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From: bron@bronze.wpd.sgi.com (Bron Campbell Nelson)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Punched Card Annecdote (was: C obfuscator)
Summary: It'll never run again
Message-ID: <61208@sgi.sgi.com>
Date: 30 May 90 18:47:10 GMT
References: <12546@netcom.UUCP> <220@taumet.COM> <12573@netcom.UUCP> <1990May30.065025.25861@diku.dk>
Sender: bron@bronze.wpd.sgi.com
Distribution: comp
Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc., Mountain View, CA
Lines: 29

In article <1990May30.065025.25861@diku.dk>, jensting@skinfaxe.diku.dk (Jens Tingleff) writes:
> reggie@dinsdale.paradyne.com (George W. Leach) writes:
> 
> >>But who uses punched cards these days?
> 
> >    I do!  For book markers :-)
> 
> Actually, the use of magnetic media takes away a lot of the mechanical
> charm of computer background storage. Paper tape and punched cards are more
> *FUN*. Think of the endless fun you can have putting together a stack of cards
> dropped on the floor....
> 

At Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, there is a program whose name
is "Nixon."  The (probably apochryphal) tale of its naming goes like
this:
	It is the early 60's.  Nixon loses the election for governor
of California and gives his "You won't have Dick Nixon to kick around
any more" speech.  Some time later, a computer operator at LLNL drops a
box of cards, scattering them to the four winds.  A second operator looks
over the mess and pronounces judgement: "That program will never run again."

Sometime later, both the program and Tricky Dick run again, and so the
code is dubbed "Nixon" in remembrance of the feat.

--
Bron Campbell Nelson
bron@sgi.com  or possibly  ..!ames!sgi!bron
These statements are my own, not those of Silicon Graphics.