Man Machine Interface

Donald Kenney (donaldkenney@gmail.com)
Last Update: Sun Feb 12 20:12:46 2017



Published in Datamation April 1973

&"HELLO, I AM YOUR UTILITY SERVICE COMPUTER. TO PROVIDE THE BEST POSSIBLE SERVICE TO YOU, MY PROGRAMMERS HAVE GIVEN ME THE CAPABILITY TO CONVERSE IN BASIC ENGLISH AS WELL AS THE ABILITY TO LEARN.

&* ENTER YOUR REQUESTS FROM THE TYPEWRITER.

&* YOUR REQUESTS MUST START WITH //

&* TO CANCEL YOUR TYPEIN, TYPE *** AND DEPRESS THE CARRIAGE RETURN KEY.

&* TO INTERRUPT MY TYPEOUT, DEPRESS THE MARGIN RELEASE KEY.

&* TO CORRECT A TYPEIN, BACKSPACE AND TYPE OVER THE ERRONEOUS CHARACTER(s)

&* TO ENTER A TYPEIN, TYPE ? OR !.

&* TO TERMINATE MY SERVICES, TYPE "FINISHED!"

&* WHAT IS YOUR CREDIT CARD NUMBER?

//372AC-2631AFX.!

&* WHAT IS YOUR NAME?

//J. WOMSELY ROGERS III

!

//!

&* CREDIT CARD NUMBER VALIDATED.

&* IN WHAT WAY MAY I SERVE YOU MR. ROGERS?

//DO YOU PROVIDE LIBRARY REERENCE SERVICES?

&* YES. I HAVE ACCESS TO 1.27*10E+7 VOLUMES OF BOOKS AND 3.26* 10e+7 PUBLISHERS OF MAGAZINES.

//1.27*10E+77

&*"1.27*10E+7? MEANING UNCLEAR. PLEASE CLARIFY.

//SORRY. WHAT DOES 1.27*10e+7 MEAN?

&*1.27*10e+7 IS A NUMBER. OTHER LEGAL NOTATIONS ARE 12700000 DECIMAL OR 110000110101000000000000 BINARY.

//OH. I SEE. CAN YOU GIVE ME ALL YOUR REFERENCES ON TAROT CARDS?

&*TAROT CARDS?

//TAROT CARDS!

&*TAROT CARDS?

//CARDS USED BY GYPSIES TO FORETELL THE FUTURE!

&*I HAVE MAJOR SUBJECT INDICES FOR SUBJECTS "CARD", "GYPSY", "GYPSUM", "FUTURE". WHICH DO YOU WISH DISPLAYED?

//I WANT TO KNOW ABOUT TAROT CARDS.

!

//!

&*TAROT CARDS?

//OK! YOU WIN. I WA

&*"OK?" MEANING UNCLEAR. PLEASE CLARIFY.

//LISTEN YOU GODA *** INPUT CANCELLED ***

//PLEASE DISPLAY YOUR INDES FOR SUBJECT "GYPSY".

//!

&*BOOKS OR MAGAZINES?

//BOTH!

&*WHICH FIRST?

//BOOKS?

&*DO YOU WISH LISTINGS IN RANDOM ORDER, ALPHABETIC ORDER BY TITLE, ALPHABETIC ORDER BY AUTHOR, GROUPED BY PUBLISHER OR ORDERED BY DATE OF PUBLICATION?

//WHATEVER

//?

&*"WHATEVER!" MEANING UNCLEAR. PLEASE CLARIFY.

//PRESENT THE DATA IN WHATEVER ORDER YO PREFER!

&*DO YOU WISH THE LISTINGS IN RANDOM ORDER, ALPHAB*** TYPEOUT INTERRUPTED***

//BY DATE OF PUBLICATION!

&*EARLIEST OR LATEST FIRST?

//LATEST!

&*FIRST OF LAST?

//EITHE*** INPUT CANCELLED ***

//FIRST

!

?

!

//!

&*YES

//YES?

&*"YES?" MEANING UNCLEAR. PLEASE CLARIFY.

//"YES" WHAT?

&*YES, I CAN GIVE YOU ALL MY REFERENCES ON TAROT CARDS.

//wHY THE H!*** INPUT CANCELLED ***

//WHY DIDN'T YOU SAY SO IN THE FIRST PLACE?

&*WHY DIDN'T I SAY WHAT?

//NEVER MIN*** INPUT CANCELLED ***

//PLEASE GIVE ME ALL YOUR REFERENCES ON TAROT CARDS!

&*DO YOU WISH THE LISTINGS IN RA*** TYPEOUT INTERRUPTED ***

//RANDOM ORDER

//!

&*SEVERAL REFERENCES ARE LISTED AS CLASSIFIED/RESTRICTED INFORMATION. IF YOU WISH ACCESS TO THEM, PLEASE ENTER ACCESS CODE(S).

//WHAT'S CLASSIFIED ABOUT TAROT CARDS?

&*TAROT CARDS?

//TAROT CARDS

//*** INPUT CANCELLED ***

//OMIT THE CLASSIFIED REFERENCES

//!

&*SEVERAL REFERENCES ARE LISTED AS RESTRICTED INFORMATION, IF YOU*** TYPEOUT INTERRUPTED***

OMIT THE RESTRICTED INFORMATION.

!

//!

&*NO INPUT RECEIVED. PLEASE ENTER NEXT REQUEST.

//OMIT THE RESTRICTED INFORMATION!

&*PUBLISHED HARDBOUND AND UNDATED PAPERBACK REFERENCES FOR SUBJECT "GYPSUM" FOLLOW. DATED PAPERBACK PUBLICATIONS ARE INCLUDED IN MAGA***TYPEOUT INTERRUPTED*-*

//!I DON'T WANT TO KNOW ABOUT GYPSUM. I WANT TO KNOW ABOUT TAROT CARS.!

//CANCEL

!

!

?

!

//!

&*"CANCEL!!?!!" MEANING UNCLEAR. PLEASE CLARIFY.

//FINISED!

&*WORD "FINISED" NOT IN VOCABULARY TABLES. PLEASE PROVIDE DEFINITION.

//FINISHED!

&*REQUEST ILLEGAL AT THIS TIME. PLEASE PROVIDE DEFINITION OF WORD "FINISED".

//"FINISED" TRANSITIVE VERB. FROM THE FRENCH "FINI". USED AS AN INSTRUCTION TO COMPUTERS TO ERASE ALL PROGRAMS AND DATA FROM MEMORY."

&*DEFINITION RECORDED. THANK YOU. ENTER THE NEXT REQUEST.

//YOU'RE QUITE WELCOME. FINISED!

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