[ih] Early IoT: anyone remember The Internet Toaster and Crane? :D

Sun Jul 12 18:48:40 PDT 2020

the waiter had to be:

... Jeff Rubin, a systems programmer at Stanford's Artificial Intelligence
Laboratory, even worked for Mr. Kao as a waiter in exchange for Chinese
lessons. Which is why Mark Seiden, a veteran programmer, remembers one day
when a manager of the laboratory came to lunch with a Digital Equipment
salesman.

At one point the two were arguing about a technical detail, and the manager
called a halt to the debate.

''There is no point in arguing,'' he said. ''We can settle this very
easily. Let's ask the waiter.''

''Can you tell us about the cache on the KL 10?'' the laboratory manager
asked Mr. Rubin.

''It's a 32K two-way set associative cache,'' he replied, and then walked
away, leaving the salesman's mouth hanging open.

*Palo Alto Journal; Hackers Enjoy One Last Meal From the Master of .com
Cuisine*
https://www.nytimes.com/1999/09/11/us/palo-alto-journal-hackers-enjoy-one-last-meal-from-the-master-of-com-cuisine.html

On Sun, Jul 12, 2020 at 2:29 PM Dan Lynch <dan at lynch.com> wrote:

> Ah yes, Hsi Nan. I remember taking someone to dinner there in the late 70s
> and I was having a technical discussion about the Foonly (PDP-10 clone) and
> our waiter overheard us and offered some additional technical details that
> were spot on!  We were amazed, but after all we were next to Stanford and
> anyone could be a genius just trying to make a living 👍👏❗️Probably that
> same person.
>
> Dan
>
> Cell 650-776-7313
>
> > On Jul 9, 2020, at 3:40 PM, Vint Cerf via Internet-history <
> internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:
> >
> > yes, Hsi Nan  - thanks for clearing up that annoying lapse.
> >
> > v
> >
> >
> >> On Thu, Jul 9, 2020 at 6:38 PM the keyboard of geoff goodfellow via
> >> Internet-history <internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:
> >>
> >> Vint, The Prancing Pony was stocked with Potstickers from Hsi Nan
> (Louie's)
> >> in the Town and Country Shopping Center at El Camino and Embarcadero.
>  It
> >> was also stocked with Empanada's.
> >>
> >> yours truly was a frequent visitor/hanger out there on the weekend and
> one
> >> of the features of The Prancing Pony billing/accounting sw system was
> that
> >> it allowed non-employee SAIL members to establish a "prepaid"/"debt"
> >> account -- so as be able to be a Pony customer (which i did).
> >>
> >> btw, in the nearby lounge area you may recall there was a TV with a
> >> "phaser" gun remote control that Hans Moravec made.  there was a "TV
> Guide"
> >> process on the PDP-10 that updated a screen that the TV could tune to
> with
> >> the phaser gun remote control.
> >>
> >> Recall being there one late Saturday night when the PDP-10 crashed
> >> during *Saturday
> >> Night Live* and it was left down/unattended to until there was a
> commercial
> >> break... :D
> >>
> >>> On Thu, Jul 9, 2020 at 12:15 PM vinton cerf <vgcerf at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>>
> >>> thanks for that lovely historical summary, Geoff.
> >>>
> >>> The Elvish script was the Tengwar.
> >>>
> >>> The Prancing Pony was also stocked with fresh Chinese food. I can't
> >>> remember whether it was from Chef Chu's or one of the restaurants in
> the
> >>> Town and Country Shopping Center. I think it was the latter because one
> >> of
> >>> the students did part time work at the restaurant and kept the Prancing
> >>> Pony stocked.
> >>>
> >>> v
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> v
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> On Thu, Jul 9, 2020 at 4:46 PM the keyboard of geoff goodfellow via
> >>> Internet-history <internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:
> >>>
> >>>> vis-a-vis "Stanford AI Lab had a vending machine for food and other
> >> stuff
> >>>> and it knew
> >>>> whether you were old enough for alcoholic beverages..."
> >>>>
> >>>> yours truly recalls the SAIL vending machine was connected to the labs
> >>>> PDP-10 via an RS-232 line.  The vending machine customers used a model
> >> 33
> >>>> Teletype next to it that was later replaced by a Lear Siegler ADM CRT
> >>>> display terminal... more details from Les Earnest in this EXCERPT at
> >>>> https://web.stanford.edu/~learnest/spin/sagas.htm:
> >>>>
> >>>> *Prancing Pony vending machine*
> >>>>
> >>>> The Prancing Pony Vending Machine was evidently the first computer
> >>>> controlled vending machine anywhere in the world. It was created to
> fill
> >>>> an
> >>>> unmet need.
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> Given that SAIL was about five miles off-campus and the nearest food
> >>>> source
> >>>> was a beer garden (Zotts) about a mile away, I initially set up a
> coffee
> >>>> and food room near the center of our facility and it subsequently got
> >>>> named
> >>>> after a pub in Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings". In fact all rooms in our
> >>>> facility were named after places in Middle Earth and had signs posted
> on
> >>>> the doors showing their names in both Latin and Elvish alphabets. At
> >> some
> >>>> point the Stanford Buildings folks asked me to number our rooms and
> give
> >>>> them a map. Instead we gave them a map showing room names in both
> >>>> alphabets. Their response was to send out a carpenter with numbered
> >> tags,
> >>>> which he nailed on each door.
> >>>>
> >>>> Meanwhile we took turns buying coffee and food, which was offered for
> >> sale
> >>>> on an honor system basis. That worked well for awhile but it suddenly
> >>>> started losing money big time. We then negotiated with Canteen, which
> >> had
> >>>> an exclusive contract with Stanford, to put in a couple of vending
> >>>> machines. However we found that they were not restocked often enough
> and
> >>>> broke rather frequently.
> >>>>
> >>>> I finally negotiated to rent a machine from Canteen that we could
> >> restock.
> >>>> They seemed to like this idea since it would relieve them of making
> >>>> frequent trips out to our distant facility. In fact they never billed
> us
> >>>> for the rental even though I repeatedly called it to their attention.
> >>>> Meanwhile I got Ted Panofsky to make a connection to our computer so
> >> that
> >>>> it could release the doors on the vending machine, thus making it
> >> possible
> >>>> to buy either for cash or, though a computer terminal, on credit. I
> then
> >>>> wrote a program that let people buy under password control and that
> >> billed
> >>>> them on a monthly basis via email. It was set up to randomly give away
> >>>> whatever was purchased on 1/128th of the purchases and offered a
> "double
> >>>> or
> >>>> nothing" option, which had an honest 50:50 outcome. I noticed a
> cultural
> >>>> difference in that almost none of the computer science students
> gambled,
> >>>> knowing that they would win 1/128th of the time if they didn't,
> whereas
> >>>> many of the music students did gamble. In both cases the Prancing Pony
> >>>> vending machine, having taken on the name of the room, seemed quite
> >>>> popular
> >>>> and we organized a team of volunteers to acquire the needed supplies
> and
> >>>> restock the machine at least twice a day.
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> The Prancing Pony also sold beer but only on credit and only to people
> >>>> over
> >>>> 21, since it knew everyone’s age. If a youngster attempted to buy beer
> >> it
> >>>> responded “Sorry, kid.”
> >>>>
> >>>> Some years later I found out why the honor system had failed in the
> >> Pony.
> >>>> I
> >>>> was the founding President of Imagen Corp., which made the first
> desktop
> >>>> publishing systems using laser printers, and after awhile there a
> young
> >>>> woman employee felt obligated to confess that when she was a
> >> teenybopper,
> >>>> she and her girlfriends used to ride their horses up to SAIL, then
> went
> >> in
> >>>> and stole candy from the Prancing Pony. Thus, her misconduct
> contributed
> >>>> to
> >>>> a technological advancement.
> >>>>
> >>>> On Thu, Jul 9, 2020 at 3:05 AM *Vint Cerf via Internet-history
> >>>> <internet-history at elists.isoc.org <internet-history at elists.isoc.org>>
> >>>> wrote:*
> >>>>
> >>>>> Stanford AI Lab had a vending machine for food and other stuff and it
> >>>> knew
> >>>>> whether you were old enough for alcoholic beverages...
> >>>>>
> >>>>> v
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>> On Thu, Jul 9, 2020 at 8:18 AM Jorge Amodio via Internet-history <
> >>>>> internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:
> >>>>>
> >>>>>> As far as I remember there was a wired coke machine at MIT
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> Jorge
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> On Thu, Jul 9, 2020 at 3:05 AM Lars Brinkhoff via Internet-history <
> >>>>>> internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>> How about Arpanet of Things?
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> Danny Hillis connected elevator buttons to MIT's Chaosnet, and by
> >>>>>>> extension Arpanet.  Users could type a special key combination on
> >>>> their
> >>>>>>> keyboards to call the elevator to Tech Square floors 8 or 9.
> >>>> Another
> >>>>>>> key would buzz open the door to the machine room on the 9th floor.
> >>>>>>> Source code for this is available.
> >>>>>>> --
> >>>>>>> Internet-history mailing list
> >>>>>>> Internet-history at elists.isoc.org
> >>>>>>> https://elists.isoc.org/mailman/listinfo/internet-history
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>> --
> >>>>>> Internet-history mailing list
> >>>>>> Internet-history at elists.isoc.org
> >>>>>> https://elists.isoc.org/mailman/listinfo/internet-history
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>> --
> >>>>> current postal address:
> >>>>> Google, LLC
> >>>>> 1875 Explorer Street, 10th Floor
> >>>>> Reston, VA 20190
> >>>>>
> >>>>> After July 1, 2020:
> >>>>> Google, LLC
> >>>>> 1900 Reston Metro Plaza, Suite 1400
> >>>>> Reston, VA 20190
> >>>>> --
> >>>>> Internet-history mailing list
> >>>>> Internet-history at elists.isoc.org
> >>>>> https://elists.isoc.org/mailman/listinfo/internet-history
> >>>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> --
> >>>> Geoff.Goodfellow at iconia.com
> >>>> living as The Truth is True
> >>>> --
> >>>> Internet-history mailing list
> >>>> Internet-history at elists.isoc.org
> >>>> https://elists.isoc.org/mailman/listinfo/internet-history
> >>>>
> >>>
> >>
> >> --
> >> Geoff.Goodfellow at iconia.com
> >> living as The Truth is True
> >> --
> >> Internet-history mailing list
> >> Internet-history at elists.isoc.org
> >> https://elists.isoc.org/mailman/listinfo/internet-history
> >>
> >
> >
> > --
> > current postal address:
> > Google, LLC
> > 1875 Explorer Street, 10th Floor
> > Reston, VA 20190
> >
> > After July 1, 2020:
> > Google, LLC
> > 1900 Reston Metro Plaza, Suite 1400
> > Reston, VA 20190
> > --
> > Internet-history mailing list
> > Internet-history at elists.isoc.org
> > https://elists.isoc.org/mailman/listinfo/internet-history
>
>
>

-- 
Geoff.Goodfellow at iconia.com
living as The Truth is True