blinkenlights
2 definitions found
blinkenlights - Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (26 May 2007) :
blinkenlights
/blink'*n-li:tz/ Front-panel diagnostic lights on a computer,
especially a dinosaur. Derives from the last word of the
famous blackletter-Gothic sign in mangled pseudo-German that
once graced about half the computer rooms in the
English-speaking world. One version ran in its entirety as
follows:
ACHTUNG! ALLES LOOKENSPEEPERS!
Das computermachine ist nicht fuer gefingerpoken und
mittengrabben. Ist easy schnappen der springenwerk,
blowenfusen und poppencorken mit spitzensparken. Ist nicht
fuer gewerken bei das dumpkopfen. Das rubbernecken
sichtseeren keepen das cotten-pickenen hans in das pockets
muss; relaxen und watchen das blinkenlichten.
This silliness dates back at least as far as 1959 at Stanford
University and had already gone international by the early
1960s, when it was reported at London University's ATLAS
computing site. There are several variants of it in
circulation, some of which actually do end with the word
"blinkenlights".
In an amusing example of turnabout-is-fair-play, German
hackers have developed their own versions of the blinkenlights
poster in fractured English, one of which is reproduced here:
ATTENTION
This room is fullfilled mit special electronische
equippment. Fingergrabbing and pressing the cnoeppkes from
the computers is allowed for die experts only! So all the
"lefthanders" stay away and do not disturben the
brainstorming von here working intelligencies. Otherwise
you will be out thrown and kicked anderswhere! Also: please
keep still and only watchen astaunished the blinkenlights.
See also geef.
[Jargon File]
blinkenlights - Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003) :
blinkenlights
/blink'@n.li:tz/, n.
[common] Front-panel diagnostic lights on a computer, esp. a
dinosaur. Now that dinosaurs are rare, this term usually refers to
status lights on a modem, network hub, or the like.
This term derives from the last word of the famous blackletter-Gothic
sign in mangled pseudo-German that once graced about half the
computer
rooms in the English-speaking world. One version ran in its entirety
as follows:
ACHTUNG! ALLES LOOKENSPEEPERS!
Alles touristen und non-technischen looken peepers!
Das computermachine ist nicht fuer gefingerpoken und mittengrabben.
Ist easy schnappen der springenwerk, blowenfusen und poppencorken
mit spitzensparken. Ist nicht fuer gewerken bei das dumpkopfen.
Das rubbernecken sichtseeren keepen das cotten-pickenen hans in das
pockets muss; relaxen und watchen das blinkenlichten.
This silliness dates back at least as far as 1955 at IBM and had
already gone international by the early 1960s, when it was reported
at
London University's ATLAS computing site. There are several variants
of it in circulation, some of which actually do end with the word
`blinkenlights'.
In an amusing example of turnabout-is-fair-play, German hackers have
developed their own versions of the blinkenlights poster in fractured
English, one of which is reproduced here:
ATTENTION
This room is fullfilled mit special electronische equippment.
Fingergrabbing and pressing the cnoeppkes from the computers is
allowed for die experts only! So all the "lefthanders" stay away
and do not disturben the brainstorming von here working
intelligencies. Otherwise you will be out thrown and kicked
anderswhere! Also: please keep still and only watchen astaunished
the blinkenlights.
See also geef.
Old-time hackers sometimes get nostalgic for blinkenlights because
they were so much more fun to look at than a blank panel. Sadly, very
few computers still have them (the three LEDs on a PC keyboard
certainly don't count). The obvious reasons (cost of wiring, cost of
front-panel cutouts, almost nobody needs or wants to interpret
machine-register states on the fly anymore) are only part of the
story. Another part of it is that radio-frequency leakage from the
lamp wiring was beginning to be a problem as far back as transistor
machines. But the most fundamental fact is that there are very few
signals slow enough to blink an LED these days! With slow CPUs, you
could watch the bus register or instruction counter tick, but at
33/66/150MHz it's all a blur.
Despite this, a couple of relatively recent computer designs of note
have featured programmable blinkenlights that were added just because
they looked cool. The Connection Machine, a 65,536-processor parallel
computer designed in the mid-1980s, was a black cube with one side
covered with a grid of red blinkenlights; the sales demo had them
evolving life patterns. A few years later the ill-fated BeBox (a
personal computer designed to run the BeOS operating system) featured
twin rows of blinkenlights on the case front. When Be, Inc. decided
to
get out of the hardware business in 1996 and instead ported their OS
to the PowerPC and later to the Intel architecture, many users
suffered severely from the absence of their beloved blinkenlights.
Before long an external version of the blinkenlights driven by a PC
serial port became available; there is some sort of plot symmetry in
the fact that it was assembled by a German.
Finally, a version updated for the Internet has been seen on
news.admin.net-abuse.email:
ACHTUNG! ALLES LOOKENSPEEPERS!
Das Internet is nicht fuer gefingerclicken und giffengrabben. Ist
easy
droppenpacket der routers und overloaden der backbone mit der spammen
und der me-tooen. Ist nicht fuer gewerken bei das dumpkopfen. Das
mausklicken sichtseeren keepen das bandwit-spewin hans in das pockets
muss; relaxen und watchen das cursorblinken.
This newest version partly reflects reports that the word
`blinkenlights' is (in 1999) undergoing something of a revival in
usage, but applied to networking equipment. The transmit and receive
lights on routers, activity lights on switches and hubs, and other
network equipment often blink in visually pleasing and seemingly
coordinated ways. Although this is different in some ways from
register readings, a tall stack of Cisco equipment or a 19-inch rack
of ISDN terminals can provoke a similar feeling of hypnotic awe,
especially in a darkened network operations center or server room.
The ancestor of the original blinkenlights posters of the 1950s was
probably this:
[gefingerpoken.jpg]
We are informed that cod-German parodies of this kind were very
common
in Allied machine shops during and following WWII. Germans, then as
now, had a reputation for being both good with precision machinery
and
prone to officious notices.
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