response 1 of 33:

May 26 02:44 UTC 1996

oh, wow, real reading comprehension tested again!! thankxx for the thrill!

response 3 of 33:

May 26 05:26 UTC 1996

All those { and ~ do warm my heart. They are the most commonly appearing
sporadic characters, because of their bit configuration. 

xxxxx~xxxxxxx

Now that is *not* line noise, but rather a modem running at the wrong speed.

response 5 of 33:

May 26 14:40 UTC 1996

Line noise often arrived in two character consonants.  I was always especially
fond of the relatively rare "ok" noise.

Hmmm...maybe that's a fund-raising idea.  We could write a "line noise"
filter that inserts similated line noise into text.  Turn it on as the default
in party and conferences, and make it so only members can turn it off.

response 7 of 33:

May 26 15:49 UTC 1996

   I have a true line noise story that took me weeks to overcome.

   It was on a VAX, using 1200bps modei.  I had made the call to
it; the lines were really horrible that night, and after the third
time of switching phone lines, I gave up.  Probably the modem
line at the VAX end had the problem, and since there was only one
modem, I was stuck.  I was also trying to finish things on a
project by morning.

   I had two data files to work with.  It was data on shoes, as I
remember.  The data was output from some ancient thing like Condor,
ASCII comma delimited.  My job was to take the data from these two
files and rearrange it with awk and friends.

   Problem was, the line noise kept on bothering me and blowing me
off.  Since it was getting difficult to stay on for more than five
minutes, and since the line noise was getting into the input stram
of my sesion, I started using aliases to speed things up.  One of
the aliases was to make 'x' be a 'cp' (the UNIX file copy command)
and y to 'mv'.  Stuff like that.

   As I continued throught the night, the problem fgot worse.  I
could expect to be thrown off within a few minutes, and several
times as I was editing a file dear little pieces of noise would
crawl into the file.

   Finally the end was near.  Since I don't type well, I was using
single letter file names, just so I might get the damned things
typed in before the noise would introduce itself again.

   Probably less than an hour before I was to have finished, a
blast of noise killed me.  OK, I thought.  It was only about the
50th time I'd called that night (really).  So I climb back on,
and start to continue on.

   Only the 'y' file that I'd been working on wasn't there.  Now,
at this point in the morning, I'd been up for about 20 hours,
fighting with the people who owned the data, trying to get them
to explain what they wanted in writing, as opposed to changing it
every 11 minutes.  Panic time.

   The file was definitely not there.  I had wondered if I'd
removed it during one of the last phases of changing stuff, (I'd
gotten a call at 5AM, asking yet Yet Another Change (YAC).  But
no, it didn't seem that way.  I was wondering how I was going
to pull a rabbit out of a hat by 9am, since I'd said that 5am
that all would be ready.  In the midst of my semi-controlled
panic, I did an ls of the work dir, just to see if perhaps I'd
done something stupid with it.

   I did eventually find it.  The line noise renamed the #(*&#$
file.

   I had lots of aliases set up.  Apparently, the last burst of
noise, which was truely impressive, had sent me a valid UNIX
command.  A sign from God.  Or perhaps from a little farther down.

   I use single characters for things, both commands and file
names, since I'm not great at typing.  The file that contained
all the data was 'x'.  The UNIX move command (mv) was called
'x', also.

   Somehow, the fates sent me what must have been this line--

       x x x{{_p

   I remember that file name, because I kept on staring at it,
after I'd realized that 20 hours work hadn't been stolen, trying
to figure out what the devil had gone on.  Finally it dawned on
me, that the line was was accepted as a valid UNIX command and
was executed, just before getting blown off the system.

   I really love line-noise.

response 9 of 33:

May 26 17:20 UTC 1996

Remmers #0 looks just like my screen whenever it rains (something to do with
crappy telephone groundbox which the telephone company won't replace.

response 11 of 33:

May 28 22:56 UTC 1996

Does it mean that I am grizzled that I could read #0 about 90% as fast as I
can read 'normal' text?

I remember connecting to merit at 300 about 2 years ago because the stuff at
the node local to my 'permanent address' was so bad.  I was went right ahead
with my rn anyway for about 2 minutes until I got dropped.

response 13 of 33:

May 29 06:21 UTC 1996

So, was the file renamed x{{_p? I just want to be sure I understand
this before I laught..  8*}.

response 15 of 33:

May 29 16:52 UTC 1996

   Yes Rane, you got it.  The line noise hung me up, and renamed
my data on me.

response 17 of 33:

Jun 7 02:30 UTC 1996

   Nope.  Mv is silent, unless you give it the -i option.


   Hey! Doesn't anyone else have anything for this item?

response 19 of 33:

Jun 7 06:34 UTC 1996

I just bought an acoustic modem - separate rubber cups for the mike and
speaker of a phone: thought it might be handy when traveling (and, it was
cheap). It doesn't fit modern phones with square mike/speakers very well,
though 8^{. 

response 21 of 33:

Jun 7 19:39 UTC 1996

Oh oh...I don't know what baud rate  my "new" acoustic modem will handle.
I may have just a piece of historical trivia...(however the unit is not
a *modem*, but just the audio interface - it plugs into a modem. MIght
still be OK)

response 23 of 33:

Jun 7 22:27 UTC 1996

Back in those days (which is the time I'm from), speeds above 1200 baud were
considered impossible because of the inability of phone lines to carry signals
reliably.