>>>One way to "get" a fellow programmer was to pull a card out of the middle of the deck without them knowing it.
>>
>>I remember case in senior high-school ;
>>
>>We used to write programs in fortran 4, and then we also had had to punch them on cards and pass through an aging IBM-369.
>>(We actually had punch-card machine in the ground-floor level)
>>Now if you did good algoritam/code you would get high grade. Who ever come up first with algoritam/solution would win also
>>daily code contest and would not have to code it (first you do the algoritam and then you actually code it!) and immediately get
>>high grade. |
>>
>>But there was also practice by teacher, to give high grade to anybody who would just pick winning algoritam solution off the clasroom table and punched it into cards. You come with printed listing and you get your high grade, which actually counted as any other high grade/score you get. This was a way to stimulate 'hardworkers' vs smart-arses I guess. <vbg>
>>
>>There was a guy who never did single winning algoritam, but nonetheless got many high grades, by simply taking solutions of the classroom table, and then spending hours to punch them and then consecutivelu take to computing center for processing.
>>(We would go there, submit the deck, and then wait couple of hours until task is processed and printout cames out... )
>>
>>So one day we had relatively easy math problem to code, which included variations or combinations (with repetition) up to certain N level. Well someone came up relatively quickly with algoritam solution, and had priviledge to win that day code code competition (was not me) and then he draw it to classroom table.
>>
>>So our 'hardworker' picked it up off the clasroom, coded it into actual Fortran 4 code and then he went down to punching room to
>>do his hardwork. Then he went to center with IBM369, submited his deck of cards and patiently waited for listing...
>>
>>But that day, something quiet out of ordinary has happened!;
>>Instead of one operater (in long white uniform) comming out from restricted area, entire GANG OF THEM came out,
>>screaming and looking for the 'author'.
>>They brought out pile of paper, nearly one meter in height!! Over thousand printed pages or so !!
>>
>>So what happened;
>>
>>While our 'hardworker' was punching cards in school punch-room, some of smart arses (we got few of those) in class intercepted his stack of cards while unattended, and actually switched card with line of code which decides 'N level' of itterations.
>>
>>So instead of being
>>
>>For i=1 to 4
>>.
>>next
>>
>>Basically he increased N (4) by one or two to 5 or 6.
>>But givem the nature of operation (combinations or variations with repetition don't remember)
>>Actual printout instead of being 20-30 pages (casual size of school task) became thousands of pages...
>>
>>They wanted to kill him !! {lol} So he got banned from computing center for the rest of the school year.
>>
>>* * *
>>
>>Perpetrator (not me!) was never discovered! Although few of us knew who did it ;)
>>
>>
>>Cheers :)
>
>I took a Fortran class in college. (That was about all you could take back then if you weren't a comp sci major). Each student had an account at the computer center, with each job you ran deducting "money" from the account. The idea was you had enough in your account to complete all the assignments but not enough to go hog wild like your schoolmate did. After finishing my last assignment I saw that my account still had a balance so decided to have a little fun. I wrote about a 6 line program with an infinite loop that printed "Bite me" or something clever like that and then ejected to the next page. They didn't have a print spooler so it went straight to the printer. It ran until it timed out or drained my account, one of the other. A red faced operator came bursting out of the computer room, saying "Which one of you dudes is Beane?" I kept my mouth shut, of course. He tried to attract me by putting the listing out. It must have been two feet high. Of course I didn't fall for that. He did report it to the prof but the prof didn't care. I already had an A in the class.


Ok you did it intentionally. This guy tought he already pocketed another fiver in his grade column,
only to become school 'star' {g}

BTW, I still have couple of those decks in some closet back in Serbia. Hope they will be still there next time I go.
They will be IT museum item in few years time :)