Xref: utzoo rec.humor:18813 comp.misc:5067
Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!oliveb!3comvax!tymix!antares!jms
From: jms@antares.UUCP (Joe Smith)
Newsgroups: rec.humor,comp.misc
Subject: Re: Looking for Computer Folklore
Summary: print chains do not use barberpole pattern
Message-ID: <385@antares.UUCP>
Date: 11 Feb 89 05:37:56 GMT
References: <1000@taux01.UUCP> <1742@hp-sdd.hp.com> <2882@ddsw1.MCS.COM>
Reply-To: jms@antares.UUCP (Joe Smith)
Organization: Tymnet QSATS, San Jose CA
Lines: 29

In article <2882@ddsw1.MCS.COM> peggy@ddsw1.UUCP (Peggy Shambo) writes:
>In article <1742@hp-sdd.hp.com> hinojosa@hp-sdd.hp.com.UUCP (Daniel Hinojosa) writes:
:>These chaps read the chain and created a file in their system that
:>had all of the characters of one pass in it. They gave the command to
:>print the file. Upon doing so the printer starts to spin the chain,
:>then SMACK! Trying to print all of those characters at once while the
:>chain was moving, didn't quite work. The fellow said they found 
:>the print characters in various parts of their office for years 
:>therafter.
>
>I used to be a computer operator (HISI) and we had a regular print test
>program that printed all the characters.. in a stepped version like this:
>abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz1234567890!@#$%^&*()
> abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz1234567890!@#$%^&*()
>Anyway, we never snapped a print chain on those.  And we did a print test...

I have yet to see a print chain that had the characters in order like
that.  They have the characters in a scrambled order instead of ASCII
order just so that "barber pole" patterns would not cause problems.
The original poster mentioned that the perpatrators read the chain to
determine the worst case line, which is something that is not likely
to be printed.  I was going to do just that in college, but never got
around to it (something about being hired by the Computing Center takes
the fun out of such pranks).
-- 
Joe Smith (408)922-6220 | jms@antares.Tymnet.COM or jms@opus.Tymnet.COM
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