DN614140340

Subject: Re: Pythonware Website???? Gone on vacation with Starship? ;-)) - DN [1]

m.faassen@vet.uu.nl (Martijn Faassen) - 21 Apr 2000 - comp.lang.python

 Gordon McMillan <gmcm@hypernet.com> wrote:
 > Martijn Faassen wrote:

 >> .... Also, since the PSU has access to
 >> Guido's time machine and didn't prevent this, the PSU must be in on this.
 >> Perhaps they're testing those samples of whitespace-eating nanoviruses that
 >> they got from that UFO crash near Roswell back in the 50s.

 (oops, it was 1947, not the 50s)

 > Oh you silly boy. They're not alien. They simply used the time
 > machine to bring back samples from the future.

 > if-i-told-you-how-i-knew-i'd-have-to-kill-you-ly y'rs

 [Roswell, New Mexico, July 1947]

 Gordon McMillan stood in the desert, looking sadly at the remains of Guido's
 time machine.

 "Guido won't like this," a slightly metallic voice said behind him.

 "Um... no," Gordon said. "I guess he won't."

 "Perhaps it wasn't a good idea after all to go back to the time of the
 Roswell crash," the voice persisted.

 Gordon turned to the bot. "But I wanted to *know*. It might have helped us
 during the invasion in 2010. I wanted to know once and for all what had
 happened here."

 "And now you do! Hehehehe-ly." The bot pronounced its chuckling.

 Behind them they heard the sound of a car. They both stood to watch the car
 approach from a cloud of dust. "Tim!" Gordon said. "Go invisible, quickly!"

 Mumbling to itself, the bot faded into thin air.

 The car stopped, and a man came out. He stood staring at the wrecked time
 machine for a moment, then looked at Gordon, open-mouthed.

 "W-what is that?" the man asked. "One of them f-flying saucers?"

 "Um," Gordon said, and gathered his mind. He flashed the PSU badge he
 was always carrying. "Weather balloon. I'm with the weather bureau."

 The man looked dubious, staring at the wreckage of the time machine.

 The timbot became visible again after the man had left. "I don't think
 you convinced him," it said.

 "We'd better go in hiding for a while," Gordon said.

 "For some decades, at least. It will be a long time before technology
 develops far enough for us to build a new time machine. The blueprints
 I have call for a Perl interpreter, for instance. We need spacetime
 convolution regexes."

 "Maybe we can help things move forward a bit, then."

 "And we'd better hide the nanovirus samples as well. They're too dangerous,"
 the timbot said.

 "At least we'll have some time to analyze them now. I still don't think
 they're alien."

 "I think they are," the timbot said.

 Arguing, they walked off into the sunset.

 Decades passed while Gordon and the timbot did their work. The timbot sent
 off some surreptitious messages to various people. John McCarthy got a
 few hints on recursion. Bill Gates was funded by an anonymous investor.
 (so, they needed the money! what?!) Larry Wall received a pamphlet
 on postmodern linguistic analysis. And one christmas, Guido van Rossum
 received a thick envelope containing the complete plans for a working time
 machine.

 Do-you-have-to-kill-me-now?-ly yours,

 Martijn
 --
 History of the 20th Century: WW1, WW2, WW3?
 No, WWW -- Could we be going in the right direction?