Subject: Software Hacker's Prayer

From: [email-masked]
Date: Sun, 7 May 2000 12:28:16 +0300

SOFTWARE HACKER'S PRAYER 

Words:  David Weingart ) 1989
Music:  "Rocket Rider's Prayer" (Steve Savitzky)

When the system's dead before us like a pile of high-tech junk
And we've got one week to deadline or our jobs will all be sunk
And those changes and revisions growing greater ev'ry day
It's about this time we realize that all we can do is pray

CHORUS:	So we'll pray to Brian Kernighan and to Dennis Ritchie too
	And the gods of C and UNIX who will help us to make do
	Oh you gods of Bell and System V you have us in your care
	We hope that you will listen to a software hacker's prayer

Our first prayer goes to Hestia, goddess of the hearth and home
Since we're living with these terminals (at least until we're done)
Won't you aid us as we program and please help to save the lives
Of our college co-op students who've spilled coffee on the drives

CHORUS

Our next prayer's to Mnemosyne, goddess of all memory
Since we've only got 8 meg and we have got to keep half free
Won't you aid us with the problem that us keeping us here nights
And please find some place for us to put another million bytes

CHORUS

We'll be supplicants of Hermes, mighty god of things that speed
Can't you find it for to help us in our hour of deepest need?
Won't you please speed our compiler, so we don't sit on the dock
And then maybe give a boost to our computer's central clock?

CHORUS

Our final prayer we send to the Erinyes down in Hell
Where we hope that they will hear us and then take revenge as well
We would like to see them spend some time in chasing down the one
Who'll come in with more revisions just about the time we're done!

CHORUS

--
Chen Shapira	Web Developer and Linux Activist
The algorithm for finding the longest path in a graph is NP-complete.
For you systems people, that means it's *real slow*.