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3.1 KiB
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20 lines
3.1 KiB
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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" standalone="no"?>
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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><title>casting the runes</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="../../jargon.css" type="text/css"/><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.61.0"/><link rel="home" href="../index.html" title="The Jargon File"/><link rel="up" href="../C.html" title="C"/><link rel="previous" href="casters-up-mode.html" title="casters-up mode"/><link rel="next" href="cat.html" title="cat"/></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">casting the runes</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="casters-up-mode.html">Prev</a><EFBFBD></td><th width="60%" align="center">C</th><td width="20%" align="right"><EFBFBD><a accesskey="n" href="cat.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr/></div><dt><a id="casting-the-runes"/><dt xmlns="" id="casting-the-runes"><b>casting the runes</b>: <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="grammar">n.</span></dt></dt><dd><p> What a <a href="../G/guru.html"><i class="glossterm">guru</i></a> does when you ask him or her to
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run a particular program and type at it because it never works for anyone
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else; esp. used when nobody can ever see what the guru is doing different
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from what J. Random Luser does. Compare
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<a href="../I/incantation.html"><i class="glossterm">incantation</i></a>, <a href="../R/runes.html"><i class="glossterm">runes</i></a>,
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<a href="../E/examining-the-entrails.html"><i class="glossterm">examining the entrails</i></a>; also see the AI koan about
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Tom Knight in <a href="../koans.html" title="Some AI Koans">Some AI Koans</a> (in Appendix
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A).</p></dd><dd><p>A correspondent from England tells us that one of ICL's most talented
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systems designers used to be called out occasionally to service machines
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which the <a href="../F/field-circus.html"><i class="glossterm">field circus</i></a> had given up on. Since he
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knew the design inside out, he could often find faults simply by listening
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to a quick outline of the symptoms. He used to play on this by going to
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some site where the field circus had just spent the last two weeks solid
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trying to find a fault, and spreading a diagram of the system out on a
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table top. He'd then shake some chicken bones and cast them over the
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diagram, peer at the bones intently for a minute, and then tell them that a
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certain module needed replacing. The system would start working again
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immediately upon the replacement.</p></dd><div class="navfooter"><hr/><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="casters-up-mode.html">Prev</a><EFBFBD></td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="../C.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"><EFBFBD><a accesskey="n" href="cat.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">casters-up mode<64></td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"><EFBFBD>cat</td></tr></table></div></body></html>
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