Computer Proverbs

[Gareth Branwyn]

Which somehow reminded me of one of my all-time favorite comp sci
sayings: "Always mount a scratch monkey."

The backstory goes like this: In the late '70s (?), a research monkey at
the Univ. of Toronto was hooked up to a regulator inside of a water tank
(testing the effects of different gas mixtures on the animal's
physiology). A tech, working on a computer connected to the monkey,
inadvertantly damaged something associated with the experiment and the
monkey died. The moral of the story is that you should always make sure
you know what you're doing to things "downstream" when you're working on
something "upstream."

Erin McKean wrote:
>
> Are we still doing computer proverbs/phrases? I ran across a good one
> this morning:
>
> DNFTEC: "Do Not Feed The Energy Creature" i.e., don't respond to
> someone who is obviously trolling or looking for argument. I think
> this might have a SF background; it sounds vaguely Trekkerish.
>
> Erin McKean
> editor at verbatimmag.com