Saw this over at John M Willis’s blog:
I couldn’t help but smile. It reminded me of something I heard nearly thirty years ago, when I worked at Burroughs Corporation. One of our customers, Smiths Industries, had a mainframe that was finally ready for that great computer graveyard in the sky. Nobody had really expected that day to come, so no one was prepared for it: no counselling, no advice, nothing for the grieving DP department. A sad state of affairs.
Until one of them had an idea. Why not give everyone a tool, and involve the whole department in dismantling the machine? So that’s what they did. They handed out chisels and saws and pickaxes and pokers.
And hammers.
They hacked the computer. Literally. And left with the pieces. A cathartic and joyous experience. [Note: I heard this from a Smiths guy, I wasn’t actually there to witness it. But I liked the story, and have remembered it ever since.]