From nobody Wed Mar  3 11:40:02 2004
Newsgroups: alt.culture.us.1980s
Subject: Re: It's my Life
References: <930b0115.0402112110.1fe86616@posting.google.com> <cdc97f3f.0402242029.32e1b562@posting.google.com>
 <RFW_b.56037$4o.75373@attbi_s52>
 <cdc97f3f.0402251647.33d7c7f2@posting.google.com>
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Organization: ESC
Date: Wed, 03 Mar 2004 11:40:00 -0600
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Brent Busby <brent@studio.catmind.org> writes:

> You wouldn't happen to have that infomercial MCI had around that
> time of "Gramercy Press," a pretend publishing company that was
> supposed to use their Internet service?  They played that over and
> over.  I didn't tape it, but I should have.  The girl in that ad was
> hot.  :)

That's Katy Selverstone, and yes, she was/is hot.  She has one of the
sexiest voices I've ever heard.  She also did an ad where she was a
customer service rep for a credit card or travelers check company,
helping some guy who lost his card/checks when his wallet fell out in
the rain.  As I recall. :-)  I remember thinking, "Damn, who needs
phone sex when you can call this girl for free?"

She also played Drew Carey's girlfriend Lisa early on in his show, and
left that to be in something called Chicago Sons.  I think in the
storyline, Drew chose his pathetic job over dating her, which didn't
make the slightest bit of sense.  Since then, unfortunately, she's had
a bunch of guest appearances in shows I don't watch.


-- 
Aaron

From nobody Wed Mar  3 19:01:39 2004
Newsgroups: alt.culture.us.1980s
Subject: Re: It's my Life
References: <930b0115.0402112110.1fe86616@posting.google.com> <cdc97f3f.0402242029.32e1b562@posting.google.com>
 <RFW_b.56037$4o.75373@attbi_s52>
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Date: Wed, 03 Mar 2004 19:01:39 -0600
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Lord Hasenpfeffer <mykec@spamsucks.ionet.net> writes:

> In the ad where she was helping the guy who'd lost his wallet, was
> she seated at a desk in a cubicle with long, dark, permed hair and a
> little headset on?

Yes she was.  In low lighting, I believe.  I can't remember what I had
for breakfast last Sunday, but I still remember her in that ad.


-- 
Aaron

From nobody Thu Mar  4 16:06:17 2004
Newsgroups: alt.culture.us.1980s
Subject: Re: It's my Life
References: <930b0115.0402112110.1fe86616@posting.google.com> <cdc97f3f.0402242029.32e1b562@posting.google.com>
 <RFW_b.56037$4o.75373@attbi_s52>
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Organization: ESC
Date: Thu, 04 Mar 2004 16:06:17 -0600
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Lord Hasenpfeffer <mykec@spamsucks.ionet.net> writes:

> Ha!  That's too funny.  As time goes on I get a stronger sense of
> deja vu about this girl.  And I don't know if I have that ad on
> videotape or not because I'm still indexing my tapes in the
> 1989-1993 range but as soon as I move forward I'll definitely keep
> an eye out for it/her.

If you ever happen to digitize it, I'd love to see it again.


-- 
Aaron

From nobody Fri Mar  5 06:44:12 2004
Newsgroups: alt.culture.us.1980s
Subject: Re: It's my Life
References: <930b0115.0402112110.1fe86616@posting.google.com> <Anz%b.130486$jk2.543915@attbi_s53>
 <404242D0.7030703@spamsucks.ionet.net> <Rat0c.150869$uV3.693774@attbi_s51>
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Organization: ESC
Date: Fri, 05 Mar 2004 06:44:10 -0600
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Brent Busby <brent@studio.catmind.org> writes:

> See the problem is, apart from a few low-end, not-very-impressive
> capture boards that use the Brooktree chipset (the only capture
> board chipset Linux has a robust driver for), none of the other
> capture board chipset makers are willing to open their chip
> specifications to the Open Source community so drivers can be made.

More are starting to.  There's a list of a few in the FAQ at
mythtv.org.  I'm planning to get a Hauppauge PVR 350 soon, which has
full video/audio in/out, and is supported by Linux.  It also does
MPEG2 compression and decompression, which makes it more expensive
than the cards that just capture raw video and let the system CPU
process it, but it means I can use an older, slower system that I've
already got lying around.


-- 
Aaron

From nobody Wed Mar 17 09:27:02 2004
Newsgroups: alt.culture.us.1980s
Subject: Re: Funeral songs
References: <4056e20e$0$22523$5a62ac22@freenews.iinet.net.au>
Organization: ESC
Date: Wed, 17 Mar 2004 09:27:00 -0600
Message-ID: <86r7vr335n.fsf@cail.baugher.pike.il.us>
 berkeley-unix)
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"eightyeightynine.com" <anonymous@anonymous.com> writes:

> I was thinking about this while writing another post. If you could
> pick a song to play at your funeral, what would it be? I know this
> is only an 80s group and some songs are probably outside this time
> period, but I don't think anyone would care if your song fell
> outside the 80s.

Dan Fogelberg -- Same Old Lang Syne.


-- 
Aaron

From nobody Sun Mar 21 10:56:47 2004
Newsgroups: alt.culture.us.1980s
Subject: Re: MP3 indexing
References: <F_07c.47203$JL2.615116@attbi_s03> <405CA6E3.5070602@spamsucks.ionet.net>
Organization: ESC
Date: Sun, 21 Mar 2004 10:56:46 -0600
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Lord Hasenpfeffer <mykec@spamsucks.ionet.net> writes:

> I have hundreds of home-burned CD-Rs around here so keeping track of
> what I have and where it's located is essential to me.  My solution
> was to create a simple, executable text file named "cdir" which
> contains the following line of code:
>
> mount /mnt/cdrw; ls -loRA /mnt/cdrw > $1.txt; cat $1.txt; eject cdrw;


Pretty cool.  If you want to get rid of the listings of subdirectories
at the beginning, this should work:

#!/bin/sh
mount /mnt/cdrw
find /mnt/cdrw -type f -ls | cut -d ' ' -f 3- | cut -b 51- | tee $1.txt
eject cdrw


That find command finds files (not directories) and prints a long
ls-style listing.  The two cuts clean that up and trim it down to just
the size, date, and pathname.  You might have to adjust the number of
characters in the second cut to fit your version of find.  The tee
outputs to a file while also printing the output to screen.


-- 
Aaron

From nobody Mon Mar 29 05:21:33 2004
Newsgroups: alt.culture.us.1980s
Subject: Identify a song
Organization: ESC
Date: Mon, 29 Mar 2004 05:21:33 -0600
Message-ID: <86smfrew5e.fsf@cail.baugher.pike.il.us>
 berkeley-unix)
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Several months back, a local radio station here (my1039.com) switched
to an all-80s format, and it's excellent.  They only play pop; no
harder stuff like AC/DC or anything like that, but it's still better
than any other station.

The bad thing is they play a lot of songs without identifying them, so
it's hard to go out and look for the CD.  That happened this morning,
when they played a really rockin' song and never said who it was.  The
male singer was really hard to understand, so I couldn't pick out any
lines for sure.  The main chorus line seemed to be "It's the way of
the world" or "It's the weight of the weight" or something like that.
The next line was something like "It's the light of the <something> in
your soul."

It sounded a little like late-80s Clapton when he was doing more
upbeat stuff, but I don't think it was actually him.  It was a fairly
typical rock song, with a couple verses, guitar breakdown, last verse.

Anyone recognize it?


-- 
Aaron

From nobody Mon Mar 29 19:53:29 2004
Newsgroups: alt.culture.us.1980s
Subject: Re: alt.culture.us.1990s
References: <4068309C.2070704@spamsucks.ionet.net> <c4a7tr$6bg$1@shiva.neobee.net>
Organization: ESC
Date: Mon, 29 Mar 2004 19:53:29 -0600
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"HAL 9000" <murphy@neobee.net> writes:

> Or to be more precise, culture of the '90s never existed at all...so
> it couldn't even die

The '90s were a vacation from lots of stuff: history, culture, fiscal
common sense...  I've always thought that in the '80s, pop music was
upbeat and rock was angry; in the '90s, pop was cynical and rock was
suicidal.  There were exceptions, of course, but those are the words
that come to mind when considering the overall product.


-- 
Aaron

From nobody Tue Mar 30 11:02:07 2004
Newsgroups: alt.culture.us.1990s
Subject: Re: alt.culture.us.1990s
References: <4068309C.2070704@spamsucks.ionet.net> <c4a7tr$6bg$1@shiva.neobee.net>
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Andreas Kohlbach <ankman@email.com> writes:

> And this ugly "Euro Dance" like "Barbie Girl". Be happy you missed
> this in the US (so off topic here anyway). ;-)

I think we did get it, if it's the song I'm thinking of, although it
wasn't a big hit here.  It was from Australia, right?  I kind of liked
the song, in small doses.


-- 
Aaron

From nobody Fri Apr  9 09:11:23 2004
Newsgroups: alt.culture.us.1980s
Subject: Re: Name the 80's arcade game you mastered on a budget!
References: <20040408234517.18849.00000033@mb-m23.aol.com> <gaqdc.9842$QQ5.8409@newssvr32.news.prodigy.com>
Organization: ESC
Date: Fri, 09 Apr 2004 09:11:23 -0500
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"dimestore" <dimefudge@sbcglobal.net> writes:

> Most games in the early 80's were fairly easy to master.  All you
> had to do was memorize the patterns.  There was no AI so each level
> offered a predictable number of moves.

Yep.  I watched a guy play PacMan all the way to the end one time.  It
got very fast, but he just kept running the exact same pattern.  Got
pretty boring after a while.

I didn't have the money or get to town enough to play many arcade
games, but once I got my C128, there were some C64 games that I got
pretty good at.  Elite probably got as many hours as any game,
although I'm not sure I ever reached Elite status.  I finished a
couple of the RPG games like Pool of Radiance (the original) and
Ultima IV, and a couple of Infocom's text adventures.  Some friends
and I played M*U*L*E quite a bit.


-- 
Aaron

From nobody Fri Apr  9 18:58:29 2004
Newsgroups: alt.culture.us.1980s
Subject: Re: Name the 80's arcade game you mastered on a budget!
References: <20040408234517.18849.00000033@mb-m23.aol.com> <gaqdc.9842$QQ5.8409@newssvr32.news.prodigy.com>
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Date: Fri, 09 Apr 2004 18:58:29 -0500
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Lord Hasenpfeffer <mykec@spamsucks.ionet.net> writes:

>> Yep.  I watched a guy play PacMan all the way to the end one time.

> What happens?

Oddly, I don't remember.


-- 
Aaron

From nobody Sat Apr 10 06:32:06 2004
Newsgroups: alt.culture.us.1980s
Subject: Re: Name the 80's arcade game you mastered on a budget!
References: <gaqdc.9842$QQ5.8409@newssvr32.news.prodigy.com> <20040409205023.17296.00000096@mb-m16.aol.com>
Organization: ESC
Date: Sat, 10 Apr 2004 06:32:06 -0500
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pcportinc@aol.combatSPAM (PCportinc) writes:

> pardon, pacman and mrs.pacman seemed to have AI, unpredictable
> movement on the part of the ghosts.

In the original Pacman, the ghosts just followed patterns.  After
people discovered a route you could run over and over without ever
being killed, a new version was released with some AI added.  In
Ms. Pacman, the ghosts had a certain amount of intelligence, at least
in any version I ever played.

Here's a link to a bunch of stuff about the game:
<http://jongy.tripod.com/SoundofEating.htm>


-- 
Aaron

From nobody Sat Apr 10 06:38:28 2004
Newsgroups: alt.culture.us.1980s
Subject: Re: Name the 80's arcade game you mastered on a budget!
References: <20040408234517.18849.00000033@mb-m23.aol.com> <gaqdc.9842$QQ5.8409@newssvr32.news.prodigy.com>
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Organization: ESC
Date: Sat, 10 Apr 2004 06:38:28 -0500
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"eightyeightynine.com" <anonymous@anonymous.com> writes:

> From memory the last level just loops around until you screw up or
> get bored.

That probably explains why I don't remember the ending.  The guy
probably just said, "Screw it; it's just looping.  I'm going home."

I found this site <http://jongy.tripod.com/SoundofEating.htm>, which
says:

  LEVEL 20

  The ghosts don't turn blue.

  LEVELS 21 TO 255

  The ghosts don't turn blue. All of these levels are the same.

  LEVEL 256 (THE FINAL LEVEL)

  This is the mythical split-screen level where half of the screen is
  garbled (see below).

Sounds like it used a single-byte pointer to point to the level info
in memory, and when that hit 256 it rolled over and corrupted
something.


-- 
Aaron

From nobody Wed May  5 20:04:15 2004
Newsgroups: alt.culture.us.1980s
Subject: Re: Great 80's Acoustic Songs
References: <gKqdnXkE847MwsvdRVn-jw@comcast.com> <105pg2cr0gp5v6f@corp.supernews.com>
 <4e3ef90b.0404172026.7c976807@posting.google.com>
 <109ip25fnqio5ac@corp.supernews.com>
Organization: ESC
Date: Wed, 05 May 2004 20:04:13 -0500
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Naz Reyes <naz@american.edu> writes:

> I don't wanna sound negative about the early to mid eighties since I
> do have a lot of good memories from that era, but from what I
> remember, there were a LOT of negative societal values going on
> around that time. It was a decade of which materialism was the word
> of the day, and "family values" was nowhere to be found.  It was
> also a decade of greed.

Nah, that characterization has never held water.  All the things that
supposedly made the 80s the 'decade of greed' -- fortunes being made
in the stock market, people borrowing and spending beyond their means,
personal bankruptcies on the rise -- were much worse in the 90s, but
no one called that a decade of greed.  That appellation had more to do
with who was in the White House during the majority of the two decades
than anything else.  It was a way to try to make people feel guilty
about Reagan's tax cuts, not a reflection of what was actually going
on at the time.

If Americans in the mid-80s spent some extra money and enjoyed the
improved economy, we can be forgiven, since we had just exited a
decade where our leaders acted like the American Dream was dead and
we'd all be Communists before long anyway.

> I think a lot of people were sick of it all by the late 80s and
> TRIED to bring back some normalcy by bringing back the
> singer-songwriters, who stood for some type of cause, which brought
> back some positive change in society.  That's when the "PC
> revolution" started, I think :)

The PC revolution (assuming you're talking about Political
Correctness, not Personal Computers) came directly from the
universities.  Leftist professors and students actually coined the
term themselves to refer to the speech codes they recommended on
campus.  The idea was so obviously Orwellian to everyone outside the
ivory towers of academia that it quickly became a term of derision.


-- 
Aaron

From nobody Fri May  7 09:23:51 2004
Newsgroups: alt.culture.us.1980s
Subject: Re: Political Correctness in the 80s (was Re: Great 80's Acoustic
 Songs
References: <gKqdnXkE847MwsvdRVn-jw@comcast.com> <105pg2cr0gp5v6f@corp.supernews.com>
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Date: Fri, 07 May 2004 09:23:51 -0500
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Naz Reyes <naz@american.edu> writes:

> Then how do you explain the fact that the average American is now
> using terms such as "African-American", "mentally-challenged", or
> "retirement home"?  I've yet to hear "appearance-challenged" for
> ugly people, but I'm pretty sure it'll be part of Webster's new
> terms soon :)

I should have been more clear; I was talking about the origin of the
term "PC", not the concept.  Obviously people tried to control
thoughts and attitudes by controlling language long before anyone came
up with the term "political correctness."  Orwell didn't write _1984_
in 1984, after all.

Besides, just because people have adopted PC phrases in many cases
doesn't mean they can't laugh at the concept when it goes too far,
just as you do above with "appearance-challenged."

So what was a 'retirement home' formerly called?  I've heard "old
folks' home," but I can't think of anything worse than that.


-- 
Aaron

From nobody Mon May 24 06:26:05 2004
Newsgroups: alt.culture.us.1980s
Subject: Re: Heavy Metal Ballads
References: <40af7fd7@post.usenet.com>
Organization: ESC
Date: Mon, 24 May 2004 06:26:04 -0500
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I was going to suggest "Beth" by Kiss, since I had my first slow dance
with a real girl to that song in 1983, but Amazon says it's from 1976,
so never mind.


-- 
Aaron

From nobody Tue May 25 19:19:50 2004
Newsgroups: alt.culture.us.1980s
Subject: Re: If I was...
References: <40b31158@post.usenet.com> <if_displayed_on_top_then_your_newsreader_is_broken_85k6z0fzvm.fsf@usenet.ankman.de>
Organization: ESC
Date: Tue, 25 May 2004 19:19:49 -0500
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Eightiesseeker <ankman@email.com> writes:

> On 3919 September 1993, murphy@neobee.net wrote:
>> That isn't the "male oriented" topic but common thing and this
>> group is overflowing with such stuff...

> You mean lesbians? Hmm, not sure, but I think Barbera Steisand is.

Barbra Streisand is overflowing with lesbians?


-- 
Aaron

From nobody Tue May 25 19:29:58 2004
Newsgroups: alt.culture.us.1980s
Subject: Re: What's the thing you miss most about the 80's?
References: <wRH6c.36899$PY.705@newssvr26.news.prodigy.com> <20040319153606.10519.00000023@mb-m28.aol.com>
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 <if_displayed_on_top_then_your_newsreader_is_broken_85y8ngg0hm.fsf@usenet.ankman.de>
Organization: ESC
Date: Tue, 25 May 2004 19:29:58 -0500
Message-ID: <86lljgows9.fsf@cail.baugher.pike.il.us>
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Eightiesseeker <ankman@email.com> writes:

> And Microsoft copies everything! Didn't we already have the Blue
> Screen in the 80s on the Commodore 64 computer? And it crashed as
> often or even more than Windows. :-)

I don't think my Commodore 128 crashed once.  Of course, it didn't
really have an operating system; just a collection of kernel routines
that software could call, so it's not much of a comparison.  Some
games crashed, but it was very rare, and generally reproducible -- if
a game crashed, it would always crash at that point, unlike the random
but inevitable crashes you get with Windows.  If a game ran fine, it
always ran fine.

The C128 was really a remarkable machine.  It boasted 99.something%
compatibility with the C64 in 64 mode, and lived up to that claim.
Out of thousands of software programs I used on mine, I only ever
found a couple that wouldn't run on my C128.  Considering the many
differences in hardware, including a CPU (8502) that had new opcodes
and dropped some undocumented ones from the 64's 6502, that level of
compatibility was truly impressive.  It beats the heck out of the
compatibility of any version of Windows with any previous version.

Hey, a non-music post!


-- 
Aaron

From nobody Wed May 26 06:25:52 2004
Newsgroups: alt.culture.us.1980s
Subject: Re: What's the thing you miss most about the 80's?
References: <wRH6c.36899$PY.705@newssvr26.news.prodigy.com> <20040319153606.10519.00000023@mb-m28.aol.com>
 <405B46C6.6090305@spamsucks.ionet.net>
 <dcarroll14-5F0FC6.22332423052004@news1.west.earthlink.net>
 <if_displayed_on_top_then_your_newsreader_is_broken_85y8ngg0hm.fsf@usenet.ankman.de>
 <86lljgows9.fsf@cail.baugher.pike.il.us>
 <40B40D36.9060409@spamsucks.ionet.net>
Organization: ESC
Date: Wed, 26 May 2004 06:25:52 -0500
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Lord Hasenpfeffer <mykec@spamsucks.ionet.net> writes:

> I used a Commodore 64 and/or Commodore 128 daily and excessively
> from 1988 until 1999 when I ultimately switched to Linux.

That's pretty much my timeline, except that I switched to Linux a
little sooner, and I've since moved to FreeBSD (primarily).  For a few
years in the mid-90s I did most of my work from my 128, shelled into a
Unix box across ISDN.

> I still have it and one of these days I will get back to using it
> too.  Damn things are solid machines...and the community support for
> it is still very much alive.

I'm gradually selling mine, sadly enough.  I hate to do it, but I
haven't had them running for a few years, so they might as well go to
someone who will use them.  Especially the software, since my hundreds
of floppy disks are probably reaching the age where they'll start
losing data if they aren't used.  The prices you can get for stuff
have improved a lot since I checked a few years ago, too, so people
must be having a harder time finding replacements.  I just got $40 for
a trackball that I bought new for $29.

There are some pretty good emulators for nostalgia purposes, and they
have the advantage of speed and snapshot capabilities.  I still fire
up games like Elite and M*U*L*E now and then.


-- 
Aaron

From nobody Wed May 26 06:28:13 2004
Newsgroups: alt.culture.us.1980s
Subject: Re: What's the thing you miss most about the 80's?
References: <wRH6c.36899$PY.705@newssvr26.news.prodigy.com> <20040319153606.10519.00000023@mb-m28.aol.com>
 <405B46C6.6090305@spamsucks.ionet.net>
 <dcarroll14-5F0FC6.22332423052004@news1.west.earthlink.net>
 <if_displayed_on_top_then_your_newsreader_is_broken_85y8ngg0hm.fsf@usenet.ankman.de>
 <86lljgows9.fsf@cail.baugher.pike.il.us>
 <40B41891.7050705@spamsucks.ionet.net>
Organization: ESC
Date: Wed, 26 May 2004 06:28:13 -0500
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Lord Hasenpfeffer <mykec@spamsucks.ionet.net> quoted someone:

> I have rebboted several time now and SOMETIMES the C128 mode does
> NOT crash.
>
> What could be wrong with C128 mode to cause this behavior?

Could be the MMU (Memory Management Unit), which isn't used at all in
64 mode, as I recall, since the 64 just has one bank of memory that
doesn't need to be managed.  The folks on the mailing list or at
comp.sys.cbm will probably have more ideas.

Tell him I'm selling a C128 on Ebay right now, if he wants a
replacement.  Bid high and often!


-- 
Aaron

From nobody Fri May 28 05:35:47 2004
Newsgroups: alt.culture.us.1980s
Subject: Re: What's the thing you miss most about the 80's?
References: <wRH6c.36899$PY.705@newssvr26.news.prodigy.com> <20040319153606.10519.00000023@mb-m28.aol.com>
 <405B46C6.6090305@spamsucks.ionet.net>
 <dcarroll14-5F0FC6.22332423052004@news1.west.earthlink.net>
 <if_displayed_on_top_then_your_newsreader_is_broken_85y8ngg0hm.fsf@usenet.ankman.de>
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Organization: ESC
Date: Fri, 28 May 2004 05:35:47 -0500
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Eightiesseeker <ankman@email.com> writes:

> The C64 had a 6510, very similar to a 6502. Not sure what the C128
> had, but I'd assume a 6510 too. And a Z80 processor too. I think
> CP/M made use of this.

The 128 had an 8502.  Yes, the Z80 was used for CP/M.  It
theoretically was a 4Mhz chip, but sharing the bus with various things
brought it down to 2Mhz, and to get that you had to be using the
80-column screen or blanking the 40-column.  Using it with the
40-column VIC chip active brought the speed down to about 1Mhz, so
there really wasn't any advantage to using the thing unless you just
liked it better.

You could actually write code that would jump back and forth between
the two processors -- run some on this one, then run some on that
one.  Not exactly multi-processing, but I always thought that was
cool, even if there wasn't a good reason to do it.  

> This group is not only about music. It's 80s stuff in general.

I know.  I was trying to be funny.

> But the C64/C128 made music too. This was he was advanced compairing
> to the Atari, which had way better graphic capablilities. I got a
> C64 SID page for downloading C64 audio files from games and demos at
> <http://homepages.compuserve.de/ankmn/sid/>.

Yeah, the SID was pretty advanced for its time.  Three separate audio
channels (and someone came up with a way to splice a second SID in for
6 channels at once).  

> I'm glad to see you seem not to use Windows, refering to your news
> agent signature Windows Gnus has a different I guess).

Probably so.  I can't imagine running Gnus/Emacs on Windows.  Sounds
like driving a Corvette on steel wagon wheels.


-- 
Aaron

From nobody Fri May 28 05:48:51 2004
Newsgroups: alt.culture.us.1980s
Subject: Re: What's the thing you miss most about the 80's?
References: <wRH6c.36899$PY.705@newssvr26.news.prodigy.com> <20040319153606.10519.00000023@mb-m28.aol.com>
 <405B46C6.6090305@spamsucks.ionet.net>
 <dcarroll14-5F0FC6.22332423052004@news1.west.earthlink.net>
 <if_displayed_on_top_then_your_newsreader_is_broken_85y8ngg0hm.fsf@usenet.ankman.de>
 <86lljgows9.fsf@cail.baugher.pike.il.us>
 <if_displayed_on_top_then_your_newsreader_is_broken_85y8negco0.fsf@usenet.ankman.de>
 <40B60360.1060903@spamsucks.ionet.net>
Organization: ESC
Date: Fri, 28 May 2004 05:48:51 -0500
Message-ID: <863c5kg73g.fsf@cail.baugher.pike.il.us>
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Lord Hasenpfeffer <mykec@spamsucks.ionet.net> writes:

> Ironically, it was the C128's near-perfect ability to perform as a
> C64 that prevented it from becoming as wildly successful as the C64
> became.

Commodore never seemed to understand what they had in the C128.  (The
marketing folks, that is.  I'm sure the engineers did.)  They always
denigrated the 80-column screen by saying it was just for text and
business apps.  Even the promotional materials I got with my first
system took that attitude, as if that was just an uninteresting
add-on.  That wasn't true at all; people eventually created some very
nice games and graphics apps for it, but they pretty much had to
figure out how it worked for themselves.  They put a Z80 in it and
never gave us any reason to use it.  It could do extremely fast disk
access with "burst mode" to the 1571 drive, but Commodore's own disk
utilities just used the same old pokey kernel routines.  If Commodore
couldn't be bothered to use the new features in their own software
distributed specifically for that system, why would anyone else?

Also, when Commodore introduced the Amiga, they stopped all promotion
of their 8-bit line to keep it from competing with the Amiga.  Some
might say they actively promoted against their own machines.

> After the C64 was introduced none of the "C64-incompatible"
> computers produced by Commodore were ever embraced by the public.
> When the C128 came along and actually delivered on its promise of
> 64-compatibility its extended capabilities were largely ignored as
> well.

> Truly a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation.

Yeah, developers could keep developing for the 10-million-unit C64
market out there and know the new 128 owners could use the stuff too.
There wasn't much incentive to program specifically for the 128,
unless your program really needed the extra RAM or the 80-column
screen.

> 1985 was a bit late to jump onboard the CP/M bandwagon though as
> that was, I believe, the year in which MS-DOS finally put CP/M to
> bed for all practical intents and purposes.

I actually programmed in CP/M in 1987, but those had been donated to
my school, so they weren't exactly the latest thing.  Luckily, I
skipped from that to Commodore to Unix without ever going through an
MS-DOS phase.  I occasionally use Windows now, but only as a game
machine.


-- 
Aaron

From nobody Fri May 28 05:58:00 2004
Newsgroups: alt.culture.us.1980s
Subject: Re: What's the thing you miss most about the 80's?
References: <wRH6c.36899$PY.705@newssvr26.news.prodigy.com> <20040319153606.10519.00000023@mb-m28.aol.com>
 <405B46C6.6090305@spamsucks.ionet.net>
 <dcarroll14-5F0FC6.22332423052004@news1.west.earthlink.net>
 <if_displayed_on_top_then_your_newsreader_is_broken_85y8ngg0hm.fsf@usenet.ankman.de>
 <86lljgows9.fsf@cail.baugher.pike.il.us>
 <if_displayed_on_top_then_your_newsreader_is_broken_85y8negco0.fsf@usenet.ankman.de>
 <40B60360.1060903@spamsucks.ionet.net>
 <40B60439.3030008@spamsucks.ionet.net>
Organization: ESC
Date: Fri, 28 May 2004 05:58:00 -0500
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 berkeley-unix)
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Lord Hasenpfeffer <mykec@spamsucks.ionet.net> writes:

> Did I say accumulator?  Think I meant to say "program counter".
>
> Somebody help me out here.  I know what I'm *trying* to say but
> don't think I'm saying it right.

Probably program counter or stack pointer.  The PC keeps track of
where to get the next instruction in memory.  The stack pointer points
to the top of the "stack," a fast-access LIFO buffer.  Fiddling with
either one, especially the PC, could certainly crash a program.  I
don't remember if it was actually possible to change the value of the
PC directly, though.  Fiddling with the stack could cause problems
because, as I recall, a JSR (Jump to SubRoutine) call pushed the
current PC value to the stack.  When the subroutine ended, the PC
would pull that value back off the stack and go to it.  So if your
subroutine didn't leave the stack as it found it or moved the pointer,
things could go wrong.

Still, these are things that, if you did them in your program, would
cause it to crash in the same way every time.  (Usually giving you a
BRK error when the PC tried to execute a nonexistent command.)  Bad
programming; not a bad system.  I never got the kind of crashes I get
on Windows, where I'm playing a game I've played many times before,
and suddenly it locks up at a spot where it's never had trouble
before.


-- 
Aaron

From nobody Sat May 29 16:58:19 2004
Newsgroups: alt.culture.us.1980s
Subject: Re: C64 stuff
References: <wRH6c.36899$PY.705@newssvr26.news.prodigy.com> <20040319153606.10519.00000023@mb-m28.aol.com>
 <405B46C6.6090305@spamsucks.ionet.net>
 <dcarroll14-5F0FC6.22332423052004@news1.west.earthlink.net>
 <if_displayed_on_top_then_your_newsreader_is_broken_85y8ngg0hm.fsf@usenet.ankman.de>
 <86lljgows9.fsf@cail.baugher.pike.il.us>
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Organization: ESC
Date: Sat, 29 May 2004 16:58:19 -0500
Message-ID: <867juu6glg.fsf@cail.baugher.pike.il.us>
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Eightiesseeker <ankman@email.com> writes:

> Wasn't one of the Commosdore Basics done by Microsoft? *g*

The Commodore BASIC 2.0 in the C64 does have some Microsoft code in
it; you can see the copyright in the ROM somewhere if you know where
to look.

> No no. Ever saw the robot demo? The Atari had a hell out of 64 or
> probably even 256 colors, while the C64 had 16. But the resolution
> was about the same.

Yeah, I seem to remember the Atari had more colors.  The C64 (and
C128) just had 16 colors, with a resolution of 320x200 or 160x200,
depending on the color mode you used.  Usually the latter, because it
allowed you to have more different colors from one 4x8 cell to the
next.  People sure did some amazing stuff within those limitations,
though.  I remember the game "Elvira" had some great dithered artwork,
although it sucked as a game.


-- 
Aaron

From nobody Mon Jun  7 08:45:24 2004
Newsgroups: alt.culture.us.1980s
Subject: Re: Two Movies I Missed The First Time Around
References: <2ihjcbFn8ia6U1@uni-berlin.de> <ygSwc.7373$1L4.5922@okepread02>
 <2iia8tFne8doU1@uni-berlin.de> <40C3FC93.2070305@spamsucks.ionet.net>
Organization: ESC
Date: Mon, 07 Jun 2004 08:45:23 -0500
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Lord Hasenpfeffer <mykec@spamsucks.ionet.net> writes:

> I watched "American Gigolo" and "Spaceballs" this weekend - both for
> the very first time.

Wow, you were missing out.  I've seen "Spaceballs" dozens of times.
On the other hand, "American Gigolo" would unacceptably exceed the
Maximum Gere Quotient (MGQ) of my TV, which is zero or less.

I'd agree that I tend to like the Abrahams/Zucker entries a bit more
than Brooks's overall, although "Blazing Saddles" is of course a
classic.  The Abrahams/Zucker movies tend to be consistently funny,
while Brooks is sometimes brilliant and sometimes not very funny at
all.  "Young Frankenstein" is a perfect example of both -- hilarious
first half, and a mostly forgettable second half.

I'm watching "Top Secret" right now.  It's oddly topical at the
moment, with everyone reminiscing about how President Reagan (with
help from other strong leaders like Prime Minister Thatcher and Pope
John Paul II) brought down Soviet Communism and the Berlin Wall.  (I
guess sometimes history gets it right; people like Dan Rather never
would have given him any credit for that a decade ago.  When it was
all happening, they thought he was insane.  Being a journalist means
never having to say you're sorry.)  It's also at least as funny as the
"Airplane" movies.  It must be one of Val Kilmer's first movies,
because he looks awfully young.

    Scientist: I was close to perfecting the first magnetic
    desalinization process, so revolutionary, it was capable of
    removing the salt from over five hundred million gallons of sea
    water a day.  Do you realize what that could mean to the starving
    nations of the earth?

    Nick:  Wow!  They'd have enough salt to last forever!

Kilmer also stars in my favorite movie of all time, "Real Genius."
Which has nothing to do with anything else in this post; I just like
to pimp that movie as often as possible.

> Also, "My hair! They shot my hair!"  LOL!

"I hate Yogurt!  Even with strawberries!"


-- 
Aaron

From nobody Mon Jun  7 08:46:28 2004
Newsgroups: alt.culture.us.1980s
Subject: Re: Reagan dead: And Somewhere-
References: <yjIwc.3140$17.599529@news1.epix.net> <hyMwc.18295$%F2.2854@attbi_s04>
Organization: ESC
Date: Mon, 07 Jun 2004 08:46:28 -0500
Message-ID: <86wu2j7a6j.fsf@cail.baugher.pike.il.us>
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"Troublemaker" <surfingtrucker2000@yahoo.com> writes:

> What tastless, insensitive thing to say.

Yet true.


-- 
Aaron

From nobody Mon Jun  7 11:16:21 2004
Newsgroups: alt.culture.us.1980s
Subject: Re: TBS has a new logo
References: <2ihjcbFn8ia6U1@uni-berlin.de> <ygSwc.7373$1L4.5922@okepread02>
 <2iia8tFne8doU1@uni-berlin.de>
 <XQSwc.15395$Iu6.4593@bignews5.bellsouth.net>
 <yl_wc.625$Wg.22@news04.bloor.is.net.cable.rogers.com>
 <40C476C2.9090107@spamsucks.ionet.net>
Organization: ESC
Date: Mon, 07 Jun 2004 11:16:21 -0500
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Lord Hasenpfeffer <mykec@spamsucks.ionet.net> writes:

> I think "a la carte" cable service would solve a lot of the
> problem...although, unlike John McCain, I am opposed to using the
> government to strong-arm cable companies into changing their evil
> ways.

Gee, you want to take all the fun out of public service, don't you?

> The *people* need to effect such a change if it's to happen at all.

I really don't think most people mind the current situation.  Many of
them watch Friends, after all, so how discriminating could they be?
Sure, they complain about commercials and logo bugs and such, but it's
usually a good-natured sort of complaining.  If changing it meant
making their cable bill or their remote more complicated, they'd pass.
That's why people like the idea of government doing something about it
-- they don't really care enough to go to the trouble of being smart
consumers themselves.

The one thing that might effect a change will be when most people have
high bandwidth and DVD burners and can download and save shows off the
net as quickly and easily as they do music now.  Music downloading
finally broke the music industry out of the "put one good song on an
album with a bunch of crap and make them pay $16 for it" mold that
consumers had hated for decades.  Now we have consumer-oriented
services like iTunes, which never would have been developed without
illegal downloading.  (Of course, if the music industry had paid
attention to consumers' wishes and offered that sort of service years
ago, illegal downloading might never have become as popular.)

It's a shame that it takes theft to get some companies to pay
attention to their customers' wishes, but in industries where the
product can be duplicated for almost zero cost, that may be the only
way.

Somehow there's still some good stuff on TV, though.  "Scrubs" is very
good, and has kind of an 80s feel to it, I think, with the way it
mixes together everything from intense dramatic moments to slapstick
with quick daydream moments cut in.  "The Amazing Race 5" starts in
July, and is the most exciting thing I've seen on TV in a long time.
"Las Vegas" is very cheesy, but fun if you don't take it too
seriously.  (Think of the cheesiest episodes of Magnum p.i. and bump
the cheese up one notch, and you'll get the idea.)  "Without a Trace"
is excellent, although I'm worried that they're going to increase the
soap opera level in the coming season as so many crime shows do, and
that could ruin it.


-- 
Aaron

From nobody Mon Jun  7 13:53:36 2004
Newsgroups: alt.culture.us.1980s
Subject: Re: TBS has a new logo
References: <2ihjcbFn8ia6U1@uni-berlin.de> <ygSwc.7373$1L4.5922@okepread02>
 <2iia8tFne8doU1@uni-berlin.de>
 <XQSwc.15395$Iu6.4593@bignews5.bellsouth.net>
 <yl_wc.625$Wg.22@news04.bloor.is.net.cable.rogers.com>
 <40C476C2.9090107@spamsucks.ionet.net>
 <86fz97738q.fsf@cail.baugher.pike.il.us>
 <40C4A754.2080505@spamsucks.ionet.net>
Organization: ESC
Date: Mon, 07 Jun 2004 13:53:36 -0500
Message-ID: <86n03f5he7.fsf@cail.baugher.pike.il.us>
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Lord Hasenpfeffer <mykec@spamsucks.ionet.net> writes:

> John McCain shows his true colors in supporting such legislation.
> When he claims conservativism as his own, he lies.  John McCain is a
> Fabian Socialist.

Does McCain even call himself a conservative?  He certainly isn't one;
not even the usual watered-down Republican version.  I liked McCain
for a little while, until I started actually paying attention to what
he says and how he votes.  Most of his positions seem calculated to
draw media adoration.  His most offensive action might be the way he
and John Kerry have worked to stop any search for POWs in Vietnam.
Whether there are still POWs in Vietnam or not, having Senators take
the part of a foreign government against U.S. families of MIAs looking
for information is sickening.


-- 
Aaron

From nobody Sat Jun 12 16:18:42 2004
Newsgroups: alt.culture.us.1980s
Subject: Re: Broken English
References: <40cb3289$0$24181$5a62ac22@freenews.iinet.net.au>
Organization: ESC
Date: Sat, 12 Jun 2004 16:18:42 -0500
Message-ID: <86hdtglbkd.fsf@cail.baugher.pike.il.us>
 berkeley-unix)
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"eightyeightynine.com" <anonymous@anonymous.com> writes:

> Some of you may know I'm always on the look out for war/anti-war
> songs of the 80s.

Is there any such thing as a war song that's not anti-war?  Written
since WWII, that is?  


-- 
Aaron

From nobody Tue Jun 22 18:23:00 2004
Newsgroups: alt.culture.us.1980s
Subject: Re: Shrek2's 80s song?
References: <10d6prqpk173c86@corp.supernews.com> <754c7781.0406220551.6f2d4192@posting.google.com>
Organization: ESC
Date: Tue, 22 Jun 2004 18:23:00 -0500
Message-ID: <86brjbgotn.fsf@cail.baugher.pike.il.us>
 berkeley-unix)
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alcarm1964@hotmail.com (Joseph Paturbo) writes:

> Naz Reyes <naz@american.edu> wrote:
>> Did you guys notice the song "Holding Out For A Hero" by Bonnie
>> Tyler as the main song in this movie?

> For some reason I remember that song being played in Footloose when
> Kevin Bacon is in the tractor-chicken game...am I right or is my
> memory just failing now that I've hit 40?

My memory says you're right.  On the song, at least, if not the
performer.


-- 
Aaron

From nobody Mon Jun 28 11:10:53 2004
Newsgroups: alt.culture.us.1980s
Subject: Re: 80s power ballads
References: <8XKDc.13387$vO1.89325@nnrp1.uunet.ca>
Organization: ESC
Date: Mon, 28 Jun 2004 11:10:53 -0500
Message-ID: <86oen3r7ci.fsf@cail.baugher.pike.il.us>
 berkeley-unix)
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SaH <webit@[NOSPAM]accesswave.ca> writes:

> What was everyone's favorite 80s power ballads ? I want to put
> together a good compilation but can only remember about a dozen or
> so good ones and I KNOW that are alot more than that. I'd like to
> get at least 100 or so.

I never cared much for most power ballads.  I downloaded a couple
recently that were mentioned here, like Carrie by Europe, and soon
remembered why I didn't like them -- too whiny.  Some of them are good
for a listen or two, but after that they wear on me fast.  Probably
the closest thing to a power ballad that I like would be some of Def
Leppard's stuff, but I'm not really sure any of their songs qualify as
ballads.

How about "Feel It Again" by Honeymoon Suite?  I don't think that one
was ever popular on the radio, so I never got sick of it.  Plus, it's
not as whiny as most ballads.

Also "Do You Feel?" by Little America.  Again, never an overplayed
radio song; just a band a friend discovered accidentally.  Their "I
See Your Face" is also good.  The whole "Fairgrounds" album is pretty
good, really.  I'm not certain it's 80s, but it sure sounds like it.


-- 
Aaron

From nobody Thu Jul  1 20:46:49 2004
Newsgroups: alt.culture.us.1980s
Subject: Re: The best-selling albums of all-time as of Nov. 2003
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Date: Thu, 01 Jul 2004 20:46:48 -0500
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Naz Reyes <naz@american.edu> writes about Britney Spears:

> I've also read and heard everywhere that a lot of men, young and
> old, find her very attractive, and even gay men support her music
> and causes in a big way.  Last I heard, she earned more money than
> any entertainer...somewhere around $20 million in a year.

Whoever decided to have her dance around in a schoolgirl outfit in
her first big video deserves about half of that, for that first reason
you mentioned.


-- 
Aaron

From nobody Mon Jul 12 13:53:52 2004
Newsgroups: alt.culture.us.1980s
Subject: Re: Nice 80s music articel
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Naz Reyes <naz@american.edu> writes:

> I do agree with everything you've just said.  Actually, I *felt* the
> more positive vibes of it by the late 90s, but things seemed to have
> gone back to the same ole crap (no, I'm not talking politics here,
> people...LOL).

The political side of it is important, though.  Right now, the
mainstream media and entertainment outlets are working very hard to
convince us that our lives suck so we'll vote against Bush this fall.
The economy is awful (it's not, and hasn't been for quite a while);
we're losing the war (hogwash), our soldiers are all evil meanies, you
can't afford health care, etc.

As a result, we're getting a constant barrage of negativity -- not
about particular people, but about ourselves and how we should feel
about our country.  It's hard to stay positive in the face of that;
you have to work at it.

> I was hoping that 9/11 would actually make people regain their
> consciousness and soul, and FEEL something, and would reflect it
> through the music, but I've yet to see the change.

I think entertainers are all afraid to touch that subject yet.  Toby
Keith has been unabashedly pro-American, and it's won him fans, but
turned much of his industry against him.  The Dixie Chicks went the
other way, earning the love of the elites but alienating much of their
fan base.  It's safest to just keep quiet.  Someone made a movie based
on the Tom Clancy book in which Islamic terrorists blow up a US
football stadium, but of course that would have been politically
incorrect, so they changed the bad guys to white neo-Nazis (had to be
either that or Big Oil magnates, I guess), and the movie bombed.  I do
think regular people are ready for art that speaks about 9/11, but
most artists either aren't ready to make it, or they realize that what
they'd make wouldn't be appreciated.


-- 
Aaron

From nobody Wed Jul 14 22:08:17 2004
Newsgroups: alt.culture.us.1980s
Subject: Re: Nice 80s music articel
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Lord Hasenpfeffer <mykec@spamsucks.ionet.net> writes:

> This would be a solution if it were not for the interference of
> moral relativism preventing it from being realized.  What you say is
> right and good but there are many islands unto themselves in this
> world who'll have none of it.

Because moral relativism says there is no right or good.  You can't
see the good in other people if you don't recognize that good exists.  


-- 
Aaron

From nobody Wed Jul 14 22:21:21 2004
Newsgroups: alt.culture.us.1980s
Subject: Re: Nice 80s music articel
References: <40ed343d$0$24749$5a62ac22@per-qv1-newsreader-01.iinet.net.au> <10eri6cqrm5uc49@corp.supernews.com>
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Naz Reyes <naz@american.edu> writes:

> Well, *my* life doesn't suck, but I don't like the way Bush is
> handling Iraq.  He has alienated most of our European allies, and a
> lot of countries around the world.

They already didn't like us; his actions just exposed that.  There's
resentment for a lot of reasons.  We're wealthy enough that we can
give (or not give) other countries enough aid to completely transform
their economies, without even noticing the loss at home.  We can
dominate anyone militarily, and even though we never do unless
strongly provoked, that fear is still there, because if almost any
other nation in history had that power, it would use it.  We export
our culture, and while most people around the world enjoy most of it,
there are parts they don't care for (and that we shouldn't be proud
of), and they get upset when those parts infect their cultures.

None of those reasons have anything to do with Bush, or will change
after he's gone.  As long as we are the most powerful nation on earth,
foreign peoples, and especially their governments, will tend to resent
us somewhat, and we need to take that into consideration.  We can't
make everyone love us, no matter how much we want to.

> America is seen in the world as "big, bad bully" right now, and if a
> lot of very important countries cannot be on our side, we need to do
> something quick to change that.  And getting rid of Bush is one of
> them.

Again, they already saw us that way, and getting rid of Bush won't
change a thing.  They don't think that because of Iraq; if that were
the case, why isn't France considered a big bad bully for kicking the
Ivory Coast around?  Why weren't we just as much of a big bad bully
when we bombed Kosovo without even asking for UN permission during the
Clinton administration?  Answer: We were; it just wasn't reported that
way.

Kerry might kiss everyone's butt until they all act like our friends
again, but it won't really mean anything.  Your true friends are the
ones who stick with you when times are tough, not just when you do
whatever they say.

> Actually, after seeing the movie Fahrenheit 9/11, things are pretty
> clear to me now. :) The only thing I'm afraid of right now is
> BUSH. But, when fear kicks in, it's time to DO something about it.
> It time to v-o-t-e ;-)

Oh, please.  There are reasons to dislike Bush, but Moore's
self-serving paranoid fantasies aren't among them.


-- 
Aaron

From nobody Thu Jul 15 06:10:15 2004
Newsgroups: alt.culture.us.1980s
Subject: Re: Nice 80s music articel
References: <40ed343d$0$24749$5a62ac22@per-qv1-newsreader-01.iinet.net.au> <10eri6cqrm5uc49@corp.supernews.com>
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Brent Busby <brent@studio.catmind.org> writes:

> I was actually rather surprised at some European leaders who made
> comments some time back that Bush was immature because he saw things
> in terms of good and evil, saying that it was a rather archaic
> notion that any such thing as evil exists.  I was surprised because
> these leaders were from countries that were involved in or near to
> the sites of the Holocaust, ethnic cleansing, the Crusades, the Iron
> Curtain (and its east European satelite states), and the original
> colonialism of Africa.

How quickly they forget.  Of course, some of them would have been
perfectly happy being behind the Iron Curtain, or at least they
thought so.  The same folks are trying to make the EU as Soviet as
possible now.  

> If they had said it was archaic for a leader to believe he had a
> personal religious authority regarding what exactly that right or
> wrong is, and was able to make those moral judgements himself on
> behalf of others, that would have been far more rational.

True, but it wouldn't be what they think.  They really do believe that
evil doesn't exist, and all conflict is just a result of
misunderstanding and can be stopped through appeasement.


-- 
Aaron

From nobody Fri Jul 16 09:37:50 2004
Newsgroups: alt.culture.us.1980s
Subject: Re: Nice 80s music articel
References: <40ed343d$0$24749$5a62ac22@per-qv1-newsreader-01.iinet.net.au> <10eri6cqrm5uc49@corp.supernews.com>
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Naz Reyes <naz@american.edu> writes:

> Just imagine if all members of the European continent becomes one
> united, military entity like the U.S., and about as stubborn and
> gung-ho as the Americans are.  We may as well say bye-bye to our
> future.  Sheesh.

Sheesh back at ya.  Americans are the most isolationist people in the
world; we've had to be dragged into conflict over and over.  The
Islamists have been trying to start a war with us for decades, and we
sat inside our borders and said, "Nope, don't want to hear about it."
Attacks on our embassies, ships, and military sites over the years
didn't faze us.  It took a spectacular attack on our own soil to get
us to take them seriously enough to do something about it.

You do realize that the European countries have practically no
military, because our defense of Europe allowed them to move all that
money to state welfare systems, right?  They're in even worse shape
than we are demographically, with a growing elderly population
becoming more dependent on the state and a shrinking working class to
pay for it all because of low birth rates.  (Which is why Muslim
immigration rates are climbing in Europe, which is a factor
in their reluctance over Iraq.)  They simply can't afford much of a
military.  As for Europe being united, that'll be the day.

All my life I've been hearing that Any Day Now, some other country or
region is going to rise up militarily and economically and surpass the
US.  For a long time, it was the Soviets, of course; a good number of
our politicians and most of our intellectuals thought it was just a
matter of time until Soviet Communism ruled the world.  Then it was
the Japanese -- they were selling us so much stuff that they were
going to just buy us out.  Then it was the E.U. -- Any Day Now they'd
band together and become an unstoppable force.  I even knew a guy who
was convinced the E.U. was the Beast from Revelations, and their new
money or ID card would be based on the number 666.  Weird.  Whole
books have been written saying China's a threat to dominate us Any Day
Now.

I'll believe it when I see it.  I'm getting too old to keep being
suckered by the same line of bull.

> Appeasement is the only solution for now, unless you want to end
> mankind itself.

At least you're honest about it, but appeasement is never the solution
"for now".  Appeasement makes your enemy stronger and more able to
defeat you.  The only way appeasement can work is if your enemy didn't
really want to kill you in the first place -- in which case
appeasement wasn't necessary in the first place.  The one thing I'm
certain of is that Islamists really, really want to kill us and our
country.

> Like Alphaville said, "are you gonna drop the bomb or NOT"? (i'm
> glad to be able to bring this back on topic...LOL!)

Hey, I didn't start it. :-)


-- 
Aaron

From nobody Mon Jul 26 06:03:56 2004
Newsgroups: alt.culture.us.1980s
Subject: Re: Trying to find a song in Real Genius
References: <Xns9530B5C8FA001nowherecom@216.196.97.131>
Organization: ESC
Date: Mon, 26 Jul 2004 06:03:55 -0500
Message-ID: <86pt6j3u90.fsf@cail.baugher.pike.il.us>
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Real Genius <no@where.com> writes:

> I'm looking for a song in Real Genius in either .mp3 or some 80's 
> cd that has it on it. It's called "Number One" by Chaz(Chas) Jankel.

Yep, that's the name and the artist (Chaz).  Check the file-sharing
networks.

> Anyone got any ideas....to my knowledge, no soundtrack was ever
> made....

I think one must have been, because I've found a few mp3s from it,
including this one.


-- 

From nobody Tue Aug  3 15:22:58 2004
Newsgroups: alt.culture.us.1980s
Subject: Re: 80s: Decade of the nonsense lyrics
References: <49adc$410b1eca$d47fd3f5$22849@news.multikabel.nl> <_9NOc.191917$IQ4.123968@attbi_s02>
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Lord Hasenpfeffer <mykec@spamsucks.ionet.net> writes:

> Was it the first or second Bill & Ted movie that had multiple
> endings deliberately worked into the storyline?

The first one didn't that I recall, but I never saw the second one.
"Clue" (great movie) has three endings, but only one is the correct
one.


-- 

From nobody Fri Sep  3 21:43:44 2004
Newsgroups: alt.culture.us.1980s
Subject: Re: A song for all us 80s fans!
References: <20040831195508.05513.00000142@mb-m29.aol.com>
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Date: Fri, 03 Sep 2004 21:43:44 -0500
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metlhd3138@aol.com (Metlhd3138) writes:

> Has anyone ever heard the new Bowling For Soup song "1985"? Its
> awesome and a great song for anyone who still wishes it was the
> 1980s.

Just heard it today and came here to ask that same question.  Great
song; I was alternately laughing and nodding in agreement all the way
through it.


-- 

From nobody Sat Sep 18 07:12:00 2004
Newsgroups: alt.culture.us.1980s
Subject: Re: 'Slutwear' Is So Last Year on New York Runways
References: <Ydj2d.3343$n16.2071@newsread2.news.atl.earthlink.net> <10kk2tbh3tglfbd@corp.supernews.com>
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zaragon23@lycos.com (Zaragon) writes:

>> Oh - and please don't *even* get me started with piercings or
>> tatoos around the belly area.

> Yikes. I hear that's now getting so ingrained in society now that
> that too has contributed to the nasty bare legged blight. Their
> attitude being "why wear nylons anymore? We want to show off our
> tattoos."

Yeah, it seems like everyone's doing it.  I've becoming a
counter-cultural revolutionary just by declining to pay someone to
stick needles in me as a leisure activity.  When I see a tattoo, my
first thought is usually, "Hey, she's got some dirt or something on
her."  Once I realize what it is, I'm always reminded of that line
from a song, "I want to be different, just like everybody else."

I can't say I mind bare female legs, though.  Sorry.


-- 

From nobody Fri Sep 24 06:07:57 2004
Newsgroups: alt.culture.us.1980s
Subject: Re: Archive detailing '80s music edits/mixes
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Lord Hasenpfeffer <mykec@spamsucks.ionet.net> writes:

> I think it's an 80s thing.  I've never heard any 90s people giving a
> rip about anything such as this.

I thought the signature attitude of the '90s was not giving a rip
about anything.

'80s rock:  Life sucks, so I want to punch someone.

'90s rock:  Life sucks, so I think I'll kill myself.



-- 

From nobody Wed Oct  6 13:57:57 2004
Newsgroups: alt.culture.us.1980s
Subject: Re: It must be from the 80s
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Lord Hasenpfeffer <mykec@spamsucks.ionet.net> writes:

> That's really odd because I have "Better Off Dead" on VHS and have
> seen it quite a few times - but I don't remember seeing E.G. Daily
> in it.

Same here -- seen it dozens of times, but can't place her.  I think
there was some sort of school dance scene, after which Cusack meets
the French girl and she won't stop shaking his hand.  I'm guessing
that's where she is, but I can't picture it.  I think it got pushed
out of my brain to make room for the school dance scenes in "Once
Bitten" and "Sixteen Candles" (among others).

"Twoooo dollars!!"


-- 

