lew@ihuxr.UUCP (Lew Mammel, Jr.) (12/14/83)
I'm amused by the race to find the most loathsome metaphor to replace the media use of "hacker". It's curious to find such visceral revulsion to an act which takes place in such an ethereal realm. Perhaps some of us are already turning into personoids. I'm also upset that the insects have been singled out to bear the burden of these approbations. Mike O'Dell relates that he was sickened by the sight of "bowl weevils" which had "infected" a box of cornmeal. I wish he could enlarge his mind to the point where he could contemplate such pastoral scenes of insect life with equanimity. Anyway, these couldn't have been boll weevils, which feed on the bolls of cotton. They could have been grain weevils, but they were most likely flat grain beetles in my estimation. These are more likely to infest meal (I think - I'm not really the entomologist I like to pretend I am.) Then Pete Criqui informs us that he ranks the earwig right along side the mosquito as the most detestable of nature's perversions. Really now! I hope knows that the earwig is utterly harmless. Furthermore, I would think that the philosophical pretensions of computer science might raise ones sights above the unpleasantness that the mosquito so easily inflicts on us to the point where one could contemplate it as one of nature's most elegantly adapted creatures, whose life and functions hold more than a few lessons for those who aspire to create artificial intelligence. And finally, erict invites us to contemplate that most loathsome of creatures, the maggot. I quote from "The Life of the Fly", by Henri Fabre: "In spring, with the hawthorn in flower and the Crickets at their concerts, a second wish often came to me. Along the road, I light upon a dead Mole, a snake killed with a stone, victims both of human folly ... The two corpses, already decomposing, have begun to smell. Whoso approaches with eyes that do not see turns away his head and passes on. The observer stops and lifts the remains with his foot; he looks. A world is swarming underneath; life is eagerly consuming the dead. Let us replace matters as they were and leave death's artisans to their task. They are engaged in a most deserving work... And what will the reader himself say, if I invite him to that sight? Surely, to busy one's self with those squalid sextons means soiling one's eye and mind? Not so, if you please! ... " And so on. Perhaps after contemplating the worthiness of the maggot, one might even be prepared to dispassionately consider such horrifying and unnatural acts as unauthorized computer access. Lew Mammel, Jr. ihnp4!ihuxr!lew
pcc@hlhop.UUCP (P.C. Criqui) (12/19/83)
Lew Mammel Jr., in his elegant reply to those who wish to establish a more
meaningful term for the intruder/hacker, expressed his hope that I am aware
that the earwig is harmless.
Really Lew, I am only living in New Jersey temporarily. If you wish to see
the havoc, and destruction, that can be wreaked by this "harmless" creature,
then I invite you to take a stroll with me through my flower and vegetable
gardens at my home in California.
If you would like to accept my offer, mail a reply and I'll tell you when
I'll be returning home, and where I live. If you won't be getting out that
way, perhaps a little reading of less poetic, i.e. more down-to-earth, texts
might be educational.
Pete (living with reality) Criqui
AT&T Technologies @ BTL Short Hills
!...!hlhop!pcc