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From: jru@etn-rad.UUCP (John Unekis)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc,misc.headlines
Subject: Re: COMPUTER USER ARRESTED!
Message-ID: <286@etn-rad.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 21-Sep-87 17:14:12 EDT
Article-I.D.: etn-rad.286
Posted: Mon Sep 21 17:14:12 1987
Date-Received: Wed, 23-Sep-87 05:17:52 EDT
References: <170@westmark.UUCP> <352@auscso.UUCP>
Reply-To: jru@etn-rad.UUCP (0000-John Unekis)
Organization: Eaton Inc. IMSD, Westlake Village, CA
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Xref: mnetor comp.sys.ibm.pc:8102 misc.headlines:1612

I have heard a story about the first man to shoot a computer, I can't 
confirm it, but it is an interesting anecdote. 

One of the first digital computers was named Whirlwind (not an acronym),
it was an expiremental university project which was used to test such 
revolutionary ideas as rewritable core memory, as well as some not-so-
revolutionary ideas like oscilloscope storage tube memories which held
2K bits apeice. This computer reached the amazing speed of 300 integer
multiplies a second using electromechanical relay switches in its ALU.
Each digit of the ALU was a circuit card the size of a door. 

When digital hardware advanced into the transistor age, the Whirlwind
was kept around as a sort of museum exhibit at the university, and the 
of maintaining this large room sized behemoth became largely the duty of 
a single engineer.

When this engineer retired, no one else had enough familiarity with the
Whirlwind to keep it running, so the machine was given to the engineer
as a retirement gift. He had grown so fond of the machine that he took
it home and moved it to his basement where he had a legal shooting range.
The whirlwind spent the next few years holding up targets while the 
engineer shot at them.

Several years later the Smithsonian Museum went looking for the Whirlwind
to be placed in a display on computer technology. They traced it down to
the engineers house, where they found the machine shot to pieces. Still
determined to have the Whirlwind in their display, the representatives of
the museum rescued a couple of circuit boards which were out of the line of
fire, along with several peripheral devices. These are now sitting in the 
Smithsonian in front of an enlarged photograph of what the rest of the
machine looked like.

If anyone has more detail on this story, please share it.