nrh (02/13/83)
#N:inmet:6400006:000:9293
inmet!nrh Feb 11 22:51:00 1983
Here are the responses to my query about naming schemes for machines.
First, A summary of the results. The names are listed, and then
a guess (where facts weren't available) as to the basis of the scheme.
laidback laidup laiddown (Words beginning wth "lai")
allegra vivace lento largo (musical tempos)
dopey grumpy sleepy bashful doc (The seven dwarves from "Snow White")
Xaviera (Xavera Hollander, Author)
floyd (The Uncle Floyd Show)
alvin simon theodore (Cartoon Chipmunks)
uw-beaver june lumpy wally (Leave it to Beaver TV series)
alice rabbit (Alice in Wonderland)
azure bronze (colors)
deimos ariel oberon (Moons)
rocky2 (Presumably, the movie "Rocky II")
ucbmiro ucbdali ucbmonet (painters)
popoli ("Vox Populi" -- "voice of the people") earvax (Ear Wax)
ernie (Ernie Kovacs, Comedian)
platte (Platt River and tributaries)
((none mentioned) Mountains over 14,000 feet)
hagar helga eddy snert ("Hagar the Horrible" cartoon strip)
harpo groucho chico zeppo gummo macho (Marx Brothers)
There were several more ideas mentioned. The ones above were all under
consideration or in use for actual computers.
And now, here's the raw data that is summarized above:
>From uucp Wed Feb 2 07:25:32 1983
>From allegra!honey Wed Feb 2 07:25:30 1983 remote from harpo
To: inmet!nrh
Subject: How do YOU spell computer? - (nf) (inmet.8 followup)
allegra, vivace, lento, largo. someday to include andante and ritardando.
originally allegra was for lord byron's illegitimate daughter (thus ada's half
sister), and no one had the courage to switch to allegro at a later date.
peter honeyman
>From uucp Wed Feb 2 23:36:53 1983
>From cca!decvax!duke!unc!mp Wed Feb 2 00:03:00 1983 remote from ima
Subject: Naming scheme
To: decvax!cca!ima!inmet!nrh@DUKE.UUCP
Cc: smb@MHB5B tas@UNC jem@UNC
Original-From: Michael Pique <mp@unc>
At the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill) Computer Science Department,
we're naming our machines after the Seven Dwarves. So far we have
Dopey - "Department VAX" 780 for general Dept research and teaching
Grumpy - "Graphics VAX" 780 for graphics stand-alone work
Sleepy - PDP-11/45 formerly our only Department computer
Bashful - a 750 used for microelectronics, installed in a broom-closet.
Doc - (not yet on net) - a PDP-11/45 for Dept text-editing and clerical work
We still have Happy and Sneezy to go, then we pick "might-have-been-a-dwarf"
names like "Sleazy".
-- Mike Pique, UNC Chapel Hill
>From uucp Wed Feb 2 23:36:56 1983
>From cca!decvax!ittvax!jette Wed Feb 2 10:39:00 1983 remote from ima
Subject: computer names
To: decvax!cca!ima!inmet!nrh
When I was at the University of Connecticut, we chose the name
XAVIERA for our Vax. The reasons for this was two-fold.
a. We did everything VAX-backward.
b. We did a lot of work in lisp and wanted to name
our computer after a happy hacker.
This isn't really a scheme, although the next Vax could have been
named Xavier or something like that.
dann
>From uucp Wed Feb 2 23:36:59 1983
>From cca!decvax!duke!mcnc!pbr Wed Feb 2 15:54:00 1983 remote from ima
Subject: Computer names
To: duke!decvax!cca!ima!inmet!nrh
Date-Sent: Wed Feb 2 11:13:50 1983
Be sure and post the results of this survey, I'm sure there
are names that I have not seen yet, and names I have seen but the
reference eludes me. (Ever wonder about 'floyd'? It was named after
the "Uncle Floyd Show", or so I'm told. We've never heard of the show
down here in the south).
At the Microelectronics Center of North Carolina (MCNC)
we have three machines: alvin, simon, and theodore. Actually,
alvin is called mcnc on the net, and we call the little one theo,
for short. Alvin and simon are VAX 780's and Theo is a 750.
At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill the main
machine (which touches the net) is "unc" on the net but we call it
dopey, locally. The other machines are grumpy (a 780 used for
graphics research), sleepy (a PDP 11/45 used for molecular modelling
and graphics), bashful (a 750 used for work in conjunction with MCNC
(bashful and theo are brothers, though one is a dwarf and the other
a chipmonk), a new aquisition at UNC, another PDP 11/45 is named
happy.
I am hoping that the Bio-medical department will come on
the net and name their 11/70 "Doc". But, for some reason, no one wants
a computer called "sneezy".
Good luck with the survey,
>From uucpboss Fri Feb 4 04:02:56 1983
>From ima!cca!decvax!harpo!ihu!dlr Thu Feb 3 04:44:00 1983
Sender: dlr@ima!cca!decvax!harpo!ihu.UUCP
Subject: Computer names
To: harpo!decvax!cca!ima!inmet!nrh
Cc: cca!decvax!harpo!ihuxr!dlr
My fave-raves are the Marx machines too. However, the uw-machines are also
quite nice. (uw-beaver,june,lumpy,wally, and maybe ward too) the origin of
these names is of course, Leave it to Beaver. Then there are "alice" and
"rabbit". These are also good names.
Someone (tektronix?) also names their machines after colors, azure, bronze,
???.
Also, there are machines named after various heavenly bodies (moons if you
must know). deimos, ariel, oberon, and a couple others.
I also think "rocky2" is a kind of humorous name.
But, the current winners are the lai machines. The possibilities are great
for that bunch.
How long till you post the results?
Also, please confirm that you receive this message.
Dave Rosik
ihuxr!dlr
>From uucpboss Fri Feb 4 04:03:02 1983
>From ima!cca!decvax!ucbvax!faustus Wed Feb 2 00:19:00 1983
From: ucbvax!faustus (Wayne Christopher) <faustus@ima!cca!decvax!ucbvax.UUCP>
Subject: Computer Naming
To: decvax!cca!ima!inmet!nrh
Received: by UCBVAX.BERKELEY.ARPA (3.300 [1/17/83]) id AA09559; 2 Feb 83 19:06:16 PST (Wed)
Ucbvax isn't bad. Actually Berkeley makes a point of prefacing
(I mean prefixing) all its computer names with ucb. We only have 3
computers on the net, out of the ~50 machines here. There are a lot
that are named after painteres (ucbmiro, ucbdali, ucbmonet, etc).
My favorites are popoli (a latin pun on VAX), earvax, and ernie (after
a comedian named Ernie Kovacs). I'm still waiting for beezvax...
Wayne
>From uucpboss Fri Feb 4 04:03:07 1983
>From ima!cca!decvax!harpo!sei!bentson Thu Feb 3 12:15:00 1983
From: seismo!hao!csu-cs!bentson <bentson@ima!cca!decvax!harpo!sei.UUCP>
Subject: How do YOU spell computer
To: hao!seismo!harpo!decvax!cca!ima!inmet!nrh
Received: by SEISMO.ARPA (3.290 [1/6/83]) id AA10487; 3-Feb-83 12:15:51-EST (Thu)
We've been considering how to name the sites at Colo State U. At
the moment only the Comp Sci Dept in on-line (thus csu-cs), but
we've considered the following:
(1) Call ourselves Platte and others by tributaries to the Platte River,
(2) Name the sites after Colorado's fourteeners (mtns over 14,000 feet).
We're still looking, we should bring the other sites on-line within
a month or so.
>From notes Fri Feb 4 06:33:28 1983
>From ima!cca!decvax!harpo!hou!cas Thu Feb 3 22:39:00 1983
Sender: cas@ima!cca!decvax!harpo!hou.UUCP
Here at American Bell in Holmdel, our department has
several DEC machines running DEC software, tied together
with DECnet (in the near future).
Our naming convention is based on the characters in
the comic strip "Hagar the Horrible". We have:
Hagar a pdp-11/44 (also known to the btl net as ihagr)
Helga a vax-11/730
Eddy a pdp-11/34
snert a pdp-11/23
and
falcon a pdp-11/40 (I know this doesn't match, but we inherited it.)
Good luck with your survey, the last one I tried got less than
an overwhelming number of responses.
Cliff Stevens
...!lime!houxe!cliff
or
...!lime!houxg!cas
>From uucp Fri Feb 4 23:23:59 1983
>From ima!cca!decvax!decwrl!daemon Thu Feb 3 00:22:00 1983
From: sun!gnu <daemon@ima!cca!decvax!decwrl.UUCP>
Subject: Favorite Usenet hostname convention
To: decwrl!decvax!cca!ima!inmet!nrh
Mail-from: UUCP host SUN rcvd at 4 Feb 1983 02:19:51-PST (Friday)
I always figured uw-beaver was named for the college mascot or something
until one day I noticed that its neighbors are uw-june, uw-ward, etc.
(Characters from Leave It To Beaver '60
's TV show).
John Gilmore, Sun Microsystems
>From uucp Fri Feb 4 23:24:01 1983
>From ima!cca!decvax!harpo!npo!bis Fri Feb 4 16:54:00 1983
Sender: bis@ima!cca!decvax!harpo!npo.UUCP
Subject: Naming Computers
To: houxo!houxa!houxm!npois!npoiv!harpo!decvax!cca!ima!inmet!nrh
The elements would be nice:
hydrogen, helium, etc.
Or their abbreviations prefixed by whatever:
usah, usahe, usana, where usa is your site
andrew shaw
~p
>From uucpboss Mon Feb 7 17:59:44 1983
>From ima!yale-co!decvax!duke!unc!kh Fri Feb 4 00:23:00 1983
Sender: kh@ima!yale-co!decvax!duke!unc.UUCP
Subject: Computer names
To: inmet!nrh@IMA
Original-From: Kenny Hirsch <kh@unc>
The internal names for UNC's computers are:
Dopey, Grumpy, Sleepy, Bashful, and Happy.
5 of the 7 dwarfs, you know.
>From fen Wed Feb 9 18:20:34 1983
To: nrh
Subject: Computer Names
Cc: fen
1. Ants (for Adam and the) or Adam but that could lead people to biblical
thoughts.
2. B-52's
3. Clash
4. Devo (this one should remove all doubt.
Extensibility is almost guaranteed, but in some cases the optimal
choice for a given letter will have to overlooked due to too many
characters i.e. Plasmatics.mjb (02/14/83)
Here at Brown, we ran a naming contest when we got in our second vax last fall. What happened was we originally came up with NANCY and SLUGGO, then so many people declared their hatred for the comic strip, we decided to run a contest. However, due to intense apathy (mine), we never got around to a vote, so the names have stuck so far. The nomination slate follows. Personally one of my favorite naming schemes is the wine motif used by the Xerox Grapevine mail server network (cabernet, reisling, semillion, etc...) Mike Braca, ..!decvax!brunix!mjb, mjb.brown@udel-relay NANCY and SLUGGO (fritzi, rollo, irma... -- IN USE!) BATVAX and ROBIN LAVAX and SHIRLEY ARCHIE and JUGVAX DAGWOOD and BLONDIE CASTOR and POLLUX (half-brothers of apollo) DWEEZLE and MOONUNIT (Zappa offspring) SACCO and VANZETTI DOW and JONES WINKYN and BLYNKIN (and NOD) ETHYL and METHYL UNIX and VMS (!) PYRAMUS and THISBE (mythical lovers who communicated, among other things, through a hole in a wall) UNIXON and WATERVAX (this is a tricky one) POPEYE and OLIVEOYL (wimpy, brutus, sweepea (sp?)) CHARLIE and SNOOPY (too cute for comment) LEONID and YURI (fun leaders) V1 and V2 (famous bombs) PUNCH and JUDY (you can't be serious) SAGE and THYME (parsley and rosemary too) T and A (short & sweet) ZEUS and HERA (and the rest of greek mythology) THOR and ODIN (and the rest of norse mythology) KUKLA and FRAN (and ollie) GUMBY and POKEY VAXXON and ASTERVAX (arcade games, sort of) MARS and VENUS (and the rest of the planets...) ROCKY and MOOSE (moose? Why not BULLWINK?) HARRY and TONTO (log me in, KEMOSABE! Ooops, wrong tonto!) MARX and ENGELS (fun revolutionaries) TRUTH and LIGHT (justice? the American Way?) LARRY and MOE (and curly joe) KERMIT and PIGGY (cute) BUTCH and SUNDANCE HAROLD and MAUDE FELIX and OSCAR (this is an odd one) ROY and TRIGGER (and dale) FRED and BARNEY (flintstone & rubble) ELROY and ASTRO (jetsons) NOSE and BAG (prepend BROWN- ) HUBRIS and JEALOUSY (cardinal sins) REMUS and ROMULUS (legendary suckers) CAPTAIN and TENILLE LUCY and ETHEL HAWKEYE and TRAPPER (and HOTLIPS, RADAR, etc...)
kaufman (02/15/83)
One of my favorites is the EE/CS department computer at MIT (not on the USENET, sad to say), which recently got renamed Deep Thought. The Lisp Machines that use it for a filecomputer are called Ford Prefect, Arthur Dent, Marvin, and Zaphod. Apparently some people doing late-night logins on Deep Thought have done a tremendous double take on the name (it resembles a certain movie . . . .) Yours for creative naming, David Kaufman ...!decvax!yale-comix-is-a-rather-dull-name!kaufman
tim (02/15/83)
I think that there should be a computer named "severian" somewhere. Gene Wolfe fans, please note.
dag (02/15/83)
The Uncle Floyd show is a "Friday Horror Movie Show" parodie done by SCTV (Second City TV). The movies are never frightening but they are usually quite funny... (I should have quoted "movies" above) Please don't flame my spelling... Daniel Glasser ...!decvax!sultan!dag PS: Sultan and Harem (who is not on the net) are called that because there are Unix running things... dag
jfw (02/16/83)
"VAXXON and ASTERVAX"? How about "ASTERVAX and OBELVAX"? (after a french cartoon series Asterix And Obelix.
hdt (02/18/83)
Ford, Arthur, Marvin, Zaphod AND ZARNIWOOP!