[TriLUG] In search of the walled machine at UNC

[Jeremy Portzer]

On Fri, 2002-10-04 at 12:41, Jon Carnes wrote:
> 
> I read this story in the paper when it happened.  The computer was at
> the Medical school.  They had some quotes from the Administrator of the
> Med School.  Apparently their network and machines had been installed by
> multiple contractors over a lot of time and no one was fully up-to-date
> on everything on their net.
> 
> If this is a hoax then it was an elaborate one that fooled the News and
> Observer.

Jon,
Do you happen to remember some of the exact words that might have been
in that article?  I spent quite a bit of time searching the N&O articles
trying to track this down.   Many, many queries later I could find
nothing.  Do you have any idea of exactly when it was?  If it was prior
to 1995, it wouldn't be in the newsobserver.com archives, but it should
have been in the Newsbank archives which I have access to in the DTCC
library.
 
> I did some work for the Med school back when I was a contractor.  Some
> of the buildings were in horrible shape.  They looked like a giant
> kindergartner had taken a couple of Victorian houses and crammed them
> together.  There were corridors that didn't go anywhere, hallways with
> steps that mysteriously carried you up four feet then right back down
> again to *almost* the same level - where the hallway continued - Windows
> that opened up onto solid brick walls...

Some of the web site blurbs say that the server was in an "academic
department" but don't specify which -- being vague is a hallmark of an
Urban Legend.  But then again, it does fit in with the theory that it
wasn't ATN's server or network.

I work in the same department as the library here at Durham Tech, and I
know they're always bored on Friday afternoons, so I mentioned it to a
research librarian.  She and I searched a number of newspaper indices
(in addition to the News & Observer), but didn't find anything.

We did find one link that I don't think has been posted here so far:
http://www.informationweek.com/832/frontend.htm

But that's really just repeating what's on the Novell site.

--Jeremy