Date: 14 Jun 93 13:36:58 PDT (Monday) Subject: Life 9.T ---------------------------------------------------- From dsc.cuties moderated by lindsay%dscatl.UUCP@mathcs.emory.edu (Lindsay Cleveland) -------------------------- Contributed by: ihuxm!ivy "Man who keeps to middle of the road... Get run over from BOTH directions!" -------------------------- Contributed by: wegdcb!gcegb CANDID COMMENT The difference between computer error and human error is that the computer usually knows better. --A. H. Berzen, WSJ 2/21/84 -------------------------- Contributed by: ut-sally!riddle "I have often had the impression that, to penguins, man is just another penguin -- different, less predictable, occasionally violent, but tolerable company when he sits still and minds his own business." -- Bernard Stonehouse -------------------------- Contributed by: cbosgd!mark My all time favorite error message, which was officially documented in a UNIVAC COBOL manual along with all the other error messages the COBOL compiler might produce: Some obscure difficulty has arisen. -------------------------- Not too long ago, a story make the rounds of Washington that ran like this: A senator had achieved great fame through his public speaking. He was even mentioned for Secretary of State, and possibly Vice President. What people didn't know, though, was that this great orator could not write a speech to save his life. He had a ghost writer and all the senator did was read the words the other man had written. One other thing you have to know is that the senator never once gave any credit to his ghost writer. Finally, on the last day of the senator's term of office, he was called upon to address a large gathering in his honor. As he went to the dais, the ghost writer handed him his speech. And sure enough, it was a fantastic talk. Time after time, he had the audience on its feet applauding. Then he came to the next to the last page of his speech, and he read: "And now, Mr. President, fellow members of the Congess, friends: In this last two minutes of my term of office, I want to set before you four principles that have come to me out of a lifetime of study. Principles which, if put into practice by our government, could bring peace to the Mid-East, take care of unemployment, and prevent recession. In all humility, but with a deep conviction, I set them before you now..." He turned the page. The page was blank, except for a note from his ghost writer which read, "You're on your own now, Bud." -- Eugene H. Buxton -------------------------- It's important to keep an open mind, but not so open that your brains fall out. Stephen A. Kallis, Jr. -------------------------- Contributed by: ihuxi!walsh Many people don't know that the great American composer George Gershwin loved computers. But his brother, Ira, hated them. That is why Ira took all of George's songs and changed the titles and words. The original titles include: I Got Algorithm They Can't Take That Array From Me I Got Plenty O' Debuggin' The Mainframe I Love A Foggy Database Our Love is Here to Stack Softwaretime and, of course, the all-time classic: Rhapsody in Boolean -------------------------- Contributed by: hp-pcd!harold Slogan on T-shirts anonymously printed for Engineers Week: "If you are smart enough to know that you're not smart enough to be an Engineer, then you're in Business." -------------------------- "...an engineer is a man who can do for ten shillings what any fool can do for a pound..." Nevil Shute, 1954 "You sure he doesn't have that backwards?" Aerospace corporation engineering supervisor, 1967 -------------------------- Contributed by: dan@sri-tsc I had a startling experience while a coop student. I was in late at night printing out a rather large, racy digitized picture on our UNIX system, and I decided to copy it to tape so I could take it back to school with me. While running "tp" (it was a V6 unix system), I got the error message "UNIX is feeling B A D -- call Kernighan". At the time I was a rather novice UNIX user, and when I saw that message I broke out into a cold sweat, aborted the tp command, and spend the next two weeks frantically grepping through tp, the shell, and the kernel for that message, trying to figure out what I had broken. I never found it. Five years later at a USENIX conference, while talking to my old boss, he mentioned that he had seen me logged into the console one night doing illicit things, and echoed that message to the console. If all else fails, suspect your friends... -Dan -------------------------- Contributed by: ut-ngp!ables Seems a group of four Aggies (students from Texas A&M for those unfamiliar with the traditions between Texas and Texas A&M) were arrested just outside of Austin by Travis County Sheriff's officers early one morning (Nov 4). They were spotted removing highway signs from their signposts and "making off" with them. Their explanation was that they were going to use the signs as fuel in the traditional Aggie Bon Fire which is held the week before the Texas-Texas A&M football game which is on Nov 26. All the signs in the back of their truck had the word "Austin" in them (they were mileage markers reading "Austin 44", "Austin 24", "Austin 16", etc.) and formed a trail leading back to College Station. The signs were all made of metal. ---------------------------------------------------- From Netwit, a collection of humor by Jeffrey H. Knodel. (knodel@netwit.cmhnet.org) -------------------------- From: horn@husc.harvard.edu A Bostonian, a Midwesterner, and a Yalie decided to pool their funds and go to the Olympics in Barcelona. The airfare and hotel rates ate up most of their money, and so they didn't have enough to get into the stadium to see the events. So they stood around the gate watching more fortunate folk get in, and then noticed that some people didn't have to pay. Whenever an athlete passed the guard with his (or her) equipment, the guard would simply nod and let them through. So the three visitors quickly trotted off to a nearby hardware store, and came back shortly to try to get in. The Bostonian walked up to the guard and gestured at the long pole he carried. "Pole vaulting," he said, and the guard waved him through. The Midwesterner, having rigged up an ax to a length of chain, approached the guard next and showed off his wares. "Ax throwing," he said, and the guard shrugged and waved him through. The Yalie came last, with a roll of chain link on his shoulder. "Fencing." -------------------------- From: lyn@anchor.esd.sgi.com (Lyn Dearborn) The Army has figured out how to preserve food by running an electric current through it. Eventually, they plan to use this to replace the infamous MRE's. I think they should sell this stuff commercially. It would be really good for power lunches. -------------------------- --Potatoe Juice: APUCORLE@idbsu.idbsu.edu Jenkins started a new job and became friendly with a long-time employee. "Do you like it here?" Jenkins asked. "It's great," answered the old-timer. "Not only do we have a good pension plan, but working here ages you faster." -------------------------- Submitted by: aproden@ac.dal.ca (Andrew P. Rodenhiser) I have a utility knife, made in Korea, with a sticker on it which, along with the company name and patent number, bears a large warning message: CAUTION: BLADE EXTREMELY SHARP KEEP OUT OF CHILDREN The newer models have this corrected. -------------------------- Submitted by: shane@kiwi.swhs.ohio-state.edu A local TV newscaster was heard to say that a man who had received the transplanted liver of a baboon was doing better but "wasn't out of the woods yet." -------------------------- --One from the Peanut Gallery: "Scott A. Rust" [SARUST@gallua.gallaudet.edu] Why was Jesus born in a stable? Because Joseph belonged to an HMO. --Potato Juice: APUCORLE@idbsu.idbsu.edu Our dog, Mr. Hoover, suddenly began barking daily at 4 a.m. Irritated and sleepy, my husband, John, searched the back yard for what might have disturbed this otherwise placid animal. For three days he found nothing amiss. Then the dog woke up the neighborhood at 3 a.m. with frantic barking. When John looked out the window, he discovered someone throwing pebbles to land near Mr. Hoover. John hurried outside and found the culprit. Crouching on the other side of the fence was our quiet neighbor, the last man you'd suspect of wrongdoing. My husband demanded to know what he was doing. "My mother-in-law is visiting," the embarrassed neighbor explained. "If she loses her beauty sleep another night, she says she'll leave." -One from the Peanut Gallery: Mark A. Stevens [stevens@stsci.edu] Beer Here! [Its great to have a democrat in the office again B) ] -- The Secret Service has been worried by Bill Clinton's practice of taking early morning jogs. They got a real scare the other day when somebody threw a beer at the president. Fortunately, it turned out to have been a draft, and Clinton was able to dodge it. -------------------------- One from the Peanut Gallery: Rob Knauerhase [knauer@cs.uiuc.edu] Presidents' Day --- Paraphrased (rewritten) from Jay Leno, 2/15/93: "I celebrated Presidents' Day in an authentic manner. I jogged to McDonald's, had a couple Big Macs, broke some promises from a couple months ago, and then took some money from some average middle-class citizens." -------------------------- --One From the Peanut Gallery "Kevin W. McAuley" [kwm@ra.cs.umb.edu] [send me the] bill ... * there are too many bills to pay without having to pay the one in washington. chevyn -------------------------- --One from the Peanut Gallery: APUCORLE@idbsu.idbsu.edu Dolly Parton Quote "After Mama gave birth to 12 of us kids, we put her up on a pedestal. It was mostly to keep Daddy away from her!" - Dolly Parton -------------------------- --One from the Peanut Gallery: chpp@unitrix.utr.ac.za (Prof P. Piacenza) Heard as the only funny part in a sitcom (Babes): A new stamp commemorating Milli Vanilli has been issued. They are not on it. -------------------------- --Fortune Cookie: Take everything in stride. Trample anyone who gets in your way. -------------------------- --Potato Juice: APUCORLE@idbsu.idbsu.edu Phone Sales More from Reader's Digest: My sister had been plagued by persistent salespeople phoning to sell her condo time shares. Nothing seemed to discourage them until the day she allowed one caller to go through the usual litany of questions, which led to the subject of family income. "Do you want our income with or without welfare payments?" my sister asked. She hasn't been bothered since. -------------------------- --One from the Peanut Gallery: "Mark D Baushke" [mdb@cisco.com] live on CNN today During Ross Perot's testimony before congress being covered live by CNN this afternoon, they pulled back to put in headlines under his testimony... during a closeup of Ross Perot one of the first headlines said: Texas cult leader promises to give up. Why did that seem so appropriate? :-) -------------------------- --One from the Peanut Gallery VOORTREKKER [FU744C@gwuvm.gwu.edu] Bill Clinton will launch health consciousness campaign and promote jogging and reportedly he asked Hillary would she run. "No", she said,"not now, not until '96." -------------------------- --Potato Juice: APUCORLE@idbsu.idbsu.edu Alcohol Consumption ]From Jay Leno: The two U.S. cities with the highest alcohol consumption are Las Vegas and Washington, DC. The difference between the two is that in Washington the drunks are gambling with *our* money! -------------------------- --A Note from the Net: rec.humor From: EC0AAEF [EC0AAEF@MUSIC.TCS.TULANE.EDU] (to the tune of "THE ADAMS FAMILY") They're slimy and they're cheesy They're dedicated P.C. They're altogether sleazy The Clinton Family da da da da tax tax da da da da tax tax da da da da da da da da da da da da tax tax Their policies are daft They'll gladly accept graft Bill dodged the draft The Clinton Family da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da tax tax They're politics will disgrace Your income will be displaced Their daughter is a dog-face The Clinton Family -------------------------- One From the Peanut Gallery: From: consp11 (Jason Piecora) From: Kriston J. Rehberg (consp03@bingsuns.cc.binghamton.edu) NEW Write In C Song! Sung to Beatles "Let it Be": When I find my code in tons of touble, Friends and colleages come to me, Speaking words of wisdom: "Write in C." As the deadline fast approaches, And bugs are all that I can see, Somewhere, someone whispers: "Write in C." Write in C, write in C, Write in C, oh, write in C. LISP is dead and buried, Write in C. I used to write a lot of FORTRAN, For science it worked flawlessly. Try using it for graphics! Write in C. If you've just spent nearly 30 hours Debugging some assembly, Soon you will be glad to Write in C. Write in C, write in C, Write in C, yeah, write in C. Only wimps use BASIC. Write in C. Write in C, write in C Write in C, oh, write in C. Pascal won't quite cut it. Write in C. { Guitar Solo } Write in C, write in C, Write in C, yeah, write in C. Don't even mention COBOL. Write in C. And when the screen is fuzzy, And the editor is bugging me. I'm sick of ones and zeros, Write in C. A thousand people sware that T.P. Seven is the one for me. I hate the word PROCEDURE, Write in C. Write in C, write in C, Write in C, yeah, write in C. PL1 is 80s, Write in C. Write in C, write in C, Write in C, yeah, write in C. The government loves ADA, Write in C. -- Henry Cate III [cate3@netcom.com] The Life collection maintainer, selections of humor from the internet Oppurtunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. - Thomas Edison
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