Panicking In Morse Code

An anonymous reader writes "When an i386 running Linux panics, a function in the kernel called 'panic_blink' causes the system's LEDs to blink. Andrew Rodland recently posted a creative patch to turn that steady blink into a useful message in morse code!"

Comments

and that message is...

[gyratedotorg]

and that message is...

...---...

(sos) =)

I can just imagine

[Alien54]

The variety of panic messages beyond the usual meaningful information

I can't do that dave

I'm melting ....

beam me up, scotty

feed me

I wonder if there is a morse code to voice coverter device out there? that would be a neat module to have to plug in as a peripheral

of course, if the code goes fast enough, you can gain the ability to recognise whole words as a sort of warble.

Re:I can just imagine

[dattaway]

Actually, this would be a good idea. The keyboard's LED, if it is red, might be close enough to the infrared spectrum to be noticed by the irda ports many notebooks have. Well, patch the keyboard panic patch with the tcp stack, write a decoder that will receive the slow tcp serial stream, and cross your fingers that portion of the kernel is not b0rked, and you can be sending packets over the keyboard link.

Well, it wouldn't be a fast link. But the possibilies could include telneting... oh I'll stop there...

Here is what it says...

[kenthorvath]

Three dits!

Four dits!

Two dits!

Dah!

Windows! Windows! Rah Rah Rah!

Winamp plugin

[prof187]

I donwloaded a winamp plugin that would flash the LEDs with the oscilliscope(sp). Anyway, I thought it was pretty neat untill I tried being productive with it turned on. Turns out that it actually just switches the caps/num lock on and off. So in the middle of my text, i'd Get TExt LiKE THIs. It was neat, but annoying if I planned on typing.

Compaq beep of death

[peterdaly]

If I didn't know better I'd say that's what Compaq's, or was it old ALRs (remember them?) did when hardware wasn't right.

A string of varying beeps. This was years ago, don't know if any recent hardware still does it.

Tech support: Hold the phone close to the system board so I can hear it.

That was funny.

-Pete

Re:Compaq beep of death

[Monkeyman334]

My favorite musical warning was at this ISP I used to work at. We had an old machine that we didn't really do anything with except test out peoples dial-up accounts. One day my coworker was on the phone and the machine next to him starts playing Fur Elise. He panicked and told the customer to hold while he flipped off the computer because the music was a warning that the fan had failed. I was laughing so much. What made it great was when we found microsoft knowledge base articles on it.

Undoubtedly...

[mstyne]

The kerneltrap.org server's led's are furiously flashing:

[imagine 'slashdotted' in morse here]

Lameness filter encountered. Post aborted!
Reason: Please use fewer 'junk' characters.

Morse != Junk! Damn you lameness filter!!

*sigh*

[ebbomega]

All your funny are belong to a year and a half ago!
Someone set up us the dead horse!
You have no chance to be funny make your time!

Re:Joy...

[Salsaman]

Well, I managed to get to the site, but I got a 404 in morse code...

backdraft

[Tablizer]

"Hey, I'm getting a message in morse code. Get my pencil, Let's see:

e r r o r - i n - m o r s e - c o d e - g e n e r z k b g h i l e r l b v c t q z

Doh!"