      Computer Folklore from the Internet.

      The following snippets were gleaned from a recent logon, where I 
      was more or less following my nose. You never know what you're 
      going to find. I had initiated a LYCOS search for "computer 
      history" and ended up in the middle of some sort of question and 
      answer session. The material is actually taken from a FAQ (list of 
      frequently asked questions) found under the heading "Computer 
      Folklore". There were other questions and answers, but I only took 
      a couple of the more interesting ones.
               -RHM

      III.2 - I HEARD THAT GARY KILDALL MISSED THE CHANCE TO MAKE CP/M 
      THE IBM PC OPERATING SYSTEM BECAUSE HE DECIDED TO GO FLYING ON THE 
      DAY THE IBM REPS HAD7  AN APPOINTMENT. IS THIS TRUE?

      This answer comes from the book "Hard Drive" it says there are two 
      versions of this story.  One is from Jack Sams, the guy from IBM 
      who went to DR to meet Kildall.
 
      He says that Kildall was out, flying on his plane, and Kildall's 
      wife and a DR's lawyer met with him (Sams). They did not want to 
      sign a non-disclosure agreement with IBM, so IBM went away without 
      even talking with Kildall. (That agreement said that DR could not 
      tell IBM confidential information, but if DR did so, IBM could not 
      be sued for using it; and DR would be sued if it used any 
      confidential information that IBM gave them.) That night, they 
      went to Seattle and made the deal with Microsoft.

      But Kildall tells a different history: he says he really was out 
      on his plane, but he was on a business trip at San Francisco, and 
      he was back to DR in time to meet with the IBM guys. He signed the 
      agreement, had the meeting, and apparently thought that they and a 
      deal.  That night, he and his wife went to Miami with the IBM guys 
      (in the same plane; the IBM guys were coming back to Boca Raton, 
      and the Kildalls were going to Caribe, and Kildall was told to 
      contact them when he returned. When he eventually returned to the 
      US, he was unable to find Sams, and later heard they had a deal 
      with Microsoft (this is strange, since IBM kept that project a 
      secret, and nobody knew about Microsoft being on it).

      Kildall says that the plane story was first told by Gates, in an 
      interview to the London Times. This is Microsoft's version, he 
      says, but History always tells the winners' version, not the
      losers'.                                                           
      

      III.3 - IS THERE REALLY A COKE MACHINE ATTACHED TO THE INTERNET?

      Actually, more than one. You can find a list of Coke machines (and 
      other devices) attached to the Internet on bsy's List of Coke 
      Machines on the Net.
                                                
      You should be aware also that RFC1288 (The Finger User Information 
      Protocol) explicitly supports the use of vending machines:

      bsy's List of

      Coke Machines on the Net 9                                          
      #2.5.5.  Vending machines                                          
      
      Vending machines SHOULD respond to a {C} request with a list of 
      all items currently available for purchase and possible 
      consumption. Vending machines SHOULD respond to a {
      }{C} request with a detailed count or list of the particular 
      product or product slot.  Vending  machines should NEVER 
      NEVER EVER eat money.                           #                  
      

      4 - I HEARD THERE WAS A POKE COMMAND ON THE {YOUR COMPUTER HERE} 
      THAT WOULD PHYSICALLY DAMAGE THE HARDWARE. IS THIS TRUE?           

      For those not used to it, a POKE command puts some value in some 
      position inmemory. Thus, POKE 16510,0 changes the number of the 
      first line of a BASICprogram in a Sinclair ZX81 to 0 by 
      overwriting the real number in that position.                      

      Of course, there are many programmers who use 'F' or 'N' as loop 
      variables, as a consequence of using Sinclair computers in their 
      first days of programming. These computers had the BASIC keywords 
      assigned to keys, and you could get FOR by typing F, and NEXT with 
      N. So, it was easy to type 'FOR F=...' and 'NEXT N'. By the way, 
      the word 'TO' was also on the F key; '=' was on the L, with LET.

      III.11- IS THERE ANY TRUTH TO THE RUMOR THAT THE PEOPLE AT CRAY 
      DESIGN THEIRSUPERCOMPUTERS WITH APPLE COMPUTERS, AND THAT APPLE 
      DESIGNERS USE CRAY'S?

      The comment was made when Apple bought its Cray to design the next 
      Macs. Dr.Cray wrote them a note saying that he found that quite 
      ironic, since he was designing the next Cray on a Mac... Keep in 
      mind that each one uses the other'smachines to do quite different 
      things, probably. Apple uses a Cray to do heavy calculations, and 
      Cray probably uses Macs in CAD, or something like this.            


      III.12- DID BILL GATES WRITE MS-DOS ?

      No, no and no. Microsoft bought MS-DOS from a Seattle company, and 
      it was called QDOS then (Quick and Dirty Operating System).  Some 
      say it is not quick anymore, but the rest stays the same.  True, 
      Microsoft made some modifications  to it, and probably Bill Gates 
      helped in it, but he did not write the OS in the true sense of 
      these words. By that time, MS was in dire need of an OS to usewith 
      IBM PC, because IBM could make business with Digital Research (see 
      above,III.2), and QDOS was their salvation.                        

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