Celebrating the 5th Anniversary of the KILL file

From: spc-request@tc.fluke.COM
Newsgroups: rec.humor.spc,news.admin
Subject: Celebrating the 5th Anniversary of the KILL file
Summary: A Usenet/Stupid People's Court commemorative minute
Date: 30 Oct 87 19:19:53 GMT
Reply-To: spc-request@tc.fluke.COM
Organization: Stupid People's Court
Lines: 48
Approved: moriarty@tc.fluke.COM
Xref: PT.CS.CMU.EDU rec.humor.spc:5 news.admin:1221
Forward-To: rec.humor.spc

On this day in 1982, Larry Wall, who would go on to create the most
revolutionary product since the invention of the weed-eater, was taking a
shower before going to bed.  Unexpectedly, his bar of Dial soap slipped out
of his hands and rocketed into the center of his forehead.  Stunned, blinded
by the irritating soap suds, he suddenly had a vision of a Unix software
tool that would allow people to automatically skip news articles with/by
boring or offensive subjects/authors.  Pleased with his conception, he
rinsed, gargled with Listerine, and went to bed a happy man.

Of course, Larry went on to create 'rn', the incarnation of his vision, and
has been immortalized by members of the net community ever since.  His
conception of the KILL file has allowed people of good taste to avoid
pointless, abusive net-spats brought on by over-sensitive egotists with a
lot of posting time on their hands.  If not for Larry's work (and, of
course, the fellow who invented regular expressions, whose name I forgot
five minutes after hearing it in CS 401), net administrators in news.admin
would long ago have been driven into gibbering fits by the whole Mark Allen
Smith/Larry Lipman/misc.legal crossovers; thanks to the technology
encapsulated in 'rn' KILL files, they can live useful, productive lives,
safe from the self-consuming flames of dweebs everywhere.

Larry Wall: A Pioneering American Software Guy.  We at SPC salute you.

         [This has been a Commemaritive Usenet Minute, brought to
          you by Usenet, Stupid People's Court, and the Ford Motor
          Company, who asks "Have you driven a Ford into a brick wall
          at 80 MPH... lately?"]

  If you've got a flame, don't take it to the net.  Take it to court.

		   ****** STUPID PEOPLE'S COURT!! ******


			"You know what I wish?  I wish all the scum of the
			 Net had one throat and I had my hands about it."
			 			-- Rorschach (1985)

					Judge Moriarty Wapner
					Stupid People's Court

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	   necessarily represent the views of my employers.  They are 
	   entirely out of my dark and furtive imagination.