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What can I say about today?
( Work & lunch & stuff. )
The guest speaker was Ken Thompson. Everyone was very excited. It was an interview with one of the senior dudes, who had a compilation of prepared questions. It was great fun to listen to.
At one point, it transpired that Ken had brought something for show-and-tell, in case things got slow. It was an Enigma machine. We were duly impressed. He told the story of how he had come by it (lost the coin flip, but later inherited it) and the other fellow held it up so we all could see. Ooo.
Eventually they opened up the floor for questions. Ever since he'd mentioned Berkeley specifically by name, my brain had been going down the breaking-things path. (The story of my father vs. the variable speed card reader goes here.) As I listened and grabbed the occasional picture, I thought about what the best question might be. What about the most expensive thing he had broken?
Some questions later, it solidified in my mind, and I caught the attention of the guy with the microphone. I held it carefully as Ken answered the previous question (and handed it back to the guy who'd asked the previous question when he needed to clarify, because some things just need amplification). And soon enough it was my turn.
The question I asked was shaped a little like this: Breaking things can often be a significant part of a computer person's life. Could he talk a little bit about some of the more interesting times he tried to break something, broke something, or almost broke something?
I noticed absently that my voice, amplified and re-broadcast over the speakers, was clear, full of humor, and without raspiness or hesitation. It was a reasonably nice voice. Apparently I've been coming to terms with it.
The question was wildly popular; as I sat back, my #cupcake compatriots congratulated me on an excellent question. He settled in to give us context and then a hell of a story. I will do my best to relate it; I've been poking around to see if there's a better version up online elsewhere somewhere. However! There were no few times that he'd in fact had written permission to fuck all sorts of shit up, and in one particular workplace, they'd been in the habit of leaving little easter eggs for him inside the hospital mainframe, with taunting messages to the effect that he could never get this one. And in his pursuit of this particular one, he had managed to de-couple the login function from the password file that it was supposed to check, with the result that there would be no more logins. And he couldn't get them back together. (Appropriate noises from the audience.) However! He had two terminals open. And he was still logged in over there. And he managed to discern that he could make the login program check for a password against the terminal. And he did. And he was back in. And hooooooo boy the stuff he could get into. And after that, this trick was in his arsenal.
There were more questions, and more answers. ( Read more... )
( Work & lunch & stuff. )
The guest speaker was Ken Thompson. Everyone was very excited. It was an interview with one of the senior dudes, who had a compilation of prepared questions. It was great fun to listen to.
At one point, it transpired that Ken had brought something for show-and-tell, in case things got slow. It was an Enigma machine. We were duly impressed. He told the story of how he had come by it (lost the coin flip, but later inherited it) and the other fellow held it up so we all could see. Ooo.
Eventually they opened up the floor for questions. Ever since he'd mentioned Berkeley specifically by name, my brain had been going down the breaking-things path. (The story of my father vs. the variable speed card reader goes here.) As I listened and grabbed the occasional picture, I thought about what the best question might be. What about the most expensive thing he had broken?
Some questions later, it solidified in my mind, and I caught the attention of the guy with the microphone. I held it carefully as Ken answered the previous question (and handed it back to the guy who'd asked the previous question when he needed to clarify, because some things just need amplification). And soon enough it was my turn.
The question I asked was shaped a little like this: Breaking things can often be a significant part of a computer person's life. Could he talk a little bit about some of the more interesting times he tried to break something, broke something, or almost broke something?
I noticed absently that my voice, amplified and re-broadcast over the speakers, was clear, full of humor, and without raspiness or hesitation. It was a reasonably nice voice. Apparently I've been coming to terms with it.
The question was wildly popular; as I sat back, my #cupcake compatriots congratulated me on an excellent question. He settled in to give us context and then a hell of a story. I will do my best to relate it; I've been poking around to see if there's a better version up online elsewhere somewhere. However! There were no few times that he'd in fact had written permission to fuck all sorts of shit up, and in one particular workplace, they'd been in the habit of leaving little easter eggs for him inside the hospital mainframe, with taunting messages to the effect that he could never get this one. And in his pursuit of this particular one, he had managed to de-couple the login function from the password file that it was supposed to check, with the result that there would be no more logins. And he couldn't get them back together. (Appropriate noises from the audience.) However! He had two terminals open. And he was still logged in over there. And he managed to discern that he could make the login program check for a password against the terminal. And he did. And he was back in. And hooooooo boy the stuff he could get into. And after that, this trick was in his arsenal.
There were more questions, and more answers. ( Read more... )
