[dayglored]

> BFD. I invented DOS, WIN95 and its progeny, desktop computers, the internet, and office networking while on a tequila binge back in 1980. Unfortunately, when I drink tequila I tend to get a little loose in the lips, and just my luck, Bill Gates was sitting on the bar stool next to me where he carefully wrote down on the back of a napkin every word that I spoke. The rest is history. BTW, I also own 1,346,211 patents, 266,970 copywrites, 11,999 trademarks, and I just saved money on my car insurance by switching to Geico. In addition, on my 40th birthday, I climbed Mt. Everest while walking backwards, blindfolded, and completely naked.

Okay, that's all cool.

But have you done anything really cool, like write a FORTRAN program that prints a data pattern to a 132-column, 600 line-per-minute IBM 1403 chain printer, that causes it to print out an American Flag, while at the same time the pitch of the sound of the chain plays the Star Spangled Banner?

That, my FRiend, is an accomplishment.

I saw it done, on a Burroughs 5500, in 1972. I wish I could claim to have done it myself. But just seeing it happen in person was a life-changing experience.

[freedumb2003]

But have you done anything really cool, like write a FORTRAN program that prints a data pattern to a 132-column, 600 line-per-minute IBM 1403 chain printer, that causes it to print out an American Flag, while at the same time the pitch of the sound of the chain plays the Star Spangled Banner?

That, my FRiend, is an accomplishment.

We used to reserve a word for only the best of the best -- true accomplishments: ELEGANT.

It had to be CCW-driven. Dang! I saw one CCW raw program exactly once when I was watching a CE diagnose a bad disk drive. I xeroxed a copy of it, but was never able to test it (yeah, they'll let my application program run in SVC mode [LOL!]).

*sigh* Ah, for the days of elegance.