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From: rpw3@redwood.UUCP (Rob Warnock)
Newsgroups: net.micro
Subject: Re: an old idea whose time has come again
Message-ID: <135@redwood.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 22-Jan-85 07:46:14 EST
Article-I.D.: redwood.135
Posted: Tue Jan 22 07:46:14 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 24-Jan-85 08:13:29 EST
References: <593@houxn.UUCP>, <377@ahuta.UUCP> <493@hou2a.UUCP>
Organization: [Consultant], Foster City, CA
Lines: 30

Gee, I end up posting this about once a year... this time I'll keep it short.
Nearly 20 years ago at Emory University (where HAS the time gone?), we wired
a speaker to the "Zero Balance" light of an IBM 1410 (think of it as the Z-bit
of a Z-80).  (That was experimentally determined to give "good sounds".) Two
results of this are worth noting:

1. The 1410 was used a lot for LONG (4-12 hour) linear and non-linear
   regression analyses (i.e., statistics). The programmers quickly learned
   that they could hear the main loop of the regression (*squishy* *squishy*),
   and that it got faster and faster as convergence approached. Walk into the
   machine room and you could tell how long it was until the job was going to
   quit computing and start printing. Useful for students with classes to go to.

2. The IOCS (Input/Ouput Control System -- nothing so fancy as CP/M) would, if
   it tried to access a card reader, punch, or printer that was off-line, print
   a nasty console message and busy wait for the operator to come fix it. Since
   IBM charged maintenance by on-line time, the management was insistent that
   the units remain off-line until needed. Fortunately, the busy-wait loop gave
   a characteristic loud, harsh *buzzzz* that was distinctly different from the
   *squishy* *squishy* of the applications programs, allowing the operator to
   wait down in the systems room where it was quieter and MUCH warmer than the
   machine room (and which had a bed -- useful for students with no sleep).


Rob Warnock
Systems Architecture Consultant

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