From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: kevin.bowling@kev009.com (Kevin Bowling) Date: Tue, 9 Jan 2018 23:25:32 -0700 Subject: [TUHS] 2018: eighteen months to the Unix 50th anniversary In-Reply-To: References: <20180109003018.GB29792@minnie.tuhs.org> <20180110033459.GB27612@eureka.lemis.com> Message-ID: Things like this don't really occur in one day [1] "Unix was born in 1969 not 1974" - dmr Is it fair to say 1/1/1970 is the spiritual christening and the day to celebrate? [1] http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20100506231949/http://cm.bell-labs.com/cm/cs/who/dmr/hist.html On Tue, Jan 9, 2018 at 10:23 PM, George Michaelson wrote: > I'm probably a bit of a simpleton about this stuff. I feel like my > engagement with UNIX has been a succession of mind-blown moments. > > 1978: shown a piped command. mind blown. What.The.Holy.Hell. I cannot > understand this. I entered the room with punched cards. How does this > even work. > > 1979: shown how to write macros. mind blown. > This.Is.Not.A.Program.This.is.a.meta.program. What reads this? a pre > processor. whats that. mind officially blown. I cannot understand. > WHERE IS MY CODE > > 1981: made to read about the design of the IBM 360 monotonically > rising clock. mind blown. How.Can.Every.Computer.Not.Have.Had.This. > What does time even mean? what is negative time? Whats the granularity > of time? I DONT UNDERSTAND WHY I DONT UNDERSTAND > > 1982: I start work on systems where I have su privilege and can change > the time. Mind blown I.Can.Tell.Lies.About.Time How come? How come > there isn't some magic once-only pass through hardware abacus > rat-in-a-cage machine I can't lie about ITS ALL LIES mind blown. > > 1984: I start doing NTP and see emails from Dave Mills. Mind blown. > He.Is.Not.Typing.English.As.I.Understand.It.This.Is.The.Goon.Show mind > blown. But.. in a good way. People can make fun of themselves and > write real code? Time is fuzzy? Time has properties? People are > thinking about 2039? Mind blown. I don't even believe I will be alive > in 2039 given "star wars" and "protect and survive" > > I really like 1/1/1970. its been like a constant in my life. If it > turned out to be 1969 I'd be ok but I have to say.. a bit .. somewhere > inside.. a small squirrel inside Searles 'chinese box' is saying... > > mind... blown...