Article View: alt.folklore.computers
Article #278Pranks (was Re: revenge)
From: port... Michael Portuesi
Date: Thu, 14 Dec 1989 20:42
Date: Thu, 14 Dec 1989 20:42
27 lines
1790 bytes
1790 bytes
Back when I was in high school, they had a lab of about 30 or so
TRS-80 model III's that they used for Basic programming.
One day, either myself or another person got the idea for putting
together a fake basic interpreter. It accepted any line that began
with a line number, just as if the user were talking to the
interpreter. Any immediate mode commands, such as "run" or "list"
were greeted with "?syntax error".
We ran the program on all the lab machines. Many people were very
confused, though most didn't lose much work. They eventually just
turned the computer off and back on again, flushing the program from
memory.
Our sequel to the fake basic interpreter was a fake TRSDOS
interpreter. It would interpret TRSDOS commands, and even spin the
disks in the drives in a convincing fashion, but not do anything. I
don't think we finished that one before we lost interest in it and
gave up.
--M
--
__
\/ Michael Portuesi Silicon Graphics Computer Systems, Inc.
port...@SGI.COM Entry Systems Division -- Engineering
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Path: mbox-mo1.pugleaf.net!gmdzi!unido!mcsun!uunet!lll-winken!arisia!sgi!shinobu!odin!odin.corp.sgi.com!portuesi From: port...@tweezers.esd.sgi.com (Michael Portuesi) Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Pranks (was Re: revenge) Message-ID: <PORTUESI.89Dec14204256@tweezers.esd.sgi.com> Date: 14 Dec 89 20:42:56 GMT References: <3117@tymix.UUCP> <89348.111728DN5@PSUVM.BITNET> Sender: ne...@odin.SGI.COM Reply-To: port...@sgi.com (Michael Portuesi) Distribution: alt Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc., Mtn. View, CA Lines: 27 Posted: Thu Dec 14 21:42:56 1989 In-reply-to: DN5@PSUVM.BITNET's message of 14 Dec 89 16:17:28 GMT MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit