From: black.hole.4.spam{at}gmail.com (Don Hills)

I was reminded of the subject line when I saw the following:

http://www.networkworld.com/community/?q=node/4630

The article itself isn't unusual (Windows error message on a billboard in
Times Square) but someone mentioned OS/2 in the comments section, and it
was all on...


... oh, the subject line?
IBM had an internal Usenet-style conferencing system. Some of you may
recall it echoed some of the Compuserve forums for a while, which is how I
found Canopus.

At one time, a forum/newsgroup called BYTE8406 was created to discuss an
article about an unannounced IBM PC. The discussion degenerated into war
stories and reminiscinces about old hardware, at which time the "Forum
Police" stepped in and deleted the FORUM. This act caused more comment
in other fora, and so on. The phrase "All Forums tend towards
BYTE8406" became part of the IBM jargon history. Joe Kesselman later
generalised it for non-IBMers as follows:
"Any computer-mediated conversation eventually turns to the subject of
the oldest computing hardware the participants have used."

--
Don Hills    (dmhills at attglobaldotnet)     Wellington, New Zealand
"New interface closely resembles Presentation Manager,
 preparing you for the wonders of OS/2!"
    -- Advertisement on the box for Microsoft Windows 2.11 for 286

--- BBBS/NT v4.01 Flag-5