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Computer Forteana?

Hmm, I would recommend trying the same exercise again, only with a different textual editor. Start with notepad. Then move on to DOS's Edit. Then I dare thee to seek out DOS's edlin and scribe dark secrets there. If you're not a Microsoft kind of person, Unix's vi is always an option. At least you won't have a disturbingly personified paperclip asking you what you want to do today.
 
lol the paperclip - i normally just tell it to hide, then it comes back saying something meek like, you've told me to hide so many times, would you like me to hide permanently? i'm hard-hearted and always say yes. maybe one day it will decide to stand up for itself, i've treated it like dirt for so long and all it wants to do is be my friend...
 
jack said:
lol the paperclip - i normally just tell it to hide, then it comes back saying something meek like, you've told me to hide so many times, would you like me to hide permanently? i'm hard-hearted and always say yes. maybe one day it will decide to stand up for itself, i've treated it like dirt for so long and all it wants to do is be my friend...
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I changed mine into the cat , it chases butterflies and purrs and licks itself and stuff , and doesn't talk much .
Marion
 
My brother recently told me about a dark, Fortean-sounding role-playing or strategy game (unfortunately, I don't recall the name, but can find out if anyone's interested) that a workmate of his became rather spooked by.
Apparently, it is rather addictive, and - bearing mind its dark theme - he was up late one night playing it, when he thought he could just hear his name being whispered. He tried to ignore it, but it persisted, forcing him to stop the game and listen intently. And yes, he could hear his name being repeated in whispy tones over and over.
Well, it put the wind up him a bit, so the next day he rang the manufacturers and was told that one of its features was a voice database that recognised the player's name from input and played it back later, subtly, at some choice place in the game to produce the effect he had experienced.
If anyone knows the name of the game, please share it, else I'll ring me 'bro and find out for you all.

:eek:
 
I've love to get the name of that game. Any computer game that has the ability to freak you out is ok in my book. I remember when I was much younger the nintendo game "Shadowgate" (I think) freaked me out a bit in the midnight hour.
 
My computer freaked me slightly one time. I'd been experimenting with a cover disc program that would take a text file and read it out loud. This was fun, but I didn't think I had any real need for it so I uninstalled it afterwards.

Somewhat later I was doing something else on the computer when suddenly it spoke to me, telling me that a certain TV programme was starting in 15 minutes!

Now I have Digiguide installed to give me TV listings and reminders ( details ) and it turns out that DG also has this speaking facility which had somehow been turned on by the other program!

As I didn't want it to speak to me, I then had to delve in the innards of Digiguide to find how to switch it off again!
 
My only freaky experience with a computer was around 1am one morning while working quietly and concentrating fairly hard, when suddenly there was a burst of loud male speech from the speakers. When I landed back on the chair, I of course reasoned that it must have been a stray CB or police signal that my PC's speakers had picked up. But it didn't 'arf give me a fright at the time.
 
computer´s weird behaviour

Well, there was an occasion when my Mac really freeaked me out.
I was writing a sort of memoir, pretty long sort of thing, six pages, when, while I was rolling my nth cigarette, a thick green line appeared on the screen, curved from top left to bottom right, and swept across the pages deleting everything....
I couldnºt recover any of the text and to this day am puzzled about it.
Sorry, no faces or unrequested text, but this is the nearest i got to what you are lloking for. any good?
:D
 
Sounds like a virus, albiet a weird one. Still, I wonder if anyone bothers writing viruses for Macs.... it doesn't seem like the thing to do. I had a virus once that that would drop letters off the screen, one at a time. It was pretty impressive, in my opinion.
 
I find it quite unnerving when I constantly recieve emails to someone by the name of HOME OWNER!... who is this man? Why are these people confused between us? :D

Also, it should be referred to as the "blue screen of rebirth"...

btw People would write viruses for Macs to vex people like me - I own two and I'm typing on one at University now!
 
The game is called Black and White.
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And verily is it the greatest game ever created. Everyone should own it just because it would make for some great stand-up comedy routines. The way people relate to their creature is just so funny.
 
I went into EBoutique yesterday and saw Black and White. I plan on purchasing it in the near future when the price comes down a bit.


BTW. JackS, you are surely right about mac viruses. A true hacker would be happy writing a virus for an OS which he created himself and only uses himself. It's a mad world.
 
My laptop just died quite badly on me halfway through a lesson. Not exactly paranormal (it was Word...) but I thought I just had to tell someone...

As if you lot care.

Az
 
But we do care! We've all been there, done that. Those of us on computers and the internet for more than a few months, that is.

But come to think of it, it was even sooner than that for me. My first internet-capatible computer kept crashing on me practically every day. I took it back to the shop, they couldn't find anything wrong with it [repeat several times]....

Eventually, grudgingly, they gave me a new machine instead (this one). So we do care!
 
Yes we all care & we've been there.

I spend most of my time on line being told that "Msmsgs has caused an error in KERNEL32.DLL & will now shut down" or that "Rnaapp" has commited some sort of error, so tough luck about all the work I've done since I first booted up.

It's times like that when I know why everyone hates Bill Gates:monster:
 
There are some pretty viable solutions to the whole "word sucks" dilemma. I'm not saying that Star Office is perfect, but it is free and it does load word files without any problem with that special "I'm not using M$" feeling too...
 
Ghost in the machine?

I know some of you people study with the OU. In 1998 I did the course 'An Introduction To The Humanities'. A fortean computer event occured during the filming of one of the associated programs. (Warning. Vagueness soon to follow due to time elapse and to not having this program on video anymore). The program was called 'Was Anybody There?' It was about spiritulism in the late 19th century and principally told the story of the scientist William Crookes and his study of Florence and Kate Cook. Florence Cook was famous for being able to summon a spirit called Katie King. The spirit-summoning was photographed by William Crookes. This is where I start getting vague now. Two researchers (modern day now) were in a room with a PC. They were carrying out some sort of analysis (maybe) on the Crookes photographs (not sure if the computer was directly involved). Suddenly the computer crashed at a crucial moment showing the message 'error'. This shocked the hell out of the researchers. It was pretty spooky. Did anyone else see this program, perhaps give a more coherent account than mine? Is this on another thread? (curse my laziness if it is!)
 
I must be in a somewhat more sceptical mood than usual tonight, but I just think that if the computer had crashed (a non too unusual occurence in my experience) during filming of a programme of any other subject matter then it would have been ignored (although most probably swore at, but that's not weird...).
 
Ghost in the machine?

Quote from accompanying course notes:
"Now think about what happened during the filming. If you taped the programme, replay the spirit-photo sequence and watch for the error message flashing on the screen. The event was totally unscripted but was it also purely coincidental? What explanations are possible? Now that it's 'history', how would you explain it as a historian of science? Comparing Crooke's photos with the film itself, is 'seeing believing' in both cases? Believing in what or whom?"
I'm just reporting the facts as I know them to be, and my personal impressions of the incident.
 
I certainly didn't intend to give the impression I was rubbishing what you said. Sorry if I did.

I take it that the timing of the crash was particularly important to the weirdness in this case?
 
What makes a weird event?

I think your last comment sums up this discussion beautifully. For most of us computers are somewhat arcane pieces of equipment. Their programs are jealously guarded by their creators. The hardware is hidden inside a box and the most important parts have had their mechanisms reduced to microscopic proportions. Only a small 'elite' really understand these things, but the majority of users do not know what the hell is going on most of the time. Thus we accept the glitches and the occasional weird messages. These events leave our minds almost as soon as we have rebooted the machine. It is only when strange coincidences arise or very peculiar messages appear on our screens that we sit up and take notice (apologies, but I haven't read the links in the 1st posting but I'm assuming that coincidences and just plain weirdness abounded). So who really knows which phenomena are attributable to programming errors, scams by operators who know how to do these sorts of things, or genuine influences that exist at the edge of human conciousness?
 
Once back in the eighties, i switched on my speccy+2 to find the computer loading up a program. As it was half way through at the time i couldnt tell what it was but, it screeched away for a good few minuites until the "program" loaded. Nothing came on the screen so i then resetted it. The strange thing about it was there was no tape in the machine and the player was switched off, yet it was definatly loading a program of some sort, i had that machine for a good five years and nothing remotely similar had happened before or after. i guessed that it was somthing in the rom chips but to this day ive wondered about it!
 
I came across a book on Spectrum programming in the charity shop the other day. Sadly my Spectrum and I were forced to part in the 80s, so I didn't buy the book.

(Oh, those happy, innocent days!)
 
rynner said:
I came across a book on Spectrum programming in the charity shop the other day. Sadly my Spectrum and I were forced to part in the 80s, so I didn't buy the book.

(Oh, those happy, innocent days!)
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I had a ZX81 - it used to get so hot you could actually smell burning plastic! And that was when it was just adding things up!

For all our complaints, computers are a little better now...
 
I had an Atari ST which I used to plug into a sampler and compose loads of groovy tunes. Anyway, I found that I could control it by simply waving my hands above the keyboard. Basically if I moved my hand around about 3/4 inches above the keyboard, the mouse would move and activate any controls it passed over.

This wasn't a random event, it happened everytime and only for me. My girlfriend tried and it did nothing.

A computer geek pal of mine suggested it was a build up of static electricity and I needed a little metal plate by the computer which I could touch every so often and discharge the static. Never did try it because I picked up another cheap Atari and never had a problem with that.
 
Computers Doing the Weird and Inexplicable.

I've just spent a scintillating evening turning all the little copyright signs in my posts back into full stops. I've no idea how long they were like that - perhaps since the beginning. Everything looked okay to me.

I wouldn't have known if P. Younger hadn't pointed it out. Perhaps everybody thought I was just plain crazy. I've changed over from `Netscape6' to `MicrosoreInternetExploiter' since the Board is optimised for `VisualBasic.' I hope that's fixed it. If not please let me know.

I was going to raise the problem on web issues. Then I realised, what I really want to know, is:

Have you ever had a strange experience with a computer or similiar machine. Something uncanny, or, inexplicable, which made you wonder if the thing was having a laugh at your expense? Have you heard any good stories from others?

I remember a few stories years, back just before the internet got fully underway, about telephone networks acting as if they had minds of their own.

I've since read articles about the internet and the WorldWideWeb becoming so smart they start thinking for themselves.

Not that I'm paranoid, or, anything.
 
The possibility of computer information networks becoming intelligent and indeed concious was explored in the Japanese animated flick Ghost in the Shell. Although, of course, it also featured big guns and breasts, being Anime and everything.

There's also the word "slemen", which aside from inspiring a poster here's name, has been said to appear onscreen and on anamolous computer print outs every so often.

Another case was that ghost who used a word processor to communicate with the computer's owneres, although I think that's considered rather dubious these days...

I suppose going back to the question of whether computers/networks can become concious it really depends on what_conciousness_is, and I sure as hell don't know!
 
Re: Computers Doing the Weird and Inexplicable.

Originally posted by AndroMan


Have you ever had a strange experience with a computer or similiar machine. Something uncanny, or, inexplicable, which made you wonder if the thing was having a laugh at your expense?
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I've been working with or using the damn things since the mid 70's, and believe me, they're all having a laugh at our expense!

The mainframe that crashed whenever a certain programmer tried to use it .... we ended up blaming his nylon socks (although he never actually wore nylon socks....)

Another mainframe crashed at the same time every morning for a month - no, nothing to do with off-peak heating or other timers.

The six-inch coach-bolt that materialised inside a machine that had been running non-stop all week. The m/c was switched off, and back on about 2 mins later - bang!! one u/s power supply, coach-bolt welded to the contacts.

Tape decks that only ever worked when there was an engineer in the building.....

A network terminal that only ever worked when there was an engineer in the building.....

Machines that ran perfectly until their routine maintenance, and then got really sick....

A (fairly simple) program that ran perfectly on one PC, but not the identical one beside it....

And there's more, but life's too short! :D
 
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