tom@rlgvax.UUCP (06/17/83)
References: <206@gatech.UUCP> <489@watcgl.UUCP> In response to the question about who the REAL heroes of the Star Wars saga are: You are quite right. There IS something very special about the `droids. At last the truth can be told (although marketing is obligated to deny it until the yet-to-be-born Empire is reborn). R2-D2 and C3PO were/will be/are being (depending on your time perspective) programmed by us here at RLG Corporation (aka CCI, Office Systems Group). We are in the midst of it now, and anticipate finishing sometime very far in the future in a galaxy very far away. The reason it will take so long is that we have been taking John Mashey's talks at the UNIX conferences to heart. We are working on a "small is beautiful" concept so we have a very small staff working on the project (particularly small when you consider that the project is essential for the salvation of the Empire). This also explains R2-D2's height. We are also employing the scouts, fast prototypers, et. al. from Mashey's "A Tale of Bulldozers and Motorcycles". We anticipate that Robbie the Robot is actually the result of one of our future fast prototypers. Perhaps the most interesting point of the project is that the 'droids are not the direct result of an AI project, as might be suspected. Rather our attempts to program these clever little 'droids are the direct result of the combined requests from marketing for "essential" features in "OfficePower", our Office Automation product. As proof of my claim, you can easily see that R2-D2's extreme hardiness and durability is the consequence of CCI's "PerpetualProcessing" fault- tolerant design. - Tom Beres RLG Corporation / Computer Consoles, Inc. {allegra, seismo, we13, mcnc, brl-bmd}!rlgvax!tom PS - There is yet no proof to the claim that the breakup of Ma Bell will result in the eventual evolution of Bell Labs into the Jedi Knights. However, we feel quite sure that the underlying battle between the good and the dark sides of The Force is actually yet another instantiation of the age-old conflict between ASCII and EBCDIC.
tom@rlgvax.UUCP (06/17/83)
References: <206@gatech.UUCP> <489@watcgl.UUCP> In response to the question about who the REAL heroes of the Star Wars saga are: You are quite right. There IS something very special about the `droids. At last the truth can be told (although marketing is obligated to deny it until the yet-to-be-born Empire is thoroughly defeated). R2-D2 and C3PO were/will be/are being (depending on your time perspective) programmed by us here at RLG Corporation (aka CCI, Office Systems Group). We are in the midst of it now, and anticipate finishing sometime very far in the future in a galaxy very far away. The reason it will take so long is that we have been taking John Mashey's talks at the UNIX conferences to heart. We are working on a "small is beautiful" concept so we have a very small staff working on the project (particularly small when you consider that the project is essential for the success of the Revolution). This also explains R2-D2's height. We are also employing the scouts, fast prototypers, et. al. from Mashey's "A Tale of Bulldozers and Motorcycles". We anticipate that Robbie the Robot is actually the result of one of our future fast prototypers. Perhaps the most interesting point of the project is that the 'droids are not the direct result of an AI project, as might be suspected. Rather our attempts to program these clever little 'droids are the direct result of the combined requests from marketing for "essential" features in "OfficePower", our Office Automation product. As proof of my claim, you can easily see that R2-D2's extreme hardiness and durability is the consequence of CCI's "PerpetualProcessing" fault- tolerant design. - Tom Beres RLG Corporation / Computer Consoles, Inc. {allegra, seismo, we13, mcnc, brl-bmd}!rlgvax!tom PS - There is yet no proof to the claim that the breakup of Ma Bell will result in the eventual evolution of Bell Labs into the Jedi Knights. However, we feel quite sure that the underlying battle between the good and the dark sides of The Force is actually yet another instantiation of the age-old conflict between ASCII and EBCDIC.