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Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!eecae!netnews.upenn.edu!rutgers!rochester!pt.cs.cmu.edu!andrew.cmu.edu!rn10+
From: rn10+@andrew.cmu.edu (Ronald J. Notarius)
Newsgroups: rec.humor,rec.humor.d,comp.misc
Subject: Re: Looking for Computer Folklore
Message-ID: <AXyRtQy00Xo5E9jq1Z@andrew.cmu.edu>
Date: 15 Feb 89 20:32:28 GMT
References: <530@tcsc3b2.UUCP>
Organization: Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
Lines: 27
In-Reply-To: <530@tcsc3b2.UUCP>

Last year, I was invovled in the installation of a Novell Network for CMU's GSIA
Department of External Affairs -- ie, the "soak the alumni for money" people.

[GSIA:  Graduate School of Industrial Administration.  End Aside]

Their database, in an obscure language/program that I never heard of (and can't
remember) existed solely on the hard drive of the IBM Model 60 that was to
become the file server -- naturally, it was the only machine in the office with
3.5" disks (the rest were IBM XT's) and without a 5.25" port.

So, I asked to see their backup disks and original system disks before I did
anything.

Now, it seems that the company had been down a few months before, and taken the
system disks back with them.  The next time the department secretary went to
Boston for training, they gave her copies of the disks.  Or so they said.

Funny thing was that the disks were hand-lettered "MacPaint".  And it was a
bootleg copy of MacPaint!

I made two sets of backups of the database before I did anything (and
successfully re-loaded them later), but as of the last I heard, they've NEVER
gotten a copy of the program back from the company.  However, they were TOLD to
return the MacPaint disks!

(Like, how the hell can you use MacPaint on a Model 60 running PC-DOS 3.3?
Inquiring minds want to know...)