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Reminds me of my favorite class in college: CEG 431, Introduction to Concurrent Programming. Labs were on PDP-11/05's, programmed in PDP-11 assembly language. The machines had a board with magnetic core memory containing the bootstrap for the O/S. The bootstrap was 80 words.
Unfortunately, if your program got out of hand, it could wipe the core. You then had to fat-finger the bootstrap in through the front panel switches: [^]
I had to do that once or twice. One guy in our class got so good at it, he could re-enter the bootstrap in under 60 seconds. Of course, that doesn't say much for the quality of his code, that he needed to acquire that skill  .
Software Zen: delete this;
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Yeah I remember typing programs from magazines into my ZX Spectrum. They never ever worked and I was always left scratching my head.
My first program on the ZX Spectrum was a D&D character generator. Had I the wit to sell it, or port it to another platform, I could have made a bit of money out of it.
Always thought I was going to write my own game. Forty years on, having worked as a software developer in more companies, projects and technologies than I dare to remember, I'm still chasing that dream.
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Same. I was being paid to write software to run bowling leagues, and I did not own, nor could i afford the $5000 IBM PC/XT (with dual floppies). I wrote the code out on paper, and usually rewrote it.
I did not have a car, so this great lady would pick me up, and drive me to and fro on the weekend to work on her computer. When it worked, she paid me, and THEN loaned me the money to buy a Radio Shack XT Clone.
Along the way, on the old PDP-11, i Learned to make the tapes BOOTABLE, changed the "Non-System disk" error message to insult the High School senior (Mark Valade) who constantly put to disks in the wrong drives, LOL.
Oh, and I wrote a program to read the type ahead buffer off of the paper terminals, so I could watch what certain people were typing. It brought the entire system to its knees, LOL. It was SO Amazing, and so new... I was spending up to 12hrs a day in the High School computer room, lights off until the janitors would kick me out because they were turning on the alarms!
My favorite was this amazingly cute young lady at my first job (CRT days)... I wrote a little program that would send a terminal "diag" code, her screen would blip around, she would come get me to look at it (and I had to sit next to her chatting, while she worked, and we waited for it to happen again, LOL). Of course, I stopped the program the instant she came into my office, so I was NEVER able to find the cause. But I got to know her. We actually became good friends. And I NEVER told her! I hope she is doing well...
PS: To this day, I like to rewrite my code at least once after getting it to work! Two rewrites yields very solid code that rarely breaks.
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Wrote a Vax Basic app that cycled 4 LEDs on the VT100 keyboard.
Slowed everyone to a crawl.
Figured out how to access memory on PETs.
Changed pointers in my source code so it read
10 REM
10000 END
but ran everything in between.
My apologies for the previous sig block. It's been ages since I posted anything on here.
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My first program was on IBM 402 tabulating machines in late 60's. Several years later, after a couple of promotions, I wrote drivers for mag tape drives in assembly language. I can't begin to imagine what technology 50 years from now will be.
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found the Apple IIe's basic interpreter in typing class in 7th grade and learned just enough to play pranks on the entire lab for an afternoon. I was hooked from there, and wanted to know more even after getting sent to the principles office. good times 
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insults, insulting quotations & insulting quotes - insults.net[^]
I was trying to figure out an insult using Google (I only remembered part of it) and this was the first hit.
I think this may be useful for you lot.
What do you get when you cross a joke with a rhetorical question?
The metaphorical solid rear-end expulsions have impacted the metaphorical motorized bladed rotating air movement mechanism.
Do questions with multiple question marks annoy you???
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Quote: [Your] ... demeanor is invariably morose, sullen, clownish and repulsive. I should think there is not, on the face of the earth, a [person] so entirely destitute of humour, vivacity, or the capacity of enjoyment.
 So, ... entropic... 
#SupportHeForShe
Government can give you nothing but what it takes from somebody else. A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take everything you've got, including your freedom.-Ezra Taft Benson
You must accept 1 of 2 basic premises: Either we are alone in the universe or we are not alone. Either way, the implications are staggering!-Wernher von Braun
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My favorite:
Quote: Dear Sir, You are without any doubt a rogue, a rascal, a villain, a thief, a scoundrel and a mean, dirty, stinking, sniveling, sneaking, pimping, pocket-picking, thrice double damn no good son of a bitch.
-- 1776
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Damn, I have to admit this is good and mighty useful!!!
I got another useful one too!
The Useless Web
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Ha!
I've been trying to remember this one:Quote: We know no spectacle so ridiculous as the British public in one of its periodical fits of morality.
Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800-59)
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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This one is pretty comprehensive too..
Dictionary of English slang and colloquialisms of the UK^
Now is it bad enough that you let somebody else kick your butts without you trying to do it to each other? Now if we're all talking about the same man, and I think we are... it appears he's got a rather growing collection of our bikes.
modified 31-Aug-21 21:01pm.
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According to this article, WhatsApp Child Porn Sting[^], there are people at INTERPOL that are tasked with analyzing the thousands of images and videos collected as evidence in order to identify the victims, perpetrators, and locations. I don't know about how others might feel about it but that job would seriously ruin a good person after being exposed to some of things worst humanity can do day in and day out. I hope they get some serious counseling and PTSD treatment for that job. My hat is off to those folks. I would rather clean sewers (in New York, NY) than what they do.
if (Object.DividedByZero == true) { Universe.Implode(); }
Meus ratio ex fortis machina. Simplicitatis de formae ac munus. -Foothill, 2016
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Indeed. Perhaps someone can develop an AI that can help out...
#SupportHeForShe
Government can give you nothing but what it takes from somebody else. A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take everything you've got, including your freedom.-Ezra Taft Benson
You must accept 1 of 2 basic premises: Either we are alone in the universe or we are not alone. Either way, the implications are staggering!-Wernher von Braun
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You know, that is a fantastic idea. Facebook spent millions on machine intelligence to enable automatic tagging of your friends in the photos you post. A machine could analyze those depraved images and videos all day while a human would be deeply impacted by it. Somebody get Google and Facebook to coordinate on this. I am sure the world would approve.
if (Object.DividedByZero == true) { Universe.Implode(); }
Meus ratio ex fortis machina. Simplicitatis de formae ac munus. -Foothill, 2016
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An AI that would learn to hate humanity?
What could possibly go wrong?
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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#SupportHeForShe
Government can give you nothing but what it takes from somebody else. A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take everything you've got, including your freedom.-Ezra Taft Benson
You must accept 1 of 2 basic premises: Either we are alone in the universe or we are not alone. Either way, the implications are staggering!-Wernher von Braun
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Foothill wrote: I would rather clean sewers
Isn't that what they're doing?
If it's not broken, fix it until it is.
Everything makes sense in someone's mind.
Ya can't fix stupid.
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more like sewer rats...
#SupportHeForShe
Government can give you nothing but what it takes from somebody else. A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take everything you've got, including your freedom.-Ezra Taft Benson
You must accept 1 of 2 basic premises: Either we are alone in the universe or we are not alone. Either way, the implications are staggering!-Wernher von Braun
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That's giving sewer rats a bad name.
if (Object.DividedByZero == true) { Universe.Implode(); }
Meus ratio ex fortis machina. Simplicitatis de formae ac munus. -Foothill, 2016
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Truth!
"the debugger doesn't tell me anything because this code compiles just fine" - random QA comment
"Facebook is where you tell lies to your friends. Twitter is where you tell the truth to strangers." - chriselst
"I don't drink any more... then again, I don't drink any less." - Mike Mullikins uncle
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too true!
#SupportHeForShe
Government can give you nothing but what it takes from somebody else. A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take everything you've got, including your freedom.-Ezra Taft Benson
You must accept 1 of 2 basic premises: Either we are alone in the universe or we are not alone. Either way, the implications are staggering!-Wernher von Braun
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I've done it once: the MD insisted that I spent a day looking at all the pron on an employee's computer - soon to be ex employee - who I'd found out was spending several work hours a day surfing NSFW sites. On dial up fer gawds sake! He wanted to know if there was anything involving children - worst working day of my entire life, and not one I ever want to repeat, despite thankfully finding nothing illegal.
The employee went from General Manager on a good salary to night shift shelf stacker in a supermarket (pron during work hours wasn't the only thing he was doing, and his wife found out some of the ... um ... others.
I feel for the poor sods who do that every day: not a good job at all.
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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As long as CP never becomes NSFW, I'm in the clear. Sorry to hear that you had to do that. I think that I to would rather spend the day chasing spammers, answering the same programming questions over and over again, and lazying about in the Lounge then that.
if (Object.DividedByZero == true) { Universe.Implode(); }
Meus ratio ex fortis machina. Simplicitatis de formae ac munus. -Foothill, 2016
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At a small company I was working for, the owner and president of the company (my direct boss; I was theoretically a director), bought himself all the latest greatest toys and passed on his old equipment down the line. As a result I got his one year old laptop. I then found out he didn't understand how the Recycle Bin worked. He thought he had cleared everything off and I was quite shocked and disgusted when I found the images still sitting on the disk.
I deleted everything properly, wiped the disk and re-installed the O/S from the original media. They were so bad I was thinking of calling the police/FBI on him but then I realised that, in my haste to get rid of the filth, I had just obliterated all the evidence I had! On top of that, if he had been arrested I, and 58 other people would have lost our jobs (and some of us our work visas).
About ten months later he fled the country with the FBI and the IRS in hot pursuit! Good riddance to bad rubbish, I said! He was a terrible boss but paid well above the norm (to keep people who would put up with his tantrums, etc.). The company closed down and we all lost our jobs anyway. Luckily I had just got my Green Card so I could get another job without having to leave the US, although as a "director" level it took five months and moving to a different State to do it, even then only getting 60% of what I had been earning.
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
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