- Blinkenlights
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This article is about the hacker term. For other uses, see Blinkenlights (disambiguation).
Blinkenlights is a hacker's neologism for diagnostic lights on old mainframe computers and modern network hardware.
The Jargon File provides the following etymology:[1]
This term derives from the last word of the famous blackletter-Gothic sign in mangled mock German that once graced about half the computer rooms in the English-speaking world. One version ran in its entirety as follows.
- ACHTUNG!
- ALLES TURISTEN UND NONTEKNISCHEN LOOKENPEEPERS!
- DAS KOMPUTERMASCHINE IST NICHT FÜR DER GEFINGERPOKEN UND MITTENGRABEN! ODERWISE IST EASY TO SCHNAPPEN DER SPRINGENWERK, BLOWENFUSEN UND POPPENCORKEN MIT SPITZENSPARKSEN.
- IST NICHT FÜR GEWERKEN BEI DUMMKOPFEN. DER RUBBERNECKEN SIGHTSEEREN KEEPEN DAS COTTONPICKEN HÄNDER IN DAS POCKETS MUSS.
- ZO RELAXEN UND WATSCHEN DER BLINKENLICHTEN.
This "silliness" dates back to least as far as 1955 at IBM and had already gone international by the early 1960s, when it was reported at the University of London's ATLAS computing site. There are several variants of it in circulation, some of which actually do end with the word blinkenlights.
Although the sign might initially appear to be in German and uses an approximation of German grammar, it is composed largely of words that are either near-homonyms of English words or (in the cases of the longer words) actual English words that are rendered in a faux-German spelling. As such, the sign is generally comprehensible by many English speakers regardless of whether they have any fluency in German. Much of the humor in these signs was their intentionally incorrect language.
The sign is also reported to have been seen on an Electron microscope at the Cavendish Laboratory in the 1950s. Such pseudo-German parodies were common in Allied machine shops during and following World War II, and an example photocopy is shown in the Jargon File.
The Jargon File also mentions that German hackers have developed their own versions of the blinkenlights poster, in fractured English:[1]
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.
Actual blinkenlights
With dramatically rising CPU frequencies in computer processors, the traditional front-panel "blinkenlights" soon became useless for watching to monitor computations and diagnose software bugs. Still, they remain useful for indicators of power on/off status and hard-disk usage on most personal computers. There are a number of other notable later uses of blinking lights in computers, as well.
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 Conway's Game of Life patterns.
The CPU load monitors on the front of BeBoxes were also called “blinkenlights”.
This word gave its name to several projects, including screen savers, hardware gadgets, and other nostalgic things. Some notable enterprises include Project Blinkenlights and the Blinkenlights Archaeological Institute. Also, a telnet site, called towel.blinkenlights.nl, has an ASCIImation of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope on port 23 and a BOFH excuse server on port 666.
See also
References
- [1] Sundem, Garth "The Geeks' Guide to World Domination: Be Afraid, Beautiful People," Three Rivers Press, 2009, page 234. ISBN-13: 978-0307450340
- Hofstadter, Douglas R. "Metamagical themas: questing for the essence of mind and pattern," Basic Books, 1996, page 569. ISBN-13: 978-0465045662
Categories:- Computer jargon
- Computer humor
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