jkight@sinai.umd.edu (Jeff Kight) (12/19/90)
Well, invariably as most university students do time and time again... (redundancy seems to be my forte....) I spent the night on my fold-up cot (complete with genuine brass "plastic" headboard) in front of my office computer... Only this time it wasn't a mere computer...it was a brand new Sample-stamped DSP-crooked NeXTstation with a communication (extended release built) dead external harddrive...(no, the SCSI-2 cable hasn't come in...) but HEY...it works and is HERE!! Now, a self-proclaimed veteran of Unix-system-administration, and with the invaluable knowledge of a NeXTstation-Neopyhte, one of my first administrative tasks was to write a cron script that checks for the Console Daemon, and if not present, sets the Screen (via ioctl) to 0 brightness. When it finally worked (and it does...mind you), and I had a smug look of sheer satisfaction beaming from my stubble-encrusted mug, I came upon the sudden realization that I had a final to take in 12+ hours... Staying up well into the twilight (but who knows...I'm in a tower prison and can't see any sun, moon or stars) harsh-reality proclaimed that I *would* fall asleep...it could be now...or in my final... So giving in to common sense (what little according to my colleagues I have), I set a nice airraid siren to ring a certain intervals throughout the night... (btw...Don't try this at home, you will get mauled by spouses, roomates or other-present affiliates...) As I turned off the aesthetic fluorescent lights, and collapsed onto my cot, I gazed at the sentinel beaming down on me with its tireless gaze... annoyed...I knew that the quarter-hour tick of the clock would banish it to a slumber-like appearance as well... HOWEVER...when the quarter-hour came, with its assumed relief from the one-eyed monster, my innocence (or ignorance...take your pick) was revealed... First, I thought it was a doppler-like effect of the login box fading away, but NO...even with additional bangs on the dim key, the screen did not grow any less radiant... Coupled with the reality that we have umpteen NeXT cubes with a nice login box burned into their screens, I appeal to YOU... WILL even this disfigure the monitor... WILL I have to gaze through a login-laden haze... or is this much ado about nothing... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Jeff Kight jkight@umd5.umd.edu Information Services jkight@umdd.bitnet Computer Science Center uunet!umd5.umd.edu!jkight University of Maryland (301) 405-3014