Lee_-_Wells@cup.portal.com (05/25/88)
i realize i may be out of line for asking, but i was wondering if it would be possible to give a ball park guessimate of waht the 'magic box' might cost + or minus 50%, and perhaps when the project might move into production i know from several of my own projects that time frames are something that are hard to pin down, but as a possible customer....and for all the other possible customers i thought it would be worth it to ask. thank you for your time lee wells
major@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Lou Major) (05/27/88)
Could someone mail me a concise description of what stargate is? Thank you. major@eleazar.dartmouth.edu
kevin@perle.UUCP (Kevin Pickard) (06/02/88)
In article <8663@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU> major@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Lou Major) writes: > > >Could someone mail me a concise description of what stargate is? >Thank you. > >major@eleazar.dartmouth.edu How about posting it so that everyone who is similarily curious will also get the answer? Kevin Pickard ...!uunet!mnetor!perle!kevin
webber@constance.rutgers.edu (Bob Webber) (06/04/88)
In article <145@perle.UUCP>, kevin@perle.UUCP (Kevin Pickard) writes: > In article <8663@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU> major@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Lou Major) writes: > > > > > >Could someone mail me a concise description of what stargate is? > >Thank you. > > > >major@eleazar.dartmouth.edu > > How about posting it so that everyone who is similarily curious will > also get the answer? Ok. Stargate is the Usenet-level networking side of the comp.protocols.tcp-ip.eniac proposal. The idea is that all of these eniacs running tcp/ip would be connected in a star network with a cray2 in the center to handle the archiving. Any person who wanted to get news would then only need to submit a small deck of punched cards to their nearest eniac indicating what topics they wanted to read and then out would come another stack of cards containing the contents of those messages in compressed bcd codes. It turns out that now that the federal government has stopped using eniacs for nuclear defense (happened right after the sages were decommisioned in 83 or so), there are alot of spare eniacs in out of the way locations around the country. Originally the proposal was to use magnetic tapes or optical disks, but it turned out that now that no one uses punch cards any more there are literally warehouses full of them where you can just drive up and take as many as you want -- it is bigger than the great cheese giveaway the federal government was running a few years ago. The other neat thing about punch cards is that you don't need to be able to see them in order to read them -- all you need do is run your hands over them (there is even a nice notch in the top to make sure you are holding it right). This way you can read news while sitting in on a boring lecture or while listening to your boss explain how things were when he was in your job. Unfortunately we can't keep too much documentation about the system online as it is important that the bean counters never catch on. So, a while back an elaborate story about news transfer via satellites was cooked up and I will leave it to someone else to explain how that goes. ----- BOB (webber@athos.rutgers.edu ; rutgers!athos.rutgers.edu!webber)
dewey@execu.UUCP (dewey henize) (06/04/88)
After reading all through the explanation with the punch cards.... AAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH! -- =============================================================================== | execu!dewey Dewey Henize @ Execucom Systems Corp 512/346-3008 | | You don't think my employer APPROVES of these ideas, do you?? Sheesh! | ===============================================================================
jat@hpsemc.HP.COM (Joe Talmadge) (06/10/88)
dewey henize writes: >After reading all through the explanation with the punch cards.... > >AAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH! I agree. I urged the current net.eniac leaders to put output on paper tape instead of punch cards. That way you just have one big roll, and you can't drop the box and thus ruin the order of basenotes and responses. Having recently obtained an old eniac myself, I am indeed excited about the new star network, and I've already gotten a few boxes of punched cards. Joe
webber@porthos.rutgers.edu (Bob Webber) (06/11/88)
In article <8500001@hpsemc.HP.COM>, jat@hpsemc.HP.COM (Joe Talmadge) writes: > ... > I urged the current net.eniac leaders to put output on paper tape > instead of punch cards. That way you just have one big roll, and you > can't drop the box and thus ruin the order of basenotes and responses. Didn't our reply reach you? We sent you mail via the path rutgers!violet.berkeley.edu!mcdchg!hpsemc!jat Anyway, the problem with paper tape is that it breaks. It has taken over 40 years to design a card reader that doesn't jam, we are not about to start a new project trying to work with the flimsier paper tape media. Of course, better rag content would help the paper tape problem, but then we wouldn't be using old paper tape but rather would have to be creating new paper tape. [Incidently, the problem of spilling boxes of paper tapes is solved by keeping index numbers in columns 73 thru 80. Of course, the last time I mentioned this to someone who had just spilled a tray, it didn't improve their mood -- perhaps they weren't budgetted to rent time on a card sorter.] > Having recently obtained an old eniac myself, I am indeed excited > about the new star network, and I've already gotten a few boxes of > punched cards. Glad to hear of your interest. Due to the flood of requests, queries, etc., we have organized this venture under the name: Vaporware Systems, Unlimited with the motto: Other people advertise vaporware, but only we build it. We expect to have an introductory document available soon for people unfamiliar with the basic ENIAC architecture (draft copies are available upon request: just send mail to the address in the signature below). It is currently nearly 5 pages long, so we are investigating the merits of posting it in uuencoded compressed format. Other projects currently underway are listed below: 1) P -- the public domain portable programming language successor to C -- platform for the other software projects (which will, of course, all have public domain source implementations). 2) EniACK -- the networking protocol that forms the basis for distributed ENIAC programming as well as the foundation on top of which tcp/ip will be implemented. 3) EAVESDROP -- our termcap-based hypertext news retrieval interface which will make it easier for you to keep track of ENIAC related discussions throughout the net. 4) FLOHRISH -- a chess program that wins. 5) HAMETE - a GO program that wins. 6) ENCREDIBLE -- our hardware design group (these are the guys that designed the non-jamming card reader). 7) ENLIGHTNING -- our documentation group (dedicated to the premise that the source is just a convenience as the user should be told enough about how it works so that they could write it themselves). 8) SCITLUM -- our distributed operating system project. 9) ENG -- our natural language design project. 10) EDITOR -- the ultimate text-editor/document-processor/spelling-checker/ grammar-checker handling both natural and programming languages. 11) VR -- our computer graphics group (you'll see what we mean). ------- BOB (webber@athos.rutgers.edu ; rutgers!athos.rutgers.edu!webber)