[BC] note to the list

[Rob Landry]

On Fri, 8 Jun 2012, RichardBJohnson at comcast.net wrote:

> When I worked for GE, they sent me to VAX/VMS system manager school. We 
> were taught to use numbers and letters that meant something to us but 
> were unknown to others. For instance, you would not use your address, 
> telephone number, or SS number. However, you might use the name of the 
> grade school teacher you (dis)liked most, or your first "true love" 
> since you would generally keep these things secret. I used 
> GloriaWiesnuski a lot, but as I got more computers to handle, I started 
> to use "strange" hexadecimal numbers like 0xdeadface, 0xfeedf00d, and 
> 0xbaadcafe.

At some point in my career I remember encountering a computer where free 
memory was always filled with the pattern DEADBEEF. I can no longer 
remember what it was: Wang VS? IBM 370?

> The main development VAX, a VAX-11/750, with a whole 500 megabytes of 
> hard disk space (don't laugh) at GE's long-gone Advanced Development 
> Group (the Ranch) in Rancho Cordova, CA., had the SYSTEM password of 
> JackWelshIsACreep.

"Lizzie Borden took an axe
And plunged it deep into the VAX;
Don't you envy people who
Do all the things you want to do?" :-)

Rob