first root (was Re: Linux at UMKC)

[Seth Dimbert]

I don't really have the chops to participate in this conversation, but my
first *nix experience came in college, when the Computer Lab was full of
Russian guys chatting online and playing MUD's. I used to telnet in so I
could talk to my girlfriend (now wife) and I was a "poweruser" because I
knew how to do two things:

1) I could "banner" messages onto other user's terminals

2) I could do it to people I was talking to at the time, thanks to the magic
mojo of ctrl-z.

Hee hee!

:)

> Gerald Combs <gerald at ethereal.com> recalls:
>> ...I remember it clearly, because it the was the first Unix machine on which
>> I had the root password.
> 
> Ah, yes, my first root password...  :-)
> 
> My first root password was for a group of HP workstations at the UCLA Computer
> Science Department.  I don't recall the model, but this was around 1988 (and
> they were slow even then).  They didn't come with X, but rather some other
> lame windowing system that HP was pushing.  We had to add X ourselves.
> 
> The cool thing about these is that the department got them on some grant and
> turned them over to the grad students to administer.  That's enlightenment.
> As I recall, the guy that bestowed the root password upon me made sure I knew
> that I was going to get my ass kicked if I messed anything up...  :-)
> 
> Mike
> 
> 
> 
>