Blinkenlights definition

Blinkenlights





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From Jargon File (4.3.1, 29 Jun 2001) [jargon]:

  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!
    
    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}.
  
     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 severly
     suffered 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.
  
  

From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) [foldoc]:

  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}]
       
       

















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