bam (02/20/83)
Who needs poisons, now we can be terminal with our terminals. Bret ------------ Posted: Sat Feb 19, 1983 4:02 AM PST Msg: WGED-1524-1994 From: GANDALF To: LONGNAMENOCANSAY cc: YODA,ZORRO,FANGORN Subj: depressing message I'm not really sure how to handle the following real message. I just now found it on the CBBS, and the sysop has the system paging function disabled right now so I can't query him about it. Msg 16403 is 10 line(s) on 02/18/83 05:50 PM To: ALL From: GORDON [YNG] City: SAN FRANCISCO/ CALIFORNIA Subj: GOOD BYE I CAN'T HANDLE IT ANYMORE. MY PARENTS ARE MAKING ME PARANOID AND I CAN'T HANDLE IT ANYMORE. I DRANK A COUPLE BEERS AND SWALLOWED A WHOLE BOTTLE OF SLEEPING PILLS. MAYBE IT WILL BE BETTER IN ANOTHER WORLD. THANKS FOR YOUR HELP. GORDON P.S. SYSTOP, DELETE ME FROM THE LOG IN. I WON'T NEED IT ANYMORE. All I know is I think we've just seen a technological first -- online suicide. This message has NOT been a test. very quietly & thoughtfully, -AH ---------
iy47ab (02/23/83)
God, was that a serious message? I hope not! If it was...do you have the address of said suicide? (machine address) Possibly they did not do as they planned or were prevented in time and there is something that we, the netters, can do. Please post the address if you have it, AH, and anyone else -- any ideas? arwen
trb (02/24/83)
GORDON [YNG] is not the first to post a suicide note to a net, and if he's successful, it wouldn't be the first net-oriented success. On the ARPANET, UNCOLA@MIT-MC major-punted, complete with bboard note, a few years back. Brought to you as a public service by, Andy Tannenbaum Bell Labs Whippany, NJ (201) 386-6491
neiman (02/25/83)
Well, now we know what happened to Gordon after Ellen was done with
him...
dannmclure (03/09/83)
#R:sdchema:-42700:sri-unix:2200005:000:381 sri-unix!mclure Feb 24 15:46:00 1983 This isn't the first. A few years ago on the Arpanet, some guy with a guest account named UNCOLA at one of the MIT ITS machines did himself in, leaving a suicide note in his plan file. Also, someone over at IMSSS Stanford a few years back did himself in. Immediately, all the system hackers pounced on his directory searching for a suicide note. But there wasn't one. Stuart
billw (03/09/83)
#R:sdchema:-42700:sri-unix:2200006:000:1021 sri-unix!billw Mar 1 01:03:00 1983 Oh, I can just see it... (those of you without ARPAnet experience might not understand (oh well))... Irreverently BillW PS: will we ever know what happened to Gordon ? ------------------------------------- Message-id: DCA1234-HERMES-54321.a From: Parker@DCA (Major Parker) To: UNCOLA@MIT-MC Subject: Plan file It has been brought to my attention that you have left a suicide note in your plan file (GUEST4;UNCOLA PLAN) on MIT's computer system. This is not a valid use of the ARPANet! I need not remind you that the ARPANet is funded by DCA for use by official DoD projects only. By your frivolous abuse, you risk MIT's status as a valid ARPANet user. Don't think we won't take MIT off the net if abuses continue, we will! In addition, the added traffic on the net that is occuring as morbid young hackers all over the country read your plan file is interfering with more important and officially sanctioned traffic. If you're really serious about suicide, join the army. I did. Major Mike Parker, DCA
mp (03/10/83)
To those of you in the dark about Bill Westfield's submission, here's the story: Peter Haase (login name UNCOLA) was a student here in the mid-70's. He wrote a good deal of programs for the ITS systems. He went on co-op assignment with HP in 1977 or 1978 or so, but still logged into MC relatively often. One day, people noticed his plan file said something like "Hacking suicide for the thrill of it all", followed by the lyrics to Pink Floyd's Brain Damage cut from the Dark Side of The Moon album. This was the last anyone heard from him - he was found dead from strychnine soon after. They say that a pun is the lowest form of humor. I think, with billw's entry, we've found something lower. Mark
sjk (03/11/83)
And to those of you in the dark about a more recent UNCOLA: A certain user on MIT-MC with [possible] suicidal tendencies apparently heard of the original UNCOLA and took on the name as an alias to gain attention. This happened within the last year or so, and this user has since stopped posing as UNCOLA, for reasons I do not know (he's still alive). I believe that Bill's message was in reference to the latter UNCOLA... perhaps he can verify this one way or the other. Personally, I found the message highly amusing within the context I saw it, I'd forgotten the original UNCOLA tragedy. scott