Date: Mon, 1 Jul 1996 06:53:20 -0700
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From: Alan Bawden 
To: "Multiple recipients of list cpsr-history@cpsr.org" 
Subject: CM> Discussion Lists, ITS, SF-LOVERS.
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Sender: Alan Bawden 
Subject: ITS

   Date: Fri, 28 Jun 1996 23:27:21 -0700
   From: Richard Brodie 
   ...  ITS of course stood for Incompatible Time Sharing. Boy, was that a
   hideous user interface!  As I remember, you logged off by typing
   U. And there was a common command, I forget what it did even,
   but you invoked it by entering Esc, Ctrl-X, and the period key. Yuck!

*Cough*

That's not ITS you are describing, but rather the ITS command processor and
machine language debugger, DDT.  $^X. was the command that killed the
current job.  It was with tears in my eyes that I finally shut down the
last ITS machine at MIT in 1990, and I still accidentally type those DDT
commands to my Unix shell.  So watch it with those "Yuck!"s, buster, some
of us have some fond memories of those (admittedly arcane) commands!

   In those days, you created a mailing list by editing a LISP file (I
   unfortunately forget its name--anyone remember?) containing a list name
   and a list of recipients.

I would have said that the name of the ITS mailer COMSAT's mailing list
file was:

 DSK:.MAIL.;NAMES >

And I would have explained that this wasn't actually a Lisp file at all, it
just had a syntax that strongly resembled Lisp.  (In fact, I often wished
that it really -was- Lisp, so that it would be easier to write little
MacLisp programs to process it!)  But you said:

   Then anyone could send mail to SF-LOVERS@MIT-DMS and the system would
   forward it to everyone on the list, just like today! I posted a system
   message announcing the existence of the list and it quickly grew out of
   control.

And MIT-DMS ran a -different- mailer than the rest of the ITS machines.  I
don't recall what it's mailing list file was called.  The DMS mailer
("COMSYS") was written in MUDDLE, which qualifies as a dialect of Lisp, and
probably its mailing list file was indeed written in MUDDLE notation.

   I believe it was the release of a movie, either the first Star Trek or
   Superman, that made the list volume swell to the point where the
   sysadmins noticed. There was some discussion of the appropriateness of a
   non-work-related list, but it remained although it converted to
   digest-only form.

Hmmm...  I'll bet it was the original Star Wars movie -- I think that came
out at about the right time.  By the time I started subscribing to
SF-LOVERS it was already being digested and it was distributed from MIT-AI
not MIT-DMS.  (The moderator at the time was Roger Duffy, who was a
graduate student at the AI Lab, which perhaps explains a move to the AI
Lab's machine.)  As the membership continued to grow, even the single
nightly distribution of the digest got to be too much of a drag on a
single mailer, so the list was divided up between the various ITS machines.
For a couple of hours every night, every machine on the 9th floor of
Technology Square was working on SF-Lovers -- and no other mail was being
delivered.

Alan Bawden
Alan@LCS.MIT.EDU
(formerly Alan@MIT-AI)
Date: Mon, 1 Jul 1996 07:04:33 -0700
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From: Les Earnest 
To: "Multiple recipients of list cpsr-history@cpsr.org" 
Subject: CM> Earliest transistorized computer.
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Sender: Les Earnest 
Subject: CM> Earliest transistorized computer

Earlier I wrote:
   > I recall seeing a Bell Labs transistorized computer at the Eastern
   > Joint Computer Conference in Philadelphia in 1954, which I suspect was
   > the earliest.

Les Kitchen responds:
   A book I have claims that the first transistorized computer, the
   MEG, was completed in 1956 by the Manchester group.  Les Earnest
   may well be right in his recollection about the priority of Bell
   Labs (it would make sense after all).  However the writer of
   that chapter, Trevor Pearcey, was one of the designers of CSIRAC
   (aka CSIR Mark I) in the late 40s, so his claim would carry some
   weight.

Let me qualify my remark.  The early Bell Labs transistorized device
that I saw in 1954 may not have been a proper computer in the modern
sense.  I think it was a plugboard-programmable calculator linked to
an IBM card reader/punch, similar to an IBM product of that era that
used vacuum tubes.

        -Les Earnest
______________________________________________________________________
            Posted by David S. Bennahum (davidsol@panix.com)
                    Moderator: Community Memory
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______________________________________________________________________
Date: Mon, 1 Jul 1996 23:03:17 -0700
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From: "Michael R. Williams" 
To: "Multiple recipients of list cpsr-history@cpsr.org" 
Subject: CM> Grace Hopper's Microsecond.
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Sender: "Michael R. Williams" 
Subject: Re: CM> Grace Hopper's Microsecond.

[~snip~]

>>Presumably this was a nanosecond, not a microsecond; the speed of light
>>is 3 x 10^8 m/sec, or .3 m (about 11.8 inches) in a nanosecond.
>>A microsecond worth of wire would be almost a thousand feet long!

I well remember Grace's nanoseconds (in fact I have a small collection of
them from Grace herself) BUT she also (at least once) produced a microsecond
- yes it was about 1000' feet of wire.  She did it just to show the difference.

Mike Williams

---------------------------------------------------
Dr. Michael R. Williams
Editor-in-Chief, Annals of the History of Computing
Department of Computer Science
University of Calgary
Calgary, Alberta
Canada      T2N 1N4
Ph:  (403) 220-6781
Fax: (403) 284-4707
email: williams@cpsc.ucalgary.ca
______________________________________________________________________
            Posted by David S. Bennahum (davidsol@panix.com)
                    Moderator: Community Memory
            http://www.reach.com/matrix/community-memory.html
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______________________________________________________________________
Date: Mon, 1 Jul 1996 23:08:55 -0700
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From: padgett@tccslr.dnet.mmc.com (A. Padgett Peterson P.E. Information Security)
To: "Multiple recipients of list cpsr-history@cpsr.org" 
Subject: CM> Vaporware, Nanu-Nanu & microseconds
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Sender: padgett@tccslr.dnet.mmc.com (A. Padgett Peterson P.E. Information
Security)
Subject: Nanu-Nanu & microseconds

A few years ago when Mork and the 1750 were in their heyday & I was still
a digital design engineer, we had a project that involved the 1750. The
pilot unit was a real turkey, only managing about 300 kips but the supplier
promised 700-800 with the redesign.

Was a multichip design with the microcode on one and the registers on another.
Made myself very unpopular by pointing out that the interchip delay was such
that it would never get over 500.

Few years later after I had left that project was told that the supplier
still had not gotten the design over 500 kips (and the calculation took
just a few minutes). Was my first direct experience with Vaporware.

                                                Warmly,
                                                        Padgett
______________________________________________________________________
            Posted by David S. Bennahum (davidsol@panix.com)
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______________________________________________________________________
Date: Tue, 2 Jul 1996 09:44:59 -0700
Reply-To: Sarah-Stein@uiowa.edu
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From: Sarah-Stein@uiowa.edu (Sarah Stein)
To: "Multiple recipients of list cpsr-history@cpsr.org" 
Subject: CM> Questions of the Day.
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Sender: Sarah-Stein@uiowa.edu (Sarah Stein)
Subject: Query re: "ghost in the machine"

     Can anyone tell me the origins and meaning of the phrase "ghost in the
machine," as well as some history of its usage?
        Thank you,
        Sarah Stein

Sender: "Laurence I. Press" 
Subject: SABRE

Folks,

A few days ago someone posted a paragraph on the meeting between IBM's R.
Blair SMith and the president of American Airlines which kicked off the SABRE
project.

Can the poster give me a reference -- where was that taken from?  (It is
headed "jetwire," but I don't know what that is.

Also -- Was IBM's R. Blair Smith associated with SAGE?  I am looking for
links between lessons learned on SAGE and SABRE and other IBM projects and
products.

Larry Press

Sender: "Laurence I. Press" 
Subject: The 701s

Folks,

I have seen a list of the customers for the IBM 701s, but do not recall where
-- perhaps the Annals of the History of Computing.  Does anyone know where
the list is?  Were they all sold to either government or aerospace?

Larry Press
______________________________________________________________________
            Posted by David S. Bennahum (davidsol@panix.com)
                    Moderator: Community Memory
            http://www.reach.com/matrix/community-memory.html
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______________________________________________________________________
Date: Tue, 2 Jul 1996 09:55:13 -0700
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From: "christopher f. chiesa" 
To: "Multiple recipients of list cpsr-history@cpsr.org" 
Subject: CM> Discussion Lists, Rubik's Cube 1980-1.
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Sender: "christopher f. chiesa" 
Subject: Re: CM> Discussion Lists, ITS, SF-LOVERS.


Alan Bawden's recollections of the origins, syntax, and out-and-out
DETAILS of the MIT origins of the SF-LOVERS mailing list, are really
impressive to me!  I first put hand to a computer around 1975 or 76,
when a friend's father brought home from work one of the first
single-board "microprocessor trainer" units available; I first owned a
computer of my own (an Atari 800) in the summer of 1982; and I'd never
even HEARD of "Tech Square" until I read Steven Levy's fascinating book
HACKERS around 1988 or later!  And now to hear "directly" from a real
Tech Square denizen... well, if this were the Sixties I'd say it was
"mind-blowing."

Alan, your post also brings something else to mind.  For what it's worth,
there's a somewhat obscure Web site in Germany which contains what seems
to be a pretty thorough transcription/archive of the Rubik's Cube enthu-
siasts' mailinglist from the MIT network circa 1980-81.  I just discover-
ed it myself about a week ago, and have thus been VERY RECENTLY immersed
in a "world" where references to the MIT LISP machines and its filenaming
syntax fly about with great frequency.  It's an interesting coincidence
to read your clarifying remarks after having only JUST been exposed to
the subject in a completely different context.

And I thought _I_ had fascinating stories to tell about _my_ computer
education!  Heh, I'm just a "babe in the woods" compared to some of YOU
folks!  Thanks for sharing!

Chris Chiesa
______________________________________________________________________
            Posted by David S. Bennahum (davidsol@panix.com)
                    Moderator: Community Memory
            http://www.reach.com/matrix/community-memory.html
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______________________________________________________________________
Date: Tue, 2 Jul 1996 10:02:58 -0700
Reply-To: polly@well.com
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From: polly@well.com (Jean Armour Polly)
To: "Multiple recipients of list cpsr-history@cpsr.org" 
Subject: CM> Annotated Net Poems by Vint Cerf
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Sender: polly@well.com (Jean Armour Polly)
Subject: CM> Annotated Net Poems by Vint Cerf

As my part in the effort, I offer a collection of Vint Cerf's Net poems,
which I have annotated using Matisse Enzer's most excellent Internet
Glossary (yes, I give full credit).

The brief collection begins at
http://www.well.com/user/polly/cerf.html

but if you'd also click out a level to
http://www.well.com/user/polly
it would increment my counter. :-)

If anyone would like to provide more annotations, that would be good. Vint
saw this site last week and thought it was fun.

Jean Armour Polly       4146 Barker Hill Rd    Jamesville NY 13078 USA
+1 315-469 8670 (EST -5 GMT)    FAX-- +1 315 469-0176
http://www.well.com/user/polly/               polly@well.com
Net-mom  Consulting, Content, and Freelance Writing
Author of The Internet Kids Yellow Pages
Osborne McGraw Hill
$19.95 800 822-8158 (US order) 800 ISBN 007-882-197-5
609 426 5446 (International orders)
(UK ed: The Internet Kids Golden Directory )
ISBN 0-07-882217-3
______________________________________________________________________
            Posted by David S. Bennahum (davidsol@panix.com)
                    Moderator: Community Memory
            http://www.reach.com/matrix/community-memory.html
         A CPSR Project -- http://www.cpsr.org -- cpsr@cpsr.org
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______________________________________________________________________
Date: Tue, 2 Jul 1996 10:10:32 -0700
Reply-To: crunch@well.com
Originator: cpsr-history@cpsr.org
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From: crunch@well.com (John Draper)
To: "Multiple recipients of list cpsr-history@cpsr.org" 
Subject: CM> Cap'n Crunch Responds.
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[Moderator's Note: I contacted John Draper and sent him several of the
posts discussing his role and phone phreaking.  He was kind enough to
reply, and here is his response.]

Hi...

I'm taking  break from my driving shift..  Currently with my laptop sitting
in my car,  driving through New Mexico at the moment,  on my way to the rainbow
gathering in the Ozarks.    Now,   I can comment on some of the origional
postings you sent me previously.

>Sender: footage@well.com (Rick Prelinger)
>Subject: Apple Prehistory
>
>The demo ended when one of my neighbors took it on himself to practice a
>little social engineering and called saying that he was from the telco and
>aware of what was going on, and that there was a black-and-white on the
>way.  The "instrument", as its builders called it, was packed up very
>quickly and everything ended.

I'm not exactly sure it happened this way,  unless it happened after I
left the dorm that evening.

>Sender: "Bryan P. Haynes" 
>Subject: "Oscar Meyer Wiener Whistle" and Phone Phreaking
>
>All this talk of "Phone Phreaking" has reminded me of stories back in the
>late '60's, early '70's, of people who could fake out the phone company
>billing system on long distance calls by playing the appropriate tones that
>the phone company used for billing on an Oscar Meyer Wiener Whistle.  Has
>anyone heard of this, or was I just being set up?

No,  there actually WAS an Oscar Meyer Wiener Whistle,  and like the Cap'n
Crunch whistle,  it also was pitched at near 2600 Hz,  but a hole also had
to be glued for it to work.

>There was never an Oscar Meyer Weiner whistle that I can recall, but there
>was a Captain Crunch whistle.

No,  thats not true,  there WAS an Oscar Meyer Weiner whistle.

>This was totally on accident of course.  The Captain Crunch people, and
>whoever actually made the whistles, did not intentionally create such a
>whistle.  It just happened that that was the frequency the whistle created
>when blown.

Not true,  the first hole had to be glued in order for the pitch to be close
enough to 2600 hz..


>The whistle was more of an item of amusement for the "phreaking" community
>than anything else I think.

Well,  in the late 60's they were quite functional if you happened to be luckey
enough to live in an area where they worked.

Anyway,  these are my comments.   I'll join the list when I get back from my
trip.

Oh,  you didn't give me the name of the mailing list that discussed this,  so
you can forward it to the list if you like,  and I plan on joining it upon my
return.

Crunchman
______________________________________________________________________
            Posted by David S. Bennahum (davidsol@panix.com)
                    Moderator: Community Memory
            http://www.reach.com/matrix/community-memory.html
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______________________________________________________________________
Date: Tue, 2 Jul 1996 10:15:55 -0700
Reply-To: ejw@ics.uci.edu
Originator: cpsr-history@cpsr.org
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From: Jim Whitehead 
To: "Multiple recipients of list cpsr-history@cpsr.org" 
Subject: CM> Pointer to radio interviews with Cyber-pioneers.
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Hi,

My name is Jim Whitehead, and I am a Ph.D. student in Computer Science at
the University of California, Irvine.  I heard from a friend that you have
appointed yourself oral history archivist of the Internet, and would like
to make available to you my own oral history archive of internet-related
materials.  For the past two and a half years, in my spare time I co-hosted
a radio show called the Cyberspace Report (my other co-host is Lisa Covi,
another CS Ph.D. student), which aired on the campus radio station, KUCI.
The show had an interview format in which we would essentially ask
questions to get our guest talking with very little input from us as hosts.
A complete list of shows we have aired can be found off of the Cyberspace
Report web page, at URL .

Shows which I think might be of interest to you include interviews with Ted
Nelson (inventor of hypertext), Roy Fielding (first author on HTTP/1.x
specifications), Virginia Shea (author of Netiquette), an interivew with a
regular on alt.suicide.holiday, Daniel Bender (he runs Cupid's Network, a
free online dating resource), and Naomi Pierce (who works for Women's Wire,
a women-oriented online service).  There may be other shows listed which
you might be interested in as well ... these are just the shows which have
the most direct relation to the Internet.  You can sample a couple of shows
from the web page ... I think you'll find that while the audio quality
isn't stellar, the interview content itself is significantly better than
mainstream Internet coverage.

If you're interested, I'd like to figure out some way of getting you copies
of shows you're interested in ... perhaps we could do a tape swap?

- Jim Whitehead 
______________________________________________________________________
            Posted by David S. Bennahum (davidsol@panix.com)
                    Moderator: Community Memory
            http://www.reach.com/matrix/community-memory.html
         A CPSR Project -- http://www.cpsr.org -- cpsr@cpsr.org
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______________________________________________________________________
Date: Tue, 2 Jul 1996 23:05:18 -0700
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From: "Michael R. Williams" 
To: "Multiple recipients of list cpsr-history@cpsr.org" 
Subject: CM> IBM 701: Resource.
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Sender: "Michael R. Williams" 
Subject: IBM 701

Larry Press wrote:


I have seen a list of the customers for the IBM 701s, but do not recall where
-- perhaps the Annals of the History of Computing.  Does anyone know where
the list is?  Were they all sold to either government or aerospace?

-------------------------------------
All the information anyone would want on the IBM 701 (well, almost anyone)
can be found in Annals of the History of Computing special issue on the IBM
701 - Annals Volume 5, Number 2, April 1983.

Mike Williams

---------------------------------------------------
Dr. Michael R. Williams
Editor-in-Chief, Annals of the History of Computing
Department of Computer Science
University of Calgary
Calgary, Alberta
Canada      T2N 1N4

Ph:  (403) 220-6781
Fax: (403) 284-4707
email: williams@cpsc.ucalgary.ca
______________________________________________________________________
            Posted by David S. Bennahum (davidsol@panix.com)
                    Moderator: Community Memory
            http://www.reach.com/matrix/community-memory.html
         A CPSR Project -- http://www.cpsr.org -- cpsr@cpsr.org
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______________________________________________________________________
Date: Wed, 3 Jul 1996 23:05:41 -0700
Reply-To: cpsr-history@Sunnyside.COM
Originator: cpsr-history@cpsr.org
Sender: listserv-reply-errors@Sunnyside.COM
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From: Alan Bawden 
To: "Multiple recipients of list cpsr-history@cpsr.org" 
Subject: CM> Discussion Lists, Rubik's Cube 1980-96.
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Sender: Alan Bawden 
Subject: CM> Discussion Lists, Rubik's Cube 1980-1.

   Date: Tue, 2 Jul 1996 09:55:04 -0700
   From: "christopher f. chiesa" 
   ...
   Alan, your post also brings something else to mind.  For what it's worth,
   there's a somewhat obscure Web site in Germany which contains what seems
   to be a pretty thorough transcription/archive of the Rubik's Cube enthu-
   siasts' mailinglist from the MIT network circa 1980-81.

Nothing in your message indicates that you are aware of the facts that (1)
16 years later, that mailing list (Cube-Lovers@AI.MIT.EDU) is -still- in
operation, and (2) its moderator is -me-!  Assuming that you found the Web
site I think you did, if you keep reading it you'll eventually get to some
very recent messages.

In fact I almost mentioned Cube-Lovers in my previous message to this list,
because Cube-Lovers wasn't formed very long after SF-Lovers, and so it must
be among the longest running mailing lists around.  Of course Cube-Lovers
was never very large (especially in comparison to SF-Lovers!), but we
managed to hang on after the original Rubik's Cube fad was over, and
nowadays the Internet is such a large community that we have no trouble
finding interested subscribers.  (The world as a whole is less interested
in Rubik's Cube every year, but the Internet is now such a big place that
even obscure topics can support a lively mailing list!)

So what are the oldest mailing lists, and which ones are still with us?
Header-People (for the discussion and design of electronic mail headers) is
still with us, it predates Cube-Lovers, but not (I think) SF-Lovers.  Does
SF-Lovers still live on in some incarnation?  The RISKS mailing list is
another old-timer, when did it form?  Someone here mentioned HUMAN-NETS the
other day, is that still with us?  Another high-traffic early mailing list
was ARMS-D, is it gone?
______________________________________________________________________
            Posted by David S. Bennahum (davidsol@panix.com)
                    Moderator: Community Memory
            http://www.reach.com/matrix/community-memory.html
         A CPSR Project -- http://www.cpsr.org -- cpsr@cpsr.org
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______________________________________________________________________
Date: Wed, 3 Jul 1996 23:11:42 -0700
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From: Scott Sibbald 
To: "Multiple recipients of list cpsr-history@cpsr.org" 
Subject: CM> Origins of the word "ghost in the machine."
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Sender: Scott Sibbald 
Subject:

>Sarah Stein writes
>
>    Can anyone tell me the origins and meaning of the phrase "ghost in the
machine," as well as some >history of its usage?

Not sure about this, but it seems like a corruption of the old term "god in
the machine", or in Latin, "deus ex machina", which, according to my
handy-dandy Microsoft Bookshelf, means:

1.                In Greek and Roman drama, a god lowered by stage machinery
to resolve a plot or extricate the protagonist from a difficult situation.
2.      An unexpected, artificial, or improbable character, device, or event
introduced suddenly in a work of fiction or drama to resolve a situation or
untangle a plot.
3.      A person or event that provides a sudden and unexpected solution to a
difficulty.
[New Latin deus ex machin=E2 : deus, god + ex, from + machina, machine
(translation of Greek theos apo m=EAkhan=EAs).]

The American Heritage=AE Dictionary of the English Language, Third Edition
copyright =A9 1992 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Electronic version licensed
from InfoSoft International, Inc. All rights reserved.

To me, computers certainly seem to answer to both definitions #2 and #3.  If
I stop and think about the advances that have come just since I started
dealing with computers in the late 70's, it boggles.  I wantone of those
$100 Rolls Royces that runs forever on $10 worth of gas a year...

Scott
______________________________________________________________________
            Posted by David S. Bennahum (davidsol@panix.com)
                    Moderator: Community Memory
            http://www.reach.com/matrix/community-memory.html
         A CPSR Project -- http://www.cpsr.org -- cpsr@cpsr.org
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______________________________________________________________________
Date: Wed, 3 Jul 1996 23:14:52 -0700
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From: polly@well.com (Jean Armour Polly)
To: "Multiple recipients of list cpsr-history@cpsr.org" 
Subject: CM> T-SHIRTS
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Sender: polly@well.com (Jean Armour Polly)
Subject: CM> T-SHIRTS

I have long wondered if someone shouldn't document the history of computing
through its T-shirts. As we know, you can't launch a product without a T
shirt, and you can't go to a computer trade show without coming home with a
new summer wardrobe for yourself, the family, the cat. Wouldn't it make a
great web page!

But, I will settle for the history of the Net thru its wearable art. I know
of the first Gophercon shirt, was that 1992? I have an assorted EFF
collection here, too. I also have a 1993 bootleg shirt from Cisco with the
famous New Yorker "Nobody knows you're a dog" cartoon on it and a Cisco
flyer on the bulletin board behind the computer.

But those can't have been the first. (Doesn't anyone know of a "Surfing the
Arpanet" shirt for example? ;-))

Jean Armour Polly       4146 Barker Hill Rd    Jamesville NY 13078 USA
+1 315-469 8670 (EST -5 GMT)    FAX-- +1 315 469-0176
http://www.well.com/user/polly/               polly@well.com
Net-mom  Consulting, Content, and Freelance Writing
Author of The Internet Kids Yellow Pages
______________________________________________________________________
            Posted by David S. Bennahum (davidsol@panix.com)
                    Moderator: Community Memory
            http://www.reach.com/matrix/community-memory.html
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______________________________________________________________________
Date: Fri, 5 Jul 1996 23:09:10 -0700
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From: "Kip Crosby, CHAC" 
To: "Multiple recipients of list cpsr-history@cpsr.org" 
Subject: CM> IBM 701 Customers.
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Sender: "Kip Crosby, CHAC" 
Subject: Re: CPSR-HISTORY digest 25

>I have seen a list of the customers for the IBM 701s, but do not recall where
>-- perhaps the Annals of the History of Computing.  Does anyone know where
>the list is?  Were they all sold to either government or aerospace?

I don't have the whole list right here, but of the nineteen produced, ten
went to California or to Los Alamos, and they were:

     2  University of California, Los Alamos, NM      March 23, 1953
     3  Lockheed Aircraft Company, Glendale, CA       April 24, 1953
     5  Douglas Aircraft Company, Santa Monica, CA      May 20, 1953
     8  U. S. Navy, Inyokern, CA (China Lake)        August 27, 1953
     10 North American Aviation, Santa Monica, CA    October 9, 1953
     11 Rand Corporation, Santa Monica, CA          October 30, 1953
     13 University of California, Los Alamos, NM   December 19 ,1953
     14 Douglas Aircraft Company, El Segundo, CA     January 8, 1954
     16 University of California, Livermore, CA        April 9, 1954
     18 Lockheed Aircraft Company, Glendale, CA        June 30, 1954

On top of that I remember that IBM kept #1 for itself, and #19 -- the one
built out of scrounged parts -- went to the Weather Bureau in Suitland, MD.
So there's twelve out of nineteen....



__________________________________________
Kip Crosby                 engine@chac.org
        http://www.chac.org/chac/
Computer History Association of California
______________________________________________________________________
            Posted by David S. Bennahum (davidsol@panix.com)
                    Moderator: Community Memory
            http://www.reach.com/matrix/community-memory.html
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______________________________________________________________________
Date: Fri, 5 Jul 1996 23:19:52 -0700
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From: davidsol@panix.com (CM Moderator)
To: "Multiple recipients of list cpsr-history@cpsr.org" 
Subject: CM> History via T-SHIRTS, Multiple Posts.
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[Moderator's Note: This T-shirt thread generated many responses, enclosed
in this message.  Some have suggested creating a timeline of cyber-history
based on images from these T-shirts.  I would be happy to help out, so
those of you with t-shirts who want to contribute, take a photo and either
mail it by snail mail to me, or scan it in and email it to me (UUENCODE or
attachment is fine).  I'll then put the images up on the Community Memory
web site as they come in.  My mailing address is: 632 Broadway, 6th Floor,
New York, NY  10012.  Please email me ahead of time so I know to expect it.
Thanks.]

Sender: John Clark 
Subject: Re: CM> T-SHIRTS

On Wed, 3 Jul 1996, Jean Armour Polly wrote:

> I have long wondered if someone shouldn't document the history of computing
> through its T-shirts.

[~snip~]

> But, I will settle for the history of the Net thru its wearable art. I know
> of the first Gophercon shirt, was that 1992? I have an assorted EFF
> collection here, too. I also have a 1993 bootleg shirt from Cisco with the
> famous New Yorker "Nobody knows you're a dog" cartoon on it and a Cisco
> flyer on the bulletin board behind the computer.

Well, i have none so cool as yours, but i do have from all the folks i've
worked for over the years, plus some trade show rareities, an early mozilla
from before Netscape went public, for example. Perhaps a web page of the
very best?

Sender: Geoff Mulligan 
Subject: Re: CM> T-SHIRTS

I have two of the original SF-lovers shirts from the early 80's - both
never worn.

        geoff

Sender: Chung-Chieh Shan 
Subject: RE: CM> T-SHIRTS

This is a beautiful idea.

Let me generalize and automate, in escalating levels of dreamishness:
People can scan in their own computing-related T-shirts and upload to a
server via email, Web, etc.  The image would be accompanied by the
*year* in which the T-shirt was made (and perhaps other information such
as location, etc.)  A self-organizing timeline history would result.  If
we have enough images for each year, we can even randomly choose one
from each year for each download.  A printed publication is not out of
the question.

What do other people think?

Ken

"The Converter Group in Building 17, a notoriously glum Campus locale"
-- Daniel Underwood, in Microserfs by Douglas Coupland

Sender: mmr@darwin.ptvy.ca.us (Mike Roberts)
Subject: Re: CM> T-SHIRTS

I have one from either 1st or 2nd Interop meeting in 86/87.

Sender: Richard Brodie 
Subject: RE: CM> T-SHIRTS

We had a beautiful SF-LOVERS T-Shirt in 1980. It was yellow and featured
a green BEM in front of a monitor with a coffee cup. On the cup were
"SFL" (for SF-LOVERS mailing list) in Morse code.

I manufactured the shirts and painstakingly mailed them out myself. If I
remember right, the art was done by Geoff Forward.

I still have a few in a box somewhere. Anyone else out there still have
yours?

Richard Brodie  RBrodie@brodietech.com  +1.206.688.8600
CEO, Brodie Technology Group, Inc., Bellevue, WA USA
http://members.gnn.com/rbrodie
Do you know what a "meme" is? http://members.gnn.com/rbrodie/votm.htm

Sender: Craig Partridge 
Subject: Re: CM> T-SHIRTS


    But, I will settle for the history of the Net thru its wearable art. I know
    of the first Gophercon shirt, was that 1992? I have an assorted EFF
    collection here, too. I also have a 1993 bootleg shirt from Cisco with the
    famous New Yorker "Nobody knows you're a dog" cartoon on it and a Cisco
    flyer on the bulletin board behind the computer.

    But those can't have been the first. (Doesn't anyone know of a "Surfing the
    Arpanet" shirt for example? ;-))

I can get back about 5 years earlier.  Around 1988 or so, there were a couple
of notable shirts:

    * the OSI elephant shirt (Elephant perched precariously on a set of
    telephone lines with subtitle "OSI: Same day service in a nanosecond
    world") -- only a few dozen made, c. 1988.

    * The Nerds in Paradise T-shirt.  Nerd wearing flower shirt and portable
    computer on a pink T-shirt.  From the IETF meeting in Hawaii (1989?).

Reaching farther back, I seem to recall seeing BBNers wearing T-shirts
from various networking test exercises from the 1970s, but I can't be
sure.

Craig

Sender: rab@well.com (Bob Bickford)
Subject: Re: CM> T-SHIRTS


[discussion of historical T-shirts]

I have a pretty good collection of shirts, but I think the oldest is
only 1979 or so.  Even my Dr. Dobb's shirt is actually from 1986, and
not one of the originals (though the design is identical).  And of course
I have a complete collection of Hackers Conference shirts -- well, except
for the very first, which I did not attend.

Some sources for older shirts would include the annual SIGGRAPH conferences,
as well as various of the electronics industry trade shows in the 70s and
80s.  And of course there's a never-ending plethora of company shirts as
well........  I do recall there being shirts at one of the Byte Shops, but
I can't say for sure what was on them!

This has potential to be very interesting.  If someone wants to take photos
of (fronts and backs) of some shirts, I'll be glad to cooperate.

--
Bob Bickford          rab@well.com
"Professional Wild-Eyed Visionary"
Coordinator, National Libertarian Party's Anti-CDA Campaign
______________________________________________________________________
            Posted by David S. Bennahum (davidsol@panix.com)
                    Moderator: Community Memory
            http://www.reach.com/matrix/community-memory.html
         A CPSR Project -- http://www.cpsr.org -- cpsr@cpsr.org
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______________________________________________________________________
Date: Fri, 5 Jul 1996 23:25:58 -0700
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From: ac959@freenet.carleton.ca (Peter Martin)
To: "Multiple recipients of list cpsr-history@cpsr.org" 
Subject: CM> Origins of the word "ghost in the machine."
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Sender: ac959@freenet.carleton.ca (Peter Martin)
Subject: Re: CM> Origins of the word "ghost in the machine."

>>Sarah Stein writes
>>
>>    Can anyone tell me the origins and meaning of the phrase "ghost in the
>machine," as well as some >history of its usage?

>Not sure about this, but it seems like a corruption of the old term "god in
>the machine", or in Latin, "deus ex machina", which, according to my
>handy-dandy Microsoft Bookshelf, means:

The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations gives "The dogma of the Ghost in the
machine." from *The Concept of Mind" by Gilbert Ryle.

Ryle was (1900-1976) an English philosopher. Since the word "dogma" turns
up in the quote, and since he capitalized Ghost, I suspect he was much more
likely to be talking about Christianity than about computers.

But short of reading Ryle's book, I can't be sure. And I don't think I'll
read the book, at least not today; I have only the vaguest recollection of
Ryle's role in 20th century philosophy, only recall from long-gone undergrad
days that he was difficult.

Maybe the reference is not the Holy Spirit. Maybe it's the human soul?

Not silicon anyway, and probably not related to "deus ex machina".

--
Peter Martin            *****           Garden Books of Sandy Hill
#1 -131 Osgoode St      *****           P.O. Box 20559
Ottawa ON K1N 6S5       *****           Ottawa ON K1N 1A3
(613) 237-4180          *****           (613) 565-2595
______________________________________________________________________
            Posted by David S. Bennahum (davidsol@panix.com)
                    Moderator: Community Memory
            http://www.reach.com/matrix/community-memory.html
         A CPSR Project -- http://www.cpsr.org -- cpsr@cpsr.org
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______________________________________________________________________
Date: Fri, 5 Jul 1996 23:33:00 -0700
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From: hari@wired.co.uk (Hari Kunzru)
To: "Multiple recipients of list cpsr-history@cpsr.org" 
Subject: CM> Origins of the word "ghost in the machine."
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Sender: hari@wired.co.uk (Hari Kunzru)
Subject: Re: CM> Origins of the word "ghost in the machine."


>>Sarah Stein writes
>>
>>    Can anyone tell me the origins and meaning of the phrase "ghost in the
>machine," as well as some >history of its usage?

The references to Greek stage machinery are definitely in order, but the
specific origin of the phrase is a postwar reference to Descartes. For
Descartes the soul was the 'seat of reason', directing the mechanistic
operations of the body from its seat in (as I remember) the pineal gland.
Arthur Koestler's 1967 book 'The Ghost in the Machine' is as far as I know
the origin of this phrase for the immaterial director of our material
functions, though I have a vague memory that the phrase might have been
coined by an Oxford philosopher writing a critique of Descartes slightly
earlier than Koestler's book.

Hari Kunzru
Review Editor **** Wired Magazine, London
           **** tel: +44.171.775.3441  ****   fax: +44.171.775.3401
                                    **** hari@wired.co.uk  ****
hari@juju.demon.co.uk
'It's real, it's mainstream, it's smack in the middle of our critical path
to everywhere'
[overheard at Apple press conference]
______________________________________________________________________
            Posted by David S. Bennahum (davidsol@panix.com)
                    Moderator: Community Memory
            http://www.reach.com/matrix/community-memory.html
         A CPSR Project -- http://www.cpsr.org -- cpsr@cpsr.org
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______________________________________________________________________
Date: Fri, 5 Jul 1996 23:39:39 -0700
Reply-To: cpsr-history@Sunnyside.COM
Originator: cpsr-history@cpsr.org
Sender: listserv-reply-errors@Sunnyside.COM
Precedence: bulk
From: Geoff Mulligan  (by way of davidsol@panix.com (David S.))
To: "Multiple recipients of list cpsr-history@cpsr.org" 
Subject: Re: CM> Discussion Lists, WINE.
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Sender: Geoff Mulligan 
Subject: Re: CM> Discussion Lists, Rubik's Cube 1980-96.

But let us not forget the very very first internet mailing list - the
WINE list, which some how got noticed by the press and had DARPA
scrambling.

        geoff
______________________________________________________________________
            Posted by David S. Bennahum (davidsol@panix.com)
                    Moderator: Community Memory
            http://www.reach.com/matrix/community-memory.html
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______________________________________________________________________
Date: Fri, 5 Jul 1996 23:47:49 -0700
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Originator: cpsr-history@cpsr.org
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From: "William A. Reitwiesner" 
To: "Multiple recipients of list cpsr-history@cpsr.org" 
Subject: CM> Memories of ENIAC and "computers."
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[Moderator's note: here is a transcript of an email discussion I had with
William A. Reitwiesner, whose mother worked first as a human "computer"
then on ENIAC, witnessing the transition from human computers to digital
computers (the word "computer" used to describe a human job.)  Hopefully
she too will send us a description of her experience.  With William
Reitwiesner's permission, I've forwarded our correspondence to the list.]

On July 3, 1996, William A. Reitwiesner wrote:

>>I just saw the notice in the June 24 1996 issue of *Government Computer
>>News*, p. 4, about the history of ENIAC.
>>
>>For what it's worth, I am a result of ENIAC.  My parents were both BRL
>>employees (my mother was one of the "computers" that ENIAC was to
>>replace) and met there.  I was born in Havre de Grace and spent my first
>>few years in Aberdeen.  Of course, I have no memories of the place (and
>>my memories wouldn't be the sort of things you're looking for).  My
>>father, George Reitwiesner, died a few years ago, but my mother, known
>>then as Home McAllister, is still alive.  She has email but no WWW access.
>>
>>William Addams Reitwiesner
>>wrei@loc.gov

On Wed, 3 Jul 1996 12:13:51 -0500, David S. Bennahum wrote:

>William -- thanks for the note.  Maybe your mother would be interested in
>writing a description of what it was like to be a "computer" (many people
>do not know that the word originates from this) and her recollections of
>how her work was turned over to digital computers.  What was the transition
>like?  Was there a point where both people and machines worked in parallel,
>or was it done all at once?  What did she do after the transition?  It
>would be great to hear first-person from her, since as far as I know I've
>never seen anything written about what it was like to witness first hand
>the transition from human computers to digital ones.  Feel free to forward
>this message to her.
>
>best,
>db
>

On July 3, 1996, William A. Reitwiesner wrote:

I've forwarded your note to my mother, and when her server gets back in
commission (whenever that may be) she can read it.

I mentioned your email to her over the phone, and she said that she fought
being moved from being a computer to working with the IBM machines, and
later fought being moved to the ENIAC project.  Not because she was a
Unabomberist Luddite or anything, but because she *liked* calculating
ballistics tables by hand, and because she was *good* at it.

That's something which is often overlooked in all of our talk of "progress"
and so on -- for example in libraries (such as where I work), the card
catalog has been replaced by an online catalog.  While online catalogs are
marvelous, the card catalog had benefits which can't be replicated in an
online catalog.  Not just the ability to move from here to there in the
catalog without having to type anything (my peeve), but the careers of
people who, as opposed to most of us, were actually *good* at filing 3X5
cards into card drawers.  I suppose we should feel the same way about them
as we do about buggy-whip manufacturers at the beginning of the 20th
century, but still there's a loss.

For a long time the human computers worked in parallel with the ENIAC,
mostly because the ENIAC was so unreliable.  The ENIAC crew felt that the
unreliability was a consequence of turning the damn thing *off* every night
and then *on* the next day, which meant power surges through the thousands
of vacuum tubes each time, and then hours troubleshooting the blown tubes.
That's actually the reason my father used the ENIAC to calculate the value
of pi, to some 2000 decimal places, which took 72 hours over a Labor Day
weekend -- to show that if you just let it run it would run fine.  It
wasn't to advance our knowledge of pi (he also calculated e the same way),
but nonetheless my father has ended up as a footnote in the history of pi.

On July 5, 1996, William A. Reitwiesner wrote:

>With your permission, I'd like to forward your note to the list; I hope
>your mother will be able to write something as well.

OK, fine, I have no objections.  Remember, what I'm telling you is *not* in
any way a memoir, as I wasn't there (at least not in any functional
capacity).

I may have left you with an incorrect impression.  My mother *was* one of
the "computers", but she was transferred to, and worked for a long time on,
the ENIAC project.  Apparently most of the computers didn't transfer, but
she did.

My father told me that one of the problems with the ENIAC, one which caused
many subtle problems with the machine, was finally traced to the janitorial
crew.  While mopping or sweeping, occasionally they'd accidentally knock
out a wire.  Scared of possible repercussions, they'd just plug the wire
back in.  Did they put it in the right socket?  "Who cares, all I know is
it's not hanging loose any more".
______________________________________________________________________
            Posted by David S. Bennahum (davidsol@panix.com)
                    Moderator: Community Memory
            http://www.reach.com/matrix/community-memory.html
         A CPSR Project -- http://www.cpsr.org -- cpsr@cpsr.org
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______________________________________________________________________
Date: Fri, 5 Jul 1996 23:54:07 -0700
Reply-To: cpsr-history@Sunnyside.COM
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From: usamre6r@ibmmail.com
To: "Multiple recipients of list cpsr-history@cpsr.org" 
Subject: CM> "Jetwire" newsletter and SABRE.
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>Sender: "Laurence I. Press" 
> Subject: SABRE

> Folks,

> A few days ago someone posted a paragraph on the meeting between IBM's R.
> Blair SMith and the president of American Airlines which kicked off the SABRE
> project.

> Can the poster give me a reference -- where was that taken from?  (It is
> headed "jetwire," but I don't know what that is.

As I stated in the original post "JETWIRE" is an internal newsletter of
American Airlines. It is not supposed to be published outside of the company
but, I felt the relevant paragraph excerpt would not cause problems.
I also felt it was a very solid confirmation of the story.

Bill Stager
______________________________________________________________________
            Posted by David S. Bennahum (davidsol@panix.com)
                    Moderator: Community Memory
            http://www.reach.com/matrix/community-memory.html
         A CPSR Project -- http://www.cpsr.org -- cpsr@cpsr.org
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______________________________________________________________________
Date: Sat, 6 Jul 1996 23:05:02 -0700
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Subject: CM> T-SHIRTS
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Sender: FAFNIR@delphi.com
Subject: CM> T-SHIRTS

Polly --

> (Doesn't anyone know of a "Surfing the
> Arpanet" shirt for example? ;-))

If you could find either Andy Lipinski or Hugo (his son) they might have a
clue.  They were part of the Institute for the Future team working on the
D-ARPANET back in the early-to-mid 70's.  The linkage was through the NASA
Ames port.  Astounding to remember the "primative" state of programming
languages... Fortran was a luxury, and most work was done in machine language.

Tracing the development from DARPANET to WWW is, in itself, a fascinating
study in evolutionary dynamics.

Rick
(Frederick D. Lazar)

Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service
New York University
          and
Fafnir Associates. Ltd.
"A Vokte Uten Frykt"
"the passion to destroy is a creative passion"  Mikhail Bakunin
Why we can colonize the universe:
"If man can survive in New York, he can live anywhere!"  A. Clarke

Fafnir@Delphi.com
Chaos@Pipeline.com
______________________________________________________________________
            Posted by David S. Bennahum (davidsol@panix.com)
                    Moderator: Community Memory
            http://www.reach.com/matrix/community-memory.html
         A CPSR Project -- http://www.cpsr.org -- cpsr@cpsr.org
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______________________________________________________________________
Date: Sat, 6 Jul 1996 23:15:02 -0700
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From: "Mike O'Brien" 
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Subject: CM> Discussion Lists, SF-Lovers in 1996.
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Sender: "Mike O'Brien" 
Subject: Re: CM> Discussion Lists, Rubik's Cube 1980-96.

        Date:   Wed, 3 Jul 1996 23:00:52 -0700
        From: Alan Bawden 

        Does SF-Lovers still live on in some incarnation?

Yes it does.  It's long-time moderator is Saul Jaffe.  The moderator
address is .  It remains a Digest, unchanged
in form and format from its earliest days, except that it is now cross-
gatewayed to a number of Usenet groups which actually carry most of the
posted traffic picked up by the list.  Long-term and extensive problems with
the Rutgers mailer forced Saul to buy a Pentium-class machine running UNIX
out of his own pocket to support the list.  I know of no more dedicated
moderator.

Others with better access to records will be able to say in what year
SF-LOVERS finally picked up a long-delayed Hugo award.  There was an
attempt early on to nominate it for a Hugo, but the effort was scotched
by the moderator (then, I think, Roger Duffey).  He feared grave consequences
if the list actually won the award, forcing the blind eye then being
turned by the authorities to suddenly regain sight.

Mike O'Brien
______________________________________________________________________
            Posted by David S. Bennahum (davidsol@panix.com)
                    Moderator: Community Memory
            http://www.reach.com/matrix/community-memory.html
         A CPSR Project -- http://www.cpsr.org -- cpsr@cpsr.org
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Subject: CM> Discussion Lists, WINE...WINOS?
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Sender: Alan Bawden 
Subject: CM> Discussion Lists, WINE.

   Date: Fri, 5 Jul 1996 23:38:04 -0700
   From: Geoff Mulligan 
   Subject: Re: CM> Discussion Lists, Rubik's Cube 1980-96.
   ...  the WINE list, which some how got noticed by the press and had
   DARPA scrambling.

If I'm not mistaken, that list was actually named "WINOS" -- even worse
from a public relations standpoint!
______________________________________________________________________
            Posted by David S. Bennahum (davidsol@panix.com)
                    Moderator: Community Memory
            http://www.reach.com/matrix/community-memory.html
         A CPSR Project -- http://www.cpsr.org -- cpsr@cpsr.org
 Materials may be reposted in their *entirety* for non-commercial use.
 Want to receive the day's postings bundled together into one message?
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                       SET CPSR-HISTORY MAIL DIGEST
______________________________________________________________________