[ale] Fwd: A funny thing happened on the way to the lug meeting

Thu Oct 18 23:08:32 EDT 2001

Haw! Funny bit!
Hmm... there could be hope for the world yet.
Thanks for the post and the chuckle.

Think I'll cross-post it to Detroit....

Frank Z
MDLUG,
Detroit MI

----- Original Message -----
From: "Steven A. DuChene" <linux-clusters at mindspring.com>
To: ale at ale.org
To: <ale at ale.org>
Sent: Thursday, October 18, 2001 10:45 PM
Subject: [ale] Fwd: A funny thing happened on the way to the lug meeting

> ----- Forwarded message from Stephan Greene <sgreene at patriot.net> -----
>
> Date: Thu, 18 Oct 2001 22:26:56 -0400 (EDT)
> Subject: [evals] A funny thing happened on the way to the lug meeting
>
>
> This was so funny, I had to share it.
>
> (Background:  DC LUG nominally meets once a month at a really nice
> auditorium at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Betehsda, MD.
> Due to current security changes, evening meetings have been cancelled, so
> some of the folks are getting together for pizza instead of meeting and
> then going for pizza.  Looks like some of that other mystery powder got
> snuck into the mozzerlla....)
>
> Steve
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Stephan A. Greene     sgreene at patriot.net        ka1lm at amsat.org
> Herndon, VA           1-703-654-6032 office  1-571-233-1194 cell
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> Date: Thu, 18 Oct 2001 17:38:30 -0400 (EDT)
> From: Maxwell Spangler <maxwax at mindspring.com>
> Cc: DC Linux Users Group <dclug at tux.org>
> Subject: Re: [dclug] Meeting
>
> On Thu, 18 Oct 2001, Christopher J. Graham wrote:
>
> > I was not able to make it to the dclug meeting last night like I
planned.
> > What did I miss?
>
> About 10 of us showed up and were eating dinner, having a chat, when armed
> terrorists burst in the room with guns and bombs.
>
> The put us up against the wall with our hands above our head and wouldn't
let
> me finish my soda despite my sore throat.
>
> It seems they had been escaping some other crimial activity in bethesda
and
> ran into victors to get away from the many police cars we heard with
sirens
> driving madly around bethesda.
>
> We noticed one of them had a small satellite phone hooked up to a toshiba
> liberetto (a really small laptop) and was using it to communicate with
others.
>
> When we noticed this and we asked them what operating system they were
> running.  They yelled at us but we could see it was Windows, and I still
> couldn't get to my soda.  It was a Dr. Pepper.
>
> Serge started to tell them that if they're using Windows, they're not Free
at
> all and no matter what they do to bomb our country and hurt our people, as
> long as they're not using Free Software they're not ever going to be Free.
>
> They started at Serge and said something like "All your base are belong to
us"
> whatever the hell that means...
>
> So then Serge recited some speech from heart from a guy named Eben that
talked
> recently in DC.  Serge managed to convert half of us, including some of
the
> terrorists from our previous beliefs, to some quasi-communist doctrine
based
> on high-technology and Free Software.  That's free as in Libre and not as
in
> Beer, and my soda continued to cost me money without my being able to
drink it
> so I was not very swayed by his speech.
>
> Alan McConnel came out of the bathroom at this point and said "What is
THIS?"
> and I said, it's a Toshiba Liberetto, and he said, no--the them, pointing
at
> the terrorists, and I said, yeah, half are into Free Software now and the
> others "just don't get it"  So Alan was put up against the wall as well
but
> before he was he managed to ask "Do they know about TeX in Afghanistan?"
>
> It was about this time that they finished going through our wallets
looking
> for ID cards and saw that Megan Larko worked for NASA and they thought it
said
> "NSA" and gave her a really hard time.  So we explained that it was NASA,
the
> guys who put people on the moon and we asked the terrorists where they
were
> when the first guy walked on the room and they had to think for a while
> because they couldn't remember.
>
> While they were distracted thinking about how the moon looks like Khandar
in
> the summer time (and the winter, and spring and fall), I managed to make a
> call on my phone.  I called Fede and said "we're being hijaaked--there are
> terrorists here, they have guns and Windows 2000 for encryption with their
sat
> phone" and he said "Hi, This is Fede and Lisa, we're not here right now
but if
> you leave a message we'll get back to you" but what I know he really
*meant*
> was "Windows 2000 is a pretty sad choice for people who are against the
big
> corporations that represent american and keep other people down while
making
> other people rich..." but then my cell phone battery went dead.
>
> We were very nervous, but I think what happened next--they spoke farsi or
> something so we coulnd't tell, but We think the people on the phone sent
them
> an email with instructions on how to get out, but when they opened it, it
had
> a virus and the virus said "down with america" and put poison symbols all
over
> the screen.  "See!" we told them, you need Free Software.
>
> Realizing they had no other options at this point, they grabbed some pizza
and
> made a mad rush out the back door, possibly to get to safety, or possibly
just
> to find another group of captives that don't know about Free Software and
> won't try to harass them about it so much.
>
> I took a gasp and drank the rest of my warm Dr. Pepper.
>
> It was a pretty good meeting--we got some people interested in Free
Software,
> as I said earlier.
>
>
> I hope this goes in the archives :)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----
> Maxwell Spangler
> Program Writer
> Greenbelt, Maryland, U.S.A.
> Washington D.C. Metropolitan Area
>
> _______________________________________________
> dclug mailing list
> dclug at tux.org
> http://www.tux.org/mailman/listinfo/dclug
>
>
> ----- End forwarded message -----
>
> --
> Steven A. DuChene sad at ale.org
> linux-clusters at mindspring.com
> sduchene at mindspring.com
>
> http://www.mindspring.com/~sduchene/
>
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