Stupid computer tricks

[Terry Yager]

Boards kinda slow lately, might as well start up a new thread...

What's your favorite stupid computer story (personal or otherwise)?
See this link for a few examples:

http://rinkworks.com/stupid/

My favorite computer blunder was from back in the days before I was connected to the internet. I used to surf the local BBSs. I found out about a board out in Californie that was still running under CP/M. I thought it would be cool to dial them up with my Kaypro II, grab some freeware then logout. (A practice known as "raiding" back then. Do people still use this term today?) Anyways, when I called them up, the modem failed to connect (but didn't return any error msg. to let me know what was going on). I was using a Hayes Personal Modem @ 1200 baud, kinda a stripped down (cheaper) version of thier desktop modem. Well, when the connection didn't happen, I just thought the bb was sending back a busy signal. That's ok, I thought, I'll just set the modem to keep redialing till it gets thru. (I was glad I had a "smart" modem that had that feature.) A couple of hours later, I was ready to go to bed, but still no connection. Luckily, I had enough sense to shutdown the computer before going to bed. When I got that phone bill a couple weeks later, it floored me. The phone bill was six pages long, with over 600 LD calls to the bbs's number. All of the calls were for one minute, and ran from $.10 to $.25, (the rates dropped at 9:00), so the total bill was only $71 and change. A couple of weeks later, when I finally did manage to log that same bb, there was a msg. from the sysop, apologizing for the fact that the board had been down for a short time, and any inconvenience it caused anyone. The post went on to explain that the modem had went south and began answering every call, then immediatly disconnecting. The phone company charged me for 1 minute for each connection. I was very careful about using that modem after that, knowing that it didn't send proper error messages...

--T

[vic user]

At least you did not have it run overnight thank God! Still, must have been an adrenaline rush when you saw that bill.


Back in grade 11, we only had punch card machines to do our programming with. Once you had your FORTRAN program written out, you went to the punch card machine and plunked away until you had your cards.

Then you would have to put your cards in a pile, along with all the other students' cards, and then the big pile went to a computer downtown, where the school bought computer time from. Then some guy downtown fed all the cards in, and the computer just executed the programs, one by one, and out5putted onto tractor feed paper.

Then all the students got their little sheet(s) of output, usually just one or two sheets.

This was done only once a week!

I knew that if someone had made a mistake in their program, like an endless loop, and if that program was at or near the beginning of the stack of cards, then the computer would use up the school's time just printing out that endless loop or whatever, and everyone else down the list would be screwed.

I did not want this to happen to me.

So I used to wait around the computer lab, and then sneak my program at the top of the pile.

Well guess what happened.

I made an endless loop, and when I went to pick up my sheet or two of paper, there was just my program at the table, and no one else's!

I had literally about a two foot high pile of tractor feed paper staring at me in the face, with a '32' on each row.

The teacher let me take it home, since it was of no use to anyone, and I used it for scrap paper.

Believe it or not, but after 20+ years, I still have some of that paper left!

Chris

[CP/M User]

"Terry Yager" wrote:

> Boards kinda slow lately, might as well start up a
> new thread...

What do you mean, it looks quite busy from where
I'm sitting! :-)

> What's your favorite stupid computer story
> (personal or otherwise)?

Oh well, there was little miss Dictionary who thought
the Dictionary would give the computer knowledge!

The incorrect gender that was looking for their floppy
& the person who was looking for the <Any Key>
were pretty funny! :-)

Cheers,
CP/M User.

[Terry Yager]

I made an endless loop, and when I went to pick up my sheet or two of paper, there was just my program at the table, and no one else's!

I had literally about a two foot high pile of tractor feed paper staring at me in the face, with a '32' on each row.

Chris

Good thing it didn't happen on a Friday afternoon, or else your prog might have run all weekend. (The printer prolly would've run out of paper before Monday morning.)

--T

[Captain-Goodnight]

Punchcard machine! Yuck! Luckily, I was a little too young for those machines by the time I was in school. Of course, I didn't see a computer in a classroom until 10th grade. Not for the fact that computers were expensive or new, it was an un-tech saavy school. JERKS! Anyways, these little punks today with their brand new computers in 1st grade! Argh!

But I do feel there was a trade off in this. As we all know, the old computers had a much closer knit family and calling BBS's were fun, new, exciting and required alot more attention than today's surfing. You actually had to read the posts on the boards (like you would do anything else at 300 baud). heh. And then "chatting" was real chatting. Not a room full of idlers. I don't get that, even to this day why people go to a chat room to idle. (Shrug). And the old school bashing of each other (flaming) was awesome as death threats were common and the law cared little about it. Now, you do something like that and you're going to wind up in Cuba at Camp X-Ray.

I did use an IBM System 36 in High School. RPG-II was something that really didn't make me love computers though.

[~llama]

I like to make my Mac SE FDHD play itself at Risk... which is why that computer is affectionately known as "WOPR"

[CaptainCommodore]

This is true, I swear... I tried it again last summer.
While on my Panasonic Business Partner (my mom was on it rather), a sudden lightning storm hit. She had to finish working on it, and it was hooked up to a surge, so she rushed the last paragraph of whatever she was doing. So when the lightning starting striking, the actual text on the screen would turn into Chinese... it was the strangest thing I've ever seen a computer do. Of course, when it happened the first time I was only like 5 years old. So last summer I used it again and it did the same thing. Sometimes its Chinese, sometimes its just weird code... its the strangest thing I've ever seen.

Not sure if thats a trick, but it sure is weird.

[Terry Yager]

This is true, I swear... I tried it again last summer.
While on my Panasonic Business Partner (my mom was on it rather), a sudden lightning storm hit. She had to finish working on it, and it was hooked up to a surge, so she rushed the last paragraph of whatever she was doing. So when the lightning starting striking, the actual text on the screen would turn into Chinese... it was the strangest thing I've ever seen a computer do. Of course, when it happened the first time I was only like 5 years old. So last summer I used it again and it did the same thing. Sometimes its Chinese, sometimes its just weird code... its the strangest thing I've ever seen.

Not sure if thats a trick, but it sure is weird.

Heh! My old Kaypro II used to do something similar. While using the modem, sometimes it would catch a stray kozmik ray or sum'n and start displaying in Greek. The only way I could recover from this mode would be to reset the computer. Never did figger out what caused that behavior.

--T

[TIML]

When I started programming when I was 12, we sent out pencil FORTRAN programs on IBM graph paper, they went to the punch card operator at a college miles away, they ran the program and sent me the cards and printout back.

It wasn't exactly an endless loop, my program printed the square root from 1 to 1000! They stopped it after 200 for using too much computer time!!!!


Lightning. I'd just bought my new PC. Guess what, I was surfing the web, guess what, being an addict, I didn't want to stop just because I heard a distant rumble of thunder. who would?

I was surprised by the flash above my screen when the lightning hit the phone lines!!!! Still the shop were very kind to replace the new PC & built in modem. Perhaps I should have explained why it had gone, but they never asked, assuming I was a newbie! If they'd asked I'd have told them!

.T.I.M

[Thomas Hillebrandt]

I have two favourite stories from my own computer-childhood (and human-childhood, for that matter..). They're not as much blunders, as they are just ideas borne of ignorance.

I'll take them in reverse-chronological order, for your inconvinience:

The first one is based on my own stupidity. A good many years ago (this must be late eighties or early nineties - 14 years...Well, it seems a long time ago), I heard - and believed in - romours of a computer-virus that would spread, NOT by disk, NOT by modem - but by the electric wall-plugs. I was scared to bits of getting my C64 infected, and at what would happen to the data on my dads Commodore PC-20III... :oops: :oops:

The other is the stupidity of a friend I had back then. This was probably just a few years earlier than the first story. It was the first time I heard about computer-virus. Being young, and unexperienced, I didn't know much about what a computer-virus was, but I new it could be harmful. So I told my friend about it, wishing to warn him about the potential danger to his Sinclair ZX Spectrum +3... His reaction? Something along the lines of: "Ha, I don't believe there can BE such a thing as a computer virus, because as soon as the virus enters those electrical circuits (he would say, pointing at the joystick-plugs of my C64), it will be fried and die. Virusses can't survive electricity!"...I didn't want to argue with him, partly because I didn't know what I was talking about either, but I knew that he was being a nitwit! 8)

Hmm...

[Rick Ethridge]

I just pulled a real blunder! I attempted to repair an Amiga a1200HD. I inadvertantly pulled the keyboard connector out and attempted to reinstall. One mobo "fried". I did trace the problem to a bad video ram chip. RLE

[Terry Yager]

I just pulled a real blunder! I attempted to repair an Amiga a1200HD. I inadvertantly pulled the keyboard connector out and attempted to reinstall. One mobo "fried". I did trace the problem to a bad video ram chip. RLE

Oh, I'm sorry for your loss...may it rest in peace in in computer heaven.

--T

[carlsson]

Virusses can't survive electricity!
Actually, I have a copy of official Microsoft Magazine from 1993, where a reader has asked whether it is possible to get virus on his new Windows NT 3.51, and is told that with the new technology, it is virtually impossible for a virus to infect and spread on your PC. If this ever was true, it is too bad the technology was loosened up in later editions of the OS...