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The Guy Responsible For Ctrl-Alt-Del

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the three-finger-salute dept.

Gannett News is running a story about David Bradley, the IBM engineer who, in 1980, coined Ctrl-Alt-Del. Interestingly, he meant for it to remain a developer-only tool, not something for end users, and certainly not to have Windows users change their passwords or logoff. He also says he chose those keys specifically as it's not a key sequence that can be struck by accident.

5 of 867 comments (clear)

  1. Re:That and SysRq by bitrott · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Why do you think that sig of your is funny/interesting? What's your agenda here? Do you have to be reminded that Aids is a deadly disease crippling sub-saharan nations? I've seen your sig several times, and I can't fathom what your point is.

  2. Re:Er, that's a bit much.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Offtopic
    I would like to point out that your joke was blown for two simultaneous, yet unrelated, reasons:
    1. Presumably, the partial word at the end of your sentence is supposed to be "now". The spelling error doesn't prevent understanding the joke, but causes the reader to pause for a moment, which ruins the delivery. D-
    2. Including the ellipsis, followed by the manual signature "-sam" at the end shatters the illusion that your connection was broken by a reboot. In the event of a real disconnect, of course, the comment would never have been posted, but that's a suspension of disbelief that myself and other Slashdot readers are prepared to accept. The signature, though, is just too much. F
    Thanks for trying, and better luck next time.
  3. Re:Patent madness? by Overly+Critical+Guy · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Yay. This joke appears in every single Slashdot article now. You just change "For $699, SCO will sell you *item*" to whatever, and the mods will fall over themselves trying to set you up into the "+5 Funny" stratosphere.

    --
    "Sufferin' succotash."
  4. Re:Er, that's a bit much.... by 555-5555 · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    and thank god that some lucky dust particle found some way to create an entire universe out of itself this conversation is getting pretty far fetched not to mention off topic but that is what makes slashdot slashdot

  5. ECS by GigsVT · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Someone needs to tell ECS that Ctrl-Alt-Backspace is kinda taken.

    ECS seems to think that Ctrl-Alt Backspace is a good sequence to use for software power off buttons.

    Which really sucks when you go to exit X and your computer turns off.

    On the K7SEM there was a BIOS option to disable it, but the BIOS option had no effect. Cute eh?

    --
    I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.