89 lines
2.5 KiB
Plaintext
89 lines
2.5 KiB
Plaintext
BASTARD OPERATOR FROM HELL #6
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It's friday, so I get into work early, before lunch even. The phone rings.
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Shit!
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I turn the page on the excuse sheet. "SOLAR FLARES" stares out at me. I'd
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better read up on that. Two minutes later I'm ready to answer the phone.
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"Hello?" I say.
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"WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN, I'VE BEEN TRYING TO GET YOU ALL MORNING?!"
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I hate it when they shout at me early in the morning. It always puts me in a
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bad mood. You know what I mean.
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"Ah, yes. Well, there's been some solar activity this morning, it always
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disrupts electronics..." I say, sweet as a sugar pie.
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"Huh? But I could get through to my friends?!"
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"Yes, that's entirely possible, solar activity is very unpredictable in it's
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effects. Why last week, we had some files just dissappear from a guys account
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while he was working on it!"
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"Really?"
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"Straight Up! Hey, do you want me to check your account?"
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"Yes please, I've got some important stuff in there!"
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"Ok, what's your username..."
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He tells me. Honestly, it's like shooting a fish in a barrel. Twice.
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With an Elephant Gun. At point blank range. In the head.
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(Do I really need to tell you the clicky clicky bit? I think not)
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"How many files are in your account?" I ask
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"Um, well there should be about 20 in my thesis writeup, 10 or so with the
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data for it, and another 20 or so in a book that I'm writing"
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"Hmmm. Well, I think we caught it just in time. You've still got 2 files
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left... .cshrc and .login"
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"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaggggggggghhhh!"
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He sobs into the receiver a bit - it really turns my stomach.
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"What can I do?" he sniffs
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"Ok, do you have any of your stuff backed up on floppy?"
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"Some, but it's weeks old!"
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I fire up the bulk eraser.
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"Ok" I say "How about I come out and load all that data onto your account
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pronto so you can get some work done?"
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"That'd be great, but it's all at home" he wimpers. "I spose I'll just load
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it all in myself tonight"
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"Sure. But remember what I said, solar flares are bad for disks and machines.
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Protect your disks from solar activity to prevent them losing their data"
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"How do I do that? Wrap them in tin-foil?"
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"NO! TIN FOIL'S THE WORST THING! YOU KNOW WHAT TIN FOIL DOES IN A MICROWAVE
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DON'T YOU?!"
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"Yes.."
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"Then don't use it. There's only one thing that protects disks from solar
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activity.."
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"What's that?"
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"MAGNETS. Wrap your disks up in a pillow case with lots of magnets - Solar
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Flares hate that"
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"Wow! Thanks"
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"No worries at all..."
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Shit I'm good!
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spt@waikato.ac.nz (Simon Travaglia)
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