2

In article <7uhi23$5bt$1@autumn.news.rcn.net> jmfbahciv@aol.com
(jmfbahciv) writes:

>There are a few that I see on the newsgroup that give me a
>similar feeling :-).  One of my duties at work was to read
>the MCO (Monitor Change Order) file at our weekly Tuesday
>morning meeting.  Programmers who wanted to make a change
>to the monitor wrote up a symptom, analysis, cure scenario
>using all the cybercrud to make the description short.
>Rather than spell out all those labels, I would pronounce
>them phonetically.  Some of those let me swear quite a bit
>[very pleased emoticon here].

Ah, I see you've encountered a few people abbreviating "count"
as well.

>Others sounded as if we were from outer space.

I feel obligated to piss off the people who misspell "OK"
as "Ok" (the blame for which I place squarely at the feet
of Microsoft BASIC-80 and its descendents).  I pronounce
it "awk".  Fortunately there usually aren't any Unix-head
around when I do so.

--
cgibbs@sky.bus.com (Charlie Gibbs)
Remove the first period after the "at" sign to reply.

######

Message-ID: <381550C0.E87F9D3F@cmc.com>
From: Lars Poulsen <lars@cmc.com>
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.61 [en] (Win98; I)
X-Accept-Language: da,en
MIME-Version: 1.0
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7uf9ce$t46$1@news.IAEhv.nl> <FJz6IL.1En@world.std.com> <3810D9F7.3E22D8F1@mbox301.swipnet.se> <FK4zG2.H5s@world.std.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Lines: 10
Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1999 23:57:04 -0700
NNTP-Posting-Host: 207.71.218.85
X-Complaints-To: abuse@avtel.com
X-Trace: newsfeed.avtel.net 940920861 207.71.218.85 (Mon, 25 Oct 1999 23:54:21 PDT)
NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1999 23:54:21 PDT
Organization: None
X-Received-Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1999 23:54:21 PDT (newsfeed.avtel.net)
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!skynet.be!newsfeed.cwix.com!newsfeed.avtel.net!not-for-mail

Brian Chase wrote:
> Sure... maybe they mean something in Swedish, but I've got a feeling that
> the IKEA name of my nifty shelving unit here translates to something like
> 'vegetable peeler' or 'small burrowing hairless goat' in English.

Walked through an IKEA store yesterday. One piece of office furniture 
was named JERKER. Wonder how well that sells ?
-- 
/ Lars Poulsen    -    http://www.cmc.com/lars     -  lars@cmc.com
  125 South Ontare Road, Santa Barbara, CA 93105 - +1-805-569-5277

######

From: vicw@sonydnse.com
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 16:47:35 GMT
Organization: Deja.com - Before you buy.
Lines: 20
Message-ID: <7v4lv7$979$1@nnrp1.deja.com>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7u5mnh$fj$1@watchdragon.demon.co.uk> <7u724c$qsd$2@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7uf9ce$t46$1@news.IAEhv.nl> <FJz6IL.1En@world.std.com> <xkn66zz692j.fsf@tahkokari.cs.Helsinki.FI> <3815C1EF.52BF@fysik.uu.se>
NNTP-Posting-Host: 195.152.254.178
X-Article-Creation-Date: Tue Oct 26 16:47:35 1999 GMT
X-Http-User-Agent: Mozilla/4.04 [en] (WinNT; I)
X-Http-Proxy: 1.0 SEUBPEBASPROXY, 1.0 x25.deja.com:80 (Squid/1.1.22) for client 195.152.254.178
X-MyDeja-Info: XMYDJUIDvicmax
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!newscore.univie.ac.at!newsfeed1.uni2.dk!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!nntp2.deja.com!nnrp1.deja.com!not-for-mail

In article <3815C1EF.52BF@fysik.uu.se>,
  Per Andersson <per.andersson@fysik.uu.se> wrote:

> When they name a new thing
> they see to that the name is not offensive in any language spoken =

The same cannot be said of all products.

Many years ago, on a trip to France, we saw advertising hoardings upon
which were mounted posters for a drink called "Pschitt" (Might have
spelt it wrong).

Our French hosts could not understand why we all burst out laughing at a
simple advert...

Vic.


Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.

######

Message-ID: <3815C1EF.52BF@fysik.uu.se>
Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 16:59:59 +0200
From: Per Andersson <per.andersson@fysik.uu.se>
Organization: Uppsala University
X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.04 (X11; I; OSF1 V4.0 alpha)
MIME-Version: 1.0
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7u5mnh$fj$1@watchdragon.demon.co.uk> <7u724c$qsd$2@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7uf9ce$t46$1@news.IAEhv.nl> <FJz6IL.1En@world.std.com> <xkn66zz692j.fsf@tahkokari.cs.Helsinki.FI>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
NNTP-Posting-Host: dec22.fysik.uu.se
X-Trace: 26 Oct 1999 17:00:00 +0100, dec22.fysik.uu.se
Lines: 35
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!news-peer-europe.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!newsfeed.sunet.se!news01.sunet.se!news99.sunet.se!newsfeed.uu.se!dec22.fysik.uu.se

Janne Rinta-Manty wrote:
> =

> Brian Chase 1999-10-21T22:59:09Z:
> BC> I think Sweden's IKEA, or at least their U.S. division of the
> BC> company has cornered the market on coming up with silly nonsense
> BC> words to describe things.  I'm going to start using IKEA furniture
> BC> names for all my variables.
> =

> Well, those silly nonsense words seem to be Swedish (person/place
> names, ordinary nouns/adjectives)... (I didn't check them all though.)
> =

> --
> Janne Rinta-M=E4nty

All the silly words are actually Swedish names as Janne Rinta-M=E4nty
said. Billy and Ivar are common male names. The diffrent names on
their couches are names of small towns with mills (bruksorter in
swedish). You might have noticed that they use names from the
periodic table on their spotlights. When they name a new thing
they see to that the name is not offensive in any language spoken =

where they are going to sell the stuff. It's not nonsense to me...


/Per Andersson
-- =

___________________________________________________
Per Andersson               phone: +46 (0)18 4713624
Condensed Matter Theory          : +46 (0)709 564218
Uppsala University          email: pera@fysik.uu.se
----------------------------------------------------

######

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <xkn66zz692j.fsf@tahkokari.cs.Helsinki.FI> <3815C1EF.52BF@fysik.uu.se> <7v4lv7$979$1@nnrp1.deja.com>
Organization: Plethora . Net - More net, less spam!
X-Newsreader: trn 4.0-test70 (17 January 1999)
From: seebs@plethora.net (Peter Seebach)
Lines: 26
Message-ID: <vblR3.6064$b84.635426@ptah.visi.com>
Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 17:05:31 GMT
NNTP-Posting-Host: 205.166.146.8
X-Complaints-To: abuse@plethora.net
X-Trace: ptah.visi.com 940957531 205.166.146.8 (Tue, 26 Oct 1999 12:05:31 CDT)
NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 12:05:31 CDT
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news.maxwell.syr.edu!hermes.visi.com!news-out.visi.com!ptah.visi.com!not-for-mail

In article <7v4lv7$979$1@nnrp1.deja.com>,  <vicw@sonydnse.com> wrote:
>In article <3815C1EF.52BF@fysik.uu.se>,
>  Per Andersson <per.andersson@fysik.uu.se> wrote:
>> When they name a new thing
>> they see to that the name is not offensive in any language spoken =

>The same cannot be said of all products.

>Many years ago, on a trip to France, we saw advertising hoardings upon
>which were mounted posters for a drink called "Pschitt" (Might have
>spelt it wrong).

>Our French hosts could not understand why we all burst out laughing at a
>simple advert...

Heh.  Recently, in one of the games newsgroups, I saw someone reporting on
a game which had been translated from German.  I forget the details, but
I think the game was something like "Stinky and Beaver's Wood Olympics", and
it was a kid's game.

-s
-- 
Copyright 1999, All rights reserved.  Peter Seebach / seebs@plethora.net
C/Unix wizard, Pro-commerce radical, Spam fighter.  Boycott Spamazon!
Will work for interesting hardware.  http://www.plethora.net/~seebs/
Visit my new ISP <URL:http://www.plethora.net/> --- More Net, Less Spam!

######

Message-ID: <381612BF.526B2539@iedu.org>
From: Morris Dovey <mrdovey@iedu.org>
Organization: http://www.iedu.org/mrd
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.61 [en] (X11; U; Linux 2.0.36 i686)
X-Accept-Language: en, fr, pt, ru, es
MIME-Version: 1.0
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
References: <7v4qqu$7an$1@polo.demon.co.uk> <19991026163047.06948.00001033@ngol02.aol.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Lines: 15
Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 15:44:47 -0500
NNTP-Posting-Host: 207.108.37.10
X-Trace: news.uswest.net 940970810 207.108.37.10 (Tue, 26 Oct 1999 15:46:50 CDT)
NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 15:46:50 CDT
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!newspeer.te.net!news.indigo.ie!news-out.cwix.com!newsfeed.cwix.com!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news-out.uswest.net!news.uswest.net!not-for-mail

AutismUK wrote:
> 
> In article <7v4qqu$7an$1@polo.demon.co.uk>, john@polo.demon.co.uk (John
> Winters) writes:
> 
> >Of course the MR2 sports car must be unsaleable in France.
> 
> Gotta ask why....

AutismUK...

MR2 == M R Deux ~> M eR De ~> Merde [Excrement, in English]

Morris Dovey
West Des Moines, Iowa USA

######

From: john@polo.demon.co.uk (John Winters)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 26 Oct 1999 19:10:38 +0100
Organization: The Linux Emporium
Message-ID: <7v4qqu$7an$1@polo.demon.co.uk>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <xkn66zz692j.fsf@tahkokari.cs.Helsinki.FI> <3815C1EF.52BF@fysik.uu.se> <7v4lv7$979$1@nnrp1.deja.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: unseen.linuxemporium.co.uk
X-NNTP-Posting-Host: unseen.linuxemporium.co.uk:194.70.1.33
X-Trace: news.demon.co.uk 940961874 nnrp-12:11142 NO-IDENT unseen.linuxemporium.co.uk:194.70.1.33
X-Complaints-To: abuse@demon.net
Lines: 24
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!skynet.be!dispose.news.demon.net!demon!news.demon.co.uk!demon!unseen.linuxemporium.co.uk!polo.demon.co.uk!not-for-mail

In article <7v4lv7$979$1@nnrp1.deja.com>,  <vicw@sonydnse.com> wrote:
>In article <3815C1EF.52BF@fysik.uu.se>,
>  Per Andersson <per.andersson@fysik.uu.se> wrote:
>
>> When they name a new thing
>> they see to that the name is not offensive in any language spoken =
>
>The same cannot be said of all products.
>
>Many years ago, on a trip to France, we saw advertising hoardings upon
>which were mounted posters for a drink called "Pschitt" (Might have
>spelt it wrong).
>
>Our French hosts could not understand why we all burst out laughing at a
>simple advert...

Of course the MR2 sports car must be unsaleable in France.

John
-- 
John Winters.  Wallingford, Oxon, England.

The Linux Emporium - a source for Linux CDs in the UK
See http://www.linuxemporium.co.uk/

######

From: autismuk@aol.com (AutismUK)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Lines: 6
NNTP-Posting-Host: ladder05.news.aol.com
X-Admin: news@aol.com
Date: 26 Oct 1999 20:30:47 GMT
References: <7v4qqu$7an$1@polo.demon.co.uk>
Organization: AOL, http://www.aol.co.uk
X-Newsreader: Session Scheduler
Message-ID: <19991026163047.06948.00001033@ngol02.aol.com>
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!newspump.monmouth.com!newspeer.monmouth.com!newshub.northeast.verio.net!news.idt.net!peerfeed.news.psi.net!portc01.blue.aol.com!spamz.news.aol.com!audrey04.news.aol.com!not-for-mail

In article <7v4qqu$7an$1@polo.demon.co.uk>, john@polo.demon.co.uk (John
Winters) writes:

>Of course the MR2 sports car must be unsaleable in France.

Gotta ask why....

######

From: Charles Richmond <richmond@plano.net>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 23:11:14 +0000
Organization: Cannine Computer Center
Lines: 19
Message-ID: <38163511.89E7C999@plano.net>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7u4bub$al2$3@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7u5mnh$fj$1@watchdragon.demon.co.uk> <7u724c$qsd$2@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7uf9ce$t46$1@news.IAEhv.nl> <7uhi23$5bt$1@autumn.news.rcn.net> <1057.967T2322T14205267cgibbs@sky.bus.com>
Reply-To: richmond@plano.net
X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.03 (Macintosh; I; 68K)
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!skynet.be!newsfeed.icl.net!newsfeed.axxsys.net!remarQ-easT!rQdQ!supernews.com!remarQ.com!corp.supernews.com!not-for-mail

Charlie Gibbs wrote:
> 
>      [snip...]     [snip...]     [snip...]
> 
> I feel obligated to piss off the people who misspell "OK"
> as "Ok" (the blame for which I place squarely at the feet
> of Microsoft BASIC-80 and its descendents).  I pronounce
> it "awk".  Fortunately there usually aren't any Unix-head
> around when I do so.
> 
I can deal with "Ok" better than "unrecoverable".  In some M$
software crap you can get an "unrecoverable error".  See, the
word is "irrecoverable", *not* "unrecoverable".  Would it break
Mr. Gates' jaw to use the correct word?

-- 
+-------------------------------------------------------------+
|     Charles and Francis Richmond     <richmond@plano.net>   |
+-------------------------------------------------------------+

######

From: Charles Richmond <richmond@plano.net>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 23:16:29 +0000
Organization: Cannine Computer Center
Lines: 18
Message-ID: <3816364C.6D49CEC2@plano.net>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7uf9ce$t46$1@news.IAEhv.nl> <FJz6IL.1En@world.std.com> <3810D9F7.3E22D8F1@mbox301.swipnet.se> <FK4zG2.H5s@world.std.com> <381550C0.E87F9D3F@cmc.com>
Reply-To: richmond@plano.net
X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.03 (Macintosh; I; 68K)
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!newspeer.te.net!news.indigo.ie!news-out.cwix.com!newsfeed.cwix.com!newsswitch.lcs.mit.edu!remarQ-easT!rQdQ!supernews.com!remarQ.com!corp.supernews.com!not-for-mail

Lars Poulsen wrote:
> 
> Brian Chase wrote:
> > Sure... maybe they mean something in Swedish, but I've got a feeling that
> > the IKEA name of my nifty shelving unit here translates to something like
> > 'vegetable peeler' or 'small burrowing hairless goat' in English.
> 
> Walked through an IKEA store yesterday. One piece of office furniture
> was named JERKER. Wonder how well that sells ?
>
And the Cevrolet Nova does *not* sell well in Mexico.  "No va" means "doesn't go"
in Spanish.  And of course our friends from Oz know that "Nothing sucks like
a VAX!"

-- 
+-------------------------------------------------------------+
|     Charles and Francis Richmond     <richmond@plano.net>   |
+-------------------------------------------------------------+

######

From: Ian Stirling <root@mauve.demon.co.uk>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Wed, 27 Oct 1999 02:07:41 GMT
Message-ID: <940990061.23519.0.nnrp-12.9e98d142@news.demon.co.uk>
References: <7v4qqu$7an$1@polo.demon.co.uk> <19991026163047.06948.00001033@ngol02.aol.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: mauve.demon.co.uk
X-NNTP-Posting-Host: mauve.demon.co.uk:158.152.209.66
X-Trace: news.demon.co.uk 940990061 nnrp-12:23519 NO-IDENT mauve.demon.co.uk:158.152.209.66
X-Complaints-To: abuse@demon.net
User-Agent: tin/pre-1.4-980818 ("Laura") (UNIX) (Linux/2.2.5 (i586))
Originator: root@mauve.demon.co.uk
Lines: 19
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!skynet.be!dispose.news.demon.net!demon!news.demon.co.uk!demon!mauve.demon.co.uk!root

AutismUK <autismuk@aol.com> wrote:
>In article <7v4qqu$7an$1@polo.demon.co.uk>, john@polo.demon.co.uk (John
>Winters) writes:

>>Of course the MR2 sports car must be unsaleable in France.

>Gotta ask why....

It's the name of a somewhat controversial pigfood...

-- 
http://www.mauve.demon.co.uk/        |       Cheap electronics/PC bits for sale.
-------------------------------------+-----------------------------Ian-Stirling.
The fight between good and evil, an epic battle. Darth vader and Luke, 
suddenly in the middle of the fight, Darth pulls Luke to him, and whispers
"I know what you'r getting for christmas!" Luke exclaims "But how ??!?"
"It's true Luke, I know what you'r getting for christmas" Luke tries to ignore
this, but wrenches himself free, yelling "How could you know this?", 
Vader replies "I felt your presents"  -- The Chris Evans breakfast show ca. 94

######

From: jmfbahciv@aol.com
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Wed, 27 Oct 99 08:34:52 GMT
Organization: UltraNet Communications, Inc.
Lines: 34
Message-ID: <7v6la1$m7a$4@autumn.news.rcn.net>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7u4bub$al2$3@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7u5mnh$fj$1@watchdragon.demon.co.uk> <7u724c$qsd$2@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7uf9ce$t46$1@news.IAEhv.nl> <7uhi23$5bt$1@autumn.news.rcn.net> <1057.967T2322T14205267cgibbs@sky.bus.com>
X-Trace: UHfxVO/iU+86HANQUlyVfO4z72zqFa+j3khNpmAWiEI=
X-Complaints-To: abuse@rcn.com
NNTP-Posting-Date: 27 Oct 1999 10:48:33 GMT
X-Newsreader:  News Xpress Version 1.0 Beta #4
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!skynet.be!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!feed1.news.rcn.net!rcn!d9

In article <1057.967T2322T14205267cgibbs@sky.bus.com>,
   "Charlie Gibbs" <cgibbs@sky.bus.com> wrote:
>In article <7uhi23$5bt$1@autumn.news.rcn.net> jmfbahciv@aol.com
>(jmfbahciv) writes:
>
>>There are a few that I see on the newsgroup that give me a
>>similar feeling :-).  One of my duties at work was to read
>>the MCO (Monitor Change Order) file at our weekly Tuesday
>>morning meeting.  Programmers who wanted to make a change
>>to the monitor wrote up a symptom, analysis, cure scenario
>>using all the cybercrud to make the description short.
>>Rather than spell out all those labels, I would pronounce
>>them phonetically.  Some of those let me swear quite a bit
>>[very pleased emoticon here].
>
>Ah, I see you've encountered a few people abbreviating "count"
>as well.

<grin>  Five letter words were usually spelled out :-))).  

>
>>Others sounded as if we were from outer space.
>
>I feel obligated to piss off the people who misspell "OK"
>as "Ok" (the blame for which I place squarely at the feet
>of Microsoft BASIC-80 and its descendents).  I pronounce
>it "awk".  Fortunately there usually aren't any Unix-head
>around when I do so.
>
Ah, so they didn't know how to spell from the very beginning.

/BAH

Subtract a hundred and four for e-mail.

######

From: jmfbahciv@aol.com
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Wed, 27 Oct 99 08:40:10 GMT
Organization: UltraNet Communications, Inc.
Lines: 42
Message-ID: <7v6lju$m7a$5@autumn.news.rcn.net>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7u4bub$al2$3@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7u5mnh$fj$1@watchdragon.demon.co.uk> <7u724c$qsd$2@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7uf9ce$t46$1@news.IAEhv.nl> <7uhi23$5bt$1@autumn.news.rcn.net> <1057.967T2322T14205267cgibbs@sky.bus.com> <38163511.89E7C999@plano.net>
X-Trace: gbcsJbsIDV8XYt6iXHDXb8hoffwjmmiX+2Uuv8IRgIA=
X-Complaints-To: abuse@rcn.com
NNTP-Posting-Date: 27 Oct 1999 10:53:50 GMT
X-Newsreader:  News Xpress Version 1.0 Beta #4
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!skynet.be!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!feed1.news.rcn.net!rcn!d9

In article <38163511.89E7C999@plano.net>,
   Charles Richmond <richmond@plano.net> wrote:
>Charlie Gibbs wrote:
>> 
>>      [snip...]     [snip...]     [snip...]
>> 
>> I feel obligated to piss off the people who misspell "OK"
>> as "Ok" (the blame for which I place squarely at the feet
>> of Microsoft BASIC-80 and its descendents).  I pronounce
>> it "awk".  Fortunately there usually aren't any Unix-head
>> around when I do so.
>> 
>I can deal with "Ok" better than "unrecoverable".  In some M$
>software crap you can get an "unrecoverable error".  See, the
>word is "irrecoverable", *not* "unrecoverable".  Would it break
>Mr. Gates' jaw to use the correct word?
>
One of the tricks of the trade in those days to CYA and
prevent copyright infringement lawsuits was to change
the spelling.  When somebody finally did sue (I don't remember
who or what or when or where), those changes were not
honored as evidence of original intellectual property.

Why do you think DEC spelled disk with a k instead of c?
IBM spelled it with a c.  We had to be different.  That's
what I was told, anyway.  

Rumor has it that somebody "acquired" TOPS20 sources.  I 
believe they changed the monitor level prompt to make
it appear different.  They got caught when their software
exhibited an identical monitor bug; examination of their
sources showed that the commentary had the string "TOPS20"
in it.  The idiots didn't even run a TECO macro over
the sources.

/BAH


/BAH


Subtract a hundred and four for e-mail.

######

From: jmfbahciv@aol.com
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Wed, 27 Oct 99 08:43:51 GMT
Organization: UltraNet Communications, Inc.
Lines: 26
Message-ID: <7v6lqr$m7a$6@autumn.news.rcn.net>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7uf9ce$t46$1@news.IAEhv.nl> <FJz6IL.1En@world.std.com> <3810D9F7.3E22D8F1@mbox301.swipnet.se> <FK4zG2.H5s@world.std.com> <381550C0.E87F9D3F@cmc.com> <3816A6CA.48E8DB2F@mbox301.swipnet.se> <7v6bq1$qt7$1@xs4.xs4all.nl>
X-Trace: vK1Ekkd1yBrrUe9IwZaM9zgpQnp7z2+KxSEd3whBiww=
X-Complaints-To: abuse@rcn.com
NNTP-Posting-Date: 27 Oct 1999 10:57:31 GMT
X-Newsreader:  News Xpress Version 1.0 Beta #4
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news.maxwell.syr.edu!feed1.news.rcn.net!rcn!d9

In article <7v6bq1$qt7$1@xs4.xs4all.nl>,
   mdeen@xs4.xs4all.nl (Maarten Deen) wrote:
>Ronnie Sahlberg <ronnie.sahlberg@mbox301.swipnet.se> writes:
>>Lars Poulsen wrote:
>>> Walked through an IKEA store yesterday. One piece of office furniture
>>> was named JERKER. Wonder how well that sells ?
>
>>You think it is funny that some office furniture is named Jerker?
>>Jerker is actually an ordinary male name in sweden, I in fact have
>>a friend named Jerker.
>>Imagine if he moved to an english speaking country :-)
>>He would sure need to change his name, or be ridiculed forever.
>
>Oh, it can be worse. We used to have a guy at school who'd we nicknamed
>'Dik de Kok'. Imagine that name (with some 'c's added) in english
>speaking countries.
>
>Perfectly normal Dutch name though...

Yup.  My Dad's name is Henry but the old Dutch people would
call him Heine.  It took me a long time to figure out that
they were not calling him another butt name.

/BAH

Subtract a hundred and four for e-mail.

######

Message-ID: <3816A6CA.48E8DB2F@mbox301.swipnet.se>
From: Ronnie Sahlberg <ronnie.sahlberg@mbox301.swipnet.se>
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.6 [en] (WinNT; I)
X-Accept-Language: en
MIME-Version: 1.0
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7uf9ce$t46$1@news.IAEhv.nl> <FJz6IL.1En@world.std.com> <3810D9F7.3E22D8F1@mbox301.swipnet.se> <FK4zG2.H5s@world.std.com> <381550C0.E87F9D3F@cmc.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Lines: 13
Date: Wed, 27 Oct 1999 09:16:26 +0200
NNTP-Posting-Host: 130.244.11.168
X-Complaints-To: news-abuse@swip.net
X-Trace: nntpserver.swip.net 941006063 130.244.11.168 (Wed, 27 Oct 1999 08:34:23 MET DST)
NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 27 Oct 1999 08:34:23 MET DST
Organization: A Customer of Tele2
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!uunet!ams.uu.net!do.de.uu.net!newsfeed.tli.de!newsfeed1.swip.net!swipnet!nntpserver.swip.net!not-for-mail



Lars Poulsen wrote:
> Walked through an IKEA store yesterday. One piece of office furniture
> was named JERKER. Wonder how well that sells ?

You think it is funny that some office furniture is named Jerker?
Jerker is actually an ordinary male name in sweden, I in fact have
a friend named Jerker.
Imagine if he moved to an english speaking country :-)
He would sure need to change his name, or be ridiculed forever.

br ronnie sahlberg

######

From: mdeen@xs4.xs4all.nl (Maarten Deen)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 27 Oct 1999 10:06:25 +0200
Organization: XS4ALL, Networking for the masses
Lines: 19
Message-ID: <7v6bq1$qt7$1@xs4.xs4all.nl>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7uf9ce$t46$1@news.IAEhv.nl> <FJz6IL.1En@world.std.com> <3810D9F7.3E22D8F1@mbox301.swipnet.se> <FK4zG2.H5s@world.std.com> <381550C0.E87F9D3F@cmc.com> <3816A6CA.48E8DB2F@mbox301.swipnet.se>
NNTP-Posting-Host: xs4.xs4all.nl
X-Trace: news1.xs4all.nl 941011587 10459 194.109.6.45 (27 Oct 1999 08:06:27 GMT)
X-Complaints-To: abuse@xs4all.nl
NNTP-Posting-Date: 27 Oct 1999 08:06:27 GMT
X-Newsreader: NN version 6.5.1 (NOV)
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!skynet.be!newsfeeds.belnet.be!news.belnet.be!carrier1.net!newsfeed.wirehub.nl!xs4all!xs4.xs4all.nl!not-for-mail

Ronnie Sahlberg <ronnie.sahlberg@mbox301.swipnet.se> writes:
>Lars Poulsen wrote:
>> Walked through an IKEA store yesterday. One piece of office furniture
>> was named JERKER. Wonder how well that sells ?

>You think it is funny that some office furniture is named Jerker?
>Jerker is actually an ordinary male name in sweden, I in fact have
>a friend named Jerker.
>Imagine if he moved to an english speaking country :-)
>He would sure need to change his name, or be ridiculed forever.

Oh, it can be worse. We used to have a guy at school who'd we nicknamed
'Dik de Kok'. Imagine that name (with some 'c's added) in english
speaking countries.

Perfectly normal Dutch name though...

Maarten Deen

######

From: Tim Shoppa <shoppa@trailing-edge.com>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Wed, 27 Oct 1999 11:17:20 -0400
Organization: Trailing Edge Technology
Lines: 20
Message-ID: <3816DF40.59E1B65D@trailing-edge.com>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7uf9ce$t46$1@news.IAEhv.nl> <FJz6IL.1En@world.std.com> <3810D9F7.3E22D8F1@mbox301.swipnet.se> <FK4zG2.H5s@world.std.com> <381550C0.E87F9D3F@cmc.com> <3816364C.6D49CEC2@plano.net>
NNTP-Posting-Host: timaxp.trailing-edge.com
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-Trace: ffx2nh5.news.uu.net 941037492 27210 63.73.218.130 (27 Oct 1999 15:18:12 GMT)
X-Complaints-To: news@ffx2nh5.news.uu.net
NNTP-Posting-Date: 27 Oct 1999 15:18:12 GMT
X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.03Gold (X11; I; OpenVMS V7.0     DEC 3000 Model 300L)
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!skynet.be!195.224.165.20.MISMATCH!remarQ-uK!remarQ.com!supernews.com!easynet-tele!easynet.net!tank.news.pipex.net!pipex!do.de.uu.net!uunet!ams.uu.net!ffx.uu.net!ffx2nh5!not-for-mail

Charles Richmond wrote:
> 
> Lars Poulsen wrote:
> >
> > Brian Chase wrote:
> > > Sure... maybe they mean something in Swedish, but I've got a feeling that
> > > the IKEA name of my nifty shelving unit here translates to something like
> > > 'vegetable peeler' or 'small burrowing hairless goat' in English.
> >
> > Walked through an IKEA store yesterday. One piece of office furniture
> > was named JERKER. Wonder how well that sells ?
> >
> And the Cevrolet Nova does *not* sell well in Mexico.  "No va" means "doesn't go"
> in Spanish.

And, to top off all naming disasters, what about all the hotels
with "Chat eau" in their names?  What self-respecting French person
would ever stay overnight in a place called "Cat Water"??!!!

Tim.

######

From: Eric Fischer <enf@pobox.com>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 27 Oct 1999 15:01:36 GMT
Organization: EnterAct Corp Turbo-Elite News Server
Lines: 10
Message-ID: <7v744g$e17$1@eve.enteract.com>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <FK4zG2.H5s@world.std.com> <381550C0.E87F9D3F@cmc.com> <3816364C.6D49CEC2@plano.net>
NNTP-Posting-Host: 207.229.143.41
X-Newsreader: trn 4.0-test72 (19 April 1999)
Originator: enf@enteract.com (Eric Fischer)
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!skynet.be!hermes.visi.com!news-out.visi.com!newsfeed.enteract.com!news.enteract.com!not-for-mail

Charles Richmond  <richmond@plano.net> wrote:

> And the Cevrolet Nova does *not* sell well in Mexico.  "No va" means
> "doesn't go" in Spanish.

According to the American Automobile Association road atlas in front
of me, "Nova" is what 80-octane gasoline is called in Mexico (87-octane
is "Magna").  So cars "don't go" with this grade of fuel?

eric

######

From: mww@merant.com (Michael Wojcik)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 27 Oct 1999 15:53:23 GMT
Organization: MERANT Inc.
Lines: 43
Message-ID: <7v775j$2fc6@news2.newsguy.com>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7u4bub$al2$3@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7u5mnh$fj$1@watchdragon.demon.co.uk> <7u724c$qsd$2@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7uf9ce$t46$1@news.IAEhv.nl> <7uhi23$5bt$1@autumn.news.rcn.net> <1057.967T2322T14205267cgibbs@sky.bus.com> <38163511.89E7C999@plano.net>
Reply-To: michael.wojcik@merant.com
NNTP-Posting-Host: p-403.newsdawg.com
X-Newsreader: xrn 9.00
Originator: mww@lorelei-n
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!skynet.be!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!newsfeed.stanford.edu!paloalto-snf1.gtei.net!su-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.gtei.net!pln-w!spln!extra.newsguy.com!newsp.newsguy.com!mww


In article <38163511.89E7C999@plano.net>, Charles Richmond <richmond@plano.net> writes:
> Charlie Gibbs wrote:

> > I feel obligated to piss off the people who misspell "OK"
> > as "Ok" (the blame for which I place squarely at the feet
> > of Microsoft BASIC-80 and its descendents).  I pronounce
> > it "awk".  Fortunately there usually aren't any Unix-head
> > around when I do so.

> I can deal with "Ok" better than "unrecoverable".  In some M$
> software crap you can get an "unrecoverable error".  See, the
> word is "irrecoverable", *not* "unrecoverable".  Would it break
> Mr. Gates' jaw to use the correct word?

As there is no widely recognized (by a majority of users) authority 
on English usage, the term "correct word" does not properly apply
in this context.

Proper usage is determined by the discourse community.  "unrecoverable"
is widely used, however distressing that may be.  The ir- prefix is
arguably more logical ("unrecoverable" suggests that the problem may
be "unrecovered", perhaps in the opposite sense of, say, "unearthed"),
but it appears to have lost the popularity contest, which in the end
is the only one that matters.

The same, alas, goes for "Ok" and "Okay" and other variants of "OK",
the (likely) etymology of that acronym notwithstanding.

On the other hand, we can still step on pedants who advocate the
forms that aren't supported etymologically.  At least there's some
argument for "OK" and "irrecoverable", even if it's ultimately a
moot point.


--
Michael Wojcik          	        michael.wojcik@merant.com
AAI Development, MERANT                 (block capitals are a company mandate)
Department of English, Miami University

Love thine and hamster and live with the hamster.
     < From the hamster and the sutra >
   -- roro

######

From: mww@merant.com (Michael Wojcik)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 27 Oct 1999 16:01:14 GMT
Organization: MERANT Inc.
Lines: 52
Message-ID: <7v77kb$18jn@news1.newsguy.com>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <FK4zG2.H5s@world.std.com> <381550C0.E87F9D3F@cmc.com> <3816364C.6D49CEC2@plano.net> <7v744g$e17$1@eve.enteract.com>
Reply-To: michael.wojcik@merant.com
NNTP-Posting-Host: p-485.newsdawg.com
X-Newsreader: xrn 9.00
Originator: mww@lorelei-n
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!skynet.be!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!howland.erols.net!nntp2.lotsanews.com.MISMATCH!pln-e!spln!extra.newsguy.com!newsp.newsguy.com!mww


In article <7v744g$e17$1@eve.enteract.com>, Eric Fischer <enf@pobox.com> writes:
> Charles Richmond  <richmond@plano.net> wrote:
> 
> > And the Cevrolet Nova does *not* sell well in Mexico.  "No va" means
> > "doesn't go" in Spanish.
> 
> According to the American Automobile Association road atlas in front
> of me, "Nova" is what 80-octane gasoline is called in Mexico (87-octane
> is "Magna").  So cars "don't go" with this grade of fuel?

Indeed.  One might want to simply check www.urbanlegends.com, in the
"Products" section:

   From _Business Mexico_, June, 1993 

   The most often cited auto blunder is the Chevrolet Nova (the phrase
   "No va" translates in Spanish as "It doesn't go") which General
   Motors wanted to bring into Mexico in the early 1970s. Although GM's
   Mexican managers were worried about the name, Nova was indeed used.
   
   "They kept the name and it sold very well," says marketing analyst
   Cecilia Bouleau, who disputes the conventional wisdom surrounding the
   moniker. "It's the same thing with Nova gasoline. I think that the
   word is sufficiently incorporated into the language as meaning 'new'
   -- as in 'bossa nova' -- that the criticism isn't valid."
   
   Bouleau goes on to say that a strong ad campaign can counter an
   apparent weakness that a brand name may carry across an international
   border. "One thing that never ceases to surprise me is how Coca-Cola
   has never had a problem (in Latin America). 'Coca' has drug
   connotations and 'Cola' means 'tail' -- yet no-one thinks the worse
   of it."
   
   (Cite provided by snopes)

Those ULs die hard, don't they?

ObAFC: How many here remember the good old days when snopes claimed
he was posting from a DEC research station in Antartica, in one of
the great ur-trolls, as part of the "most geographically distant
Usenet sites" thread?

--
Michael Wojcik          	        michael.wojcik@merant.com
AAI Development, MERANT                 (block capitals are a company mandate)
Department of English, Miami University

Most people believe that anything that is true is true for a reason.
These theorems show that some things are true for no reason at all,
i.e., accidentally, or at random.
   -- G J Chaitin

######

Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!usenet
From: Neil Franklin <neil@franklin.ch.remove>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 27 Oct 1999 20:35:55 +0200
Organization: My own Private Self
Lines: 13
Sender: neil@chonsp.franklin.ch
Message-ID: <6u3duwirck.fsf@chonsp.franklin.ch>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7uf9ce$t46$1@news.IAEhv.nl>
        <FJz6IL.1En@world.std.com> <3810D9F7.3E22D8F1@mbox301.swipnet.se>
        <FK4zG2.H5s@world.std.com> <381550C0.E87F9D3F@cmc.com>
        <3816364C.6D49CEC2@plano.net> <3816DF40.59E1B65D@trailing-edge.com>
X-Newsreader: Gnus v5.3/Emacs 19.34

Tim Shoppa <shoppa@trailing-edge.com> writes:
>
> And, to top off all naming disasters, what about all the hotels
> with "Chat eau" in their names?  What self-respecting French person
> would ever stay overnight in a place called "Cat Water"??!!!

Everyone. Because their mental parsers would never get to try such a
word combination, already terminating at the perfectly usable single
word chateau = castle.


--
Neil Franklin, neil@franklin.ch.remove http://neil.franklin.ch/

######

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Message-ID: <01bf2097$caab07a0$e12ac222@my0250>
From: "Rkazas" <rkazas@hotmail.com>
Date: 27 Oct 99 11:24:51 CST
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <FK4zG2.H5s@world.std.com><381550C0.E87F9D3F@cmc.co
 m> <3816364C.6D49CEC2@plano.net> <7v744g$e17$1@eve.enteract.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: my0250.mwk.com
X-Newsreader: Microsoft Internet News 4.70.1162
Lines: 19
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!skynet.be!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!news.msfc.nasa.gov!info.usuhs.mil!uky.edu!atl-news-feed1.bbnplanet.com!news.gtei.net!mwk!nntp

Nova is not on sale anymore, just "Magna" & "Premium " (which is a little
bit expensive). I am mexican and i have never heard of jokes about the " no
va" ...my mother used to have a Chevy Nova 78 many years ago.

rkazas

Eric Fischer <enf@pobox.com> wrote in article
<7v744g$e17$1@eve.enteract.com>...
> Charles Richmond  <richmond@plano.net> wrote:
> 
> > And the Cevrolet Nova does *not* sell well in Mexico.  "No va" means
> > "doesn't go" in Spanish.
> 
> According to the American Automobile Association road atlas in front
> of me, "Nova" is what 80-octane gasoline is called in Mexico (87-octane
> is "Magna").  So cars "don't go" with this grade of fuel?
> 
> eric
> 

######

From: jvarela@mind-spring.com (John Varela)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 27 Oct 1999 18:00:59 GMT
Organization: MindSpring Enterprises
Lines: 14
Message-ID: <PXSs7Qc20D1F-pn2-DQ7fm5bE9g7T@user-2ivehs1.dialup.mindspring.com>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7u4bub$al2$3@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7u5mnh$fj$1@watchdragon.demon.co.uk> <7u724c$qsd$2@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7uf9ce$t46$1@news.IAEhv.nl> <7uhi23$5bt$1@autumn.news.rcn.net> <1057.967T2322T14205267cgibbs@sky.bus.com> <38163511.89E7C999@plano.net>
NNTP-Posting-Host: a5.f7.47.81
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
X-Newsreader: ProNews/2 Version 1.50 Beta 1
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!newspeer.te.net!news.indigo.ie!diablo.theplanet.net!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!howland.erols.net!newsfeed.mindspring.net.MISMATCH!news.mindspring.net!newsfeed.mindspring.net!firehose.mindspring.com!not-for-mail

On Tue, 26 Oct 1999 23:11:14, Charles Richmond <richmond@plano.net> 
wrote:

> I can deal with "Ok" better than "unrecoverable".  In some M$
> software crap you can get an "unrecoverable error".  See, the
> word is "irrecoverable", *not* "unrecoverable".  Would it break
> Mr. Gates' jaw to use the correct word?

The OED cites examples of "unrecoverable" in the sense of "cannot be 
recovered" dating from the 15th Century.

--
John "doesn't anyone else know how to use a dictionary?" Varela
to e-mail, remove - between mind and spring

######

From: korpela@islay.ssl.berkeley.edu (Eric J. Korpela)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 27 Oct 1999 18:02:34 GMT
Organization: Cal Berkeley-- Space Sciences Lab
Lines: 26
Message-ID: <7v7enq$f8g$1@agate-ether.berkeley.edu>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <3816364C.6D49CEC2@plano.net> <7v744g$e17$1@eve.enteract.com> <1zkXOOomQnv0FMl6aA2W=I6t+Abi@4ax.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: islay.ssl.berkeley.edu
X-Trace: agate-ether.berkeley.edu 941047354 15632 128.32.98.192 (27 Oct 1999 18:02:34 GMT)
X-Complaints-To: abuse@berkeley.edu
NNTP-Posting-Date: 27 Oct 1999 18:02:34 GMT
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!newspeer.te.net!news.indigo.ie!news-out.cwix.com!newsfeed.cwix.com!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!agate.berkeley.edu!agate!islay.ssl.berkeley.edu!korpela

In article <1zkXOOomQnv0FMl6aA2W=I6t+Abi@4ax.com>,
Luc Van der Veken  <lucvdv@null.net> wrote:
>Eric Fischer posted:
>> Charles Richmond  <richmond@plano.net> wrote:
>> 
>> > And the Cevrolet Nova does *not* sell well in Mexico.  "No va" means
>> > "doesn't go" in Spanish.
>> 
>> According to the American Automobile Association road atlas in front
>> of me, "Nova" is what 80-octane gasoline is called in Mexico (87-octane
>> is "Magna").  So cars "don't go" with this grade of fuel?
>
>"Nova" in a single (Spanish) word just means "nova" (English).
>Would they be scared that their car might explode, taking the
>entire solar system with it?

I seem to recall a SF short story about an amulet that turns people into
what their car is named after. (i.e. a rabbit, an eagle)  The story abruptly 
ends when someone give the amulet to his wife, who drives a Nova.

Eric
-- 
Eric Korpela                        |  An object at rest can never be
korpela@ssl.berkeley.edu            |  stopped.
<a href="http://sag-www.ssl.berkeley.edu/~korpela">Click for home page.</a>

######

From: jvarela@mind-spring.com (John Varela)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 27 Oct 1999 18:11:08 GMT
Organization: MindSpring Enterprises
Lines: 37
Message-ID: <PXSs7Qc20D1F-pn2-vnCKMPExh4Ed@user-2ivehs1.dialup.mindspring.com>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <FK4zG2.H5s@world.std.com> <381550C0.E87F9D3F@cmc.com> <3816364C.6D49CEC2@plano.net> <7v744g$e17$1@eve.enteract.com> <7v77kb$18jn@news1.newsguy.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: a5.f7.47.81
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
X-Newsreader: ProNews/2 Version 1.50 Beta 1
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!skynet.be!newsfeed.gamma.ru!Gamma.RU!remarQ-easT!remarQ.com!supernews.com!news.mindspring.net!firehose.mindspring.com!not-for-mail

On Wed, 27 Oct 1999 16:01:14, mww@merant.com (Michael Wojcik) wrote:

> 
> In article <7v744g$e17$1@eve.enteract.com>, Eric Fischer <enf@pobox.com> writes:
> > Charles Richmond  <richmond@plano.net> wrote:
> > 
> > > And the Cevrolet Nova does *not* sell well in Mexico.  "No va" means
> > > "doesn't go" in Spanish.
> > 
> > According to the American Automobile Association road atlas in front
> > of me, "Nova" is what 80-octane gasoline is called in Mexico (87-octane
> > is "Magna").  So cars "don't go" with this grade of fuel?
> 
> Indeed.  One might want to simply check www.urbanlegends.com, in the
> "Products" section:
> 
>    From _Business Mexico_, June, 1993 

(snip)
    
>    "They kept the name and it sold very well," says marketing analyst
>    Cecilia Bouleau, who disputes the conventional wisdom surrounding the
>    moniker. "It's the same thing with Nova gasoline. I think that the
>    word is sufficiently incorporated into the language as meaning 'new'
>    -- as in 'bossa nova' -- that the criticism isn't valid."

The Nova-name-inhibits-sales story is indeed an urban legend (though 
the example cited above is absurd since "bossa nova" is Portuguese, 
not Spanish, and who cares whether or not a bossa will go), but 
Nova/No Va is in fact a pun in Spanish and I first heard it from a 
Puerto Rican friend about 20 years ago.
   
(more snips)

--
John Varela
to e-mail, remove - between mind and spring

######

From: jvarela@mind-spring.com (John Varela)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 27 Oct 1999 18:14:19 GMT
Organization: MindSpring Enterprises
Lines: 14
Message-ID: <PXSs7Qc20D1F-pn2-xRP9T46WfFMd@user-2ivehs1.dialup.mindspring.com>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7uf9ce$t46$1@news.IAEhv.nl> <FJz6IL.1En@world.std.com> <3810D9F7.3E22D8F1@mbox301.swipnet.se> <FK4zG2.H5s@world.std.com> <381550C0.E87F9D3F@cmc.com> <3816A6CA.48E8DB2F@mbox301.swipnet.se>
NNTP-Posting-Host: a5.f7.47.81
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
X-Newsreader: ProNews/2 Version 1.50 Beta 1
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!skynet.be!iad-peer.news.verio.net!news.verio.net!remarQ-easT!remarQ.com!supernews.com!news.mindspring.net!firehose.mindspring.com!not-for-mail

On Wed, 27 Oct 1999 07:16:26, Ronnie Sahlberg 
<ronnie.sahlberg@mbox301.swipnet.se> wrote:

> a friend named Jerker.
> Imagine if he moved to an english speaking country :-)
> He would sure need to change his name, or be ridiculed forever.

The worst Jewish name in English is, of course, Lipschitz.  I knew a 
fellow with that name and he had to change it.  He shortened it to 
Schitz. 

--
John "that was a joke" Varela
to e-mail, remove - between mind and spring

######

From: Luc Van der Veken <lucvdv@null.net>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Organization: .
Message-ID: <3DEXOPX+JgEt=gELzls+qIJxh41x@4ax.com>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7u4bub$al2$3@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7u5mnh$fj$1@watchdragon.demon.co.uk> <7u724c$qsd$2@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7uf9ce$t46$1@news.IAEhv.nl> <7uhi23$5bt$1@autumn.news.rcn.net> <1057.967T2322T14205267cgibbs@sky.bus.com> <38163511.89E7C999@plano.net>
X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 1.6/32.525
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
Lines: 26
Date: Wed, 27 Oct 1999 19:39:38 +0200
NNTP-Posting-Host: 212.123.10.156
X-Complaints-To: abuse@pandora.be
X-Trace: afrodite.telenet-ops.be 941046030 212.123.10.156 (Wed, 27 Oct 1999 19:40:30 MET DST)
NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 27 Oct 1999 19:40:30 MET DST
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!skynet.be!newsfeeds.belnet.be!news.belnet.be!afrodite.telenet-ops.be!not-for-mail

Charles Richmond posted:

> I can deal with "Ok" better than "unrecoverable".  In some M$
> software crap you can get an "unrecoverable error".  See, the
> word is "irrecoverable", *not* "unrecoverable".  Would it break
> Mr. Gates' jaw to use the correct word?

I don't know where you looked that up, but Merriam-Websters
Collegiate Dictionary (10th edition, CD-ROM version I acquired
some years ago) lists both forms as correct, and so does the
online version at http://www.m-w.com/dictionary.htm.

: ...
: un·rec·on·cil·able
: un·rec·on·ciled
: un·re·cord·ed
: un·re·cov·er·able
: un·re·cov·ered
: un·re·cy·cla·ble
: un·re·deem·able
: ...

Unreversible is wrong though, but irreversible is a description
for giving the "send" command when you're trying to bash
someone/thing on usenet and don't check your arguments :-)

######

From: Luc Van der Veken <lucvdv@null.net>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Organization: .
Message-ID: <1zkXOOomQnv0FMl6aA2W=I6t+Abi@4ax.com>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <FK4zG2.H5s@world.std.com> <381550C0.E87F9D3F@cmc.com> <3816364C.6D49CEC2@plano.net> <7v744g$e17$1@eve.enteract.com>
X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 1.6/32.525
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Lines: 14
Date: Wed, 27 Oct 1999 19:52:15 +0200
NNTP-Posting-Host: 212.123.10.156
X-Complaints-To: abuse@pandora.be
X-Trace: afrodite.telenet-ops.be 941046787 212.123.10.156 (Wed, 27 Oct 1999 19:53:07 MET DST)
NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 27 Oct 1999 19:53:07 MET DST
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!skynet.be!newsfeeds.belnet.be!news.belnet.be!afrodite.telenet-ops.be!not-for-mail

Eric Fischer posted:
> Charles Richmond  <richmond@plano.net> wrote:
> 
> > And the Cevrolet Nova does *not* sell well in Mexico.  "No va" means
> > "doesn't go" in Spanish.
> 
> According to the American Automobile Association road atlas in front
> of me, "Nova" is what 80-octane gasoline is called in Mexico (87-octane
> is "Magna").  So cars "don't go" with this grade of fuel?

"Nova" in a single (Spanish) word just means "nova" (English).
Would they be scared that their car might explode, taking the
entire solar system with it?

######

From: hmv@port.ac.uk (Mike Meredith at home)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 22:16:08 +0100
Organization: Customer of Planet Online
Lines: 33
Sender: mike@port.ac.uk
Message-ID: <om55v7.ksd3.ln@predator>
References: <38112cb0.37972192@news.shuswap.net>
    <19991024174846.09005.00000371@ngol01.aol.com>
    <=X4UOL48EKgGnpnPCqk+nvtUp2ID@4ax.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: modem-108.name69.dialup.pol.co.uk
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
X-Trace: news5.svr.pol.co.uk 941052743 3458 62.136.194.108 (27 Oct 1999 19:32:23 GMT)
NNTP-Posting-Date: 27 Oct 1999 19:32:23 GMT
X-Complaints-To: abuse@theplanet.net
X-Newsreader: knews 1.0b.1
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!skynet.be!diablo.theplanet.net!news.theplanet.net!newspost.theplanet.net!predator!nobody

Hi

In article <=X4UOL48EKgGnpnPCqk+nvtUp2ID@4ax.com>,
	Luc Van der Veken <lucvdv@null.net> writes:
> About word processors, the ones I liked most were WP 5.1 for DOS,
> and the very first WP I ever had for Windows - don't remember the
> exact version number: 5.2?

5.2 was pretty awful when we were looking at it --- frequent
crashes, and a confusing method of printing (old fashioned WP
drivers, and the Windows printer driver). We didn't switch to WP
for Windows until version 6.0a (which was pretty good).

> Maybe it's just because I had all the commands in my fingers
> though - I remember *hating* WP in the beginning, because I
> couldn't get anything done without having a cheat sheet next to
> me (those function key overlays always curled and got in the way,
> and the command you needed was always at the other side - or were
> those double-sided ones for something else?)

The templates we got certainly weren't double-sided --- they were
sticky on the reverse so you could stick them to the keyboard.
1-2-3 templates *were* double-sided though.

> And flame me, call me an idiot, but Word'97 isn't that bad either
> once you get used to it - just a bit slow sometimes if you don't
> turn off certain features (like the won that didn't fount any
> single spelling or stile errors in this hear sentence.)

I didn't support it long enough to get used to it (I no longer
support students doing word-processing), but I hated not being
able to get at the formatting codes to fix things as you could in
WP.

######

From: Alexandre Pechtchanski <alex*@*rockvax.rockefeller.edu>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Organization: Rockefeller University Hospital (GCRC), New York
Message-ID: <=U8XOPQtAF9VIvX908X2GuCyu7hy@4ax.com>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7u4bub$al2$3@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7u5mnh$fj$1@watchdragon.demon.co.uk> <7u724c$qsd$2@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7uf9ce$t46$1@news.IAEhv.nl> <7uhi23$5bt$1@autumn.news.rcn.net> <1057.967T2322T14205267cgibbs@sky.bus.com> <38163511.89E7C999@plano.net> <PXSs7Qc20D1F-pn2-DQ7fm5bE9g7T@user-2ivehs1.dialup.mindspring.com>
X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 1.6/32.525
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Lines: 22
Date: Wed, 27 Oct 1999 15:23:22 -0400
NNTP-Posting-Host: 129.85.24.56
X-Trace: rockyd.rockefeller.edu 941052264 129.85.24.56 (Wed, 27 Oct 1999 15:24:24 EDT)
NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 27 Oct 1999 15:24:24 EDT
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!newspeer.te.net!news.indigo.ie!news-out.cwix.com!newsfeed.cwix.com!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newsfeed.nyu.edu!rockyd.rockefeller.edu!not-for-mail

On 27 Oct 1999 18:00:59 GMT, jvarela@mind-spring.com (John Varela) wrote:

>On Tue, 26 Oct 1999 23:11:14, Charles Richmond <richmond@plano.net> 
>wrote:
>
>> I can deal with "Ok" better than "unrecoverable".  In some M$
>> software crap you can get an "unrecoverable error".  See, the
>> word is "irrecoverable", *not* "unrecoverable".  Would it break
>> Mr. Gates' jaw to use the correct word?
>
>The OED cites examples of "unrecoverable" in the sense of "cannot be 
>recovered" dating from the 15th Century.

OK, so that one is moot.  But what about asinine legend on ScanDisk (maiden name
NDD, a.k.a. Norton Disk Doctor) that Microsoft programmers put in?  I always
quote it as a proof that Microsoft hires either foreigners or high school
drop-outs as its programmers.
For the curios who don't have MS DOS handy:  it says "Some bad clusters" as a
label for an icon for data region where some of the clusters may be bad.

[ When replying, remove *'s from address ]
Alexandre Pechtchanski, Systems Manager, RUH, NY

######

From: "Bob Squires" <foxcomltd@remove-hotmail.com>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Wed, 27 Oct 1999 16:00:31 -0400
Organization: NetReach InterNetNews
Lines: 36
Message-ID: <7v7lgj$d03$1@tikehau.netreach.net>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <FK4zG2.H5s@world.std.com><381550C0.E87F9D3F@cmc.com> <3816364C.6D49CEC2@plano.net> <7v744g$e17$1@eve.enteract.com> <01bf2097$caab07a0$e12ac222@my0250>
Reply-To: "Bob Squires" <foxcomltd@remove-hotmail.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: ppp-167255-051.netreach.net
X-Trace: tikehau.netreach.net 941054291 13315 167.89.255.51 (27 Oct 1999 19:58:11 GMT)
X-Complaints-To: abuse@netreach.net
NNTP-Posting-Date: 27 Oct 1999 19:58:11 GMT
X-Priority: 3
X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.2314.1300
X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2314.1300
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!skynet.be!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!netnews.netreach.net!not-for-mail

The other half of the No Va rumor was that Chevy had to change the name of
the car from the "Nova" to the "Caribe" because of the
"won't go" translation.
It is also rumored that this happened in South America instead
of Mexico.
And doesn't Kentucky Fried Chicken's slogan translate into something
vulgar in Swedish or Norwegian?

bsquires AT netreach DOT net



Rkazas <rkazas@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:01bf2097$caab07a0$e12ac222@my0250...
> Nova is not on sale anymore, just "Magna" & "Premium " (which is a little
> bit expensive). I am mexican and i have never heard of jokes about the "
no
> va" ...my mother used to have a Chevy Nova 78 many years ago.
>
> rkazas
>
> Eric Fischer <enf@pobox.com> wrote in article
> <7v744g$e17$1@eve.enteract.com>...
> > Charles Richmond  <richmond@plano.net> wrote:
> >
> > > And the Cevrolet Nova does *not* sell well in Mexico.  "No va" means
> > > "doesn't go" in Spanish.
> >
> > According to the American Automobile Association road atlas in front
> > of me, "Nova" is what 80-octane gasoline is called in Mexico (87-octane
> > is "Magna").  So cars "don't go" with this grade of fuel?
> >
> > eric
> >

######

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <38163511.89E7C999@plano.net> <PXSs7Qc20D1F-pn2-DQ7fm5bE9g7T@user-2ivehs1.dialup.mindspring.com> <=U8XOPQtAF9VIvX908X2GuCyu7hy@4ax.com>
Organization: HiWAAY Information Services
X-Newsreader: trn 4.0-test60 (5 October 1997)
From: cmadams@fly.hiwaay.net (Chris Adams)
Lines: 10
Message-ID: <UrJR3.615$23.43262@typ11.nn.bcandid.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: 208.147.154.56
X-Trace: typ11.nn.bcandid.com 941056884 208.147.154.56 (Wed, 27 Oct 1999 16:41:24 EDT)
NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 27 Oct 1999 16:41:24 EDT
Date: Wed, 27 Oct 1999 20:41:24 GMT
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!skynet.be!hermes.visi.com!news-out.visi.com!gw12.nn.bcandid.com!gate.bCandid.com!hub12.nn.bcandid.com!typ11.nn.bcandid.com.POSTED!not-for-mail

Once upon a time, Alexandre Pechtchanski  <alex*@*rockvax.rockefeller.edu> said:
>For the curios who don't have MS DOS handy:  it says "Some bad clusters" as a
>label for an icon for data region where some of the clusters may be bad.

And what is wrong with that?  That block of the disk has some bad
clusters.
-- 
Chris Adams <cmadams@hiwaay.net>
Systems and Network Administrator - HiWAAY Information Services
I don't speak for anybody but myself - that's enough trouble.

######

From: Charles Richmond <richmond@plano.net>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Wed, 27 Oct 1999 21:13:26 +0000
Organization: Cannine Computer Center
Lines: 31
Message-ID: <38176AF6.4B03C30A@plano.net>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <FK4zG2.H5s@world.std.com> <381550C0.E87F9D3F@cmc.com> <3816364C.6D49CEC2@plano.net> <7v744g$e17$1@eve.enteract.com> <1zkXOOomQnv0FMl6aA2W=I6t+Abi@4ax.com>
Reply-To: richmond@plano.net
X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.03 (Macintosh; I; 68K)
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!newspeer.te.net!news.indigo.ie!news-out.cwix.com!newsfeed.cwix.com!newsswitch.lcs.mit.edu!remarQ-easT!rQdQ!supernews.com!remarQ.com!corp.supernews.com!not-for-mail

Luc Van der Veken wrote:
> 
> Eric Fischer posted:
> > Charles Richmond  <richmond@plano.net> wrote:
> >
> > > And the Cevrolet Nova does *not* sell well in Mexico.  "No va" means
> > > "doesn't go" in Spanish.
> >
> > According to the American Automobile Association road atlas in front
> > of me, "Nova" is what 80-octane gasoline is called in Mexico (87-octane
> > is "Magna").  So cars "don't go" with this grade of fuel?
> 
> "Nova" in a single (Spanish) word just means "nova" (English).
> Would they be scared that their car might explode, taking the
> entire solar system with it?
>
Well, I certainly *would* be concerned that it might explode.  I *hate* GM
products.  Besides the fact that the '81 Olds Cutless I had cost me thousands
in repair bills over its ten year life, GM does crash tests  using live animals
(or did until very recently)--i.e., how hard does a live dog have to hit the
steering wheel to *burst* its heart!!!

Okay, so being a basically older guy, I remembered the basically older urban
legend of the Nova.  But...there *really* was a VAX vacuum cleaner in Australia,
and their slogan really was "Nothing sucks like a VAX".  (I think maybe BAH 
might agree with this somehow.)

-- 
+-------------------------------------------------------------+
|     Charles and Francis Richmond     <richmond@plano.net>   |
+-------------------------------------------------------------+

######

From: mww@merant.com (Michael Wojcik)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 27 Oct 1999 23:21:29 GMT
Organization: MERANT Inc.
Lines: 31
Message-ID: <7v81dp$2vfi@news2.newsguy.com>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7u4bub$al2$3@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7u5mnh$fj$1@watchdragon.demon.co.uk> <7u724c$qsd$2@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7uf9ce$t46$1@news.IAEhv.nl> <7uhi23$5bt$1@autumn.news.rcn.net> <1057.967T2322T14205267cgibbs@sky.bus.com> <38163511.89E7C999@plano.net> <PXSs7Qc20D1F-pn2-DQ7fm5bE9g7T@user-2ivehs1.dialup.mindspring.com>
Reply-To: michael.wojcik@merant.com
NNTP-Posting-Host: p-351.newsdawg.com
X-Newsreader: xrn 9.00
Originator: mww@lorelei-n
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!newspeer.te.net!news.indigo.ie!news-out.cwix.com!newsfeed.cwix.com!pln-e!spln!extra.newsguy.com!newsp.newsguy.com!mww


In article <PXSs7Qc20D1F-pn2-DQ7fm5bE9g7T@user-2ivehs1.dialup.mindspring.com>, jvarela@mind-spring.com (John Varela) writes:

> On Tue, 26 Oct 1999 23:11:14, Charles Richmond <richmond@plano.net> 
> wrote:

> > ["irrecoverable" preferable over "unrecoverable"]

> The OED cites examples of "unrecoverable" in the sense of "cannot be 
> recovered" dating from the 15th Century.

True, though the OED's goal of listing nearly every established
variant makes it a poor tool for pedantry.

Some more restrictive dictionaries (the American Heritage and the
Oxford American, for example) do list only the ir- form.  This
might be one of Noah Webster's nation-language interventions; I'm
not feeling sufficiently curious to look into it.


--
Michael Wojcik          	        michael.wojcik@merant.com
AAI Development, MERANT                 (block capitals are a company mandate)
Department of English, Miami University

Company Secretary Finance Manager
 1) Half-grey haired executives.
 2) Must be waist-deep in their field of activities.
 3) Must be having the know-how and the do-how of the latest
    developments in their respective fields.
   -- from "Appointments Vacant" section of Business India

######

From: mikey@sparcbert.ontek.com (Mike Lee)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 27 Oct 1999 23:53:54 GMT
Organization: Ontek Corporation -- Laguna Hills, California
Lines: 13
Message-ID: <7v83ai$rlp$1@news.cerf.net>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7v744g$e17$1@eve.enteract.com> <01bf2097$caab07a0$e12ac222@my0250> <7v7lgj$d03$1@tikehau.netreach.net>
Reply-To: mikey@ontek.com
NNTP-Posting-Host: sparcbert.mlee.ontek.com
X-Trace: news.cerf.net 941068434 28345 199.107.111.70 (27 Oct 1999 23:53:54 GMT)
X-Complaints-To: abuse@cerf.net
NNTP-Posting-Date: 27 Oct 1999 23:53:54 GMT
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!newspeer.te.net!news.indigo.ie!news-out.cwix.com!newsfeed.cwix.com!nuq-peer.news.verio.net!news.verio.net!nntp2.cerf.net!news.cerf.net!sparcbert!mikey

In alt.folklore.computers, "Bob Squires" <foxcomltd@remove-hotmail.com> writes:
| The other half of the No Va rumor was that Chevy had to change the name of
| the car from the "Nova" to the "Caribe" because of the
| "won't go" translation.
| It is also rumored that this happened in South America instead
| of Mexico.
| And doesn't Kentucky Fried Chicken's slogan translate into something
| vulgar in Swedish or Norwegian?

No great loss--it's vulgar in the U.S. also.

     mikey

######

From: jvarela@mind-spring.com (John Varela)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 28 Oct 1999 01:38:27 GMT
Organization: MindSpring Enterprises
Lines: 14
Message-ID: <PXSs7Qc20D1F-pn2-cVKwxFxl3mZR@user-2ivei1q.dialup.mindspring.com>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7u4bub$al2$3@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7u5mnh$fj$1@watchdragon.demon.co.uk> <7u724c$qsd$2@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7uf9ce$t46$1@news.IAEhv.nl> <7uhi23$5bt$1@autumn.news.rcn.net> <1057.967T2322T14205267cgibbs@sky.bus.com> <38163511.89E7C999@plano.net> <PXSs7Qc20D1F-pn2-DQ7fm5bE9g7T@user-2ivehs1.dialup.mindspring.com> <7v81dp$2vfi@news2.newsguy.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: a5.f7.48.3a
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
X-Newsreader: ProNews/2 Version 1.50 Beta 1
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!isdnet!remarQ-easT!remarQ.com!supernews.com!news.mindspring.net!firehose.mindspring.com!not-for-mail

On Wed, 27 Oct 1999 23:21:29, mww@merant.com (Michael Wojcik) wrote:

> Some more restrictive dictionaries (the American Heritage and the
> Oxford American, for example) do list only the ir- form.  This
> might be one of Noah Webster's nation-language interventions; I'm
> not feeling sufficiently curious to look into it.

Smaller dictionaries list fewer words.  The big Random House 
dictionary lists unrecoverable, along with a zillion other words in 
un-, without definition.

--
John Varela
to e-mail, remove - between mind and spring

######

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: ehrice@his.com (Edward Rice)
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Message-ID: <B43D5FF196683215DA@pm9-196.his.com>
Organization: NDS
Date: Thu, 28 Oct 1999 02:05:37 -0400
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7uf9ce$t46$1@news.IAEhv.nl> <FJz6IL.1En@world.std.com> <3810D9F7.3E22D8F1@mbox301.swipnet.se> <FK4zG2.H5s@world.std.com> <381550C0.E87F9D3F@cmc.com> <3816364C.6D49CEC2@plano.net>
NNTP-Posting-Host: pm9-196.his.com
Lines: 11
X-Authenticated-User: ehrice
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!skynet.be!howland.erols.net!nntp.abs.net!remarQ-easT!remarQ.com!supernews.com!news.lightlink.com!news4.his.com!user

In article <3816364C.6D49CEC2@plano.net>,
Charles Richmond <richmond@plano.net> wrote:

 > And the Cevrolet Nova does *not* sell well in Mexico.  "No va" means
"doesn't
 > go"
 > in Spanish. 

Pure UL.  "Nova" is a fine SPanish form for "new."  

######

From: Geoff Field <geoff_field@my-deja.com>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Thu, 28 Oct 1999 03:57:22 GMT
Organization: Deja.com - Before you buy.
Lines: 36
Message-ID: <7v8hj1$33g$1@nnrp1.deja.com>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7uf9ce$t46$1@news.IAEhv.nl> <FJz6IL.1En@world.std.com> <3810D9F7.3E22D8F1@mbox301.swipnet.se> <FK4zG2.H5s@world.std.com> <381550C0.E87F9D3F@cmc.com> <3816A6CA.48E8DB2F@mbox301.swipnet.se> <7v6bq1$qt7$1@xs4.xs4all.nl>
NNTP-Posting-Host: 203.17.17.3
X-Article-Creation-Date: Thu Oct 28 03:57:22 1999 GMT
X-Http-User-Agent: Mozilla/4.6 [en] (WinNT; I)
X-Http-Proxy: 1.0 proxy.invetech.com.au:88 (Squid/1.1.22), 1.0 x37.deja.com:80 (Squid/1.1.22) for client 203.22.164.192, 203.17.17.3
X-MyDeja-Info: XMYDJUIDgeoff_field
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!newspeer.te.net!news.indigo.ie!news-out.cwix.com!newsfeed.cwix.com!news.maxwell.syr.edu!nntp2.deja.com!nnrp1.deja.com!not-for-mail

In article <7v6bq1$qt7$1@xs4.xs4all.nl>,
  mdeen@xs4.xs4all.nl (Maarten Deen) wrote:
> Ronnie Sahlberg <ronnie.sahlberg@mbox301.swipnet.se> writes:
> >Lars Poulsen wrote:
> >> Walked through an IKEA store yesterday. One piece of office
furniture
> >> was named JERKER. Wonder how well that sells ?
>
> >You think it is funny that some office furniture is named Jerker?
> >Jerker is actually an ordinary male name in sweden, I in fact have
> >a friend named Jerker.
> >Imagine if he moved to an english speaking country :-)
> >He would sure need to change his name, or be ridiculed forever.
>
> Oh, it can be worse. We used to have a guy at school who'd we
nicknamed
> 'Dik de Kok'. Imagine that name (with some 'c's added) in english
> speaking countries.
>
> Perfectly normal Dutch name though...
>
> Maarten Deen

My father, here in the magical land of Oz, played lawn bowls (regularly)
with a gentleman (of the normal Anglo-Celtic extraction for this
country) called Richard Cock, who always introduced himself as Dick.
Nice man with a good sense of humour.  Of course, with a name like that
a sense of humour is imperative...

--
Geoff Field of XXXXia
Professional geek, amateur stage-levelling gauge


Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.

######

From: friese@math.arizona.edu (John Friese)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Followup-To: alt.folklore.computers
Date: 28 Oct 1999 07:08:43 GMT
Organization: Mathematics Department, University of Arizona
Lines: 28
Message-ID: <7v8spr$8an$1@news.math.arizona.edu>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <3815C1EF.52BF@fysik.uu.se> <7v4lv7$979$1@nnrp1.deja.com> <vblR3.6064$b84.635426@ptah.visi.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: ame2.math.arizona.edu
X-Trace: news.math.arizona.edu 941094523 8535 128.196.224.60 (28 Oct 1999 07:08:43 GMT)
X-Complaints-To: usenet@math.arizona.edu
NNTP-Posting-Date: 28 Oct 1999 07:08:43 GMT
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!news.datacomm.ch!newscore.gigabell.net!newsfeed.tli.de!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!CS.Arizona.EDU!math.arizona.edu!friese

In article <vblR3.6064$b84.635426@ptah.visi.com>,
Peter Seebach <seebs@plethora.net> wrote:
>In article <7v4lv7$979$1@nnrp1.deja.com>,  <vicw@sonydnse.com> wrote:
>>In article <3815C1EF.52BF@fysik.uu.se>,
>>  Per Andersson <per.andersson@fysik.uu.se> wrote:
>>> When they name a new thing
>>> they see to that the name is not offensive in any language spoken =
>
>>The same cannot be said of all products.
>
>>Many years ago, on a trip to France, we saw advertising hoardings upon
>>which were mounted posters for a drink called "Pschitt" (Might have
>>spelt it wrong).
>
>>Our French hosts could not understand why we all burst out laughing at a
>>simple advert...
>
>Heh.  Recently, in one of the games newsgroups, I saw someone reporting on
>a game which had been translated from German.  I forget the details, but
>I think the game was something like "Stinky and Beaver's Wood Olympics", and
>it was a kid's game.
>

<insert standard spiel about Japanese soft drinks "Calpis Water"
   and "Pocari Sweat" here>.

John L. Friese
friese@math.arizona.edu

######

Message-ID: <3817E7DF.1372@fysik.uu.se>
Date: Thu, 28 Oct 1999 08:06:23 +0200
From: Per Andersson <per.andersson@fysik.uu.se>
Organization: Uppsala University
X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.04 (X11; I; OSF1 V4.0 alpha)
MIME-Version: 1.0
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7uf9ce$t46$1@news.IAEhv.nl> <FJz6IL.1En@world.std.com> <3810D9F7.3E22D8F1@mbox301.swipnet.se> <FK4zG2.H5s@world.std.com> <381550C0.E87F9D3F@cmc.com> <3816A6CA.48E8DB2F@mbox301.swipnet.se> <7v6bq1$qt7$1@xs4.xs4all.nl>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
NNTP-Posting-Host: dec22.fysik.uu.se
X-Trace: 28 Oct 1999 08:06:23 +0100, dec22.fysik.uu.se
Lines: 34
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!newsfeeds.belnet.be!news.belnet.be!newsfeed.icl.net!news.algonet.se!newsfeed1.telenordia.se!algonet!newsfeed.sunet.se!news01.sunet.se!news99.sunet.se!newsfeed.uu.se!dec22.fysik.uu.se

Maarten Deen wrote:
> 
> Ronnie Sahlberg <ronnie.sahlberg@mbox301.swipnet.se> writes:
> >Lars Poulsen wrote:
> >> Walked through an IKEA store yesterday. One piece of office furniture
> >> was named JERKER. Wonder how well that sells ?
> 
> >You think it is funny that some office furniture is named Jerker?
> >Jerker is actually an ordinary male name in sweden, I in fact have
> >a friend named Jerker.
> >Imagine if he moved to an english speaking country :-)
> >He would sure need to change his name, or be ridiculed forever.
> 
> Oh, it can be worse. We used to have a guy at school who'd we nicknamed
> 'Dik de Kok'. Imagine that name (with some 'c's added) in english
> speaking countries.
> 
> Perfectly normal Dutch name though...
> 
> Maarten Deen

Not to mention the German toothpaste kukident. The first three
letters spell the name of the male genitals in swedish and of 
course not one of the "cute" names.


/Per Andersson

-- 
___________________________________________________
Per Andersson               phone: +46 (0)18 4713624
Condensed Matter Theory          : +46 (0)709 564218
Uppsala University          email: pera@fysik.uu.se
----------------------------------------------------

######

From: Dennis Ritchie <dmr@bell-labs.com>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Thu, 28 Oct 1999 08:31:18 +0100
Organization: Bell Labs, Lucent Technologies
Lines: 15
Message-ID: <3817FBC6.4120@bell-labs.com>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <3815C1EF.52BF@fysik.uu.se> <7v4lv7$979$1@nnrp1.deja.com> <vblR3.6064$b84.635426@ptah.visi.com> <7v8spr$8an$1@news.math.arizona.edu>
Reply-To: dmr@bell-labs.com
NNTP-Posting-Host: cebu.cs.bell-labs.com
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.01 (Win95; U)
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!skynet.be!logbridge.uoregon.edu!den-news-01.qwest.net!qwest!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!news

John Friese wrote:
 ...

> <insert standard spiel about Japanese soft drinks "Calpis Water"
>    and "Pocari Sweat" here>.

I still treasure a bottle (unbroached as yet)  bought from
a vending machine in Hakone, Japan, of "Power C."

I wonder what the Japanese think about US Gatorade, which
has approximately the same ingredients and marketing thrust
as Pocari Sweat.  Their names have an equally location-special
and complicated explanation.

	Dennis

######

From: hshubs@mindspring.com (Howard S Shubs)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Thu, 28 Oct 1999 09:20:12 -0500
Organization: Denim Software
Lines: 15
Message-ID: <hshubs-2810990920120001@user-33qsdsa.dialup.mindspring.com>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7v744g$e17$1@eve.enteract.com> <01bf2097$caab07a0$e12ac222@my0250> <7v9bck$emm@news.rhrz.uni-bonn.de> <7v9ctp$15n8$1@nntp1.u.washington.edu>
NNTP-Posting-Host: c7.ae.37.8a
X-Server-Date: 28 Oct 1999 14:17:10 GMT
X-Newsreader: MT-NewsWatcher 2.4.4
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!newshunter!cosy.sbg.ac.at!newsfeed.Austria.EU.net!newscore.univie.ac.at!newsfeed1.uni2.dk!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!news.mindspring.net!firehose.mindspring.com!hshubs

In article <7v9ctp$15n8$1@nntp1.u.washington.edu>,
dpeschel@u.washington.edu (Derek Peschel) wrote:

>Tracy Kidder's _The Soul of a New Machine_ gives some non-technical insight
>into a Data General machine (not the Nova -- maybe the Eclipse?) from an
>insider's point of view.  You learn about things like writing microcode and
>wire-wrapping boards and so on. 

What strikes me about that book is how it documents a poor engineering
style.  Great book, but looking back on it, I'm not surprised the machine
came out like it did.  I've -used- a DG Eclipse MV8000, and I found it
seriously deficient compared to something like a VAX-11/780.

-- 
Howard S Shubs, the Denim Adept

######

From: jmfbahciv@aol.com
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Thu, 28 Oct 99 10:14:08 GMT
Organization: UltraNet Communications, Inc.
Lines: 52
Message-ID: <7v9fge$eic$2@autumn.news.rcn.net>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <FK4zG2.H5s@world.std.com> <381550C0.E87F9D3F@cmc.com> <3816364C.6D49CEC2@plano.net> <7v744g$e17$1@eve.enteract.com> <1zkXOOomQnv0FMl6aA2W=I6t+Abi@4ax.com> <38176AF6.4B03C30A@plano.net>
X-Trace: qxc7UBOgqy7qUR2BAopiWljjQFTnkkARF/DDrKXMRj8=
X-Complaints-To: abuse@rcn.com
NNTP-Posting-Date: 28 Oct 1999 12:27:58 GMT
X-Newsreader:  News Xpress Version 1.0 Beta #4
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!isdnet!netnews.com!feeder.qis.net!feed1.news.rcn.net!rcn!d4

In article <38176AF6.4B03C30A@plano.net>,
   Charles Richmond <richmond@plano.net> wrote:
>Luc Van der Veken wrote:
>> 
>> Eric Fischer posted:
>> > Charles Richmond  <richmond@plano.net> wrote:
>> >
>> > > And the Cevrolet Nova does *not* sell well in Mexico.  "No va" means
>> > > "doesn't go" in Spanish.
>> >
>> > According to the American Automobile Association road atlas in front
>> > of me, "Nova" is what 80-octane gasoline is called in Mexico 
(87-octane
>> > is "Magna").  So cars "don't go" with this grade of fuel?
>> 
>> "Nova" in a single (Spanish) word just means "nova" (English).
>> Would they be scared that their car might explode, taking the
>> entire solar system with it?
>>
>Well, I certainly *would* be concerned that it might explode.  I *hate* GM
>products.  Besides the fact that the '81 Olds Cutless I had cost me 
thousands
>in repair bills over its ten year life, GM does crash tests  using live 
animals
>(or did until very recently)--i.e., how hard does a live dog have to hit 
the
>steering wheel to *burst* its heart!!!
>
>Okay, so being a basically older guy, I remembered the basically older 
urban
>legend of the Nova.  But...there *really* was a VAX vacuum cleaner in 
Australia,
>and their slogan really was "Nothing sucks like a VAX".  (I think maybe 
BAH 
>might agree with this somehow.)
>
I remember the lawsuit being in England way back when.  
And, yes, I wholehearedly agreed with the slogan. :-)
It came out around the time that someone was trying to
build a system disk from a distribution magtape.  After
5 hours, the tape had been read about 1/4 of the way
and the damn installation procedure was still stuttering
over whether to write each bit or not.  We  would have had
a -10 with old hardware, old software up and running in an
hour.

/BAH


/BAH

Subtract a hundred and four for e-mail.

######

From: ignatios@cs.uni-bonn.de (Ignatios Souvatzis)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 28 Oct 1999 11:17:40 GMT
Organization: RHRZ - University of Bonn (Germany)
Lines: 9
Message-ID: <7v9bck$emm@news.rhrz.uni-bonn.de>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <FK4zG2.H5s@world.std.com>
    <381550C0.E87F9D3F@cmc.co m> <3816364C.6D49CEC2@plano.net>
    <7v744g$e17$1@eve.enteract.com> <01bf2097$caab07a0$e12ac222@my0250>
NNTP-Posting-Host: cauchy.cs.uni-bonn.de
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
X-Newsreader: knews 0.9.8
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!naxos.belnet.be!news.belnet.be!newsfeed.eurocyber.net!newsfeed.tli.de!fu-berlin.de!news.rwth-aachen.de!news.rhrz.uni-bonn.de!usenet

In article <01bf2097$caab07a0$e12ac222@my0250>,
	"Rkazas" <rkazas@hotmail.com> writes:
> Nova is not on sale anymore, just "Magna" & "Premium "

To bring this back on topic: Does anybody remember the Data General Nova?
How was it like?

	-is

######

From: dpeschel@u.washington.edu (Derek Peschel)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 28 Oct 1999 11:43:53 GMT
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle
Lines: 28
Message-ID: <7v9ctp$15n8$1@nntp1.u.washington.edu>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7v744g$e17$1@eve.enteract.com> <01bf2097$caab07a0$e12ac222@my0250> <7v9bck$emm@news.rhrz.uni-bonn.de>
NNTP-Posting-Host: saul1.u.washington.edu
X-Trace: nntp1.u.washington.edu 941111033 38632 (None) 140.142.17.35
X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu
NNTP-Posting-User: dpeschel
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!newspeer.te.net!news.indigo.ie!news-out.cwix.com!newsfeed.cwix.com!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!dpeschel

In article <7v9bck$emm@news.rhrz.uni-bonn.de>,
Ignatios Souvatzis <ignatios@cs.uni-bonn.de> wrote:
>In article <01bf2097$caab07a0$e12ac222@my0250>,
>	"Rkazas" <rkazas@hotmail.com> writes:

>> Nova is not on sale anymore, just "Magna" & "Premium "
>
>To bring this back on topic: Does anybody remember the Data General Nova?
>How was it like?

I've never used one, but I do know that it always looks to me like a piece
of stereo equipment from approximately the same era.

Tracy Kidder's _The Soul of a New Machine_ gives some non-technical insight
into a Data General machine (not the Nova -- maybe the Eclipse?) from an
insider's point of view.  You learn about things like writing microcode and
wire-wrapping boards and so on. 

For a slightly more technical insight, see these files:

ftp://ftp.digital.com/pub/DEC/sim/sources/sim_2.3d.tar.Z
ftp://ftp.digital.com/pub/DEC/sim/software/rdosswre.tar.Z

which will get you a Nova simulator and an OS to go with it.  I acutally saw
a bit of documentation for RDOS (the OS) on the Web, but I forget where. 
Unless you find any docs, though, you'll probably be rather frustrated.

-- Derek

######

From: norris@mech.eng.usyd.edu.au
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 28 Oct 1999 12:31:11 GMT
Organization: The University of Sydney, Australia
Lines: 13
Message-ID: <7v9fmf$fr6$1@metro.ucc.usyd.edu.au>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7uf9ce$t46$1@news.IAEhv.nl> <FJz6IL.1En@world.std.com> <3810D9F7.3E22D8F1@mbox301.swipnet.se> <FK4zG2.H5s@world.std.com> <381550C0.E87F9D3F@cmc.com> <3816364C.6D49CEC2@plano.net> <3816DF40.59E1B65D@trailing-edge.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: ebb.mech.eng.usyd.edu.au
X-Trace: metro.ucc.usyd.edu.au 941113871 16230 129.78.14.203 (28 Oct 1999 12:31:11 GMT)
X-Complaints-To: usenet@news.usyd.edu.au
NNTP-Posting-Date: 28 Oct 1999 12:31:11 GMT
User-Agent: tin/pre-1.4-981114 ("The Watchman") (UNIX) (Linux/2.0.30 (i586))
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!intgwpad.nntp.telstra.net!news1.optus.net.au!optus!news.usyd.edu.au!not-for-mail

Tim Shoppa <shoppa@trailing-edge.com> expounded:

: And, to top off all naming disasters, what about all the hotels
: with "Chat eau" in their names?  What self-respecting French person
: would ever stay overnight in a place called "Cat Water"??!!!

Walked past a Thai resterant called "Chat Thai" the other day, which made
me wonder about the ingredients.

-- 
Stuart Norris                                   norris@mech.eng.usyd.edu.au
Mechanical Engineering,University of Sydney,NSW 2006   wk:+(61 2) 9351-2272
http://www.maths.unsw.edu.au/~norris                   hm:+(61 2) 9326-5276

######

From: norris@mech.eng.usyd.edu.au
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 28 Oct 1999 12:33:51 GMT
Organization: The University of Sydney, Australia
Lines: 14
Message-ID: <7v9frf$fr6$2@metro.ucc.usyd.edu.au>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7uf9ce$t46$1@news.IAEhv.nl> <FJz6IL.1En@world.std.com> <3810D9F7.3E22D8F1@mbox301.swipnet.se> <FK4zG2.H5s@world.std.com> <381550C0.E87F9D3F@cmc.com> <3816A6CA.48E8DB2F@mbox301.swipnet.se> <7v6bq1$qt7$1@xs4.xs4all.nl> <7v8hj1$33g$1@nnrp1.deja.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: ebb.mech.eng.usyd.edu.au
X-Trace: metro.ucc.usyd.edu.au 941114031 16230 129.78.14.203 (28 Oct 1999 12:33:51 GMT)
X-Complaints-To: usenet@news.usyd.edu.au
NNTP-Posting-Date: 28 Oct 1999 12:33:51 GMT
User-Agent: tin/pre-1.4-981114 ("The Watchman") (UNIX) (Linux/2.0.30 (i586))
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!newscore.univie.ac.at!howland.erols.net!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!intgwpad.nntp.telstra.net!news1.optus.net.au!optus!news.usyd.edu.au!not-for-mail

Geoff Field <geoff_field@my-deja.com> expounded:

: My father, here in the magical land of Oz, played lawn bowls (regularly)
: with a gentleman (of the normal Anglo-Celtic extraction for this
: country) called Richard Cock, who always introduced himself as Dick.
: Nice man with a good sense of humour.  Of course, with a name like that
: a sense of humour is imperative...

I went to school with a Richard Head.

-- 
Stuart Norris                                   norris@mech.eng.usyd.edu.au
Mechanical Engineering,University of Sydney,NSW 2006   wk:+(61 2) 9351-2272
http://www.maths.unsw.edu.au/~norris                   hm:+(61 2) 9326-5276

######

From: dhansen@btree.com (Dave Hansen)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Organization: B-Tree Systems, Inc.
Message-ID: <381844e1.1178311322@192.168.2.34>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <3815C1EF.52BF@fysik.uu.se> <7v4lv7$979$1@nnrp1.deja.com> <vblR3.6064$b84.635426@ptah.visi.com> <7v8spr$8an$1@news.math.arizona.edu> <3817FBC6.4120@bell-labs.com>
X-Newsreader: Forte Free Agent 1.11/32.235
Lines: 23
Date: Thu, 28 Oct 1999 12:50:07 GMT
NNTP-Posting-Host: 209.32.152.113
X-Trace: newsfeed.slurp.net 941114760 209.32.152.113 (Thu, 28 Oct 1999 07:46:00 CDT)
NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 28 Oct 1999 07:46:00 CDT
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!isdnet!newsfeed.icl.net!newsfeed.slurp.net!not-for-mail

On Thu, 28 Oct 1999 08:31:18 +0100, Dennis Ritchie <dmr@bell-labs.com>
wrote:

[...]
>I still treasure a bottle (unbroached as yet)  bought from
>a vending machine in Hakone, Japan, of "Power C."

I can buy a bottle of "Power C" from the local bagel shop, though I
don't think it's the same as your Japanese product.  It's a fruit
juice product from Fantasia containing about 20 times the daily
recommended amount of vitamin C in a 16 oz. bottle.  I don't think it
has any preservatives, so I'd drain the bottle before keeping it as a
souvenir. A little less than US$3.00.

AltaVista says you can read about it at www.fantasiafresh.com, but I
keep getting error 404, hostname unknown.

Regards,

                          -=Dave
Just my (10-010) cents
I can barely speak for myself, so I certainly can't speak for B-Tree.
Change is inevitable.  Progress is not.

######

From: scottw@bmtech.co.uk_DELETE_THIS (Scott Wheeler)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Thu, 28 Oct 1999 14:19:15 GMT
Message-ID: <38185b4e.89976939@192.168.0.1>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <3815C1EF.52BF@fysik.uu.se> <7v4lv7$979$1@nnrp1.deja.com> <vblR3.6064$b84.635426@ptah.visi.com> <7v8spr$8an$1@news.math.arizona.edu> <3817FBC6.4120@bell-labs.com> <381844e1.1178311322@192.168.2.34>
NNTP-Posting-Host: bmtech.demon.co.uk
X-NNTP-Posting-Host: bmtech.demon.co.uk:158.152.102.124
X-Trace: news.demon.co.uk 941120219 nnrp-03:5944 NO-IDENT bmtech.demon.co.uk:158.152.102.124
X-Complaints-To: abuse@demon.net
X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 1.5/32.451
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Lines: 11
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!skynet.be!dispose.news.demon.net!demon!news.demon.co.uk!demon!bmtech.demon.co.uk!not-for-mail

On Thu, 28 Oct 1999 12:50:07 GMT, dhansen@btree.com (Dave Hansen)
wrote:

>containing about 20 times the daily
>recommended amount of vitamin C in a 16 oz. bottle.  I don't think it
>has any preservatives, so I'd drain the bottle before keeping it as a
>souvenir.

Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) is a preservative.
-- 
(please de-mung address if replying by email)

######

From: tjb@starbase.neosoft.com (Timothy J. Bogart)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 28 Oct 1999 14:40:15 GMT
Organization: NeoSoft, Inc. +1 713 968 5800
Lines: 22
Message-ID: <907796BD2539454B.4DFFEE653A6D0887.ADFC5432250F43A7@lp.airnews.net>
X-Orig-Message-ID: <7v9n8f$ump@library1.airnews.net>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7v6bq1$qt7$1@xs4.xs4all.nl> <7v8hj1$33g$1@nnrp1.deja.com> <7v9frf$fr6$2@metro.ucc.usyd.edu.au>
Abuse-Reports-To: abuse at airmail.net to report improper postings
NNTP-Proxy-Relay: library1.airnews.net
NNTP-Posting-Time: Thu Oct 28 09:40:15 1999
NNTP-Posting-Host: !d`NF1k-WI?^JK+ (Encoded at Airnews!)
X-Newsreader: trn 4.0-test60 (5 October 1997)
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!newspeer.te.net!news.indigo.ie!news-out.cwix.com!newsfeed.cwix.com!nntp2.giganews.com!news.airnews.net!cabal10.airnews.net!cabal1.airnews.net!news-f.iadfw.net!not-for-mail


In article <7v9frf$fr6$2@metro.ucc.usyd.edu.au>,
 <norris@mech.eng.usyd.edu.au> wrote:
>Geoff Field <geoff_field@my-deja.com> expounded:
>
>: My father, here in the magical land of Oz, played lawn bowls (regularly)
>: with a gentleman (of the normal Anglo-Celtic extraction for this
>: country) called Richard Cock, who always introduced himself as Dick.
>: Nice man with a good sense of humour.  Of course, with a name like that
>: a sense of humour is imperative...
>
>I went to school with a Richard Head.
>
>-- 
>Stuart Norris                                   norris@mech.eng.usyd.edu.au
>Mechanical Engineering,University of Sydney,NSW 2006   wk:+(61 2) 9351-2272
>http://www.maths.unsw.edu.au/~norris                   hm:+(61 2) 9326-5276

When I started at a company called McDonnell-Douglas Technical Services
Company, the phone book had a Rube Goldberg in an engineering department.

Can't remember if I ever called to see if it was true.....

######

From: fungus <spam@egg.chips.and.spam.com>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Thu, 28 Oct 1999 15:58:29 +0200
Organization: Iddeo - Retevisión
Lines: 32
Message-ID: <38185685.9FE6601A@egg.chips.and.spam.com>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7uf9ce$t46$1@news.IAEhv.nl> <FJz6IL.1En@world.std.com> <3810D9F7.3E22D8F1@mbox301.swipnet.se> <FK4zG2.H5s@world.std.com> <381550C0.E87F9D3F@cmc.com> <3816364C.6D49CEC2@plano.net> <B43D5FF196683215DA@pm9-196.his.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: 62.82.229.223
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.7 [en] (WinNT; U)
X-Accept-Language: en
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!skynet.be!newsfeed.icl.net!colt.net!Pollux.Teleglobe.net!server-b.cs.interbusiness.it!news-1.retevision.es!news.iddeo.es!not-for-mail



Edward Rice wrote:
> 
> In article <3816364C.6D49CEC2@plano.net>,
> Charles Richmond <richmond@plano.net> wrote:
> 
> > And the Cevrolet Nova does *not* sell well in Mexico. 
> > "No va" means "doesn't go" in Spanish.
> 
> Pure UL.  "Nova" is a fine SPanish form for "new."

Pure ignorance.

Speaking as somebody who only ever speaks English on Usenet
these days, I think I'm qualified to say that "Nova" isn't
in the Spanish dictionary.

Maybe you're thinking of Latin....


...and I wonder where GM got that crazy word from in the
   first place?



-- 
<\___/>
/ O O \
\_____/  FTB.

######

From: brucehoult@pobox.com (Bruce Hoult)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Thu, 28 Oct 1999 16:18:27 +1300
Organization: The Internet Group Ltd
Lines: 10
Message-ID: <brucehoult-2810991618270001@bruce.bgh>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <FK4zG2.H5s@world.std.com> <381550C0.E87F9D3F@cmc.com> <3816364C.6D49CEC2@plano.net> <7v744g$e17$1@eve.enteract.com> <1zkXOOomQnv0FMl6aA2W=I6t+Abi@4ax.com> <38176AF6.4B03C30A@plano.net>
NNTP-Posting-Host: macinnat.static.star.net.nz
X-Newsreader: MT-NewsWatcher 2.4.4
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!ihug.co.nz!brucehoult

In article <38176AF6.4B03C30A@plano.net>, richmond@plano.net wrote:

> But...there *really* was a VAX vacuum cleaner in Australia,
> and their slogan really was "Nothing sucks like a VAX".

As of a year or so ago they started selling it New Zealand as well. 
(Well, maybe longer -- it blipped on my RADAR because of the name, but I
didn't take *that* much notice...)

-- Bruce

######

From: kisrael@andante.cs.tufts.edu (Kirk Is)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 28 Oct 1999 17:35:54 GMT
Organization: Tufts University
Lines: 29
Message-ID: <7va1hq$pl7$1@news3.tufts.edu>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7v6bq1$qt7$1@xs4.xs4all.nl> <7v8hj1$33g$1@nnrp1.deja.com> <7v9frf$fr6$2@metro.ucc.usyd.edu.au> <907796BD2539454B.4DFFEE653A6D0887.ADFC5432250F43A7@lp.airnews.net>
NNTP-Posting-Host: andante.eecs.tufts.edu
X-Trace: news3.tufts.edu 941132154 26279 (None) 130.64.24.24
X-Complaints-To: news@news.tufts.edu
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2]
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!skynet.be!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!su-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!denver-news-feed1.bbnplanet.com!news.gtei.net!coop.net!world!blanket.mitre.org!news.tufts.edu!andante!kisrael

Timothy J. Bogart (tjb@starbase.neosoft.com) wrote:

> In article <7v9frf$fr6$2@metro.ucc.usyd.edu.au>,
>  <norris@mech.eng.usyd.edu.au> wrote:
> >Geoff Field <geoff_field@my-deja.com> expounded:
> >
> >: My father, here in the magical land of Oz, played lawn bowls (regularly)
> >: with a gentleman (of the normal Anglo-Celtic extraction for this
> >: country) called Richard Cock, who always introduced himself as Dick.
> >: Nice man with a good sense of humour.  Of course, with a name like that
> >: a sense of humour is imperative...
> >
> >I went to school with a Richard Head.
> >
> When I started at a company called McDonnell-Douglas Technical Services
> Company, the phone book had a Rube Goldberg in an engineering department.

> Can't remember if I ever called to see if it was true.....

Well, at the risk of devolving into one of AFU's "silly name" thread--
"Dr. Wiener", a vet, had a son whom he named "Harry".  Not "Harold", not
"Harrison", "Harry".

That's not very nice.

-- 
Kirk Israel - kisrael@cs.tufts.edu - http://www.alienbill.com
"Without music, life would be a mistake. ...I would only believe 
in a God that knew how to dance." --Friedrich Nietzsche 

######

From: Luc Van der Veken <lucvdv@null.net>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Organization: .
Message-ID: <qI8YOEoGBO8EoCQ67Bdj41O8V2Iq@4ax.com>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7uf9ce$t46$1@news.IAEhv.nl> <FJz6IL.1En@world.std.com> <3810D9F7.3E22D8F1@mbox301.swipnet.se> <FK4zG2.H5s@world.std.com> <381550C0.E87F9D3F@cmc.com> <3816364C.6D49CEC2@plano.net> <B43D5FF196683215DA@pm9-196.his.com>
X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 1.6/32.525
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Lines: 15
Date: Thu, 28 Oct 1999 20:08:49 +0200
NNTP-Posting-Host: 212.123.10.220
X-Complaints-To: abuse@pandora.be
X-Trace: afrodite.telenet-ops.be 941134181 212.123.10.220 (Thu, 28 Oct 1999 20:09:41 MET DST)
NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 28 Oct 1999 20:09:41 MET DST
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!skynet.be!newsfeeds.belnet.be!news.belnet.be!afrodite.telenet-ops.be!not-for-mail

Edward Rice posted:

> Pure UL.  "Nova" is a fine SPanish form for "new."  

Nuevo, is that pronounced as "nova"?

It isn't Italian either (nuovo), nor Portuguese (novo), and I
though in Latin it was neo.


The word "nova" comes from "new" though, I remember hearing that
an exploding star was called that because once upon a time a new
star appeared in the sky and remained there for some time: it was
one so far away that it wasn't normally visible, that went nova.

######

From: gleason@mwk.com (Lee K. Gleason)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Message-ID: <ilX53gjOogGf@mwk>
Date: 28 Oct 99 13:03:38 CST
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7uf9ce$t46$1@news.IAEhv.nl> <38185685.9FE6601A@egg.chips.and.spam.com>
Organization: M. W. Kellogg, Houston TX
Lines: 26
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!skynet.be!newsfeed.stanford.edu!paloalto-snf1.gtei.net!su-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!crtntx1-snh1.gtei.net!atl-news-feed1.bbnplanet.com!news.gtei.net!mwk!gleason

In article <38185685.9FE6601A@egg.chips.and.spam.com>, fungus <spam@egg.chips.and.spam.com> writes:
> 
> Speaking as somebody who only ever speaks English on Usenet
> these days, I think I'm qualified to say that "Nova" isn't
> in the Spanish dictionary.
> 
> Maybe you're thinking of Latin....
> 
> 
> ...and I wonder where GM got that crazy word from in the
>    first place?
> 

  I dunno about where they got that word, but I have an idea where the
other GM divisions got the names for their re-badged Novas...

Nova
Omega (Oldsmobile)
Ventura (Pontiac)
Apollo (Buick)

  1st letters spell...Nova.

Lee K. Gleason N5ZMR
Control-G Consultants
gleason@insync.net

######

From: mww@merant.com (Michael Wojcik)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 28 Oct 1999 18:56:09 GMT
Organization: MERANT Inc.
Lines: 39
Message-ID: <7va689$q82@news1.newsguy.com>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7u4bub$al2$3@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7u5mnh$fj$1@watchdragon.demon.co.uk> <7u724c$qsd$2@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7uf9ce$t46$1@news.IAEhv.nl> <7uhi23$5bt$1@autumn.news.rcn.net> <1057.967T2322T14205267cgibbs@sky.bus.com> <38163511.89E7C999@plano.net> <PXSs7Qc20D1F-pn2-DQ7fm5bE9g7T@user-2ivehs1.dialup.mindspring.com> <7v81dp$2vfi@news2.newsguy.com> <PXSs7Qc20D1F-pn2-cVKwxFxl3mZR@user-2ivei1q.dialup.mindspring.com>
Reply-To: michael.wojcik@merant.com
NNTP-Posting-Host: p-632.newsdawg.com
X-Newsreader: xrn 9.00
Originator: mww@lorelei-n
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!skynet.be!newspeer.ebone.net!psinet-eu-nl!feed.newsfeeds.com!newsfeeds.com!cyclone.pbi.net!165.113.238.17!pln-w!spln!extra.newsguy.com!newsp.newsguy.com!mww


In article <PXSs7Qc20D1F-pn2-cVKwxFxl3mZR@user-2ivei1q.dialup.mindspring.com>, jvarela@mind-spring.com (John Varela) writes:
> On Wed, 27 Oct 1999 23:21:29, mww@merant.com (Michael Wojcik) wrote:

> > Some more restrictive dictionaries (the American Heritage and the
> > Oxford American, for example) do list only the ir- form.  This
> > might be one of Noah Webster's nation-language interventions; I'm
> > not feeling sufficiently curious to look into it.

> Smaller dictionaries list fewer words.  The big Random House 
> dictionary lists unrecoverable, along with a zillion other words in 
> un-, without definition.

Presumably, "list[ing] fewer words" is the qualification that makes
a dictionary "smaller" in most cases.  (There are other options, but
this is surely the most common.)

The Oxford American also has an extensive list of un- words without
definitions.  They appear at the bottom of each relevant page in
the U section - that is, each word appears on the page where its
full citation would have occurred in alphabetical order.  There's
room for two more un- words on the unqualified-unrighteous page.
"unrecoverable" simply didn't make the cut.

ObAFC: /usr/dict/words on my Solaris 2.6 box has "irrecoverable".
It doesn't have "unrecoverable", but of course spell(1)'s built-in
prefixing algorithm handles that.


--
Michael Wojcik          	        michael.wojcik@merant.com
AAI Development, MERANT                 (block capitals are a company mandate)
Department of English, Miami University

They had forgathered enough of course in all the various times; they had
again and again, since that first night at the theatre, been face to face
over their question; but they had never been so alone together as they were
actually alone - their talk hadn't yet been so supremely for themselves.
   -- Henry James

######

From: alderson@netcom2.netcom.com (Richard M. Alderson III)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 28 Oct 1999 19:34:53 GMT
Organization: NETCOM On-line services
Lines: 34
Message-ID: <ALDERSON.99Oct28123453@netcom2.netcom.com>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7uf9ce$t46$1@news.IAEhv.nl>
	<FJz6IL.1En@world.std.com> <3810D9F7.3E22D8F1@mbox301.swipnet.se>
	<FK4zG2.H5s@world.std.com> <381550C0.E87F9D3F@cmc.com>
	<3816364C.6D49CEC2@plano.net> <B43D5FF196683215DA@pm9-196.his.com>
	<qI8YOEoGBO8EoCQ67Bdj41O8V2Iq@4ax.com>
Reply-To: alderson@netcom.com
NNTP-Posting-Host: c7.b7.09.66
X-Server-Date: 28 Oct 1999 19:30:41 GMT
In-reply-to: Luc Van der Veken's message of Thu, 28 Oct 1999 20:08:49 +0200
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!newspeer.te.net!news.indigo.ie!news-out.cwix.com!newsfeed.cwix.com!newsfeed.axxsys.net!remarQ-easT!remarQ.com!supernews.com!news.mindspring.net!newsfeed.mindspring.net!firehose.mindspring.com!nntp.ix.netcom.com!alderson

In article <qI8YOEoGBO8EoCQ67Bdj41O8V2Iq@4ax.com> Luc Van der Veken
<lucvdv@null.net> writes:

>Edward Rice posted:

>> Pure UL.  "Nova" is a fine SPanish form for "new."  

>Nuevo, is that pronounced as "nova"?

Different gender:  _nuevo_ = "new (masculine)", _nueva_ = "new (feminine)"

>It isn't Italian either (nuovo), nor Portuguese (novo), and I though in Latin
>it was neo.

Portuguese _novo_ "new (masculine)", _nova_ "new (masculine)".

Latin _novus_ "new (masculine)", _nova_ "new (feminine)".

Classical Greek _neos_ "new (masculine), _nea:_ "new (feminine)".

Proto-Indo-European *newo- "new":  In Latin, *ew > ow; in Greek, *w disappears.

In the history of Spanish, accented /o/ in non-final syllables > /we/.

I'll forego my usual a.f.c .sig...

Rich Alderson   You know the sort of thing that you can find in any dictionary
                of a strange language, and which so excites the amateur philo-
                logists, itching to derive one tongue from another that they
                know better: a word that is nearly the same in form and meaning
                as the corresponding word in English, or Latin, or Hebrew, or
                what not.
                                                --J. R. R. Tolkien,
alderson@netcom.com                               _The Notion Club Papers_

######

From: jvarela@mind-spring.com (John Varela)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 29 Oct 1999 00:03:09 GMT
Organization: MindSpring Enterprises
Lines: 16
Message-ID: <PXSs7Qc20D1F-pn2-x9SIJwFsPnpb@user-2ivei7k.dialup.mindspring.com>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <FK4zG2.H5s@world.std.com> <7v9bck$emm@news.rhrz.uni-bonn.de>
NNTP-Posting-Host: a5.f7.48.f4
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
X-Newsreader: ProNews/2 Version 1.50 Beta 1
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!newspeer.te.net!news.indigo.ie!news-out.cwix.com!newsfeed.cwix.com!newsfeed.axxsys.net!remarQ-easT!remarQ.com!supernews.com!news.mindspring.net!newsfeed.mindspring.net!firehose.mindspring.com!not-for-mail

On Thu, 28 Oct 1999 11:17:40, ignatios@cs.uni-bonn.de (Ignatios 
Souvatzis) wrote:

> In article <01bf2097$caab07a0$e12ac222@my0250>,
> 	"Rkazas" <rkazas@hotmail.com> writes:
> > Nova is not on sale anymore, just "Magna" & "Premium "
> 
> To bring this back on topic: Does anybody remember the Data General Nova?
> How was it like?

Reverting to puns:  All I know about the DG Nova is that one of our 
departments got one and they kept making bad puns on in-nova-tion.

--
John Varela
to e-mail, remove - between mind and spring

######

From: atdavie@moscow.com (Andy)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Fri, 29 Oct 1999 02:14:30 GMT
Organization: First Step Internet
Lines: 14
Message-ID: <381a0267.44444921@news.fsr.net>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7u4bub$al2$3@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7u5mnh$fj$1@watchdragon.demon.co.uk> <7u724c$qsd$2@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7uf9ce$t46$1@news.IAEhv.nl> <7uhi23$5bt$1@autumn.news.rcn.net> <1057.967T2322T14205267cgibbs@sky.bus.com> <38163511.89E7C999@plano.net> <PXSs7Qc20D1F-pn2-DQ7fm5bE9g7T@user-2ivehs1.dialup.mindspring.com> <7v81dp$2vfi@news2.newsguy.com>
Reply-To: atdavie@moscow.com
NNTP-Posting-Host: pppl104.moscow.com
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 1.5/32.452
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!skynet.be!hermes.visi.com!news-out.visi.com!feeder.qis.net!nntp.abs.net!attmtf!attbt1!ip.att.net!news.fsr.net!not-for-mail

On 27 Oct 1999 23:21:29 GMT, mww@merant.com (Michael Wojcik) wrote:

>Some more restrictive dictionaries (the American Heritage and the
>Oxford American, for example) do list only the ir- form.  This
>might be one of Noah Webster's nation-language interventions; I'm
>not feeling sufficiently curious to look into it.

Language is a constantly evolving entity. If a "nonexistant" word is
used often enough by users, it is a legit word. Several examples of
words that didn't exist 100 years ago but are commonplace now can be
listed. Other words, such as "computer", change their meaning over
time.

andy

######

From: johnb@invision.co.uk (John Birch)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Fri, 29 Oct 1999 08:42:16 GMT
Organization: Cable Internet (post doesn't reflect views of Cable Internet)
Lines: 19
Message-ID: <38195dc1.2357449@news.i12.com>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7uf9ce$t46$1@news.IAEhv.nl> <FJz6IL.1En@world.std.com> <3810D9F7.3E22D8F1@mbox301.swipnet.se> <FK4zG2.H5s@world.std.com> <381550C0.E87F9D3F@cmc.com> <3816A6CA.48E8DB2F@mbox301.swipnet.se> <7v6bq1$qt7$1@xs4.xs4all.nl> <7v8hj1$33g$1@nnrp1.deja.com> <7v9frf$fr6$2@metro.ucc.usyd.edu.au>
Reply-To: johnb<nospam>@invision.co.uk
NNTP-Posting-Host: news2.cluster1.telinco.net
X-Trace: news1.cableinet.co.uk 941186737 25362 212.1.128.155 (29 Oct 1999 08:45:37 GMT)
X-Complaints-To: abuse@cableinet.net
NNTP-Posting-Date: 29 Oct 1999 08:45:37 GMT
X-Newsreader: Forte Free Agent 1.11/32.235
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!skynet.be!diablo.theplanet.net!news5.cableinet.net!cableinet-uk!news1.cableinet.co.uk!news2.cluster1.telinco.net!ppp-1-155.cvx1.telinco.net

On 28 Oct 1999 12:33:51 GMT, norris@mech.eng.usyd.edu.au wrote:

>Geoff Field <geoff_field@my-deja.com> expounded:
>
>: My father, here in the magical land of Oz, played lawn bowls (regularly)
>: with a gentleman (of the normal Anglo-Celtic extraction for this
>: country) called Richard Cock, who always introduced himself as Dick.
>: Nice man with a good sense of humour.  Of course, with a name like that
>: a sense of humour is imperative...

>I went to school with a Richard Head.

My first trainee was called Justin Sunshine.

He was never late ;-)


regards John B.

######

From: Donald Fisk <donald.fisk@inthan.be>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Fri, 29 Oct 1999 12:12:10 +0200
Organization: IH_B
Lines: 42
Message-ID: <381972FA.B075DA23@inthan.be>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7uf9ce$t46$1@news.IAEhv.nl> <FJz6IL.1En@world.std.com> <3810D9F7.3E22D8F1@mbox301.swipnet.se> <FK4zG2.H5s@world.std.com> <381550C0.E87F9D3F@cmc.com> <3816364C.6D49CEC2@plano.net> <3816DF40.59E1B65D@trailing-edge.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: mail.inthan.be
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.6 [en] (WinNT; I)
X-Accept-Language: en
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!newshunter!cosy.sbg.ac.at!newsfeed.Austria.EU.net!EU.net!news0.Belgium.EU.net!newsr.Belgium.EU.net!master.inthan.be!nobody



Tim Shoppa wrote:
> 
> Charles Richmond wrote:
> >
> > Lars Poulsen wrote:
> > >
> > > Brian Chase wrote:
> > > > Sure... maybe they mean something in Swedish, but I've got a feeling that
> > > > the IKEA name of my nifty shelving unit here translates to something like
> > > > 'vegetable peeler' or 'small burrowing hairless goat' in English.
> > >
> > > Walked through an IKEA store yesterday. One piece of office furniture
> > > was named JERKER. Wonder how well that sells ?
> > >
> > And the Cevrolet Nova does *not* sell well in Mexico.  "No va" means "doesn't go"
> > in Spanish.

Urban Legend.

> And, to top off all naming disasters, what about all the hotels
> with "Chat eau" in their names?  What self-respecting French person
> would ever stay overnight in a place called "Cat Water"??!!!

And who would want to stay in a Bad Hotel when they go to Germany?

There's the Toyota MR2 (em-er-deux sounds like French for 'shite')
and More cigarettes (sounds like French for Death).

Then (back on topic) there's the Commodore PET -- French for
fart.

> Tim.

Le Hibou (ma propre opinion)

-- 
"                      |
            Ceci n'est pas une pipe.
"
                            -- Daniel B. Case.

######

From: brucehoult@pobox.com (Bruce Hoult)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Sat, 30 Oct 1999 01:36:41 +1300
Organization: The Internet Group Ltd
Lines: 20
Message-ID: <brucehoult-3010990136410001@bruce.bgh>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7uf9ce$t46$1@news.IAEhv.nl> <FJz6IL.1En@world.std.com> <3810D9F7.3E22D8F1@mbox301.swipnet.se> <FK4zG2.H5s@world.std.com> <381550C0.E87F9D3F@cmc.com> <3816364C.6D49CEC2@plano.net> <3816DF40.59E1B65D@trailing-edge.com> <381972FA.B075DA23@inthan.be>
NNTP-Posting-Host: macinnat.static.star.net.nz
X-Newsreader: MT-NewsWatcher 2.4.4
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news-fra1.dfn.de!news-fra.pop.de!newsfeed.tli.de!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!ihug.co.nz!brucehoult

In article <381972FA.B075DA23@inthan.be>, Donald Fisk
<donald.fisk@inthan.be> wrote:

> > And, to top off all naming disasters, what about all the hotels
> > with "Chat eau" in their names?  What self-respecting French person
> > would ever stay overnight in a place called "Cat Water"??!!!
> 
> And who would want to stay in a Bad Hotel when they go to Germany?
> 
> There's the Toyota MR2 (em-er-deux sounds like French for 'shite')
> and More cigarettes (sounds like French for Death).
> 
> Then (back on topic) there's the Commodore PET -- French for
> fart.

I expect that the sailplanes made by Herr Burkhart Grob are less popular
in Russia than they are in Europe, the USA and down under.  "Grob" is
Russian for "coffin".

-- Bruce

######

Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!usenet
From: Neil Franklin <neil@franklin.ch.remove>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 29 Oct 1999 21:50:45 +0200
Organization: My own Private Self
Lines: 19
Sender: neil@chonsp.franklin.ch
Message-ID: <6uemee2bfu.fsf@chonsp.franklin.ch>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7uf9ce$t46$1@news.IAEhv.nl>
        <FJz6IL.1En@world.std.com> <3810D9F7.3E22D8F1@mbox301.swipnet.se>
        <FK4zG2.H5s@world.std.com> <381550C0.E87F9D3F@cmc.com>
        <3816364C.6D49CEC2@plano.net> <3816DF40.59E1B65D@trailing-edge.com>
        <381972FA.B075DA23@inthan.be> <brucehoult-3010990136410001@bruce.bgh>
X-Newsreader: Gnus v5.3/Emacs 19.34

brucehoult@pobox.com (Bruce Hoult) writes:
>
> In article <381972FA.B075DA23@inthan.be>, Donald Fisk
> <donald.fisk@inthan.be> wrote:
> >
> > Then (back on topic) there's the Commodore PET -- French for
> > fart.
>
> I expect that the sailplanes made by Herr Burkhart Grob are less popular
> in Russia than they are in Europe, the USA and down under.  "Grob" is
> Russian for "coffin".

About the same amount as Linotype-Hell typesetters among christians.

(Hey, partially on topic, typesetters have computers in them)


--
Neil Franklin, neil@franklin.ch.remove http://neil.franklin.ch/

######

From: Matt Curtin <cmcurtin@interhack.net>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 29 Oct 1999 15:38:58 -0400
Organization: The Ohio State University Dept. of Computer and Info. Science
Lines: 23
Message-ID: <xlxpuxydkj1.fsf@gold.cis.ohio-state.edu>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7uf9ce$t46$1@news.IAEhv.nl> <FJz6IL.1En@world.std.com> <3810D9F7.3E22D8F1@mbox301.swipnet.se> <FK4zG2.H5s@world.std.com> <381550C0.E87F9D3F@cmc.com> <3816364C.6D49CEC2@plano.net> <B43D5FF196683215DA@pm9-196.his.com> <qI8YOEoGBO8EoCQ67Bdj41O8V2Iq@4ax.com> <ALDERSON.99Oct28123453@netcom2.netcom.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: gold.cis.ohio-state.edu
X-Face: L"IcL.b%SDN]0Kql2b`e.}+i05V9fi\yX#H1+Xl)3!+n/3?5`%-SA-HDg<IT;O8XnF>Pk9uTk<3dv^J5DCgal)-E{`zN#*o6F|y>r)\<<ui53(fC)EM]42*oF|P@Hm"Z+GK%"b#q'ycf=2s5%NNR0S;8"vcNN"O;O}YpB{&^1xazqDMg^v!6LS7S"5|}2uTl$NKV5}Bkca{M|Y^cZD@{1
X-Accept-Language: en-US,en,ru,de
X-Newsreader: Gnus v5.6.45/XEmacs 21.1 - "20 Minutes to Nikko"
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news-fra1.dfn.de!news0.de.colt.net!colt.net!news.maxwell.syr.edu!news.cis.ohio-state.edu!not-for-mail

>>>>> On 28 Oct 1999 19:34:53 GMT,
    alderson@netcom2.netcom.com (Richard M. Alderson III) said:

Richard> Different gender: _nuevo_ = "new (masculine)", _nueva_ = "new
Richard> (feminine)"

Richard> Portuguese _novo_ "new (masculine)", _nova_ "new
Richard> (masculine)".

Richard> Latin _novus_ "new (masculine)", _nova_ "new (feminine)".

Richard> Classical Greek _neos_ "new (masculine), _nea:_ "new
Richard> (feminine)".

Richard> Proto-Indo-European *newo- "new": In Latin, *ew > ow; in
Richard> Greek, *w disappears.

And now for something completely different. Russian.

_novi_ "new (masculine)", _novaya_ "new (feminine)".

-- 
Matt Curtin cmcurtin@interhack.net http://www.interhack.net/people/cmcurtin/

######

From: Matt Curtin <cmcurtin@interhack.net>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 29 Oct 1999 15:40:48 -0400
Organization: The Ohio State University Dept. of Computer and Info. Science
Lines: 12
Message-ID: <xlxn1t2dkfz.fsf@gold.cis.ohio-state.edu>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <3815C1EF.52BF@fysik.uu.se> <7v4lv7$979$1@nnrp1.deja.com> <vblR3.6064$b84.635426@ptah.visi.com> <7v8spr$8an$1@news.math.arizona.edu> <3817FBC6.4120@bell-labs.com> <381844e1.1178311322@192.168.2.34>
NNTP-Posting-Host: gold.cis.ohio-state.edu
X-Face: L"IcL.b%SDN]0Kql2b`e.}+i05V9fi\yX#H1+Xl)3!+n/3?5`%-SA-HDg<IT;O8XnF>Pk9uTk<3dv^J5DCgal)-E{`zN#*o6F|y>r)\<<ui53(fC)EM]42*oF|P@Hm"Z+GK%"b#q'ycf=2s5%NNR0S;8"vcNN"O;O}YpB{&^1xazqDMg^v!6LS7S"5|}2uTl$NKV5}Bkca{M|Y^cZD@{1
X-Accept-Language: en-US,en,ru,de
X-Newsreader: Gnus v5.6.45/XEmacs 21.1 - "20 Minutes to Nikko"
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!newspeer.te.net!news.indigo.ie!news-out.cwix.com!newsfeed.cwix.com!news.compuserve.com!news-master.compuserve.com!news.cis.ohio-state.edu!not-for-mail

>>>>> On Thu, 28 Oct 1999 12:50:07 GMT, dhansen@btree.com (Dave Hansen) said:

Dave> AltaVista says you can read about it at www.fantasiafresh.com,
Dave> but I keep getting error 404, hostname unknown.

\begin{pedantic}
404 is HTTP for "not found".  If the host couldn't be found, one
wouldn't get so far.
\end{pedantic}

-- 
Matt Curtin cmcurtin@interhack.net http://www.interhack.net/people/cmcurtin/

######

From: nobody@star.East.Sun.COM (Andrew W. Rogers)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 29 Oct 1999 18:44:09 GMT
Organization: Sun Microsystems Inc. - BDC
Message-ID: <7vcptp$6ul$1@eastnews1.east.sun.com>
References: <38176AF6.4B03C30A@plano.net> <7v9fge$eic$2@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7vcnsb$k74$1@polo.demon.co.uk>
NNTP-Posting-Host: star.east.sun.com
Lines: 9
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!uunet!ams.uu.net!grolier!dispose.news.demon.net!demon!newsfeed.icl.net!newsfeed.icl.net!easynet-tele!easynet.net!btnet-feed2!btnet!carbon.eu.sun.com!new-usenet.uk.sun.com!eastnews1.east.sun.com!star!nobody

In article <7vcnsb$k74$1@polo.demon.co.uk> john@polo.demon.co.uk (John Winters) writes:
>>>and their slogan really was "Nothing sucks like a VAX".

>There really is a vacuum cleaner called a VAX in England - I've got
>one.  It's much newer than the computer though.

It was briefly marketed in the US as well.  I still have mine.

Andrew

######

From: john@polo.demon.co.uk (John Winters)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 29 Oct 1999 19:09:15 +0100
Organization: The Linux Emporium
Message-ID: <7vcnsb$k74$1@polo.demon.co.uk>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <1zkXOOomQnv0FMl6aA2W=I6t+Abi@4ax.com> <38176AF6.4B03C30A@plano.net> <7v9fge$eic$2@autumn.news.rcn.net>
NNTP-Posting-Host: unseen.linuxemporium.co.uk
X-NNTP-Posting-Host: unseen.linuxemporium.co.uk:194.70.1.33
X-Trace: news.demon.co.uk 941221064 nnrp-14:23361 NO-IDENT unseen.linuxemporium.co.uk:194.70.1.33
X-Complaints-To: abuse@demon.net
Lines: 24
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!newspeer.te.net!news.indigo.ie!news-out.cwix.com!newsfeed.cwix.com!newshub.northeast.verio.net!feeder.qis.net!dispose.news.demon.net!demon!news.demon.co.uk!demon!unseen.linuxemporium.co.uk!polo.demon.co.uk!not-for-mail

In article <7v9fge$eic$2@autumn.news.rcn.net>,  <jmfbahciv@aol.com> wrote:
>In article <38176AF6.4B03C30A@plano.net>,
>   Charles Richmond <richmond@plano.net> wrote:
[snip]
>>Okay, so being a basically older guy, I remembered the basically older 
>urban
>>legend of the Nova.  But...there *really* was a VAX vacuum cleaner in 
>Australia,
>>and their slogan really was "Nothing sucks like a VAX".  (I think maybe 
>BAH 
>>might agree with this somehow.)
>>
>I remember the lawsuit being in England way back when.  
>And, yes, I wholehearedly agreed with the slogan. :-)

There really is a vacuum cleaner called a VAX in England - I've got
one.  It's much newer than the computer though.

John
-- 
John Winters.  Wallingford, Oxon, England.

The Linux Emporium - a source for Linux CDs in the UK
See http://www.linuxemporium.co.uk/

######

From: dhansen@btree.com (Dave Hansen)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Organization: B-Tree Systems, Inc.
Message-ID: <381a02fc.1292514697@192.168.2.34>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <3815C1EF.52BF@fysik.uu.se> <7v4lv7$979$1@nnrp1.deja.com> <vblR3.6064$b84.635426@ptah.visi.com> <7v8spr$8an$1@news.math.arizona.edu> <3817FBC6.4120@bell-labs.com> <381844e1.1178311322@192.168.2.34> <xlxn1t2dkfz.fsf@gold.cis.ohio-state.edu>
X-Newsreader: Forte Free Agent 1.11/32.235
Lines: 22
Date: Fri, 29 Oct 1999 20:27:56 GMT
NNTP-Posting-Host: 209.32.152.113
X-Trace: newsfeed.slurp.net 941228618 209.32.152.113 (Fri, 29 Oct 1999 15:23:38 CDT)
NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 29 Oct 1999 15:23:38 CDT
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!newspeer.te.net!news.indigo.ie!news-out.cwix.com!newsfeed.cwix.com!logbridge.uoregon.edu!den-news-01.qwest.net!qwest!newsfeed.slurp.net!not-for-mail

On 29 Oct 1999 15:40:48 -0400, Matt Curtin <cmcurtin@interhack.net>
wrote:

>>>>>> On Thu, 28 Oct 1999 12:50:07 GMT, dhansen@btree.com (Dave Hansen) said:
>
>Dave> AltaVista says you can read about it at www.fantasiafresh.com,
>Dave> but I keep getting error 404, hostname unknown.
>
>\begin{pedantic}
>404 is HTTP for "not found".  If the host couldn't be found, one
>wouldn't get so far.
>\end{pedantic}
>

The error message is from our firewall.

Regards,

                          -=Dave
Just my (10-010) cents
I can barely speak for myself, so I certainly can't speak for B-Tree.
Change is inevitable.  Progress is not.

######

From: dhansen@btree.com (Dave Hansen)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Organization: B-Tree Systems, Inc.
Message-ID: <381a2437.1301020979@192.168.2.34>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7uf9ce$t46$1@news.IAEhv.nl> <FJz6IL.1En@world.std.com> <3810D9F7.3E22D8F1@mbox301.swipnet.se> <FK4zG2.H5s@world.std.com> <381550C0.E87F9D3F@cmc.com> <3816364C.6D49CEC2@plano.net> <3816DF40.59E1B65D@trailing-edge.com> <381972FA.B075DA23@inthan.be> <brucehoult-3010990136410001@bruce.bgh> <6uemee2bfu.fsf@chonsp.franklin.ch>
X-Newsreader: Forte Free Agent 1.11/32.235
Lines: 15
Date: Fri, 29 Oct 1999 22:54:46 GMT
NNTP-Posting-Host: 209.32.152.113
X-Trace: newsfeed.slurp.net 941237428 209.32.152.113 (Fri, 29 Oct 1999 17:50:28 CDT)
NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 29 Oct 1999 17:50:28 CDT
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!uunet!ams.uu.net!grolier!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newsfeed.slurp.net!not-for-mail

On 29 Oct 1999 21:50:45 +0200, Neil Franklin <neil@franklin.ch.remove>
wrote:

[...]
>About the same amount as Linotype-Hell typesetters among christians.

Parker-Hannifin has a division in Switzerland called Lucifer.  They
make industrial valves and regulators. http://www.parker.com/lucifer/

Regards,

                          -=Dave
Just my (10-010) cents
I can barely speak for myself, so I certainly can't speak for B-Tree.
Change is inevitable.  Progress is not.

######

From: Charles Richmond <richmond@plano.net>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Sat, 30 Oct 1999 00:56:59 +0000
Organization: Cannine Computer Center
Lines: 53
Message-ID: <381A425B.67A97D6D@plano.net>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <FK4zG2.H5s@world.std.com> <381550C0.E87F9D3F@cmc.com> <3816364C.6D49CEC2@plano.net> <7v744g$e17$1@eve.enteract.com> <1zkXOOomQnv0FMl6aA2W=I6t+Abi@4ax.com> <38176AF6.4B03C30A@plano.net> <7v9fge$eic$2@autumn.news.rcn.net>
Reply-To: richmond@plano.net
X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.03 (Macintosh; I; 68K)
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!newspeer.te.net!news.indigo.ie!news-out.cwix.com!newsfeed.cwix.com!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!remarQ73!rQdQ!supernews.com!remarQ.com!corp.supernews.com!not-for-mail

jmfbahciv@aol.com wrote:
>
>      [snip...]     [snip...]     [snip...]
> I remember the lawsuit being in England way back when.
> And, yes, I wholehearedly agreed with the slogan. :-)
> It came out around the time that someone was trying to
> build a system disk from a distribution magtape.  After
> 5 hours, the tape had been read about 1/4 of the way
> and the damn installation procedure was still stuttering
> over whether to write each bit or not.  We  would have had
> a -10 with old hardware, old software up and running in an
> hour.
> 
> /BAH
Okay, here is the Jargon file entry for VAX:

VAX /vaks/ n.  1. [from Virtual Address eXtension] The
   most successful minicomputer design in industry history, possibly
   excepting its immediate ancestor, the PDP-11.  Between its release
   in 1978 and its eclipse by {killer micro}s after about 1986, the
   VAX was probably the hacker's favorite machine of them all, esp.
   after the 1982 release of 4.2 BSD UNIX (see {BSD}).  Esp.
   noted for its large, assembler-programmer-friendly instruction set
   -- an asset that became a liability after the RISC revolution.
   2. A major brand of vacuum cleaner in Britain.  Cited here because
   its alleged sales pitch, "Nothing sucks like a VAX!" became a
   sort of battle-cry of RISC partisans.  It is even sometimes claimed
   that DEC actually entered a cross-licensing deal with the
   vacuum-Vax people that allowed them to market VAX computers in the
   U.K. in return for not challenging the vacuum cleaner trademark in
   the U.S.

   It is sometimes claimed that this slogan was *not* actually
   used by the Vax vacuum-cleaner people, but was actually that of a
   rival brand called Electrolux (as in "Nothing sucks
   like...").  It has been reliably confirmed that Electrolux (a
   Swedish company) actually did use this slogan in the late 1960s; it
   has apparently become a classic example (used in textbooks) of the
   perils of not knowing the local idiom.

   It appears, however, that the Vax people thought the slogan a
   sufficiently good idea to copy it.  Several British hackers report
   that their promotions used it in 1986--1987, and we have one report
   from a New Zealander that the infamous slogan surfaced there in TV
   ads for the product as recently as 1992!

However, I am sure that I first heard this on <a.f.c> around 1990.  I
believe that I have seen a magazine add with the slogan on it at one
time, but can *not* find it now.

+-------------------------------------------------------------+
|     Charles and Francis Richmond     <richmond@plano.net>   |
+-------------------------------------------------------------+

######

From: Charles Richmond <richmond@plano.net>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Sat, 30 Oct 1999 01:02:39 +0000
Organization: Cannine Computer Center
Lines: 20
Message-ID: <381A43AF.7E788970@plano.net>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <FK4zG2.H5s@world.std.com>  	    <381550C0.E87F9D3F@cmc.co m> <3816364C.6D49CEC2@plano.net>  	    <7v744g$e17$1@eve.enteract.com> <01bf2097$caab07a0$e12ac222@my0250> <7v9bck$emm@news.rhrz.uni-bonn.de>
Reply-To: richmond@plano.net
X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.03 (Macintosh; I; 68K)
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!newscore.univie.ac.at!howland.erols.net!newsswitch.lcs.mit.edu!remarQ-easT!rQdQ!supernews.com!remarQ.com!corp.supernews.com!not-for-mail

Ignatios Souvatzis wrote:
> 
> To bring this back on topic: Does anybody remember the Data General Nova?
> How was it like?
> 
My understanding is that the NOVA was a design done by Ed deCastro, originally
for DEC.  It was to be the follow on for the PDP-8, which he supposedly also
had a hand in designing.  The NOVA was a 16-bit minicomputer that did *not*
directly support a hardware stack...the PDP-11 did and that design was used
by DEC.  deCastro was ticked and founded Data General to build the NOVA.  At
least that's the way I heard it.

Data General now builds a UNIX workstation called an AViiON.  If you knock the
i's out, it is NOVA spelled backwards.  (The way the name appears on the box is
with small i's.)

-- 
+-------------------------------------------------------------+
|     Charles and Francis Richmond     <richmond@plano.net>   |
+-------------------------------------------------------------+

######

From: Luis Fernandes <elf@ee.ryerson.ca>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 30 Oct 1999 10:38:39 -0500
Organization: Ryerson Polytechnic University
Lines: 13
Sender: elf@genesis
Message-ID: <x0yackuadc.fsf@ee.ryerson.ca>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <FK4zG2.H5s@world.std.com> <381550C0.E87F9D3F@cmc.com> <3816364C.6D49CEC2@plano.net> <7v744g$e17$1@eve.enteract.com> <01bf2097$caab07a0$e12ac222@my0250> <7v7lgj$d03$1@tikehau.netreach.net>
NNTP-Posting-Host: sulfur.ee.ryerson.ca
X-Newsreader: Gnus v5.6.42/Emacs 19.34
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!newspeer.te.net!news.indigo.ie!news-out.cwix.com!newsfeed.cwix.com!torn!news.ryerson.ca!not-for-mail


    foxcomltd> ...  And doesn't Kentucky Fried Chicken's slogan
    foxcomltd> translate into something vulgar in Swedish or
    foxcomltd> Norwegian?

(This must be a.f.c, or why would be discussing this?) 

Along the same lines, after returning from a recent (5 Msec [1]) trip
to Beijing, my colleague noted that the statue of the late Colonel at
the KFC there, had a remarkable likeness to the late Chairman Mao.

[1] After V.V.'s _Deepness in the Sky_, you'll begin measuring time
like this too.

######

From: brucehoult@pobox.com (Bruce Hoult)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Sat, 30 Oct 1999 15:25:26 +1300
Organization: The Internet Group Ltd
Lines: 12
Message-ID: <brucehoult-3010991525260001@bruce.bgh>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7uf9ce$t46$1@news.IAEhv.nl> <FJz6IL.1En@world.std.com> <3810D9F7.3E22D8F1@mbox301.swipnet.se> <FK4zG2.H5s@world.std.com> <381550C0.E87F9D3F@cmc.com> <3816364C.6D49CEC2@plano.net> <3816DF40.59E1B65D@trailing-edge.com> <381972FA.B075DA23@inthan.be> <brucehoult-3010990136410001@bruce.bgh> <6uemee2bfu.fsf@chonsp.franklin.ch>
NNTP-Posting-Host: macinnat.static.star.net.nz
X-Newsreader: MT-NewsWatcher 2.4.4
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!ihug.co.nz!brucehoult

In article <6uemee2bfu.fsf@chonsp.franklin.ch>, Neil Franklin
<neil@franklin.ch.remove> wrote:

> > I expect that the sailplanes made by Herr Burkhart Grob are less popular
> > in Russia than they are in Europe, the USA and down under.  "Grob" is
> > Russian for "coffin".
> 
> About the same amount as Linotype-Hell typesetters among christians.

They're all called "Heidelberg" now anyway...

-- Bruce

######

From: andrew@cucumber.demon.co.uk (Andrew Gabriel)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments
Date: 30 Oct 1999 16:57:10 GMT
Organization: home
Message-ID: <7vf816$12e@cucumber.demon.co.uk>
NNTP-Posting-Host: cucumber
X-NNTP-Posting-Host: cucumber.demon.co.uk:158.152.58.86
X-Trace: news.demon.co.uk 941309084 nnrp-13:28093 NO-IDENT cucumber.demon.co.uk:158.152.58.86
X-Complaints-To: abuse@demon.net
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
X-Newsreader: knews 0.9.6
Lines: 23
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!newspeer.te.net!news.indigo.ie!diablo.theplanet.net!colt.net!dispose.news.demon.net!demon!news.demon.co.uk!demon!cucumber.demon.co.uk!usenet

A few of the amusing comments which have stuck in my mind over
the years:

Found in a lineprinter driver...

     goto jail;  // Do not pass go. Do not collect £200.

Found in an editor, written in a language which doesn't support
recursion so you have implement your own stack if you need to
recurse, which this code did...

     // Now we recurse (i.e. curse and curse again)

In a pipe driver, when it finds an internal consistency failure
and attempts to recover enough to inform the processes using it
of a system failure (written by yours truly)...

     call plumber  // Well, what would you do if a pipe broke?

-- 
Andrew Gabriel
Consultant Software Engineer

######

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: ehrice@his.com (Edward Rice)
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Message-ID: <B441367D9668118FF99@0.0.0.0>
Organization: NDS
Date: Sat, 30 Oct 1999 23:57:49 -0400
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7uf9ce$t46$1@news.IAEhv.nl> <FJz6IL.1En@world.std.com> <3810D9F7.3E22D8F1@mbox301.swipnet.se> <FK4zG2.H5s@world.std.com> <381550C0.E87F9D3F@cmc.com> <3816364C.6D49CEC2@plano.net> <B43D5FF196683215DA@pm9-196.his.com> <38185685.9FE6601A@egg.chips.and.spam.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: pm9-194.his.com
Lines: 11
X-Authenticated-User: ehrice
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!newsfeeds.belnet.be!news.belnet.be!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!news.idt.net!kiowa!news4.his.com!user

In article <38185685.9FE6601A@egg.chips.and.spam.com>,
fungus <spam@egg.chips.and.spam.com> wrote:

 > > Pure UL.  "Nova" is a fine SPanish form for "new."
 > 
 > Pure ignorance.
 
Pure confusion -- Latin and Portuguese.  I actually did once study Spanish
for a year, and nuevo/a was probably on the first page of the book.  Sorry.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: ehrice@his.com (Edward Rice)
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Message-ID: <B441367D9668118FF99@0.0.0.0>
Organization: NDS
Date: Sat, 30 Oct 1999 23:57:49 -0400
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7uf9ce$t46$1@news.IAEhv.nl> <FJz6IL.1En@world.std.com> <3810D9F7.3E22D8F1@mbox301.swipnet.se> <FK4zG2.H5s@world.std.com> <381550C0.E87F9D3F@cmc.com> <3816364C.6D49CEC2@plano.net> <B43D5FF196683215DA@pm9-196.his.com> <38185685.9FE6601A@egg.chips.and.spam.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: pm9-194.his.com
Lines: 11
X-Authenticated-User: ehrice
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!newsfeeds.belnet.be!news.belnet.be!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!news.idt.net!kiowa!news4.his.com!user

In article <38185685.9FE6601A@egg.chips.and.spam.com>,
fungus <spam@egg.chips.and.spam.com> wrote:

 > > Pure UL.  "Nova" is a fine SPanish form for "new."
 > 
 > Pure ignorance.
 
Pure confusion -- Latin and Portuguese.  I actually did once study Spanish
for a year, and nuevo/a was probably on the first page of the book.  Sorry.

######

From: jsavard@ecn.ab.ca ()
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 31 Oct 99 07:57:42 GMT
Organization: Edmonton Community Network
Lines: 38
Message-ID: <381bf676.0@ecn.ab.ca>
References: <xkn66zz692j.fsf@tahkokari.cs.Helsinki.FI> <19991022162130.08884.00000034@ngol01.aol.com> <38112cb0.37972192@news.shuswap.net>
NNTP-Posting-Host: freenet.edmonton.ab.ca
X-Trace: news.sas.ab.ca 941356717 18622 198.161.206.2 (31 Oct 1999 07:58:37 GMT)
X-Complaints-To: news@sas.ab.ca
NNTP-Posting-Date: 31 Oct 1999 07:58:37 GMT
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2.6]
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!enews.sgi.com!paloalto-snf1.gtei.net!su-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.gtei.net!newsfeed.direct.ca!cyclone.bc.net!rover.ucs.ualberta.ca!sas.ab.ca!ecn.ab.ca!jsavard

Gene Wirchenko (genew@shuswap.net) wrote:
: autismuk@aol.com (AutismUK) wrote:
: >Brian Chase 

: >>I think Sweden's IKEA, or at least their U.S. division of the
: >>company has cornered the market on coming up with silly nonsense
: >>words to describe things.  I'm going to start using IKEA furniture
: >>names for all my variables.

In Canada, they also use Swedish personal names as the brand names for
most of their articles of furniture, but occasionally they use a relevant
word instead (they might call an executive chair DIREKTOR).

I think it is just so that they can have a trademark for every item
without wasting effort, so I don't condemn them for it, even if it appears
amusing.

: >I think Micro$oft already does this. It calls things lplplpszName
: >(is this Gaelic ?). 

:      Hungarian and an illiterate form of one dislect at that.

: >And the sentence "If you were happy running
: >Windows 3.1 on your 386 PC you'll be happy with Windows 95"
: >must have been written in some alien language ; it can't be
: >english.

:      The sentence makes perfect sense to me.  I thought Windows 3.1
: was way too slow to be useful on a 386.

Windows 3.1 is useful on a 386/SX with only 2 Megabytes of RAM, provided
one only runs applications of modest size, and does not have too many
windows open at once. Programmers' File Editor, Castle of the Winds, and
many other programs run quite nicely.

Windows 95, on the other hand, requires somewhat more RAM to be useful.

John Savard

######

From: jsavard@ecn.ab.ca ()
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 31 Oct 99 08:02:39 GMT
Organization: Edmonton Community Network
Lines: 11
Message-ID: <381bf79f.0@ecn.ab.ca>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7u4bub$al2$3@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7u5mnh$fj$1@watchdragon.demon.co.uk> <7u724c$qsd$2@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7uf9ce$t46$1@news.IAEhv.nl> <7uhi23$5bt$1@autumn.news.rcn.net> <1057.967T2322T14205267cgibbs@sky.bus.com> <38163511.89E7C999@plano.net> <7v6lju$m7a$5@autumn.news.rcn.net>
NNTP-Posting-Host: freenet.edmonton.ab.ca
X-Trace: news.sas.ab.ca 941357015 19246 198.161.206.2 (31 Oct 1999 08:03:35 GMT)
X-Complaints-To: news@sas.ab.ca
NNTP-Posting-Date: 31 Oct 1999 08:03:35 GMT
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2.6]
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!news.datacomm.ch!newscore.gigabell.net!newsfeed.germany.net!newsfeed.nyu.edu!newsfeed.direct.ca!cyclone.bc.net!rover.ucs.ualberta.ca!sas.ab.ca!ecn.ab.ca!jsavard

jmfbahciv@aol.com wrote:
: Why do you think DEC spelled disk with a k instead of c?
: IBM spelled it with a c.  We had to be different.  That's
: what I was told, anyway.  

Disc is the British spelling; disk is the American spelling.

I suppose IBM used "disc" for the same reason that it was used in the
Compact Disc - to reach the international market.

John Savard

#####

From: jsavard@ecn.ab.ca ()
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 31 Oct 99 08:08:05 GMT
Organization: Edmonton Community Network
Lines: 18
Message-ID: <381bf8e5.0@ecn.ab.ca>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7u4bub$al2$3@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7u5mnh$fj$1@watchdragon.demon.co.uk> <7u724c$qsd$2@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7uf9ce$t46$1@news.IAEhv.nl> <7uhi23$5bt$1@autumn.news.rcn.net> <1057.967T2322T14205267cgibbs@sky.bus.com> <38163511.89E7C999@plano.net> <7v775j$2fc6@news2.newsguy.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: freenet.edmonton.ab.ca
X-Trace: news.sas.ab.ca 941357344 19252 198.161.206.2 (31 Oct 1999 08:09:04 GMT)
X-Complaints-To: news@sas.ab.ca
NNTP-Posting-Date: 31 Oct 1999 08:09:04 GMT
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2.6]
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!news.datacomm.ch!newscore.gigabell.net!newsfeed.tli.de!newsfeed.direct.ca!cyclone.bc.net!rover.ucs.ualberta.ca!sas.ab.ca!ecn.ab.ca!jsavard

Michael Wojcik (mww@merant.com) wrote:
: Proper usage is determined by the discourse community.  "unrecoverable"
: is widely used, however distressing that may be.  The ir- prefix is
: arguably more logical ("unrecoverable" suggests that the problem may
: be "unrecovered", perhaps in the opposite sense of, say, "unearthed"),
: but it appears to have lost the popularity contest, which in the end
: is the only one that matters.

Obviously, "unrecoverable error" is merely a short form of
"unrecoverable-from error"; which is probably why it was preferred to
"irrecoverable error", which has to be expanded to "error with
irrecoverable consequences" (which still isn't right, as that ought to be
irremediable).

I thought "okeh" replaced "Oll Korrect" as the likely source for
O.K./okay.

John Savard

######

From: scottw@bmtech.co.uk_DELETE_THIS (Scott Wheeler)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Mon, 01 Nov 1999 11:27:12 GMT
Message-ID: <381d78aa.425172706@192.168.0.1>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7u4bub$al2$3@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7u5mnh$fj$1@watchdragon.demon.co.uk> <7u724c$qsd$2@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7uf9ce$t46$1@news.IAEhv.nl> <7uhi23$5bt$1@autumn.news.rcn.net> <1057.967T2322T14205267cgibbs@sky.bus.com> <38163511.89E7C999@plano.net> <7v6lju$m7a$5@autumn.news.rcn.net> <381bf79f.0@ecn.ab.ca>
NNTP-Posting-Host: bmtech.demon.co.uk
X-NNTP-Posting-Host: bmtech.demon.co.uk:158.152.102.124
X-Trace: news.demon.co.uk 941455486 nnrp-07:14442 NO-IDENT bmtech.demon.co.uk:158.152.102.124
X-Complaints-To: abuse@demon.net
X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 1.5/32.451
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Lines: 11
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!newsfeeds.belnet.be!news.belnet.be!colt.net!dispose.news.demon.net!demon!news.demon.co.uk!demon!bmtech.demon.co.uk!not-for-mail

On 31 Oct 99 08:02:39 GMT, jsavard@ecn.ab.ca () wrote:

>Disc is the British spelling; disk is the American spelling.

Used to be - now we use "disk" for something oblongular and
black-plasticish, and "disc" for something round and bit-free.
"Dialogue" and "dialog" are treated similarly.

Scott
-- 
(please de-mung address if replying by email)

######

From: mww@merant.com (Michael Wojcik)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 1 Nov 1999 16:19:40 GMT
Organization: MERANT Inc.
Lines: 48
Message-ID: <7vkeis$2220@news2.newsguy.com>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7u4bub$al2$3@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7u5mnh$fj$1@watchdragon.demon.co.uk> <7u724c$qsd$2@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7uf9ce$t46$1@news.IAEhv.nl> <7uhi23$5bt$1@autumn.news.rcn.net> <1057.967T2322T14205267cgibbs@sky.bus.com> <38163511.89E7C999@plano.net> <7v775j$2fc6@news2.newsguy.com> <381bf8e5.0@ecn.ab.ca>
Reply-To: michael.wojcik@merant.com
NNTP-Posting-Host: p-037.newsdawg.com
X-Newsreader: xrn 9.00
Originator: mww@lorelei-n
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!newspeer.te.net!news.indigo.ie!news-out.cwix.com!newsfeed.cwix.com!pln-e!spln!extra.newsguy.com!newsp.newsguy.com!mww


In article <381bf8e5.0@ecn.ab.ca>, jsavard@ecn.ab.ca () writes:
> Michael Wojcik (mww@merant.com) wrote:
> : [yes, it's still this "{un,ir}-recoverable" thing]
> 
> Obviously, "unrecoverable error" is merely a short form of
> "unrecoverable-from error"; which is probably why it was preferred to
> "irrecoverable error", which has to be expanded to "error with
> irrecoverable consequences" (which still isn't right, as that ought to be
> irremediable).

I'm not so sure that is obvious.  Part of the problem is that
"recover" in the sense of "return to a preferred state" (as in
"recover one's footing") is already a metaphoric denotation, so
attempting literal translations of the two phrases is suspect.
But I don't think that matters.  I suspect "unrecoverable" won
primarily because "un-" is a more natural and preferred prefix
for the speakers who were composing the error messages in the
first place.  I can't prove that, since I don't have any way of
testing it, but that's my guess.  I doubt they put much thought
into nicities of diction.

> I thought "okeh" replaced "Oll Korrect" as the likely source for
> O.K./okay.

I suspect it depends whom you ask.  The most recent extensive
research I've seen on the subject is Read's, from 1961.  There
may be something more recent; it's not a subject that concerns
me greatly.

See <6i62jb$5nf@hyperion.mfltd.co.uk> (Michael Wojcik;
rec.arts.int-fiction,rec.arts.manga; 1998/04/29) - note that this
message appears to contain several inaccuracies (probably mine)
and <http://www.peg.apc.org/~toconnor/ok.htm>.  Except
unfortunately the latter seems to have vanished.  Try
<http://www.wilton.net/wordoro.htm> instead.


--
Michael Wojcik          	        michael.wojcik@merant.com
AAI Development, MERANT                 (block capitals are a company mandate)
Department of English, Miami University

Every allegiance to some community eventually involves such a fetish,
which functions as the disavowal of its founding crime: is not 'America'
the fetish of an infinitely open space enabling every individual to
pursue happiness in his or her own way?
   -- Slavoj Zizek

######

From: "Charlie Gibbs" <cgibbs@sky.bus.com>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments
Date: 01 Nov 99 12:34:46 -0800
Organization: http://extra.newsguy.com
Lines: 14
Message-ID: <359.974T2309T7545534@sky.bus.com>
References: <7vf816$12e@cucumber.demon.co.uk>
NNTP-Posting-Host: p-592.newsdawg.com
X-Newsreader: THOR 2.5a (Amiga;TCP/IP)
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!newspeer.te.net!news.indigo.ie!news-out.cwix.com!newsfeed.cwix.com!pln-e!spln!extra.newsguy.com!newsp.newsguy.com!news2

In article <7vf816$12e@cucumber.demon.co.uk> andrew@cucumber.demon.co.uk
(Andrew Gabriel) writes:

>A few of the amusing comments which have stuck in my mind over
>the years:

I always liked one I did years ago:

* SUBROUTINES (i.e. close all hatches before diving)

--
cgibbs@sky.bus.com (Charlie Gibbs)
Remove the first period after the "at" sign to reply.

######

Message-ID: <381E43DF.DCFBBC99@home.com>
From: Pete Lamasney <PeteLamasney@home.com>
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.61 [en] (WinNT; U)
X-Accept-Language: en
MIME-Version: 1.0
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments
References: <7vf816$12e@cucumber.demon.co.uk>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Lines: 20
Date: Tue, 02 Nov 1999 01:52:29 GMT
NNTP-Posting-Host: 24.0.172.250
X-Complaints-To: abuse@home.net
X-Trace: news1.rdc1.sdca.home.com 941507549 24.0.172.250 (Mon, 01 Nov 1999 17:52:29 PST)
NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 01 Nov 1999 17:52:29 PST
Organization: @Home Network
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!newspeer.te.net!news.indigo.ie!news-out.cwix.com!newsfeed.cwix.com!europa.netcrusader.net!192.148.253.68!netnews.com!feeder.via.net!newshub1.home.com!news.home.com!news1.rdc1.sdca.home.com.POSTED!not-for-mail

> A few of the amusing comments which have stuck in my mind over
> the years:

After much documentation of Halt Codes on the 1401s (light patterns,
e.g., 1+4+8+32 = tape I/O error, or All On = Normal EOJ), the new 1410
came with a console that could be used to type operator communication.

After a few of the applications had been converted, all the suits were
brought on a tour to see this fast and expensive wonder.  Lights were
flashing, tape reels spinning, impressive stuff.  Suddenly, lights
stopped, all tapes stopped dead, console starts up. . . .clack, clack,
clackety, clack. . . .silence.

They all hover, to read
    whisper "shit"

Message standards were not far off.

Pete

######

From: jmfbahciv@aol.com
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments
Date: Tue, 02 Nov 99 10:30:20 GMT
Organization: UltraNet Communications, Inc.
Lines: 34
Message-ID: <7vmirq$kqi$2@autumn.news.rcn.net>
References: <7vf816$12e@cucumber.demon.co.uk> <381E43DF.DCFBBC99@home.com>
X-Trace: LUEsBoGNkOY1zSpqNOsHYew07oWOeXfKDs/F0UlusrY=
X-Complaints-To: abuse@rcn.com
NNTP-Posting-Date: 2 Nov 1999 11:44:58 GMT
X-Newsreader:  News Xpress Version 1.0 Beta #4
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!skynet.be!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!feeder.qis.net!feed1.news.rcn.net!rcn!d2

In article <381E43DF.DCFBBC99@home.com>,
   Pete Lamasney <PeteLamasney@home.com> wrote:
>> A few of the amusing comments which have stuck in my mind over
>> the years:
>
>After much documentation of Halt Codes on the 1401s (light patterns,
>e.g., 1+4+8+32 = tape I/O error, or All On = Normal EOJ), the new 1410
>came with a console that could be used to type operator communication.
>
>After a few of the applications had been converted, all the suits were
>brought on a tour to see this fast and expensive wonder.  Lights were
>flashing, tape reels spinning, impressive stuff.  Suddenly, lights
>stopped, all tapes stopped dead, console starts up. . . .clack, clack,
>clackety, clack. . . .silence.
>
>They all hover, to read
>    whisper "shit"
>
>Message standards were not far off.

I like this one too.  Two belly laughs in one thread is pretty
good.  :-))))  Isn't it sad that we had to those standards?
One four letter word communicates so much of the style of
the programmer and how much trouble one is in.  This also
helps keep one's sanity.  You just know that the person who
programmed that line knew he had programmed himself into
a hole.

That could be the subject of another thread, albeit quite technical. 
"Holes I managed to get into by ..."  

/BAH

Subtract a hundred and four for e-mail.

######

From: J. Chris Hausler <jchausler@delphi.com>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants
Date: Tue, 2 Nov 99 11:55:20 -0500
Organization: Delphi (info@delphi.com email, 800-695-4005 voice)
Lines: 9
Message-ID: <RVohBXw.jchausler@delphi.com>
References: <381550C0.E87F9D3F@cmc.co m> <3816364C.6D49CEC2@plano.net>  	    <7v744g$e17$1@eve.enteract.com> <01bf2097$caab07a0$e12ac222@my0250> <7v9bck$emm@news.rhrz.uni-bonn.de> <381A43AF.7E788970@plano.net> <507.974T2434T7586251@sky.bus.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: 199.93.4.2
X-To: "Charlie Gibbs" <cgibbs@sky.bus.com>
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!enews.sgi.com!paloalto-snf1.gtei.net!su-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!cambridge1-snf1.gtei.net!news.gtei.net!news.delphi.com!news

"Charlie Gibbs" <cgibbs@sky.bus.com> writes:
 
>That agrees with what a DG person once told me.  He went on to point
>out that the "i"s are a Roman numeral.  So the AViiON is really the
>NOVA II.
 
But not the NOVA 2, I have the front panel from one of
those hanging in front of me here on the wall :-)
Chris

######

From: "Charlie Gibbs" <cgibbs@sky.bus.com>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 01 Nov 99 12:38:48 -0800
Organization: http://extra.newsguy.com
Lines: 15
Message-ID: <507.974T2434T7586251@sky.bus.com>
References: <381550C0.E87F9D3F@cmc.co m> <3816364C.6D49CEC2@plano.net>  	    <7v744g$e17$1@eve.enteract.com> <01bf2097$caab07a0$e12ac222@my0250> <7v9bck$emm@news.rhrz.uni-bonn.de> <381A43AF.7E788970@plano.net>
NNTP-Posting-Host: p-593.newsdawg.com
X-Newsreader: THOR 2.5a (Amiga;TCP/IP)
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!newspeer.te.net!news.indigo.ie!news-out.cwix.com!newsfeed.cwix.com!pln-e!spln!extra.newsguy.com!newsp.newsguy.com!news2

In article <381A43AF.7E788970@plano.net> richmond@plano.net (Charles Richmond)
writes:

>Data General now builds a UNIX workstation called an AViiON.  If you
>knock the i's out, it is NOVA spelled backwards.  (The way the name
>appears on the box is with small i's.)

That agrees with what a DG person once told me.  He went on to point
out that the "i"s are a Roman numeral.  So the AViiON is really the
NOVA II.

--
cgibbs@sky.bus.com (Charlie Gibbs)
Remove the first period after the "at" sign to reply.

######

From: slavins.at.hearsay.demon.co.uk@localhost (Simon Slavin)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Mon, 01 Nov 1999 22:36:32 +0000
Organization: First Sirian Bank
Message-ID: <B443C67096683D3A12@hearsay.demon.co.uk>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7u4bub$al2$3@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7u5mnh$fj$1@watchdragon.demon.co.uk> <7u724c$qsd$2@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7uf9ce$t46$1@news.IAEhv.nl> <7uhi23$5bt$1@autumn.news.rcn.net> <1057.967T2322T14205267cgibbs@sky.bus.com> <38163511.89E7C999@plano.net> <7v6lju$m7a$5@autumn.news.rcn.net> <381bf79f.0@ecn.ab.ca>
NNTP-Posting-Host: hearsay.demon.co.uk
X-NNTP-Posting-Host: hearsay.demon.co.uk:194.222.24.177
X-Trace: news.demon.co.uk 941495789 nnrp-13:8704 NO-IDENT hearsay.demon.co.uk:194.222.24.177
X-Complaints-To: abuse@demon.net
Lines: 12
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!isdnet!newsfeed.icl.net!newspeer.clara.net!news.clara.net!dispose.news.demon.net!demon!news.demon.co.uk!demon!hearsay.demon.co.uk!user

In article <381bf79f.0@ecn.ab.ca>,
jsavard@ecn.ab.ca () wrote:

> I suppose IBM used "disc" for the same reason that it was used in the
> Compact Disc - to reach the international market.

Compact Disc was /not/ spelled with a 'c' to reach the international
market, it was spelled with a 'c' because it was named by the
European company who codesigned it -- Philips -- who spelled it with
the normal spelling.

######

From: prs@gol.com (Jacqui or (maybe) Pete)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Message-ID: <38262499.6403850@nnrp.gol.com>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <3815C1EF.52BF@fysik.uu.se> <7v4lv7$979$1@nnrp1.deja.com> <vblR3.6064$b84.635426@ptah.visi.com> <7v8spr$8an$1@news.math.arizona.edu> <3817FBC6.4120@bell-labs.com>
X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 1.5/32.451
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Lines: 22
Date: Mon, 01 Nov 1999 23:38:57 GMT
NNTP-Posting-Host: 203.216.42.108
X-Complaints-To: abuse@gol.com
X-Trace: nnrp.gol.com 941499537 203.216.42.108 (Tue, 02 Nov 1999 08:38:57 JST)
NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 02 Nov 1999 08:38:57 JST
Organization: Global Online Japan
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!newspeer.te.net!news.indigo.ie!news-out.cwix.com!newsfeed.cwix.com!sunqbc.risq.qc.ca!newsfeed.gol.com!203.216.70.8.MISMATCH!nnrp.gol.com.POSTED!not-for-mail

Apropos of not much, there's a place down the road here advertising
"dog sandwiches".  Haven't tried one yet.

On Thu, 28 Oct 1999 08:31:18 +0100, Dennis Ritchie <dmr@bell-labs.com>
wrote:

>John Friese wrote:
> ...
>
>> <insert standard spiel about Japanese soft drinks "Calpis Water"
>>    and "Pocari Sweat" here>.
>
>I still treasure a bottle (unbroached as yet)  bought from
>a vending machine in Hakone, Japan, of "Power C."
>
>I wonder what the Japanese think about US Gatorade, which
>has approximately the same ingredients and marketing thrust
>as Pocari Sweat.  Their names have an equally location-special
>and complicated explanation.
>
>	Dennis

######

From: prs@gol.com (Jacqui or (maybe) Pete)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Message-ID: <38272594.6655490@nnrp.gol.com>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7u4bub$al2$3@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7u5mnh$fj$1@watchdragon.demon.co.uk> <7u724c$qsd$2@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7uf9ce$t46$1@news.IAEhv.nl> <7uhi23$5bt$1@autumn.news.rcn.net> <1057.967T2322T14205267cgibbs@sky.bus.com> <38163511.89E7C999@plano.net> <7v6lju$m7a$5@autumn.news.rcn.net> <381bf79f.0@ecn.ab.ca> <381d78aa.425172706@192.168.0.1>
X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 1.5/32.451
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Lines: 15
Date: Mon, 01 Nov 1999 23:42:46 GMT
NNTP-Posting-Host: 203.216.42.108
X-Complaints-To: abuse@gol.com
X-Trace: nnrp.gol.com 941499766 203.216.42.108 (Tue, 02 Nov 1999 08:42:46 JST)
NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 02 Nov 1999 08:42:46 JST
Organization: Global Online Japan
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!newspeer.te.net!news.indigo.ie!news-out.cwix.com!newsfeed.cwix.com!europa.netcrusader.net!203.216.70.6!newsfeed.gol.com!203.216.70.8.MISMATCH!nnrp.gol.com.POSTED!not-for-mail

And "program" and "programme", of course.

On Mon, 01 Nov 1999 11:27:12 GMT, scottw@bmtech.co.uk_DELETE_THIS
(Scott Wheeler) wrote:

>On 31 Oct 99 08:02:39 GMT, jsavard@ecn.ab.ca () wrote:
>
>>Disc is the British spelling; disk is the American spelling.
>
>Used to be - now we use "disk" for something oblongular and
>black-plasticish, and "disc" for something round and bit-free.
>"Dialogue" and "dialog" are treated similarly.
>
>Scott

######

From: andrew@cucumber.demon.co.uk (Andrew Gabriel)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 2 Nov 1999 06:50:41 GMT
Organization: home
Message-ID: <7vm1k1$183@cucumber.demon.co.uk>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7u724c$qsd$2@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7uf9ce$t46$1@news.iaehv.nl> <7uhi23$5bt$1@autumn.news.rcn.net> <1057.967T2322T14205267cgibbs@sky.bus.com> <38163511.89E7C999@plano.net> <7v6lju$m7a$5@autumn.news.rcn.net> <381bf79f.0@ecn.ab.ca> <381d78aa.425172706@192.168.0.1> <38272594.6655490@nnrp.gol.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: cucumber
X-NNTP-Posting-Host: cucumber.demon.co.uk:158.152.58.86
X-Trace: news.demon.co.uk 941529424 nnrp-09:10461 NO-IDENT cucumber.demon.co.uk:158.152.58.86
X-Complaints-To: abuse@demon.net
X-Newsreader: knews 0.9.6
Lines: 11
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!newspeer.te.net!news.indigo.ie!diablo.theplanet.net!newsfeed.icl.net!newsfeed1.news.nl.uu.net!sun4nl!bullseye.news.demon.net!demon!news.demon.co.uk!demon!cucumber.demon.co.uk!usenet

In article <38272594.6655490@nnrp.gol.com>,
	prs@gol.com (Jacqui or (maybe) Pete) writes:
>And "program" and "programme", of course.

Then there's a font (something you get baptised in) and a fount
(a type face of a particular size, originally made in foundry).

-- 
Andrew Gabriel
Consultant Software Engineer

######

From: Eric Sosman <eric.sosman@east.sun.com>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments
Date: Wed, 03 Nov 1999 14:45:15 -0500
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Inc., Chelmsford, MA.
Lines: 11
Message-ID: <382090CB.46DA807A@east.sun.com>
References: <7vf816$12e@cucumber.demon.co.uk> <359.974T2309T7545534@sky.bus.com> <495b4b10d7a__fake__address@127.0.0.1>
NNTP-Posting-Host: tardis.east.sun.com
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.5 [en] (X11; I; SunOS 5.8 sun4u)
X-Accept-Language: en
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!skynet.be!tank.news.pipex.net!pipex!btnet-peer!btnet-feed2!btnet!carbon.eu.sun.com!new-usenet.uk.sun.com!eastnews1.east.sun.com!not-for-mail


    I remember a program which included a simple debugging
aid in the form of a subroutine which would log its caller's
address in a circular buffer -- very handy for deducing a
sequence of events when reading the core dump.  Every one
of the many dozens of calls to this routine looked like

    BAL   R14,TRACE           REMEMBER THIS MOMENT, MY SON

----
Eric.Sosman@east.sun.com

######

From: Dave Daniels <a__fake__address@127.0.0.1>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments
Date: Wed, 03 Nov 1999 18:29:47 +0000 (GMT)
Organization: None
Lines: 25
Message-ID: <495b4b10d7a__fake__address@127.0.0.1>
References: <7vf816$12e@cucumber.demon.co.uk> <359.974T2309T7545534@sky.bus.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: userav39.uk.uudial.com
X-Trace: lure.pipex.net 941656042 1078 62.188.138.86 (3 Nov 1999 19:07:22 GMT)
X-Complaints-To: abuse@uk.uu.net
NNTP-Posting-Date: 3 Nov 1999 19:07:22 GMT
User-Agent: Pluto/1.11k  (RISC-OS/3.8)
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!newspeer.te.net!news.indigo.ie!diablo.theplanet.net!newsfeed.icl.net!newsfeed.icl.net!join.news.pipex.net!pipex!grot.news.pipex.net!pipex!tube.news.pipex.net!pipex!argonet.co.uk!argbq79

In article <359.974T2309T7545534@sky.bus.com>,
   Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@sky.bus.com> wrote:
> I always liked one I did years ago:

> * SUBROUTINES (i.e. close all hatches before diving)

I am pretty sure I once saw a comment in some IBM code to
put a program into a wait state that read:

   LPSW    WAIT           SLEEP WELL, MY PRINCESS

But I cannot remember where I saw it. 

Dave Daniels

-- 
ANTISPAM: Please note that the email address above is false. My
correct address is:

    dave_daniels<at>argonet<dot>co<dot>uk

Please replace the <at> and <dot>s with @ and . respectively when
replying - Thanks!

######

From: jcmorris@jmorris-pc.MITRE.ORG (Joe Morris)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments
Date: 3 Nov 1999 22:29:22 GMT
Organization: The MITRE Corporation
Lines: 17
Message-ID: <7vqd02$7l8$1@top.mitre.org>
References: <7vf816$12e@cucumber.demon.co.uk> <359.974T2309T7545534@sky.bus.com> <495b4b10d7a__fake__address@127.0.0.1>
Reply-To: jcmorris@linus.mitre.org
NNTP-Posting-Host: jmorris-pc.mitre.org
X-Trace: top.mitre.org 941668162 7848 128.29.251.13 (3 Nov 1999 22:29:22 GMT)
X-Complaints-To: usenet@news.mitre.org
NNTP-Posting-Date: 3 Nov 1999 22:29:22 GMT
X-Newsreader: NN version 6.5.0 (NOV)
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news-fra1.dfn.de!news-koe1.dfn.de!news-was.dfn.de!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!news.idt.net!usenet.logical.net!news.tufts.edu!blanket.mitre.org!news.mitre.org!jmorris-pc.MITRE.ORG!jcmorris

Dave Daniels <a__fake__address@127.0.0.1> writes:

>I am pretty sure I once saw a comment in some IBM code to
>put a program into a wait state that read:

>   LPSW    WAIT           SLEEP WELL, MY PRINCESS


Somewhere in my days working with S/360 mainframes I ran across some
kernel code that looked like this:

STOP    LPSW   DISWAIT       WAIT FOREVER  
        B      STOP          IN CASE FOREVER COMES

DISWAIT DC     0D'0',X'0020000000000000'   DISABLED WAIT PSW 

Joe Morris

######

From: prs@gol.com (Jacqui or (maybe) Pete)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments
Message-ID: <382a699e.4735500@nnrp.gol.com>
References: <7vf816$12e@cucumber.demon.co.uk> <359.974T2309T7545534@sky.bus.com> <495b4b10d7a__fake__address@127.0.0.1> <7vqd02$7l8$1@top.mitre.org>
X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 1.5/32.451
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Lines: 6
Date: Thu, 04 Nov 1999 11:10:32 GMT
NNTP-Posting-Host: 203.216.43.64
X-Complaints-To: abuse@gol.com
X-Trace: nnrp.gol.com 941713832 203.216.43.64 (Thu, 04 Nov 1999 20:10:32 JST)
NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 04 Nov 1999 20:10:32 JST
Organization: Global Online Japan
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news.maxwell.syr.edu!europa.netcrusader.net!203.216.70.6!newsfeed.gol.com!203.216.70.8.MISMATCH!nnrp.gol.com.POSTED!not-for-mail

I was told (I may have mentioned this before - I'm getting old) of a
*long* assembler program that contained the single comment 'Happy
birthday, Beethoven'.  Turned out that the machine code for that line
was Beethoven's birthday in the Gregorian calendar.

Or is that a suburban myth?

######

From: ab528@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Heinz W. Wiggeshoff)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments
Date: 4 Nov 1999 14:39:37 GMT
Organization: The National Capital FreeNet
Lines: 17
Message-ID: <7vs5r9$sbj@freenet-news.carleton.ca>
References: <7vf816$12e@cucumber.demon.co.uk> <359.974T2309T7545534@sky.bus.com> <495b4b10d7a__fake__address@127.0.0.1> <7vqd02$7l8$1@top.mitre.org>
Reply-To: ab528@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Heinz W. Wiggeshoff)
NNTP-Posting-Host: freenet3.carleton.ca
X-Given-Sender: ab528@freenet3.carleton.ca (Heinz W. Wiggeshoff)
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!skynet.be!newsfeed.stanford.edu!paloalto-snf1.gtei.net!su-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.gtei.net!news.alt.net!news.aa.net!news.kjsl.com!xcski.com!freenet-news.carleton.ca!FreeNet.Carleton.CA!ab528


Joe Morris (jcmorris@jmorris-pc.MITRE.ORG) writes:
> 
> Somewhere in my days working with S/360 mainframes I ran across some
> kernel code that looked like this:
> 
> STOP    LPSW   DISWAIT       WAIT FOREVER  
>         B      STOP          IN CASE FOREVER COMES
> 
> DISWAIT DC     0D'0',X'0020000000000000'   DISABLED WAIT PSW 

   B-)

  Clearly the person who coded this didn't trust the person(s) with
  the soldering iron to have Principles of Operation open to the 
  right page!

######

From: Paul Repacholi <prep@mussel.ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments
Date: 04 Nov 1999 23:39:06 +0800
Organization: The University of Western Australia
Lines: 17
Message-ID: <rjqg0ymtgf9.fsf@mussel.ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au>
References: <7vf816$12e@cucumber.demon.co.uk> <359.974T2309T7545534@sky.bus.com> <495b4b10d7a__fake__address@127.0.0.1> <7vqd02$7l8$1@top.mitre.org> <382a699e.4735500@nnrp.gol.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: mussel.ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au
X-Newsreader: Gnus v5.5/Emacs 20.3
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!newspeer.te.net!news.indigo.ie!news-out.cwix.com!newsfeed.cwix.com!news.maxwell.syr.edu!intgwpad.nntp.telstra.net!news1.optus.net.au!optus!news.uwa.edu.au!not-for-mail

prs@gol.com (Jacqui or (maybe) Pete) writes:

> I was told (I may have mentioned this before - I'm getting old) of a
> *long* assembler program that contained the single comment 'Happy
> birthday, Beethoven'.  Turned out that the machine code for that line
> was Beethoven's birthday in the Gregorian calendar.
> 
> Or is that a suburban myth?

No, just wrong. It was Bach, the coment was RIP JSB
The line it was on defined a constant. E4TR ;)

-- 
Paul Repacholi                               1 Crescent Rd.,
+61 (08) 9257-1001                           Kalamunda.
                                             West Australia 6076
Raw, Cooked or Well-done, it's all half baked.

######

From: Martin Ibert <martin@ibert.com>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Wed, 03 Nov 1999 22:13:12 +0100
Organization: The Seventh Heaven, Berlin, Germany
Lines: 24
Message-ID: <m6QgOAKDY1RNVrQcJhQAJt20Seo6@4ax.com>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7u4bub$al2$3@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7u5mnh$fj$1@watchdragon.demon.co.uk> <7u724c$qsd$2@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7uf9ce$t46$1@news.IAEhv.nl> <7uhi23$5bt$1@autumn.news.rcn.net> <1057.967T2322T14205267cgibbs@sky.bus.com> <38163511.89E7C999@plano.net> <7v6lju$m7a$5@autumn.news.rcn.net> <381bf79f.0@ecn.ab.ca> <381d78aa.425172706@192.168.0.1> <38272594.6655490@nnrp.gol.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: volterra.home.ibert.com
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 1.6/32.525
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!skynet.be!newsfeed.icl.net!newsfeed.tli.de!unlisys!news.snafu.de!home.ibert.com!news

On Mon, 01 Nov 1999 23:42:46 GMT, prs@gol.com (Jacqui or (maybe) Pete)
wrote:

>And "program" and "programme", of course.

>On Mon, 01 Nov 1999 11:27:12 GMT, scottw@bmtech.co.uk_DELETE_THIS
>(Scott Wheeler) wrote:

>>Used to be - now we use "disk" for something oblongular and
>>black-plasticish, and "disc" for something round and bit-free.

(What on earth is "oblongular?")

In German, it is quite common to use "edieren" for "to edit" when
referring to what an editor (person) would do to a book, and
"editieren" for "to edit" when referring what a user would to a file,
using an editor (program). "Edieren" comes directly from Latin (edire
-> to give out), while "editieren" comes from English and has aquired
an extra syllable in the process.
-- 
Quote of the day: "Women and cats will do as they please, and men and
dogs should relax and get used to the idea." -- Robert A. Heinlein
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Martin Ibert, <mailto:martin@ibert.com>, <http://www.ibert.com/>.

######

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: bdc@world.std.com (Brian Chase)
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Message-ID: <FKnJCz.Ivx@world.std.com>
Date: Thu, 4 Nov 1999 02:38:58 GMT
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <FK4zG2.H5s@world.std.com> <381550C0.E87F9D3F@cmc.com> <3816A6CA.48E8DB2F@mbox301.swipnet.se>
Organization: HappyNet Bungalow
Lines: 22
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!newspeer.te.net!news.indigo.ie!diablo.theplanet.net!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news-out.uswest.net!uunet!ffx.uu.net!world!bdc

In article <3816A6CA.48E8DB2F@mbox301.swipnet.se>,
Ronnie Sahlberg  <ronnie.sahlberg@mbox301.swipnet.se> wrote:

> You think it is funny that some office furniture is named Jerker?
> Jerker is actually an ordinary male name in sweden, I in fact have
> a friend named Jerker. Imagine if he moved to an english speaking
> country :-) He would sure need to change his name, or be ridiculed
> forever.

About a year and a half ago now on the NetBSD/vax mailing list (note
relevance to a.f.c by inclusion of the reference to NetBSD/vax),
there was an individual making some totally benign comment about one of
his co-workers.  The co-worker's name was Long Wang.

The funniest part was that the individual making the comment had never
considered the implications of his friend's name.  What a truly horrible
name to bear in an English speaking country.

-brian.
-- 
--- Brian Chase | bdc@world.std.com | http://world.std.com/~bdc/ -----
              MEDITATE ON THIS AT SECOND LEVEL.  -- K.

######

From: john@polo.demon.co.uk (John Winters)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments
Date: 4 Nov 1999 21:17:51 -0000
Organization: The Linux Emporium
Message-ID: <7vst5v$nk9$1@polo.demon.co.uk>
References: <7vf816$12e@cucumber.demon.co.uk> <495b4b10d7a__fake__address@127.0.0.1> <7vqd02$7l8$1@top.mitre.org> <382a699e.4735500@nnrp.gol.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: unseen.linuxemporium.co.uk
X-NNTP-Posting-Host: unseen.linuxemporium.co.uk:194.70.1.33
X-Trace: news.demon.co.uk 941750274 nnrp-11:1344 NO-IDENT unseen.linuxemporium.co.uk:194.70.1.33
X-Complaints-To: abuse@demon.net
Lines: 27
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!isdnet!newsfeed.icl.net!dispose.news.demon.net!demon!news.demon.co.uk!demon!unseen.linuxemporium.co.uk!polo.demon.co.uk!not-for-mail

In article <382a699e.4735500@nnrp.gol.com>,
Jacqui or (maybe) Pete <prs@gol.com> wrote:
>I was told (I may have mentioned this before - I'm getting old) of a
>*long* assembler program that contained the single comment 'Happy
>birthday, Beethoven'.  Turned out that the machine code for that line
>was Beethoven's birthday in the Gregorian calendar.

The code for the system controller process in Prestel (British
Telecom's Videotex system) used to contain code which caused

    Merry Christmas
    Happy New Year
    Happy Birthday Chris

to be output on the console every hour on the appropriate days.  (The
third one appeared on the author's birthday but I can't remember the
exact date - some time in January).  The thing was, even given the
Babbage source it was very hard to find the code which was doing it.
More than one maintainer was told to remove it for a foreign installation
and was unable to do it.

John
-- 
John Winters.  Wallingford, Oxon, England.

The Linux Emporium - the source for Linux CDs in the UK
See http://www.linuxemporium.co.uk/

######

Sender: meissner@tiktok.cygnus.com
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments
References: <7vf816$12e@cucumber.demon.co.uk> <359.974T2309T7545534@sky.bus.com> <7vmiia$kqi$1@autumn.news.rcn.net>
From: Michael Meissner <meissner@cygnus.com>
Message-ID: <sy1za5zjg5.fsf@tiktok.cygnus.com>
Organization: Cygnus Solutions
Lines: 10
X-Newsreader: Gnus v5.7/Emacs 20.4
Date: 04 Nov 1999 22:49:30 -0500
NNTP-Posting-Host: 209.192.197.34
X-Complaints-To: abuse@shore.net
X-Trace: news.shore.net 941773770 209.192.197.34 (Thu, 04 Nov 1999 22:49:30 EST)
NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 04 Nov 1999 22:49:30 EST
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!skynet.be!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!news.shore.net!not-for-mail

There is always the classic from the GNU C preprocessor:

/* Pre-C-Preprocessor to translate ANSI trigraph idiocy in BUF
   before main CCCP processing.  Name `pcp' is also in honor of the
   drugs the trigraph designers must have been on.

-- 
Michael Meissner, Cygnus Solutions
PMB 198, 174 Littleton Road #3, Westford, Massachusetts 01886
email: meissner@cygnus.com	phone: 978-486-9304	fax: 978-692-4482

######

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments
References: <7vf816$12e@cucumber.demon.co.uk> <359.974T2309T7545534@sky.bus.com> <7vmiia$kqi$1@autumn.news.rcn.net> <sy1za5zjg5.fsf@tiktok.cygnus.com>
Organization: Plethora . Net - More net, less spam!
X-Newsreader: trn 4.0-test70 (17 January 1999)
From: seebs@plethora.net (Peter Seebach)
Lines: 19
Message-ID: <jstU3.2215$rK2.161783@ptah.visi.com>
Date: Fri, 05 Nov 1999 04:56:47 GMT
NNTP-Posting-Host: 205.166.146.8
X-Complaints-To: abuse@plethora.net
X-Trace: ptah.visi.com 941777807 205.166.146.8 (Thu, 04 Nov 1999 22:56:47 CST)
NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 04 Nov 1999 22:56:47 CST
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!newspeer.te.net!news.indigo.ie!news-out.cwix.com!newsfeed.cwix.com!news.maxwell.syr.edu!hermes.visi.com!news-out.visi.com!ptah.visi.com!not-for-mail

In article <sy1za5zjg5.fsf@tiktok.cygnus.com>,
Michael Meissner  <meissner@cygnus.com> wrote:
>/* Pre-C-Preprocessor to translate ANSI trigraph idiocy in BUF
>   before main CCCP processing.  Name `pcp' is also in honor of the
>   drugs the trigraph designers must have been on.

ROFL!  Of course, PCP's probably wouldn't have produced trigraphs.  I'm
thinking they're more an LSD kind of thing, maybe, but I admit to having no
useful clue.

'shrooms, maybe?

-s
p.s.:  And I defy anyone to find any *single* drug which explains STL.
-- 
Copyright 1999, All rights reserved.  Peter Seebach / seebs@plethora.net
C/Unix wizard, Pro-commerce radical, Spam fighter.  Boycott Spamazon!
Will work for interesting hardware.  http://www.plethora.net/~seebs/
Visit my new ISP <URL:http://www.plethora.net/> --- More Net, Less Spam!

######

From: nxk3@po.cwru.edu (Natarajan Krishnaswami)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments
Date: 5 Nov 1999 06:26:20 GMT
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland OH (USA)
Lines: 14
Sender: nxk3@nile.scl.cwru.edu
Message-ID: <7vttac$g8r$1@alexander.INS.CWRU.Edu>
References: <7vf816$12e@cucumber.demon.co.uk> <359.974T2309T7545534@sky.bus.com> <7vmiia$kqi$1@autumn.news.rcn.net> <sy1za5zjg5.fsf@tiktok.cygnus.com> <jstU3.2215$rK2.161783@ptah.visi.com>
Reply-To: nxk3@po.cwru.edu
NNTP-Posting-Host: nile.scl.cwru.edu
User-Agent: slrn/0.9.5.7 (UNIX)
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!newspeer.te.net!news.indigo.ie!diablo.theplanet.net!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!tank.news.pipex.net!pipex!uunet!ams.uu.net!ffx.uu.net!dfw.uu.net!chi.uu.net!plonk.apk.net!news.apk.net!usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu!nxk3

On Fri, 05 Nov 1999 04:56:47 GMT, Peter Seebach <seebs@plethora.net> wrote:
> p.s.:  And I defy anyone to find any *single* drug which explains STL.

"...the Black Meat, flesh of the giant aquatic black centipede--sometimes
attaining a length of six feet--found in a lane of black rocks and
iridescent, brown lagoons, exhibit paralyzed crustaceans in camouflage
pockets of the Plaza visible only to the Meat Eaters."


<N/>
-- 
  you have been evaluated.  you have a negative reference count.  prepare
  to be garbage collected.  persistence is futile.
	-- Erik Naggum

######

Sender: meissner@tiktok.cygnus.com
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <FK4zG2.H5s@world.std.com> <381550C0.E87F9D3F@cmc.co m> <3816364C.6D49CEC2@plano.net> <7v744g$e17$1@eve.enteract.com> <01bf2097$caab07a0$e12ac222@my0250> <7v9bck$emm@news.rhrz.uni-bonn.de> <381A43AF.7E788970@plano.net>
From: Michael Meissner <meissner@cygnus.com>
Organization: Cygnus Solutions
X-Newsreader: Gnus v5.7/Emacs 20.4
Message-ID: <sywvrxy3h0.fsf@tiktok.cygnus.com>
Lines: 30
Date: 04 Nov 1999 23:19:55 -0500
NNTP-Posting-Host: 209.192.197.34
X-Complaints-To: abuse@shore.net
X-Trace: news.shore.net 941775596 209.192.197.34 (Thu, 04 Nov 1999 23:19:56 EST)
NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 04 Nov 1999 23:19:56 EST
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!newspeer.te.net!news.indigo.ie!news-out.cwix.com!newsfeed.cwix.com!news.maxwell.syr.edu!news.shore.net!not-for-mail

Charles Richmond <richmond@plano.net> writes:

> My understanding is that the NOVA was a design done by Ed deCastro,
> originally for DEC.  It was to be the follow on for the PDP-8, which he
> supposedly also had a hand in designing.  The NOVA was a 16-bit minicomputer
> that did *not* directly support a hardware stack...the PDP-11 did and that
> design was used by DEC.  deCastro was ticked and founded Data General to
> build the NOVA.  At least that's the way I heard it.

Having programed both in assembler, the PDP-11 is a much friendlier machine to
program at the user level than the DG Nova was.  At the kernel level however,
the PDP-11 family was a nightmare, since each of the different models had
different instructions.  I remember writing a piece of code that needed to set
the interrupt level that needed to run on three different processors (an
LSI11/02, a PDP11/40, and a simulated PDP11/45), and the only common way to set
the processor state was to push a fake interrupt stack and do a return from
interrupt instruction.

> Data General now builds a UNIX workstation called an AViiON.  If you knock
> the i's out, it is NOVA spelled backwards.  (The way the name appears on the
> box is with small i's.)

As others have said, it is an anagram of Nova-II.  Of course how long the
AViiON will continue to be made now that EMC has acquired the company remains
to be seen.

-- 
Michael Meissner, Cygnus Solutions
PMB 198, 174 Littleton Road #3, Westford, Massachusetts 01886
email: meissner@cygnus.com	phone: 978-486-9304	fax: 978-692-4482

######

From: Charles Richmond <richmond@plano.net>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Thu, 04 Nov 1999 23:48:19 +0000
Organization: Cannine Computer Center
Lines: 19
Message-ID: <38221B44.9634F723@plano.net>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <FK4zG2.H5s@world.std.com> <381550C0.E87F9D3F@cmc.co m> <3816364C.6D49CEC2@plano.net> <7v744g$e17$1@eve.enteract.com> <01bf2097$caab07a0$e12ac222@my0250> <7v9bck$emm@news.rhrz.uni-bonn.de> <381A43AF.7E788970@plano.net> <sywvrxy3h0.fsf@tiktok.cygnus.com>
Reply-To: richmond@plano.net
X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.03 (Macintosh; I; 68K)
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!news.datacomm.ch!newscore.gigabell.net!news-fra.pop.de!newsfeed.tli.de!remarQ-easT!rQdQ!supernews.com!remarQ.com!corp.supernews.com!not-for-mail

Michael Meissner wrote:
> 
>      [snip...]     [snip...]     [snip..]
> 
> As others have said, it is an anagram of Nova-II.  Of course how long the
> AViiON will continue to be made now that EMC has acquired the company remains
> to be seen.
> 
Who is EMC?  I had *not* heard that DG had been bought out.  I know that deCastro
has been gone for a long time, and that the company had gone from 16,000 employees
down to about 5000.  They were building AViiON's using the Motorola 88k chips,
but switched to Pentium Pro's in the last three or so years.  Their port of UNIX
(DG/UX) was essentially System V/Release 4, and the port over to the Pentium
AViiON's seemed very good.

-- 
+-------------------------------------------------------------+
|     Charles and Francis Richmond     <richmond@plano.net>   |
+-------------------------------------------------------------+

######

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <FK4zG2.H5s@world.std.com> <381550C0.E87F9D3F@cmc.co m> <3816364C.6D49CEC2@plano.net> <7v744g$e17$1@eve.enteract.com> <01bf2097$caab07a0$e12ac222@my0250> <7v9bck$emm@news.rhrz.uni-bonn.de> <381A43AF.7E788970@plano.net> <sywvrxy3h0.fsf@tiktok.cygnus.com> <38221B44.9634F723@plano.net>
X-Meow: meow
From: Alternative Fluffy <gerglery@usa.net>
Organization: Feline Front of Judea
Date: 05 Nov 1999 03:55:59 -0500
Message-ID: <87vh7hqpuo.fsf@slip-32-100-244-160.ma.us.prserv.net>
Lines: 11
X-Newsreader: Gnus v5.7/Emacs 20.3
NNTP-Posting-Host: 32.100.244.160
X-Trace: 5 Nov 1999 08:55:43 GMT, 32.100.244.160
X-Complaints-To: abuse@prserv.net
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!newspeer.te.net!news.indigo.ie!news-out.cwix.com!newsfeed.cwix.com!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.gtei.net!newsfeed.us.ibm.net!ibm.net!news3.prserv.net!32.100.244.160

Charles Richmond <richmond@plano.net> wrote:

> Who is EMC?

Storage array manufacturer.  They make a fairly big splash in the
3rd-party clustering market.

> I had *not* heard that DG had been bought out.

Seems it was mostly the Clariion stuff they wanted, DG was doing
pretty well in that market.

######

From: Tim Shoppa <shoppa@trailing-edge.com>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Fri, 05 Nov 1999 07:02:01 -0400
Organization: Trailing Edge Technology
Lines: 17
Message-ID: <382280E9.62726FDC@trailing-edge.com>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <FK4zG2.H5s@world.std.com> <381550C0.E87F9D3F@cmc.co m> <3816364C.6D49CEC2@plano.net> <7v744g$e17$1@eve.enteract.com> <01bf2097$caab07a0$e12ac222@my0250> <7v9bck$emm@news.rhrz.uni-bonn.de> <381A43AF.7E788970@plano.net> <sywvrxy3h0.fsf@tiktok.cygnus.com> <38221B44.9634F723@plano.net>
NNTP-Posting-Host: timaxp.trailing-edge.com
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-Trace: ffx2nh5.news.uu.net 941803381 812 63.73.218.130 (5 Nov 1999 12:03:01 GMT)
X-Complaints-To: news@ffx2nh5.news.uu.net
NNTP-Posting-Date: 5 Nov 1999 12:03:01 GMT
X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.03Gold (X11; I; OpenVMS V7.0     DEC 3000 Model 300L)
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!isdnet!newsfeed.usit.net!uunet!ffx.uu.net!ffx2nh5!not-for-mail

Charles Richmond wrote:
> 
> Michael Meissner wrote:
> >
> >      [snip...]     [snip...]     [snip..]
> >
> > As others have said, it is an anagram of Nova-II.  Of course how long the
> > AViiON will continue to be made now that EMC has acquired the company remains
> > to be seen.
> >
> Who is EMC?

These days they specialize in storage arrays, but in the past they
were also a sizable maker of "add-ons" for DG and DEC computers.
(I've got several EMC memory boards here in my PDP-11's and my Novae.)

Tim.

######

Message-ID: <3823CF4C.4FED6595@davesworld.net>
Date: Sat, 06 Nov 1999 00:48:44 -0600
From: Jordan Bettis <JbettisOMIT@davesworld.net>
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.04 [en] (Win95; U)
MIME-Version: 1.0
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7u4bub$al2$3@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7u5mnh$fj$1@watchdragon.demon.co.uk> <7u724c$qsd$2@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7uf9ce$t46$1@news.IAEhv.nl> <VVoTOPVmIPxbCJ8=pBIfrTorzUC3@4ax.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
NNTP-Posting-Host: 205.139.240.251
X-Trace: 6 Nov 1999 00:47:56 -0600, 205.139.240.251
Lines: 18
X-Report: Report abuse to abuse@newsfeeds.com
X-Abuse-Info: Please be sure to forward a copy of ALL headers, INCLUDING the body
X-Abuse-Info2: ALL Spam complaints are acted upon within 24 hours!
Organization: Newsfeeds.com http://www.newsfeeds.com 73,000+ UNCENSORED Newsgroups.
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!skynet.be!hermes.visi.com!news-out.visi.com!newsfeed.enteract.com!feed.newsfeeds.com!newsfeeds.com!news5.newsfeeds.com!newsfeeds.com!205.139.240.251

Lars Janqqvist wrote:
> When I had COBOL in school one of the things the prof stressed
> was using *meaningful* names for data-names.  "You have
> thirty-one charaters, people, call it 'SUB-CLASS-PRE-REORDER-AMT'
> not Zee-Dee-Pee-Que!"  Of course, every program I turned in to
> him, and mostly every program I've written since then, has had
> some kind of data item named ZDPQ.
> 

I always have a function named HAFD (for "Have a Fine Day"). To increase
the potential irony, it does the most hedious thing in the program. Such
as call an abort when the shit hits the fan.

-- 
Jordan Bettis   BTW: ^Omit the OMIT (Jbettis@davesworld.net)
"Windows 2000 may seem slow, but it got the best benchmark test results
money can buy."
                                                    -Nicholas Perteley

######

Message-ID: <38242A85.84381533@one.net.au>
Date: Sat, 06 Nov 1999 23:17:57 +1000
From: Andrew Maizels <andrew@one.net.au>
Organization: PixyMisa Mining and Manufacturing
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.61 [en] (X11; I; IRIX 6.3 IP32)
X-Accept-Language: en
MIME-Version: 1.0
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7u4bub$al2$3@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7u5mnh$fj$1@watchdragon.demon.co.uk> <7u724c$qsd$2@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7uf9ce$t46$1@news.IAEhv.nl> <7uhi23$5bt$1@autumn.news.rcn.net> <1057.967T2322T14205267cgibbs@sky.bus.com> <38163511.89E7C999@plano.net> <7v6lju$m7a$5@autumn.news.rcn.net> <381bf79f.0@ecn.ab.ca> <381d78aa.425172706@192.168.0.1> <38272594.6655490@nnrp.gol.com> <m6QgOAKDY1RNVrQcJhQAJt20Seo6@4ax.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: 192.168.11.3
Lines: 15
X-Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: 192.168.11.8
NNTP-Posting-Host: 203.101.21.1
X-Trace: 6 Nov 1999 23:14:19 +1000, 203.101.21.1
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!skynet.be!hermes.visi.com!news-out.visi.com!uunet!ffx.uu.net!lax.uu.net!pink.one.net.au!kei!shampoo!192.168.11.3

Martin Ibert wrote:

 
> (What on earth is "oblongular?")

Eldritch.

Regards,

Andrew.
-- 
The sensitive soul who designs the One.Tel ads and the annual reports
has been let loose on the walls, armed with what seems like the nation's
entire supply of phosphorescent paint.
	-- The Australia Financial Review, Tuesday, September 21, 1999

######

From: Brian Inglis <Brian.dot.Inglis@SystematicSw.ab.ca>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments
Date: Sun, 07 Nov 1999 03:30:53 -0700
Organization: Systematic Software
Reply-To: Brian.dot.Inglis@SystematicSw.ab.ca
Message-ID: <RgQlOG9fjnxM=vBAto2jvBo3lhjC@4ax.com>
References: <7vf816$12e@cucumber.demon.co.uk> <359.974T2309T7545534@sky.bus.com> <495b4b10d7a__fake__address@127.0.0.1> <7vqd02$7l8$1@top.mitre.org>
X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 1.6/32.525
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
NNTP-Posting-Host: 207.148.142.103
X-Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: 207.148.142.103
X-Trace: 7 Nov 1999 03:30:54 -0700, 207.148.142.103
Lines: 27
X-Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: 204.50.1.43
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!skynet.be!howland.erols.net!newspeer.monmouth.com!nntp.cadvision.com!news.cadvision.com!207.148.142.103

On 3 Nov 1999 22:29:22 GMT, jcmorris@jmorris-pc.MITRE.ORG (Joe
Morris) wrote:

>Dave Daniels <a__fake__address@127.0.0.1> writes:
>
>>I am pretty sure I once saw a comment in some IBM code to
>>put a program into a wait state that read:
>
>>   LPSW    WAIT           SLEEP WELL, MY PRINCESS
>
>
>Somewhere in my days working with S/360 mainframes I ran across some
>kernel code that looked like this:
>
>STOP    LPSW   DISWAIT       WAIT FOREVER  
>        B      STOP          IN CASE FOREVER COMES
>
>DISWAIT DC     0D'0',X'0020000000000000'   DISABLED WAIT PSW 
>
>Joe Morris

ISTR seeing that in the VM/370 source -- DMKSAV? 
Anyone have a current source distribution they can grep? 
Thanks. Take care, Brian Inglis 	Calgary, Alberta, Canada
-- 
Brian_Inglis@CSi.com 	(Brian dot Inglis at SystematicSw dot ab dot ca)
				use address above to reply

######

From: jcmorris@jmorris-pc.MITRE.ORG (Joe Morris)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments
Date: 8 Nov 1999 22:15:08 GMT
Organization: The MITRE Corporation
Lines: 16
Message-ID: <807i1c$127$1@top.mitre.org>
References: <7vf816$12e@cucumber.demon.co.uk> <359.974T2309T7545534@sky.bus.com> <495b4b10d7a__fake__address@127.0.0.1> <7vqd02$7l8$1@top.mitre.org> <RgQlOG9fjnxM=vBAto2jvBo3lhjC@4ax.com>
Reply-To: jcmorris@linus.mitre.org
NNTP-Posting-Host: jmorris-pc.mitre.org
X-Trace: top.mitre.org 942099308 1095 128.29.251.13 (8 Nov 1999 22:15:08 GMT)
X-Complaints-To: usenet@news.mitre.org
NNTP-Posting-Date: 8 Nov 1999 22:15:08 GMT
X-Newsreader: NN version 6.5.0 (NOV)
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!skynet.be!newsfeed.stanford.edu!paloalto-snf1.gtei.net!news.gtei.net!enews.sgi.com!coop.net!world!blanket.mitre.org!news.mitre.org!jmorris-pc.MITRE.ORG!jcmorris

Brian Inglis <Brian.dot.Inglis@SystematicSw.ab.ca> writes:

>On 3 Nov 1999 22:29:22 GMT, jcmorris@jmorris-pc.MITRE.ORG (Joe
>Morris) wrote:

>>STOP    LPSW   DISWAIT       WAIT FOREVER  
>>        B      STOP          IN CASE FOREVER COMES

>ISTR seeing that in the VM/370 source -- DMKSAV? 

Probably.  I've still got a V-Bear (from VM Systems Group, founded by
one of my predecessors) in my office, and a bear given me by the
attendees at a VM Workshop several years ago, so it's not unlikely
that I've read a few lines of VM source.  <g>

Joe Morris

######

From: dhansen@btree.com (Dave Hansen)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Organization: B-Tree Systems, Inc.
Message-ID: <3826e09e.421049447@192.168.2.34>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7u4bub$al2$3@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7u5mnh$fj$1@watchdragon.demon.co.uk> <7u724c$qsd$2@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7uf9ce$t46$1@news.IAEhv.nl> <VVoTOPVmIPxbCJ8=pBIfrTorzUC3@4ax.com> <3823CF4C.4FED6595@davesworld.net>
X-Newsreader: Forte Free Agent 1.11/32.235
Lines: 26
Date: Mon, 08 Nov 1999 14:49:02 GMT
NNTP-Posting-Host: 209.32.152.113
X-Trace: newsfeed.slurp.net 942072259 209.32.152.113 (Mon, 08 Nov 1999 08:44:19 CDT)
NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 08 Nov 1999 08:44:19 CDT
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!enews.sgi.com!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newsfeed.slurp.net!not-for-mail

On Sat, 06 Nov 1999 00:48:44 -0600, Jordan Bettis
<JbettisOMIT@davesworld.net> wrote:

[...]
>
>I always have a function named HAFD (for "Have a Fine Day"). To increase
>the potential irony, it does the most hedious thing in the program. Such
>as call an abort when the shit hits the fan.

One of my first microprocessor-based projects in college (using the
venerable D2 kit) used location F0AD for an error/abort halt.

If you can't figure out the acronym, the last three words are "off and
die."  The first word isn't fit for mixed company.  It came from the
nickname (pronounced "FOE-add") we gave the polite letters from
potentential employers when they decided that your qualifications,
while impressive, did not exactly fit their needs at the moment,
though they'd keep your resume on file etc.  Finding a job in those
days wasn't quite as easy as it is today...

Regards,

                          -=Dave
Just my (10-010) cents
I can barely speak for myself, so I certainly can't speak for B-Tree.
Change is inevitable.  Progress is not.

######

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> 
      <7u4bub$al2$3@autumn.news.rcn.net> 
      <7u5mnh$fj$1@watchdragon.demon.co.uk> 
      <7u724c$qsd$2@autumn.news.rcn.net> 
      <7uf9ce$t46$1@news.IAEhv.nl> 
      <VVoTOPVmIPxbCJ8=pBIfrTorzUC3@4ax.com> 
      <3823CF4C.4FED6595@davesworld.net> 
      <3826e09e.421049447@192.168.2.34>
From: jata@aepiax.net (Julian Thomas)
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Message-ID: <38274197$1$wg$mr2ice@news.epix.net>
X-Newsreader: MR/2 Internet Cruiser Edition for OS/2 v1.72 b72 
Lines: 18
Date: Mon, 08 Nov 1999 21:33:14 GMT
NNTP-Posting-Host: 199.224.125.36
X-Complaints-To: abuse@epix.net
X-Trace: news1.epix.net 942096794 199.224.125.36 (Mon, 08 Nov 1999 16:33:14 EST)
NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 08 Nov 1999 16:33:14 EST
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!naxos.belnet.be!news.belnet.be!news-FFM2.ecrc.net!newspeer1.nac.net!netnews.com!nntp.abs.net!uunet!ffx.uu.net!news-xfer.epix.net!news1.epix.net!not-for-mail

In <3826e09e.421049447@192.168.2.34>, on 11/08/99 
   at 02:49 PM, dhansen@btree.com (Dave Hansen) said:

>One of my first microprocessor-based projects in college (using the
>venerable D2 kit) used location F0AD for an error/abort halt.

Then there's the IBM RS6000 machines which clear memory to 'DEADBEEF'
 
-- 
 Julian Thomas: jt . epix @ net  http://home.epix.net/~jt
 remove letter a for email (or switch . and @)
 Boardmember of POSSI.org - Phoenix OS/2 Society, Inc  http://www.possi.org
 In the beautiful Finger Lakes Wine Country of New York State!
 -- --
 Borrow money from pessimists--they don't expect it back.

######

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7v9bck$emm@news.rhrz.uni-bonn.de> <7v9ctp$15n8$1@nntp1.u.washington.edu> <hshubs-2810990920120001@user-33qsdsa.dialup.mindspring.com>
Organization: None
X-Newsreader: trn 4.0-test72 (19 April 1999)
From: kragen@dnaco.net (Kragen Sitaker)
Lines: 18
Message-ID: <97JV3.58551$23.2218370@typ11.nn.bcandid.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: 207.238.206.3
X-Trace: typ11.nn.bcandid.com 942104133 207.238.206.3 (Mon, 08 Nov 1999 18:35:33 EST)
NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 08 Nov 1999 18:35:33 EST
Date: Mon, 08 Nov 1999 23:35:33 GMT
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!newshunter!cosy.sbg.ac.at!newsfeed.Austria.EU.net!newscore.univie.ac.at!howland.erols.net!gate.bcandid.com.MISMATCH!gw12.nn.bcandid.com!gate.bCandid.com!hub22.nn.bcandid.com!hub12.nn.bcandid.com!typ11.nn.bcandid.com.POSTED!not-for-mail

In article <hshubs-2810990920120001@user-33qsdsa.dialup.mindspring.com>,
Howard S Shubs <hshubs@mindspring.com> wrote:
>In article <7v9ctp$15n8$1@nntp1.u.washington.edu>,
>dpeschel@u.washington.edu (Derek Peschel) wrote:
>>Tracy Kidder's _The Soul of a New Machine_ gives some non-technical insight
>
>What strikes me about that book is how it documents a poor engineering
>style.  Great book, but looking back on it, I'm not surprised the machine
>came out like it did.  I've -used- a DG Eclipse MV8000, and I found it
>seriously deficient compared to something like a VAX-11/780.

I'm interested to hear what a good engineering style looks like.  Are
there any books similar to _SOANM_ about environments with a good
engineering style, e.g. Hewlett-Packard?
-- 
<kragen@pobox.com>       Kragen Sitaker     <http://www.pobox.com/~kragen/>
The Internet stock bubble didn't burst on 1999-11-08.  Hurrah!
<URL:http://www.pobox.com/~kragen/bubble.html>

######

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <381550C0.E87F9D3F@cmc.com> <3816A6CA.48E8DB2F@mbox301.swipnet.se> <FKnJCz.Ivx@world.std.com>
Organization: None
X-Newsreader: trn 4.0-test72 (19 April 1999)
From: kragen@dnaco.net (Kragen Sitaker)
Lines: 14
Message-ID: <ngJV3.58577$23.2219974@typ11.nn.bcandid.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: 207.238.206.3
X-Trace: typ11.nn.bcandid.com 942104723 207.238.206.3 (Mon, 08 Nov 1999 18:45:23 EST)
NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 08 Nov 1999 18:45:23 EST
Date: Mon, 08 Nov 1999 23:45:23 GMT
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!newspeer.te.net!news.indigo.ie!news-out.cwix.com!newsfeed.cwix.com!gw12.nn.bcandid.com!gate.bCandid.com!hub12.nn.bcandid.com!typ11.nn.bcandid.com.POSTED!not-for-mail

In article <FKnJCz.Ivx@world.std.com>, Brian Chase <bdc@world.std.com> wrote:
>In article <3816A6CA.48E8DB2F@mbox301.swipnet.se>,
>Ronnie Sahlberg  <ronnie.sahlberg@mbox301.swipnet.se> wrote:
>> Jerker is actually an ordinary male name in sweden, I in fact have
>there was an individual making some totally benign comment about one of
>his co-workers.  The co-worker's name was Long Wang.

My stepmother's brother, who is somewhat of a joker, claims he saw
someone at a conference once bearing a nametag that read 'Sum Dum
Phuk'.  I'd guess he made it up, but it sounds plausible.
-- 
<kragen@pobox.com>       Kragen Sitaker     <http://www.pobox.com/~kragen/>
The Internet stock bubble didn't burst on 1999-11-08.  Hurrah!
<URL:http://www.pobox.com/~kragen/bubble.html>

######

From: genew@shuswap.net (Gene Wirchenko)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Tue, 09 Nov 1999 07:45:18 GMT
Organization: Okanagan Internet Junction
Lines: 30
Message-ID: <3827b16f.45007616@news.shuswap.net>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7v744g$e17$1@eve.enteract.com> <01bf2097$caab07a0$e12ac222@my0250> <7v9bck$emm@news.rhrz.uni-bonn.de> <7v9ctp$15n8$1@nntp1.u.washington.edu> <hshubs-2810990920120001@user-33qsdsa.dialup.mindspring.com>
Reply-To: genew@shuswap.net
NNTP-Posting-Host: salmonarm3-19.shuswap.net
X-Trace: news.junction.net 942133454 14250 206.87.124.101 (9 Nov 1999 07:44:14 GMT)
X-Complaints-To: abuse@junction.net
NNTP-Posting-Date: 9 Nov 1999 07:44:14 GMT
X-Newsreader: Forte Free Agent 1.1/32.230
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!newsfeeds.belnet.be!news.belnet.be!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newsfeed.direct.ca!newsfeed.bctel.net!news.junction.net!not-for-mail

hshubs@mindspring.com (Howard S Shubs) wrote:

>In article <7v9ctp$15n8$1@nntp1.u.washington.edu>,
>dpeschel@u.washington.edu (Derek Peschel) wrote:
>
>>Tracy Kidder's _The Soul of a New Machine_ gives some non-technical insight
>>into a Data General machine (not the Nova -- maybe the Eclipse?) from an
>>insider's point of view.  You learn about things like writing microcode and
>>wire-wrapping boards and so on. 
>
>What strikes me about that book is how it documents a poor engineering
>style.  Great book, but looking back on it, I'm not surprised the machine
>came out like it did.  I've -used- a DG Eclipse MV8000, and I found it
>seriously deficient compared to something like a VAX-11/780.

     Great book indeed.  I recently saw a copy in a local used
bookstore and grabbed it quickly for my personal library.

     I am curious about the poor engineering style.  Could you give an
example of good engineering style in computers?  A pointer to a book
would be nice, too.

Sincerely,

Gene Wirchenko

Computerese Irregular Verb Conjugation:
     I have preferences.
     You have biases.
     He/She has prejudices.

######

From: hshubs@mindspring.com (Howard S Shubs)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Tue, 09 Nov 1999 09:25:04 -0600
Organization: MindSpring Enterprises
Lines: 16
Message-ID: <hshubs-0911990925040001@user-33qsca8.dialup.mindspring.com>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7v744g$e17$1@eve.enteract.com> <01bf2097$caab07a0$e12ac222@my0250> <7v9bck$emm@news.rhrz.uni-bonn.de> <7v9ctp$15n8$1@nntp1.u.washington.edu> <hshubs-2810990920120001@user-33qsdsa.dialup.mindspring.com> <3827b16f.45007616@news.shuswap.net>
NNTP-Posting-Host: c7.ae.31.48
X-Server-Date: 9 Nov 1999 15:25:06 GMT
Mail-Copies-To: never
X-Newsreader: MT-NewsWatcher 2.4.4
X-Face: "S"r{U%bs].&Ud}Pc~<qT-k!*znQD|gj[,+)#DaY~AsjVL[UlRXi&y]]1#_De
        VoZ=w,7@[GOQ'x"{;Ee<>~~0a]M:t5l>>EN\1Faw10M9NK1Xq59wo7-"s0S+[{etQorO
        /Nf-Ci"i9v'MT!R8)J]N[4|2&x1r^Iq&{SB"6dknr0=+6UFb.>+{zMn_1=rw&/V+"d@*
        ZS5\LoW_
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!skynet.be!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!news.mindspring.net!newsfeed.mindspring.net!firehose.mindspring.com!hshubs

In article <3827b16f.45007616@news.shuswap.net>, genew@shuswap.net wrote:

>     I am curious about the poor engineering style.  Could you give an
>example of good engineering style in computers?  A pointer to a book
>would be nice, too.

I'm thinking of the way the hardware people seemed to treat the software
people as people-to-be-appeased, not as people-to-be-worked-with.  Seems
to me that would generate a system which might happen to work together,
not one -designed- to work together, as with the VAX-11/780 and VMS
combination.  As I understand it, even DG replaced this machine fairly
quickly with the 10000 model.
-- 
Howard S Shubs      hshubs@mindspring.com    hshubs@bix.com
The Denim Adept     Is this the right room for an argument?
SPAM: uce@ftc.gov   postmaster@[127.0.0.1]   abuse@[127.0.0.1]

######

From: hshubs@mindspring.com (Howard S Shubs)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Tue, 09 Nov 1999 09:26:32 -0600
Organization: MindSpring Enterprises
Lines: 14
Message-ID: <hshubs-0911990926320001@user-33qsca8.dialup.mindspring.com>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <381550C0.E87F9D3F@cmc.com> <3816A6CA.48E8DB2F@mbox301.swipnet.se> <FKnJCz.Ivx@world.std.com> <ngJV3.58577$23.2219974@typ11.nn.bcandid.com> <8098tj$l0g$1@ausnews.austin.ibm.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: c7.ae.31.48
X-Server-Date: 9 Nov 1999 15:26:33 GMT
Mail-Copies-To: never
X-Newsreader: MT-NewsWatcher 2.4.4
X-Face: "S"r{U%bs].&Ud}Pc~<qT-k!*znQD|gj[,+)#DaY~AsjVL[UlRXi&y]]1#_De
        VoZ=w,7@[GOQ'x"{;Ee<>~~0a]M:t5l>>EN\1Faw10M9NK1Xq59wo7-"s0S+[{etQorO
        /Nf-Ci"i9v'MT!R8)J]N[4|2&x1r^Iq&{SB"6dknr0=+6UFb.>+{zMn_1=rw&/V+"d@*
        ZS5\LoW_
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news-fra1.dfn.de!bignews.mediaways.net!remarQ-easT!remarQ.com!supernews.com!news.mindspring.net!firehose.mindspring.com!hshubs

In article <8098tj$l0g$1@ausnews.austin.ibm.com>, wa4qal@vnet.ibm.net wrote:

>But, to put this back on track, has anyone ever noticed how few names
>have been derrived from computer terms?  For example, is there a Mr. Disk
>out there?  What about a Miss Tape?  Or, a Mrs. Terminal.  Has there just
>not been enough time since the beginning of the computer age for people to
>take names from computers?

How about a Miss Taik?  And I've heard of a Mr. Vibrating, though that was
in Monty Python.
-- 
Howard S Shubs      hshubs@mindspring.com    hshubs@bix.com
The Denim Adept     Is this the right room for an argument?
SPAM: uce@ftc.gov   postmaster@[127.0.0.1]   abuse@[127.0.0.1]

######

From: jmfbahciv@aol.com
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Tue, 09 Nov 99 10:40:12 GMT
Organization: UltraNet Communications, Inc.
Lines: 22
Message-ID: <809249$bh4$1@autumn.news.rcn.net>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7u4bub$al2$3@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7u5mnh$fj$1@watchdragon.demon.co.uk> <7u724c$qsd$2@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7uf9ce$t46$1@news.IAEhv.nl> <VVoTOPVmIPxbCJ8=pBIfrTorzUC3@4ax.com> <3823CF4C.4FED6595@davesworld.net> <3826e09e.421049447@192.168.2.34>
X-Trace: RghEUdNsd0vhAH8Jd3D5F+KoyKnFiXuy08WQdESBfEE=
X-Complaints-To: abuse@rcn.com
NNTP-Posting-Date: 9 Nov 1999 11:55:53 GMT
X-Newsreader:  News Xpress Version 1.0 Beta #4
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news-fra1.dfn.de!news-fra.pop.de!newsfeed.tli.de!remarQ-easT!remarQ.com!supernews.com!nntp.abs.net!netnews.com!feed1.news.rcn.net!rcn!d2

In article <3826e09e.421049447@192.168.2.34>,
   dhansen@btree.com (Dave Hansen) wrote:
>On Sat, 06 Nov 1999 00:48:44 -0600, Jordan Bettis
><JbettisOMIT@davesworld.net> wrote:

>>I always have a function named HAFD (for "Have a Fine Day"). To increase
>>the potential irony, it does the most hedious thing in the program. Such
>>as call an abort when the shit hits the fan.
>
>One of my first microprocessor-based projects in college (using the
>venerable D2 kit) used location F0AD for an error/abort halt.
>
>If you can't figure out the acronym, the last three words are "off and
>die."  The first word isn't fit for mixed company.

<snip>

Sigh!  That's too bad.  Men do have such thin skins :-).

/BAH

Subtract a hundred and four for e-mail.

######

From: glass2@glass2.lexington.ibm.com
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 9 Nov 1999 13:51:47 GMT
Organization: IBM Austin
Lines: 32
Message-ID: <8098tj$l0g$1@ausnews.austin.ibm.com>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <381550C0.E87F9D3F@cmc.com> <3816A6CA.48E8DB2F@mbox301.swipnet.se> <FKnJCz.Ivx@world.std.com> <ngJV3.58577$23.2219974@typ11.nn.bcandid.com>
Reply-To: wa4qal@vnet.ibm.net
NNTP-Posting-Host: glass2.cv.lexington.ibm.com
X-Newsreader: IBM NewsReader/2 2.0
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!newsfeeds.belnet.be!news.belnet.be!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!news.idt.net!nyd.news.ans.net!abq.news.ans.net!news-w.ans.net!news.chips.ibm.com!newsfeed.btv.ibm.com!news2atm!ausnews.austin.ibm.com!not-for-mail

In <ngJV3.58577$23.2219974@typ11.nn.bcandid.com>, kragen@dnaco.net (Kragen Sitaker) writes:
>In article <FKnJCz.Ivx@world.std.com>, Brian Chase <bdc@world.std.com> wrote:
>>In article <3816A6CA.48E8DB2F@mbox301.swipnet.se>,
>>Ronnie Sahlberg  <ronnie.sahlberg@mbox301.swipnet.se> wrote:
>>> Jerker is actually an ordinary male name in sweden, I in fact have
>>there was an individual making some totally benign comment about one of
>>his co-workers.  The co-worker's name was Long Wang.
>
>My stepmother's brother, who is somewhat of a joker, claims he saw
>someone at a conference once bearing a nametag that read 'Sum Dum
>Phuk'.  I'd guess he made it up, but it sounds plausible.
>--
><kragen@pobox.com>       Kragen Sitaker     <http://www.pobox.com/~kragen/>
>The Internet stock bubble didn't burst on 1999-11-08.  Hurrah!
><URL:http://www.pobox.com/~kragen/bubble.html>

It's too bad I don't have any kids.  I could come up with some pretty
interesting names with Glass as a surname.  For example, Amber, Brandy,
Crystal....

Umm, on second thought, maybe it's a good thing I don't have any kids.  :*)

But, to put this back on track, has anyone ever noticed how few names
have been derrived from computer terms?  For example, is there a Mr. Disk
out there?  What about a Miss Tape?  Or, a Mrs. Terminal.  Has there just
not been enough time since the beginning of the computer age for people to
take names from computers?

Dave

P.S. Standard Disclaimer: I work for them, but I don't speak for them.

######

From: mww@merant.com (Michael Wojcik)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments
Date: 9 Nov 1999 23:02:06 GMT
Organization: MERANT Inc.
Lines: 36
Message-ID: <80a95e$1e11@news1.newsguy.com>
References: <7vf816$12e@cucumber.demon.co.uk> <359.974T2309T7545534@sky.bus.com> <7vmiia$kqi$1@autumn.news.rcn.net> <sy1za5zjg5.fsf@tiktok.cygnus.com> <jstU3.2215$rK2.161783@ptah.visi.com>
Reply-To: michael.wojcik@merant.com
NNTP-Posting-Host: p-016.newsdawg.com
X-Newsreader: xrn 9.00
Originator: mww@lorelei-n
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!newspeer.te.net!news.indigo.ie!news-out.cwix.com!newsfeed.cwix.com!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!enews.sgi.com!pln-w!spln!extra.newsguy.com!newsp.newsguy.com!mww


In article <jstU3.2215$rK2.161783@ptah.visi.com>, seebs@plethora.net (Peter Seebach) writes:
> In article <sy1za5zjg5.fsf@tiktok.cygnus.com>,
> Michael Meissner  <meissner@cygnus.com> wrote:
> >/* Pre-C-Preprocessor to translate ANSI trigraph idiocy in BUF
> >   before main CCCP processing.  Name `pcp' is also in honor of the
> >   drugs the trigraph designers must have been on.
> 
> ROFL!  Of course, PCP's probably wouldn't have produced trigraphs.  I'm
> thinking they're more an LSD kind of thing, maybe, but I admit to having no
> useful clue.

Personally, I've always felt the Gnu developers' trigraph resentment
was a little childish.  ANSI doesn't force you to use the damn things,
they're not particularly difficult to handle in the compiler (whining
comments notwithstanding), and they can really come in handy when you
need to do some Q&D coding on a machine without the full complement
of Wacky C Punctuation on the keyboard.  Like an AS/400 5250 terminal,
for example.

Believe me, the AS/400 + 5250 combination is trying enough.  Having
to look up the EBCDIC hex codes for square brackets and tildes (in
your current code page, no less) just to cobble together a little
test program or try out a one-line patch doesn't help.


--
Michael Wojcik          	        michael.wojcik@merant.com
AAI Development, MERANT                 (block capitals are a company mandate)
Department of English, Miami University

He smiled and let his gaze fall to hers, so that her cheek began to
glow.  Ecstatically she waited until his mouth slowly neared her own.
She knew only one thing: rdoeniadtrgove niardgoverdgovnrdgog.
   -- Badische Presse

######

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments
References: <7vf816$12e@cucumber.demon.co.uk> <sy1za5zjg5.fsf@tiktok.cygnus.com> <jstU3.2215$rK2.161783@ptah.visi.com> <80a95e$1e11@news1.newsguy.com>
Organization: Plethora . Net - More net, less spam!
X-Newsreader: trn 4.0-test70 (17 January 1999)
From: seebs@plethora.net (Peter Seebach)
Lines: 27
Message-ID: <sk3W3.4210$rK2.305749@ptah.visi.com>
Date: Wed, 10 Nov 1999 00:51:36 GMT
NNTP-Posting-Host: 205.166.146.8
X-Complaints-To: abuse@plethora.net
X-Trace: ptah.visi.com 942195096 205.166.146.8 (Tue, 09 Nov 1999 18:51:36 CST)
NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 09 Nov 1999 18:51:36 CST
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!enews.sgi.com!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!hermes.visi.com!news-out.visi.com!ptah.visi.com!not-for-mail

In article <80a95e$1e11@news1.newsguy.com>,
Michael Wojcik <michael.wojcik@merant.com> wrote:
>Personally, I've always felt the Gnu developers' trigraph resentment
>was a little childish.  ANSI doesn't force you to use the damn things,
>they're not particularly difficult to handle in the compiler (whining
>comments notwithstanding), and they can really come in handy when you
>need to do some Q&D coding on a machine without the full complement
>of Wacky C Punctuation on the keyboard.  Like an AS/400 5250 terminal,
>for example.

The problem is, more code uses ??{something} by accident than uses trigraphs.

Real code used ??{foo} already.

>Believe me, the AS/400 + 5250 combination is trying enough.  Having
>to look up the EBCDIC hex codes for square brackets and tildes (in
>your current code page, no less) just to cobble together a little
>test program or try out a one-line patch doesn't help.

True enough.  I've also seen mainframe compilers that took (| |) for [].

-s
-- 
Copyright 1999, All rights reserved.  Peter Seebach / seebs@plethora.net
C/Unix wizard, Pro-commerce radical, Spam fighter.  Boycott Spamazon!
Will work for interesting hardware.  http://www.plethora.net/~seebs/
Visit my new ISP <URL:http://www.plethora.net/> --- More Net, Less Spam!

######

From: dg@pearl.tao.co.uk (David Given)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments
Date: Wed, 10 Nov 1999 11:44:41 +0100
Organization: I'm organised? Wow!
Lines: 26
Message-ID: <9rlb08.0mm.ln@127.0.0.1>
References: <7vf816$12e@cucumber.demon.co.uk>
    <sy1za5zjg5.fsf@tiktok.cygnus.com>
    <jstU3.2215$rK2.161783@ptah.visi.com> <80a95e$1e11@news1.newsguy.com>
    <sk3W3.4210$rK2.305749@ptah.visi.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: 212.19.67.123
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
X-Trace: 942243983 IIX5YQT0T437BD413C uk21.supernews.com
X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@remarq.com
X-Newsreader: knews 1.0b.1
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!newsfeeds.belnet.be!news.belnet.be!newsfeed.icl.net!newspeer.clara.net!news.clara.net!remarQ-uK!rQdQ!supernews.com!remarQ.com!remarQ69!127.0.0.1!nobody

In article <sk3W3.4210$rK2.305749@ptah.visi.com>,
	seebs@plethora.net (Peter Seebach) writes:
[...]
> The problem is, more code uses ??{something} by accident than uses trigraphs.
> 
> Real code used ??{foo} already.

Been there, done that, wasted several hours before I realised what was
going on. DIE, TRIGRAPHS, DIE!!

>>Believe me, the AS/400 + 5250 combination is trying enough.  Having
>>to look up the EBCDIC hex codes for square brackets and tildes (in
>>your current code page, no less) just to cobble together a little
>>test program or try out a one-line patch doesn't help.
> 
> True enough.  I've also seen mainframe compilers that took (| |) for [].

Provided they're implemented as a real operator, rather than the nasty
text-substitution that trigraphs use, this isn't too bad: they're at least
unambiguous.

-- 
+- David Given ---------------McQ-+ "Pigs have wings, making them hard to
|  Work: dg@tao-group.com         | catch." --- Diana Wynne Jones, _Archer's
|  Play: dgiven@iname.com         | Goon_                                       
+- http://wired.st-and.ac.uk/~dg -+ 

######

From: Paul Jarc <prj@po.cwru.edu>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 09 Nov 1999 17:53:48 -0500
Organization: What did you have in mind?  A short, blunt, human pyramid?
Lines: 14
Message-ID: <m3n1snxon7.fsf@multivac.student.cwru.edu>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7u4bub$al2$3@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7u5mnh$fj$1@watchdragon.demon.co.uk> <7u724c$qsd$2@autumn.news.rcn.net> <7uf9ce$t46$1@news.IAEhv.nl> <VVoTOPVmIPxbCJ8=pBIfrTorzUC3@4ax.com> <3823CF4C.4FED6595@davesworld.net> <3826e09e.421049447@192.168.2.34>
NNTP-Posting-Host: multivac.student.cwru.edu
X-Newsreader: Gnus v5.5/Emacs 20.3
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!skynet.be!newsfeed.stanford.edu!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news.cis.ohio-state.edu!nntp.service.ohio-state.edu!usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu!not-for-mail

dhansen@btree.com (Dave Hansen) writes:
> One of my first microprocessor-based projects in college (using the
> venerable D2 kit) used location F0AD for an error/abort halt.
> 
> If you can't figure out the acronym, the last three words are "off and
> die."  The first word isn't fit for mixed company.

An alternative expansion, differing only in the first word and
describing one method that a daemon process can use to make itself
less obtrusive, is less objectionable, though it is often used for its
suggestion of the other.


paul

######

Sender: meissner@tiktok.cygnus.com
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7v744g$e17$1@eve.enteract.com> <01bf2097$caab07a0$e12ac222@my0250> <7v9bck$emm@news.rhrz.uni-bonn.de> <7v9ctp$15n8$1@nntp1.u.washington.edu> <hshubs-2810990920120001@user-33qsdsa.dialup.mindspring.com> <3827b16f.45007616@news.shuswap.net> <hshubs-0911990925040001@user-33qsca8.dialup.mindspring.com>
From: Michael Meissner <meissner@cygnus.com>
Message-ID: <sy4sev46ky.fsf@tiktok.cygnus.com>
Organization: Cygnus Solutions
Lines: 77
X-Newsreader: Gnus v5.7/Emacs 20.4
Date: 09 Nov 1999 17:56:45 -0500
NNTP-Posting-Host: 209.192.197.34
X-Complaints-To: abuse@shore.net
X-Trace: news.shore.net 942188207 209.192.197.34 (Tue, 09 Nov 1999 17:56:47 EST)
NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 09 Nov 1999 17:56:47 EST
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!skynet.be!newspump.monmouth.com!newspeer.monmouth.com!news.shore.net!not-for-mail

hshubs@mindspring.com (Howard S Shubs) writes:

> I'm thinking of the way the hardware people seemed to treat the software
> people as people-to-be-appeased, not as people-to-be-worked-with.  Seems
> to me that would generate a system which might happen to work together,
> not one -designed- to work together, as with the VAX-11/780 and VMS
> combination.  As I understand it, even DG replaced this machine fairly
> quickly with the 10000 model.

While the languages people were in general not consulted on the hardware design
of DG computers, I don't understand comment about the 10000 model.  From the
user level, the MV/10000 was identical to the MV/8000 as were other members of
the family (modulo the usual scheduling/timing information).  During the era
when the MV/Eclipses were viable, DG generally tried to have an obvious high
end machine with the racing stripes and high price tag, an obvious low end
machine that was the cheapest, and sometimes a medium speed machine.  The
formula that they generally liked, was the next high end machine would be 2x
the previous high end machine, and the next low end machine would be 1/2 the
cost of the previous machine.  The first generation of MV's were the MV/8000
for the high end, and the MV/6000 for the low end (the 6000 was essentially a
MV/8000 in a smaller form factor), and both were ~ DEC 780 performance.  The
second generation was the MV/10000 (2x a MV/8000) and MV/4000 (1/2x MV/8000,
meant to compete with the DEC 750).  The third generation was the MV/20000 and
the MV/7800.  The fourth generation had the MV/40000 and my memory is blanking
on the low end part which used the micro-MV/eclipse.  There was talk of a fifth
generation, but I lost track of it when I left DG.

The theory behind the numbering scheme was the higher the number, the better
the performance.  There was a lot of consternation about the MV/7800, which had
a high speed FPU unit (MV/8000 class), but a relatively wimpy integer unit
(MV/4000 class).  At the time, the standard DG used for performance was
Whetstone, which is primarily floating point.  However, the primary customers
for the machine used Business Basic and Icobol, both of which used only integer
arithmetic.  So, they picked the name because because it was close to MV/8000
performance, and a lot of customers got angry because it was really closer to
MV/4000 for their apps.  This caused a lot of teeth gnashing and so forth, and
eventually DG decided to switch to use Dhrystone (which is integer only) for
their ultimate measure of performance.

So a year or two after this decision is made, DG is having problems with its
compiler vendor for the 88k AViiON.  It goes all the way to the top, and we
search around for alternate solutions.  I am somewhat out of the loop, being at
the time primarily an MV guy, but I have a Sun workstation to help in the
porting.  I am looking for something to make emacs faster and come across this
compiler GCC.  I notice that it has a 1/2 done port to the 88k, and bring this
to my management's attention.  Eventually, we are able to convince the lawyers
and upper management that the GPL wouldn't destroy the company, etc. and so we
were given the go ahead to finish the port.  Originally the plan was to use the
other compiler to build stuff, but to release the GCC compiler with the OS for
those customers that needed to build stuff without paying an additional
compiler fee (I believe the other compiler would be offered for sale for an
additional fee).  However, GCC had to be in the same ballpark as the other
compiler (10 or 20 percent slower was acceptable, but 100 percent slower would
not have been).  So the mid level manager who staked everything on this GCC
compiler asks us to run dhrystone and compare the results, and the other
compiler comes in at 31,000 dhrystones while GCC came in at 17,000 dhrystones.
Utter disaster.  This leaves the mid level manager afraid that his neck will be
on the chopping block, so the orders come down to investigate the difference,
and see what can be done before the manager has to appear at some high level
meeting.  So we look at the dhrystone in some depth, and at the code the other
compiler generates.  Hmmm, GCC was generally doing better on register
assignment, but there is a strcpy of a constant 31 byte string in the middle of
the loop that the other compiler generated inline load/stores for.  Well, two
can play that game, and we code up support for the strcpy builtin within GCC
that converts a strcpy of a string constant into a memcpy, which in turn can be
optimized for length/alignments.  Bingo, the dhrystone number is ~ 34,000,
easily faster than the other compiler.  I don't think we got the compiler
changes done before the meeting, but we changed the assembler by hand to see if
that section of code was performance critical, and indeed it was.  After I left
DG, Tom Wood and then Stax Cox made it the fastest compiler on the 88k hardware
in all cases, and not just dhrystone.....  And ten years later, I am still
hacking on GCC....

-- 
Michael Meissner, Cygnus Solutions
PMB 198, 174 Littleton Road #3, Westford, Massachusetts 01886
email: meissner@cygnus.com	phone: 978-486-9304	fax: 978-692-4482

######

From: viro@weyl.math.psu.edu (Alexander Viro)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 9 Nov 1999 18:14:40 -0500
Organization: -ENOENT
Lines: 20
Message-ID: <80a9t0$ca8@weyl.math.psu.edu>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <3823CF4C.4FED6595@davesworld.net> <3826e09e.421049447@192.168.2.34> <m3n1snxon7.fsf@multivac.student.cwru.edu>
NNTP-Posting-Host: weyl.math.psu.edu
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!skynet.be!newsfeed.stanford.edu!news.ems.psu.edu!news3.cac.psu.edu!not-for-mail

In article <m3n1snxon7.fsf@multivac.student.cwru.edu>,
Paul Jarc  <prj@po.cwru.edu> wrote:
>dhansen@btree.com (Dave Hansen) writes:
>> One of my first microprocessor-based projects in college (using the
>> venerable D2 kit) used location F0AD for an error/abort halt.
>> 
>> If you can't figure out the acronym, the last three words are "off and
>> die."  The first word isn't fit for mixed company.
>
>An alternative expansion, differing only in the first word and
>describing one method that a daemon process can use to make itself
>less obtrusive, is less objectionable, though it is often used for its
>suggestion of the other.

YMMV, but creation of additional lusers is the _last_ thing I wish when I
use that acronym...

-- 
"You're one of those condescending Unix computer users!"
"Here's a nickel, kid.  Get yourself a better computer" - Dilbert.

######

From: mww@merant.com (Michael Wojcik)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 9 Nov 1999 22:57:19 GMT
Organization: MERANT Inc.
Lines: 29
Message-ID: <80a8sf$2ar9@news2.newsguy.com>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com>        <7u4bub$al2$3@autumn.news.rcn.net>        <7u5mnh$fj$1@watchdragon.demon.co.uk>        <7u724c$qsd$2@autumn.news.rcn.net>        <7uf9ce$t46$1@news.IAEhv.nl>        <VVoTOPVmIPxbCJ8=pBIfrTorzUC3@4ax.com>        <3823CF4C.4FED6595@davesworld.net>        <3826e09e.421049447@192.168.2.34> <38274197$1$wg$mr2ice@news.epix.net>
Reply-To: michael.wojcik@merant.com
NNTP-Posting-Host: p-768.newsdawg.com
X-Newsreader: xrn 9.00
Originator: mww@lorelei-n
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!newspeer.te.net!news.indigo.ie!news-out.cwix.com!newsfeed.cwix.com!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!pln-w!spln!extra.newsguy.com!newsp.newsguy.com!mww


In article <38274197$1$wg$mr2ice@news.epix.net>, jata@aepiax.net (Julian Thomas) writes:
> In <3826e09e.421049447@192.168.2.34>, on 11/08/99 
>    at 02:49 PM, dhansen@btree.com (Dave Hansen) said:
> 
> >One of my first microprocessor-based projects in college (using the
> >venerable D2 kit) used location F0AD for an error/abort halt.
> 
> Then there's the IBM RS6000 machines which clear memory to 'DEADBEEF'

They also set uninitialized branch addresses to hex 0badca11.

'deadbeef' and similar hex-words were apparently not an invention
of the IBM Austin team.  No doubt there have been a.f.c threads on
the subject, probably within the Deja retrieval window.

A Deja search will also turn up my master list of English words you
can (more or less) spell in 32-bit hexadecimal.  I also posted a
short list of attempts to transcribe Japanese (in romaaji) in hex,
but that proved somewhat less felicitous.


--
Michael Wojcik          	        michael.wojcik@merant.com
AAI Development, MERANT                 (block capitals are a company mandate)
Department of English, Miami University

Vinegar keeps more flies away than honey does.

######

From: phil@ricochet.net (phil)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Wed, 10 Nov 1999 07:39:11 GMT
Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com
Lines: 26
Message-ID: <382913e2.10601984@news.ricochet.net>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7v744g$e17$1@eve.enteract.com> <01bf2097$caab07a0$e12ac222@my0250> <7v9bck$emm@news.rhrz.uni-bonn.de> <7v9ctp$15n8$1@nntp1.u.washington.edu> <hshubs-2810990920120001@user-33qsdsa.dialup.mindspring.com> <3827b16f.45007616@news.shuswap.net> <hshubs-0911990925040001@user-33qsca8.dialup.mindspring.com>
X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com
X-Newsreader: Forte Free Agent 1.11/32.235
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newsswitch.lcs.mit.edu!remarQ-easT!rQdQ!supernews.com!remarQ.com!corp.supernews.com!not-for-mail

On Tue, 09 Nov 1999 09:25:04 -0600, hshubs@mindspring.com (Howard S
Shubs) wrote:

>In article <3827b16f.45007616@news.shuswap.net>, genew@shuswap.net wrote:
>
>>     I am curious about the poor engineering style.  Could you give an
>>example of good engineering style in computers?  A pointer to a book
>>would be nice, too.
>
>I'm thinking of the way the hardware people seemed to treat the software
>people as people-to-be-appeased, not as people-to-be-worked-with.  Seems
>to me that would generate a system which might happen to work together,
>not one -designed- to work together, as with the VAX-11/780 and VMS
>combination.  As I understand it, even DG replaced this machine fairly
>quickly with the 10000 model.

Strange. I both picked up a copy of the book at a local book discount
store last weekend (Gene's post) and was wondering the same thing (the
software guys sort of just turned up and wrote an O/S?). I think it
was more that he was telling a story, and there was a second one if
he'd wanted.

phil.

The world is divided into two sorts of people: those that think the
world is divided into two sorts of people and those that don't.

######

From: hshubs@mindspring.com (Howard S Shubs)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Wed, 10 Nov 1999 09:21:27 -0600
Organization: MindSpring Enterprises
Lines: 17
Message-ID: <hshubs-1011990921270001@user-33qscjt.dialup.mindspring.com>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7v744g$e17$1@eve.enteract.com> <01bf2097$caab07a0$e12ac222@my0250> <7v9bck$emm@news.rhrz.uni-bonn.de> <7v9ctp$15n8$1@nntp1.u.washington.edu> <hshubs-2810990920120001@user-33qsdsa.dialup.mindspring.com> <3827b16f.45007616@news.shuswap.net> <hshubs-0911990925040001@user-33qsca8.dialup.mindspring.com> <382913e2.10601984@news.ricochet.net>
NNTP-Posting-Host: c7.ae.32.7d
X-Server-Date: 10 Nov 1999 15:21:28 GMT
Mail-Copies-To: never
X-Newsreader: MT-NewsWatcher 2.4.4
X-Face: "S"r{U%bs].&Ud}Pc~<qT-k!*znQD|gj[,+)#DaY~AsjVL[UlRXi&y]]1#_De
        VoZ=w,7@[GOQ'x"{;Ee<>~~0a]M:t5l>>EN\1Faw10M9NK1Xq59wo7-"s0S+[{etQorO
        /Nf-Ci"i9v'MT!R8)J]N[4|2&x1r^Iq&{SB"6dknr0=+6UFb.>+{zMn_1=rw&/V+"d@*
        ZS5\LoW_
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news-fra1.dfn.de!fu-berlin.de!news-FFM2.ecrc.net!news.mindspring.net!firehose.mindspring.com!hshubs

In article <382913e2.10601984@news.ricochet.net>, phil@ricochet.net (phil)
wrote:

>Strange. I both picked up a copy of the book at a local book discount
>store last weekend (Gene's post) and was wondering the same thing (the
>software guys sort of just turned up and wrote an O/S?). I think it
>was more that he was telling a story, and there was a second one if
>he'd wanted.

From what I remember, it was like they had to produce an instruction set
that the software people would like.  Didn't seem to occur to them to
-work with- the software people on the functionality they would like to
see in the CPU.
-- 
Howard S Shubs      hshubs@mindspring.com    hshubs@bix.com
The Denim Adept     Is this the right room for an argument?
SPAM: uce@ftc.gov   postmaster@[127.0.0.1]   abuse@[127.0.0.1]

######

From: Paul Jarc <prj@po.cwru.edu>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 10 Nov 1999 12:42:14 -0500
Organization: What did you have in mind?  A short, blunt, human pyramid?
Lines: 23
Message-ID: <m3hfiu5jm1.fsf@multivac.student.cwru.edu>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <3823CF4C.4FED6595@davesworld.net> <3826e09e.421049447@192.168.2.34> <m3n1snxon7.fsf@multivac.student.cwru.edu> <80a9t0$ca8@weyl.math.psu.edu>
NNTP-Posting-Host: multivac.student.cwru.edu
X-Newsreader: Gnus v5.5/Emacs 20.3
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news.maxwell.syr.edu!news.cis.ohio-state.edu!nntp.service.ohio-state.edu!usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu!not-for-mail

viro@weyl.math.psu.edu (Alexander Viro) writes:
> In article <m3n1snxon7.fsf@multivac.student.cwru.edu>,
> Paul Jarc  <prj@po.cwru.edu> wrote:
> >dhansen@btree.com (Dave Hansen) writes:
> >> One of my first microprocessor-based projects in college (using the
> >> venerable D2 kit) used location F0AD for an error/abort halt.
> >> 
> >> If you can't figure out the acronym, the last three words are "off and
> >> die."  The first word isn't fit for mixed company.
> >
> >An alternative expansion, differing only in the first word and
> >describing one method that a daemon process can use to make itself
> >less obtrusive, is less objectionable, though it is often used for its
> >suggestion of the other.
> 
> YMMV, but creation of additional lusers is the _last_ thing I wish when I
> use that acronym...

That's what the "AD" part is for.  It makes for an easy interpretation
as "go be someone else's problem, and stop being mine".


paul

######

Sender: meissner@tiktok.cygnus.com
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments
References: <7vf816$12e@cucumber.demon.co.uk> <sy1za5zjg5.fsf@tiktok.cygnus.com> <jstU3.2215$rK2.161783@ptah.visi.com> <80a95e$1e11@news1.newsguy.com> <sk3W3.4210$rK2.305749@ptah.visi.com> <9rlb08.0mm.ln@127.0.0.1> <80cfho$134v@news2.newsguy.com>
From: Michael Meissner <meissner@cygnus.com>
Message-ID: <syyac6xebq.fsf@tiktok.cygnus.com>
Organization: Cygnus Solutions
Lines: 44
X-Newsreader: Gnus v5.7/Emacs 20.4
Date: 10 Nov 1999 15:48:57 -0500
NNTP-Posting-Host: 209.192.197.34
X-Complaints-To: abuse@shore.net
X-Trace: news.shore.net 942266940 209.192.197.34 (Wed, 10 Nov 1999 15:49:00 EST)
NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 10 Nov 1999 15:49:00 EST
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!news.datacomm.ch!newscore.gigabell.net!feeder.via.net!newsfeed.wli.net!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!cyclone.swbell.net!bos-service1.ext.raytheon.com!cambridge1-snf1.gtei.net!news.gtei.net!news.shore.net!not-for-mail

mww@merant.com (Michael Wojcik) writes:

> In article <9rlb08.0mm.ln@127.0.0.1>, dg@pearl.tao.co.uk (David Given) writes:
> > In article <sk3W3.4210$rK2.305749@ptah.visi.com>,
> > 	seebs@plethora.net (Peter Seebach) writes:
> > [...]
> > >>Believe me, the AS/400 + 5250 combination is trying enough.  Having
> > >>to look up the EBCDIC hex codes for square brackets and tildes (in
> > >>your current code page, no less) just to cobble together a little
> > >>test program or try out a one-line patch doesn't help.
> > > 
> > > True enough.  I've also seen mainframe compilers that took (| |) for [].
> > 
> > Provided they're implemented as a real operator, rather than the nasty
> > text-substitution that trigraphs use, this isn't too bad: they're at least
> > unambiguous.
> 
> The "nasty text-substitution" does let you employ trigraph substi-
> tutions in quoted strings and characters, which is often useful - eg.
> when emitting source code.  Of course, that's where it's usually a
> problem for existing code.

Particularly since '\' is one of the characters that needs to have a trigraph
replacement.  If it wasn't for that, the rules likely would have been
different.

> Of course, we could debate the relative merits of using nearly every
> punctuation mark on the designer's keyboard when inventing a
> programming language syntax in the first place.  Personally, I'd
> put at least some of the blame on IBM for EBCDIC's deficiencies for
> C programming (square brackets are common English punctuation; the
> PL/I "not" symbol is not, and EBCDIC keyboards typically have at
> least a few "dead" keys that could be used for the missing glyphs)
> - but that wouldn't help people using ISO code pages that have the
> same problem.

Support of 7 bit ISO code pages actually had more influence than EBCDIC on the
final trigraph (and now digraph) 'solutions'.  International politics also had
a big influence :-)

-- 
Michael Meissner, Cygnus Solutions
PMB 198, 174 Littleton Road #3, Westford, Massachusetts 01886
email: meissner@cygnus.com	phone: 978-486-9304	fax: 978-692-4482

######

From: mww@merant.com (Michael Wojcik)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments
Date: 10 Nov 1999 19:03:20 GMT
Organization: MERANT Inc.
Lines: 47
Message-ID: <80cfho$134v@news2.newsguy.com>
References: <7vf816$12e@cucumber.demon.co.uk>     <sy1za5zjg5.fsf@tiktok.cygnus.com>     <jstU3.2215$rK2.161783@ptah.visi.com> <80a95e$1e11@news1.newsguy.com>     <sk3W3.4210$rK2.305749@ptah.visi.com> <9rlb08.0mm.ln@127.0.0.1>
Reply-To: michael.wojcik@merant.com
NNTP-Posting-Host: p-870.newsdawg.com
X-Newsreader: xrn 9.00
Originator: mww@lorelei-n
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!skynet.be!hermes.visi.com!news-out.visi.com!newsfeed.enteract.com!newsswitch.lcs.mit.edu!howland.erols.net!nntp2.lotsanews.com.MISMATCH!pln-e!spln!extra.newsguy.com!newsp.newsguy.com!mww


In article <9rlb08.0mm.ln@127.0.0.1>, dg@pearl.tao.co.uk (David Given) writes:
> In article <sk3W3.4210$rK2.305749@ptah.visi.com>,
> 	seebs@plethora.net (Peter Seebach) writes:
> [...]
> >>Believe me, the AS/400 + 5250 combination is trying enough.  Having
> >>to look up the EBCDIC hex codes for square brackets and tildes (in
> >>your current code page, no less) just to cobble together a little
> >>test program or try out a one-line patch doesn't help.
> > 
> > True enough.  I've also seen mainframe compilers that took (| |) for [].
> 
> Provided they're implemented as a real operator, rather than the nasty
> text-substitution that trigraphs use, this isn't too bad: they're at least
> unambiguous.

The "nasty text-substitution" does let you employ trigraph substi-
tutions in quoted strings and characters, which is often useful - eg.
when emitting source code.  Of course, that's where it's usually a
problem for existing code.

Of course, we could debate the relative merits of using nearly every
punctuation mark on the designer's keyboard when inventing a
programming language syntax in the first place.  Personally, I'd
put at least some of the blame on IBM for EBCDIC's deficiencies for
C programming (square brackets are common English punctuation; the
PL/I "not" symbol is not, and EBCDIC keyboards typically have at
least a few "dead" keys that could be used for the missing glyphs)
- but that wouldn't help people using ISO code pages that have the
same problem.

These days, I do most of my AS/400 and mainframe programming in
telnet sessions from machines with all the necessary keys, and let
the telnet client do the appropriate mappings.  That still requires
the symbols in the code page, though.


--
Michael Wojcik          	        michael.wojcik@merant.com
AAI Development, MERANT                 (block capitals are a company mandate)
Department of English, Miami University

They had forgathered enough of course in all the various times; they had
again and again, since that first night at the theatre, been face to face
over their question; but they had never been so alone together as they were
actually alone - their talk hadn't yet been so supremely for themselves.
   -- Henry James

######

From: "Roger Varley" <101377.3036@compuserve.com>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments
Date: Thu, 11 Nov 1999 16:28:29 -0000
Organization: Deja.com - Before you buy
Lines: 21
Message-ID: <04be01bf2c61$cc5537d0$0c7d9696@ukenit011946>
References: <7vf816$12e@cucumber.demon.co.uk> <359.974T2309T7545534@sky.bus.com> <495b4b10d7a__fake__address@127.0.0.1> <7vqd02$7l8$1@top.mitre.org> <382a699e.4735500@nnrp.gol.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: postnews.dejanews.com
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
To: <alt.folklore.computers@list.deja.com>
X-Priority: 3
X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.2314.1300
X-MIMEOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2314.1300
X-DejaID: _xiz/AIPid6y81rV3ky8uOX8f+QMhRDt5?=
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!newspeer.te.net!news.indigo.ie!news-out.cwix.com!newsfeed.cwix.com!news.maxwell.syr.edu!nntp2.deja.com!nnrp1.deja.com!not-for-mail

> I was told (I may have mentioned this before - I'm getting old) of a
> *long* assembler program that contained the single comment 'Happy
> birthday, Beethoven'.  Turned out that the machine code for that line
> was Beethoven's birthday in the Gregorian calendar.
>
> Or is that a suburban myth?
>
In Hackers/Computer Revolution Heros, Stevan Levy says that the machine code
instruction was simply 1750 and the comment, (and only comment) was
"RIPJSB". You can read the text at the Gutenburg Project.
ftp://sailor.gutenberg.org/pub/gutenburg/etext96/hckrs.txt

Regards
Roger Varley
(1750 was the year of Bachs death - the comment is "Rest In Peace Johanne
Sebastian Bach")



 Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
 Before you buy.

######

Sender: meissner@tiktok.cygnus.com
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7v744g$e17$1@eve.enteract.com> <01bf2097$caab07a0$e12ac222@my0250> <7v9bck$emm@news.rhrz.uni-bonn.de> <7v9ctp$15n8$1@nntp1.u.washington.edu> <hshubs-2810990920120001@user-33qsdsa.dialup.mindspring.com> <3827b16f.45007616@news.shuswap.net> <hshubs-0911990925040001@user-33qsca8.dialup.mindspring.com> <382913e2.10601984@news.ricochet.net> <hshubs-1011990921270001@user-33qscjt.dialup.mindspring.com>
From: Michael Meissner <meissner@cygnus.com>
Message-ID: <syvh7axdyg.fsf@tiktok.cygnus.com>
Organization: Cygnus Solutions
Lines: 26
X-Newsreader: Gnus v5.7/Emacs 20.4
Date: 10 Nov 1999 15:56:55 -0500
NNTP-Posting-Host: 209.192.197.34
X-Complaints-To: abuse@shore.net
X-Trace: news.shore.net 942267415 209.192.197.34 (Wed, 10 Nov 1999 15:56:55 EST)
NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 10 Nov 1999 15:56:55 EST
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!naxos.belnet.be!news.belnet.be!news-FFM2.ecrc.net!newsfeed.enteract.com!hermes.visi.com!news-out.visi.com!cam-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!cambridge1-snf1.gtei.net!news.gtei.net!news.shore.net!not-for-mail

hshubs@mindspring.com (Howard S Shubs) writes:

> In article <382913e2.10601984@news.ricochet.net>, phil@ricochet.net (phil)
> wrote:
> 
> From what I remember, it was like they had to produce an instruction set
> that the software people would like.  Didn't seem to occur to them to
> -work with- the software people on the functionality they would like to
> see in the CPU.

There was one attempt at working with the software people that I should have
mentioned in my previous post.  In I think the third generation phase, they did
explore adding new instructions that would greatly help compiled code, by
providing additional instructions that would load stuff relative to the frame
pointer, without having to have said frame pointer in one of the two registers
that you could use word pointers on.  Unlike today's iron, the MV's were all
microcoded, so in theory at least, you could add new instructions to existing
machines.  What finally killed it was on one of the low end machines (MV/7800?)
the only way the opcodes could be hammered in would have cost something like 27
cycles to do a load.  I do recall that it would have been faster to do a
call/return than to use these new instructions.

-- 
Michael Meissner, Cygnus Solutions
PMB 198, 174 Littleton Road #3, Westford, Massachusetts 01886
email: meissner@cygnus.com	phone: 978-486-9304	fax: 978-692-4482

######

From: hnsngr@sirius.com (Ron Hunsinger)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Message-ID: <hnsngr-ya023180001011992301480001@news.swbell.net>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <381550C0.E87F9D3F@cmc.com> <3816A6CA.48E8DB2F@mbox301.swipnet.se> <FKnJCz.Ivx@world.std.com> <ngJV3.58577$23.2219974@typ11.nn.bcandid.com> <8098tj$l0g$1@ausnews.austin.ibm.com>
Organization: ErsteSoft
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Content-transfer-encoding: 8bit
X-Newsreader: Yet Another NewsWatcher 2.3.1
Lines: 11
Date: Wed, 10 Nov 1999 23:01:48 -0800
NNTP-Posting-Host: 216.103.86.8
X-Complaints-To: abuse@swbell.net
X-Trace: typhoon01.swbell.net 942303680 216.103.86.8 (Wed, 10 Nov 1999 23:01:20 PST)
NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 10 Nov 1999 23:01:20 PST
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!skynet.be!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!su-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.gtei.net!cyclone.pbi.net!151.164.30.35!cyclone.swbell.net!typhoon01.swbell.net.POSTED!not-for-mail

In article <8098tj$l0g$1@ausnews.austin.ibm.com>, wa4qal@vnet.ibm.net wrote:

> But, to put this back on track, has anyone ever noticed how few names
> have been derrived from computer terms?  For example, is there a Mr. Disk
> out there?  What about a Miss Tape?  Or, a Mrs. Terminal.  Has there just
> not been enough time since the beginning of the computer age for people to
> take names from computers?

Well, there is a Mr. Gates. And a Mr. Jobs, for that matter.

-Ron Hunsinger

######

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: ns8rl@bath.ac.uk (R Lucas)
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
X-Newsreader: knews 1.0b.0
Organization: School of Natural Sciences, University of Bath, UK
Message-ID: <FL1qBB.417.D.ma@bath.ac.uk>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <381550C0.E87F9D3F@cmc.com>
    <3816A6CA.48E8DB2F@mbox301.swipnet.se> <FKnJCz.Ivx@world.std.com>
    <ngJV3.58577$23.2219974@typ11.nn.bcandid.com>
    <8098tj$l0g$1@ausnews.austin.ibm.com>
    <hnsngr-ya023180001011992301480001@news.swbell.net>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Date: Thu, 11 Nov 1999 18:35:35 GMT
Lines: 18
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!newshunter!cosy.sbg.ac.at!newsfeed.Austria.EU.net!newscore.univie.ac.at!newsfeed1.uni2.dk!news.algonet.se!algonet!newsfeed.tli.de!newsfeed.nacamar.de!nntp.news.xara.net!xara.net!gxn.net!easynet-uk!easynet.net!news.vas-net.net!server2.netnews.ja.net!bath.ac.uk!ns8rl

In article <hnsngr-ya023180001011992301480001@news.swbell.net>,
	hnsngr@sirius.com (Ron Hunsinger) writes:
> In article <8098tj$l0g$1@ausnews.austin.ibm.com>, wa4qal@vnet.ibm.net wrote:
> 
>> But, to put this back on track, has anyone ever noticed how few names
>> have been derrived from computer terms?  For example, is there a Mr. Disk
>> out there?  What about a Miss Tape?  Or, a Mrs. Terminal.  Has there just
>> not been enough time since the beginning of the computer age for people to
>> take names from computers?
> 
> Well, there is a Mr. Gates. And a Mr. Jobs, for that matter.
> 
> -Ron Hunsinger

I've seen an old London phone book that lists a J.E. VAX.

Rayner

######

From: TheCentralScrutinizer.171@pobox.com ()
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 11 Nov 1999 19:51:38 GMT
Organization: http://extra.newsguy.com
Lines: 21
Message-ID: <slrn82m7el.pn2.TheCentralScrutinizer.171@edison.chisp.net>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <381550C0.E87F9D3F@cmc.com>    <3816A6CA.48E8DB2F@mbox301.swipnet.se> <FKnJCz.Ivx@world.std.com>    <ngJV3.58577$23.2219974@typ11.nn.bcandid.com>    <8098tj$l0g$1@ausnews.austin.ibm.com>    <hnsngr-ya023180001011992301480001@news.swbell.net> <FL1qBB.417.D.ma@bath.ac.uk>
Reply-To: TheCentralScrutinizer.171@pobox.com
NNTP-Posting-Host: edison.chisp.net
X-Newsreader: slrn (0.9.3.2 UNIX)
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!newspeer.te.net!news.indigo.ie!news-out.cwix.com!newsfeed.cwix.com!howland.erols.net!news.pbi.net.MISMATCH!cyclone.pbi.net!165.113.238.17!pln-w!spln!extra.newsguy.com!newsp.newsguy.com!TheCentralScrutinizer.171

On Thu, 11 Nov 1999 18:35:35 GMT, R Lucas <ns8rl@bath.ac.uk> wrote:
>In article <hnsngr-ya023180001011992301480001@news.swbell.net>,
>	hnsngr@sirius.com (Ron Hunsinger) writes:
>> In article <8098tj$l0g$1@ausnews.austin.ibm.com>, wa4qal@vnet.ibm.net wrote:
>> 
>>> But, to put this back on track, has anyone ever noticed how few names
>>> have been derrived from computer terms?  For example, is there a Mr. Disk
>>> out there?  What about a Miss Tape?  Or, a Mrs. Terminal.  Has there just
>>> not been enough time since the beginning of the computer age for people to
>>> take names from computers?
>> 
>> Well, there is a Mr. Gates. And a Mr. Jobs, for that matter.
>> 
>> -Ron Hunsinger
>
>I've seen an old London phone book that lists a J.E. VAX.
>

StorageTek, out here in colorado is located at One StorageTek Drive.  The
side street leading from the highway to it is "tape drive" 

######

From: jcmorris@jmorris-pc.MITRE.ORG (Joe Morris)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 11 Nov 1999 23:32:23 GMT
Organization: The MITRE Corporation
Lines: 15
Message-ID: <80fjm7$cp2$1@top.mitre.org>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <381550C0.E87F9D3F@cmc.com>    <3816A6CA.48E8DB2F@mbox301.swipnet.se> <FKnJCz.Ivx@world.std.com>    <ngJV3.58577$23.2219974@typ11.nn.bcandid.com>    <8098tj$l0g$1@ausnews.austin.ibm.com>    <hnsngr-ya023180001011992301480001@news.swbell.net> <FL1qBB.417.D.ma@bath.ac.uk> <slrn82m7el.pn2.TheCentralScrutinizer.171@edison.chisp.net>
Reply-To: jcmorris@linus.mitre.org
NNTP-Posting-Host: jmorris-pc.mitre.org
X-Trace: top.mitre.org 942363143 13090 128.29.251.13 (11 Nov 1999 23:32:23 GMT)
X-Complaints-To: usenet@news.mitre.org
NNTP-Posting-Date: 11 Nov 1999 23:32:23 GMT
X-Newsreader: NN version 6.5.0 (NOV)
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!newshunter!esel!cosy.sbg.ac.at!agate.berkeley.edu!agate!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!newsswitch.lcs.mit.edu!world!blanket.mitre.org!news.mitre.org!jmorris-pc.MITRE.ORG!jcmorris

TheCentralScrutinizer.171@pobox.com () writes:

>StorageTek, out here in colorado is located at One StorageTek Drive.  The
>side street leading from the highway to it is "tape drive" 

I may be revealing my age, but I get a chuckle when I go out to the
Weather Bureau facility at Dulles International Airport: the main drag
through the facility is "Thunder Road".

I'll call this note on-topic for a.f.c because meteorologists (both
theoretical and at the weather bureau) are some of the biggest users
of massive amounts of high-speed computer time.

Joe Morris (who for many years lived in Knoxville, TN where the
            original "Thunder Road" story ends)

######

Sender: lynn@LYNNLT
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <381550C0.E87F9D3F@cmc.com> <3816A6CA.48E8DB2F@mbox301.swipnet.se> <FKnJCz.Ivx@world.std.com> <ngJV3.58577$23.2219974@typ11.nn.bcandid.com> <8098tj$l0g$1@ausnews.austin.ibm.com> <hnsngr-ya023180001011992301480001@news.swbell.net> <FL1qBB.417.D.ma@bath.ac.uk> <slrn82m7el.pn2.TheCentralScrutinizer.171@edison.chisp.net> <80fjm7$cp2$1@top.mitre.org>
Reply-To: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
From: Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@adcomsys.net>
Message-ID: <wkiu381kv6.fsf@adcom.adcomsys.net>
Organization: Wheeler&Wheeler
Lines: 10
User-Agent: Gnus/5.07008 (Pterodactyl Gnus v0.80) Emacs/20.3
Date: Fri, 12 Nov 1999 02:53:42 GMT
NNTP-Posting-Host: 209.63.29.129
X-Complaints-To: support@adcomsys.net
X-Trace: news-west.eli.net 942375222 209.63.29.129 (Thu, 11 Nov 1999 19:53:42 MST)
NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 11 Nov 1999 19:53:42 MST
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!newspeer.te.net!news.indigo.ie!news-out.cwix.com!newsfeed.cwix.com!dca1-hub1.news.digex.net!intermedia!hermes.visi.com!news-out.visi.com!uunet!ffx.uu.net!news-west.eli.net!not-for-mail


wasn't there something about weather bureau datacenter burning and
loosing the cray1 and they are currently lost capability of 7day
... they are making do with some fill-in computers ... but are only
doing 3day & 4day???

-- 
--
Anne & Lynn Wheeler   | lynn@garlic.com, finger for pgp key
 http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/

######

From: Dave <Nunya@Business.net>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 13 Nov 1999 19:43:54 -0600
Organization: Hey Pal - Organize This!
Lines: 10
Message-ID: <HBIuOBWFwcYodLHHK3OllFL4pO2y@4ax.com>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <381550C0.E87F9D3F@cmc.com>    <3816A6CA.48E8DB2F@mbox301.swipnet.se> <FKnJCz.Ivx@world.std.com>    <ngJV3.58577$23.2219974@typ11.nn.bcandid.com>    <8098tj$l0g$1@ausnews.austin.ibm.com>    <hnsngr-ya023180001011992301480001@news.swbell.net> <FL1qBB.417.D.ma@bath.ac.uk> <slrn82m7el.pn2.TheCentralScrutinizer.171@edison.chisp.net>
X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 1.6/32.525
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newsfeed.nyu.edu!novia!sequencer.newscene.com!not-for-mail

On 11 Nov 1999 19:51:38 GMT, TheCentralScrutinizer.171@pobox.com ()
wrote:

>StorageTek, out here in colorado is located at One StorageTek Drive.  The
>side street leading from the highway to it is "tape drive" 

Isn't Seagate's address One Disk Drive?

Dave

######

From: Charles Richmond <richmond@plano.net>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Sat, 13 Nov 1999 22:29:21 +0000
Organization: Cannine Computer Center
Lines: 39
Message-ID: <382DE640.B8C6B42@plano.net>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7v744g$e17$1@eve.enteract.com> <01bf2097$caab07a0$e12ac222@my0250> <7v9bck$emm@news.rhrz.uni-bonn.de> <7v9ctp$15n8$1@nntp1.u.washington.edu> <hshubs-2810990920120001@user-33qsdsa.dialup.mindspring.com> <3827b16f.45007616@news.shuswap.net> <hshubs-0911990925040001@user-33qsca8.dialup.mindspring.com> <382913e2.10601984@news.ricochet.net>
Reply-To: richmond@plano.net
X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.03 (Macintosh; I; 68K)
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!naxos.belnet.be!news.belnet.be!news-FFM2.ecrc.net!newsswitch.lcs.mit.edu!remarQ-easT!rQdQ!supernews.com!remarQ.com!corp.supernews.com!not-for-mail

phil wrote:
> 
> On Tue, 09 Nov 1999 09:25:04 -0600, hshubs@mindspring.com (Howard S
> Shubs) wrote:
> 
> >In article <3827b16f.45007616@news.shuswap.net>, genew@shuswap.net wrote:
> >
> >>     I am curious about the poor engineering style.  Could you give an
> >>example of good engineering style in computers?  A pointer to a book
> >>would be nice, too.
> >
> >I'm thinking of the way the hardware people seemed to treat the software
> >people as people-to-be-appeased, not as people-to-be-worked-with.  Seems
> >to me that would generate a system which might happen to work together,
> >not one -designed- to work together, as with the VAX-11/780 and VMS
> >combination.  As I understand it, even DG replaced this machine fairly
> >quickly with the 10000 model.
> 
> Strange. I both picked up a copy of the book at a local book discount
> store last weekend (Gene's post) and was wondering the same thing (the
> software guys sort of just turned up and wrote an O/S?). I think it
> was more that he was telling a story, and there was a second one if
> he'd wanted.
> 
In the _Soul of a New Machine_ book, the hardware manager is trying to get
a certain hardware designer to modify the Eclipse instruction set in order
to create the MV/8000 line.  This hardware engineer gets really ticked off
and storms into the managers office shouting:  "I'm *not* hanging any f***ing
bag on the side of the Eclipse!!!"  Supposedly this hardware engineer was
one of the founders of Convex Computer...builder of parallel machines.  And
at one time Convex gave out *free* paperback copies of the _SOANM_ book.

Well, Convex is now the Convex Division of Hewlett Packard...so much for
independence.

-- 
+-------------------------------------------------------------+
|     Charles and Francis Richmond     <richmond@plano.net>   |
+-------------------------------------------------------------+

######

From: Paul Grayson <paul.grayson@virgin.net>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Sun, 14 Nov 1999 21:53:37 +0000
Organization: Shed Liberation Front
Lines: 14
Message-ID: <382F2F61.1CB52ADD@virgin.net>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com>        <7u4bub$al2$3@autumn.news.rcn.net>        <7u5mnh$fj$1@watchdragon.demon.co.uk>        <7u724c$qsd$2@autumn.news.rcn.net>        <7uf9ce$t46$1@news.IAEhv.nl>        <VVoTOPVmIPxbCJ8=pBIfrTorzUC3@4ax.com>        <3823CF4C.4FED6595@davesworld.net>        <3826e09e.421049447@192.168.2.34> <38274197$1$wg$mr2ice@news.epix.net> <80a8sf$2ar9@news2.newsguy.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: p59-curlew-gui.tch.virgin.net
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-Trace: nclient11-gui.server.virgin.net 942622123 26657 194.168.60.59 (14 Nov 1999 23:28:43 GMT)
X-Complaints-To: abuse@virgin.net
NNTP-Posting-Date: 14 Nov 1999 23:28:43 GMT
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.7 [en] (X11; I; Linux 2.2.13 i586)
X-Accept-Language: en
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!isdnet!newsfeed.icl.net!colt.net!news-lond.gip.net!news.gsl.net!gip.net!news5-gui.server.ntli.net!news11-gui.server.ntli.net!ntli.net!shippo.virgin.net!nobody

> 'deadbeef' and similar hex-words were apparently not an invention
> of the IBM Austin team.  No doubt there have been a.f.c threads on
> the subject, probably within the Deja retrieval window.
> 

A few weeks ago I needed to set up a Novell server, and needed an 8
character unique hex string. I chose DEADBEEF having read the Jargon
File in the past, and not able to find anything else more derogatory.

-- 
Paul Grayson, Ripon, North Yorkshire, UK.

No Microsoft code was used in generating this message - can you say the
same?

######

From: nxk3@po.cwru.edu (Natarajan Krishnaswami)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 15 Nov 1999 00:41:02 GMT
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland OH (USA)
Lines: 17
Sender: nxk3@nile.scl.cwru.edu
Message-ID: <80nkqu$f5n$1@alexander.INS.CWRU.Edu>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com>        <7u4bub$al2$3@autumn.news.rcn.net>        <7u5mnh$fj$1@watchdragon.demon.co.uk>        <7u724c$qsd$2@autumn.news.rcn.net>        <7uf9ce$t46$1@news.IAEhv.nl>        <VVoTOPVmIPxbCJ8=pBIfrTorzUC3@4ax.com>        <3823CF4C.4FED6595@davesworld.net>        <3826e09e.421049447@192.168.2.34> <38274197$1$wg$mr2ice@news.epix.net> <80a8sf$2ar9@news2.newsguy.com> <382F2F61.1CB52ADD@virgin.net>
Reply-To: nxk3@po.cwru.edu
NNTP-Posting-Host: nile.scl.cwru.edu
User-Agent: slrn/0.9.5.7 (UNIX)
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!newsfeed.direct.ca!nntp.abs.net!uunet!ffx.uu.net!dfw.uu.net!chi.uu.net!plonk.apk.net!news.apk.net!usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu!nxk3

On Sun, 14 Nov 1999 21:53:37 +0000, Paul Grayson <paul.grayson@virgin.net> wrote:
> A few weeks ago I needed to set up a Novell server, and needed an 8
> character unique hex string. I chose DEADBEEF having read the Jargon
> File in the past, and not able to find anything else more derogatory.

When I was working on NNS for OS/390 (Novell Network Services), I'd
name my NDS trees 'YGGDRASIL', and use 00c0ffee for that number (IPX
internal network number, right?).  It was kind of silly: we were
running NetWare in the unix environment of an MVS image running in VM.
:-)


<N/>
-- 
  you have been evaluated.  you have a negative reference count.  prepare
  to be garbage collected.  persistence is futile.
	-- Erik Naggum

######

From: dhansen@btree.com (Dave Hansen)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Organization: B-Tree Systems, Inc.
Message-ID: <38302721.412037408@192.168.2.34>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com>        <7u4bub$al2$3@autumn.news.rcn.net>        <7u5mnh$fj$1@watchdragon.demon.co.uk>        <7u724c$qsd$2@autumn.news.rcn.net>        <7uf9ce$t46$1@news.IAEhv.nl>        <VVoTOPVmIPxbCJ8=pBIfrTorzUC3@4ax.com>        <3823CF4C.4FED6595@davesworld.net>        <3826e09e.421049447@192.168.2.34> <38274197$1$wg$mr2ice@news.epix.net> <80a8sf$2ar9@news2.newsguy.com> <382F2F61.1CB52ADD@virgin.net>
X-Newsreader: Forte Free Agent 1.11/32.235
Lines: 18
Date: Mon, 15 Nov 1999 15:39:00 GMT
NNTP-Posting-Host: 209.32.152.113
X-Trace: newsfeed.slurp.net 942680047 209.32.152.113 (Mon, 15 Nov 1999 09:34:07 CDT)
NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 15 Nov 1999 09:34:07 CDT
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!isdnet!newsfeed.cwix.com!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newsfeed.slurp.net!not-for-mail

On Sun, 14 Nov 1999 21:53:37 +0000, Paul Grayson
<paul.grayson@virgin.net> wrote:

[...]
>A few weeks ago I needed to set up a Novell server, and needed an 8
>character unique hex string. I chose DEADBEEF having read the Jargon
>File in the past, and not able to find anything else more derogatory.

The volume serial number on our previous Novell server was 2BAD-4DAD.
It's currently 4DEA-DDAD.  You get the feeling someone's considering
patricide...

Regards,

                          -=Dave
Just my (10-010) cents
I can barely speak for myself, so I certainly can't speak for B-Tree.
Change is inevitable.  Progress is not.

######

From: Dave Daniels <a__fake__address@127.0.0.1>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Mon, 15 Nov 1999 20:02:19 +0000 (GMT)
Organization: None
Lines: 20
Message-ID: <496181914fa__fake__address@127.0.0.1>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com>        <7u4bub$al2$3@autumn.news.rcn.net>        <7u5mnh$fj$1@watchdragon.demon.co.uk>        <7u724c$qsd$2@autumn.news.rcn.net>        <7uf9ce$t46$1@news.IAEhv.nl>        <VVoTOPVmIPxbCJ8=pBIfrTorzUC3@4ax.com>        <3823CF4C.4FED6595@davesworld.net>        <3826e09e.421049447@192.168.2.34> <38274197$1$wg$mr2ice@news.epix.net> <80a8sf$2ar9@news2.newsguy.com> <382F2F61.1CB52ADD@virgin.net>
NNTP-Posting-Host: userbk71.uk.uudial.com
X-Trace: lure.pipex.net 942699223 5743 62.188.144.79 (15 Nov 1999 20:53:43 GMT)
X-Complaints-To: abuse@uk.uu.net
NNTP-Posting-Date: 15 Nov 1999 20:53:43 GMT
User-Agent: Pluto/1.11k  (RISC-OS/3.8)
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!newshunter!cosy.sbg.ac.at!newsfeed.Austria.EU.net!newscore.univie.ac.at!newsfeed1.uni2.dk!newsfeed.online.be!tank.news.pipex.net!pipex!tube.news.pipex.net!pipex!argonet.co.uk!argbq79

In article <382F2F61.1CB52ADD@virgin.net>,
   Paul Grayson <paul.grayson@virgin.net> wrote:
> character unique hex string. I chose DEADBEEF having read the Jargon
> File in the past, and not able to find anything else more derogatory.

You could have used something based on 50D0FF. How about 50D0FF11
(where the 1s are supposed to be exclamation marks)?

Dave Daniels

-- 
ANTISPAM: Please note that the email address above is false. My
correct address is:

    dave_daniels<at>argonet<dot>co<dot>uk

Please replace the <at> and <dot>s with @ and . respectively when
replying - Thanks!

######

From: Kevin Ashley <K.Ashley@ulcc.ac.uk>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Tue, 16 Nov 1999 20:19:38 +0000
Organization: Posted via ULCC Internet Services
Lines: 34
Message-ID: <3831BC5A.1BC1775E@ulcc.ac.uk>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7v744g$e17$1@eve.enteract.com> <01bf2097$caab07a0$e12ac222@my0250> <7v9bck$emm@news.rhrz.uni-bonn.de> <7v9ctp$15n8$1@nntp1.u.washington.edu> <hshubs-2810990920120001@user-33qsdsa.dialup.mindspring.com> <3827b16f.45007616@news.shuswap.net> <hshubs-0911990925040001@user-33qsca8.dialup.mindspring.com> <382913e2.10601984@news.ricochet.net> <382DE640.B8C6B42@plano.net>
NNTP-Posting-Host: cziwkga-pc1.fds.ulcc.ac.uk
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.61 [en] (X11; I; Linux 2.0.34 i686)
X-Accept-Language: en
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!newsfeeds.belnet.be!news.belnet.be!colt.net!baron.netcom.net.uk!netcom.net.uk!server3.netnews.ja.net!ulcc.ac.uk!not-for-mail

Charles Richmond wrote:
>
> In the _Soul of a New Machine_ book, the hardware manager is trying to get
> a certain hardware designer to modify the Eclipse instruction set in order
> to create the MV/8000 line.  This hardware engineer gets really ticked off
> and storms into the managers office shouting:  "I'm *not* hanging any f***ing
> bag on the side of the Eclipse!!!"  Supposedly this hardware engineer was
> one of the founders of Convex Computer...builder of parallel machines.  And
> at one time Convex gave out *free* paperback copies of the _SOANM_ book.
> 

It was Steve Wallach, who co-founded Convex with Bob Palluck (?sp).
As I recall, he did end up doing the redesign after being convinced
that this one wasn't going to be binned - he'd worked on a number
of architectures that ended up not being built for reasons fairly
unrelated to how good or bad they were.

> Well, Convex is now the Convex Division of Hewlett Packard...so much for
> independence.

Don't know if Wallach is still with them. Convex's first machines
weren't particularly parallel - they were in the vector market making
'Cray-killers'. The C1 was uni-processor; the C2 could go up to 4 and
the C3 up to eight. The highly-parallel NUMA machines came next, at
about the same time as the C4.

And last I knew, they were based in Richmond, Texas, just south of Plano.
> 
> --
> +-------------------------------------------------------------+
> |     Charles and Francis Richmond     <richmond@plano.net>   |
> +-------------------------------------------------------------+

Kevin Ashley.

######

From: Charles Richmond <richmond@plano.net>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Tue, 16 Nov 1999 23:04:42 +0000
Organization: Cannine Computer Center
Lines: 22
Message-ID: <3831E30A.F7A99F82@plano.net>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7v744g$e17$1@eve.enteract.com> <01bf2097$caab07a0$e12ac222@my0250> <7v9bck$emm@news.rhrz.uni-bonn.de> <7v9ctp$15n8$1@nntp1.u.washington.edu> <hshubs-2810990920120001@user-33qsdsa.dialup.mindspring.com> <3827b16f.45007616@news.shuswap.net> <hshubs-0911990925040001@user-33qsca8.dialup.mindspring.com> <382913e2.10601984@news.ricochet.net> <382DE640.B8C6B42@plano.net> <3831BC5A.1BC1775E@ulcc.ac.uk>
Reply-To: richmond@plano.net
X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.03 (Macintosh; I; 68K)
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!newsfeeds.belnet.be!news.belnet.be!colt.net!newspeer.clara.net!news.clara.net!remarQ-uK!rQdQ!supernews.com!remarQ.com!corp.supernews.com!not-for-mail

Kevin Ashley wrote:
> 
> Charles Richmond wrote:
> >
> >     [snip...]     [snip...]     [snip...]
> >
> > Well, Convex is now the Convex Division of Hewlett Packard...so much for
> > independence.
> 
>      [snip...]     [snip...]     [snip...]
> 
> And last I knew, they were based in Richmond, Texas, just south of Plano.
> 
Actually, it's in Richardson, Texas, which is just south of Plano and north
of Dallas.  (Richmond, Texas is down near Houston.)  Heck, if it was a quarter
mile further north, Convex would *be* in Plano.  In know a guy who lives very
nearby in north Richardson, and he is in the Plano school district.

-- 
+-------------------------------------------------------------+
|     Charles and Francis Richmond     <richmond@plano.net>   |
+-------------------------------------------------------------+

######

From: Troy Loveday <troyl@opus.dal.asp.ti.com>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: 17 Nov 1999 06:27:41 GMT
Organization: Dallas ASP, Texas Instruments
Lines: 11
Message-ID: <80thst$qhr$1@sarek.dal.asp.ti.com>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7v744g$e17$1@eve.enteract.com> <01bf2097$caab07a0$e12ac222@my0250> <7v9bck$emm@news.rhrz.uni-bonn.de> <7v9ctp$15n8$1@nntp1.u.washington.edu> <hshubs-2810990920120001@user-33qsdsa.dialup.mindspring.com> <3827b16f.45007616@news.shuswap.net> <hshubs-0911990925040001@user-33qsca8.dialup.mindspring.com> <382913e2.10601984@news.ricochet.net> <382DE640.B8C6B42@plano.net> <3831BC5A.1BC1775E@ulcc.ac.uk>
NNTP-Posting-Host: opus.dal.asp.ti.com
X-Trace: sarek.dal.asp.ti.com 942820061 27195 128.247.100.9 (17 Nov 1999 06:27:41 GMT)
X-Complaints-To: usenet@news.dal.asp.ti.com
NNTP-Posting-Date: 17 Nov 1999 06:27:41 GMT
User-Agent: tin/pre-1.4-19990216 ("Styrofoam") (UNIX) (SunOS/5.5.1 (sun4u))
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!newsfeeds.belnet.be!news.belnet.be!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!news.idt.net!attmtf!attbt1!ip.att.net!news.ti.com!news.dal.asp.ti.com!not-for-mail

Kevin Ashley <K.Ashley@ulcc.ac.uk> wrote:

>And last I knew, they were based in Richmond, Texas, just south of Plano.

s/Richmond/Richardson/

-- 
Troy Loveday                                         e-mail: <troyl@ti.com>
ASIC Product Development / DTM                          vox: (972) 480-1497
Texas Instruments, Inc.                                 fax: (972) 480-2356
Dallas, Texas                   "Don't Tread On Me!"

######

From: Kevin Ashley <K.Ashley@ulcc.ac.uk>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Wed, 17 Nov 1999 14:53:20 +0000
Organization: Posted via ULCC Internet Services
Lines: 32
Message-ID: <3832C160.580C35B0@ulcc.ac.uk>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com> <7v744g$e17$1@eve.enteract.com> <01bf2097$caab07a0$e12ac222@my0250> <7v9bck$emm@news.rhrz.uni-bonn.de> <7v9ctp$15n8$1@nntp1.u.washington.edu> <hshubs-2810990920120001@user-33qsdsa.dialup.mindspring.com> <3827b16f.45007616@news.shuswap.net> <hshubs-0911990925040001@user-33qsca8.dialup.mindspring.com> <382913e2.10601984@news.ricochet.net> <382DE640.B8C6B42@plano.net> <3831BC5A.1BC1775E@ulcc.ac.uk> <3831E30A.F7A99F82@plano.net>
NNTP-Posting-Host: cziwkga-pc1.fds.ulcc.ac.uk
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.61 [en] (X11; I; Linux 2.0.34 i686)
X-Accept-Language: en
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!newsfeeds.belnet.be!news.belnet.be!colt.net!baron.netcom.net.uk!netcom.net.uk!server3.netnews.ja.net!ulcc.ac.uk!not-for-mail

Charles Richmond wrote:
> 
> Kevin Ashley wrote:
> >
> > Charles Richmond wrote:
> > >
> > >     [snip...]     [snip...]     [snip...]
> > >
> > > Well, Convex is now the Convex Division of Hewlett Packard...so much for
> > > independence.
> >
> >      [snip...]     [snip...]     [snip...]
> >
> > And last I knew, they were based in Richmond, Texas, just south of Plano.
> >
> Actually, it's in Richardson, Texas, which is just south of Plano and north
> of Dallas.  (Richmond, Texas is down near Houston.)  Heck, if it was a quarter
> mile further north, Convex would *be* in Plano.  In know a guy who lives very
> nearby in north Richardson, and he is in the Plano school district.

You're right, of course. Blame late-night posting and wanting
the coincidence to be true... It's some years since I've been there.
ISTR the only way I could tell where Plano's borders were was the
presence of liquor stores on one side or other of the line.

FWIW, we've still got a Convex C3800 system in our computer room. It
hasn't been powered up for a few years and I very much doubt it
would succeed if we tried it. Powering them off for any length of
time was a sure-fire way to frazzle something on the processor boards.
Damn pesky gallium arsenide...

Kevin Ashley.

######

From: Tom <T.W.Seddon@ncl.ac.uk>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Tue, 16 Nov 1999 23:14:17 +0000
Organization: None whatsoever
Lines: 25
Message-ID: <3831E549.4A0BAA9F@ncl.ac.uk>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com>        <7u4bub$al2$3@autumn.news.rcn.net>        <7u5mnh$fj$1@watchdragon.demon.co.uk>        <7u724c$qsd$2@autumn.news.rcn.net>        <7uf9ce$t46$1@news.IAEhv.nl>        <VVoTOPVmIPxbCJ8=pBIfrTorzUC3@4ax.com>        <3823CF4C.4FED6595@davesworld.net>        <3826e09e.421049447@192.168.2.34> <38274197$1$wg$mr2ice@news.epix.net> <80a8sf$2ar9@news2.newsguy.com> <382F2F61.1CB52ADD@virgin.net> <496181914fa__fake__address@127.0.0.1>
NNTP-Posting-Host: black18.ncl.ac.uk
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.7 [en] (Win98; I)
X-Accept-Language: en
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!cam-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.gtei.net!news-peer-europe.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!news.algonet.se!algonet!newsfeed.icl.net!newsfeed.icl.net!nntp.news.xara.net!xara.net!gxn.net!server6.netnews.ja.net!news.ncl.ac.uk!not-for-mail

Dave Daniels wrote:
> 
> In article <382F2F61.1CB52ADD@virgin.net>,
>    Paul Grayson <paul.grayson@virgin.net> wrote:
> > character unique hex string. I chose DEADBEEF having read the Jargon
> > File in the past, and not able to find anything else more derogatory.
> 
> You could have used something based on 50D0FF. How about 50D0FF11
> (where the 1s are supposed to be exclamation marks)?

How about:

0xFAC0FF (Essex) or 0xF0C0FF (Cumbria?)
0xF0AD

Or how about 0x5ADCA5E, much typed into my hex-capable calculator when I
was about 14 or so. Incidentally that's 95275614 in decimal, and you'll
have to take my word for it that that's from memory :-)

-- 
--Tom
this space filled with | this space not filled with this space filled
this intentionally     | with this intentionally unintentionally

######

From: Paul Grayson <paul.grayson@virgin.net>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Fri, 19 Nov 1999 11:49:52 +0000
Organization: Shed Liberation Front
Lines: 16
Message-ID: <38353960.EDF4A43C@virgin.net>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com>        <7u4bub$al2$3@autumn.news.rcn.net>        <7u5mnh$fj$1@watchdragon.demon.co.uk>        <7u724c$qsd$2@autumn.news.rcn.net>        <7uf9ce$t46$1@news.IAEhv.nl>        <VVoTOPVmIPxbCJ8=pBIfrTorzUC3@4ax.com>        <3823CF4C.4FED6595@davesworld.net>        <3826e09e.421049447@192.168.2.34> <38274197$1$wg$mr2ice@news.epix.net> <80a8sf$2ar9@news2.newsguy.com> <382F2F61.1CB52ADD@virgin.net> <496181914fa__fake__address@127.0.0.1> <3831E549.4A0BAA9F@ncl.ac.uk>
NNTP-Posting-Host: p40-crow-gui.tch.virgin.net
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-Trace: nclient11-gui.server.virgin.net 943017481 28963 194.168.59.160 (19 Nov 1999 13:18:01 GMT)
X-Complaints-To: abuse@virgin.net
NNTP-Posting-Date: 19 Nov 1999 13:18:01 GMT
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.7 [en] (X11; I; Linux 2.2.13 i586)
X-Accept-Language: en
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!news-fra1.dfn.de!news0.de.colt.net!colt.net!newspeer.clara.net!news.clara.net!news-lond.gip.net!news.gsl.net!gip.net!news5-gui.server.ntli.net!news11-gui.server.ntli.net!ntli.net!shippo.virgin.net!nobody

> 
> 0xFAC0FF (Essex) or 0xF0C0FF (Cumbria?)
> 0xF0AD
> 
> Or how about 0x5ADCA5E, much typed into my hex-capable calculator when I
> was about 14 or so. Incidentally that's 95275614 in decimal, and you'll
> have to take my word for it that that's from memory :-)
> 

By proving you know that, it seems to be true!

-- 
Paul Grayson, Ripon, North Yorkshire, UK.

No Microsoft code was used in generating this message - can you say the
same?

######

From: Dave Daniels <a__fake__address@127.0.0.1>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: amusing source code comments (was Re: Testing job applicants)
Date: Sat, 20 Nov 1999 08:57:06 +0000 (GMT)
Organization: None
Lines: 19
Message-ID: <4963d7d85da__fake__address@127.0.0.1>
References: <FG7B1C.FL0@world.std.com>        <7u4bub$al2$3@autumn.news.rcn.net>        <7u5mnh$fj$1@watchdragon.demon.co.uk>        <7u724c$qsd$2@autumn.news.rcn.net>        <7uf9ce$t46$1@news.IAEhv.nl>        <VVoTOPVmIPxbCJ8=pBIfrTorzUC3@4ax.com>        <3823CF4C.4FED6595@davesworld.net>        <3826e09e.421049447@192.168.2.34> <38274197$1$wg$mr2ice@news.epix.net> <80a8sf$2ar9@news2.newsguy.com> <382F2F61.1CB52ADD@virgin.net> <496181914fa__fake__address@127.0.0.1> <3831E549.4A0BAA9F@ncl.ac.uk>
NNTP-Posting-Host: userbm09.uk.uudial.com
X-Trace: lure.pipex.net 943174974 5202 62.188.144.215 (21 Nov 1999 09:02:54 GMT)
X-Complaints-To: abuse@uk.uu.net
NNTP-Posting-Date: 21 Nov 1999 09:02:54 GMT
User-Agent: Pluto/1.11k  (RISC-OS/3.8)
Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!isdnet!newsfeeds.belnet.be!news.belnet.be!news.be.easynet.net!newsfeed.online.be!tank.news.pipex.net!pipex!tube.news.pipex.net!pipex!argonet.co.uk!argbq79

In article <3831E549.4A0BAA9F@ncl.ac.uk>,
   Tom <T.W.Seddon@ncl.ac.uk> wrote:
> How about:

:-) I think that it would unwise for any of us to be employed as
network administrators looking after Novell networks.

Dave Daniels

-- 
ANTISPAM: Please note that the email address above is false. My
correct address is:

    dave_daniels<at>argonet<dot>co<dot>uk

Please replace the <at> and <dot>s with @ and . respectively when
replying - Thanks!