[TUHS] BTL pranks [was AT&T Research]

[Doug McIlroy <doug@cs.dartmouth.edu>]

> Did the non-Unix people also pull pranks like the watertower?

One of my favorites was by John Kelly, a Texas original,
who refused the department-head perk of a rug so he
could stamp his cigarettes out on the vinyl floor.

John came from Visual and Acoustics Research, where
digital signal processing pressed the frontiers of
computing. Among his publications was the completely
synthetic recording of "Daisy, Daisy" released
circa 1963.

Kelly electrified the computer center with a
blockbuster prank a year or two before that. As
was typical of many machine rooms, a loudspeaker
hooked to the low-order bit of the accumulator
played gentle white noise in the background. The
noise would turn into a shriek when the computer
got into a tight loop, calling the operators to
put the program out of its misery.

Out of the blue one day, the loudspeaker called
for help more articulately: "Help, I'm caught in
a loop. Help, I'm caught in a loop. ..." it
intoned in a slow Texas drawl. News of the talking
computer spread instantly and folks croweded into
the machine room to marvel before the operators
freed the poor prisoner.

Doug