Xref: utzoo rec.humor:20164 comp.misc:5641
Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!elroy!spl1!iitmax!ed
From: ed@iitmax.IIT.EDU (Ed Federmeyer)
Newsgroups: rec.humor,comp.misc
Subject: Re: Looking for Computer Folklore
Message-ID: <2115@iitmax.IIT.EDU>
Date: 23 Mar 89 05:39:44 GMT
References: <864@jato.Jpl.Nasa.Gov> <2047@tank.uchicago.edu> <36549@vax1.tcd.ie> <669@maths.tcd.ie>
Reply-To: ed@iitmax.IIT.EDU (Ed Federmeyer)
Organization: Illinois Institute of Technology
Lines: 25

>> In article <36549@vax1.tcd.ie> belld@vax1.tcd.ie writes:
>>
>>		I remember hearing that an early version of the Commodore
>>Pet would catch fire if certain addresses had certain contents. Something
>>about the clock being forced to run at too high a speed. (Can anyone confirm/
>>deny this?)
  
> In article <669@maths.tcd.ie> mlloyd@maths.tcd.ie (Michael Lloyd) writes:
>The story goes (and this one is true) that the Commodore Pet early versions
  [ Could be programmed to produce screen burn-in on the built in monitors ]
>

A neat trick to try is to repeatedly change from lowercase (Business) mode to
upper case (graphics) mode with this little BASIC program on the CBM 8032:
 
10 PRINT CHR$(14): PRINT CHR$(147): GOTO 10
 
This would cause all kinds of strange and unexpected flashing and rolling
of the screen!  Quite startling to the unsuspecting... hehehe. :-)
 
It LOOKS like it would be extreamly dangerous... Makes all kinds of whizzing
sounds and bright flashes... BUT I never left it running for more than a
few seconds...
 
Ed Federmeyer