3 ms·

> so instead of advancing a few lines to the next page, it would try to advance thousands or millions of lines. This particular terminal model was a new, high s

> so instead of advancing a few lines to the next page, it would try to advance thousands or millions of lines. This particular terminal model was a new, high speed one, so it would try to advance the paper really fast. [...] causing some bits of paper to shred and get kicked up as dust. Along with a spark [...] causing the terminal to catch fire. Great story! It really gives a new interpretation to the classic phase "halt and catch fire." The original interpretation was the apocalyptic myth that the CPU starts switching the bus really fast, overheats the bus drivers, and eventually ignites the electronics, which doesn't make much sense. Now we have a more realistic one. To be precise, not "halt and catch fire", but "CRLF and catch fire"? BTW, legends also say that the flammability of early printers was the origin of Unix's "lp0 on fire!" joke error message, which can still be seen in Linux for USB printers. /* * Get and print printer errors. */ static const char *usblp_messages[] = { "ok", "out of paper", "off-line", "on fire" };

bayindirh 6y ago
The flammability of old printers came from a combination of paper dust, worn out printing ribbon and possible presence of a flammable cleaning solution IIRC. More details are here: https://marc.info/?l=linux-kernel&m=102893054014512&w=2 https://marc.info/?l=linux-kernel&m=102893054014512&w=2 So at the end of the day, it's more of a reality than a joke, sadly.
- reaperducer 6y ago
  So at the end of the day, it's more of a reality than a joke, sadly. Don't let later-day internet revisionist history take the joy out of you. No matter what the Wikipedia warriors profess, it was real. So much truth has been lost in the last ten years because people who didn't experience the past don't believe the things that happened; and if references aren't a link away, they tell the world things that happened before their time are false.
  - segfaultbuserr 6y ago
    > No matter what the Wikipedia warriors profess BTW, I was reading your Twitter the other day, and saw that you complained that Wikipedia doesn't have any information about TTY - only two paragraphs and nothing more. Now you are here, I have to tell you that you have accidentally set your browser's Wikipedia language to "Simple English" [0], which is a special edition of Wikipedia for English learners, it only has few editors, thus most articles are incomplete. On the other hand, the normal "English" Wikipedia has a fairly standard introduction to TTY [1], around 16 pages on my screen. You've missed a lot, don't forget to switch your language back to "English" if you haven't done it already ;-) [0] https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teletypewriter https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teletypewriter [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teleprinter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teleprinter
    - reaperducer 6y ago
      you have accidentally set your browser's Wikipedia language to "Simple English" I don't understand how that could have happened, so I won't address that issue. But this leaves me baffled: I was reading your Twitter the other day, This has to be the single worst decision you've made this month. As far as I'm concerned, my Twitter feed is write-only memory. The SMS equivalent of dev/null. If you're ever tempted to do so in the future, reconsider. Go for a walk. Write some poetry. Make love to your wife. Do anything else. We get so little time on this planet, please don't waste what you have looking at what I have to say.
      - segfaultbuserr 6y ago
        > This has to be the single worst decision you've made this month. Many months ago, mid-June I believe. Not this month.
      - ZeroClickOk 6y ago
        > If you're ever tempted to do so in the future, reconsider. Go for a walk. Write some poetry. Make love to your wife. Do anything else. We get so little time on this planet, please don't waste what you have looking at what I have to say. AWESOME :)
walrus01 6y ago
https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/drivers/char/lp.c?h=v5.8-rc7#n239 https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/lin...

bayindirh 6y ago

The flammability of old printers came from a combination of paper dust, worn out printing ribbon and possible presence of a flammable cleaning solution IIRC. More details are here: https://marc.info/?l=linux-kernel&m=102893054014512&w=2 https://marc.info/?l=linux-kernel&m=102893054014512&w=2 So at the end of the day, it's more of a reality than a joke, sadly.

reaperducer 6y ago
So at the end of the day, it's more of a reality than a joke, sadly. Don't let later-day internet revisionist history take the joy out of you. No matter what the Wikipedia warriors profess, it was real. So much truth has been lost in the last ten years because people who didn't experience the past don't believe the things that happened; and if references aren't a link away, they tell the world things that happened before their time are false.
- segfaultbuserr 6y ago
  > No matter what the Wikipedia warriors profess BTW, I was reading your Twitter the other day, and saw that you complained that Wikipedia doesn't have any information about TTY - only two paragraphs and nothing more. Now you are here, I have to tell you that you have accidentally set your browser's Wikipedia language to "Simple English" [0], which is a special edition of Wikipedia for English learners, it only has few editors, thus most articles are incomplete. On the other hand, the normal "English" Wikipedia has a fairly standard introduction to TTY [1], around 16 pages on my screen. You've missed a lot, don't forget to switch your language back to "English" if you haven't done it already ;-) [0] https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teletypewriter https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teletypewriter [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teleprinter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teleprinter
  - reaperducer 6y ago
    you have accidentally set your browser's Wikipedia language to "Simple English" I don't understand how that could have happened, so I won't address that issue. But this leaves me baffled: I was reading your Twitter the other day, This has to be the single worst decision you've made this month. As far as I'm concerned, my Twitter feed is write-only memory. The SMS equivalent of dev/null. If you're ever tempted to do so in the future, reconsider. Go for a walk. Write some poetry. Make love to your wife. Do anything else. We get so little time on this planet, please don't waste what you have looking at what I have to say.
    - segfaultbuserr 6y ago
      > This has to be the single worst decision you've made this month. Many months ago, mid-June I believe. Not this month.
    - ZeroClickOk 6y ago
      > If you're ever tempted to do so in the future, reconsider. Go for a walk. Write some poetry. Make love to your wife. Do anything else. We get so little time on this planet, please don't waste what you have looking at what I have to say. AWESOME :)

walrus01 6y ago

https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/drivers/char/lp.c?h=v5.8-rc7#n239 https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/lin...