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From: dionisio@infinet.com (Denny Miller)
Newsgroups: rec.humor,alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Rolling finger screen
Date: 8 Jul 1994 08:36:57 GMT
Organization: InfiNet - Internet Access (614/224-3410)
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Thought others might enjoy my latest creative efforts...

[ Article crossposted from infinet.general ]
[ Author was *ME* <g> ]
[ Posted on 8 Jul 1994 08:25:01 GMT ]

[Joseph's scrolling problems deleted]

Joseph Cooper (jcooper@infinet.com) wrote:
}Saul D. Hoffman (create@infinet.com) wrote:
}:  And if you don't want to pipe to more (it sounds illegal to me, Joe). 
}: You could do what I do - get a scroll sink. This is nothing more than a 
}: high-quality plastic trash bag which you slip over your monitor to catch 
}: all the stuff that scrolls off the top....

}Is that one of the regular cruft bags or do you recommend something that 
}has been treated to deal with static electrical charges?  In any event, 
}I'd sure like to lay in a goodly supply.  Could you source 
}the necessary items for me?

No, regular plastic bags are not recommended for this. (Note, Saul's "high
quality" trash bag is of a type used only by government employed
electrical technicians, and thusly costs several hundred dollars.) They
can convey nasty static charges to the stored data and mess things up to
the point that you will not be able to retrieve it. 

What you need is the type of bags that computer and peripheral device
manufacturers put their add-on circuit boards in. (They're cheaper than
Saul's setup. And they may even last longer. The new government trash bags
are required by the EPA to be bio and photo-degradable.) Also, for
guarenteed reliability of data storage, you need to supply the ScrollSink
with a modest source of power at the proper refresh rate. (The power and
the rate that the data will need to be refreshed at are functions
dependent upon the volume of the ScrollSink. Failure to provide the right
amount of voltage at the proper rate may result in loss of data or the
injection of spurious data.) The manufacturerer of your computer system
should be able to help you with this. 

Please note, if your system utilizes components from more than one
company, you will need to contact those companies as well in order to
verify that their products will not interfere with the reliable operation
of the ScrollSink. 

Also note, some companies will steadfastly deny that ScrollSinks exist,
and will attempt to tell you that you've been had. It is true that the
company that originally made the ScrollSink, Bit Bucket, Inc., has gone
out of business. However, their product and and its schematics and related
documents were given freely to the public, as the company officials knew
that their product was of use to those whose communications programs
didn't have scrollback capabilities. 

The legal battle over patent infringement by those companies who
selflessly pirated Bit Bucket's idea of scrollback buffering went on for
years, and was the real reason Bit Bucket had to declare bankruptcy. 

The makers of ScrollSink knew of "shareware" and "freeware", but
decided they wanted a new term, "hardware". Unfortunately, even that has
been pirated by greedy corporate types. The very same ones whom Bit Bucket
sued in the first place! The viscious men-in-suits who lead the offending
piratical companies knew that Bit Bucket was bankrupt and could no longer
pursue them via legal means. So, their perversion of the original concept
of "hardware" was seen as "poetic revenge" for the legal costs incurred by
Bit Bucket's lawsuit. So, to quote Paul Harvey, "And now you know the
*rest* of the story." 

--
And the Thought of the Moment (tm) is...

"The best and brightest minds at Ohio State prefer Captain Crunch."
        -- E. Gordon Gee, President of The Ohio State University, 9/21/92