1 Feb
2022
1 Feb
'22
3:10 a.m.
On 1/31/22 8:28 PM, Johnny Billquist wrote:
Yeah. Tell that to their kids when they are thrown into the street.
I do see your point, but it's an increasingly hypothetical point.
Seems you just described exactly what I tried do describe above. So how
did I get it wrong?
What I'm saying is that it's better to do something for the greater
good, than to "play it safe" with some hypothetical "risk" that some
suit at HPE (or whomever) will somehow come after you about decades-old
software that they've never even heard of.
I mean, come on. Yes, the potential consequence is huge, but the
risk is vanishingly small. Yes, it has happened, I'm well aware of
that. But the risk is still vanishingly small.
Hmm. Maybe we're talking about something else than PDP-11 software now?
Actually it hasn't come up about PDP-11 software; it was VAX software
most recently.
I'll leave that to others. I'm busy just fixing things in RSX...
If someone really interested comes along, I'm happy to help with
information and guidance, but I'm not trying to enlighten people.
Well, we do that a lot at LSSM. In particular, there's a teenage kid
who lives in Michigan who is OBSESSED with PDP-11s. He's writing code
in assembler and running it under simh. He doesn't know this yet, but
the next time his parents bring him down here for a visit, I'm going to
give him a PDP-11/73.
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA
Because for some people, that "near zero
risk" is maybe not so "near
zero", and that have actual implications for actual people.
Yes, but they've been poorly (and selfishly) prioritized. You seem to really just treat it as "there is no
risk, so why aren't
people just doing whatever I think they should do", without
considering that for others the situation might actually look very
different.
You've jumped to a conclusion about what I think, and (with
respect) you're incorrect. I think risking some suit in a glass
building getting angry with me, or even filing a lawsuit against me,
is not, and will never be, more important than a piece of history that
stands to be lost forever. If you've experienced that recently, then I am a
little amazed.
Because that means people have been hanging on to things for a *long*
time, but now they don't care. Which for me sounds like an unusual
situation.
But of course, everything is possible.
Then be amazed. It happened most recently just a few months ago,
and several times last year. This is a lot more common in the real
world than you've assumed. Considering that I'm usually even more overlooked
than you are, you can
go with that complaint somewhere else.
I will (sorry) but everyone who knows what a PDP-11 is knows your
name. ;)
Take PDP-8 stuff for example - I've been around
the block, done more,
seen more, and have more information and stuff than most everyone on
those lists nowadays. But I don't actually care anymore. They can talk
and do things as much as they want. I don't need them, and they don't
even know I exist. Their problem. Not mine. And since it's also not a
problem for them, it's not a problem at all.
I'm with you on that. But passing knowledge on is important, and far
too few people do it. The excuse I hear most often is "nobody's
interested in this stuff".
It's only a problem when you want attention and
recognition.
Or if you just want to be kept in the damn loop once in a while.
I'm daily facing the same dilemma. I have done so
much improvements to
RSX. I'd like to release V5.0, which I have sitting here. But I can't. I
signed documents with XX2247 that limits what I can do, and I am not
willing to break the trust Dave put in me. Even though that improved
version have lots of stuff that would be really fun to share.
Instead I'm trying to find ways of resolving the problem. Meanwhile it's
sitting at my place, and nowhere else.
I will run that within *minutes* of its release. Assuming I'm still
breathing, of course!
Until the day I die... Who knows what happens then.
Well, I'm trying to get more (and younger) people interested in
PDP-11s, and I'm having pretty good success at that. You could try
that too.