21 lines
3.1 KiB
HTML
21 lines
3.1 KiB
HTML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" standalone="no"?>
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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><title>eighty-column mind</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="../../jargon.css" type="text/css"/><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.61.0"/><link rel="home" href="../index.html" title="The Jargon File"/><link rel="up" href="../E.html" title="E"/><link rel="previous" href="egosurf.html" title="egosurf"/><link rel="next" href="El-Camino-Bignum.html" title="El Camino Bignum"/></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">eighty-column mind</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="egosurf.html">Prev</a> </td><th width="60%" align="center">E</th><td width="20%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="El-Camino-Bignum.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr/></div><dt><a id="eighty-column-mind"/><dt xmlns="" id="eighty-column-mind"><b>eighty-column mind</b>: <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="grammar">n.</span></dt></dt><dd><p> [IBM] The sort said to be possessed by persons for whom the
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transition from <a href="../P/punched-card.html"><i class="glossterm">punched card</i></a> to tape was traumatic
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(nobody has dared tell them about disks yet). It is said that these
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people, including (according to an old joke) the founder of IBM, will be
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buried ‘face down, 9-edge first’ (the 9-edge being the bottom
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of the card). This directive is inscribed on IBM's 1402 and 1622 card
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readers and is referenced in a famous bit of doggerel called <i class="citetitle">The
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Last Bug</i>, the climactic lines of which are as follows:</p><div class="literallayout"><p><br/>
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He died at the console<br/>
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Of hunger and thirst.<br/>
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Next day he was buried,<br/>
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Face down, 9-edge first.<br/>
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</p></div><p>The eighty-column mind was thought by most hackers to dominate IBM's
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customer base and its thinking. This only began to change in the mid-1990s
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when IBM began to reinvent itself after the triumph of the
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<a href="../K/killer-micro.html"><i class="glossterm">killer micro</i></a>. See <a href="../I/IBM.html"><i class="glossterm">IBM</i></a>,
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<a href="../F/fear-and-loathing.html"><i class="glossterm">fear and loathing</i></a>,
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<a href="../C/code-grinder.html"><i class="glossterm">code grinder</i></a>. A copy of <i class="citetitle">The Last Bug</i> lives
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on the the GNU site at <a href="http://www.gnu.org/fun/jokes/last.bug.html" target="_top">http://www.gnu.org/fun/jokes/last.bug.html</a>.</p></dd><div class="navfooter"><hr/><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="egosurf.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="../E.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="El-Camino-Bignum.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">egosurf </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> El Camino Bignum</td></tr></table></div></body></html>
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