Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!yale!spolsky-joel From: spolsky-joel@CS.YALE.EDU (Joel Spolsky) Newsgroups: comp.misc Subject: Re: computer follies Message-ID: <38997@yale-celray.yale.UUCP> Date: 28 Sep 88 05:40:21 GMT References: <5856@ihlpf.ATT.COM> <37600006@pyr1.cs.ucl.ac.uk> Sender: root@yale.UUCP Reply-To: spolsky-joel@CS.YALE.EDU (Joel Spolsky) Organization: Yale University, New Haven, CT Lines: 26 In article <37600006@pyr1.cs.ucl.ac.uk> william@pyr1.cs.ucl.ac.uk writes: | | I once typed "rm *.old" to get rid of some old editor backup files, | and came out as "rm * old". It sat there for a few moments, and then | said "old: file does not exist". Damn. echo "alias rm rm -i" >> /.login | | I used Televideo 910 terminals as an undergrad, and when you logged off, | the system cleared your screen. Once, I typed LOGOFF and then realised | I needed the data currently on the screen, so I hit CTRL-S hard just | as the first carriage returns came through to scroll the screen. And | the terminal just stopped - no logoff message, nothing - and nothing | that I did made any difference. It was definitely the terminal that | went, as I tried plugging different terminals into the same socket, | and power-off didn't help. I couldn't believe this, so I replicated the | situation and killed another terminal. | | Later on, I mentioned this to a friend who didn't believe it either, so | he promptly killed one and demoed it to someone else. Within an hour, | half of the college terminals were extinct which was amazingly popular | as it was the middle of the project season, and about a week later | the dead terminals were taken away and were replaced after a further week. Then somebody hit ctrl-Q and everything was fine, right? :-)