From: John Conover <john@email.johncon.com>
Subject: forwarded message from root@email.johncon.com
Date: Thu, 13 Mar 1997 01:22:11 -0800
Interesting "On This Day, Mar 13 ..." If you will recall, "Digital
Equipment Corp introduces the PDP-11 minicomputer. (1970)" introduced
VMS as an operating system. VMS is a multi-tasking, multi-user, OS
with virtual memory, (thus the acronym, VMS,) switched packet
networking (a la TCP/IP Ethernet, AKA Internet.) In other words, it is
in competition with Unix. (And had Unix "out-marketed" for years,
until only recently,) and is what MSW9X is trying to be.
Interestingly, the executable kernel for VMS is only 70 Kbytes-about
the size of MSDOS 3.1. (Another interesting tid-bit is that the PDP-11
maxed at 256K of memory-and for a decade was the backbone of
scientific computing, the world over. A favorite in engineering
circles.)
Code bloat? Look at the size of the Windows 9X kernel, which is not
multi-user, and has no TCP capabilities, (it uses an ISP's Unix system
for its DNS, ie., Internet, services,) and has no protected virtual
memory capability. Suggested memory requirements from MS? 16
Megabytes, minimum. Kernel size? Look and see. (About 10X what VMS
was, in order of magnitude numbers.)
John
BTW, I'll give a shiny new Cordoba to the first person that answers
the question what is VAX the acronym for. (The PDP-11 was the first in
a long line of machines produced by DEC that were called VAX's, which
are still produced to this day.) Too bad, you loose, it stands for
Virtual Address eXtension. It is the technology by which core memory
is extended to the hard disk to effectively increase the memory size
of the machine's core. And why isn't it slow? Because DEC figured out
that it could be paged into core on a most recently used page
scenario.
The idea revolutionized computing, and was incorporated in Unix in the
early 80's. NT (MS's acronym for New Technology,) also has it. (Which
is not surprising, since NT was written by the same DEC folks that
wrote VMS, after leaving DEC and going to MS.) BTW, VMS was/is a
micro-kernel, just in case you are curious. And if you are into OS's,
that's a buz word you through around a lot to impress folks that you
are hip on the latest and greatest.
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From: root <root@email.johncon.com>
To: john@email.johncon.com
Subject: Reminders for Thursday, March 13, 1997
Date: Thu, 13 Mar 1997 00:05:16 -0800
Reminders for Thursday, 13th March, 1997 (today):
Sunrise 06:23, Sunset 18:12, Moon 0.31 (Increasing)
________________________ On This Day, Mar 13 ... ________________________
"Striptease" introduced, Paris (1894)
"Striptease" introduced, Paris, 1894
4-day strike by SF city employees starts. (1970)
Allman Brothers record live album (Fillmore East, 1971)
Charles, Earl Grey, Whig statesmen and Prime Minister is born (1764)
Clarence Darrow, lawyer, dies (1938)
Czar Alexander II of Russia is assassinated with a bomb (1881)
Digital Equipment Corp introduces the PDP-11 minicomputer. (1970)
Dr. Lee de Forest demonstrates a sound motion picture system in New York (1923)
National Day (Grenada)
National Day in Grenada
New York stock market crash (1907)
Stephen Vincent Benet, poet, dies (1943)
The Allman Brothers record their live album at the Fillmore East, 1971
The Huguenots defeated at Jarnac (1569)
The Lancasters defeat the Yorks at the battle of Stamforn (1470)
William Herschel discovers the planet Uranus by accident while studying the constellation Gemini. (1781)
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--
John Conover, john@email.johncon.com, http://www.johncon.com/