MIT Gnome Invasion

J. Arthur Random writes "On Wednesday, April 23, hundreds of gnomes invaded the main public computer cluster at MIT. There were big gnomes, little gnomes, even naked gnomes. A gnome army carried the GNOME banner. Fortunately, the ACME Gnome Exterminators took care of the infestation within a few days."

Comments

fr1st ps0t

[Anonymous Coward]

gnome is about as user friendly as girls are

Other MIT hacks

[Michael's a Jerk!]

The Hack Gallery

Re:Other MIT hacks

[Michael's a Jerk!]

Working Link. I like the dome beanie :-)

Re:Other MIT hacks

[GnarlyNome]

Is this what happens when you run GnomeMeetings?

Re:Other MIT hacks

[arvindn]

HA HA HA!

Parent forgot to put http:// in the URL, resulting in a broken link, but still gets modded up +5 informative. Says a lot about mods, doesn't it? :-)

Run....

[Blaine Hilton]

Better watch out for the genetically altered, gnomes with a higher gnomedex...

Go calculate something

fp

[Anonymous Coward]

fp?

First gnome!

[Anonymous Coward]

MMM. Frosty gnomes.

This is Slashdot worthy?

[clbyjack81]

Is there really no news at all? Wow, astonishing!

Re:This is Slashdot worthy?

[SweetAndSourJesus]

In the US, it's friday night. Little news is being generated. Most people are out doing something.

Except us, of course.

Party on, clbyjack81!

Re:This is Slashdot worthy?

[Art Tatum]

This is the annual MIT hack. It's an old tradition that is *definitely* Slashdot worthy. My favorite has always been Buzzword Bingo!

Re:This is Slashdot worthy?

[Emperor Cezar]

Karma burn time.

With all due respect, screw you buddy. This is funny, it's geek AND tech AND linux related. If you don't like it, pack your bags, stop your b1tching and leave. I'm so tired of it.

Re:This is Slashdot worthy?

[Anonymous Coward]

Now we just need our collective slashdot anime fix!

Re:This is Slashdot worthy?

[Anonymous Coward]

Really though, for people at MIT, you would expect something a bit more creative than this.

I'm not bashing the geek/Linuxivity/etc aspect.

Surely this cannot be the pinnacle of MIT's collective ingenuity.

Re:This is Slashdot worthy?

[Bonker]

This is news for nerds. This is stuff that matters.

This was a truly beautiful hack, and it looks like the perpetrators, may they be snickering to themselves in their dormrooms, put a hell of a lot of effort into it.

It had class, beauty, and best of all, didn't hurt anybody.

As a nerd, I am truly glad that Slashdot brought this to my attention. /salute the anonymous Gnomesters.

Re:This is Slashdot worthy?

[The Evil Couch]

it's not annual. guys at MIT do hacks all year round.

Re:This is Slashdot worthy?

[Art Tatum]

Yes, that's true. I realized my mistake after submitting the post.

Re:This is Slashdot worthy?

[The Evil Couch]

fair enough. at least you brought attention to the buzzword bingo. I hadn't looked that far back into the archives myself. thanks for sharing. personally, I'd have to go with the talking elevator hack. there's just something about making an elevator say odd things, when usually it just goes "ding".

Re:This is Slashdot worthy?

[NineNine]

This is stupid, boring, and pointless. Pictures of plastic gnomes. Wow. That sure is wild and crazy. Jeez, what were those wacky kids thinking? If this is MIT's idea of a good time, I'm glad as hell I didn't attend.

Re:This is Slashdot worthy?

[Anonymous Coward]

They're too busy falling down chimneys high off their asses and dying of alcohol poisoning to come up with anything clever.

Re:This is Slashdot worthy?

[Baloo Ursidae]

It's not annual, they happen far more frequently. Please go hit up the Freshman Fishwrap's Hack Gallery.

Re:This is Slashdot worthy?

[Anonymous Coward]

Just because it's the Massachusettes Institute of Technology does not make it tech related.

It is in no way Linux related; they're a bunch of gnomes (not the non-window manager kind.)

And if millions of taxpayer dollars in financial aid financing gnome-hoarding instead of studying is funny, then all aboard the Hilarity Train, cuz I'm laughing my ass off!

Re:This is Slashdot worthy?

[Anonymous Coward]

"Well, that's kinda hard to explain. First and foremost is my schooling. I am currently a CS major at Illinois Institute of Technology. I'm thinking about minoring in Philosophy, but it is not a certainty yet. I've always held a certain nack at the humanities; I'm not really sure why. In fact my Sat score were higher on the humanities section than on my math and science. Even though I may hold a nack for the humanities does not mean that I am good at grammar. To the contrary, I am absolutely horible at it.

Computers are my forte, my love, my passion. I'm a logical creature by nature, but I try my best to be human. I have a way of understanding how a computer works, how it functions from the bottom up. That is why I am a CS major.

After school comes my secondary priority. My Business. I stated my business, Cezar Computer Services, about four years ago. I never aimed for much, just a little extra cash. If I wanted to develop it, it could have been bigger. But, College come first. Knowledge has always been my first and foremost goal. I'm thinking of going for my PhD in CS; maybe even beyond.

Well, that's what most of my work consists of curently. Maybe I'll get a job, Ha. I got an income, quite a large one, but I might want more money later. Oh well."

Your webpage ROCKS DUDE! Why don't you work on your English skills before you get that Philosophy minor, huh? B1tch.

Re:This is Slashdot worthy?

[altstadt]

Umm, no.

By my count (from the pictures) this was approximately 78 little bits of plaster placed around a few computers. Aside from the painting, this is about 5 minutes worth of work for one person.

News for nerds? Maybe, if they haven't found the big blue (grey) room yet. Stuff that matters? There are people at work with bigger belini (sp) figurine collections decorating their cubes.

Re:This is Slashdot worthy?

[GnarlyNome]

You mean they cain't get dates either?

Re:This is Slashdot worthy?

[Anonymous Coward]

how was that funny?

Re:This is Slashdot worthy?

[pyrrho]

insightful? can't you tell he's being sarcastic?

Re:This is Slashdot worthy?

[Anonymous Coward]

"It's an old tradition that is *definitely* Slashdot worthy"

After all, it's *annual* for god's sake! That sure means it's *definitely* worthy!

Re:This is Slashdot worthy?

[Anonymous Coward]

Since when has the SAT had "humanities" or "science" sections? I only remember "verbal" and "math".

Re:This is Slashdot worthy?

[Hal-9001]

The truly beautiful hacks were the Cathedral of Our Lady of the All-Night Tool and the campus police car on the Great Dome. This one was cute, but it doesn't even compare to the One Ring on the Great Dome.

Re:This is Slashdot worthy?

[Anonymous Coward]

I think he meant SAT2 (he is bad at spelling also.)

Re:This is Slashdot worthy?

[Curtman]

Maybe you missed it, but I don't think the similarity between this and this is a coincidence.

And Gnome isn't a window manager. It's a desktop environment.

Re:This is Slashdot worthy?

[Art Tatum]

personally, I'd have to go with the talking elevator hack.

Yeah, that was a classic too. I seem to recall a BOFH story where he modified the elevator that spoke the floor number out loud to wreak havoc with some secretary's mind. I can't find it now though. It must not have been one of the original stories.

Re:This is Slashdot worthy?

[Emperor Cezar]

Am I the only one that ISN'T an anonymous coward? Wow, your one to talk. Millions of dollars going to waste for the gnomes. You could talk if you had HALF the intellegence that the students at MIT have.

Re:This is Slashdot worthy?

[Emperor Cezar]

Wow, resulting to personal attacks are you? You put "Anonymous" into "Anonymous Coward". Also, Programmers invented spell check for a reason. Why don't you stop being a spelling Nazi and start doing something a little more productive?

eu rulo bues...

[Anonymous Coward]

primeiro post caralho.

gnome is as fugly as

[Anonymous Coward]

my asswholes cheek dike cunt queefs

Exactly how do you exterminate a gnome?

[Elpacoloco]

Must you use the magic word, Kappa Delta Edward?

Re:Exactly how do you exterminate a gnome?

[VWswing]

Actually, wouldn't this be Kappa Delta Epislon?

Re:Exactly how do you exterminate a gnome?

[yerricde]

Actually, wouldn't this be Kappa Delta Epislon?

For one thing, the Greek for 'E' is "Epsilon" (s before i).

For another, "Edward" was funnier.

Re:Exactly how do you exterminate a gnome?

[Gibbo]

Pedant note: It would actually be Kilo Delta Echo from radio call designation.

Re:Exactly how do you exterminate a gnome?

[Anonymous Coward]

You tap it on the head with a pair of ruby shoes and say "There's no place like gnome." three times. ;-)

Posted by the Gnome Ranger ... Hi-ho Mushroom.

Re:Exactly how do you exterminate a gnome?

[RayChuang]

Try this: use a Jarvey. =)

(For those who don't know, you'll have to read the Harry Potter books to find out. ^_^)

Re:Exactly how do you exterminate a gnome?

[Anonymous Coward]

Not if you're talking about a fraternity or sorority name.

HELP!

[JWSmythe]

HELP!

The Gnomes are coming! The Gnomes are coming!

The colo just called. They're coming through the raised floors, and just appearing inside cages and cabinets! They're overrunning us!!!!

Re:HELP!

[Oloryn]

The Gnomes are coming! The Gnomes are coming!

Thank you, Mr Revere

Re:HELP!

[Tumbleweed]

I say we take off and nuke the site from orbit.

It's the only way to be sure.

You guys at MIT are smart and all,

[Anonymous Coward]

But you guys really have to get out more.....

Re:You guys at MIT are smart and all,

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, this coming from a guy who spends friday night posting on slashdot.

All the bases covered!

[Corvaith]

Looking at the pictures... wow. Pirate gnomes! Goth gnomes! Alcoholic gnomes!

I think some people really need to get lives. :)

Re:All the bases covered!

[exhilaration]

Where are the African-American gnomes? The Arab gnomes?? The South Asian gnomes? The Jewish gnomes??

THIS IS BLATANT DISCRIMINATION - I cannot allow this exclusion of minority gnomes to stand!

I shall be filing a class action lawsuit against MIT; all minority gnomes should contact me immediately.

(Now to figure out some way to bring the DMCA into this...)

Re:All the bases covered!

[Art Tatum]

To be fair, there was a Jewish gnome in there. And I think I saw a black gnome as well. Don't think there were any Arabs or Asians though, so you could have a case there. :-)

Re:All the bases covered!

[Jonner]

Why do you assume there are such gnomes? Gnomes aren't human, so why would they have the same races that we do? For all we know, Gnome races are distinguished by the number warts on their left pinky toes. I think the gnomes would be offended by your lack of understanding of Gnome issues and the way you project your Human thinking onto them.

Re:All the bases covered!

[Ellen Ripley]

LADIES @ NJ/NYC: 23 YEAR OLD GUY SEEKS YOU!

Shouldn't this be:

IN SOVIET UNION: 23 YEAR OLD GUY SEEKS YOU!

Re:All the bases covered!

[GnarlyNome]

Yeh Yeh Yeh but us OGRES are still gonna sue.

Re:All the bases covered!

[Jonner]

Are you saying the Ogre population was underrepresented?

Re:All the bases covered!

[badoingdoing]

Not every gnome was pictured in the hack gallery. There were literally hundreds. And even so, there were at least several gnomes of african descent and at least one jewish gnome

Re:All the bases covered!

[Anonymous Coward]

My God. I can't believe, of all places, you're trying to pick up chicks on SLASHDOT.

About Time!

[SirDrinksAlot]

Phew, about time someone rounded all those gnomes up in one place where they couldnt do any dammage. This way we can get rid of them once and for all.

gnome away!

[Anonymous Coward]

As a kid I took an old, crumbly lawn gnome off of a neighbors yard. The neighbor called the cops and told them masked gunmen had taken it (in hopes of getting the police's attention). Well, it worked and they arrested me and some friends.

Moral of the story - do NOT steal gnomes!

GOT A GNOME PROBLEM??

[exhilaration]

HERE'S YOUR SOLUTION!!

Re:GOT A GNOME PROBLEM??

[Link310]

KDE* was in fact used to eliminate the Gnome infestation.

*Kompressed Degnoming Essence

Re:GOT A GNOME PROBLEM??

[Billly Gates]

I just use Emacs.

Re:GOT A GNOME PROBLEM??

[miyako]

and I was starting to think I was the only person who's first thought upon seeing the topic was "GNOME is fine and all, but what's wrong with KDE?"

Re:GOT A GNOME PROBLEM??

[Link310]

Troll? You've gotta be kidding...I should be madded informative or something!

(Actual invoice recieved by MIT's Student Information Processing Board, modified to pass the /. lameness filter)

Rooms sprayed
Name sq. ft

W20-575C 1,105
W20-575D 654
W20-575F 1,080
W20-575G 1,070

3,909 sq. feet

KDE usage
KDE canisters used: 3

(KDE is Kompressed Degnoming Essence, our patented formula for guaranteed Gnome removal)

Gnomes Relocated
Number room

1 W20-575F

Total bill
128K (in cache, please)

phase 2

[cygnusx197]

Thank god it wasn't the underpants gnomes!

Re:phase 2

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm not so sure... it has been rumoured that a scrap of paper reading "2) ??? 3) profit" was taken in as evidence ;)

Re:phase 2

[Anonymous Coward]

Gotta go to work
Work all day
collecting computers
yey!

Phase 1 : build cluster
Phase 2 : ?
Phase 3 : profit

As a professor at MIT,

[Dr. Stanley Blitzer]

I must say that I know this individual personally. It took all of us (literally) years to compile and create all of these gnomes. It all started out as a joke at first, but it then grew into an obsession and we kept collecting them until we reached a critical mass.

It took us nearly 4 hours to completely place all of the gnomes you see on our webpage. The hardest part of doing it was being able to take pictures of them all.

I hope you all enjoy our collection.

Re:As a professor at MIT,

[Anonymous Coward]

good for you

Re:As a professor at MIT,

[Strom Thurmond (R-SC]

Jeeez, that is fucking weeeeeeak!

Re:As a professor at MIT,

[Anonymous Coward]

As an AC, I personally think your 'hack' sucks goat balls.

Fuck! This really isn't that spectacular.

Re:As a professor at MIT,

[circletimessquare]

can you help?

ted codd, relational database father, computer science pioneer, passed away.

slashdot rejected my story about this at the same time this one got posted.

i find that incongruous. maybe they will listen to you if you or anyone who reads this comment posts the story instead.

the story is here

Re:As a professor at MIT,

[sg_oneill]

Dude, everyone gets stories bounced from time to time. Ive had one accepted and two bounced. Shit I'm even a journalist by trade, so you'd expect it. But everyone gets bounced.
Accept it and get over it.

Re:As a professor at MIT,

[circletimessquare]

well, i don't care about my personal story ego. i have had plenty rejected just like you. no big deal.

but when a pioneer in computer science passes away, and A story- not MY story, on the subject gets rejected by slashdot at the same time they post a story about plastic gnomes on campus, i got angry.

i don't care about my story getting rejected. i care about the story getting rejected at all.

compare the news of his passing to the news of plastic gnomes.

see the source of my feeling miffed?

i just want SOMEONE to get the story posted, it does not have to have anything to do with me at all.

Re:As a professor at MIT,

[GrouchoMarx]

It took all of us (literally) years to compile and create all of these gnomes.

It took you years to compile GNOME? Dude, you need a faster computer.

Re:As a professor at MIT,

[FFFish]

Then please answer a question: what's so "hack" about this?

Is there something special about this facility? Did it require Mission Impossible stunts, hanging from wires and redirecting the laser detectors?

Or did some doofus just walk in through an unlocked door, scatter a bunch of gnomes around, and walk out?

On the face of it, it doesn't seem as impressive as putting Beetles on flagpoles.

Re:As a professor at MIT,

[ortholattice]

There is no "Stanley Blitzer" at MIT. You guys have been had.

Re:As a professor at MIT,

[cposs]

You have your hacks too narrowly defined. The definition of hack commonly used at MIT includes computer hacking (as opposed to cracking), roof and tunnel hacking (getting into inacessible places), and performance hacking (probably the best definition is a wide-scale prank). And it takes a bit longer than you'd think to scatter hundreds of hand made and hand painted gnomes, in various rooms, without anyone noticing (the cluster that most of the gnomes were in is the largest on campus, with probably 100 workstations, and there is always someone in there).

Re:As a professor at MIT,

[Arandir]

No, not to compile it, but to find all the dependencies hidden about the web...

Re:As a professor at MIT,

[Anonymous Coward]

FWIW I read the news of Ted's passing with sadness, and completely agree with your statements.

Re:As a professor at MIT,

[Anonymous Coward]

The parent is a troll. There is no Prof Blitzer. The story is a troll. "J Arthur Random" is a ficticious resident of non-existent room #17 at MIT's Random Hall. This is a hack by some MIT students on slashdot, not on MIT's Athena lab. The photos are just ridiculous props. Also check out "Dr. Stanley Blitzer's" DCMA troll. Sheesh.

Re:As a professor at MIT,

[Anonymous Coward]

Go back to K5.

Re:As a professor at MIT,

[Anonymous Coward]

This is a hack by some MIT students on slashdot, not on MIT's Athena lab

Funny, it seemed rather real to those of us sitting in the Athena cluster this week.

Re:As a professor at MIT,

[GiMP]

This hack was done in my senior year of high school with plastic, green army men. There were a thousand of them.. I wouldn't doubt if the school still has them floating around on top of lockers, underneath gym bleachers, on top of award trophy cabinets, etc.

Re:As a professor at MIT,

[ortholattice]

"Funny, it seemed rather real to those of us sitting in the Athena cluster this week"

"...rather real..." "...those of us..." Oh, the humanity! Spare me while I puke. So the photos were taken there, so what? You were terrorized by a couple of hundred (if that many) toy figures? What's next, Wellesley College's computer center invaded by Barbie dolls? Gimme a break. So you freshman had your lame little laugh, this is nothing compared to my day.

Re:As a professor at MIT,

[@madeus]

I think your missing the point of why people complain about article rejection here on Slashdot...

Slashdot editors regularly and frequently (not just 'now and then', but frequently) reject interesting stories by many people, then, days, weeks or months later repost the same story (often with a worse writeup) *several times*.

I've seen it happen many times, and read other people's write ups that they got rejected, as well as have it happen to me.

*That's* what pisses people off. It's illogical and annoying. Frankly I don't submit stories to /. any more because of it.

Re:As a professor at MIT,

[harborpirate]

If ever a slashdot post deserved to be followed by a rimshot...

Beware!

[Anonymous Coward]

It's the underware gnomes!

step 1: collect underwear
step 2: ???
step 3: profit!

And this time it's not offtopic. Well, almost. :)

Move along, nothing to see here!!

[malia8888]

doesn't look abgnome-al to me!!

In Other News

[Anonymous Coward]

Who cares?

HEY SLASHDOT, A CS PIONEER HAS DIED

[circletimessquare]

slashdot cares about fluff like this, but not that the father of relational databases passed away.

2003-04-26 00:59:52 Father of the Relational Database, Ted Codd, dead (articles,storage) (rejected)

the register story here

flood your submission queues until they get the idea that we care about the death of computer science pioneers as much as porcelain gnomes placed around campus. geez.

Re:HEY SLASHDOT, A CS PIONEER HAS DIED

[Anonymous Coward]

Why is this modded as offtopic instead of insightful??? Come one, people.

Re:HEY SLASHDOT, A CS PIONEER HAS DIED

[circletimessquare]

thank you

Re:HEY SLASHDOT, A CS PIONEER HAS DIED

[Blacklotuz]

Yah, I have to agree with you, that should be news. The gnomes were mildly amusing but I wouldn't concider them front page material.

Re:HEY SLASHDOT, A CS PIONEER HAS DIED

[circletimessquare]

thanks

Re:HEY SLASHDOT, A CS PIONEER HAS DIED

[digitalmuse]

Hmm, I'll leave it to a second party with mod points to decide if the parent is a honorable, valid point or a well crafted troll masquerading beneath a less honorable, valid point.

just wonderin...

Re:HEY SLASHDOT, A CS PIONEER HAS DIED

[dsb]

you must be new here?

"...you can plant a Japanese Rock garden here, I know a Japanese guy, he might have some rocks" -Dale Gribble

Re:HEY SLASHDOT, A CS PIONEER HAS DIED

[circletimessquare]

i don't care about my story ego.

just do this: mentally compare the story value of the passing of a computer science pioneer to that of plastic gnomes on campus.

by being the submitter of the story, i was privy to the contrast when my story on his passing got rejected at the same this gnome story got posted.

the contrast got me miffed.

i don't have anything against gnomes or funny stories! great!

i don't care if my story gets rejected! happens all the time.

i just want SOMEONE to get this story posted, anyone, because i believe, and i think you would agree with me, that the "news for nerds, stuff that matters" value of a computer pioneer's passing is of MUCH GREATER VALUE than... plastic gnomes on campus.

Re:HEY SLASHDOT, A CS PIONEER HAS DIED

[Tumbleweed]

Hardly a new trend - the same thing happened when I submitted the story about when the author of ping died, and various other 'important' stories. Trying to predict whether a story would be accepted on slashdot is an exercise in futility. I've officially stopped trying.

Re:HEY SLASHDOT, A CS PIONEER HAS DIED

[circletimessquare]

i agree.

it is just that the contrast was sufficiently striking to me at the time.

to see, at the SAME TIME:

computer pioneer dies: rejected
plastic gnomes on campus: accepted

i mean, my choice is to vent my frustration, or hate slashdot for being kicked in the head. i choose to vent my frustration.

Re:HEY SLASHDOT, A CS PIONEER HAS DIED

[Tumbleweed]

Oh yeah, I just checked my rejections list (I mean my submissions list), and forgot another one I had rejected: when Mr Rogers died. I mean _really_, that's just rude.

Re:HEY SLASHDOT, A CS PIONEER HAS DIED

[Anonymous Coward]

This is slashdot, remember? You have to wait at least 48 hours before information like that can be posted. Then it will be posted twice in the same day.

Re:HEY SLASHDOT, A CS PIONEER HAS DIED

[jpkunst]

2003-04-23 19:52:28 Edgar Codd dies at 79 (articles,news) (rejected)

NY Times story (registration, etc.) Edgar Codd, Key Theorist of Databases, Dies at 79.

Like you, I couldn't care less that my submission was rejected, but this should have been on the frontpage of /. one way or the other.

JP

Re:HEY SLASHDOT, A CS PIONEER HAS DIED

[Ben Hutchings]

Likewise: 2003-04-21 03:01:12 Inventor of the RDBMS Dies (articles,news) (rejected)

I found the news on alt.folklore.computers where they actually care about the history of computing.

My submission linked to the San Jose Mercury News obituary and Codd's original paper on the relational model.

MIT????

[Bearded Pear Shaped]

Last time they struck the Harvard School of Eco-gnomics.

*click click click click click*
What's that noise??

Why it's a metrognome

I'm truly sorry for this post.

Re:MIT????

[Anonymous Coward]

That was not funny.

For your crime, you shall be smacked in the nuts with a claw hammer.

Make ready thy nuts.

Re:MIT????

[Anonymous Coward]

Here, here. My balls on this man's nose!

Re:MIT????

[Bearded Pear Shaped]

You may be able to whack my nuts with a claw hammer but you cannot whack my DIGNITY with a claw hammer.

(minutes pass)

WRONG AGAIN

Re:MIT????

[Anonymous Coward]

I just found your post to be lame.

I did not mean to intentionally claw-hammer your dignity as well.

Either way, the claw hammer wins.

Re:MIT????

[Bearded Pear Shaped]

Well someone thought it was funny. I didn't myself, but that's not important.

Re:MIT????

[Anonymous Coward]

It just goes to show that there is no intelligence test required to acquire mod points.

I do respect the fact that you had the (now claw hammered) nuts to post such a non-funny post.

What's even funnier is that for a whole 10 minutes, you were the top post in the thread.

One claw hammer to rule them all...

Re:MIT????

[Bearded Pear Shaped]

What's funniest is that you were sitting here with one hand holding a stopwatch and one on cmd. R for ten minutes.

Re:MIT????

[Anonymous Coward]

I'll have you know that it was F5, and it was only for two minutes at a crack.

I wander from post to post relaying my own useless drivel and threatening people with claw hammers.

The end-all-be-all-funny thing is that you're replying to an AC.

Re:MIT????

[Bearded Pear Shaped]

but but but

Re:MIT????

[Anonymous Coward]

Surely you mean echo-gnomics? What did Rincewind call it? Can't remember... Arrgh!

Re:MIT????

[TKinias]

scripsit Bearded Pear Shaped:

Last time they struck the Harvard School of Eco-gnomics.

I thought it was the Ankh-Morpork School of Reflected Sound as of Underground Spirits?

Well gnomes eh?, a little story

[Falconpro10k]

According to legend and tall tales, the great gnome (the ones' footprint is in the gnome logo) comes to view his subjects, therefore, all the gnomes got ready for their grand king.. they even shaved their feet. In other news, was this a prank or what?

Re:Well gnomes eh?, a little story

[Blacklotuz]

From the site: The word hack at MIT usually refers to a clever, benign, and "ethical" prank or practical joke, which is both challenging for the perpetrators and amusing to the MIT community (and sometimes even the rest of the world!). Note that this has nothing to do with computer (or phone) hacking (which we call "cracking").

HEY SLASHDOT, A CS PIONEER HAS DIED

[circletimessquare]

slashdot editors care about fluff like this, but not that the father of relational databases passed away.

2003-04-26 00:59:52 Father of the Relational Database, Ted Codd, dead (articles,storage) (rejected)

the register story here

flood your submission queues until they get the idea that we care about the death of computer science pioneers as much as porcelain gnomes placed around campus. geez.

Next thing...

[baywulf]

KDE gear invasion!

Bouncing Gnomes

[Anonymous Coward]

Were any of the gnomes bouncing and throwing flowerpots?

Re:Bouncing Gnomes

[Anonymous Coward]

Woooooow! Thank you, I didn't know about this game! It soo cool :-) Sometimes it is worth readin' ./

Ted Codd was a great theorcist r/o

[polished look 2]

he shall be missed.

I greatly respect and admire the man. He achieved a good deal.

NO!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

don't hurt those cute little Gnomes...

Who needs relational databases?

[fm6]

Certainly not Slashdot, which is based on MySQL.

Re:Who needs relational databases?

[WindBourne]

MS does, as supposedly their next Filsystem is based on sqlserver

Re:Who needs relational databases?

[fm6]

Jeesh, nobody has a sense of irony any more. In fact, fans of MySQL consider it a relational dbms. It has relational features, but they don't work all that well.

I find it easy to understand why the Slashdot editors (and probably most readers) are uninterested in Codd's life or death. He did come up with the basic ideas that make modern databases work. But nowadays people take these ideas for granted.

You see the same thing in math. Everybody knows how to prove that there's no largest natural number, but who's ever heard of Georg Cantor? The problem is that his theories suffuse modern math, and his important ideas are extremely easy to understand, so nobody feels obliged to give him credit.

HEY SLASHDOT, A CS PIONEER HAS DIED

[circletimessquare]

slashdot editors care about fluff like this, but not that the father of relational databases passed away.

2003-04-26 00:59:52 Father of the Relational Database, Ted Codd, dead (articles,storage) (rejected)

the register story here

flood your submission queues until they get the idea that we care about the death of computer science pioneers as much as porcelain gnomes placed around campus. geez.

heh

[Anonymous Coward]

their is no news, editors will accept any story.. quick submit anything

That is ruthless.

[LordofEntropy]

Show gnomercy!

surely you're jesting?!?!

[polished look 2]

Anyway, I'm kind of bummed out now. Codd really is one of the great CS pioneers, like Turing and Van Neumann.

Watch your @$$ MIT students

[Anonymous Coward]

Those gnomes are nuts about underpants. Obviously they've gone all out. They're even taken on their own

well...

[Anonymous Coward]

Is it just me, or does anyone else find only marginal humor/creativity displayed with this "hack"

Or, I could be drunk.

Pshaw... Gnome invasion.

[Torgo's Pizza]

Hundreds of Gnomes couldn't take down the MIT computer labs, but Slashdot does it with one story submission. Is there anything that can stop the Slashdot army?

Re:Pshaw... Gnome invasion.

[Tyler Eaves]

Sure, an OC3 and a cluster of FreeBSD machines.

Re:Pshaw... Gnome invasion.

[cooldev]

http://www.microsoft.com

Re:Pshaw... Gnome invasion.

[awx]

nah man, didn't you hear? BSD's dying.




posted from a VAX running NetBSD...

Re:Pshaw... Gnome invasion.

[Anonymous Coward]

Girls :)

Obligatory...

[ThorGod]

Screw MIT, NMT all the way! :)

The GNOMEs where pretty funny, though...

Slashdot troll invasion

[arvindn]

In related news...

"On Wednesday, April 23, hundreds of trolls invaded the front page stories at slashdot. There were long trolls, short trolls, even goatse trolls. A troll army carried the spiralx banner. Fortunately, the moderators took care of the infestation within a few hours."

Re:Slashdot troll invasion

[Anonymous Coward]

i'd think the trolls would carry this as their banner...

As a student at MIT,

[Tall Rob Mc]

It is 11:20pm on a Friday. I am sitting in the cluster in question. It feels like it will take me years to create and compile all of these modules. It started out as a class, but grew into a final project and I will keep coding until I reach critical sleep deprivation levels. It has taken me well over 4 hours to get this far. The hardest part of doing it is resisting the party nearby. Screw it. Beer time.

I am from the government and I am here to help.

[www.sorehands.com]

I am from division 6 of the Homeland Security department. There are no gnomes, all you saw was a group of midgets through a cloud of swamp gas.

We have proven that gnomes do not exist.

They may have a wake for him August in San Fran.

[polished look 2]

here maybe a road trip is in order.

trapping versus biography writing...

[Anonymous Coward]

"Gassing, trapping, relocation"

Hmmm... what do the biological functions and lifestyle choices of gnomes have to do with their extermination?

Typo

[Anonymous Coward]

That's AKME Gnome Exterminators to you, buddy!

Blah

[Anonymous Coward]

Getting some SLOOOW loading time. In my opinion anyone owning a Class A address range should be obligated to make sure they can take the slashdot onslaught. And what? no Google cache?

Oh dear..

[Anonymous Coward]

After reading this article, I actually typed "gnoogle.com" into the URL bar.. not kidding

Soviet Gnomes...

[Anonymous Coward]

IN SOVIET RUSSIA...
You stand on the Gnomes and drink vodka while using Windows KE! (Kremlin Edition)

DEAR PHYSICS IS THAT COWBOY NEAL?

*I prefer trolls*

~FIN

Confused

[Herkum01]

I thought that the Gnome Invasion had something to do with the Gnome Liberation Front, and I just could not understand why Slashdot would be interested in them.

Gnome Front for Liberation

[I-R-Baboon]

A splinter faction...very nasty bunch.

I heard once a deposed leader Al-Knotbeard got so angry he put himself in the backyard of a kid with a BB gun. Though speculations fly he has never been heard from again. Some say Cowboy Neal has joined him in the limbo of the missing.

Sick-0s

My favorites

[www.sorehands.com]

My favorite is the 1982 Havard/Yale/MIT football game. My second favorite was the police car on top of the dome, including donut.

This is great!

[Anonymous Coward]

This has got to be one of the best threads ive seen on slashdot in awhile. Kudos to Micheal for the post!

Wanna Tag the Dixie Chicks Nude? (Safe for work).

Jhonen Would Be Proud

[DarKrow]

Look! It's one of Zim's Lawn Gnomes!

Bastard gnome stole my panties . . .

[pariahdecss]

It does not take a mensa grade detective to notice there are no female gnomes at the MIT Athena cluster. Those wacky MIT natives and their cunning stunts - Whatever happened to panty raids at the local girls college - Thongs and bras hanging from the girders of the Athena cluster white room
http://www.sdplotkin.com/img/gnome.jpg

Re:Bastard gnome stole my panties . . .

[mizhi]

The lack of female gnomes in the Athena cluster are representative of the general student population. :-)

Just kidding...

You Forgot...

[Anonymous Coward]

Smelly Trolls!

And the worst trolls of all...moderators too stupid to post an intelligent reply thus they mod down a post!

You may mod us down but you will never get rid of us...We kinda like Howard Stern you just can't wait to hear what shit we submit next!

Re:You Forgot...

[Anonymous Coward]

brilliant...purely brilliant.

<starts packing trolling equipment>

Metrognome

[meldon corintur]

But I thought a metrognome was a gnome that lived in the city. :)

Re:Metrognome

[Anonymous Coward]

Boy you're a real asshat too.

You want the claw-hammer as well?

Re:Metrognome

[Aliencow]

Insightful ? Someone had a big gnumber of beers before modding !

Re:Metrognome

[breon.halling]

But I thought a metrognome was a gnome that lived in the city.

No, you're thinking of this gnome. =)

This is new?

[LongJohnStewartMill]

So the computer lab is filled with hairy little men. What's so great about this? You should see my friends at a LAN party... Woohoo! Hack! =)

Re:This is new?

[Anonymous Coward]

Will somebody clarify something important for me ? What in heck is a LAN party anyways ? Please.

Re:This is new?

[Anonymous Coward]

Meh, hack??? That game is ancient... you should upgrade. We play *nethack*, here. :)

Re:This is new?

[Anonymous Coward]

Bunch of nerds get together at someone's house, everyone brings their computers with them, they set up a LAN, and everyone plays CS / Quake / Warcraft III / . Lots of soda, lots of stench, few women, often drugs, usually fun.

More bummers

[fm6]

Hm, Von Neumann's role as a computer science pioneer is controversial. He did forsee the coming dominance of "stored-programming computers" -- but contrary to popular belief, he didn't invent the model.

Now, Turing has some claim to being the very first computer scientist. His attempts to explain mathematical logic in terms of mechanistic abstractions predates the computer revolution by a couple of decades. And when actual computers did start to appear, he was one of the first to deal seriously with what we now call software.

For details of Turing's life, I heartily recommend Andrew Hodges's biography.

But here's another bummer. It seems pretty obvious that the security bozos murdered Turing because they couldn't stand the idea of faggot with all those state secrets in his head. I should emphasize that this is my paranoid theory, not Hodges's -- as a UK citizen, he could get in trouble just for suggesting the possibility.

Re:More bummers

[Simon Brooke]

But here's another bummer. It seems pretty obvious that the security bozos murdered Turing because they couldn't stand the idea of faggot with all those state secrets in his head. I should emphasize that this is my paranoid theory, not Hodges's -- as a UK citizen, he could get in trouble just for suggesting the possibility.

Speaking as a UK citizen, I think your theory is a load of codds. Turing had just been forcibly castrated by court order for the heinous crime of being homosexual, and his private life was all over the tabloids. He committed suicide. I don't think that's very surprising - being castrated is scarcely a happy and cheerful event.

The fact that Britain chose to castrate it's greatest scientific thinker of the century is a profound commentary on British society, of course.

Sponsored by SUN

[masonbrown]

Look through the pictures. Several of them have the Sun Microsystems logo prominently displayed.... Looks like a grassroots marketing campaign led by the Gnome population of Massachusetts.

BT files, anyone?

[Bob The Cowboy]

Anyone have bittorrents up?

ACME?

[Dunkalis]

Bah! ACME Gnome Extermination has, in my experience, been a waste of money and time. I prefer calling in the...

KDE Extermination Service. Their superior technology and leadership has led them to victory against the GNOMEs time and time again. Their great Konqueror crushed the Gnome legions before, and can do it again. Even the mighty Gnome Republican Guard fall when faced with the awesome power of the Konqi Special Forces!

Fear the Gear!

Now, I await the Mohammed Saeed Al-Sahaf joke.

Re:ACME?

[Falconpro10k]

yeah, until gnome 1.4 came along, and 2.0 just put the nail in the KDE coffin, i prefer a UI with more power than pretty ui, and gnome gets the job done better than KDE ever will... konqui is crap compared to galeon and nautilus

Re:ACME?

[aat]

According to a person on the scene, the Gnome Exterminators had "KDE" written on
their backpacks.

Re:ACME?

[Anonymous Coward]

You are mostly correct. As someone involved with the hack, I'll say that the spraying hardware that was used had KDE written large on the side. This stands for "Kompressed Degnoming Essence" obviously.

A few other facts; 217 small plastic gnomes and 175 plaster gnomes were deployed, in addition to ~20 hand-made gnomes. An invoice was also sent with a grand total of "128K (payable in cache)"

Wait..

[Adam9]

Are you actually the Iraqi Information Minister?

Re:Wait..

[Anonymous Coward]

"There are no Gnome infidels in MIT. Never!"

"The gnomes are killing themselves in the streets"

"My initial assessment is that they will all die"

G(oogl)enomeuphoria everywhere!

[Anonymous Coward]

H.B. 2xhelix!!!

From the desk of Mohammed Saeed Al-Sahaf

[Anonymous Coward]

There are no Gnomes, we have butchered them all! They have no foothold in MIT, we have pinned them down at community colleges!

These Gnomes shall burn the the stomach of a Beowulf Cluster Allah willing! I repeat, there are NO infidels with funny hats and beards in MIT! I shall take you there myself to show you, we are butchering the invaders as we speak! The LAN will flow with their non-beleiver blood! I blame Slashdot, they are the IT Media for the community colleges. Be assured. MIT is safe, protected. I triple guarantee you there are no Gnomes in MIT, blood sucking bastards. We will welcome them with small shell scripts and shoes! We will kill them all........most of them.

-I had to post AC so they dont find me
~M.S.S.

Do the Gnomes Talk to You?

[hillct]

Do you hear voices? Did the gnomes tell you to put them in the computer lab, or is this a precursor to an all-out invasion? If the gnomes don't talk to you, then you can read about all the things the gnomes tell others across this expanse we call the internet:

Top 39 Things the Evil Lawn Gnomes tell only You

We swear, we knew about the invasion of the lawn gnomes long before those MIT students ever got wind of their master plan (although, like anyone who knows the truth we can't prove it and no one would believe us even if we could).

--CTH

Labs of Sun machines, that's why

[green pizza]

Look through the pictures. Several of them have the Sun Microsystems logo prominently displayed....

That's because most of the computers in the Athena clusters ("computer labs") at MIT are Suns.

There are also many linux boxes and SGIs as well. MIT's Athena network is un*x only.

WHAT'S WRONG WITH EXCLUDING MINORITIES?

[Anonymous Coward]

I disagree. I think the exclusion of black gnomes kept down the theft in the computer lab. The labs would stink to high heaven if indian gnomes were allowed.

I think

[Anonymous Coward]

Slashdot editors are running out of things to post!

Re:I think

[sogoodsofarsowhat]

Shoot they have run out of articles not only to POST but also to Re-Post, and RE-RE-POST. (snickers outloud)

Holy ****

[Anonymous Coward]

Did anyone else see that!?!

we are the underpants gnomes, the underpants gnomes, the underpants gnomes...

WIsh I had mod points

[Anonymous Coward]

Because this is insightful - fuck a bunch of toys being spread around MIT campus.

BWAaaaaaaaHAHAHAHA

[tadd]

I think I'm gonna wet myself.....

Where is the laughing Gnome?

[G3ckoG33k]

I was walking down the High Street
When I heard footsteps behind me
And there was a little old man (Hello)
In scarlet and grey, shuffling away (laughter)
Well he trotted back to my house
And he sat beside the telly (Oaah..)
With his tiny hands on his tummy
Chuckling away, laughing all day (laughter)

Oh, I ought to report you to the Gnome office
(Gnome Office)
Yes
(Hahahahaha)

CHORUS
Ha ha ha, hee hee hee
"I'm a laughing Gnome and you can't catch me"
Ha ha ha, hee hee hee
"I'm a laughing Gnome and you can't catch me"
Said the laughing Gnome

Well I gave him roasted toadstools and a glass of dandelion wine (Burp, pardon)
Then I put him on a train to Eastbourne
Carried his bag and gave him a fag
(Haven't you got a light boy?)
"Here, where do you come from?"
(Gnome-man's land, hahihihi)
"Oh, really?"

In the morning when I woke up
He was sitting on the edge of my bed
With his brother whose name was Fred
He'd bought him along to sing me a song

Right, let's hear it
Here, what's that clicking noise?
(That's Fred, he's a "metrognome", haha)

Ha ha ha, hee hee hee
"I'm a laughing Gnome and you don't catch me"
Ha ha ha, hee hee hee
"I'm a laughing Gnome and you can't catch me"

(Own up, I'm a gnome, ain't I right, haha)
"Haven't you got an 'ome to go to?"
(No, we're gnomads)
"Didn't they teach you to get your hair cut at school?
you look like a rolling gnome."
(No, not at the London School of Ecognomics)

Now they're staying up the chimney
And we're living on caviar and honey (hooray!)
Cause they're earning me lots of money
Writing comedy prose for radio shows
It's the-er (what?)
It's the Gnome service of course

Ha ha ha, hee hee hee
"I'm a laughing Gnome and you don't catch me"
Ha ha ha, oh, dear me

(Ha ha ha, hee hee hee
"I'm a laughing Gnome and you can't catch me"
Ha ha ha, hee hee hee
"I'm a laughing Gnome and you can't catch me")

(One more time, yeah)

Blatantly from Teenage Wildlife, David Bowie fansite. Oh yes, he wrote the song, back in 1968 or 1969.

Gnomes ... poster's a TROLL!

[Alan Holman]

Many people attempt to raise awareness of topics which are important to them by posting articles to Slashdot. Many true (non-fiction) articles are submitted each day, and then some clown posts fiction about a gnome, and it gets accepted as an official article. GAH, I say GAH! Then I say GOO GOO GAH GAH! Now, I say WAAH-HAH-HAH-WAAH! I want my bah-bah.

You think you have problems ...

[WillASeattle]

here in Fremont, Center of the Universe, we have parties with trolls, goblins, and other creatures, a Giant Troll which lives under our bridge, and space aliens on our Space Needle.

And that's on a good day ....

Recycled joke

[mao che minh]

Much to the contridictary behest of the Labor Party, British Prime Minister Tony Blair has announced that he fully supports the military actions of GNOME. Despite swelling support within his own ranks to "allow the KDE inspectors more time", Blair has decided that it is in his nation's best interest to support a full, all out GNOME invasion against the rogue college. Early reports from the battlefield place the GNOME armies at the steps of the MIT intelligence officials' walls just days after initial operations began. It is said that a jubilant crowd erupted from at least two dormitories from the North Eastern MIT desert.

Iraqi intelligence quickly refuted the claims on Abu Dhabi and Al Jazeera, claiming that the imperialist GNOME crusaders have been meeting swift ends well before reaching the university level. "We have already plunged the burning spear of Allah deep into the hearts of thousands of infidels. KDE shall prove victorious"

Re:Recycled joke

[evilviper]

"They have aluminum centerfuges," Bush said, "that they are using to make atomic weapons."

"Uh, Mr. Bush... Some people call those 'soda cans'."

3 words...

[MasterSLATE]

What.
The.
Fuck?

Gnomes?

[Blasphemy]

Couldn't they just have hung a VW or the Golden Gate Bridge, or something?

Wait, that's been done... This was lame..

MIT of course

[ChrisGuest]

They've all gone there to meet Gnome Chomsky.

Re:MIT of course

[Anonymous Coward]

hahahaha, brilliant, thank you; you made my day! 8-)

why this is a hack

[Anonymous Coward]

Hacks don't always require getting into unusual places, they just need to be entertaining. What's difficult to express in the post is the sheer number of gnomes. They were everywhere. Also, the vast majority of them were hand-made (plaster of paris) and hand-painted, and many looked a lot like particular people.

If it's Mission Impossible stunts you're looking for, the naked gnome is on the outside of the window, on a ~12 inch ledge 5 stories up. (When ACME Gnome Exterminators came, they didn't get this one, since the window stopped him from getting gassed.)

As a student at MIT, the parent is a troll

[Frac]

Don't mod someone up just because he claims to know what's going on.

See for yourself - http://web.mit.edu/bin/cgicso?query=stanley+blizte r

Re:As a student at MIT, the parent is a troll

[Tsunamio]

Hell, he's not even on the net

More MIT As- Kissing

[Anonymous Coward]

No offense, but just beccause you wanted to go to MIT and didn't get in (or didn't even apply) doesn't mean that the sun rises and sets in their campus. This isn't even a good prank or a particularly interesting one. In fact I think its pretty damn lame.

At long last,..

[E1v!$]

Finally a new story worthy of Slashdot!!!

this shows

[jrap]

how far some bored nerds will go, just for a little attention.

Stuff that matters

[den_erpel]

I am just wondering of these kinds of student jokes are news for slashdot. News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters, yeah, that applies for this news item, yes it does, it has changed my life!

Or could it be that if anything happens at MIT, this gets posted?

ah, the benefits of peer review...

Except that

[Anonymous Coward]

Those canadian students who hung the VW bug from the bridge nearly damaged the bridge. How ever they did it, they anchored the VW to something that nearly disconnected the vertical suspension cables from the roadway.

Pranks are cool, just as long as they don't put people's lives at risk. That VW prank wasn't funny at all.

Re:Except that

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh, don't be such a grown-up. If the bridge had fallen down it would be even MORE funny and you know it.

Famous Gnomes

[tktk]

Was any of the gnomes named Chomsky?

You wouldn't believe how long I've been waiting to use that line.

Well maybe you would.

What's the big deal?

[Anonymous Coward]

Seems pretty lame to me.

Re:All the bases are belong to us.

[billstewart]

KDE says: How are you, Gentlegnomes - You are on your way to destruction. Make your time....

Good thing I use Windows

[White_Lightning]

All I have to worry about is a few thousand bugs.

Re:Good thing I use Windows

[flewp]

Good thing I read Slashdot.

All I have to worry about is a few thousand anti-MS comments. (Despite their irrelevence to the topic at hand, and despite not being funny)

Re:Good thing I use Windows

[White_Lightning]

Sarcasm is rarely funny.

Being anti-MS? Yep! Win95, after it was released, had six security patches in four weeks. It hasn't gotten any better since then.

You could also say I'm anti-Oracle. They have eight security flaws which they haven't fixed.

Oh my heck, you could say I'm anti-anything!

You'll have excuse me, I have some flints to knap.

There is no Stanley Blitzer

[jdreed1024]

If there is a Stanley Blizter at MIT, he doesn't exist in the Faculty Directory, nor does he have an Athena Account. The parent is a troll. Whoever modded it up to 5 is an idiot.

Gnomes??

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm scared to death of gnomes, you insensitive clods!

Re:Gnomes??

[El Panda Grande]

i AM a Gnome, you insensitive clod! *shaves back*

Norway, home of the gnomes

[GQuon]

Norway is full of nomes allready. (Well it is really more like a -1 Troll, or -1 Flamebait, but whatever).

gnome mirror.

Search

Sorry

I met Ed Codd once

[hughk]

and Chris Date. Both were presenting at a conference about distributed databases a loonng time ago. Codd & Date are essentially reponsible for the theory behind much of what we are using on a daily basis.

I don't see planting a bunch of gnomes in the computer room at MIT of any significance at all. Vaguely amussing on a slow news day, that is all. Of course I know about gnomes and Gnome, but wtf is this doing here. Good tech hacks like CCC's blinkenlights yes, but otherwise, sorry no!!!!

HE's not from the government-he's from MICROSOFT!

[wowbagger]

Look out! He's not from the government, he's from MICROSOFT !

DON'T LOOK INTO THE LIGHT, HE'LL ERASE YOUR

<FLASH>

.....

And somewhere...

[Chemisor]

And somewhere in a lab deep within the MIT complex, a lone scientist named Gordon Freeman just found a crowbar...

Uninspired

[dnoyeb]

I am not impressed. Where is the skill? Where is the "how did they do that?" factor?

Maybe if the gnome had been *inside* the 'alarmed room,' that would have been something.

You know, guys throw toilet paper across trees all year around at colleges, is that news worthy? Oh, maybe if its at MIT?

Freedom people sucks

[Anonymous Coward]

it seems like too much people have watched that amelie movie.

Fuck Freedom !

A beautiful mind is a terrible thing to waste.

[Anonymous Coward]

This is slashdot, this story is about MIT, I was honestly very impressed when I first read the story. I thought it was very impressive and I could just imagine sitting at my comptuer working late one night when out of nowhere a gnome runs across my screen.

I wanted to know how they did it. A bug exploit? Buffer overflow? A date time/date activated trojan that they'd spent months distributing to every computer they could get their hands on?

No, not even close. They decorated a computer lab with little gnome figures.

Let me get this staight... this is Slashdot? The story is about MIT?

Slow news day?

[sproketboy]

Hmmm, maybe the US should go invade someone. Getting a little slow around here.

Re:MOD PARENT UP!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't be a tool! This is good shit, fuck gnomes and fuck MIT.

Lies, lies, lies

[AELinuxGuy]

A very reputable source denies this report. Don't believe the lies of the infidels!

Re:HE's not from the government-he's from MICROSOF

[Anonymous Coward]

While on the other hand, trolls have been proven to exist. We have captured one of their babbling noises for your enjoyment as noted in the previous post. You can identify a troll by their grotesquely overweight bodies, crater filled faces, and the lack of social skills and any sort of sexual genitalia as it has shriveled beyond use due to a lack of need to keep it in their genetic makeup.

Details

[fm6]

Turing had just been forcibly castrated by court order for the heinous crime of being homosexual,

You're misinformed. (Internet rumor? Read Hodges's book.) Turing had been forced to undergo hormone therapy that was supposed to "cure" his sexual orientation. Barbaric, but not enough to destroy him, either psychologically or sexually. He was well past that stuff, and even sexually active again, when he died.

Re:Details

[Simon Brooke]

You're misinformed. (Internet rumor? Read Hodges's book.) Turing had been forced to undergo hormone therapy that was supposed to "cure" his sexual orientation.

I have personally worked with two people who worked with Turing and knew him well. I didn't of course know him myself because he died before I was born. You're right that he was castrated by chemical injection. It doesn't make it any better and it doesn't change the psychological impact it had on him. Yes, that's rumour, but it's rumour told to me personally be people who knew him personally.

Re:Details

[fm6]

You seem to be in love with the word "castrated". Getting your libido suppressed by drugs is a long way from having your genitals mutilated. The fact is, most older men go through similar hormonal changes (I'm going through them myself). They're unpleasant and undignified and embaressing. And in Turing's case they must have been particularly bad. But they're still quite different from becomming a eunuch.

You're making inferences about Turing's state of mind based on what you think he went through and how you think he must have responded. That's not totally unreasonable, but it simply isn't consistent with what Turing said and wrote during that period. Yes, he was persecuted and abused. But not to the point of fatal depression and suicide.

That's another thing. People have these stereotypical notions of depression. Somebody goes through a bad patch, and then dies violently, people find it easy to assume that they were depressed and suicidal. And if you're going to have somebody killed, you count on that stereotype.

But in the real world, everybody's different. Some people will kill themselves over minor embaressments. Others can undergo the most extreme embaressment and humiliation and still maintain their sense of self-worth. Reading about Turing's life convinces me he was closer to the later than the former.

No Gnomes!

[Cruciform]

There are NO GNOMES in MIT. Or in Baghdad. If there were, we would destroy the infidels! - The Iraqi Information Minister

Filthy nerds.

[ProtonMotiveForce]

Leave it to a nerd to find humor in pranks that a 1930's housewife would have thought cutting edge.

I've shit funnier and more interesting things, and that's not even counting the expunged foreign objects.

Get a life you stupid nerds, nobody thinks this is "cute".