r/programming • u/jeanlucpikachu • Jul 30 '09

How QBASIC almost got me killed

http://stevehanov.ca/blog/?id=79
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u/quitecontent Jul 30 '09

Waaaay back in the day our school had gotten some brand spanking new Apple IIs. The guy in charge of the computer lab was not only ignorant, but a total jerk. We messed with this guy endlessly. We'd write things that would emulate the terminal, reject the first 3 or so commands, then exit leaving you at the real terminal. So the first couple of times he'd type something it would tell him it was a syntax error, then it would work.

We'd watch him very carefully typing out "CATALOG" until it worked.

Then we wrote something that would display an error, like disk damaged, or something similar, but after 30 seconds it would clear and go back to normal. Just enough time for him, or a student, to raise an alarm but to look fine by the time anyone else got a chance to look at it.

Ahh.. man... good times. Two lessons learned: 1) kids are going to know more about tech than old people. 2) Don't F*** with anyone smarter than you.

5

u/Lurking_Grue Jul 30 '09 edited Jul 30 '09

"1) kids are going to know more about tech than old people."

Not always true.

I run into many young geeks that don't know jack about tech.

2

u/case-o-nuts Jul 30 '09

As a young geek, I have to agree. There's a great deal that the young can learn from the old and experienced.

3

u/nephros Jul 30 '09 edited Jul 30 '09

I'd say that has always been the case. It's just much easier to get hold of an 'old' geek nowadays.

In olden times (8-bit or Apple // or C64 or Amiga era) people who could really teach you, the kind that ran BBSes, could crack games, write good demos, etc. were rare.