RE: Project DELTA

[Bob & Cecelia <n3lym@amsat.org>]

Hi Steve,

Thanks for the reply. Yes, those were some great times! All I can remember from 
TECO is that if you did ht<ESC><ESC>, it would print the whole 
buffer. I'm not sure why I remember that and nothing else, but I'm sure about 
that command. So, I wonder when were you involved in Delta? I must admit that I 
don't remember you by name. Of course, you know the memory is the first thing 
to go. Anyway, I was involved from around 77-80. 

The response to my spamming initiative has had me quite overwhelmed. I've 
gotten in touch with many Deltoids and have gathered quite a number of nice 
stories about those good old days. Teresa Green is still alive and well, 
retired in Delaware. She was able to help fill in the history of the founding 
of Delta and the early years. It's really amazing what Delta was able to do at 
that time. The notion that somebody would fund this really expensive computer 
system and then let a bunch of high school kids loose on the thing. Teresa 
Green pushed hard to make sure that Delta would be run by the students (a 
radical view both then and now). 

Also have a lengthy unofficial history of the final years from Alan Flippen 
(now working for the NY Times). His story and a few others tell of the more 
mischievous side that many Deltoids remember fondly. There are several stories 
of how "so and so" breached system security and a week later, was made a 
privileged staff member. What an experience. But it's amazing to see how that 
environment led to the many successful and happy lives of all the Deltoids I 
have heard from. I think most of us have finally grown up!

Anyway, I'll have it all compiled in the Delta web site soon. Hopefully, we'll 
be able to recover some actual files from that time. Remember all those GRIPES 
and MESSAG.TXT's. And how about the ASCII art library? Anyway, here's the list 
of folks as of this date. Let me know of anyone we may have missed!

As for me, I'm married but no kids (4 cats). Living in Philadelphia. Been 
working at Digital for almost 10 years now. Doing mostly Unix consulting for 
various clients. Should be interesting when we get bought by Compaq, but I'm 
not worried. Other hobbies: ham radio, home brewed beer, and keeping the 100 
year old house in shape. 

Regards for now...

Bob



-----Original Message-----
From:	Stephen G. Mentzer/The Core Group Inc. 
[SMTP:Stephen_G._Mentzer@thecoregrp.com]
Sent:	Saturday, April 25, 1998 2:17 PM
To:	n3lym
Subject:	Re: Project DELTA

Hello,

Yes, I am the Steve Mentzer in question.  Forgive me for not remembering you, 
but I have trouble remembering what I did last week, let alone 15 years ago.

As for what I'm doing now: I'm President of The Core Group Inc., a company that 
provides service and support for a manufacturing software package.  We're based 
in Pittsburgh, PA.  I'm now 32 and (still) single.

The only memorabilia I know I have is printouts of some e-mail messages from my 
account in a box somewhere.  If I find it, I'll forward anything potentially 
relevant to your project.

As I write this, I'm recalling a few things:
1. We were messing around with the operating system tables one weekend and 
caused the system to crash in a bad way.  I think they had to restore it from 
tape.
2. Late one night I found someone was accessing the system through a "back 
door" so I decided to change the priv password.  It was quite late and I didn't 
know who to call, so I waited until morning.  This upset a few people.
3. Ed Boas (I think that's how it's spelled) routinely used ALL CAPS IN 
PORTIONS OF HIS MAIL MESSAGES.  I still don't know if he intended to convey 
yelling by doing this or not.
4. The OS would let you "garbage collect" by opening a file and allocating 
space for it.  The unallocated space would be filled with whatever was in the 
system memory at the time, so if you just closed the file it would often 
contain pieces of other people's mail messages and other fragments of things.
5. I used to do a lot of funky stuff in TECO, the system text editor.  But I'm 
sure if I looked at it now I wouldn't have a clue about it.

Feel free to ask questions if you need to.  Maybe something will jog my memory 
... I think my account was [1,42].  Does that sound right?

Regards,

Steve Mentzer
The Core Group Inc.
Pittsburgh, PA
Email steve@thecoregrp.com

>Hi,
>
>Is this the same Steve Mentzer who once who worked at Project Delta?
>If that's you, please respond with what you've been up to and your
>current vital stats. I'm trying to update the Delta alumni list. I'm
>also hoping to put together a Project Delta alumni web page including
>various pictures and writings as well as a PDP-11 emulator running
>RSTS/E. If you still have any Delta memorabilia, pictures, or backup
>tapes (I can read them!), please let me know!  If you know of any 
>deltoid e-mail addresses send them along!
>
>Regards,
>
>Bob Mader [1,50]