X-NEWS: spcvxb.spc.edu alt.folklore.computers: 57200 Xref: spcuna alt.religion.kibology:16202 alt.folklore.computers:57200 Path: spcuna!uunet!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!darwin.sura.net!blaze.cs.jhu.edu!rhombus.cs.jhu.edu!not-for-mail From: stiller@rhombus.cs.jhu.edu (Lewis Stiller) Newsgroups: alt.religion.kibology,alt.folklore.computers Subject: The thrum of computers late at night Date: 1 Dec 1993 06:47:56 -0500 Organization: The Johns Hopkins University CS Department Lines: 56 Message-ID: <2di09c$djp@rhombus.cs.jhu.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: rhombus.cs.jhu.edu Summary: whirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr Keywords: thrum thrum thrum thrum thrum thrum thrum thrum whirr It seems that I have spent a large fraction of my life alone in computer rooms late at night (and then on into the early morning.) It gets very weird yet interesting. OK, well, weird anyway. At universities there are sometimes a few other people on late at night. There are also janitors, sometimes a lot, who go around and clean up. Some play really loud music. I try to be friendly with them, but they always seem to think I am a little odd, and that I am interrupting their job by being in the office late. Other places...let's see... One place I worked at had this huge computer room with all kinds of big computers in it. It made a lot of noise, there was some kind of fancy air conditioning system too. I'd be all alone, all night, surrounded by these huge machines, sealed inside a building, just listening to the whirr of the fans, the drives, and the air conditioning system. Sometimes I would have to leave to print something out. Sometimes someone else would drop by. That was it. Another place had nice couches to lie down on and a kitchen one could raid. It was a pretty building, but any building no matter how pretty gets very quiet very late. There were scientists working on things in these large rooms with lots of machines and papers with huge circuit diagrams on them that were, I'm sure, quite important. Lot of phones, lot of workstations. A really weird thing is that many computer rooms I have been in have had mice. I mean, real mice, the four-legged kind. When people come by in the morning, you've just spent hours staring at a screen, listening to these whirring noises, you are hungry, tired, and they start coming in, all bright and cheerful and noisy, it is kind of strange. Anyway, now I am at home, and I am still up late at night, and I am just listening to my little PC clone whirr. Then there's the furnace, and the electrical system makes this strange humming noise too. Staring at the screen. I used to enjoy Usenet, but since When It Changed, when Delphi and the freshman won the war, it hasn't been the same. I can't tell the sci from the alt anymore. Sometimes there are no windows but you can still tell it is day from the noise or the air, or something. Birds and so on. Windows if there are any get lighter, slowly. One place I was in had breathtaking sunrises, and I would go outside to catch them. I guess I'm just not a poet. I was wondering whether "I sing the body electric" could refer to the Internet? Oh well. Back to work. -- Lewis Stiller. stiller@cs.jhu.edu. "Tertan I am, but what is Tertan? Of this time, of that place, of some parentage, what does it matter?"