On Fri, Apr 23, 2010 at 12:06 PM, J.C. Roberts <list-...@designtools.org> wrote:
>
> Of course, the people at PARC figure this out eons ago by accident. A
> particular sequence or reads/seeks/writes caused such a beast to walk
> across the floor and block the only door, and they had to cut a hole in
> the wall to get back into the datacenter. Afterwards, they used to hold
> races with it after work.
>

Old guy alert!

I thought I was the only one with this kind of story. It involved an
NCR 8270, circa 1980, unlocked wheels, and a sort routine. Didn't need
no stinkin' assembler code either. A COBOL sort statement could do it
just fine, although  it didn't block the door. Maybe that's where some
assembler *might* have helped with the steering.

Gerald.

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