Re: Welcome! DO NOT DELETE - NOT SPAM!!

[Rich Thomson <rthomson@ptc.com>]

Speaking of "Deltoid", there is a book by John McPhee called "The
Deltoid Pumpkin Seed".  Its actually not about computers in any way --
its about an attempt to build a dirigible/airship/zeppelin type
aircraft where the shape of the craft is an airfoil, giving both
static and dynamic lift properties to the craft.  But I digress....

I suppose I can take some of the blame (credit?) for shifting Bob into
"search and locate" mode.  It occurred to me recently that its been
20+ years since I first encountered Delta and its about time for a
reunion!  It seems that many folks are still in the NE area so having
a reuinion wouldn't be too far out of the realm of the possible.

How does everyone else feel about that?

I did a little searching on my own, and discovered that I have these
archaelogical artifacts to bring to the party:

	o TECO release notes from April 1979
	o TECO reference manual from 1980
	o a printout of one of Ralph Gonzalez' amazing mathematical
	  simulation programs.  (And yes, there are virtually no
	  comments and every variable is K5, L6, J2, etc!  Such a
	  wonderful example of spaghetti code, but we still love your
	  programs Ralph :)
	o a magtape with various programs on it.  I don't even
	  recognize what the programs are myself, but I think I have a
	  copy of the 'xerox print queue' program I wrote on that
	  tape.  I think the other stuff was just things culled from
	  the DECUS library tapes
	o a printout of a _very_ early version of the "Jargon File".
	  Its so early it doesn't have a version number or a date (and
	  it predates Eric Raymond's involvement in creating the
	  Hacker's Dictionary).  Its also only 22 pages long!

Bob mailed me Alan Flippen's "History of DELTA" essay, which I popped
into MS word and converted to HTML and sent back to Bob.  If Bob
doesn't have public web space to begin accumulating a "DELTA Archive",
I can help provide that.

I read the first couple pages of Alan's history and I like it!  Brings
back all kinds of memories ;).  I take pride in being the youngest
person ever to break security and then become priv :).  Its inspired
me to write up a short essay of how I became involved with DELTA,
which involves a few interesting Gestapo-like computer center stories.

I'm out in Utah now, but I still think fondly of the DELTA days.  A
fairly recent photo of me is at
<http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/images/caver.jpg>
--
                                               Rich Thomson
                                               rthomson@ptc.com