shouldn't you be using ssh?...it's much more secure than regular ol' telnet. the best is that they have webssh access so you don't even need a client for it. too bad it doesn't work through my company firewall =\ webmail works though! woohoo!

ah..yes. does this make you a super duper (x100) senior? in that case...me too...yeah...

how long ago was that? cuz i have one...and i'm a little worried they might cancel it, since i've heard of cancellations. but maybe if you use it they won't cancel it.

I had an @socrates.berkeley.edu account for about a year as an undergrad, which was pretty cool. I'd drop that as my "official" address at school sometimes, just to make people do a double-take.

For the rest of you, only teacher/professor types can have an "@socrates" account at Cal.

Note the all Caps. Cause FORTRAN IV (the predecessor to F77) didn't recognize lower case. And it's true that you still program in the first language you learned.

But, showing my ignorance here hypo, what's the ocf machine?

I used to play with the old University of Rochester mainframe at the laser fusion lab, which ran a variant on FORTH called URTH (the U of R's version). And the machine was a Cray.

No idea if they still have it there or not.

Ahh, I miss the Apple ][e. We had them at my elementary school, and a few of us fourth-grade gearheads learned to program in BASIC on it.

Then we started to get bored and started doing devious things with them. I programmed a fake virus, for one thing (but of course, it scared the teachers enough).

Then my friend learned how to change the screen resolution by screwing around with the contents of the computer's memory. That was the last straw; we got our programming books taken away from us. And - horrors! - we were forced to work at the same level as the rest of the class.

Of course, I got my revenge. When we moved up to computers with Windows 95, I programmed my program to spend about 10 minutes reading from and writing to the hard drive when it quit.

Man, I miss that. ... Sorry about the rant.

I still have my Apple IIe--or rather, my parents'--though I haven't found a place to set it up. It was vitally important to keep it, not only because I love the Oregan Trail (ooh--and Conan the Barbarian) but because I wrote a novel on that sucker and I don't have a print-out anymore. The novel might suck, but I wrote one, and the proof is on the big floppy disks that go with that machine.

Two words, Saint: Hard Copy.

Floppy disks are designed to fail. If you have something you wanna keep for any extended length of time, a floppy disk isn't the place for it.

-Jn-
Efreeti Sophist

But to get a hard copy, I need to set up the computer, and the printer, and then dig out all the disks...and I'm lazy.

That's funny - I got myself kicked out of our grade-school "computers" course, permanent-like, for very much the same behavior.

*Grin*

I was a bit disgruntled that they had insisted that I take the class when I already knew about a gazillion more times about computers that the HomeEc teacher they had running the show.

Too bad, too...I mean, missing out on that course has left me severely disadvantaged when it comes to technical stuff, and I have had to spend all those years scraping out a living as a software engineer.

Guess I learned my lesson.

*rolls eyes*

-Jn-
Efreeti Sophist

you had a class in computers. I've never taken one (??!!!). Of course I've taught a few, but still...
And I know what you mean Joe. My daughter really didn't take much in the way of computer classes (i.e. none) all the way through K-12 but somehow has managed to get a job in that field anyway. (And she figured out a cool web site too!)

Well believe it or not I used an Apple IIe for serious work! I interfaced it to a thermodynamic instrument and used it as a data logger. It worked pretty well. I'll bet none of you know how to do A to D conversions (or even what that is! - 1 Loonie Pt.)

Plus, of course, we had some guys who were always giving us floppies with games on them when the instrument wasn't being used.

For instance, I would be Pdul.

*snerk*

Bahhaha! Man, I find that way too funny.

Analog to Digital conversions?

You're kidding, right?

-Jn-
Efreeti Sophist

kidding. But have you ever done one? As in hooked up the wires, written the program to do the conversions, etc.? It's kinda a lost art.

But I'll give the Loonie pt to Paul and one to Joe too.

A lost art, eh? *Grin*

Yes, I've actually done them.

It may be a digital world, but it's still an analog Universe.

What do you think that scientists who aren't chemists do with their time, anyway? *Grin*

I mean, besides build giant robots?

-Jn-
Efreeti Sophist

Build time machines, obviously! *snerky-jerk*

Must resist urge to quote CtB...

I've done some A/D conversion too in a course on machine architecture. Even hand coded the assembler code for some weird Hitachi Z80 clone to do so.

And if we're really in the "ever done" department : ever written a compiler ? implemented FFT ? a network protocol ?

Ok, I know some of you've done loads of stuff I'll never do, like work with computers back when they weren't all bells and whistles. Hmm. think it's time for some poetry.

you're Danish so that explains it. *g*

Actually no I've never written a compiler (but I managed a project where I had a guy do it for me.) I have implemented Fast Fourier Transforms and done Matrix mathematics on a computer (hey, I went to Berkeley, you think I was a shmuck?). And I remember the Z80 chip. I used that Commodore PET 'personal computer' to interface with my instruments (before we got that new 'high tech' Apple IIe). But I deliberately didn't learn Assembler for it (which I sorta needed to do), as I didn't want to 'clog' my brain with it. Instead I wrote a BASIC program to transfer the data to a VAX so I could use Fortran and some serious horsepower.

I'm pretty sure the first game I played on a computer was Hunt the Wumpus...

...which, oddly enough, was released the year I was born.

-Jn-
Efreeti Sophist

I think my first was Asteroid. Or maybe Space Invaders. Or maybe whatever the packaged game was with the TI 99-4A system. Which, BTW, showed you how to program in BASIC. But there was no backspace key, which really sucked.

One of my first games was a Barbie dress-up-and-go-on-a-date-with-Ken game. Of course, that bastard always called and cancelled but WHATEVER. I had a Commodor Educator, where the monitor and keyboard were stuck together. One color monitor. We also had copies of various Summer/Winter olympic games and some cheesy Friday the 13th game. My cousin had Oil Barons, which I found to be very entertaining. I never used an Apple.

"I never used an Apple."
And my family and I thank you.
*grin*

I'd give a cool pt to Apple for that one, but she's got so many I think she's ineligible for the rest of 2003.

You must be old. (he he)
One of the coolest things about a VAX was that you could see the System Resources and who was hogging what. Which was highly useful in a multi-user system. I finally got so frustrated with slow work, that I'd come in at 5 AM to beat all the Night Owls who stayed up till 3 AM to do their work. That way I had 'till Noon or 2 or so to get my research done (plus there was parking available at 5 AM - a big bonus at Berkeley).

But you can do all that stuff and more on any current *nix(ie. Unix, linus, BSD, &c) systems. You can even, in some restricted cases, get you're work done at 5AM, beat the night owls and not even get out of bed! (cron is your friend). But even though I've never tried VAX/VMS I like them. Reportedly pretty good on security issues too.

peegee, you could do that stuff on Unix, but my other option at the time was a Cray at LLL (Lawrence Livermore Lab) or some CDC 7600's which used JCL. Having a VAX that I could hog for a few hours was good. And I couldn't do stuff from home cause dial-up was primitive and I had a little girl who kept typing on the computer (actually a terminal). Who knew it would turn out this way?
And the UNIX system for the Chem. Department was just used for the student's grades. I wonder if the password is still football.?

Staying up 'til 3am qualifies you as a Night Owl?

Amateurs.

-Jn-
Efreeti Sophist

...says the guy who's about to go into work at 7pm, and won't leave there until 7:20am. (I'm sitting here eating my breakfast while I read.)

good nutrition (in fact, anything resembling any kind of nutrition other than "college student") is the first to go.

come back when you're no longer making distinctions like "breakfast". =P

You eat college students when you're tired? As nutrition?

Memo to self: make sure Steff gets enough sleep at IPIP, or make sure IPIP isn't in a college town.

besides, none of them have complained so far.

heh.

Here I was thinking "cannibalism" and you're thinking...yeah. Some protein, there, I guess, but I'd really say that's "recreation" rather than "nutrition."

Though I've never been a programmer, I would say not getting any sleep qualifies you as a Night Owl.

OTOH, the Night Owls are also an all-female singing group at Vassar, so YMMV. :)

"...Dogs and cats, living together...mass hysteria!"

-Jn-
Efreeti Sophist

Despair.

Back off, MGs.

-Jn-
City of Brass Expatriate

"You humans are idiots! Stupid, stupid, stupid!" - Plan 9 From Outer Space

People who purchase this device and use it should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. I would imagine reckless endangerment, manslaughter and a host of other charges could be brought to bear.

Yes, and if there aren't any laws against it, they ought to write them PDQ.

-There's someone in my head, but it's not me.-