Thanks to all fifty or so who attended my talk at AWE, and to Nitrozac and the After Y2K! folks for inviting me to speak at such a historic event. The transcript follows. Note that I took the time to clean it up a bit - fix some typos, delete off topic conversations and move some answers closer to some questions so it is a bit easier to follow. If you really want the raw IRC log, here it is, including about 20 minutes of pre-event nonsense (note: if you're using BeOS, open the raw log in StyledEdit and the colors and font formatting used by my IRC client are preserved. Helps make it a bit more readable).
It was a bit hectic and it looks like I missed a few questions - sorry about that! Email me if you have any questions about the transcript!
* BeDope clears his throat and has a sip of water
* ZooKeeper does a drum roll
[BeDope] BeOS Abacus: The Power of Pervasive Multi-Beading
* makhomenos wears his "BeAbacus Rules!" shirt
* jetpack sips his beer
[BeDope] Tonight we're talking about BeOS Abacus.
[BeDope] This presentation will be short, because otherwise I know you'll get bored and wander off looking for the Techno-Talking Babes and/or Hemos,
[BeDope] depending on your sexual preference today.
* leonardr throws a paper airplane
[BeDope] Plus, I'd really like to get back to my tent. ;)
[Flax] haha
[BeDope] As a bonus to those that hang around, Nitrozac will be signing tshirts and body parts of her choosingafter the show.
[prisoner] woo-woo!
[Zilo] her choosing?
[ZooKeeper] our body parts or hers?
[Snaggy] can she sign my tent?
[BeDope] During the talk I'll announce some URLs where you can view slides,
[BeDope] because after word spread of me giving this talk, thirty-seven hundred out of work former marketing assistants converged on my office begging to help out.
[Nitrozac] I better get my tattoo pen
[makhomenos] Oh yeah, Geeks with Guns after the speech everyone. We'll be shooting up old useless WinNT boxes, as opposed to the new, useless WinNT boxes of last year.
[BeDope] Moving right along:
[BeDope] [view slide: http://www.bedope.com/events/awe/introslide.gif]
[BeDope] BeOS Abacus: The Media Abacus for broadband digital wireless e-commerce set-top convergence gaming kitchen internet appliances.
[BeDope] (Not based on Linux, UNIX, IRIX, CP/M, DOS, Windows, Macintosh or Amiga Abacuses).
[BeDope] The first question is: why another abacus?
[BeDope] With BeadDoze 2000 being widely adopted by clueless managers and healthy alternatives in the MacAbacus, Linacus and Slashdot abacus,
[BeDope] are we insane to enter the market with a totally new abacus?
* jetpack is wondering where BeDope git the powerpoint port for his abacus
[BeDope] Although we may be insane, it's not because of BeOS Abacus.
[teleny] /msg jetpack It's the Open Source Abapoint.
[BeDope] [view slide: http://www.bedope.com/events/awe/happytogether.gif]
[BeDope] We think people are ready for BeOS Abacus.
[BeDope] It is the only abacus with beads designed from the ground up to handle broadband media applications.
[BeDope] It doesn't de-string every few hours like BeadDoze 2000.
[BeDope] It doesn't smell as funny as the Slashdot abacus.
[Zilo] heh
[greycat] does it have that new abacus smell?
[Nitrozac] smell funny LOL!
[BeDope] it actually smells like brie cheese ;)
[prisoner] kewl!
[BeDope] Plus, it does not have to replace your current abacus, rather in can install alongside in peaceful coexistence.
[jetpack] you askin fer a religious war, buddy? them's fightin words! :)
[Idefix] MMMmmmmmm..........
[Nitrozac] does it come in Lavendar scent?
[BeDope] jsut for you Nitro
[makhomenos] Sandalwood?
[teleny] Knowing Gassee, he'd make it smell like....mmm
[erics] hmm slashdot smells funny. I figured as much
[BeDope] Use the included "Velcro Magic" kit to install BeOS alongside your current abacus in seconds.
[BeDope] Use BeadDoze 2000 when your boss insists, then simply flip it over and start using BeOS Abacus in seconds.
[greycat] dual-bead abacuses are cool
[BeDope] So what makes BeOS Abacus so special?
[BeDope] [view slide: http://www.bedope.com/events/awe/beads.gif]
[BeDope] Part of the advantage offered by BeOS Abacus comes from the unique approach to bead design.
[Electroly] greycat: no way; Quad PentiuBead IIIs
[BeDope] We didn't simply copy beads used in the past for doing simple calculations.
* makhomenos raises his hand
[BeDope] Rather, we designed beads from the ground up to handle the increased load forced on the abacus by today's demanding post-Y2K geek.
[greycat] electroly: I was referring to abacus operating systems, not number of bead-boards
[Presence] oooOOoooh, polychromatic alloy beads? wow.
[chromatic] There is only one chromatic. Give it up.
[BeDope] First, we rejected such materials as wood, glass and plastic.
[Electroly] greycat: ah
[BeDope] yes, Makhomenos?
[BSwitkin] I'm running the daily build on a BeOS abacus.
[makhomenos] Are the specifications of the polychromatic alloy open-sourced?
* chromatic sobs.
[chromatic] I'm a person, not an alloy!
[BeDope] No, be we do offer many sample beads :)
[BeDope] Rather, we designed a custom carbon-osmium-neon alloy that would not crack under high pressure, yet feel comfortable to the touch.
[BSwitkin] I forgot to set my bead acceleration in the preferences panel though.
[makhomenos] Oooh! (collects sample beads for analysis at the Abacus General Store)
[Ghost] you did make sure they aren't water soluble, right?
[BeDope] Second, we studied octopi and chameleons for days to capture their secret of color changing and integrate it into our custom alloy.
[greycat] makh: let's reverse engineer the polychromatic alloy!
[BeDope] ghost : of course :)
[BeDope] Every bead in BeOS Abacus is capable of at least 16 million colors (on most days).
[jetpack] when is BeAb gonna have drivers for my bongos? lack of sound support is really starting to piss me off!
[chromatic] (Jesse Berst wasn't available for the color changing study)
[BeDope] Each bead also produces a unique tone when vibrated - allowing for a richer multimedia experience.
[Snaggy] shake it, sounds great!
[BeDope] Third, a variable friction factor allows beads to accelerate and decelerate at a rapid pace, allowing for faster overall bead movement.
[makhomenos] greycat: I understand that violating patents is now a capital punishment under the MS Washington State 2.0 criminal code
[Presence] I'm wondering... beos could handle such huge file and filesystem sizes.. has that influenced be-Abacus in any way?
[BeDope] presence: yes, thanks to pervasive multi-beading
[BeDope] Fourth, each bead is capable of predictive bio-feedback, allowing them to move in the direction the users wishes before they actually apply pressure.
[cycnus] what is abacus?? software or hardware
[greycat] makh: BeDope didn't say it was patented, did he?
[BeDope] [view slide: http://www.bedope.com/events/awe/pmb.gif]
[BeDope] Pervasive multi-beading is the heart of BeOS Abacus
[greycat] cycnus: both!
[jetpack] i heard the beading on the BeAb wasn't preemptive ...
[Ghost] Under the MS Washington State code all patents belong to MS...
[BeDope] a vicious rumor jetpack :)
[BeDope] Every bead is capable of splitting up tasks into myriad of smaller beads,
[Flax] what about symmetric multi-beading? does it have that?
[jetpack] :)
[BeDope] which are then dynamically allocated, based on abacus load.
[BeDope] This also allows efficient sharing of tasks between multiple abacuses (symmetric mult-stringing).
[greycat] abacus clustering!
[BeDope] And as we all say in today's After Y2K!, BeOS Abacus is a "Swiss-Army Chainsaw" when it comes to multi-tasking.
[BeDope] In conclusion, i invite you to give BeOS Abacus a try. Although designed by a Frenchman it is surprisingly non-snooty.
[greycat] Beowulf Abacus cluster!
[BeDope] Thank you all for attending and listening. The floor is now open to questions and discussion.
* chromatic raises his hand.
[BeDope] yes, crhomatic
[Pyr] wow, I wonder if you could make a beowulf cluster out of those!
[makhomenos] greycat: already done, you should see our Beowulf Abacus..................128 abaci strung together..........for massive computing power. The major problem is power drain.
[Nitrozac] BeDope that was AWE-some!
[chromatic] You mentioned "Swiss-Army-Chainsaw"... does that mean the BeOS Abacus runs Perl bytecode natively?
[BeDope] chromatic: yes, we had a team of bead engineers handle that
[Electroly] I have a question. Does the BeOS Abacus use the R4.5 networking stack or a prototype of Dano networking?
[ZooKeeper] Why did you choose osmium?
[BeDope] zoo: its unique heavy metal properties and current use in fine pen nibs
[greycat] makh: heat dissipation isn't an issue any more?
[makhomenos] We had to clone the night manager (a cat named GIzmo) thousands of times to run it.
[makhomenos] No, but you should see our cat food and litter bills. They're monsterous.
[Electroly] Can it handle IP packets over beads?
[BeDope] electroly: we grabbed the prototype network stack from the server just before new year's eve
[BeDope] ele: so yes
[Presence] ooh, yeah, how does the beAbacus network with other non-Be abacuses?
[BeDope] pre: we recognize other bead formats
[Presence] wow... I gotta try that then.
[jetpack] when are you guys gonna support ab_python? I want to be able to group my beads acording to class
[BeDope] jet: we have a port of that
[mtm] What about Java beads?
[BeDope] we used all the Java beads to make coffee
[BeDope] so we're out of luck there
* chromatic raises another hand (I borrowed extra for the presentation)
[BeDope] yes chro
[chromatic] I have heard rumors that BeOS Abacus is constructed from the ground up with modern Bead-Oriented Programming principles. Is this true? Is everything a bead?
[chromatic] Including the strings?
[BeDope] chromatic: everything is a bead until the superstring level, at which point everything is a vibrating string
[Electroly] What binary format does the Be Abacus use? Binary beads?
[jetpack] BeDope: well, that about all java beens are good for. ... *ahem*
[ZooKeeper] Are you looking for OEMs to distribute this abacus?
[BeDope] zoo: yes we are seeking a network of OEM wagon trains
[Electroly] Can I cross-compile to my Be Abacus?
[BeDope] ele: yes you can
* teleny raises hand.
[BeDope] tele?
[teleny] Is the Be Abacus the Western (decimal) system, or the traditional asian (fives and units) style?
[BeDope] tele: we actually adopted a system based on the Russian abacus
[greycat] BeDope: is it big-beadian or little-beadian?
[teleny] Oh, so it's decimal, then. Thank you
[BeDope] grey: natively supports both ;)
[Nitrozac] Can I connect my BeOS Abacus to my MacAbacus?
[BSwitkin] Only older models of MacAbacuses.
[Snaggy] The new new Be looks great, but will it get me the chicks, ... like the old BeOS did?
[BeDope] snaggy: did you not see today's cartoon?
[makhomenos] Snaggy: you should ask roblimo
[jetpack] how many beads wide is te new BeAb bus? I was really frustrated with the old DMA string method
[Ghost] How do you keep the superstrings from crashing and becoming a singularity?
[BeDope] ghost: that is an internal secret ;)
[Presence] I hate to be the one to ask.. but how much per abacus, in post-apolyptic canadian funds?
[Snaggy] What's the tent admin really like?
[BeDope] jet: 2046 by default but expandable
[BSwitkin] Yeah, Mike got the good photo AND the babe.
* greycat looks around for the camp admin
[BeDope] whew, did i miss any questions?
[Electroly] How many million beads per second can the Be Abacus handle?
[BeDope] ele: we haven't been able to find a limit
* chromatic raises his hand.
* makhomenos raises his hand
[Theophilous_Bolt] As a rule, I mistrust handsome geeks. They are obviously government plants...
[BeDope] chro first
* chromatic lowers the tentacle and raises a real hand.
[jetpack] BeDope: sound cool, but will I finally be able to interlock mult-ab clusters in a cube with it locking up? i want 3-D
[leonardr] I'm experiencing a sort of bead jitter. Will this be fixed in BeadOS 4.5.3?
[chromatic] Are there bead bindings for non- bead-oriented languages, such as C? I don't know Bead yet.
[Electroly] ooooooooh
[Electroly] aaaaahhhh
* Presence raises his hand
[BeDope] leonard: we have a special leonard patch just for you
[jetpack] lol
[leonardr] woohoo!
[hesh] will bead oil be given out for free?
[BeDope] chro: several other languages have been ported
[makhomenos] chromatic: we're working on that at Abacus General Store actually...........both C and C--
[Ghost] Handsome geeks government plants? Good the plan is working.
[BeDope] presence?
[Presence] I hate to be the one to ask.. but how much per abacus, in post-apolyptic canadian funds?
[BeDope] presence: i'll have to consult with sales and marketing and get back to you on that one
* Presence nods..
* makhomenos keeps his hand up :)
* prisoner wonders if a mascot for the Be Abacus has been decided upon...
[BeDope] hesh: bead oil is no longer needed with be abacus
[BeDope] mak?
[Ghost] Bead oil? That explains the smoke...
[prisoner] Theo: heh
[makhomenos] I keep hearing rumors that your company is working with Id Software on a BeAbacus port of Quake. Can you confirm or deny for us?
[BeDope] mak: i cannot comment on rumors at this time but several engineers have been rather happy lately
[Zilo] BeDope: perpetual-viscosity sealed oil?
[Snaggy] Slashdot Abacus users swear by the beads made from human teeth. Is Be planning on any human teeth models?
[BeDope] snag: we are confident in our current design
[BeDope] any other questions? :)
[Theophilous_Bolt] When is Be going to admit that their investment by Intel prevents them from porting to Apple's Bead3 or Bead4....
[BeDope] steve jobs has closed threatened us with rabid alligators if we attempt the port
* chromatic raises his boot.
[tmr_Be] BeDope: Why Dope?
[Nitrozac] BeDope who will be your new mascot?
[jetpack] i've been pretty happy with BeAb in general in the past, but it really doesnt compare to my Mac Apple for MIDI support. are you guys workin to fix that?
[mrsolo] yea what will be mascot be?
[BeDope] Nitrozac,mrsolo: a squiggle of indeterminate origin
[jetpack] mind you, moving those big apples on the twine is a bit rough on the fingers
[Snaggy] Are the rumors true? Will you be keynoting at Abs World Expo?
[BeDope] if my "Body By Jake" AbRocker comes in time it is possible
[Theophilous_Bolt] Bah. Get IBM to let loose the koro-addled crocodiles in response!
* prisoner raises his hand
[BeDope] chro, another question?
[Presence] BeDope, that was a most excelent presentation.
[BeDope] thank you presence
[cycnus] where can I get the presentation?
[BeDope] cyc: i'll get it up on be dope soon
[chromatic] What is planned for future versions of the BeOS Abacus?
[BeDope] all information on future releases will be posted on flyers throughout the realm
[makhomenos] BeDope: does this include the People's Republic of GNU and MS Washington State 2.0?
[erics] any word on the ultra-secret transmetabacus? will it be competition?
[BeDope] mak: for there we will use skywriting
[Ghost] Prisoner: do I want to?
[BeDope] erics: i look forward to the transmeta presentation at AWE along with everyone else
* makhomenos ducks as several transmetacyborgs take pot shots at erics
[greycat] bedope: skywriting? With hang gliders?
[BeDope] hangliders and balloons
[greycat] it must take a long time with the balloons
[jetpack] i heard transmeta doesnt even have the strings layout for their abacus yet, little less have a beading algorithm in place
[Inging] btw, the BeAbacus logo is just the right shape and size to grill a nice ribeye steak over!
[Snaggy] Does the tent ever smell like grilled vegetables?
[BeDope] snag: not that i notice
[erics] I hear the transmetabacus will emulate every other abacus on the market and will be given away free
[Idefix] BeDope: no zeppelins?
[BeDope] ide: not at this time. too hard to spell
[Idefix] :(
[Theophilous_Bolt] Awright. I can -almost- (sorta) buy the Big Bad Apple cop-out...er...excuse. But why not port to Alpha? Or multi-processing handhelds based around the Hitachi SH-4? What dread evil have we done to deserve intel?
* chromatic raises his hand one last time.
[Theophilous_Bolt] I mean, the alpha beads slide sooooo nice...
[Ghost] Intel owns Alpha\
[BeDope] theo: if alpha abacuses become more popular we will consider a port
* Electroly watches as the Intel Secret Service people in black suits comes and takes Theophilous_Bolt away
[BeDope] yes chro
[chromatic] Any truth to the rumors of superior bead-wulf clustering abilities?
[BeDope] i cannot comment on that at this time. but yes
[leonardr] lol
[Theophilous_Bolt] Pardon. x86, I should have said. I mean, what can -anyone- do with only 86 beads? The alpha has 21264!
[td0] why not go to other intels? in this era we need Strong ARM's
[BeDope] theo: that's where the multi beading comes in
[greycat] theo: 86 beads are adequate for some embedded abacus apps
[jetpack] BeDope: i found with the older BeAbs, if I shook them hard enough, I could usually get coffe to come out. sometimes enough for a decent cup. what was that all about?
[BeDope] jet: that was an easter egg
[chromatic] Should have been chocolate or jellybeads for Easter, I think.
[makhomenos] No, it was a cup of coffee. I saw it myself. The easter egg is when you turn it upside down and hum the theeme to Gilligan's Island.
[Theophilous_Bolt] Bah. I will take two alphas on Compaq's new Wildfire multi-abacus frame over two celery-on bead arrays...
[greycat] mmmm... jellybeads
[jetpack] haha! who was the badass that thot of that? and didn't that kinda cost you guys a lot of, well, coffee?
[prisoner] BeDope: I worry about support. There's all the PowerPC people thinking their platform is losing support, I worry if the Abacus dominates the market to the point that we lose plain ol' Intel x86 support to it.
[BeDope] we are committed to supporting beos abacus on all platforms through 2010
[prisoner] beDope: woo-woo!
* chromatic has one more question.
[jetpack] BeDope: why 2010? is that when the world is *really* gonna end? are you guys at Be not telling us something?
[BeDope] sure thing chroma
[BSwitkin] Isn't 2010 the year the last few generators give out?
[BeDope] jet: maybe
[chromatic] What is the nutritional value of a BeOS Abacus? I have been lost in the woods before, and... bugs just don't appeal to me.
[jetpack] BeDope: you *are* in league with transmeta!, I knew it!
[BeDope] use the built in berry- and root finder app to help you survive
[chromatic] Wow! Does it have a babe-finder?
* chromatic forgot to raise his hand.
[makhomenos] BeDope: is there a moose-hunting app?
* chromatic hangs his head in shame.
[BeDope] chro: did you not see today's comic?
[greycat] makh: the Linacus has a wumpus-hunting app
[BeDope] mak: no , we leave that opportunity to 3rd parties
[chromatic] I thought that was just your soul patch, BeDope.
[makhomenos] Greycat: wumpuses have tough meat though, and I keep falling into these damn holes when I hunt them.
[Nitrozac] does it work as a foot massager?
[jetpack] Nitrozac: have u used the new BeAB? and if so, what do *you* think of it?
[Theophilous_Bolt] Nitro: No, but -I- do...Bp
[Ghost] If if doesn't work as a foot massager, I will :)
* greycat serves as a foot massager for his wife upon request
[Nitrozac] Yes I have use the Be Abacus
[Nitrozac] and I have to say... I'm very impressed by it's speed
[BeDope] chro: a little of both
* chromatic strokes his goatee thoughtfully.
[Nitrozac] it's very intuitive as well
[jetpack] BeDope: so, are you getting rich of this yet? any plans for an IPO?
[teleny] makhomenos: Use the bent arrows.
* makhomenos makes note: "have wearable abacus division build an abacus
foot-massager into boots for Nitrozac
[BeDope] jet: you can read the prospectus soon
[jetpack] Nitrozac: intuitive? how so?
[Zilo] it's the Nitrozac Foot-Masseuse Army!
[Zilo] (Foot-Masseur Army?)
[bullit] cool
[greycat] zilo: masseurs
[Nitrozac] well, you don't have to shout commands at it, for one thing
[jetpack] BeDope: kewl. if I start coding some new apps for it soon, can i get a first cut on shares? :)
[Nitrozac] just the person who's holding it for you
[Nitrozac] and there are easter eggs in it!
[chromatic] Everyone with an @ is a celebrity.
[BeDope] jet: no comment at this time
[jetpack] Nitrozac: you have someone to hold it for you! damn, must be nice. have have to hold mine between my knees for proper operation :P
[Nitrozac] if you line up the beads just so, there's a secret message
[jetpack] BeDope: you want the address of my tent? lol
[td0] Nitrozac: I have seen the message!
[BeDope] jet: no, i am set thanks!
[jetpack] BeDope: well, maybe those slashdot dudes with the smelly abacus will cut me a deal
[Nitrozac] I've also had very good guidance from BeDope as to how to use the BeOS Abacus! :)
[bullit] so, 64-bit abacus:s should be out for comdex2000, right?
[jetpack] Nitrozac: oh, do tell. hope you have jpgs of it on your abacus. lol
[td0] are the beads in the BeAbs replacable?
[BeDope] td0 of course
[chromatic] ha ha
[makhomenos] :)
[Nitrozac] I'm afraid those are "trade secrets"
* chromatic has another question.
[bullit] ask it damnit
[prisoner] ...there's makhomenos who was the star of that cancelled Dreamcast launch game "Where in Kabuki-cho is Makhomenos?"
[BeDope] go ahead chro
[jetpack] and that's another thing. you just can't get got pr0n for abacuses these days.
[chromatic] Is there a native port of the GIMP to the BeOS Abacus?
[bullit] hmmm...
[Veldrane] i'm savin' for the 128b abacus
[BeDope] chro: it is in the works and will use the BeOS abacus interface
[makhomenos] prisoner: No, and my lawyer won't let me discuss that right now :/
[prisoner] mak: how's that?
[Zilo] jetpack: no, it's just like hte 4-color CGA porn of yesteryear.
[bullit] well, don't they have AbaTK+?
[makhomenos] bullit: they do in the People's Republic of GNU
[prisoner] mak: I bet.
[greycat] zilo: just leaves more to the imagination... which is a good thing
[bullit] right
[chromatic] Mmmm, Wilbead.
[Nitrozac] Wilbead choked on the beads
* chromatic sobs.
[Nitrozac] LOL
[Veldrane] I wonder if Pitr will port Erwin to an abacus?
[Theophilous_Bolt] The Bead4 is 128bit internal between the cache and the processer units. From main memoery, it's 32 for int, 64 for fpu, and a full 128 for the AltiBead...
[Theophilous_Bolt] ooops. Velocity Bead (stoopid marketroids)
[td0] Is the BeAbs able to play musical plunks III (MP3)?
[jetpack] Veldrane: he already did. erwin ain too please tho.
* chromatic needs a shoulder to cry on.
[chromatic] Poor Wilbead!
[makhomenos] [Pitr]Am needink abacus to run BSD
[bullit] Oh, i have a question for the audience. Do you feel okay with recompiling all your apps in GAC (GNU abacus comilier)?
[makhomenos] (Pitr is a Bead Standard Distribution nut)
[greycat] makh: NetBead or OpenBead or FreeBead?
[Veldrane] I thought he preferred Debeadian.
[Nitrozac] chromatic, I did a hiemlich manuever on Wilbead, he's fine
[jetpack] bullit: it's good, but dont go for the latest release. it munges beads funny and doesnt link to most standard beadlibs.
[Theophilous_Bolt] OpenBead, I'd imagine...the project lead has a name that -screams- mad scientist...
[chromatic] Debeadian is still on Bead Standard Library 1.911.
[BSwitkin] Anybody have some specific sample code they'd like for the BeOS Abacus?
[makhomenos] [Pitr]Am preferink GNU/Hurd, since GNUs good huntink and eatink.
[teleny] bullit:As a New Englander, I'm a rabid gnu supporter.
[chromatic] Slackwire just upgraded, though.
[Theophilous_Bolt] Nitro: don't encourage Wil like that....B)
[greycat] chromatic: untrue! The Debeadian unstable release (codenamed Syd) is on the latest BSL patches
[Veldrane] hmm, I've heard of research involving serial potential wells to emulate the abacus processor... *ponder*
[chromatic] Bead-]InheritColor(this);
[greycat] chromatic: I heard Slackwire still uses bead.out for its boot strings, though
[makhomenos] Slackwire comes with boot strings?
[makhomenos] Did you hear that Nitro?
[Nitrozac] BeDope, how do you use it as a Sextant?
[makhomenos] Sextant? Sextent?
[chromatic] That's okay. BeadHat uses the weird rc.bead location for init scripts.
[BeDope] the same as you would use a traditional sextant ;)
[BeDope] full documentation is included
[chromatic] Bookend!
[makhomenos] Sax tent?
[greycat] six pence?
[td0] BeDope: So the BeAbs functions as I would expect it to? That's great!
[jetpack] BeDope: seems like it would be more acurate than the traditional sextant. you could use multi-string to align with multiple stars
[makhomenos] BeDope: how many vellum scrolls, so I can make room in my library?
[BeDope] 3.5
[bullit] is beadtel supporting the port to abacuses?
[BeDope] that includes the illustrations and forward
* chromatic looks at Nitrozac and swallows a handful of beads.
[jetpack] screw beadtel! their itanabead sux!
* chromatic coughs and sputters.
[Myriad] Chromatic: where they red or blue?
[Zilo] six pants?
[greycat] jetpack: well, the itanabead is still in development... I'll wait and see
[makhomenos] I hear AT&TC (American Telegraph and Tin Can) is working on an abacus-based system for connection switching.
[Veldrane] chromatic invents the quantum abacus engine.
[makhomenos] To replace all those operators.
[chromatic] Myriad, who cares? heh heh
[Myriad] :)
[makhomenos] Apparently they were having some issues with operator overloading.
* greycat groans
[jetpack] makhomenos: you really think that will work? hell, they couldnt even get it right when they had electricity
[jetpack] makhomenos: lol
[Zilo] makhomenos: I heard BeadCore was working on a binary TCWB (tapping cans with beads) transmission protocol
[makhomenos] jetpack: It's supposed to be based on Beadix
[makhomenos] And written in C--
[BEbeads] Thanks BeDope & Nitrozac for a fine presentation!
* makhomenos applauds
[chromatic] AT&T has bead latency and redundency issues... I heard that there is a context switching bug in their bead-swapping stack.
[BeDope] quite welcome bebeads
[greycat] Yeah, BeDope, that was great!
* chromatic claps and chokes.
[Veldrane] I heard they suffered from bead loss problems as well
[jetpack] makhomenos: well, that's their problem right there. It should have been written in Ab+ ... their threading will never work properly. C-- isnt rethreadable
[makhomenos] And just another reminder: after the presentation, Eric S Raymond is hosting Geeks with Guns. We will be shooting old, useless WinNT machines, as opposed to the new, useless WinNT machines of last year.
* chromatic throws AOL CDs into the air.
[otoPICO] dont shoot the pcs
[makhomenos] PULL!
* makhomenos blows an AOL CD out of the sky
[otoPICO] we need raw materials to rebuild the world
[Veldrane] that's not just a ploy to save money (patch holes on the old machines)
[BSwitkin] Nitro: The t-shirts look great, by the way.
[otoPICO] sun enterprise 450 make great end tables
[Idefix] Well I'm going to sleep now (3:52 AM), great presentation BeDope!
[Zilo] PDP-11's make great drink bars
[BeDope] Well, thank you all for coming. I must now return to my tent for a debriefing.
[makhomenos] Sensational presentation BeDope :)
[BeDope] thanks everyone
* prisoner heads off to watch "First Wave"
[prisoner] thanks, guys
[Inging] seeya bedope
[Nitrozac] do you need any pillow fluffing?
[prisoner] Ja ne...
[jetpack] it rocked, BeD. specially te multi-media presentation!
[Veldrane] hehehe...I like the idea of Nitrozac signing them whereever you request.
[chromatic] Bye Be!
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Transcript of Be Dope Abacus World Expo Presentation
