Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!caen!ox.com!math.fu-berlin.de!uniol!Gerhard.Moeller From: Gerhard.Moeller@arbi.informatik.uni-oldenburg.de (Gerhard Moeller) Newsgroups: comp.sys.next Subject: Re: NeXT humor Message-ID: <5987@uniol.UUCP> Date: 24 Jun 91 19:37:04 GMT References: <1991Jun22.192542.9767@neon.Stanford.EDU> Organization: University of Oldenburg, Germany Lines: 24 grd@ccrma.stanford.edu (glen diener) writes: >Ever wonder if the mach magic number, 0xfeedface, is coincidental, >or was someone displaying their humor? On a similar note, >when running gdb, I frequently find that stale pointers show >up with the address 0xdeadbeef. Hmm. >-glen diener >grd@ccrma.stanford.edu > as far as i know, magic numbers are put to the processor to give him a special state. and those numbers are just a choice of some people who hope that they do not appear by accident. therefor feedface, deadbeef, and many other more (as seen on suns, etc.) But im not that sure, Gerhard. -- +---------------------------< principiis obsta! >---------------------------+ | Gerhard Moeller, Teichstrasse 12, 2900 Oldenburg (FRG) [Geb. 02/21/68] | | inhouse: gimli!gemoe uucp: ...(unido!)uniol!gmoeller | |DOMAIN: gerhard.moeller@arbi.informatik.uni-oldenburg.de | |BITNET: gmoeller%arbi.informatik.uni-oldenburg.de@DOLUNI1 (106495@DOLUNI1) | +-----------------------> the medium is the message <-----------------------+