[OT] sw killing hw [was Re: [ILUG] MySQL & outer joins...]

[Foley, Brian (Galway)]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Kenn Humborg [mailto:kenn at linux.ie]
> Sent: Thursday, September 14, 2000 10:45 PM
> To: John P . Looney; Irish LUG list
> Subject: [OT] sw killing hw [was Re: [ILUG] MySQL & outer joins...]
> 
> 
> On Wed, Sep 13, 2000 at 10:25:25AM +0100, John P . Looney wrote:
> >  I think what's up is the original (crappy) ghostscript drive for it
> > squirter ink badly, so the headers are dirty/blocked (as it 
> doesn't print
> > well in windows either) - but the head cleaning program 
> doesn't seem to do
> > much good (I've run it ten times, and it gets a littel better each
> > time...but not much - and now it's stopped impoving..)
> 
> Oh dear...  Back to 'crappy software can damage your hardware'.
> Was is the C64 or the BBC Micro that could produce smoke with 
> just the wrong sequence of instructins?
> 
> Later,
> Kenn

The Beeb had a software controlled relay for starting and stopping suitable
tape recorders on the casette port. You could turn it on or off with *MOTOR
1 or *MOTOR 0.

I imagine a program along the lines of

10 REPEAT
20 *MOTOR 1
30 *MOTOR 0
40 UNTIL FALSE

would do pretty nasty things to it...

Cheers,
Brian.