A Brief Thought About Cicadas

How many technological advances have happened since the last brood of cicadas emerged seventeen years ago?

It's strange how the Internet, this large 800 pound gorilla, somehow just sat down in our living rooms, our basements, our offices, without most of us even realizing it was making itself at home. It was gradual enough that it all seemed rather natural.

Now we take it for granted, and we communicate on a daily basis with people (many of whom we have never met), and possibly even post our stray thoughts for strangers to read.

I did a search on Usenet for the earliest post discussing cicadas and dug up one from 1990 in the alt.horror group:

Ecology of Alien(s)

What will the world be like the next time the cicadas emerge?

It Was 25 Years Ago Today

This Day In Usenet History: April 9, 1982
(according to a Google Groups search)

It was all in place, folks, lo those many moons ago.
UNIX, Deadheads and Leprechauns.

Negative gold
Group: net.games.rogue
First off , my thanks to Ken et.al. for providing us with 5.2. I have but one flame. It seems that a lot of the gold at lower levels, particularly any dropped by Leprechauns, 1. produces no message ...

thoughts on a vi quiz
Group: fa.editor-p
From sdcsvax!draper@NPRDC Fri Apr 9 11:28:29 1982 Here are some comments on issues underlying Bill Mitchell's recent quiz on vi - issues that are sort of obvious but perhaps would benefit from being raised explicitly. ...

An APL quiz question
Group: net.lang.apl
The problem (changing a vector to a matrix with rows as separate words) is well-known. One solution appears in "APL: An Interactive Approach" by Gilman & Rose. Still another appears in APL News, V. 2 No. 1 (1977) in the APL Play column. ...
Apr 9 1982 by G:shal... - 2 messages - 2 authors

A UNIX APL
Group: net.lang.apl
In reply to ihuxi!otto, I have used the APL here at Purdue EE, and it seems fairly good. The number quoted for concurrent users is a bit low. I have run APL while 45 other users were running APL ...
Apr 9 1982 by pur-ee... - 1 message - 1 author

More on ASCII APL
Group: net.lang.apl
I do not see that the problem mentioned by ihuxi!otto is a serious one, except for a special case that I will mention. First, each APL character is a single entity, even if it is formed on a conventional ...
Apr 9 1982 by rabbit!... - 2 messages - 2 authors

Run VMS Binaries
Group: net.general
I should have known ... I could only be a matter of time ... I have a request for a method to run VMS binaries under 4.1BSD UNIX. Has anyone already done this, or even currently working on it? How about tried it and failed? ...
Apr 9 1982 by pur-ee!mah... - 1 message - 1 author

Quiz time
Group: net.lang.apl
A solution to this problem was given by Michael Halpern in his IBM technical report "Algebra, Scan, and Permutations". I would be glad to mail copies of his functions to interested parties. /Jeff ...
Apr 9 1982 by G:shal... - 2 messages - 2 authors

single elements vs. scalars
Group: net.lang.apl
In regards to Ned Horvath's comments of april 7. I don't know of any primative scalar function that does not distinguise between scalars and degenerate, one element, higher order arrays. Anyone care to find one? charles honton (CWRU)
Apr 9 1982 by cwruecmp!hon... - 1 message - 1 author

Dead Heads
Group: net.music
I'm new to the net; is net.music where music lovers of the One True Religion hang out? If not, then where?
Apr 9 1982 by G:w... - 1 message - 1 author

Whats a paradox?
Group: net.math
A very small clinic, of course. Sorry, I've been waiting years to use that joke in public. If you think I'm going to sign this.....
Apr 9 1982 by eagle... - 2 messages - 2 authors