history and terminology: PDP8 was PDP1

I think Bruce Damer at the Digibarn still has one running.

I think of all the time I have wasted on computers.

I considered "museum pieces". OK by me. The last true paperweight I got was a CNC milled piece of Plexiglas from the High Explosives Applications Facility (HAEF) at LLNL at its dedication some 14 years ago. The HAEF's labs don't have doors. That would contain an explosion killing people by the blast. Yes Crowther's Adventure has been turned into a building with real mazes for doors (for explosions up to 10 KG TNT equivalent). The floors have safety zones (Do not walk in these margins as spauling can kill you). The last lab has a 5 inch cannon for splating HE into static targets to test that they don't explode (or do so harmlessly, up to 10 KG equivalent). At the end of all that underground stuff we were asked and I correctly answer which direction North was. The sabot was my "prize." The paperweight is now a CHM museum piece.

"Door stop" is another term I've traded with the NSF and DOE. Going back to the Manhattan project where copper was in short supply, the guys at LASL and LLL would adopt the use of gold. You can hear Feynman mention this on one of his tape. Or in the words of George Michael from LLNL it was said: Why use lead (Pb) when gold (Au) will do?

The meaning of the NSF term for doorstop means piles of govt. reports used to prop a door open. I have seen this as well.

I think of all the time I have wasted on computers. (One counter example of not wasting time was the day I went to use a Convex C-1 running 4.2 BSD: I did 1.5 hours of work without learning a new OS, some new editor, and some new compiler. I think that was Serial #1 and I knew then DEC was not long for the world as a firm. Now both are part of H-P).

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