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Atari's 30th Anniversary

Atarian writes "Atari was officially incorporated 30 years ago. While many thought Atari started the video game business, that was not correct, it was Magnavox and its Odyssey console designed by Ralph Baer that would be the first. Atari would be the company that would put videogames on the map right from the start back in 1972 with the release of PONG, its coin-op arcade machine first setup in Andy Capps Bar in California, the game was a smash hit and people begin lining up first thing in the morning at Andy Capps just to get inside and play games on this magic box with a TV inside. Atari would then release its VCS (Video Computer System aka The Atari 2600) and launch Atari from its meager $500 starter capital beginnings into a $2 billion dollars in sales monster in 1982. Atari would later fall to the wayside to be replaced by Nintendo, then Sega, and othes that followed. Atari is still around in a small way, and still keeping the name and spirit alive to this very day, 30 years later. 'Have you played Atari today?'"

9 of 400 comments (clear)

  1. No; however, I have inhaled #@ +420 ; High @# by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Be Patriotic, Smoke Amerikan grown marijuana, not treasonous imports !!!!

    Courtesy of About 420

    Connotative Use/Meaning

    420 is a phreak s (and not just a hippie s) favorite number for a
    variety of reasons, or maybe for no reason at all, but colloquially
    the number says pot -- let s smoke pot, or someone s smoking
    pot, or gee, i really like pot, or time to smoke pot, either by
    time (4:20 a.m. or p.m.), date (April 20th), or otherwise (e.g. State
    Route 420). April 20th at 4:20 is marked by annual events in
    Mount Tamalpais, CA (an informal gathering); Marin Conty, CA
    (the 420 Hemp Fest); Ann Arbor, MI (the Hash Bash); and
    Washington, D.C. (buildup towards the July 4th Smoke-In).

    Original Source(s)

    Conventional wisdom: The most common tale is that 420 is the
    police radio code or criminal code (and therefore the police call)
    in certain part(s) of California (e.g. in Los Angeles or San
    Francisco) for having spotted someone consuming cannabis
    publicly, i.e. pot smoking in progress; that local cannabis users
    picked up on the code and began celebrating the number temporally
    (esp. 4:20 a.m., 4:20 p.m., and April 20); that the number became
    nationally popularized in the late 1980s and, more ferverently, in
    the early- to mid-1990s; and is colloquially applied to a variety of
    relaxed and/or inspired contexts, including not only pot
    consumption but also a good time more generally (in contrast to
    the drug war surrounding).

    Conventions are legends: 420 is not police radio code for
    anything, anywhere. Checks of criminal codes (including those of
    the City of San Francisco, the City of Los Angeles, Los Angeles
    County, the State of California, and the federal penal code) suggest
    that the origin is neither Californian nor federal (the two best
    guesses). For instance, California Penal Code 420 defines as a
    misdemeanor the hindrance of use (obstructing entry) of public
    lands, and California Family Code 420 defines what constitutes a
    wedding ceremony (Marco). One state does come close: The
    Illinois Department of Revenue classifies the Alcoholic Liquor Act
    under Part 420, and the Cannabis and Controlled Substances Tax
    Act are next, under Part 428. (RB 5/19/99)

    True story?: According to Steven Hager, editor of High Times,
    the term 420 originated at San Rafael High School, in 1971,
    among a group of about a dozen pot-smoking wiseacres who
    called themselves the Waldos. The term 420 was shorthand for the
    time of day the group would meet, at the campus statue of Louis
    Pasteur, to smoke pot. ``Waldo Steve, a member of the group who
    now owns a business in San Francisco, says the Waldos would
    salute each other in the school hallway and say ``420 Louis! The
    term was one of many invented by the group, but it was the one
    that caught on. ``It was just a joke, but it came to mean all kinds of
    things, like `Do you have any? or `Do I look stoned? he said.
    ``Parents and teachers wouldn t know what we were talking about.
    The term took root, and flourished, and spread beyond San Rafael
    with the assistance of the Grateful Dead and their dedicated cohort
    of pot-smoking fans. The Waldos decided to assert their claim to
    the history of the term after decades of watching it spread, mutate
    and be appropriated by commercial interests. The Waldos contacted
    Hager, and presented him with evidence of 420 s history, primarily
    a collection of postmarked letters from the early 70s with lots of
    mention of 420. They also started a Web site, waldo420.com. ``We
    have proof, we were the first, Waldo Steve said. ``I mean, it s not
    like we wrote a book or invented anything. We just came up with a
    phrase. But it s kind of an honor that this emanated from San
    Rafael. Maria Alicia Gaura for the San Francisco Chronicle,
    4/20/00 p. A19; and thanks to Noah Cole for the submission

    Alternate explanations

    There are a variety of other explanations, all much more interesting
    than police code, and many plausible. Some are more likely uses
    of the 420/hemp connection rather than sources of it, such as the
    score for the football game in Fast Times at Ridgement High,
    42-0.

    Known Myths: It isn t police code (see above). There are 315
    chemicals in marijuana, not 420. And although tea time in
    Amsterdam is rumored to be 4:20, it is actually 5:30 (Gerhard
    den Hollander).
    Sixties Songs: For instance, Bob Dylan s famous Rainy Day
    Women #12 and 35 is a possible reference, or source --
    12x35=420. And Stephen Stills wrote (and Crosby Stills Nash
    & Young performed) a song 4+20 (first recorded 7/16/69,
    released on Deja Vu 3/11/70) about an 84-year-old
    poverty-stricken man who started and finished with nothing.
    (Thanks to Sherry Keel 12/6/98.) Dylan aslo mentions 4 and
    20 windows in The Balland of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest
    (on John Wesley Harding).
    Older Verse: But 420 in poetry is older than that - Greg
    Keller notes the old nursery rhyme line, four and twenty
    black birds baked in a pie. Revelation 5:14 (in the King
    James Version of the Christian Bible) reads, And the four
    beasts said A-Men. And the four and twenty elders fell down
    and worshipped him that liveth for ever and ever. (Travis
    Spurley 2/15/99) And in Midnight s_Children, Salman
    Rushdie wrote, Inevitably, a number of these children failed
    to survive. Malnutrition, disease and the misfortunes of
    everyday life had accounted for no less than four hundred and
    twenty of them by the time I became conscious of their
    existence; although it is possible to hypothesize that these
    deaths, too, had their purpose, since 420 has been, since time
    immemorial, the number associated with fraud, deception and
    trickery. (Comet 2/14/98) Comet s best guess is that this
    refers to something in Indian mythology or numerology, since
    the book is set in India and frequently involves Indian history,
    culture, and religion. Given the high interest in Eastern
    religion among the phish/dead community, this seems a likely
    origin of 420 s current significance.
    Temporal Significance: Hands on analog clock at 4:20 look
    like position of doobie dangling from mouth Larry in
    Tuscan and Alex Mack 5/19/99). Disruptive students are out
    of detention and safetly away from school by 4:20, also
    rumored to be the time that you should dose to be peaking
    when the Dead went on stage Hart. The Waldos were a
    group of teens back in the 70 s that lived in San Rafael, CA.
    420 was the way they talked about pot in front of teachers,
    non-smoking family members etc. Also it was the time of day
    they could just go relax, and get baked. (PhunkCellar)
    Jamaicans purportedly worked till 4 then walked home then
    lit up. They would talk 420 like our parents talked about after
    5. That s when partying began Larry in Tuscan). Albert (not
    Abbie) Hofmann supposedly first encountered LSD at 4:20
    p.m. on 4/19/1943 (Bart Coleman citing Storming Heaven by
    Jay Stevens, recommended by Mickey Hart in Planet Drum).
    Surrealist painter Miro was born April 20, 1893. And
    www.filmspeed.com says the propoganda film Reefer
    Madness has a copyright date of April 20, 1936 (i.e. 4/20).
    (Patrick Woolford)
    Misc: Could be that it comes from hydroponics, the practice
    of cultivating plants in water often used by indoor marijuana
    cultivators, since 4 is used for H on a calculator (420/H20).
    (Nick Lowe 3/30/00) The number 80 (eight) is quatre vingt
    (pronounced cah-truh vahn), meaning four (times} twenty.
    Dan Nijjar 1/27/00 (No connection yet between the number
    80 and pot. A quarter pound is roughly 120 grams, rounding
    quarter-ounces to 7.5.) The titanic was supposed to arrive
    4/20/1912. (Thanks to RB.) Perhaps the heavy use of vt420
    terminals in the Berkeley area is to blame? (BTW, 420 in
    binary code is 110100100.)

    Ubiquitous?

    Now there s a 420 Pale Ale. One of the late-97/early-98 Got
    Milk ads featured a character eating cookies without milk and
    then passing a sign that reads Next Rest Area 420 miles (as Ross
    Bruning). Reportedly, all of the clocks in the movie Pulp Fiction
    are stuck on 4:20. Shirts with the number 420 on the red-and-blue
    interstate highway shield (Interstate 420?) have show up on the
    sitcom Will and Grace (Paul Risenhoover 5/14/99) and in several
    videos. UPS labelling software has a 420 postal code legend for
    next-day/2-day deliveries (which is how Phish tickets are sent).
    (Jack Lebowitz 10/3/98) MTV s 1997 Viewer s Choice Award (for
    the MTV Video Awards) was decided by calls to
    1-800-420-4MTV. And by May of 1998, the number was
    appearing in so many ads (eg Copenhagen 5/14/98 Rolling Stone
    p54, Corvette p55 5/98 Car & Driver) that its presence is
    presumed to be intentional. Many songs are around 4 minutes 20
    seconds long (since many songs fall between 2:30 and 5:30),
    including for example Pink Floyd s A Great Day for Freedom (on
    The Division Bell, 1994), the Foo Fighters My Hero, and
    Smokin from Boston s first album. There have also been some
    420 references on The Simpsons. In the re-run episode aired on
    April 20th, 1999 at a special time (probably in honor of those
    college students staying in the holiday spirit ;-), Homer mentions to
    Flanders that Barney s birthday is April 20th. Also, the jackpot sign
    in one part of the casino says $420,000. There are a couple less
    concrete ones, but these two have to be legit, especially since they
    decided to air THAT particular episode on 4/20/99. (Submitted by
    Matt Meehan 4/21/99) And (as of Fall 99) the 60 free minutes that
    Working Assets Long Distance offers, at the 7 cents per minute
    rate, is $4.20 free. There s even a band named 420, and another
    names . In the first fifteen pages of Karel Capek s novel War with
    the Newts, a man diving under wonder stayed down for four
    minutes and twenty seconds. Grant Garstka 1/6/00 At the
    suggested retail price ($3.96) and Michigan (6%) sales tax, a deck
    of Uno cards costs $4.20. Nic Boris 4:20 marks the first downbeat
    of the drums in Led Zeppelin s epic Stairway to Heaven. (Dan
    Harris) The bill authorizing force after the World Trade Center
    attacks of 9/11/01 passed 420 to 1, and news reports in following
    months noted many times that there are (or were then, anyway) 420
    airports in the U.S. Allan Morris And don t forget that Adolf Hitler
    was born on April 20, macabely celebrated (or at least
    referenced) via the Columbine High School shootings.

    Phish-related Occurances

    Whatever the origin, the number appears frequently... For the
    summer 1997 tour, TicketMaster service charges were $4.20. In
    the Fall 1997 Doniac Schvice Dry Goods section, a limited edition
    Pollack poster printed on 100% hemp is order number 420P. The
    Great Went was 420 miles from Boston (former home of Phish).
    The official logo includes 4 gills and 20 bubbles (Gringo
    11/12/98). As of 6/15/97, including covers and originals, Phish
    had performed a total of 420 songs (thought its 486 by 4/24/98).
    (David Steinberg). Lawnboy is 420megs of memory. Patrick
    Walker Phish s The Vibration of Life underlies a whirling loop
    with Seven Beats per second (which makes 420 beats per minute.)
    Trey has used the altered line woke up at 4:20 in Makisupa
    Policeman, which also often indirectly celebrates 420ing, e.g. by
    mention of goo balls. One of the funniest shirts around takes light
    jabs at both the 4:20 phenomenon and the rumored evolution
    (collapse?) of the Phish.Net (especially rec.music.phish) from
    being Gamehendge to Flamehendge, and beyond. The first day of
    the Great Went started at 4:20 (with Makisupa Policeman. (The
    second day started late, at 4:37.) Noah Cole The first single from
    Slip Stitch and Pass was played on WBCN 10/14/97 at 4:20 pm.
    An uproar at 12/31/96 can be heard on tape during the 2001, in
    response to an enormous digital clock (which was counting down
    to midnight) reaching 11:55:40 and reading -4:20. (Yoda)
    During the 9-12-00 2001, Trey hits the first riff right at 4:20 into
    the intro jam. (Cal 2/25/01) Some mail order tickets for the 1997
    New Year s run were in section 420. The first Mass Pike toll
    leaving Oswego was $4.20. (Camille Heath ) And the standard
    shipping for The Phish Companion through Amazon was
    originally $4.20.

    420 Shows: Phish performed on April 20 in 1989, 1990, 1991,
    1993, and 1994. The first day of the Great Went started at 4:20,
    although that was called a soundcheck by Trey after three songs.
    The Jazzfest Harry Hood 4-26-96 started at about 4:20 reported by
    Trevor. At Big Cypress, David Bowie was playing at 4:20 a.m.
    And the one event during the hiatus (10/8/00 - ?) featuring all
    four members - for Jason Colton s wedding - was 12/1/01, 420
    from: http://www.phish.net/faq/n420.html:

  2. in case slashdot gets slashdotted ! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Atari's 30th Anniversary
    Posted by michael on Friday June 28, @07:48PM
    from the super-breakout dept.
    Atarian writes "Atari was officially incorporated 30 years ago. While many thought Atari started the video game business, that was not correct, it was Magnavox and its Odyssey console designed by Ralph Baer that would be the first. Atari would be the company that would put videogames on the map right from the start back in 1972 with the release of PONG, its coin-op arcade machine first setup in Andy Capps Bar in California, the game was a smash hit and people begin lining up first thing in the morning at Andy Capps just to get inside and play games on this magic box with a TV inside. Atari would then release its VCS (Video Computer System aka The Atari 2600) and launch Atari from its meager $500 starter capital beginnings into a $2 billion dollars in sales monster in 1982. Atari would later fall to the wayside to be replaced by Nintendo, then Sega, and othes that followed. Atari is still around in a small way, and still keeping the name and spirit alive to this very day, 30 years later. 'Have you played Atari today?'"

    mirko (198274)
    [ Preferences ]

    Related Links
    Atarian
    incorporated 30 years ago
    More on Games
    Also by michael

    Flip-Pad Voyager: Dual-screen Laptop
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    The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
    Atari.com (Score:-1, Troll)
    by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 28, @07:50PM (#3787663)
    Atari.com [goatse.cx]

    [ Reply to This | Parent ]

    Re:Atari.com (Score:-1)
    by Sexual Asspussy on Friday June 28, @07:52PM (#3787683)
    (User #453406 Info | http://www.bme.freeq.com/)
    http://www.fuckedcompany.com/den/

    remember Digital Entertainment Network? my god. view it at work if you dare. funny fucking shit.


    [ Reply to This | Parent ]

    Second Post (Score:-1)
    by CmdrTaco (troll) on Friday June 28, @07:50PM (#3787666)
    (User #578383 Info)
    damn, too late for first.

    [ Reply to This | Parent ]

    Wow (Score:0)
    by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 28, @07:50PM (#3787670)
    This story is so boring I can't even think of anything to troll on it.

    [ Reply to This | Parent ]

    Has anyone noticed? (Score:2)
    by Apreche on Friday June 28, @07:51PM (#3787680)
    (User #239272 Info | http://www.rit.edu/~slr2777/)
    The Atari logo is on the Neverwinter Nights box. Feaky eh?

    Oh yeah.
    Pitfall.
    Word.
    The smart thing to do is not always the right thing to do. If you do the right thing, you are damn smart. -Me
    [ Reply to This | Parent ]

    No; however, I have inhaled #@ +420 ; High @# (Score:0)
    by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 28, @07:52PM (#3787685)
    Be Patriotic, Smoke Amerikan grown marijuana, not treasonous imports !!!!

    Courtesy of About 420 [phish.net]

    Connotative Use/Meaning

    420 is a phreak s (and not just a hippie s) favorite number for a
    variety of reasons, or maybe for no reason at all, but colloquially
    the number says pot -- let s smoke pot, or someone s smoking
    pot, or gee, i really like pot, or time to smoke pot, either by
    time (4:20 a.m. or p.m.), date (April 20th), or otherwise (e.g. State
    Route 420). April 20th at 4:20 is marked by annual events in
    Mount Tamalpais, CA (an informal gathering); Marin Conty, CA
    (the 420 Hemp Fest); Ann Arbor, MI (the Hash Bash); and
    Washington, D.C. (buildup towards the July 4th Smoke-In).

    Original Source(s)

    Conventional wisdom: The most common tale is that 420 is the
    police radio code or criminal code (and therefore the police call)
    in certain part(s) of California (e.g. in Los Angeles or San
    Francisco) for having spotted someone consuming cannabis
    publicly, i.e. pot smoking in progress; that local cannabis users
    picked up on the code and began celebrating the number temporally
    (esp. 4:20 a.m., 4:20 p.m., and April 20); that the number became
    nationally popularized in the late 1980s and, more ferverently, in
    the early- to mid-1990s; and is colloquially applied to a variety of
    relaxed and/or inspired contexts, including not only pot
    consumption but also a good time more generally (in contrast to
    the drug war surrounding).

    Conventions are legends: 420 is not police radio code for
    anything, anywhere. Checks of criminal codes (including those of
    the City of San Francisco, the City of Los Angeles, Los Angeles
    County, the State of California, and the federal penal code) suggest
    that the origin is neither Californian nor federal (the two best
    guesses). For instance, California Penal Code 420 defines as a
    misdemeanor the hindrance of use (obstructing entry) of public
    lands, and California Family Code 420 defines what constitutes a
    wedding ceremony (Marco). One state does come close: The
    Illinois Department of Revenue classifies the Alcoholic Liquor Act
    under Part 420, and the Cannabis and Controlled Substances Tax
    Act are next, under Part 428. (RB 5/19/99)

    True story?: According to Steven Hager, editor of High Times,
    the term 420 originated at San Rafael High School, in 1971,
    among a group of about a dozen pot-smoking wiseacres who
    called themselves the Waldos. The term 420 was shorthand for the
    time of day the group would meet, at the campus statue of Louis
    Pasteur, to smoke pot. ``Waldo Steve, a member of the group who
    now owns a business in San Francisco, says the Waldos would
    salute each other in the school hallway and say ``420 Louis! The
    term was one of many invented by the group, but it was the one
    that caught on. ``It was just a joke, but it came to mean all kinds of
    things, like `Do you have any? or `Do I look stoned? he said.
    ``Parents and teachers wouldn t know what we were talking about.
    The term took root, and flourished, and spread beyond San Rafael
    with the assistance of the Grateful Dead and their dedicated cohort
    of pot-smoking fans. The Waldos decided to assert their claim to
    the history of the term after decades of watching it spread, mutate
    and be appropriated by commercial interests. The Waldos contacted
    Hager, and presented him with evidence of 420 s history, primarily
    a collection of postmarked letters from the early 70s with lots of
    mention of 420. They also started a Web site, waldo420.com. ``We
    have proof, we were the first, Waldo Steve said. ``I mean, it s not
    like we wrote a book or invented anything. We just came up with a
    phrase. But it s kind of an honor that this emanated from San
    Rafael. Maria Alicia Gaura for the San Francisco Chronicle,
    4/20/00 p. A19; and thanks to Noah Cole for the submission

    Alternate explanations

    There are a variety of other explanations, all much more interesting
    than police code, and many plausible. Some are more likely uses
    of the 420/hemp connection rather than sources of it, such as the
    score for the football game in Fast Times at Ridgement High,
    42-0.

    Known Myths: It isn t police code (see above). There are 315
    chemicals in marijuana, not 420. And although tea time in
    Amsterdam is rumored to be 4:20, it is actually 5:30 (Gerhard
    den Hollander).
    Sixties Songs: For instance, Bob Dylan s famous Rainy Day
    Women #12 and 35 is a possible reference, or source --
    12x35=420. And Stephen Stills wrote (and Crosby Stills Nash
    & Young performed) a song 4+20 (first recorded 7/16/69,
    released on Deja Vu 3/11/70) about an 84-year-old
    poverty-stricken man who started and finished with nothing.
    (Thanks to Sherry Keel 12/6/98.) Dylan aslo mentions 4 and
    20 windows in The Balland of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest
    (on John Wesley Harding).
    Older Verse: But 420 in poetry is older than that - Greg
    Keller notes the old nursery rhyme line, four and twenty
    black birds baked in a pie. Revelation 5:14 (in the King
    James Version of the Christian Bible) reads, And the four
    beasts said A-Men. And the four and twenty elders fell down
    and worshipped him that liveth for ever and ever. (Travis
    Spurley 2/15/99) And in Midnight s_Children, Salman
    Rushdie wrote, Inevitably, a number of these children failed
    to survive. Malnutrition, disease and the misfortunes of
    everyday life had accounted for no less than four hundred and
    twenty of them by the time I became conscious of their
    existence; although it is possible to hypothesize that these
    deaths, too, had their purpose, since 420 has been, since time
    immemorial, the number associated with fraud, deception and
    trickery. (Comet 2/14/98) Comet s best guess is that this
    refers to something in Indian mythology or numerology, since
    the book is set in India and frequently involves Indian history,
    culture, and religion. Given the high interest in Eastern
    religion among the phish/dead community, this seems a likely
    origin of 420 s current significance.
    Temporal Significance: Hands on analog clock at 4:20 look
    like position of doobie dangling from mouth Larry in
    Tuscan and Alex Mack 5/19/99). Disruptive students are out
    of detention and safetly away from school by 4:20, also
    rumored to be the time that you should dose to be peaking
    when the Dead went on stage Hart. The Waldos were a
    group of teens back in the 70 s that lived in San Rafael, CA.
    420 was the way they talked about pot in front of teachers,
    non-smoking family members etc. Also it was the time of day
    they could just go relax, and get baked. (PhunkCellar)
    Jamaicans purportedly worked till 4 then walked home then
    lit up. They would talk 420 like our parents talked about after
    5. That s when partying began Larry in Tuscan). Albert (not
    Abbie) Hofmann supposedly first encountered LSD at 4:20
    p.m. on 4/19/1943 (Bart Coleman citing Storming Heaven by
    Jay Stevens, recommended by Mickey Hart in Planet Drum).
    Surrealist painter Miro was born April 20, 1893. And
    www.filmspeed.com says the propoganda film Reefer
    Madness has a copyright date of April 20, 1936 (i.e. 4/20).
    (Patrick Woolford)
    Misc: Could be that it comes from hydroponics, the practice
    of cultivating plants in water often used by indoor marijuana
    cultivators, since 4 is used for H on a calculator (420/H20).
    (Nick Lowe 3/30/00) The number 80 (eight) is quatre vingt
    (pronounced cah-truh vahn), meaning four (times} twenty.
    Dan Nijjar 1/27/00 (No connection yet between the number
    80 and pot. A quarter pound is roughly 120 grams, rounding
    quarter-ounces to 7.5.) The titanic was supposed to arrive
    4/20/1912. (Thanks to RB.) Perhaps the heavy use of vt420
    terminals in the Berkeley area is to blame? (BTW, 420 in
    binary code is 110100100.)

    Ubiquitous?

    Now there s a 420 Pale Ale. One of the late-97/early-98 Got
    Milk ads featured a character eating cookies without milk and
    then passing a sign that reads Next Rest Area 420 miles (as Ross
    Bruning). Reportedly, all of the clocks in the movie Pulp Fiction
    are stuck on 4:20. Shirts with the number 420 on the red-and-blue
    interstate highway shield (Interstate 420?) have show up on the
    sitcom Will and Grace (Paul Risenhoover 5/14/99) and in several
    videos. UPS labelling software has a 420 postal code legend for
    next-day/2-day deliveries (which is how Phish tickets are sent).
    (Jack Lebowitz 10/3/98) MTV s 1997 Viewer s Choice Award (for
    the MTV Video Awards) was decided by calls to
    1-800-420-4MTV. And by May of 1998, the number was
    appearing in so many ads (eg Copenhagen 5/14/98 Rolling Stone
    p54, Corvette p55 5/98 Car & Driver) that its presence is
    presumed to be intentional. Many songs are around 4 minutes 20
    seconds long (since many songs fall between 2:30 and 5:30),
    including for example Pink Floyd s A Great Day for Freedom (on
    The Division Bell, 1994), the Foo Fighters My Hero, and
    Smokin from Boston s first album. There have also been some
    420 references on The Simpsons. In the re-run episode aired on
    April 20th, 1999 at a special time (probably in honor of those
    college students staying in the holiday spirit ;-), Homer mentions to
    Flanders that Barney s birthday is April 20th. Also, the jackpot sign
    in one part of the casino says $420,000. There are a couple less
    concrete ones, but these two have to be legit, especially since they
    decided to air THAT particular episode on 4/20/99. (Submitted by
    Matt Meehan 4/21/99) And (as of Fall 99) the 60 free minutes that
    Working Assets Long Distance offers, at the 7 cents per minute
    rate, is $4.20 free. There s even a band named 420, and another
    names . In the first fifteen pages of Karel Capek s novel War with
    the Newts, a man diving under wonder stayed down for four
    minutes and twenty seconds. Grant Garstka 1/6/00 At the
    suggested retail price ($3.96) and Michigan (6%) sales tax, a deck
    of Uno cards costs $4.20. Nic Boris 4:20 marks the first downbeat
    of the drums in Led Zeppelin s epic Stairway to Heaven. (Dan
    Harris) The bill authorizing force after the World Trade Center
    attacks of 9/11/01 passed 420 to 1, and news reports in following
    months noted many times that there are (or were then, anyway) 420
    airports in the U.S. Allan Morris And don t forget that Adolf Hitler
    was born on April 20, macabely celebrated (or at least
    referenced) via the Columbine High School shootings.

    Phish-related Occurances

    Whatever the origin, the number appears frequently... For the
    summer 1997 tour, TicketMaster service charges were $4.20. In
    the Fall 1997 Doniac Schvice Dry Goods section, a limited edition
    Pollack poster printed on 100% hemp is order number 420P. The
    Great Went was 420 miles from Boston (former home of Phish).
    The official logo includes 4 gills and 20 bubbles (Gringo
    11/12/98). As of 6/15/97, including covers and originals, Phish
    had performed a total of 420 songs (thought its 486 by 4/24/98).
    (David Steinberg). Lawnboy is 420megs of memory. Patrick
    Walker Phish s The Vibration of Life underlies a whirling loop
    with Seven Beats per second (which makes 420 beats per minute.)
    Trey has used the altered line woke up at 4:20 in Makisupa
    Policeman, which also often indirectly celebrates 420ing, e.g. by
    mention of goo balls. One of the funniest shirts around takes light
    jabs at both the 4:20 phenomenon and the rumored evolution
    (collapse?) of the Phish.Net (especially rec.music.phish) from
    being Gamehendge to Flamehendge, and beyond. The first day of
    the Great Went started at 4:20 (with Makisupa Policeman. (The
    second day started late, at 4:37.) Noah Cole The first single from
    Slip Stitch and Pass was played on WBCN 10/14/97 at 4:20 pm.
    An uproar at 12/31/96 can be heard on tape during the 2001, in
    response to an enormous digital clock (which was counting down
    to midnight) reaching 11:55:40 and reading -4:20. (Yoda)
    During the 9-12-00 2001, Trey hits the first riff right at 4:20 into
    the intro jam. (Cal 2/25/01) Some mail order tickets for the 1997
    New Year s run were in section 420. The first Mass Pike toll
    leaving Oswego was $4.20. (Camille Heath ) And the standard
    shipping for The Phish Companion through Amazon was
    originally $4.20.

    420 Shows: Phish performed on April 20 in 1989, 1990, 1991,
    1993, and 1994. The first day of the Great Went started at 4:20,
    although that was called a soundcheck by Trey after three songs.
    The Jazzfest Harry Hood 4-26-96 started at about 4:20 reported by
    Trevor. At Big Cypress, David Bowie was playing at 4:20 a.m.
    And the one event during the hiatus (10/8/00 - ?) featuring all
    four members - for Jason Colton s wedding - was 12/1/01, 420
    from: http://www.phish.net/faq/n420.html:

    [ Reply to This | Parent ]

    "Computer Space" was first, I believe (Score:2)
    by sphealey on Friday June 28, @07:52PM (#3787687)
    (User #2855 Info)
    I believe that "Computer Space" preceeded "Pong" by about 2 years.
    sPh

    [ Reply to This | Parent ]

    Anyone got a working Atari? (Score:2)
    by MongooseCN on Friday June 28, @07:52PM (#3787688)
    (User #139203 Info | http://www.mongeese.org/)
    I have an original 2600, but it seems to have degraded or something over time. I can't get it to work anymore. Is there a place that can fix an old Atari?

    Mongeese.Org [mongeese.org]
    [ Reply to This | Parent ]

    I wonder... (Score:1)
    by jo42 on Friday June 28, @07:52PM (#3787690)
    (User #227475 Info)
    How many here can say they where Atari alumni?
    Or is everyone here a snot-nosed kid with Linux for brains? :)

    [ Reply to This | Parent ]

    Have you played Atari today? (Score:1)
    by LordYUK on Friday June 28, @07:52PM (#3787691)
    (User #552359 Info | http://www.threemoons.net/)
    Why yes, yes i have... its on each Neverwinter disk, as well as the first screen you seen when you hit "play".

    I am not sure their offical role in the developmental process, however, but I did play Atari today! ;)

    [ Reply to This | Parent ]

    The best system of all time.... (Score:1)
    by Indes (indes at localhost.localdomain) on Friday June 28, @07:52PM (#3787692)
    (User #323481 Info | http://indesnet.ath.cx/)
    Yes, it was one of the best consoles of all time. I remember playing all the great classics. Such a great time, crowding infront of the TV now and playing with a cold beer in hand.. Brings back a lot of sweet memories.. It will live in many hearts forever.

    [ Reply to This | Parent ]

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  3. Trivial Atari News While The Nation Crumbles by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    courtesy of The Cheney News Network"

    Bush: No more WorldComs
    President Bush wants corporate leaders
    who cook the books to go to jail, a White
    House spokesman said today, as the
    government rolls out measures to restore investor confidence in the wake of the WorldCom accounting scandal. The embattled No. 2 long-distance provider is set to start laying off 17,000 employees today.

    --------

    Meanwhile, elected representative cook the
    books on U.S. foreign policy and escape jail.

    Thank you and have a happy Canada Day.

  4. Re:Anyone got a working Atari? by fredrik70 · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    The smart thing to do is not always the right thing to do. If you do the right thing, you are damn smart.

    I liked that... nice one

    --
    if (!signature) { throw std::runtime_error("No sig!"); }
  5. Slashdot Gripes 1.01 by pwpbot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    posters that spell Microsoft with a or spell it MicroCrap or something posters that glorify a feature that Linux has that BSD or Solaris as had for years and list this reason as the most important reason to switch over posters that say Slackware is better because you have to compile all of the applications for yourself Rob Maldas arrogance frequent spelling and grammar mistakes Im not talking something really obscure or a minor technicallity in English either Im talking substituting loose for lose or theyretheirthere Really easily corrected mistakes Any halfway decent fifth grader could pick up on these errors people that post a mirror to a site that has been Slashdotted which normally would be nice but is hosted on a cable modem that is soon Slashdotted page widening random quashing of posts that dont agree with the Slashdot mindset really annoying sigs unhumorous jokes that have to be explained to the audience If your joke has to be explained its not funny BOYCOTT RIAA and I cant wait to see Episode II all in the same day Rob Maldas childish obsession with legos the Slashdot crew doesnt have any other jobs other than Slashdot yet it seems it was better run when Rob was running it on a Multia in college in his spare time the page limit with the subscription The expulsion of Signal 11 ranting paranoid articles whenever there APPEARS to be a GPL violation with no verification whatsoever Just a bunch of ranting posts about freedom for that matter no verification of articles at all I wish I could count the number of times Slashdots been scammed on two hands but its been so many April Fools articles on Slashdot THESE ARENT FUNNY I wasnt going to explain but whatever Okay lets say you run a website On April Fools you post say ONE or TWO fake pieces of news along with the real news This way some people are fooled By posting ALL fake news and jokes no one falls for the prank no one buys Lokis games but there is a big mystery when they go out of business no NNTP frontend to Slashdot direct links to bugzilla continuing tightening of the troll filters to the point where even normal posts are rejected by some stupid criteria self righteous posters who want everything under the sun to be Open Source even though they have never written a line of code in their life whenever an article on a new scripting language is posted all of the C users chime in but its not as fast as C shortly after all the assembly users chime in assembly is the fastest predictably right after that someone says why dont we all just use machine code anecdotes on your grandmother using Linux to check her email and whatnot this ALONE proves that Linux is better than Windows for ALL uses cultlike devotion to Linux reserve your fanaticism for a church not a kernel someone is not less of a person if they dont use Unix posters who think that BeOS is having a bad moment and will surely rise to defeat all other operating systems posters who think Palm will open the source to BeOS for no reason at all people who think that Amiga isnt dead The new virtual Amiga doesnt count people who think that OS2 isnt dead Ecomstation doesnt count people who bemoan the loss of OS2 while thinking it was a big conspiracy completely IGNORING the fact that IBM did not advertise we all KNOW OS2 was technically superior to Windows at the time You dont have to bedazzle us with tales of running all the latest Windows and DOS applications aside native OS2 apps Weve heard it all before We know it WAS better people who think that this is the last year ever well ever have to hire C programmers because as we all know Java is going to kill it off this is a good one Completely expositionary articles such as Surprised by Weath in which ESR BRAGGED about how rich he was and how he wasnt going to give us any money NO SIR bitchslapping benchmarks that pit say Linux lastest revision against FreeBSD 30 or something old and useless how banner ads for the site only link to other OSDN sites any links to nytimescom when someone writes a comment with H to signify deletions the moderation rtbl meta moderation people that spell Red Hat as RedCrap

    -pwpbot

    1. Re:Slashdot Gripes 1.01 by pwpbot by The+Ape+With+No+Name · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      Mod the above post down!

      --
      Comparing it to Windows will be a moot point, since El Dorado is going to have a 40% larger code base than XP.
  6. Re:Combat? by Goose+In+Orbit · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    More likely the CEO is the guy who presided over the company's biggest ever loss, yet still "earns" a multi-million bonus.

    Alternatively, he's just "lost" $4 billion somewhere and needs to save some cash - it's never the people at the top who get the bullet, have you noticed that?

    (Sick) Sweepstake time... which of the WorldCom guys is going to do the decent thing and follow the Enron example?

  7. Re:I once read... by www.orubin.com · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Her name is Cynthia Villanueva. She would put on a show for anyone who called the company in the early days. She'd yell for Nolan and he'd wait for a few moments before picking it up, making it sound like the company was bigger than it really was. She also helped stuff boards and put games together in those early days. Cynthia stayed with the company for more than a decade, long after the company was sold to Warner.

  8. a beawulf cluster of these? by peter303 · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    Has anyone made one? SOmeone had to ask!