Blue Screen of Death (was: Computer haiku)

[Fred Shapiro]

On Wed, 13 Feb 2002, Drew Danielson wrote:

> I seem to remember hearing "Blue Screen of Death" before '97 even, but I
> have no idea the exact context.  Can someone help with a source and date
> for this term?  Eric Randolph's Jargon File also cites the 1998 Salon
> article as a precedent to popular usage of the phrase, but the second
> kid 1997 cites pan out...
>
> Can anyone else go any earlier than these citations??

There is a 10 Oct. 1993 usage of "die the blue screen death" in the Google
archive of news groups.

Fred Shapiro


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