OK. so I was in a hurry, and maybe a littttle careless that fateful day.

Here's what happened. Our team finally managed to rig Evac so that the vacuum tubes were firing in sequence. Satisfied that the computer wouldn't 'crash' (the legs had to be reinforced), we tightened up all the lugnuts and started our initial programming run (stay on target). Stacks, and I do mean stacks of punch cards lined the room, so anticipation was high. As head programmer, I was responsible for ensuring that all 24 holes were punched in correctly. With a background in stationary engineering, I was uniquely qualified for the assignment.

So our task at hand was to caculate a simple equation, 2 + 2 = ? After doing the intial math to verify the correct result (?=4), we set up a logical set of parameters, then carefully punched out the cards. When it came time to doing the date, well, it really had nothing to do with saving space, as is commonly reported. It had more to do with saving 'face', as I had accidently spilt some alfredo sauce on the cards, thereby ruining some of key punch holes. But as this was, or so I thought, just a trial run, I just entered '61' around the stain and let it go at that. Little did I know what a precedent I would be setting!! From then on, the catch phrase 'well that's how we've always done it' eminated from that room, soon to be heard in corporations and government offices around the world.

So sue me!! :)

-- whiz (oops@oops.ooops), December 02, 1999

Answers

whiz...stranger things have happened! Great scenario! :D

-- TM (mercier7@pdnt.com), December 02, 1999.