Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!cmcl2!brl-adm!umd5!decuac!avolio@decuac.dec.com
From: avolio@decuac.dec.com (Frederick M. Avolio)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Unix License plates (Re: unix t-shirts)
Message-ID: <1783@decuac.DEC.COM>
Date: Wed, 25-Nov-87 10:15:09 EST
Article-I.D.: decuac.1783
Posted: Wed Nov 25 10:15:09 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 28-Nov-87 18:42:03 EST
References: <2955@hcr.UUCP> <3800@ptsfa.UUCP> <413@auvax.UUCP> <2202@killer.UUCP>
Sender: avolio@decuac.DEC.COM
Organization: DEC SWS, Landover, MD
Lines: 36

Is anyone else feeling old?  I mean it seems like only yesterday, but
there are a lot of youngsters who are out there, making more money than me 
probably (:-)) who were just kids when the UNIX plates were made...

Anyway:

At a UNICOMM of a few years back (hey, that dates me, eh?)  Armando -- one of the
handful of UNIX Engineers within DEC at the time (this was before ULTRIX and 
before System III  for that matter) --
wanted to be able to say that now you could get a UNIX license from DEC!  
(Digression for the young'uns:  Used to be you had to buy a PDP or a VAX
with a DEC operating system license, even if you intended to run UNIX
on it -- which you couldn't buy from DEC at the time).  So, APS came
armed with  a bunch of NH lic. plate look-a-likes -- matching his own real
NH plate -- which Digital gave out in their suite.  

Later, when ULTRIX was born, similar ones were made saying ULTRIX and in
blue (and these were not nearly as nice as the former  and whose
printing looked less like a "real" license plate).  Much later
The Phone Company had some made to give out at UNIXEXPO in NY which
1) were punched out of license plates, but 2) weren't printed as a license
plate -- i.e., they had multiple lines, no state motto, etc. (these
said System V), and so 3) finally killed the "joke."

Anyway, to the original poster, I'll sell you mine for $1000.00 ...
:-)

Oh, by the way, Jim Joyce's Book Store has a bunch of T-shirts ("UNIX...",
"/nev/dull", maybe the "awk bailing out...." ones too.  

Fred

[ ULTRIX is a trademark of DEC which is a trademark of Digital Equipment Corp.
  UNIX as you very well know is a trademark of AT&T
  APS or aps is a trademark of Armando Paul Stettner
]