meaning of speedex

1. SPEEDEX Early system on IBM 701. Listed in CACM 25:16 May 1959. speedometer A pattern of lights displayed on a linear set of LEDs today or nixie tubes yesterday, on ancient mainframes. The pattern is shifted left every N times the operating system goes through its main loop. A swiftly moving pattern indicates that the system is mostly idle; the speedometer slows down as the system becomes overloaded. The speedometer on Sun Microsystems hardware bounces back and forth like the eyes on one of the Cylons from the wretched "Battlestar Galactica" TV series. Historical note: One computer, the GE 600 later Honeywell 6000 actually had an *analog* speedometer on the front panel, calibrated in instructions executed per second. [Jargon File] spell incantation spelling flame A Usenet posting ostentatiously correcting a previous articles spelling, possibly as a way of casting scorn on the point the article was trying to make, instead of actually responding to that point compare dictionary flame. Of course, people who are more than usually slovenly spellers are prone to think *any* correction is a spelling flame. Its an amusing comment on human nature that spelling flames themselves often contain spelling errors. [Jargon File]

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