Account Options

  1. Sign in
The old Google Groups will be going away soon.
Switch to the new Google Groups.
Google Groups Home
« Groups Home
alt.folklore.computers
+ new post
About this group
Subscribe to this group
This is a Usenet group - learn more
Message from discussion ARMM: ARMM: >>>>Ad Infinitum
The group you are posting to is a Usenet group. Messages posted to this group will make your email address visible to anyone on the Internet.
Your reply message has not been sent.
Your post was successful
 
From:
To:
Cc:
Followup To:
Add Cc | Add Followup-to | Edit Subject
Subject:
Validation:
For verification purposes please type the characters you see in the picture below or the numbers you hear by clicking the accessibility icon. Listen and type the numbers you hear
 
Joel Furr  
View profile  
 More options Mar 31 1993, 2:32 pm
Newsgroups: alt.fan.dick-depew, news.admin.policy, alt.folklore.computers
From: jf...@nyx.cs.du.edu (Joel Furr)
Date: Wed, 31 Mar 93 19:27:31 GMT
Local: Wed, Mar 31 1993 2:27 pm
Subject: Re: ARMM: ARMM: >>>>Ad Infinitum
Print | View thread | Show original | Report this message | Find messages by this author
In article <C4rJzL....@avalon.nwc.navy.mil> deje...@avalon.nwc.navy.mil (Francisco X DeJesus) writes:

>In article <tweekC4qM0A....@netcom.com> tw...@netcom.com (Michael D. Maxfield) writes:
>>>In article <AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAC4qG8t....@redpoll.neoucom.edu> r...@redpoll.neoucom.edu (Richard E. Depew) writes:
>>>>Automated Retroactive Minimal Moderation (tm) by ARMM5.  Press 'n' to skip.

>>>>*This* post carries the Supersedes header.  It behaves just like the
>>>>Also-Control header with C-news, at least so far as I can tell.

>Er, maybe not, Dick.

>This brightens up my day... as soon as I can stop laughing and catch my
>breath for a second I'll tell all the programmers here about it... we're
>going to be cracking up about this for years to come!

In the sober light of day, I'm laughing as I re-read the comments on the
March 30 ARMM Massacre.  Last _night_, on the other hand, I had a mental
image of a machine sitting atop a hill, making a low droning sound,
releasing infinite numbers of Frankenstein's Monsters on the surrounding
environs.  Frankenstein's Monsters here, Frankenstein's Monsters there,
lurching about stiff-leggedly, arms outstretched, and all muttering the
same word over and over: ARMM ARMM ARMM ARMM ARMM.

Usenet History, I tell you.  This needs its own listing in the Jargon File:

:ARMM: n.  A USENET posting robot created by Dick Depew of Munroe Falls, Ohio.
   Originally intended to serve as a means of controlling posts through
   anon servers (see also {anon servers}).  Transformed by programming
   ineptitude into a monster of Frankenstein proportions, it broke loose
   on the night of March 31, 1993 and proceeded to spam news.admin.policy
   with something on the order of 200 messages in which it attempted, and
   failed, to cancel its own messages.  This produced a recursive chain
   of messages each of which tacked on:

    * another "ARMM:" onto the subject line
    * a meaningless "supersedes" header line
    * another character in the message id (producing message ids several
      lines long)
    * a ^L

    This produced a flood of messages in which each header took up several
    screens and each message id got longer and longer and longer and each
    subject line started wrapping around five or six times.  ARMM was
    accused of crashing at least one mail system and inspired widespread
    resentment among those who pay for each message they have downloaded.

Eric Raymond, you listening?


 
You must Sign in before you can post messages.
To post a message you must first join this group.
Please update your nickname on the subscription settings page before posting.
You do not have the permission required to post.
Create a group - Google Groups - Google Home - Terms of Service - Privacy Policy
©2012 Google