Denys writes:

> Speaking of anniversaries, yesterday was the 50th anniversary of the sound
>  barrier being broken in an airplane.  (Chuck Yeager, Bell X-1, Oct 14,
>  1947, Murock Dry Lake AKA Edwards AFB.  He did it again yesterday in an
>  F-15)

More obscure -- but at least as interesting -- today (Oct 16) is the 40th
anniversary of the first "vehicle" launched from Earth into interplanetary
space, and it was accomplished just 12 days after the launch of Sputnik, from
White Sands Missile Range, which is right over the hill from whence I write
this. More on this first interplanetary launch can be read at:

    http://stardate.utexas.edu/radio/s_radioscript.html

This is a today-only site; the scripts change every day.

As to Denys' other comment,

>If the HP 3000 really continues to integrate with Windows NT, it will not
>be long before you can speak to your Windows PC connected to the 3000 and
>say:

>"Take the full backup, send it to the Sony drive and step on it."

the day that such a thing can be realized is much further off than Denys
portrays -- if for no other reason, most computers don't yet have
sufficiently movable legs and feet so that they can raise them high enough to
step on any size drive, even a Sony, much less have the smarts to understand
the sentence.

Wirt Atmar