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Ctrl-Alt-Del Inventor To Retire From IBM
wherley writes "AP reports that IBM'er David Bradley, who came up with the (in)famous Ctrl-Alt-Delete key combination, is retiring. The article mentions: 'At a 20-year celebration for the IBM PC, Bradley was on a panel with Microsoft founder Bill Gates and other tech icons. The discussion turned to the keys. 'I may have invented it, but Bill made it famous,' Bradley said. Gates didn't laugh. The key combination also is used when software, such as Microsoft's Windows operating system, fails'." We featured a story on Bradley a few months back.
I would be staring at blue screen all day at work.
Thanks . . . I think . . .
Sdelat' Ameriku velikoy Snova!
Don't worry ... even if Bradley invented it, and Gates made it famous ... someone will be granted a patent for it a few years from now.
This is the only guy on the planet who can pick up girls in an internet cafe. Just walk in, smooth tone, slow walk.
"You know I invented CTRL ALT DEL?"
--
The last digit of pi is four.
I three finger salute you for your influence on my day to day computing.
Wait, when we push it, it puts me in Windows...so I'm still associating bad things here.
Yeah... I lost my job cause we were trained to use CTRL-ALT-DELETE to get into some S$S+3M hacking tools for NT but tried it on Linux for a web server computer and not only lost the company a lot of money, but my job as well... :(
He should also be credited with solving thousands of Windows support calls...
"Well, I just don't know... Have you tried rebooting?"
crazy dynamite monkey
You know you rely on the ctrl alt del keys if you use windows. About time someone made a keyboard fit to your needs.
Well, then, it must be true.
Why not Alt-Ctrl-Delete or Delete-Alt-Control?
Not that we can change it now...
Miserable failure
The most I ever give to Windows is one finger.
"I never lived in this century." --Dan Quayle
Command-Control-Power. Now that's a three-finger salute! The force reboot is where the manliness of the Mac really shines through -- all three keys signify dominance. Linux and windows users have to use the hippy-dippy "alt" key, as in alt.sex and alt.drugs, combined with the "delete" or "backspace" key to signify a total lack of confidence in their own decisions. You wussies don't even have a command key!!!
... they just reboot.
CAn'T CompreHend SARcaSm?
He chose those keys specifically as it's not a key sequence that can be struck by accident.
Its even harder to type on a Sun Type 6 keyboard with only one hand.
(Why? Think SunPCi.)
Its pretty sad when a commercial OS ships a debugger with their system but no compiler.
I suppose "control-alt-delete" was chosen as "work-you-fucking-program!" took to long to type in.
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"Ours was a free culture. It is becoming much less so."-Lawrence Lessig
You would think it would be difficult to hit accientally, but my cat appears to be the exact length for just that on my keyboard... _and_ she likes to walk towards the numpad afterwards, hitting enter.
I think she has noticed how my head turns red and I leap around now. Stimuli->Response!
The OS where you press Ctrl-Alt-Del to log in, and use the "Start Menu" to shut down.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
One of the first thing a "REAL" linux administrator does is to disable that functionality in the hint, "inittab" . Change the binding to something like echo "Simulating stupid MCSE computer repair"
Got Code?
He's just rebooting.
---- "If we have to go on with these damned quantum jumps, then I'm sorry that I ever got involved" - Erwin Schrodinger
Oye looking at my laptop that puts those bloody keys right next to each other (well insert is seperating them) and since it's a dell that runs xp we'll call it a feature ;). Okay XP isn't that bad but still it's a feature ;).
If he hadn't come up with this, just maybe, Bill Gates would have had to write software that was somewhat reliable.
Sometimes computers become so wedged that even pulling the power cable won't work. You have to open the case and pull the processor off the motherboard when that happens.
Oh yea? Well when I'm done wacking off I frequently let my shlong drop on the keyboard and this often results in a reboot. It kind of adds to the experience: "Your gone bitch". I smoke a cig while my machine reboots.
if he had anticipated how many times I push that sequence in a day.
However, it is a cooler sign to flash to the MSCE gangsters that hang out at my company for some reason . . .
Sdelat' Ameriku velikoy Snova!
Maybe if you learned to laugh at Windows' mistakes, you could be happy all the time?
Sdelat' Ameriku velikoy Snova!
If he got a patent on it, and microsoft was charged $.01 per use, Microsoft would be out of business from all the crashes.
Fight Spammers!
The processor might burn though. I pour water on it first, just to be safe.
-Look lively. LOOK LIVELY!!! --Mr. Shmallow
The guy who invents CTRL-ALT-DELETE retires, so why not retire the technology and let all of those machines just go back to the Earth where they came? Out of that matter will rise a new super computing structure that will take over the world!! Mwwhahaha MWWHAHAA!
Hey, $25 /hr in 1986? Don't knock it 'til you tried it...
db
Cig:
ôô
I immerse the entire computer in liquid nitrogen as fast as I can in order to keep the processor from overheating. Then I pick up all the little pieces and put them back through the holes in the case they came out of and shake gently.
And then, just to piss you off, when you replace the battery it will restart into the bluescreen again -- hooray for sleep mode and APM!
Microsoft keyboard
Right. Back before the IBM PC, a big bitch about the apple was that there was a single reset button too close to the keyboard and it was easy to hit it accidently. Cats on keyboards can't do Ctrl-Alt-Del -- which is a good thing.
This combination lives on in Emacs, where it means "move cursor right".
I believe posters are recognized by their sig. So I made one.
So what is he going to do now? Travel the college lecture circuit? "Tonight at 8PM in Simpsons Hall: The Man Who Invented CTRL-ALT-DEL"
Or his last performance review at IBM: "I know you invented CTRL-ALT-DEL, but what have you done for us lately?"
At least now he has time to spend in the garage on his latest invention, SHIFT-ESC-HOME.
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
Back in the '96-'97 timeframe I used to love playing Deadlock on Windows 95/98. Deadlock is a turn-based strategy game where you control one of up to 7 alien races vying for control of a planet. During the game, your opponents would taunt you (via movie clip with audio). One of the opponent races was the Tarth, consisting of large, brutish creatures who weren't very bright. One day I was playing and my Tarth opponent comes on the screen and blurts out:
"You're losing! Hit Control-Alt-Delete!"
It was a good 10 minutes before I could stop laughing long enough to resume playing the game.
Don't underestimate the power of The Source
You are WRONG WRONG WRONG! Everyone knows that Bill Gates spelled backward yeilds.... "The Devil". In fact, you rearrange his name again and you get: "Satan" and "Prince of Darkness". You may think he's just "smiling light heartedly" but really he was thinking "Reminder to self: Once this guy dies, ensure he has to use Microsoft Bob for eternity".