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I wanted to write a post about a happy memory to do with programming and networks.
Many years ago I used to help teach programming on a Scripture Union camp called Transformers. Our lab was at the top of a hill, with a large window looking down the grassy slope and facing a similar window in the building at the bottom. That building was the radio studio. The radio show broadcast all day over our wired ethernet network, and was played by a spare machine in every lab. After several hours of broadcast there was a lag of several seconds.
One day, someone requested YMCA by the Village People. When the song started in the programming lab, we looked down the hill to the studio. The radio crew were dancing, so naturally we stopped talking about recursion and started dancing too. This repeated itself on several following days, until people elsewhere who weren't in on the joke kept complaining on IRC about the same song being played constantly.
The joke was to play it late in the afternoon so that there was a large lag. When you're dancing to the same music as people you can see, but with a lag of ten seconds or so from what they can hear, it's surprisingly amusing.
Fortunately, someone took a photo:
I think my favourite part of this picture is the kid on the right who is quietly getting on with his assignment.
Many years ago I used to help teach programming on a Scripture Union camp called Transformers. Our lab was at the top of a hill, with a large window looking down the grassy slope and facing a similar window in the building at the bottom. That building was the radio studio. The radio show broadcast all day over our wired ethernet network, and was played by a spare machine in every lab. After several hours of broadcast there was a lag of several seconds.
One day, someone requested YMCA by the Village People. When the song started in the programming lab, we looked down the hill to the studio. The radio crew were dancing, so naturally we stopped talking about recursion and started dancing too. This repeated itself on several following days, until people elsewhere who weren't in on the joke kept complaining on IRC about the same song being played constantly.
The joke was to play it late in the afternoon so that there was a large lag. When you're dancing to the same music as people you can see, but with a lag of ten seconds or so from what they can hear, it's surprisingly amusing.
Fortunately, someone took a photo:
I think my favourite part of this picture is the kid on the right who is quietly getting on with his assignment.
