kemp@noscvax.UUCP (12/18/84)
>From dfaults@cod Thu Dec 18 11:18:43 1984 >To: nothing >Subject: AN OPEN LETTER TO NOTHING >------------------------- > >Dear Null, > We feel a little foolish, writing to no one about nothing. None >the less: > First, you seem to be everywhere.Your name is (default) >and if ever you have any values, they are usually either (Once) >or (For all), and seldom for naught. Sometimes you are simply >whatever you were last time, and you are almost never the same as >you were at first. > We've thought about you. We've asked ourselves, from whence >does nothing come? How can you always be everywhere when you live nowhere >and consist of nothing? > Our theory is that you simply came from what had gone before: >you are just a bunch of artifacts which have emerged from >succesive damnations uttered by pressured developers of hardware and >software systems in which you address yourself. > Someone said that in the pyramid of the history of data processing, >you are like a secret passage: you save time and effort for those who >recognize your absence. But for those who don't, you are inscrutable, a >pitfall. > As far as we're concerned, you have sleighted us but we know you >are just transparent and usually spaced out. You run up to salute even >when there is no flag, and we wish you were a beep. > > Signed, > The Damned Defaults: > > The Space > The Group-id > . > The File Permissions > The Dot Files: > .login > .cshrc > .exrc > .ingres > .msgsrc > .netrc > .newsrc > .plan > .project > .logout > The Disc Quota > The Pathnames > The Environment Variables > The Flags > The "Prior" > /tmp > The Null String > The Collating Sequence > The Tab Sets > Zero, One and Infinity