This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --------------8C6B26E8556977B0ADAA54CD Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Happy Holidays Everyone! --------------8C6B26E8556977B0ADAA54CD Content-Type: message/rfc822 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline Received: from [207.228.68.135] (ts18ip135.cadvision.com [207.228.68.135]) by huey.cadvision.com (8.8.5/8.8.5/DCE/TRI) with ESMTP id HAA40116 for <[log in to unmask]>; Tue, 23 Dec 1997 07:02:10 -0700 X-Sender: [log in to unmask] Message-Id: <l03102802b0c4eca7fb7c@[207.228.68.135]> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Date: Tue, 23 Dec 1997 05:21:17 +0100 To: [log in to unmask] From: Beverly Reynolds <[log in to unmask]> Subject: Merry Christmas >Subject: A Computer Christmas Poem > >> 'Twas the night before Christmas and all through the nets >> Not a mousie was stirring, not even the pets. >> The floppies were stacked by the modem with care >> In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there. >> The files were nestled all snug in a folder >> The screen saver turned on, the weather was colder. >> >> And leaving the keyboard along with my mouse >> I turned from the screen to the rest of the house. >> When up from the drive there arose such a clatter >> I turned to the screen to see what was the matter. >> Away to the mouse I flew like a flash, >> Zoomed open a window in fear of a crash... >> >> The glow from the screen on the keyboard below >> Gave an electronic luster to all my macros. >> When what to my wondering eyes should appear >> But a little sleigh icon with eight tiny reindeer >> And a tiny disk driver so SCSI and quick >> I knew in a nano it must be Saint Nick. >> >> More rapid than trackballs his cursors they came, >> He whistled and shouted and faxed them by name. >> "Now Flasher! Now Dasher! Now Raster and Bixel! >> On Phosphor! On Photon! On Baudrate and Pixel! >> To the top of the stack. To the top of the heap." >> Then each little reindeer made a soft beep. >> >> As data that before the wild electrons fly, >> When they meet with a node, mount to the drive, >> So up to the screentop the cursors they flew >> With a sleigh full of disks and databits, too. >> And then in a twinkling I heard the high whine >> Of a modem connecting at a baud rate so fine. >> >> As I gazed at the screen with a puzzling frown >> St. Nicholas logged on though I thought I was down. >> He was dressed all in bytes from header to footer >> And the words on the screen said "Don't you reboot 'er." >> A bundle of bits he had flung on his back >> And he looked like a programmer starting his hack. >> >> His eyes how they glazed, his hair was so scary, >> His cola was jolt, not flavored with cherry. >> His droll little mouth was drawn up like a GIF >> And the pixels of his beard sure gave me a lift. >> The stump of a routine he held tight in his code >> And I knew he had made it past the last node. >> >> He spoke not a word but looked right at me >> And I saw in a flash his file was .SEA. >> He self-decompressed and I watched him unfold, >> Into a jolly old elf, a sight to behold. >> And the whispering sound of my hard drive's head >> Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread. >> >> He went straight to his work without saying a word >> And filled all the folders of this happy nerd. >> And 'tis the whole truth, as the story is told, >> That giving a nod up the window he scrolled, >> He sprang to the serial port as if truly on fire >> And away they all flew down the thin copper wire. >> >> But I heard him exclaim as he scrolled out of sight >> "Happy Christmas to All, and to all a good night." --------------8C6B26E8556977B0ADAA54CD--