At 5:45 -0500 7/16/04, Ed Sharpe wrote:
>What is the foulest thing you have ever made a digitalker chip set say?!
>
>Thanks Ed Sharpe archivist for SMECC
Can't resist. This is not really in response to your
question, but at least on-topic.
In the late '80s, I shared an office with 3 other grad
students. One had a Mac SE/30 and was ahead of the rest of us in
learning the internet. He got the serial line connection to the
building Unix box run into our office, discovered how to ftp files
from internet sites, D/L over serial to the macs, decompress, etc.
One night around midnight (when the rest of us were asleep),
he discovered a site with a bunch of sound clips from movies, and
software to substitute the clips for system beep, startup chime, etc.
He went to work, and got his box all set up the way he wanted.
Next morning, I came in long before he was up, and fired up
his machine to do something on it. Instead of <Beeeeep!> it said "My
GOD! It's full of *STARS*! <opening strains of Also Sprach
Zarathustra>".
Oh, verrry nice. I explored the new directory, discovering
eventually clips from "Alien" among quite a few others. I *also*
discovered the graphical sound-clip editor that came with the package.
Hmmm. I set to work.
An hour or so later, the owner of the machine walked in, a
bit bleary-eyed but looking smugger than anyone I have ever seen
before or since. "Hey, guys", he chirped, "I found some new software.
Wait'll you see!" Sitting down at his desk, he gave us all another
smug look, flipped the switch and leaned back in his chair as the
disk spun up. "What?" we said, our best innocent looks plastered
across our faces, "a new startup screen or something?" "You'll
see..." came the response.
The computer finally piped up, "My GOD! It's full of <click>
*..SH1T..* <click> <opening strains of Also Sprach Zarathustra>". It
turns out Sigourney Weaver's voice (as in Alien), if
frequency-shifted down about half an octave, is almost a dead ringer
for Keir Dullea's (as in 2001).
Mr. Smug's head snapped around in the fastest double-take
I've ever seen. "WHAT!" Then realization set in.. "You guys...."
He cleaned up the <click>s and kept the startup sound for
months, though.
--
- Mark
210-522-6025, page 888-733-0967
Received on Tue Jul 20 2004 - 08:48:45 BST