Notices by Dave Morriss (perloid@mastodon.sdf.org), page 6

@clacke Fixed.

Probably left over after the transition from the old (proprietary) comment system to our own.

@clacke Thanks! I rarely look at this page! Checking the code now, the database values are fine.

@tuturto @klaatu I'd have been stuck on why 49 is XLIX and not IL, which seems more logical, and is more compact, especially when 40 is XL. Maybe I'm missing something but it seems a teeny bit arbitrary 😉

@tuturto @klaatu This is nice. I would concluded something similar if I'd thought about it, but I never have. I might even be deluding myself about that!

I did try cheating though:
$ perl -e '
> use Math::Roman qw{roman};
> $yr = roman("2019");
> print "$yr\n"'
MMXIX

I'm just lazy I guess...

@klaatu So glad you found it useful! We both had fun doing the series and learnt a lot along the way. Thanks for your kind words 😃

@clacke @ghostdancer The DEC VAXcluster I managed from 1987 onwards had two consoles which were CP/M machines booted from floppies. That was my only experience of CP/M. https://h50146.www5.hpe.com/products/software/oe/openvms/history/digital/comp/images/large/vax8800.jpg

That's show 16, the last in the Gnu Awk #HPR series recorded on Mumble with my long-term co-host b-yeezi. It's been an interesting journey since July 2016.

@ghostdancer @clacke Yes indeed. The university I worked at here in Edinburgh is known for science and engineering, and BBC Micros were to be found in many labs controlling experiments or data gathering back in the 1980's and 90's.

@ghostdancer @clacke I nearly forgot; I bought the Z80 add-on for my BBC Micro, so I could get the best of both worlds. Have to admit that I didn't do a lot with it though.

@ghostdancer @clacke The BBC Micro absorbed me totally. We had them at work too. We also had the equipment to program and UV erase EEPROMs for the BBC. I broke out the connector for extra ROMs and installed a ZIF socket for it. We developed some of our own software (in collaboration with another University). They'd developed BBC KERMIT, a 6502 assembler, and a display system called FANFARE, all with some help from us. Fun times!

@clacke @ghostdancer I could never get on with BASIC when I first found it. I liked BBC BASIC and its predecessor Atom BASIC because they could drop down into 6502 assembler for one thing.
I had Forth on my BBC micro, and I bought a synthesiser for it, the Music 500, which ran Ample, a Forth derivative.

@clacke @ghostdancer Ha! I'm older than FORTRAN, I just discovered! Not as old as the Jacquard machine that controlled power looms with punched cards though 😉

@ghostdancer @clacke I was 18, at a technical college, preparing for university.

@ghostdancer @clacke I've been shovelling stuff from on and in front of this bookcase for a few weeks, so you're close to being right 😉

@clacke
Found in my bookcase...

@clacke Interesting. I don't see many references to BCPL these days (other than in historical documents) so it's good to hear about its uses.
I remember being amazed by the Motorola 68000 series chips and what they could do (I was a 6502 user then), and wanting an Amiga when they came out, but not being able to afford one since I'd spent too much on the BBC Micro and its add-ons.

@clacke I've heard of "smoking a pancake" but "smoking a mainframe" ... no. 😉

@clacke There was a guy at the University of Kent, Bob Eager, who I met many years ago, who had written BCPL compilers for many systems. There was a version for the ICL 2960 (running the VME/K OS) which I got a copy of and implemented on our 2960 ( I worked at the Uni. of Lancaster then). Loved that language, though didn't have a lot of time to use it. See his page: http://www.bobeager.uk/ihaveused.html

@jezra Given that I may be gibbering in a senile way, can't you revoke the one you don't want?
After looking at my friend's case that I mentioned I reckon (from a position of ignorance of course) he needs to revoke his old key after moving both of his email addresses as sub-keys to one key. My Enigmail keeps using his old key, making encrypted messages he can't read.

@beni @jezra @NYbill There was writing before that though. Wikipedia mentions 3400BC to 3300BC as the likely origin of writing by the Sumerian peoples. They used clay tablets written in cuneiform script. Not handwriting in the modern context of course, but I wonder if they generated invoices 😉