[net.followup] Modem Users Beware: BELL 23573$

dave@utcsrgv.UUCP (Dave Sherman) (10/17/83)

The processing of news headers by the shell along the way has been
converting the string "BELL $$$" into a number (the current shell's
PID) followed by that last '$'. This makes the reading rather
amusing at times. For one person, the modem will cost Bell $23,573
(written in the European format 23573$), and for another [presumably
his system hasn't been up that long] only $1,388. Great fun.
:-)

Dave Sherman
-- 
 {cornell,decvax,ihnp4,linus,utzoo,uw-beaver}!utcsrgv!lsuc!dave

preece@uicsl.UUCP (10/21/83)

#R:ihuxq:-35000:uicsl:5400036:000:394
uicsl!preece    Oct 14 12:19:00 1983

		And the phone company ought to be able to use some sort of
	multiplexing techniques to overlap my "think time" with someone else's
	data transmission time--whether the other data comes from a digital
	device or a digitized voice conversation.
----------
Unfortunately, your modem doesn't have 'think time,' it's sending a
carrier over the line all the time, keeping it dedicated to your use.