tommyo@ihuxw.UUCP (07/15/83)
You know those little pieces of cardboard or paper that you punch out of computer cards. You know what they are called. They`re called chad. I learned this rather unimportant fact in college. For a while, we evaluated teachers using computer cards for different questions. There was a teacher who came in the class to give us the instructions (it could never be the teacher you were evaluating - they might influence your opinion) of how to punch the card out. One english teacher always read the instructions verbatim from her instructions, which always referred to those little pieces of paper as chad. Makes you just wanna sing, doesn`t it? I wonder, are they named after Chad Everet or the country? But as Bill Murray said in "MEATBALLS" IT JUST DOESN`T MATTER Tom O`Connor ihuxw!tommyo
jpl@eagle.UUCP (07/15/83)
The mere mention of chad has triggered a release of nostalgia hormones. (Perhaps there should be a net.nostalgia for those of us who programmed our first machines using little jumper wires.) The office where I worked at school used to produce registration and enrollment cards for the registrar. A few thousand students enrolling in a few courses each produces a non-negligible quantity of chad. I remember noticing a light on the card reader/punch that I had never seen before. I think it said ``chad hopper full'' but the years have dimmed my memory. When I opened the front of the machine, I found an enormous pail of multicolored chad resting on a scale arrangement that had triggered the light. It seems like there should be a good use for 25 pounds of chad, but we discovered that it makes terrible confetti (the corners are very sharp, so the effect is like throwing razor blades) and we gave up on papier-mache after three days of soaking because the chad never softened up. Anyone ever put chad to good use? (I have some stories about patching object decks with it, but they'll have to wait.) John P. Linderman eagle!jpl Department of Antiquities
joe@cvl.UUCP (Joseph I. Pallas) (07/17/83)
Maybe punch-card chad makes bad confetti, but paper-tape chad is great. Anyone whose had the joy of emptying out the cute little plastic bins from the TTY ASR 33 knows. Fantastic confetti.
tugs@utcsrgv.UUCP (Stephen Hull) (07/21/83)
Back in high school when we used to sneak in and use the debug facilities at Waterloo, we'd collect up the chad and fill people's gloves with it. Because of the corners it NEVER entirely comes out, and the person would be wearing cardboard bits all winter long... steve hull decvax!utzoo!utcsrgv!tugs
ignatz@ihuxx.UUCP (07/22/83)
Oh, I hate myself for adding to net clutter...but nostalgia strikes. Concerning what to do with card chad: If you're a college student, why, you use it to fill the beds of the people you least like. I mean *really* don't like; the stuff seems impossible to ever totally get rid of, and is extremely annoying. Along the same lines, sox, shorts, and shoes are targets...yes, Virginia, we really did these things 10 years ago. (I'm all better now, though.) Dave Ihnat ihuxx!ignatz
berry@zinfandel.UUCP (08/04/83)
#R:ihuxw:-42100:zinfandel:9300024:000:301 zinfandel!berry Jul 25 11:14:00 1983 Gloves?? People still adhere to the quaint Victorian convention of wearing gloves in public?? OH, uh, yeah, utcsrgv, Toronto, right. I guess it gets cold in the winter up there. :-) Berry Kercheval Zehntel Inc. (decvax!sytek!zehntel!zinfandel!berry) Walnut Creek, Sunny California (415)932-6900