[ale] Engineering Archaeology

[jc.lightner at comcast.net]

Slightly more on topic is this computer prank.  

My senior year of HS they consolidated 3 high schools into a new one.  That
one was the first to offer computer classes.   I wasn't in one but a buddy
was.  

They had gone "high tech" by giving all the students punch cards with their
names on them.   For home room and each class we were told to give each
teacher one of the cards.  To take attendance the teacher would simply send
in the punch cards with missing students' names on them.  

My buddy who access to the keypunch machine typed up one (without labeling
it) with a rude message on it.   In one of my classes when the teacher
wasn't looking I inserted that card into the stack of absent students.

When the absentee list was printed there was some consternation because the
rude message appeared in the middle of it and got disseminated.   They were
able to see which teacher and period in which it had apparently been
inserted but there were no students in that class who had direct access to
the keypunch machine.   They never did figure out he had typed it up and I
had inserted it.  

-----Original Message-----
From: Ale <ale-bounces at ale.org> On Behalf Of Steve Litt via Ale
Sent: Monday, January 26, 2026 12:56 AM
To: Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts <ale at ale.org>
Cc: Steve Litt <slitt at troubleshooters.com>
Subject: Re: [ale] Engineering Archaeology

Bob Toxen said on Sun, 25 Jan 2026 20:44:20 -0500

>The day before Halloween when I was 13, I was making smoke bombs for 
>Halloween.  I mixed up amonium nitrate and zink dust with iodine to 
>give it a rich purple color.
>
>I folded up a piece of paper into a small container, added some of the 
>mixture, taped it shut, and tossed it into a large bottle with the rest 
>of them.  I discovered that the mixture should be triggered with a 
>match. I had forgotten that my father demonstrated the feature by 
>dribbling a few drops of water onto the mixture.
>
>Well, after the bottle was filled with about 50 cubic inches of this, 
>to my shock and horror, it sucked enough moisture out of the air to 
>start the reaction, bursting into flame.  The smoke screen was so dense 
>that it would do James Bond proud.
>
>I opened all of the windows of the house to air it out and then went 
>outside with my brother to avoid choking on the smoke.
>
>I saw dense smoke coming out of all of the windows. I was lucky that 
>none of the neighbors saw as they surely would have called the fire 
>department.  But wait, there's more.  My town was too small to have its 
>own police department so they contracted with the state police for 
>this. (They were a really nasty bunch.)  They had made their annual 
>patrol of the neighborhood only an hour before.  Phew.  My parents 
>never found out.

I was an 18 typical teeny bopper ricer the summer of 1968, the proud owner
of the South Side Special, a 59 Plymouth Savoy that burned a quart of oil
every 50 miles. And like every stupid male, I used all sorts of "mechanic in
a can" products, and made great show of opening the hood and taking off the
air cleaner after parking.

One day I and my two buddies parked at MacDonalds in Glenview, so I opened
up the hood, took off the air cleaner, and poured an entire 16 ounce can of
carburetor cleaner down the carb, when you're spozed to use only 3 ounces.
We went inside, had our lunch, came back out, and after about three coughing
tries, the engine barely started, coughing and spitting out voluminous
smoke. I backed out, drove twice around the building, and turned right onto
the street. My buddy started laughing his ass off, saying he couldn't see
the golden arches. Looking in my rear view mirror confirmed it: The entire
building, arches, and parking lot were enveloped in opaque gray smoke.

Three weeks later we went back to the same Macdonalds. The store manager saw
me, grabbed me by the lapels, pulled me half way over the counter, told me
to leave and said he never wanted to see me or my "f__kin Plymouth" ever
again.

86'ed from Macdonalds. How low can you go?

SteveT

Steve Litt 

http://444domains.com

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