I first learned about the tty command about 25 years ago, and had always assumed that an actual teletype was a screen and a keyboard from the very beginning. Today I learned that Ken and Dennis were actually typing into a roll of paper, and getting printed paper back.
Even better, they predated digital computers by a long way, yet were an early application of digital data. A descendant of the original 5-bit Baudot code is still used today in RTTY applications.
Automated teleprinter networks developed, with TWX and Telex [0] coming into service in the 1930s. In 1963, AT&T upgraded TWX to use 7-bit ASCII instead of Baudot code. But TWX and Telex stagnated and were far outstripped by later dialup modems, let alone ISDN, DSL, or cable modems.
The TWX network in North America piggybacked on the telephone network, with special area codes designated for TWX service (now returned to use as voice area codes). Eventually, the courts took a dim view of TWX and forced it to be divested to Western Union.
There is a story told by Ken Thompson about how, in effort to bootstrap a compiler on a new system, Douglas McIlroy wrote out a compiler for TMG, in assembly, by hand on paper, because the teletype was busy or just slow; He then "fed the paper into the paper" which compiled the compiler, on paper, and then McIlroy typed this output into the teletype directly where it could be executed in memory on their new PDP-7, thus giving them a compiler for the TMG compiler language, which is a recursive compiler-compiler, which could be used to port everything else to the new PDP-7.
I heard this described, either by Ken or someone else who saw this, as the most impressive single feat of human intellect they had ever witnessed.
I have very early memories of using a teletype with a paper tape reader. I was probably six years old. I don't even remember what it was interfacing with, but I remember it was annoying because the feed would always screw up and mangle the tape.
I first learned to program on a Teletype that dialed in to a General Electric timesharing system. Dial-up time was very expensive, so I punched my program on a paper tape, printed and reviewed it, then dialed in, immediately ran the tape through the reader, and hung up:
IIRC, the Wikipedia article for Betteridge's law stated that, statistically, headlines in the form of a question were more often answered with a "yes."
"After the concert, we started talking, and he complained that I played much slower than the original songs or pieces. He asked, “Why?” That made me think, “Why do I want to play much slower than before?” Because I wanted to hear the resonance. I want to have less notes and more spaces. Spaces, not silence. Space is resonant, is still ringing. I want to enjoy that resonance, to hear it growing, then the next sound, and the next note or harmony can come. That’s exactly what I want."
Gabriel Fauré's Pavane Op. 50 is an example of a song that really turns into something drastically different when played much slower than the prescribed tempo. To me it sounds much better that way. In the case of this rendition of Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, it's a bit more subtle though. It really does allow you to hear the strings resonate more like you quoted, and to me, it makes the entire piece sound even more contemplative than it already did.
And Sakamoto would end up being involved in some of those Sylvian solo records.
A fly on the wall video of the 1st album [1] recording sessions was posted couple of years ago [2] which includes bits where you can see Sylvian/Sakamoto working together.
I've always tried to reconcile this idea with the hope that some future advanced civilization (maybe even evolved from humans) might figure out a way to "escape" the Universe, by manipulating spacetime itself, "accessing" other dimensions, &c.
> There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable.
> There is another theory which states that this has already happened.
― Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
