/ki:/ [Case Western Reserve University] Yet another hackish
parody religion (see also Church of the SubGenius,
Discordianism). In the mid-70s, the canonical "Introduction
to Programming" courses at CWRU were taught in ALGOL, and
student exercises were punched on cards and run on a Univac
1108 system using a homebrew operating system named CHI. The
religion had no doctrines and but one ritual: whenever the
worshipper noted that a digital clock read 11:08, he or she
would recite the phrase "It is 11:08; ABS, ALPHABETIC, ARCSIN,
ARCCOS, ARCTAN." The last five words were the first five
functions in the appropriate chapter of the ALGOL manual; note
the special pronunciations /obz/ and /ark'sin/ rather than the
more common /ahbz/ and /ark'si:n/. Using an alarm clock to
warn of 11:08's arrival was considered harmful.
[Jargon File]
Nearby terms:
Reliability, Availability, Serviceability « reliable communication « Reliable Data Protocol « religion of CHI » religious issues » REM » remailer
