Article View: alt.folklore.computers
Article #1402Re: Cat bringing system down
From: m... Michael Sinz - CATS
Date: Mon, 19 Feb 1990 12:28
Date: Mon, 19 Feb 1990 12:28
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2419 bytes
In article <JV.90Feb...@mhres.mh.nl> j...@mh.nl (Johan Vromans) writes: >Everybody knows the stories about squirrels bringing computer systems >down by biting the cables. >My cat took a different approach ... [story deleted...] Well, my cat took yet another approach... It was back in the days of S-100 systems and funny machines that would use cassette tape as low-cost home storage devices. One of my systems had this "reset" button that was in the casework and made in such a way that you had to push it with your finger twice for it to really do the reset. It also had a CPU idle light in it... The cat liked to watch this but had never gone near it. However, one day, while working on some large program, the cat started to play with the button. Before I was able to stop it, it had double pushed the button and the system went down! I spent the next hour trying to recover the core and the source I was working on and just as I was saving it to cassette, the blasted cat did it again! I had to take the cat outside, lock the door, rebuild the core once again and save it. I then added a toggle switch to the back of the machine that would enable the reset button (simple stuff) and let the cat back in. While it continued to play with the button, it never again had the chance to reset the machine. /----------------------------------------------------------------------\ | /// Michael Sinz -- CATS/Amiga Software Engineer | | /// PHONE 215-431-9422 UUCP ( uunet | rutgers ) !cbmvax!mks | | /// | |\\\/// "I don't think so," said Ren'e Descartes. | | \XX/ Just then, he vanished. | \----------------------------------------------------------------------/
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Path: mbox-mo1.pugleaf.net!gmdzi!unido!mcsun!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!rutgers!cbmvax!mks From: m...@cbmvax.commodore.com (Michael Sinz - CATS) Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: Cat bringing system down Message-ID: <9720@cbmvax.commodore.com> Date: 19 Feb 90 12:28:03 GMT References: <JV.90Feb18151806@mhres.mh.nl> Reply-To: m...@cbmvax.cbm.commodore.com (Michael Sinz - CATS) Organization: Commodore, West Chester, PA Lines: 33 Posted: Mon Feb 19 13:28:03 1990 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit