Aucbvax.1372 fa.human-nets utzoo!duke!mhtsa!ucbvax!DERWAY@MIT-ML Tue May 19 19:28:40 1981 HUMAN-NETS Digest V3 #102 HUMAN-NETS AM Digest Monday, 18 May 1981 Volume 3 : Issue 102 Today's Topics: FYI - Tandem Computers & Pollution from trees & CompuServe TeleText Article, Humor - Reliable Computers ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 05/14/81 03:57:15 From: PHOTOG@MIT-MC Subject: Tandem computers lecture as listened to and commented upon by Subject: attendee (Name slips my mind) As one of few (if not the only) tandem computers software development people on the net, I am curious as to your comment about running a nonstop-pair (the formal jargon) with each process in a different node of a network. Were you describing what you thought is currently available (in which case you are way off-base) or what you see as a possible future extention of the system architecture? Aside: If you can link Australia to New York / Boston on a 13 megabit bus than more power to you, currently all cpu's in one node of a tandem network communicate over two, high speed (guess what speed...13mg..lucky guess...) buses 'Dynabus' which are independant of each other. Primary/backup processes must run in the same node, actually what you want already exists, as the normal distribution of processes among the available cpus balances I/O intensive processes with mostly idle backup processes. Of course, it is all under the control of the users and naturally that means most of them screw it more than get it right ..give em a long rope and they hang themselves.... I have seen several systems with 80 or 90% cpu utilization in cpu 0 and cpu 1, while cpu 2 and cpu 3 are sitting at 20 or 30% utilization ( as a rough example). --SPIV-- SLASH TS.SOFTWARE.SPIV ------------------------------ Date: 11 May 1981 1213-EDT From: GEOF at MIT-XX Subject: HUMAN-NETS Digest V3 #96 RE: definition of Pollution: There is no universal definition of pollution that I know of, so let me suggest one. First, I have to define terms. Ecology is the study of ecosystem. An ecosystem is a natural system which is isolated from other natural systems except in very specific areas (the sun, for example). Obviously, no such system exists, so the term is usually applied to some approximation thereof: a swamp, a national park, the ocean, and (if you believe in Forrester) the earth. Ecosystems contain feedback loops: population of predators maintains population of grass-eaters which maintains.... Some things are recycled in "ecological cycles", while others enter the system (sunlight, wind) and leave it. Let us define a pollutant as ANY foreign matter or energy (forget e=mc^2 for now) introduced into the system that is not a "standard input" to the system. This would include noise, nuclear radiation, cigarette butts, and so on. When such foreign substance is introduced into a stable ecosystem (and not all of them are stable), the balance is somewhat upset. Example: if nutrients (say from street runoff) are added into a lake, it will make it possible for more algae to live. Algae cloud the water, and cause some fish to die, others to increase in number. For sufficiently small amounts of sufficiently innocuous pollutants, the ecosystem's feedback loops will restore the previous balance in time. If the pollutant is of a sort that the system is not able to handle (a nuclear bomb, "hazardous wastes"), or if there is too much of a pollutant for the system to control, the feedback loops will be disrupted. This is called pollution. Sometimes, the system remains stable, but reaches a new equilibrium (eg: Lake Champlain, VT, for those of your who've seen it). Other times, it goes completely to pieces, and what's left is a lump of dirt or rock. The above applies in interesting ways. For example, the city of Boston has always dumped its sewage into the Atlantic ocean. It turns out that this is a perfectly reasonable thing to do, since the sewage is dumped into a current that scatters it over a wide enough area that it does not change the ecosystem that is the ocean. The federal government, which has not the man power to make case by case studies, decreed that Boston needed a sewage treatment plant, and paid for it. So sewage passes through the plant, and comes out as water and sludge. Both the water and the sludge are then dumped into the ocean. Reason? There is no place in Massachusetts where it is safe to dispose of the sludge on dry land (the soil is too sandy). If the above definition seems too roundabout, think about this: "Is a car driving in rural Idaho causing pollution?" "Is the same car, driving in downtown Boston causing pollution?" "Will one candy wrapper harm a forest?" "Will 10^5 candy wrappers harm a forest?" I hope this helps HN readers. ------------------------------ Date: 25 Apr 1981 1716-PST From: ROODE at SRI-AI (David Roode) Subject: CompuServe Information Service article on Teletext CompuServe Page VIF-816 CompuServe Page VIF-817 ******************************** A similar and coordinated LA TELETEXT OPERATIONAL:4/21 electronic magazine service also ******************************** began at the same time and day (CR Winslow Assoc) Starting at over KCET-TV28 ... one of 6am, Monday, April 6, a several public television relatively few suitably equipped stations in the greater Los viewers of KNXT-TV2, Los Angeles Angeles area. KCET's electronic could press a button on a magazine is called "Now." hand-held keypad to select and While this is not the first watch any one of 80 pages of a public transmission, it is the new electronic or teletext first to be offered in a large magazine called "Extravision." metropolitan area. The Los CompuServe Page VIF-818 CompuServe Page VIF-819 Angeles test will use authoring, developed and backed BBC Ceefax encoding and receiver decoding teletext system. equipment provided by the French Just about now WETA-TV26 ... government backed Antiope system the Washington DC based public which has the unabashed backing television station will begin of the CBS Television Network public reception tests of the Broadcast Group. KNXT-TV2 in Canadian developed and backed Los Angeles is owned and Telidon system. operated by CBS. So you can see it's shaping up Starting 3 days later ... on to be a battle of the French, April 9 in Chicago ... WFLD-TV British and Canadians for began using the British eventual US adoption. CompuServe Page VIF-820 CompuServe Page VIF-821 When we say "public" test we blanking of the station use the term advisedly. Special transmissions. decoding and associated While you would have equipment is required in each of difficulty obtaining the 3 cities to utalize the off-the-shelf decoding information. However, if you equipment, there is nothing to live in those cities and can prevent you from putting receive the signals of the together something on your own indicated stations, you will to decode and read the teletext also be able to receive the transmissions. digitally encoded information In the case of Los Angeles the carried in the vertical interval French have agreed to loan all CompuServe Page VIF-822 CompuServe Page VIF-823 necessary equipment including pivate homes. that required for reception Digitally encoded colorized until the end of this year. CBS alphanumeric and graphic is managing the project with information is authored on a cooperation of KCET. computer keyboard, encoded and Although special mixed in with the station's decoder-equipped sets were normal on-air transmitted initially located in some 12 or signal. In the case of KNXT so public locations, the intent vertical interval picture lines is to have up to 100 reception 15 and 16 are used to carry the points equpped and working by information. mid-summer. This will include Circuitry at the reception CompuServe Page VIF-824 CompuServe Page VIF-825 point "grabs" the requested The pages of information are information frame (selected by continuously transmitted in means of a hand held keypad), sequence. When the sequence is puts it into local memory and finished it begins again. When then continuously feeds it for a specific page is requested by full screen display. This is any local receiver, it must wait the way all broadcast teletext until that particular page comes systems work. However, the around again. three different systems Under the system used in Los described above are incompatible Angeles, if 100 pages are with each other in their present continuously cycled, a maximum forms. of 16-seconds would be requred CompuServe Page VIF-826 CompuServe Page VIF-827 or an average mid-point of broadcast teletext. KNXT will 8-seconds would be required to offer it's "Extravision" obtain the desired page. transmission service 24-hrs a You will note that in day. Thirteen different comparison to CompuServe CIS sections will include current which operates as a random financial, weather and news access videotex service, the reports...sports and wait is considerably longer and entertainment items...a guide to no random access is available. what's on TV...consumer shopping The purpose of the test is to information...and summaries of see what users will actually be traffic reports, airline interested in reading by arrivals, restaurant CompuServe Page VIF-828 CompuServe Page VIF-829 information, etc. KCET which not cooperated with the national transmits its own separate closed captioning system because magazine will overlap KNXT but it argues that such a service will largely have its own ought to be part of a larger generated information. information service...as it is Closed captions for the now demonstrating in it's Los hearing impared will also be Angeles test. offered on the Antiope system. As part of the test CBS is This must not be confused in any authorized to experiment with way with the now regularly the presentation of advertising offered closed captions on PBS, although no charge may be made ABC and NBC programs. CBS has for it. The expectation is that CompuServe Page VIF-830 the advertising will take the form of logos, trade marks and short slogans. ------------------------------ Date: 14 May 1981 0045-PDT From: Daul at OFFICE Subject: The ULTIMATE PROGRAM COMPUTER PROGRAM VIRTUALLY ELIMINATES MACHINE ERRORS! by W. S. Minkler, Jr. Pittsburgh Spokesmen for a local electronic firm have announced a computer program that - through fresh application of an old technique - virtually eliminates lost time due to malfunction of computer components. Called OREMA (from the Latin oremus, meaning let us pray), the program offers prayers at selected time intervals for the continued integrity of memory units, tape transports, and other elements subject to depravity. Basically litugical in structure, OREMA used standard petitions and intercessions stored on magnetic tapes in Latin, Hebrew, and FORTRAN. It holds regular Maintenance Services thrice daily on an automatic cycle, and operation intervention is required only for mounting tapes and making responses, such as "Amen," or "And with thy spirit" on the console typewriter. Prayers in Hebrew and Fortran are offered directly to the CPU, but Latin prayers may go to peripheral equipment for transfer to the CPU by internal subroutines. Although manufacturer-supplied prayer reels cover all machine troubles known today, the program will add punch card prayers to any tape, as needed, after the final existing Amen block. Classified prayer reels are available for government installations. In trials on selected machines, OREMA reduced by 98.2 percent the average down time due to component failure. The manufacturer's spokesman exphasized, however, that OREMA presently defends only against malfunction of hardware. Requestor errors and other human blunders will continue unchecked until completion of a later version, to be called SIN-OREMA. ------------------------------ End of HUMAN-NETS Digest ************************ ----------------------------------------------------------------- gopher://quux.org/ conversion by John Goerzen of http://communication.ucsd.edu/A-News/ This Usenet Oldnews Archive article may be copied and distributed freely, provided: 1. There is no money collected for the text(s) of the articles. 2. The following notice remains appended to each copy: The Usenet Oldnews Archive: Compilation Copyright (C) 1981, 1996 Bruce Jones, Henry Spencer, David Wiseman.