* X-NEWS: spcvxa alt.folklore.computers: 191J Relay-Version: VMS News - V5.9C 19/12/89 VAX/VMS V5.3; site spcvxa.spc.edu Path: spcvxa!njin!princeton!udel!wuarchive!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!zephyr.ens.tek.com!uw-beaver!milton!blake!mrc@Tomobiki-Cho.CAC.Washington.EDU" Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers! Subject: fascist computer centers + Message-ID: <6081@blake.acs.washington.edu> 8 From: mrc@Tomobiki-Cho.CAC.Washington.EDU (Mark Crispin) Date: 1 Mar 90 03:23:21 GMT % Sender: news@blake.acs.washington.edu  Distribution: alt ; Organization: Mendou Zaibatsu, Tomobiki-Cho, Butsumetsu-Shi 
 Lines: 167   This brings back old memories.  F I was an undergraduate (1973-1977) at Stevens Institute of Technology.F The Stevens Computer Center had, at that time, a DEC PDP-10 model KA10A with 80K of memory (that's about 368K bytes), a (5MB?) fixed-head ; swapping disk, and two DEC RP02 (20 MB) disk drives for the F filesystem.  This was when model 33 and 35 Teletypes were the standardD terminal, although they did have a couple of "high-speed" (300 baud)? dial up lines.  However, even for the time this was a serverely  limited system.   C This computer center was a cost center.  Departmental accounts were B more or less "funny money" although the billing did translate intoB some form of support that the department was expected to cough up.% They also accepted outside customers.   F The end result was a strict hierarchy.  At the top were the hard-moneyC paying outside customers and their student-employee minions who got E the lion's share.  In the middle were the departmental users.  At the  very bottom were students.  D The only way a freshman was able to get a timesharing account (classE accounts were all batch punch-cards) was to join the local chapter of C the ACM.  This gave you an account which would let you log in after @ 5PM, provided that no more than 4 other students were logged in.  D Students were given a disk allocation of 57.6 KB; later this was cut< to 28.8 KB.  You could not log out if you exceeded your disk@ allocation.  Any files which you had not accessed in a week were deleted by the system.  E The only way you could get more space was to buy a DECtape, which was E a 3/4" mylar reel of tape holding 332 KB.  The Computer Center bought F large quantities of DECtapes from DEC at wholesale, unformatted.  TheyE would format the tapes and then sell them at DEC retail price.  There A were 8 DECtape drives, and they were always busy (and SLOW).  The C other alternative was to buy a 2400' magnetic tape, but since there D were only two 9-track tape drives (and one 7-track drive), typicallyD always in use by the outside customers or by the operators, this was not a popular option.   D Students resented the fact that outsiders were given the bulk of the@ resources of a school computer that wasn't even adequate for the? student load.  This was the early 70's in a *very* conservative D school, and the students were essentially took to stuff it where the sun don't shine.  F There were three other levels in the feudal hierarchy, parallel to theE hierarchy noted above.  There were those in the Computer Center's "in C group", there were those who were definitely "out", and all others. A The "in group" consisted of the Computer Center employees (mostly F students) and their friends.  The "outs" were those who for one reasonF or another had been put on the shit-list by the "in group."  I was one of the "outs".  E All sorts of special privileges were given to the "in group".  One of F the most important of these, albeit unintentional, was open license toA electronically harass the "outs".  The management of the Computer ? Center consisted of well- meaning but poor managers who, in any > incident between an "in" and an "out", would believe the "in".D Discipline, such as it was, was harsh, but never directed against anF "in".  What resulted was the segregation of immature college kids intoC a group that got away with anything and a group that got blamed for  everything.   E What was worse, the former were in effect the system cops.  The "ins" D had access to the machine room.  There were no self-service printersB or DECtape drives; only "ins" could do this.  This meant that yourE printouts, no matter how personal, were subject to intense perusal by = the "ins".  There were a few cases of "ins" stealing homework E assignments before we wised up and did our computer work elsewhere or F in the wee hours of the morning (making all printouts on the teletypes rather than the lineprinter).   B It isn't hard to imagine what resulted; an arrogant nasty group ofE thugs with a license to kill (like the cops in A Clockword Orange) on E the one hand, and a bitter, resentful group of kicked-around users on B the other thirsting for revenge.  The situation got worse when the+ manager quit and his subordinate took over.   F The new manager was a scientific programmer by training, and had actedC as sort of a mommie-figure to the Computer Center staff, the "ins". D Because of this, she was almost completely blind to the goings-on ofA her staff.  All she got to see was the other side -- that is, the @ counter-measures (and, I must admit, attempts at revenge) by theB "outs".  That is, she saw an escalating progression of nasty stuff@ being done at her Computer Center by a group of "bad apples" who1 needed to be thoroughly monitored and stomped on.   > And she delegated the monitoring and stomping-on to her staff.  E They did so, far beyond the mandate she gave; but since they were the D cops there was no check on their acts.  When they did something thatE was patently wrong (or even illegal), they would cover it up.  In one E incident, I found out that my private tapes were being read and their F entire contents printed out and examined.  The Computer Center managerD had not authorized this; this was a private adventure on the part ofB the student programming staff.  When I complained about them doing' this they threw me out of the building.   F It was a Sunday, and I could not go to the manager about this, but theF next day I went to her office with my complaint.  I found out that theC student programmers, witnessed by the student operator, had filed a F complaint against me for "vandalism" and I was going to be sent to the dean.   A Unbeknownst to her, the student operator was a friend of mine.  I E immediately tackled him and asked him what the f*ck was he doing.  He B apologized profusely.  He told me that he was forced into it, even@ though he objected to perjuring himself.  He was told that if heE didn't witness the imaginary "vandalism" the same shit that was being $ done to me would be done to him too.  D Obviously, they couldn't push the perjured "vandalism" charges; theyE would have fallen apart since nothing of the sort happened.  However, E it did neutralize me.  The situation did get better for a short while D after that; apparently this level of cover-up was a bit much and the" student staff was told to cool it.  F After I graduated the war became hot between the "ins" and "outs".  ToD some, I had become a folk hero credited with all sorts of miraculous> deeds for the betterment of Users against the Computer Center.E Needless to say, the reports were greatly exaggerated; I was far more D interested in getting my own work and programs done, having given upB long ago on the Computer Center.  I knew that it was better in the5 real world, and was doing my best to move there ASAP.   F My successors declared open warfare on the Computer Center.  There wasB no longer any effort to accomplish anything; it was just to returnC harassment with harassment.  About 6 months after I left, a bug was D discovered in the operating system that would put a user task into a< hardware privileged mode where one could execute any machineD instruction.  They would execute the machine instruction to turn offC the interrupt system (for you PDP-10 fans, that's "CONO 4,400") and C then execute a blocking system call.  Since the scheduler keyed off E clock interrupts, this would hang the system, however not until after F the bad guy's job context had been cleared (needless to say, they usedE random class accounts and never their own).  I didn't approve of such9B things, but I have to admit that I felt that the resulting lost of6 credibility the Computer Center got served them right.  C It had one major effect upon me.  After I left I ended up running a ? computer facility.  I did almost the exact opposite of what thegD Computer Center did in terms of system operations.  Although I had aD couple of wise-guy users who thought they could out-smart me (mostlyE of the sort of making trap-doors), I never had any vandalism problemsiE from any of my users.  The wise-guys got an e-mail message from me --d. 	Subject: your giving yourself root privileges# 	Very funny.  I've taken them away. B and that was it.  I think the only case a user ever got subject to0 university discipline was a sex-harassment case.  C Today, of course, Computer Centers are almost dead.  At home, I owneE three DEC-20 (the successor to the PDP-10) computers, each with abouthC 2.3 MB.  My office supplies me with a Toshiba PC with 1MB for home. ? Sitting on my desk at work is a NeXT with 12MB.  With this much = computing power dedicated to me, who needs Computer Centers?!   F  _____     ____ ---+---   /-\   Mark Crispin           Atheist & ProudB  _|_|_  _|_ ||  ___|__   /  /   6158 Lariat Loop NE    R90/6 pilotH |_|_|_| /|\-++- |=====| /  /    Bainbridge Island, WA  "Gaijin! Gaijin!"K  --|--   | |||| |_____|   / \   USA  98110-2098        "Gaijin ha doko ka?"gK   /|\    | |/\| _______  /   \  +1 (206) 842-2385      "Niichan ha gaijin."aN  / | \   | |__| /     \ /     \ mrc@CAC.Washington.EDU "Chigau. Gaijin ja nai.N kisha no kisha ga kisha de kisha-shita                  Omae ha gaijin darou."O sumomo mo momo, momo mo momo, momo ni mo iroiro aru    "Iie, boku ha nihonjin."hO uraniwa ni wa niwa, niwa ni wa niwa niwatori ga iru    "Souka. Yappari gaijin!"o