cctalk Digest, Vol 11, Issue 29

At 5:45 -0500 7/16/04, Ed Sharpe wrote: Can't resist. This is not really in response to your question, but at least on-topic. In the late '80s, I shared an office with 3 other grad students. One had a Mac SE/30 and was ahead of the rest of us in learning the internet. He got the serial line connection to the building Unix box run into our office, discovered how to ftp files One night around midnight (when the rest of us were asleep), he discovered a site with a bunch of sound clips from movies, and software to substitute the clips for system beep, startup chime, etc. He went to work, and got his box all set up the way he wanted. Next morning, I came in long before he was up, and fired up his machine to do something on it. Instead of <Beeeeep!> it said "My GOD! It's full of *STARS*! <opening strains of Also Sprach Zarathustra>". Oh, verrry nice. I explored the new directory, discovering eventually clips from "Alien" among quite a few others. I *also* discovered the graphical sound-clip editor that came with the package. Hmmm. I set to work. An hour or so later, the owner of the machine walked in, a bit bleary-eyed but looking smugger than anyone I have ever seen before or since. "Hey, guys", he chirped, "I found some new software. Wait'll you see!" Sitting down at his desk, he gave us all another smug look, flipped the switch and leaned back in his chair as the disk spun up. "What?" we said, our best innocent looks plastered across our faces, "a new startup screen or something?" "You'll see..." came the response. The computer finally piped up, "My GOD! It's full of <click> *..SH1T..* <click> <opening strains of Also Sprach Zarathustra>". It turns out Sigourney Weaver's voice (as in Alien), if frequency-shifted down about half an octave, is almost a dead ringer for Keir Dullea's (as in 2001). Mr. Smug's head snapped around in the fastest double-take I've ever seen. "WHAT!" Then realization set in.. "You guys...." He cleaned up the <click>s and kept the startup sound for months, though. -- - Mark 210-522-6025, page 888-733-0967