A student writes (perhaps he is too nervous and can't sleep):

  Hello Dr. Patt,

  I have a question that isn't about the course material 
  but just to feed my curiosity.  What happened to the 
  Alpha CPUs?  I remember them back 5-6 years ago when 
  they were 533Mhz whereas the Intel Pentium chips were 
  much slower and if I remember right, more expensive.  
  Why did the Alpha CPUs not catch on with the public 
  eventhough they were faster?

  <<name withheld to protect the sleepless>

Excellent question!  ...but not the night before the exam.  
Great question to ask me during the last lecture: the 
free-for-all, where any question is fair game.  The only 
problem with that question is that it may take me the 
whole hour to answer it.  There were many reasons.  And, 
I am happy to go into them for you (and others who are 
interested).

Right now, is a time to go to sleep so you will be wide 
awake for the exam.

Good luck.

Yale Patt

ps. My father used to take warm milk and add a teaspoon 
of honey.