8 ms·

Ouch

199 points by thaumaturgy 17y ago

dschoon 17y ago
... I am actually saddened I now know that. I kind of wish I could have had that same experience.
- jey 17y ago
  Maybe you should just take up http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BASE_jumping http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BASE_jumping instead
ardit33 17y ago
? I don't get it. Could somebody explain it to more human terms, please.
- nikz 17y ago
  Seems like there is a program called "fortune" that prints a random "fortune" on boot. And some joker took it upon themselves to add a somewhat distressing boot message into the default list. (man fortune: http://linux.die.net/man/6/fortune http://linux.die.net/man/6/fortune)
- flashingpumpkin 17y ago
  $ man fortune
  - deleted 17y ago
    [deleted]
- deleted 17y ago
  [deleted]
- pyre 17y ago
  He has fortune setup to display a 'fortune' when he logs in. Apparently one of the fortunes is a fake kernel panic message. So he logged in and saw this message thinking it was a real kernel panic before he realized it was just the output of fortune.
- thaumaturgy 17y ago
  "fortune" is a Unix/BSD/Linux command that prints a random quote to your screen (as in "fortune cookie"). Some Unix-like operating systems have fortune set up to run once automatically every time you log in to your account. Someone with a great sense of humor set one of the random quotes to mimic a very serious operating system error message. This poor guy finished upgrading his operating system, logged in, and got that error message as his fortune.
  - andreyf 17y ago
    It's also a nice touch that the very serious error message is reported as (ignored), which would be impossible if such an error had really occurred.
    - palish 17y ago
      Why? What does the error mean?
      - baxter 17y ago
        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kernel_panic http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kernel_panic
- absconditus 17y ago
  In an effort to make HN more like reddit jokes are being upvoted to the top position.
  - thaumaturgy 17y ago
    If it makes you feel any better, I never could have guessed this would get so many votes. I've just had a hellacious week so far, came across this in my email, and thought a couple of other folks might enjoy it too.
  - sh1mmer 17y ago
    but on HN you actually have to get *nix to get the joke.
  - omgsean 17y ago
    In an effort to make HN more like reddit, its users are complaining about the old news aggregation site they used to go to before they found this one.
- deleted 17y ago
  [deleted]
nkohari 17y ago
That's just EVIL. And hilarious.
- JeremyChase 17y ago
  All of my systems use fortune, but it is displayed using different picture files; just another way to keep things interesting. :) To see what I mean: http://pastebin.org/86456 http://pastebin.org/86456
  - deleted 17y ago
    [deleted]
pierrefar 17y ago
There are some things that we shouldn't joke about.</scarred long-time windows user>
- s3graham 17y ago
  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897558.aspx http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897558.asp... :)
  - IgorPartola 17y ago
    This is fantastic! I haven't seen a BSOD in years (no Vista for me), but what's funny is that it's actually microsoft that's distributing it. Along the same lines: you take a screenshot of your desktop environment with the terminal open in the middle of the screen. Then use that as your bootsplash image. When friends and enemies ask how you did that you just tell them "I reversed the boot process: first I load KDE, then the kernel. It's a lot faster this way."
  - ams6110 17y ago
    I used to have that as my screensaver. It's been around for quite a while; I think there were several different implementations. It really fooled a lot of folks at the office who would approach me in the morning with serious expressions and say something like "something happened to your machine overnight... it keeps rebooting and blue-screening.
- sjs 17y ago
  As a teenager I learned to program in Win 98 days. I wrote a program that faked the "this program has performed an illegal operation" dialog every few fours and put it on my dad's computer. His programs never crashed but he thought there was something very wrong with his computer. Drove him nuts for a few days. :)
IgorPartola 17y ago
I also like that nethack will tell you "core dumped" if you eat an apple or a pear.
- amalcon 17y ago
  That one gets me every time. And they say Eternal Darkness was the first game to mess with the player.
ed 17y ago
For those not on *nix: http://linux.die.net/man/6/fortune http://linux.die.net/man/6/fortune
jrockway 17y ago
Some day, fortune really is going segfault, and nobody will look into it because they think "Segmentation fault (core dumped)" is one of the clever fortunes. A fortune in and of itself.
huhtenberg 17y ago
I used to have a boot-up message on my cell phone that said "This phone is stolen". And even though it was me who set it, it still got me every time I saw it.
scommab 17y ago
I still think this is funniest 'fortune' based story: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=79993 https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=79993 This also doubles as one of my favorite (publicly tracked) bugs
bradfordw 17y ago
This may be the funniest thing I've read on HN. Will take a lot to top this one.
- deleted 17y ago
  [deleted]
sown 17y ago
This reminds me of one time in one of our school's labs we somehow rebooted all of the SUN machines and some weird things happened and the log-in screen's wallpaper picture was of a young lady on a beach in a bikini. My first thought, as well as the other sysprogs was that we had been hacked and we ran around for a good hour trying to get to the bottom of things. The machines ship like that as it turns out as a default wallpaper.
- Splines 17y ago
  Was it this? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenna http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenna
jcroberts 17y ago
Hello HN! Yep, I'm the person who posted that message to the misc@openbsd list. I've been a very avid silent reader (non-member) of HN over the last year or so... until today. Wow. I made the front page of HN. Hopefully next time it will be for my technical acumen rather than my vivid sense of humor.
drallison 17y ago
% file deletion complete.

Ouch

199 points by thaumaturgy 17y ago

dschoon 17y ago

... I am actually saddened I now know that. I kind of wish I could have had that same experience.

jey 17y ago
Maybe you should just take up http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BASE_jumping http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BASE_jumping instead

ardit33 17y ago

? I don't get it. Could somebody explain it to more human terms, please.

nikz 17y ago
Seems like there is a program called "fortune" that prints a random "fortune" on boot. And some joker took it upon themselves to add a somewhat distressing boot message into the default list. (man fortune: http://linux.die.net/man/6/fortune http://linux.die.net/man/6/fortune)
flashingpumpkin 17y ago
$ man fortune
- deleted 17y ago
  [deleted]
deleted 17y ago
[deleted]
pyre 17y ago
He has fortune setup to display a 'fortune' when he logs in. Apparently one of the fortunes is a fake kernel panic message. So he logged in and saw this message thinking it was a real kernel panic before he realized it was just the output of fortune.
thaumaturgy 17y ago
"fortune" is a Unix/BSD/Linux command that prints a random quote to your screen (as in "fortune cookie"). Some Unix-like operating systems have fortune set up to run once automatically every time you log in to your account. Someone with a great sense of humor set one of the random quotes to mimic a very serious operating system error message. This poor guy finished upgrading his operating system, logged in, and got that error message as his fortune.
- andreyf 17y ago
  It's also a nice touch that the very serious error message is reported as (ignored), which would be impossible if such an error had really occurred.
  - palish 17y ago
    Why? What does the error mean?
    - baxter 17y ago
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kernel_panic http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kernel_panic
absconditus 17y ago
In an effort to make HN more like reddit jokes are being upvoted to the top position.
- thaumaturgy 17y ago
  If it makes you feel any better, I never could have guessed this would get so many votes. I've just had a hellacious week so far, came across this in my email, and thought a couple of other folks might enjoy it too.
- sh1mmer 17y ago
  but on HN you actually have to get *nix to get the joke.
- omgsean 17y ago
  In an effort to make HN more like reddit, its users are complaining about the old news aggregation site they used to go to before they found this one.
deleted 17y ago
[deleted]

nkohari 17y ago

That's just EVIL. And hilarious.

JeremyChase 17y ago
All of my systems use fortune, but it is displayed using different picture files; just another way to keep things interesting. :) To see what I mean: http://pastebin.org/86456 http://pastebin.org/86456
- deleted 17y ago
  [deleted]

pierrefar 17y ago

There are some things that we shouldn't joke about.</scarred long-time windows user>

s3graham 17y ago
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897558.aspx http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897558.asp... :)
- IgorPartola 17y ago
  This is fantastic! I haven't seen a BSOD in years (no Vista for me), but what's funny is that it's actually microsoft that's distributing it. Along the same lines: you take a screenshot of your desktop environment with the terminal open in the middle of the screen. Then use that as your bootsplash image. When friends and enemies ask how you did that you just tell them "I reversed the boot process: first I load KDE, then the kernel. It's a lot faster this way."
- ams6110 17y ago
  I used to have that as my screensaver. It's been around for quite a while; I think there were several different implementations. It really fooled a lot of folks at the office who would approach me in the morning with serious expressions and say something like "something happened to your machine overnight... it keeps rebooting and blue-screening.
sjs 17y ago
As a teenager I learned to program in Win 98 days. I wrote a program that faked the "this program has performed an illegal operation" dialog every few fours and put it on my dad's computer. His programs never crashed but he thought there was something very wrong with his computer. Drove him nuts for a few days. :)

IgorPartola 17y ago

I also like that nethack will tell you "core dumped" if you eat an apple or a pear.

amalcon 17y ago
That one gets me every time. And they say Eternal Darkness was the first game to mess with the player.

ed 17y ago

For those not on *nix: http://linux.die.net/man/6/fortune http://linux.die.net/man/6/fortune

jrockway 17y ago

Some day, fortune really is going segfault, and nobody will look into it because they think "Segmentation fault (core dumped)" is one of the clever fortunes. A fortune in and of itself.

huhtenberg 17y ago

I used to have a boot-up message on my cell phone that said "This phone is stolen". And even though it was me who set it, it still got me every time I saw it.

scommab 17y ago

I still think this is funniest 'fortune' based story: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=79993 https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=79993 This also doubles as one of my favorite (publicly tracked) bugs

bradfordw 17y ago

This may be the funniest thing I've read on HN. Will take a lot to top this one.

deleted 17y ago
[deleted]

sown 17y ago

This reminds me of one time in one of our school's labs we somehow rebooted all of the SUN machines and some weird things happened and the log-in screen's wallpaper picture was of a young lady on a beach in a bikini. My first thought, as well as the other sysprogs was that we had been hacked and we ran around for a good hour trying to get to the bottom of things. The machines ship like that as it turns out as a default wallpaper.

Splines 17y ago
Was it this? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenna http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenna

jcroberts 17y ago

Hello HN! Yep, I'm the person who posted that message to the misc@openbsd list. I've been a very avid silent reader (non-member) of HN over the last year or so... until today. Wow. I made the front page of HN. Hopefully next time it will be for my technical acumen rather than my vivid sense of humor.

drallison 17y ago

% file deletion complete.