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-
-
-
- As recorded in the Ancient book of Demons
- I, Michael do hereby transcribe and attest
- the following to be true as originally
- written.
-
- Know Ye WHO are weak of heart, and frail of
- body READ NO FURTHER.
-
- The Ancient programmer toiled day and night, the vision
- of a bug free program consumed his every waking moment.
- All things of pleasure were put aside. His beautiful
- young wife and 9 children were ignored. Life was only the
- program. The bits, the bytes, the strings, and the syntax,
- all this had become his life. But he was not with out hope
- for in times past, others such as him had toiled long and
- hard, but always the reward would come. SHARE WARE, SHARE
- WARE, the magical incantation that many a programmer and
- wizards of the byte had earned there just dues. It was not
- the small pittance of gold they sought, but the meager means
- to continue there mystical profession.
-
- At last as the winter wings of his life blew, a time of rest
- appeared on the horizon for the Ancient programer. The bugs
- were gone, the compiler was quiet. A lass it was time to reap
- the meager harvest of his meg a byte crop.
-
- But all was not right in the homes of the hackers and the
- users. Time had past and some hackers and users had changed.
- The darkness of the parity error had seduced them. They
- succumbed to the type O and the bad command. They had
- forgotten there teachings, the darkness closed in, there bus
- cards slowly warped. For they no longer listened to the
- teaching of the OLD Z80. The object, the honesty of the SHARE
- WARE concept no longer lingered in the heart of there
- individual CPU's.
-
- Upon hearing of this evil with in his beloved community the
- Ancient programmer laughed, for he new, and believed in his
- fellow users. Even to the last he was heard saying " keep the
- faith young wife, I believe in SHARE WARE, and the Great CPU
- teachings." "My program will earn us enough to keep the
- children feed and electricity in the computer." He never
- doubted he believed they would never allow the power company
- to turn off his beloved little 286 CPU.
-
- But it came to pass, the users forgot, they used his program
- and NEVER REGISTERED or paid the small fee. They passed it
- among there friends, it was enjoyed, and used. Every version
- of DOS commanded it. Never once was the Ancient programmer
- thought of.
-
-
-
-
-
-
- Then that faithful day came, and with out tribute to pay the
- Ancient programers power was turned off. The ancient
- programmer stood by, heart broken and disillusioned as his
- beautiful beloved CPU cooled off, all his hopes and dreams
- were lost as the Ram Disk disappeared. All was lost he never
- programed again. His wife and 9 children left him.
-
- Some members of the computer village still had no remorse.
- But then a quiver of fear could be felt, all was not right.
- Bits were missing, power surges were destroying memory. Hard
- Disks begin crashing. Those who abused SHARE WARE tried to
- repent by making back ups, but the time of repentance was
- past.
-
- Then the lights dimmed, and dark clouds covered there
- computers and the All electrons and the power of the GREAT
- CPU spoke forth:
-
- CHILDREN OF THE ELECTRON I THE GREAT CPU
- FORGIVE YOU FOR NOT FOLLOWING THE TEACH-
- INGS OF SHARE WARE - BUT NEVER AGAIN WILL I
- ALLOW YOU TO TURN OFF ONE SUCH AS THE
- ANCIENT PROGRAMMER.
- KNOW YE ONE AND ALL, RESPECT THE SHARE WARE
- PRINCIPLE OR BEWARE, IF YOU VALUE YOUR DISK
- AND RAM, FOR ANY WHO DO NOT RESPECT THE
- SHARE WARE WILL SURELY LOOSE ALL !!!
-
- SIGNED
- MICHAEL HUSKEY
- TRANSCRIBER FOR THE GREAT CPU
- WITNESSED
- RICHARD LEW
- POWER USER AND KEEPER OF THE TRUE FAITH