Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!island!rich From: rich@island.uu.net (Rich Fanning ) Newsgroups: comp.misc Subject: Re: computer follies Summary: if you drink coffee, don't print Message-ID: <372@island.uu.net> Date: 26 Sep 88 19:04:05 GMT References: <827@cernvax.UUCP> <3276@edm.UUCP> Reply-To: rich@island.uu.net (Rich Fanning ) Distribution: na Organization: Island Graphics, Marin County, California Lines: 38 Back in the mid 70's, I was a member of an IBM Explorers Group. This was a program which allowed a couple of dozen high-school students to learn about computers at a local IBM building. We were allowed partial use of a computer room (occasionally pre-empted by IBM engineers) and had access to three different systems: one was a single-user system which ran BASIC, one was timeshared APL, and the other ran batch Fortran jobs on those little System/3 cards. Our long-suffering leader John had to put up with a variety of pranks that hyperactive adolescent males are best at. My friend Pat figured out how to punch the System/3 cards to create any pattern. Since the holes are circles (not oblong like the big 80-column ones), nice bitmap graphics could be done, in a limited fashion, of course. John put up with this silliness until Pat started passing around cards with the "one finger salute" on them. Another friend, Todd, loved to run his "line printer screamer" program on the 1401, which printed 132 M's on each line. This printer, enclosed in a sound- absorbent shroud, normally didn't arouse attention, but shrieked like hell when this pattern was printed. All activity in the room would stop, John would run over to the console and abort the job, and the rest of us would snicker. One evening, a bunch of white-shirters came in (IBM engineers) and ran a couple of jobs on the System/3. They stood around the printer, tearing jobs off and looking them over. After a while, several of them left half-full coffee cups on top of the printer cover. I have a feeling that someone made sure that the paper was running low, because the paper ran out and the printer responded as usual BY LIFTING THE COVER! By the time anyone knew what was happening, it was too late and half a dozen cups of coffee slid down the printer cover and splashed all over the wall, floor, output listings, etc. Even John had a good laugh over that one. I'll never forget the embarrassed expressions on some of those engineer's faces. -- Rich Fanning {uunet,sun,well}!island!rich (415) 491-1000 Island Graphics Corp. 4000 Civic Center Drive San Rafael, CA 94903