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Article #4642

Re: Turning the thing off (was Re: BESM-6

#4642
From: lovs... Lennart Lovstrand
Date: Sat, 29 Sep 1990 00:46
31 lines
2144 bytes
In article <1990Sep26.1...@cbnewsi.att.com> n...@cbnewsi.att.com (nickolas.landsberg) writes:
> Once upon a time, on a Unix machine manufactured in Europe,
> I found out the hard way that there was a command in /etc
> named "off."  You guessed it, it powered the machine down.
> The only thing that still has me puzzled is that there was
> also a command in /etc called "on."
> 
> Nick Landsberg

Hmm, I just came across the PSION MC400, an innovative laptop made in
the UK.  It's a nice little box with your usual set of applications:
gui, word processor, calendar, database, alarm, etc.  But it also has
some unusual features, such as touch pad [instead of mouse], ram
cards, optional voice recorder, fax modem, remote file system, etc.
All for about 800 pounds.

Anyways, it also comes with its own variant of BASIC, called OPL.
This language supports the command "off", which takes an optional
integer argument.  Yes, you guessed it -- it's the time the machine
should turn itself off for.  So you can write a program that turns the
machine off for a specified period of time -- to save the batteries --
then wakes itself up again and starts beeping or whatever.

Now, if I only could make it compute the Mandelbrot set or something
else useful while it is off...  ;-)

--
--Lennart <Lovs...@EuroPARC.Xerox.COM>		R   _A _  N_   K
Rank Xerox EuroPARC, 61 Regent St, Cambridge, UK	\/ |_ |_) | | \/
Zany, Sun-4/60 at EuroPARC, SunOS Release 4(0.3c)-3	/\ |_ | \ |_| /\
TOPS-20 Command processor 7(73)-23 [alpha]		E u r o  P A R C
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References: <3289@mindlink.UUCP> <1990Sep26.154217.12343@cbnewsi.att.com>

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Path: mbox-mo1.pugleaf.net!gmdzi!unido!mcsun!uunet!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!uwm.edu!bionet!arisia!roo!lovstran
From: lovs...@EuroPARC.Xerox.COM (Lennart Lovstrand)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Turning the thing off (was Re: BESM-6
Message-ID: <546@roo.UUCP>
Date: 29 Sep 90 00:46:01 GMT
References: <3289@mindlink.UUCP> <1990Sep26.154217.12343@cbnewsi.att.com>
Sender: ne...@parc.xerox.com
Organization: Rank Xerox EuroPARC, Cambridge, UK
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Posted: Sat Sep 29 01:46:01 1990
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