[KYHAM] CW Ringtones?

[wa4qal at ix.netcom.com]

Bill Fuqua wrote:

> That reminds me. Service Merchandise's cash registers used impact 
> printers. I always chuckled when they printed out the receipt because it 
> always sounded out CQ once or twice. Something printed on every receipt 
> had just the right pattern to do this.
> One test instrument we worked on here would send out OK in Morse code 
> after it did its self check.  I think it was a professor's spectrum 
> analyzer.
> 
> 73
> Bill wa4lav

That's not all that uncommon.  Apparently, quite a few companies employed
hams with CW abilities in their product design departments.  Wasn't it the 
IBM PC that would send a D if there was a display adapter problem during
boot.  I'm told that certain medical instruments will also send code sequences
to alert a nurse to a problem.

As for printers singing, back in the old days (1960s), when some computer
programmers had ***WAY*** too much time on their hands, they were even
known to program mainframes to play music on things like 1403 chain printers.
It was terribly wasteful of paper, but it did make some recognizable music.
For those of y'all who are too young (or too skeptical) to remember this,
fortunately some of the music has been preserved:

http://www.computerhistory.org/exhibits/highlights/

The Born Free piece is quite good, although I've heard a rendition of 
Anchors Aweigh that's probably the best that I've heard from a 1403,
although I can't seem to find it at the moment.

Dave
WA4QAL