Many moons ago, more than I care to remember, when I was at University. One of my computer literate colleagues spent a lot of time with the Uni’s DEC VAX 8650, which was connected to JANET, or the Joint Academic Network. This was part of what would become the “Internet”. One day he mailed us a “Computer Poem” that “He had found on the net”.
Today I found myself thinking about this and a quick search later I had it. So for my trip down memory lane, here is it, with its translation.
< > ! * ‘ ‘ #
Fred Bremmer and Steve Kroese
^ ” ` $ $ –
! * = @ $ _
% * < > ~ # 4
& [ ] . . /
| { , , SYSTEM HALTED
The poem can only be appreciated by reading it aloud, as such:
Waka waka bang splat tick tick hash,
Caret quote back-tick dollar dollar dash,
Bang splat equal at dollar under-score,
Percent splat waka waka tilde number four,
Ampersand bracket bracket dot dot slash,
Vertical-bar curly-bracket comma comma CRASH!
