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Suppose Edgar Allan Poe Used a Computer
Once upon a midnight dreary, fingers cramped and vision bleary,
System manuals piled high and wasted paper on the floor,
Longing for the warmth of bedsheets, Still I sat there, doing
spreadsheets.
Having reached the bottom line, I took a floppy from the drawer,
Typing with a steady hand, I then invoked the SAVE command and waited
for the disk to store, Only this and nothing more. Deep into the
monitor peering, long I sat there wond'ring, fearing, Doubting, while
the disk kept churning, turning yet to churn some more. "Save!" I
said, "You cursed mother! Save my data from before!" One thing did the
phosphors answer, only this and nothing more, Just, "Abort, Retry,
Ignore?" Was this some occult illusion? Some manical intrusion? These
were choices undesired, ones I'd never faced before. Carefully, I
weighed the choices as the disk made monstrous noises. The cursor
flashed, insistent, waiting, baiting me to type some more.
Clearly
I must press a key, choosing one and nothing more, From, "Abort,
Retry, Ignore?" With my fingers pale and trembling, Slowly toward the
keyboard bending, Longing for a happy ending, hoping all would be
restored, Praying for some guarantee, Timidly I pressed a key. But on
the screen there still persisted, words appearing as before Ghastly
grim they blinked and taunted, haunted, as my patience wore, Saying,
"Abort, Retry, Ignore?" I tried to catch the chips off-guard - I
pressed again, but twice as hard. I pleaded with the cursed machine; I
begged and cried and then I swore. Then I tried in desperation,
sev'ral random combinations, Still there came the incantation, just as
senseless as before. Cursor blinking, mocking, winking, flashing
nonsense as before Reading, "Abort, Retry, Ignore?" There I sat,
distraught, exhausted; by my own machine accosted Getting up I turned
away an paced across the office floor. And then I say dreadful sight:
a lightning bolt cut through the night. A gasp of horror overtook me,
shook me to my very core. The lightning zapped my previous data, lost
and gone forevermore. Not even, "Abort, Retry, Ignore?" To this day I
do not know The place to which lost data goes. What demonic nether
world is wrought where data will be stored, Beyond the reach of mortal
souls, beyond the ether, in black holes? But sure as there's C,
Pascal, Lotus, Microsoft and more, You will one day be left to wander,
lost on some Plutonian shore, Pleading, "Abort, Retry, Ignore?"
Author Unknown
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