Ditto what the sender said... (from a linux group list)

matt shade
www.threekay.com

----- Original Message -----
From: "Steven A. DuChene" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, October 18, 2001 22:45
Subject: [ale] Fwd: A funny thing happened on the way to the lug meeting


>
> This was so funny, I had to share it.
>
> (Background:  DC LUG nominally meets once a month at a really nice
> auditorium at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Betehsda, MD.
> Due to current security changes, evening meetings have been cancelled, so
> some of the folks are getting together for pizza instead of meeting and
> then going for pizza.  Looks like some of that other mystery powder got
> snuck into the mozzerlla....)
>
> Steve
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Stephan A. Greene     [log in to unmask]        [log in to unmask]
> Herndon, VA           1-703-654-6032 office  1-571-233-1194 cell
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> Date: Thu, 18 Oct 2001 17:38:30 -0400 (EDT)
> From: Maxwell Spangler <[log in to unmask]>
> Cc: DC Linux Users Group <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: [dclug] Meeting
>
> On Thu, 18 Oct 2001, Christopher J. Graham wrote:
>
> > I was not able to make it to the dclug meeting last night like I planned.
> > What did I miss?
>
> About 10 of us showed up and were eating dinner, having a chat, when armed
> terrorists burst in the room with guns and bombs.
>
> The put us up against the wall with our hands above our head and wouldn't let
> me finish my soda despite my sore throat.
>
> It seems they had been escaping some other crimial activity in bethesda and
> ran into victors to get away from the many police cars we heard with sirens
> driving madly around bethesda.
>
> We noticed one of them had a small satellite phone hooked up to a toshiba
> liberetto (a really small laptop) and was using it to communicate with others.
>
> When we noticed this and we asked them what operating system they were
> running.  They yelled at us but we could see it was Windows, and I still
> couldn't get to my soda.  It was a Dr. Pepper.
>
> Serge started to tell them that if they're using Windows, they're not Free at
> all and no matter what they do to bomb our country and hurt our people, as
> long as they're not using Free Software they're not ever going to be Free.
>
> They started at Serge and said something like "All your base are belong to us"
> whatever the hell that means...
>
> So then Serge recited some speech from heart from a guy named Eben that talked
> recently in DC.  Serge managed to convert half of us, including some of the
> terrorists from our previous beliefs, to some quasi-communist doctrine based
> on high-technology and Free Software.  That's free as in Libre and not as in
> Beer, and my soda continued to cost me money without my being able to drink it
> so I was not very swayed by his speech.
>
> Alan McConnel came out of the bathroom at this point and said "What is THIS?"
> and I said, it's a Toshiba Liberetto, and he said, no--the them, pointing at
> the terrorists, and I said, yeah, half are into Free Software now and the
> others "just don't get it"  So Alan was put up against the wall as well but
> before he was he managed to ask "Do they know about TeX in Afghanistan?"
>
> It was about this time that they finished going through our wallets looking
> for ID cards and saw that Megan Larko worked for NASA and they thought it said
> "NSA" and gave her a really hard time.  So we explained that it was NASA, the
> guys who put people on the moon and we asked the terrorists where they were
> when the first guy walked on the room and they had to think for a while
> because they couldn't remember.
>
> While they were distracted thinking about how the moon looks like Khandar in
> the summer time (and the winter, and spring and fall), I managed to make a
> call on my phone.  I called Fede and said "we're being hijaaked--there are
> terrorists here, they have guns and Windows 2000 for encryption with their sat
> phone" and he said "Hi, This is Fede and Lisa, we're not here right now but if
> you leave a message we'll get back to you" but what I know he really *meant*
> was "Windows 2000 is a pretty sad choice for people who are against the big
> corporations that represent american and keep other people down while making
> other people rich..." but then my cell phone battery went dead. 
>
> We were very nervous, but I think what happened next--they spoke farsi or
> something so we coulnd't tell, but We think the people on the phone sent them
> an email with instructions on how to get out, but when they opened it, it had
> a virus and the virus said "down with america" and put poison symbols all over
> the screen.  "See!" we told them, you need Free Software.
>
> Realizing they had no other options at this point, they grabbed some pizza and
> made a mad rush out the back door, possibly to get to safety, or possibly just
> to find another group of captives that don't know about Free Software and
> won't try to harass them about it so much.
>
> I took a gasp and drank the rest of my warm Dr. Pepper.
>
> It was a pretty good meeting--we got some people interested in Free Software,
> as I said earlier.
>
>
> I hope this goes in the archives :)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----
> Maxwell Spangler
> Program Writer
> Greenbelt, Maryland, U.S.A.
> Washington D.C. Metropolitan Area
>
> _______________________________________________
matt shade
www.threekay.com

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