Post AVuKoWTeCwByoJkTMu by buzzybee@mastodon.social
(DIR) More posts by buzzybee@mastodon.social
(DIR) Post #AVssGUapiMpxFM8OLA by lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org
2023-05-21T15:40:00Z
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Given the insane debt ceiling situation, maybe we really should consider replacing these idiot politicians with AI. (This message was not written by an AI system. I promise. -L)
(DIR) Post #AVsudjP70uklkbrQzg by SteveBellovin@mastodon.lawprofs.org
2023-05-21T16:06:38Z
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@lauren I remember when people wondered if you were an AI, given how frequently you posted…
(DIR) Post #AVsv0Oyp7F954ENIDg by lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org
2023-05-21T16:10:45Z
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@SteveBellovin This was an unwarranted accusation against me on HUMAN-NETS digest in ARPANET days when I was at UCLA. My response as I recall was (in more or less these words): "I note the various speculations about my mode of existence. You humans really amuse me sometimes."
(DIR) Post #AVsv7zvw7dhDhfe8bw by SteveBellovin@mastodon.lawprofs.org
2023-05-21T16:12:04Z
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@lauren Yup, I was on HUMAN-NETS, too…
(DIR) Post #AVsvJak5bkR938dKT2 by lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org
2023-05-21T16:14:13Z
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@SteveBellovin I believe I was sitting in an office in the Math Depart. (there was no formal CS department at UCLA yet at that time) and wrote that out on a Hazeltine 2000 long persistence green phosphor terminal. I remember too much stuff.
(DIR) Post #AVswfMcCueJdYmtNI0 by TonyJWells@mastodon.social
2023-05-21T16:29:12Z
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@lauren A few years ago, I would have pointed to Colossus: The Forbin Project, but tbh, it doesn't look so bad now in comparison.
(DIR) Post #AVszJLDFkKPMhaPVQW by SteveBellovin@mastodon.lawprofs.org
2023-05-21T16:58:57Z
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@lauren I remember Hazeltines from the 1970s, but I wasn’t on HUMAN-NETS until the early 1980s. (I did have one summer on the ARPANET circa 1974, but that’s a separate story.)
(DIR) Post #AVszxF8Vl2cfRJDeVs by lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org
2023-05-21T17:06:10Z
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@SteveBellovin The head of the project loved that terminal. I was probably in his office when I made that post. Thing is, that was an uppercase only terminal. I modified it for him to add lowercase characters (no descenders though, impossible), and made the shift key work to switch cases. I was able to do this since it was all TTL logic, so I was able to piggyback the lowercase chip on top of the uppercase char gen chip, and make other hardware changes to make it all work. He used it for years. I don't really know why he liked it -- the long persistence drove me nuts.
(DIR) Post #AVt0WRsMNtnt5NS4um by mediadude@sfba.social
2023-05-21T17:12:33Z
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@SteveBellovin @lauren just - wow!
(DIR) Post #AVt0jX1yWsNQq3Bhzs by lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org
2023-05-21T17:14:55Z
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@SteveBellovin https://amigan.yatho.com/2513.pdf
(DIR) Post #AVt1XPJbURgrO7DRke by lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org
2023-05-21T17:23:54Z
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@SteveBellovin To add even more context, that terminal, along with a bunch of other terminals, the PDP-11/70 (that became UCLA-SECURITY on ARPANET) that joined our PDP-11/45 (UCLA-ATS, ARPANET site #1), and lots of other stuff including the Votrax speech synthesizer and the AT&T modems to interface Touch Tone to the Votrax (which became the heart of my notorious "Touch Tone Unix" system that I presented a paper on at a Usenix conference long ago) came from a closed down project at Lawrence Livermore Labs (the "RATS" project). So the history is amusing.
(DIR) Post #AVt2AKK3zCovCIzNya by lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org
2023-05-21T17:30:59Z
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@SteveBellovin Pretty sure it was a 401 modem (with one of various suffixes). As I recall it had a serial output so I modified a DL serial card in the 11/70 to work with it.
(DIR) Post #AVt8AZG93Dp9FRedXM by karlauerbach@sfba.social
2023-05-21T18:37:52Z
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@lauren @SteveBellovin Ah, the wonders of the Votrax.A few miles west of UCLA we, at Interactive Systems, rigged up a Votrax and had it, at random times, sing the Monty Python Philosophers' Drinking Song. It particularly confused our HR person.https://youtu.be/6QgCfnBtF7M
(DIR) Post #AVtoeezaUqttn5wROa by Spellbind0127@mine.random101.net
2023-05-22T02:34:11Z
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@lauren at least AI can’t be bought out with money. Or at least I hope.
(DIR) Post #AVuKoWTeCwByoJkTMu by buzzybee@mastodon.social
2023-05-22T08:34:28Z
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@lauren @SteveBellovin It sounds like a nowadays historical citation