| Answering the phone |
|---|
LDA $77A ( = $778 + 2, the slot number) ORA 2 STA $77A JSR $C207 (IIN, where $Cs07, s=slot) |
Apple ]['s run at 1 MHz - its not uncommon for a computer nowadays to run at 1000 MHz. But it easily did the job.
The user interface was strictly command line. After you connected at 300 baud with 8 databits, 1 stop bit and no parity. A session would go something like this (sorry we don't remember exactly):
| Example Session |
Welcome to Factland - ? for help > ? Factland is a land of facts. You can do queries and make facts. Commands are: fact - list a random fact is A B than C - ask a question assert A is B than C - add a fact quit - hang up > is Iggy better than God Yes > assert Poison Ivy is better than Lux Thanks > is Poison Ivy better than Lux Yes > quit bye ^~!% NO CARRIER |
If anyone has a real transcript we'd love to see it. for old times sake.
Perhaps the Talking Heads used Factland because in "Crosseyed and Painless" on their 1980 record "Remain in Light" they sing "Facts are never what they seem to be ... Facts are useless in a emergency... No information left of any kind".
Later a wise man named Homer Simpson said "Facts are meaningless. You could use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true."
Somehow the world did without Factland until 2001. We registered factland.ca and rewrote it using C++ and PostgreSQL on a nice Intel Linux box. Sadly, we didn't keep any of facts or the code so both are starting from scratch in 2001. In June 2006, we made the move back to the future and added a bot.
On August 23, 2016, I found an old printout of the facts from 1987. I scanned them and added them to the current database ;)
Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway used the phrase "Alternative Facts" on Meet the Press on January 22, 2017.
Updated to design of the website on October 9, 2018.
