Sung to the tune of ''The Twelve Days of Christmas'' Lyrics by Bob Kanefsky
+22 Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1987 8:44
From: Mike Dobe
Subject: Christmas Carols
Received: From for
via RSCS by ECNCDC; Thu, 17 Dec 1987 08:43 CST
Received: from CUNYVM by CUNYVM.BITNET (Mailer X1.25) with BSMTP id 9866; Thu,
17 Dec 87 09:28:24 EST
Received: from BCLVXA by CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU ; Thu, 17 Dec 87 09:27:44 EST
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 87 09:18 EDT
From: Mike Dobe
Subject: Christmas Carols
To: xgmh%ecncdc.bitnet@cunyvm.cuny.edu, xsak%ecncdc.bitnet@cunyvm.cuny.edu
X-VMS-To: IN%"xgmh@ecncdc.bitnet",IN%"xsak@ecncdc.bitnet",DOBE
Someone around here got these from OSU - Merry Christmas!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sung to the tune of "The Twelve Days of Christmas"
Lyrics by Bob Kanefsky
On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love gave to me
Twelve PUSHJs stacking
Eleven strings unpacking
Ten hackers hacking
Nine crunchers crunching
Eight users using
Seven cretins losing
Six queues a-growing
F i v e a s c i z s t r i n g s
Four subroutines
Three long sends
Two heavy sighs
And a terminal made by HP
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Do You Know What I Know?
lyrics by Haruka Takano
written 24-Oct-80
Walking into Ceras in the night
Do you see what I see?
People lining up to get in line
Do you see what I see?
A queue, a queue
Growing in the night
With a tail that's nowhere in sight
With a tail that's nowhere in sight!
Wondering why I get no response
Do you hear what I hear?
I ask the consultant what is wrong
Do you hear what I hear?
A beep, a flash
The system has just crashed
And my file has just been smashed
And my file has just been smashed!
Sitting for an hour and a half
Do you know what I know?
Waiting for my listing to come out
Do you know what I know?
A rip, a tear
The printer has just jammed
And my listing has just been trashed
And my listing has just been trashed!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rudolph, the EMACS Hacker
(to the tune "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer")
Rudolph, the EMACS hacker
Had a piece of TECO code
And if you ever ran it
You would lighten up your load
All of the other hackers
Used to call his programs names
They never let poor Rudolph
Play any computer games
When one hacker lost his fork,
He was heard to say:
"Rudolph, with your CUSPy hack,
Can you get my edit back?"
Then all the other hackers
Loaded up his library;
Rudolph, the EMACS hacker -
You'll go down in hackery!
--Lynn Gold
The First, Last, One and Only (I think)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Silent Night
sung to the tune of "Silent Night" by Franz Mohr
Silent Night! Boring Night!
LOTS has crashed, all is blight
Run yon CHECKD, wizard and wheel
Holy twenty never shall keel
Boot in heavenly peace
Boot in heavenly peace
Silent Night! Boring Night!
Wizards shake, hackers fight
As they wait in queue for a day
All their homeworks were due yesterday
Still, the system is down!
Still, the system is down!
Silent Night! Boring Night!
Oh my God, I see light
Radiant beams from one hacker's face
LESS is up, so let's leave this place
There, the load's below one!
There, the load's below one!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
God Rest Ye CS Students
--- ---- -- -- --------
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.
Oh, tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy,
Oh, tidings of comfort and joy!
The bearings on the disk are gone, and bits are dropping too,
We've found a bug in C, and Pascal can't tell false from true,
And now we find that we can't get at Berkeley's 4.2.
Oh, tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy,
Oh, tidings of comfort and joy!
And all you fans of matrix math who would use APL,
You'd find out if the VAX were up, it wouldn't work too well,
And if you try, then it'll say that you can go to . . . well . . .
Oh, tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy,
Oh, tidings of comfort and joy!
We've just received a call from DEC, they'll send without delay
A system they call RSuX it takes nine hundred k,
The staff committed suicide we'll bury them today.
Oh, tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy,
Oh, tidings of comfort and joy!
And now more cheery news for you, the network's also dead,
You'll have to run your programs on the IBM instead,
The turnaround time's nineteen weeks and only cards are read.
Oh, tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy,
Oh, tidings of comfort and joy!
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.
Oh, tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy,
Oh, tidings of comfort and joy!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
M E R R Y C H R I S T M A S
'Twas the night before crisis, and all through the house,
Not a program was working, not even a browse.
The programmers were wrung out, too mindless to care,
Knowing chances of cutover hadn't a prayer.
The users were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of inquiries danced in their heads.
When out in the lobby there arose such a clatter,
That I sprang from my tube to see what was the matter.
And what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a Super Programmer, oblivious to fear.
More rapid than eagles, his programs they came,
And he whistled and shouted and called them by name.
On Update! On Add! On Inquiry! On Delete!
On Batch Jobs! On Closing! On Functions Complete!
His eyes were glazed over, his fingers were lean,
From weekends and nights in front of a screen.
A wink of his eye, and a twist of his head,
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread.
He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
Turning specs into code, then turned with a jerk,
And laying his finger on the ENTER key,
The system came up, and worked perfectly.
The updates, updated; the deletes, they deleted;
The inquiries, inquired; and the closing completed.
He tested each whistle, he tested each bell,
With nary an abend, and all had gone well.
The system was finished, the tests were concluded,
The client's last changes were even included!
And the client exclaimed with a snarl and a taunt,
'It's just what I asked for, but it's not what I want.'
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Byte Before Christmas
Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house,
Not a user was using ... not even a mouse;
The programs were hung from the bugs in their code,
In hopes that a guru would soon cure their woes;
The data were nestled all snug in their beds,
While versions of software danced in their heads;
The boss dimmed the lights as I locked up my desk,
A couple days off and a well-deserved rest;
Then all of a sudden there came such a clatter,
I sprang from my chair to see what was the matter.
Away to the processor I flew like a flash,
What a terrible sound .. like a massive headcrash;
The lights they were blinking and beaming aglow,
The hardcopy printout said "Let service know!";
When what to my wandering eyes should appear,
On a silicon wafer ... a field engineer;
A little device driver, so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be St. Chip!
More rapid than Macro, his cursor insane,
He whistled and shouted like a video game.
Now, Pascal! Now, Basic!, Now, Fortran and Cobol!
On RPG! On PL/1, On Dibol and Snobol!
To the top of the registers, the bottom of core!
Run diagnostics and see what they store!
As memory leaves when electricity flies,
The 'Rep' cracked a smile and loosened his tie;
He was chubby and plump, said the place was a wreck,
And I laughed when I saw him (in spite of high tech).
A wink of his eye, and a twist of his head,
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread.
He was dressed from his head to his feet in a suit,
His briefcase was heavy with tools to re-boot.
With bundles of bits bulging out of his slacks,
He looked like a pro 'bout to fix a blown pack.
He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
Reseated PC boards, then turned with a smirk;
Hit return with his finger and said "Here it goes,"
And giving a nod, into the CRT he dove.
But I heard him exclaim, 'ere leaving the site,
"Restore the data, and all will be right!"
