[NJARC] Ode to the Missing Surge Protector

[Alex Magoun]

This variant on patter songs has been circulating for a few years but I
haven't seen it here.  Credited to "E. Ziegler" sometimes described as "Dr.
Eugene Ziegler" but I couldn't anyone  with that name online who looks like
a candidate for authorhisp.

Alex*

*Ode to the Missing Surge Protector (compare to Gilbert & Sullivan's "So it
really doesn't matter" [youtube.com/watch?v=zmBri9kvptE])

If a transient hits a pocket on a socket on a port
And the bus is interrupted at a very last resort
And the access of the memory makes your floppy disc abort
Then the shocked packet pocket has an error to report.

If your cursor finds a menu item followed by a dash
And the double-clicking icon puts your window in the trash
And your data is corrupted ’cause the index doesn’t hash
Then your situations’ hopeless and your system’s gonna crash.

If the label on the cable on the table at your house
Says the network is connected to the button on your mouse
But your packets want to tunnel to another protocol
That’s repeatedly rejected by the printer down the hall
And your screen is all distorted by the side effects of gauss
So your icons in the window are as fickle as a grouse
Then you may as well reboot and go out with a bang
’cuz sure as I’m a poet, the sucker’s gonna hang.
-- 
Alexander B. Magoun, Ph.D.
Outreach Historian, IEEE History Center
39 Union Street, Rutgers University
New Brunswick, NJ 08901-8538 USA

+1 732-981-3414
www.ieeeghn.org
www.ieee.org/history_center