vax Quintessensual At a major US university, just before the big 00:00:00 between 31/12/99 and 01/01/00, the venerable VAX, once the king of computing machines at the school, will have its plug pulled. Ouch! It will be an ignominious end to an honorable career shortened by the ferocious speed of change. 991219 ... typhoid God rest ye CS students now, Let nothing you dismay. The VAX is down and won't be up, Until the first of May. The program that was due this morn, Won't be postponed, they say. CHORUS: Oh, tidings of comfort and joy, Comfort and joy, Oh, tidings of comfort and joy. The bearings on the drum are gone, The disk is wobbling, too. We've found a bug in Lisp, and Algol Can't tell false from true. And now we find that we can't get At Berkeley's 4.2. (chorus) We've just received a call from DEC, They'll send without delay A monitor called RSuX It takes nine hundred K. The staff committed suicide, We'll bury them today. (chorus) And now some cheery news for you, The network's also dead, We'll have to print your files on The line printer instead. The turnaround time's nineteen weeks. And only cards are read. (chorus) And now we'd like to say to you Before we go away, We hope the news we've brought to you Won't ruin your whole day. You've got another program due, tomorrow, by the way. (chorus) 991227 ... troy -typhoid: Thanks for your witty-verses above; they have indeed brought me great tidings of Comfort and Joy! -troy 000106 ... grasshopper *shudder* 000502 ... hyperform it's always sad to say goodbye. Brings memories of Vonnegut's "EPICAC" 010324 what's it to you? who go blather from