[ale] Engineering Archaeology

Alex Carver agcarver+ale at acarver.net
Sat Jan 31 18:10:24 EST 2026 

That's the ever present George P. Burdell at GT except Burdell excels at 
everything, knows everything, has taken every class, and has graduated 
at least once yet somehow still evades detection.

On 2026-01-26 10:57, Jim Kinney via Ale wrote:
> My school had NOT gone into the computer world yet when I "gained 
> access" to the room where the <ominous voice> permanent records </voice> 
> were stored and created a new student with a past - not a great student 
> but one that would not be a standout for any reason. Ran that for nearly 
> 2 years, adding end of quarter grade, attendance records, etc. Almost 
> got him an absentee diploma but was not willing to cough up the 
> mandatory $20 fee. One of my teachers figured out the con and played 
> along because it was fun. William Gregory Smith IV, Bill Smith. B- 
> student with no hobbies or extra-curricular activities.
> 
> Pretty sure shenanigans like that would be good for a few felonies now.
> 
> On Mon, Jan 26, 2026 at 12:05 PM Jeff Lightner via Ale <ale at ale.org 
> <mailto:ale at ale.org>> wrote:
> 
>     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 <mailto: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 <mailto:ale at ale.org>>
>     Cc: Steve Litt <slitt at troubleshooters.com
>     <mailto: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 <http://444domains.com>
> 
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> 
> 
> -- 
> -- 
> James P. Kinney III
> ////
> ////Every time you stop a school, you will have to build a jail. What 
> you gain at one end you lose at the other. It's like feeding a dog on 
> his own tail. It won't fatten the dog.
> - Speech 11/23/1900 Mark Twain
> ////
> http://heretothereideas.blogspot.com/ <http:// 
> heretothereideas.blogspot.com/>
> ////
> 
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