Subject: Re: vibrating hard disk makes computer move
From: [email-masked] (Richard Poppen)
Date: Fri, 11 Mar 1994 21:20:29 GMT
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,alt.folklore.urban

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Brian Leibowitz) writes:
>I was told by some old timers that line printers could be made to play
>tunes by sending the correct output.  The printing hammers and/or the 
>belts would vibrate.  (supposedly this was done at MIT in the late 60s)

I used to work for a company that made OCR equipment and scanners.
Partly for a lark, partly for a copyright trap, we made a couple of
models that would play "The Ride of the Valkyrie" by running the stepper
motor at appropriate frequencies for appropriate durations, if the
machine was powered up with the right combination of buttons pressed.

The front panel of one customer's machine failed in a way that
duplicated this condition, and tech support got the most wonderful call:
"Um ... I'm having trouble with my model xxx ... it ... well ... it
_sounds_ like it's playing 'The Ride of the Valkyrie'."  (The guy
clearly thought this was impossible, but it was the only way he could
describe it.)  The tech support guy burst out laughing.  He said later
he wished he'd been able to maintain control, and either get the guy
really concerned about his own sanity, or else say "Gee, that _is_
strange ... that model is _supposed_ to play 'Ode to Joy'."

--Rich

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban,alt.folklore.computers
From: [email-masked] (Robert Bernecky)
Subject: Re: vibrating hard disk makes computer move
Date: 11 Mar 94 21:35:54 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Brian Leibowitz) writes:
>
>I was told by some old timers that line printers could be made to play
>tunes by sending the correct output.  The printing hammers and/or the 
>belts would vibrate.  (supposedly this was done at MIT in the late 60s)

It may  indeed have been done  in the late  60's  at MIT, but 
they  would have stolen it  from  others who   did it  in
the early 60s. I saw/heard "The Halls of  Montezuma" and
"Jingle Bells"  played on line printers in, lessee   here...

Summer of 1963,  I  believe, on a 1403 line printer. 

In that  same era,  someone had program that looked  like  a  
tape   sort, but that played tunes on the tape drives.
Can't remember how/why it worked, but it  was fun to watch.
Bob

From: [email-masked] (Lee Boyle)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: vibrating hard disk makes computer move
Date: 11 Mar 1994 19:19:00 -0700

Brian Leibowitz writes:
|> 
|> I was told by some old timers that line printers could be made to play
|> tunes by sending the correct output.  The printing hammers and/or the 
|> belts would vibrate.  (supposedly this was done at MIT in the late 60s)

  Ok, I managed to restrain myself from telling this the last time the
  topic came around, but I've got to get it out of my system:

  1971, Phoenix College, an unnamed older sibling sneaks his sixteen year
  old kid brother into the Electrical Engineering lab to see The Computer.

  As he's flipping switches on the front panel, the younger brother can't
  help but be distracted by the cacophony coming from a piece of hardware
  across the room.

    "Hey Bruce, what's that?", he asked.

    "Oh, that's just an old line printer.  He plays music on it. Now
     pay attention or you'll never learn how to bootstrap the PDP!"

  And I never did.

  Lee "harsh or discordant sound" Boyle

-- 
Lee Boyle;[email-masked];standard disclaimers apply;;

From: [email-masked] (Michael Rubin)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,alt.folklore.urban
Subject: Re: vibrating hard disk makes computer move
Date: 12 Mar 1994 22:20:47 -0500

In <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Brian Leibowitz) writes:

>I was told by some old timers that line printers could be made to play
>tunes by sending the correct output.  The printing hammers and/or the 
>belts would vibrate.  (supposedly this was done at MIT in the late 60s)

In the early 80's I almost got a DECwriter (LA36, I think) to play
"My Sharona".  You could get about three distinct notes out of it
(coincidentally, the song in question HAS about three distinct notes)
by printing characters that used a different number of pins,
plus space for timing, and backspace and carriage return for percussion.
Mostly I was stopped by not wanting to spend my student income on a 
copy of the album...
-- 
--Mike Rubin <[email-masked]>
  Watch out for the Smokeys on that information highway!

-- Mahesh Subramanya writes:
 managed to generate quite a few documents which would *play* some pretty
 neat tunes on the printer.  My favourite was the Indian national anthem 
 ( a rather atonal song, which was still quite distinctive).  I also 
 distinctly remember being hauled on the carpet for doing that.....

-- Chris Behrens writes:
 I have heard my father talk of such "songs" played by the printers on
 some comp. system.  Tiger Rag was the song he mentioned. 
 How is this done ???   Is there some way to guess the particular sounds
 or pitches that will be made without hours and hours of trial and error
 and ribbon and paper ???  

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: [email-masked] (N.M. Humphries)
Subject: Re: Printer Music
Date: Mon, 17 Oct 1994 12:37:18 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>, [email-masked] (TODD ANDREW VIERLING) writes:
> As a folluwup to the "Printer Music" thread,
> 
> I have an old program for the C64 and 1541 disk drive that made the drive's
> head step at different rates and make noise from it.
> 
> It played...get this..."Daisy, Daisy"...:)

-- I've heard a program that made the diskdrive play Jingle Bells. Pissed off
the teacher no end.
+---------------------+------------------------------------------------------+
|   Nick Humphries    | E-Mail : [email-masked] (university term-time)  |
+---------------------+ Snail  : Computer Science Dept, Liverpool University |
| Liverpool Uni, UK.  |          PO Box 147, Liverpool L69 3BX, England, UK. |
+---------------------+------------------------------------------------------+

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
From: [email-masked] (D.Young)
Subject: Re: Printer Music
Date: Wed, 19 Oct 1994 08:22:05 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Margus Freudenthal) writes:
>	Intresting, can anyone play music on laser printer?
>

I've got a postscript file (4m32s.ps) which plays a short peice by John Cage
on most laser printers, it is sometimes difficult to tell when the piece 
ends though...

From: [email-masked] (!Productions)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Printer Music
Date: 23 Oct 1994 02:01:13 -0400

In article <[email-masked]>,
TODD ANDREW VIERLING <[email-masked]> wrote:
>: Remember how apple II diskdrives used to be able to make that farting noise?
>: It seemed to serve the purpose of a warning that a disk format operation was
>: in progress.  But evidently it could be generated on command as well - I 
>: remember a trivia game which introduced "Donna Diskdrive" by having her 
>: make that noise.  I've always wondered what generated it.
>
>Us former C64/1541 users can tell you. It's the sound of the head beating 
>itself against the stop-bumper on either track 0 or 39. It's not 
>"warning" you of a format, but rather ignoring whatever track it's on and 
>going for broke - making sure it's on the innermost or outermost track by 
>forcing it there. The Commodore 1541 did this, and most people fixed it 
>by a small software fix for the C1541 that had it use the remembered 
>track location so it wouldn't knock the heads. Of course, if the drive 
>got bounced or banged, it bumped the heads, and so it would still go for 
>broke if it didn't align with the track properly. This will probably also 
>explain to you why Apple II drives went out of alignment so quick - they 
>banged their heads on every format.

Back in the dim and distant past I wrote a nice "utility" (hem, hem) that 
would snap the metal shim on Atari 1050 diskdrives by vibrating the head 
rapidly against the bumper.  (It was a side effect of trying to play a 
tune on it, but it seems that no two 1050s were exactly the same, so what 
was music on one was just a nasty gronking on another, and on some there 
was no noise at all...)

On a slightly related subject, is there any truth to the story that the 
68000 has a "self-destruct" instruction that flips all the gates v. fast 
until it burns out?  If so, what is it?

--
                            !Productions 1994

GCS -d+ H+ s++:- g+ p? !au a- w+++ v* C+++ UB+++A++++ P++ L++ E+ N+++ K+ !W---
M-- V po- Y+ t++ 5+ jx R G? tv++ D- B--- e+ u** h f r++ !n y+

From: [email-masked] (TODD ANDREW VIERLING)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Printer Music
Date: 23 Oct 1994 03:50:56 GMT

: Remember how apple II diskdrives used to be able to make that farting noise?
: It seemed to serve the purpose of a warning that a disk format operation was
: in progress.  But evidently it could be generated on command as well - I 
: remember a trivia game which introduced "Donna Diskdrive" by having her 
: make that noise.  I've always wondered what generated it.

Us former C64/1541 users can tell you. It's the sound of the head beating 
itself against the stop-bumper on either track 0 or 39. It's not 
"warning" you of a format, but rather ignoring whatever track it's on and 
going for broke - making sure it's on the innermost or outermost track by 
forcing it there. The Commodore 1541 did this, and most people fixed it 
by a small software fix for the C1541 that had it use the remembered 
track location so it wouldn't knock the heads. Of course, if the drive 
got bounced or banged, it bumped the heads, and so it would still go for 
broke if it didn't align with the track properly. This will probably also 
explain to you why Apple II drives went out of alignment so quick - they 
banged their heads on every format.