16.221 the brief silence

From: Humanist Discussion Group (by way of Willard McCarty (w.mccarty@btinternet.com)
Date: Mon Sep 23 2002 - 14:30:56 EDT

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                   Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 16, No. 221.
           Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London
                   <http://www.princeton.edu/~mccarty/humanist/>
                  <http://www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/humanist/>

             Date: Mon, 23 Sep 2002 06:30:55 +0100
             From: Willard McCarty <w.mccarty@btinternet.com>
             Subject: brief silence

    Dear colleagues:

    Apologies for the brief silence on Humanist. One of the two main machines
    involved in the publication of Humanist, at Virginia, was hacked into and
    damaged last week. Thanks to the strenuous efforts of several people there
    over the weekend the machine is now up and running. Apparently the hacker
    got into the machine by guessing someone's password, then laid waste to
    everything within reach. As a Miltonist (as I was trained to be) I have
    imagery ready to fit the circumstance and am not discouraged in its
    application by the constant litter of slimy flostam that washes onto my
    electronic shores every morning. This morning, for example, as I was
    walking along them, so to speak, I looked down and saw one labelled, "GOD
    BLESS" from "mmadamabacha". Those messages that read, e.g., "humanist,
    honey...", have very little to say, comparatively speaking. Consider, for
    a rich bit of cultural history, the steps between that "GOD BLESS" and the
    meaning I rightly read from it -- which, roughly, is this: "I want to cheat
    you out of large sums of money by appealing to your naked greed!" Now, if
    you are inclined to cry out, "o tempora, o mores" at all, here indeed is an
    occasion.

    Welcome back, Humanist.

    Yours,
    WM

    Dr Willard McCarty | Senior Lecturer | Centre for Computing in the
    Humanities | King's College London | Strand | London WC2R 2LS || +44 (0)20
    7848-2784 fax: -2980 || willard.mccarty@kcl.ac.uk |
    w.mccarty@btinternet.com | www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/wlm/



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