cute replies to dumb questions from your computer today, but, for some reason, you would really like to see a cute if predictable reply to a dumb question from your computer with minimum effort. If you merely embed HELLO.COM in a SUBMIT file, then called it thusly,
AÃ>SUBMIT HELLO
you would see HELLOâs question on your screen
What is your name?
but you would still have to type the reply,
Fame and Fortune
forcing the machine to salute obsequiously:
Hi, Fame and Fortune!
Warm Boot
AÃ>
XSUB, however, allows the user to preselect keyboard input, in this case âFame and Fortuneâ, so that if you want to set things going and just watch, so-called âgreen-screen voyeurismâ, a common malady among graphics freaks, just type
AÃ>SUBMIT HELLO
which goes looking for HELLO.SUB, and finding it, shows you
Warm Boot
AÃ>XSUB
AÃ>HELLO
What is your name?
Fame and Fortune
Hi, Fame and Fortune!
(xsub active) . . .
Warm Boot
AÃ>
in its entirety, no further input needed. Moreover, short of unplugging the machine, it can be diffcult to interrupt or interdict XSUB once itâs been set going. Notice the parenthetic reminder concerning whoâs in charge. Is it insidious yet?
If there were a second command, or further keyboard input applicable to the HELLO.COM routine, the SUBMIT program, after printing the parenthetic reminder, would run until all had been completed. After each completed program, the prompt (xsub active) or (xsub still active) comes up on the screen. There are many file functions, file manipulations and other matters that need never send information to the screen. And, of course, if whatever it is youâre doing precludes any interest you have in seeing its various functions output to the screen, you can just rewrite the BIOS calls accordingly, so that when programs are running, the operator, or the person watching the screen, need never be the wiser. This is particularly true for a large machine, whose video terminals wouldnât want to get completely tied up by such a simple little thing as, say, publishing a book. Like the machine at Crow Mignon.
Finally, take a look at this.
:100100000E09112D01CD05000E0A114601CD050085
:100110002146013620235E3620160023193621237E
:1001200036240E09114101CD0500C3000057686156
:100130007420697320796F7572206E616D653F2040
:07014000240D0A48692C415F
:0000000000
Thatâs the entire HELLO.ASM routine assembled into hexadecimal format, one step closer to what the computer actually reads when you implement the command HELLO. Tiny, isnât it? Itâs an ant on the elephant of memory. You could hide something that size almost anywhere, let alone in the vast memory of a big machine; like, say, in the machine at Crow Mignon Books . . . .
And you know what it comes down to? A modest series of intermittent beeps and whistles, a little white noise, in the audio background of a little session with Ms. Michelov. Thatâs all. Then the same between Crow Mignonâs computer and Pre-Eminentâs, a little more tweeting between the latter and various distributors, and between those and the retailers . . . Next thing you know the bookâs been remaindered . . . Little chapters sneaking along the phone lines, one computer to another . . . nobody ever had the slimmest idea . . . It sounded like the distant calls of a sheepherder, enthusiastically encouraging his flock to get home before dark . . . Yes, almost bucolic . . . In the thick crepuscular light you can hear the bells on the rams, far down the arroyo, and smell the piquance of burning mesquite and scalded coffee, and there goes a straggle of ravens, chuckling themselves home to roost, they own a chain of bookstores . . . .
Is it insidious yet?
FIVE
I couldnât take it any more and left the house. Marlene provocatively straddled the long chromium wand of her vacuum cleaner as I squeezed past her on the narrow landing. She wore a summery lavender house dress with large yellow
AÃ>SUBMIT HELLO
you would see HELLOâs question on your screen
What is your name?
but you would still have to type the reply,
Fame and Fortune
forcing the machine to salute obsequiously:
Hi, Fame and Fortune!
Warm Boot
AÃ>
XSUB, however, allows the user to preselect keyboard input, in this case âFame and Fortuneâ, so that if you want to set things going and just watch, so-called âgreen-screen voyeurismâ, a common malady among graphics freaks, just type
AÃ>SUBMIT HELLO
which goes looking for HELLO.SUB, and finding it, shows you
Warm Boot
AÃ>XSUB
AÃ>HELLO
What is your name?
Fame and Fortune
Hi, Fame and Fortune!
(xsub active) . . .
Warm Boot
AÃ>
in its entirety, no further input needed. Moreover, short of unplugging the machine, it can be diffcult to interrupt or interdict XSUB once itâs been set going. Notice the parenthetic reminder concerning whoâs in charge. Is it insidious yet?
If there were a second command, or further keyboard input applicable to the HELLO.COM routine, the SUBMIT program, after printing the parenthetic reminder, would run until all had been completed. After each completed program, the prompt (xsub active) or (xsub still active) comes up on the screen. There are many file functions, file manipulations and other matters that need never send information to the screen. And, of course, if whatever it is youâre doing precludes any interest you have in seeing its various functions output to the screen, you can just rewrite the BIOS calls accordingly, so that when programs are running, the operator, or the person watching the screen, need never be the wiser. This is particularly true for a large machine, whose video terminals wouldnât want to get completely tied up by such a simple little thing as, say, publishing a book. Like the machine at Crow Mignon.
Finally, take a look at this.
:100100000E09112D01CD05000E0A114601CD050085
:100110002146013620235E3620160023193621237E
:1001200036240E09114101CD0500C3000057686156
:100130007420697320796F7572206E616D653F2040
:07014000240D0A48692C415F
:0000000000
Thatâs the entire HELLO.ASM routine assembled into hexadecimal format, one step closer to what the computer actually reads when you implement the command HELLO. Tiny, isnât it? Itâs an ant on the elephant of memory. You could hide something that size almost anywhere, let alone in the vast memory of a big machine; like, say, in the machine at Crow Mignon Books . . . .
And you know what it comes down to? A modest series of intermittent beeps and whistles, a little white noise, in the audio background of a little session with Ms. Michelov. Thatâs all. Then the same between Crow Mignonâs computer and Pre-Eminentâs, a little more tweeting between the latter and various distributors, and between those and the retailers . . . Next thing you know the bookâs been remaindered . . . Little chapters sneaking along the phone lines, one computer to another . . . nobody ever had the slimmest idea . . . It sounded like the distant calls of a sheepherder, enthusiastically encouraging his flock to get home before dark . . . Yes, almost bucolic . . . In the thick crepuscular light you can hear the bells on the rams, far down the arroyo, and smell the piquance of burning mesquite and scalded coffee, and there goes a straggle of ravens, chuckling themselves home to roost, they own a chain of bookstores . . . .
Is it insidious yet?
FIVE
I couldnât take it any more and left the house. Marlene provocatively straddled the long chromium wand of her vacuum cleaner as I squeezed past her on the narrow landing. She wore a summery lavender house dress with large yellow
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