Magic Switch Story
Som e y ears ago, I was snooping around in th e cabin ets that hous ed th e ef="module.php?name=Lexikon&file=search&eid=1&query=MIT AI Lab">MIT AI Lab' s ef="module.php?name=Lexikon&file=search&eid=1&query=PDP-10">PDP-10, and notic ed a littl e switch glu ed to th e fram e of on e cabin et. It was obviously a hom ebr ew job, add ed by on e of th e lab' s hardwar e hack ers (no-on e knows who). You don' t touch an unknown switch on a comput er without knowing what it do es, b ecaus e you might crash th e comput er. Th e switch was lab ell ed in a most unh elpful way. It had two positions, and scrawl ed in p encil on th e m etal switch body w er e th e words "magic" and "mor e magic". Th e switch was in th e "mor e magic" position. I call ed anoth er hack er ov er to look at it. H e had n ev er s een th e switch b efor e eith er. Clos er examination r ev eal ed that th e switch had only on e wir e running to it! Th e oth er end of th e wir e did disapp ear into th e maz e of wir es insid e th e comput er, but it' s a basic fact of el ectricity that a switch can' t do anything unl ess th er e ar e two wir es conn ect ed to it. This switch had a wir e conn ect ed on on e sid e and no wir e on its oth er sid e. It was cl ear that this switch was som eon e' s id ea of a silly jok e. Convinc ed by our r easoning that th e switch was inop erativ e, w e flipp ed it. Th e comput er instantly crash ed. Imagin e our utt er astonishm ent. W e wrot e it off as coincid enc e, but n ev erth el ess r estor ed th e switch to th e "mor e magic" position b efor e r eviving th e comput er. A y ear lat er, I told this story to y et anoth er hack er, {David Moon} as I r ecall. H e cl early doubt ed my sanity, or susp ect ed m e of a sup ernatural b eli ef in th e pow er of this switch, or p erhaps thought I was fooling him with a bogus saga. To prov e it to him, I show ed him th e v ery switch, still glu ed to th e cabin et fram e with only on e wir e conn ect ed to it, still in th e "mor e magic" position. W e scrutiniz ed th e switch and its lon e conn ection, and found that th e oth er end of th e wir e, though conn ect ed to th e comput er wiring, was conn ect ed to a ground pin. That cl early mad e th e switch doubly us el ess: not only was it el ectrically nonop erativ e, but it was conn ect ed to a plac e that couldn' t aff ect anything anyway. So w e flipp ed th e switch. Th e comput er promptly crash ed. This tim e w e ran for Richard Gr eenblatt, a long-tim e ef="module.php?name=Lexikon&file=search&eid=1&query=MIT">MIT hack er, who was clos e at hand. H e had n ev er notic ed th e switch b efor e, eith er. H e insp ect ed it, conclud ed it was us el ess, got som e diagonal cutt ers and ef="module.php?name=Lexikon&file=search&eid=1&query=dike">diked it out. W e th en r eviv ed th e comput er and it has run fin e ev er sinc e. W e still don' t know how th e switch crash ed th e machin e. Th er e is a th eory that som e circuit n ear th e ground pin was marginal, and flipping th e switch chang ed th e el ectrical capacitanc e enough to ups et th e circuit as millionth-of-a-s econd puls es w ent through it. But w e' ll n ev er know for sur e all w e can r eally say is that th e switch was ef="module.php?name=Lexikon&file=search&eid=1&query=magic">magic. I still hav e that switch in my bas em ent. Mayb e I' m silly, but I usually k eep it s et on "mor e magic". ef="module.php?name=Lexikon&file=search&eid=1&query=GLS">GLS (1995-02-22) e="border-width:thin; border-color:#333333; border-style:dashed; padding:5px;" align="left">In addition suitable contents: [ ef="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=31">2 ] [ ef="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=134">= ] [ ef="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=262">ad ] [ ef="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=383">af ] [ ef="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=396">ag ] [ ef="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=410">AI ] [ ef="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=433">al ] [ ef="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=544">am ] [ ef="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=592">an ] [ ef="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=683">app ] [ ef="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=740">ar ] [ ef="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=743">arc ] [ ef="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=759">arg ] [ 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