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From: cyosta@taux01.UUCP ( Yossie Silverman )
Newsgroups: rec.humor,rec.humor.d,comp.misc
Subject: Re: Looking for Computer Folklore
Message-ID: <1000@taux01.UUCP>
Date: 6 Feb 89 16:00:17 GMT
Reply-To: taux01!cyosta@nsc.UUCP ( Yossie Silverman )
Organization: National Semiconductor (IC) Ltd, Israel
Lines: 23

I have two stories to relate.  Both have to do with IBM machines (the large
veriaty):

1) Back when core memory was in use one could "listen" to the memory with a
   transistor radio.  A game amung system programmers was to access memory
   in such a manner as to produce recognizeble tunes on the radio.
2) Printers produce a buzzing with varying frequency depending on the text
   being printed (this is because of the rate at which the hammers strike the
   slugs in the print chain).  The same system programmers would also compete
   to see who could print a job that played specific (and known) tunes.

One further story that comes to mind.  It is said that specific models of
IBM mainframes had a bug whereby "branching backwards over a page boundry
to a paged out page would leave the supervisor bit turned on in the PSW 
in the stored PSW".  I never was able to verify this but it makes some sort
of sense when you look at the hardware that IBM uses.

- Yossie
-- 
Yossie Silverman                                   What did the Caspian sea?
National Semiconductor Ltd. (Israel)				- Saki
UUCP: taux01!yossie@nsc.UUCP
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