From wyle@ethz.UUCP Mon Oct 17 06:21:33 1988 Flags: 000000000001 From: wyle@solaris.UUCP (Mitchell Wyle) Subject: Re: computer follies Summary: ad absurdum Date: 17 Oct 88 11:21:33 GMT Organization: SOT Sun Cluster, ETH Zuerich In article <1417@zen.UUCP> frank@zen.co.uk (Frank Wales) writes: >In article <4041@tekgvs.GVS.TEK.COM> toma@tekgvs.GVS.TEK.COM (Tom Almy) writes: [...stuff deleted...] Using the Boyer-Moore theorem prover on our network of 12 Crays, I was seconds away from finishing a statistical text analysis algorithm which derives the true conceptual meaning of all Indo-European languages and dialects, effectively solving all performance problems in information retrieval systems. The forces invading from the Zuerich international airport chose that moment to cut all power to the University, and mortar shells were falling outside our building seconds later. Luckily, our solar-powered, diesel-backed, quantum-predicting energized deflecto-modulators kicked in femtoseconds BEFORE the power-failure (elements of the system move faster than light), saving all 17 Terabytes of Cray Core and all 831 Terrabytes of index files my program was using. With projectiles exploding and whistling ever closer, I decided on the final corrections through my brain-implant interface and ran for the bomb shelters, knowing that the DWIN (Do-What-I-Need) User-interface would finish cross-compiling my system for all processor architectures from 4-bit Casio-watches and HP hand-helds up through Connection Machines CM-2s. The autonomous tanks started using their armor-piercing rounds on the upper floors of the computing center but... -- -Mitchell F. Wyle wyle@ethz.uucp Institut fuer Informatik wyle%ifi.ethz.ch@relay.cs.net ETH Zentrum 8092 Zuerich, Switzerland +41 1 256-5237 From wrs@pupthy.PRINCETON.EDU Wed Oct 19 19:49:31 1988 Flags: 000000000001 From: wrs@pupthy.PRINCETON.EDU (William R. Somsky) Subject: Re: computer follies Date: 20 Oct 88 00:49:31 GMT Organization: Physics Dept, Princeton Univ In article <482@solaris.UUCP> wyle@ethz.UUCP (Mitchell Wyle) writes: > ... Luckily, our solar-powered, diesel-backed, quantum-predicting energized > deflecto-modulators kicked in femtoseconds BEFORE the power-failure > (elements of the system move faster than light), ... That reminds me of the Sidrat 4200 machine we used to have. (Came in a big blue box, about 1 meter x 1 meter x 2.5 meters.) It had a tachyonic line-voltage monitor that would generated a "power-failure-immenent" interrupt two seconds before the actual failure to allow time for the machine to bring itself down gently. One day, one of our system programmers got the idea to make the power-interrupt interrupt-handler REALLY rock-solid. He designed everything into it he could think of to protect the system: core dump for later retrival, full disk backup onto holographic media, etc., etc., etc. He even included a final disconnect_power_mains routine ("to protect the power supply from line transients"). Since the machine had full tensor architecture, this could all easily be done in the alloted two seconds warning time. In fact, it took just 0.978 seconds. So, a full second before the power- failure, the computer was backed-up, shut-down and POWERED-DOWN. Of course, the line-voltage monitor detected this power shutdown two seconds before it happened and initiated a power-failure interrupt THREE seconds before the real power failure. But the power shutdown >From that one was detected as well, and ... The net result was that the machine shut itself off a full hour before it was even turned on! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ William R. Somsky Physics Dept ; Princeton Univ wrs@pupthy.Princeton.EDU PO Box 708 ; Princeton NJ 08544