Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mcvax!ukc!dcl-cs!nott-cs!pyr1.cs.ucl.ac.uk!william From: william@pyr1.cs.ucl.ac.uk Newsgroups: comp.misc Subject: Re: computer follies Message-ID: <37600006@pyr1.cs.ucl.ac.uk> Date: 26 Sep 88 18:01:00 GMT References: <5856@ihlpf.ATT.COM> Lines: 29 Nf-ID: #R:ihlpf.ATT.COM:-585600:pyr1.cs.ucl.ac.uk:37600006:000:1493 Nf-From: pyr1.cs.ucl.ac.uk!william Sep 26 18:01:00 1988 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. 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. ... Bill ************************************************************************ Bill Witts, CS Dept. * Nel Mezzo del cammin di nostra vita UCL, London, Errrp * mi ritrovai per una selva oscura william@cs.ucl.ac.uk * che la diritta via era smarrita. ************************************************************************