4 ms·

According to the jargon file, ITS called daemons dragons and SAIL (whatever this is ?) called them phantoms. Add to that zombie processes on Unix and user right

by jle17 4y ago

According to the jargon file, ITS called daemons dragons and SAIL (whatever this is ?) called them phantoms. Add to that zombie processes on Unix and user rights angels from FreeBSD's capsicum and the fact that processes come from executable files in ELF format and have debug infos in DWARF and it is quite the fantasy menagerie. I suggest Kobold for whatever kind of process we need to name next.

polynomial 4y ago
> SAIL (whatever this is ?) Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
- cstross 4y ago
  Wrong: it's the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (founded 1962 by John McCarthy -- who co-authored the document that first defined AI as a field, invented LISP, time sharing, and garbage collection, heavily influenced the design of ALGOL, and so on: one of the pioneers of computer science): https://ai.stanford.edu/ https://ai.stanford.edu/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McCarthy_(computer_scientist) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McCarthy_(computer_scient...
  - b112 4y ago
    LISP even has its own song. https://www.gnu.org/fun/jokes/eternal-flame.en.html https://www.gnu.org/fun/jokes/eternal-flame.en.html
    - ghaff 4y ago
      Heh. I have a recording of that by Kathy Mar which is somewhat distinguished as a filk song by being sung by someone who actually sings well.
      - b112 4y ago
        Neat
      - robbedpeter 4y ago
        Filk- like folk, but for IT people.
        cstross 4y ago
        Nope, the term came out of SF fandom decades ago.
markus_zhang 4y ago
Read a few articles and even novels from the 80s and poeple constantly refer very good programmers as "wizards". Also the sub culture of DND sticks hard. I guess most likely the reason was computer programming back in 80s was mostly low level considering one had to use assembly/C/Pascal for serious PC programming.
- xtiansimon 4y ago
  “Do you want to play a game?” Text based games on main frames. The influence could be the parallel time lines of the rise of swords and sorcery and computing in the 1970s and 80s. And what makes a good hostname anyway? Obscure (not to be confused) unique, memorable?
  - anthk 4y ago
    - Adventure - Dungeon/Zork - Rogue/Hack/Nethack
  - markus_zhang 4y ago
    I wonder why no one develops a graphics library for mainframe and makes hobby games out of it.
- dredmorbius 4y ago
  And of course: the Scary Devil Monastery.
usrbinbash 4y ago
"This is not a rabble of mindless interfaces. These are uruk-hai. Their scans are deep, and their firewalls broad."
layer8 4y ago
We also have GNOME and ORCs [0], and there’s GobLin [1]. [0] https://lwn.net/Articles/728339/ https://lwn.net/Articles/728339/ [1] https://distro.misiones.gob.ar/goblin/bienvenida/en-index.html https://distro.misiones.gob.ar/goblin/bienvenida/en-index.ht...
peter303 4y ago
Stanford Artificial Intelligence Lab Older than Stanford Computer Science department
gumby 4y ago
SAIL was the Stanford AI Lab. Marvin Minsky and John McCarthy founded the MIT AI lab; John was recruited by Stanford and started a lab there. It was in the lovely DC Powers building in the foothills -- despite what you would think "DC Powers" was actually someone's name! It also had a PDP-10 and a TV system but of course it's own implementation of both the TV hardware and the PDP-10 O/S (WAITS) I can't find a picture of the building unfortunately -- it was really cool.
- Rediscover 4y ago
  Are these some pictures You were looking for? http://infolab.stanford.edu/pub/voy/museum/pictures/AIlab/ http://infolab.stanford.edu/pub/voy/museum/pictures/AIlab/ Search the directory for DCPowers.
  - gumby 4y ago
    I wasn't looking for a specific photo, but yes, those are a good find
1vuio0pswjnm7 4y ago
Interesting, only in the anecdotal sense, that in today's world of incessant "AI" hype, a top commenter on HN would not have encountered the SAIL acronym.
- queuebert 4y ago
  Maybe Stanford is not as important as it thinks.
- toponaut 4y ago
  I was at Stanford for nearly 10 years. Not formally in CS or AI, granted, but SAIL doesn't ring a bell for me. Maybe it's just not that well known.
mr_toad 4y ago
> processes come from executable files in ELF format and have debug infos in DWARF and it is quite the fantasy menagerie We don’t call new processes spawn for nothing!

by jle17 4y ago

polynomial 4y ago

> SAIL (whatever this is ?) Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory

cstross 4y ago
Wrong: it's the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (founded 1962 by John McCarthy -- who co-authored the document that first defined AI as a field, invented LISP, time sharing, and garbage collection, heavily influenced the design of ALGOL, and so on: one of the pioneers of computer science): https://ai.stanford.edu/ https://ai.stanford.edu/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McCarthy_(computer_scientist) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McCarthy_(computer_scient...
- b112 4y ago
  LISP even has its own song. https://www.gnu.org/fun/jokes/eternal-flame.en.html https://www.gnu.org/fun/jokes/eternal-flame.en.html
  - ghaff 4y ago
    Heh. I have a recording of that by Kathy Mar which is somewhat distinguished as a filk song by being sung by someone who actually sings well.
    - b112 4y ago
      Neat
    - robbedpeter 4y ago
      Filk- like folk, but for IT people.
      - cstross 4y ago
        Nope, the term came out of SF fandom decades ago.

markus_zhang 4y ago

Read a few articles and even novels from the 80s and poeple constantly refer very good programmers as "wizards". Also the sub culture of DND sticks hard. I guess most likely the reason was computer programming back in 80s was mostly low level considering one had to use assembly/C/Pascal for serious PC programming.

xtiansimon 4y ago
“Do you want to play a game?” Text based games on main frames. The influence could be the parallel time lines of the rise of swords and sorcery and computing in the 1970s and 80s. And what makes a good hostname anyway? Obscure (not to be confused) unique, memorable?
- anthk 4y ago
  - Adventure - Dungeon/Zork - Rogue/Hack/Nethack
- markus_zhang 4y ago
  I wonder why no one develops a graphics library for mainframe and makes hobby games out of it.
dredmorbius 4y ago
And of course: the Scary Devil Monastery.

usrbinbash 4y ago

"This is not a rabble of mindless interfaces. These are uruk-hai. Their scans are deep, and their firewalls broad."

layer8 4y ago

We also have GNOME and ORCs [0], and there’s GobLin [1]. [0] https://lwn.net/Articles/728339/ https://lwn.net/Articles/728339/ [1] https://distro.misiones.gob.ar/goblin/bienvenida/en-index.html https://distro.misiones.gob.ar/goblin/bienvenida/en-index.ht...

peter303 4y ago

Stanford Artificial Intelligence Lab Older than Stanford Computer Science department

gumby 4y ago

SAIL was the Stanford AI Lab. Marvin Minsky and John McCarthy founded the MIT AI lab; John was recruited by Stanford and started a lab there. It was in the lovely DC Powers building in the foothills -- despite what you would think "DC Powers" was actually someone's name! It also had a PDP-10 and a TV system but of course it's own implementation of both the TV hardware and the PDP-10 O/S (WAITS) I can't find a picture of the building unfortunately -- it was really cool.

Rediscover 4y ago
Are these some pictures You were looking for? http://infolab.stanford.edu/pub/voy/museum/pictures/AIlab/ http://infolab.stanford.edu/pub/voy/museum/pictures/AIlab/ Search the directory for DCPowers.
- gumby 4y ago
  I wasn't looking for a specific photo, but yes, those are a good find

1vuio0pswjnm7 4y ago

Interesting, only in the anecdotal sense, that in today's world of incessant "AI" hype, a top commenter on HN would not have encountered the SAIL acronym.

queuebert 4y ago
Maybe Stanford is not as important as it thinks.
toponaut 4y ago
I was at Stanford for nearly 10 years. Not formally in CS or AI, granted, but SAIL doesn't ring a bell for me. Maybe it's just not that well known.

mr_toad 4y ago

> processes come from executable files in ELF format and have debug infos in DWARF and it is quite the fantasy menagerie We don’t call new processes spawn for nothing!