I Ain't Misbehaving

I just cannot believe it I have just been a victim of one of my own practical jokes, the 'boards have been pretty quiet today except for one item, which made me check a directory and file on the Quanta library CD.

Instead of looking at the directory I was trying to find, I got distracted by another directory, as I recognised the name as being one I created 'EYE LOCK'. This very simple SuperBasic programme was pretending (not very well) to be a protection utility for other QL programmes, however, I couldn't remember exactly how the joke  panned out. So I loaded the Superbasic programme in to QPCII and ran it. For quite a few minutes I was trying a variety of changes to the listing in order to get it working under QPCII, especially as it was a relatively simple programme.

After awhile, I got it to the point where I could more or less see on the screen the pseudo instructions. It was also telling me, to note the date on the screen, which was April 1st, hence the joke and spookilly close to the same date this year. Well, I quickly got tired of that and then realised I needed to pick my car up from being fixed with a few repairs to get it through the MOT. I got back an hour later and went to check my emails, Outlook gave me a strange message saying the server is not giving the correct certificate, did I want to continue.

Without much thought I said yes, well actually I clicked on Yes (I am not up to speaking commands to the computer yet), I had one from a bidding  website saying I had a winning bid on a QL book, great I thought. Pay Now? it asked and clicking the normal responses took me to the PayPal site, however Google Chrome interrupted saying the server was not secure, come back later.

After a few tries, with it reporting the same message I thought, I will try later and then sent an email to the seller saying PayPal site was down. Did a bit of surfing the web, and about an hour later I checked emails, same server message, checked PayPal still the same message, it was at this point I started to get a little concerned that I had a virus or something worse.

I was trying different websites, that an hour ago were quite accessible, now they were being blocked with this same 'uncertified server error' and telling me to 'try again later', getting more panicky I looked around  the computer screen for inspirational clues as to why this was happening to me. It was then I noticed the clock was showing significantly the wrong time, so I checked it. Not only was it showing the wrong time, it was showing the wrong month and the wrong year, it was, according the the clock the 1st April 1986.

It was set by my Superbasic programme 'EYE LOCK' I was playing around with earlier. This program was meant to be a bit of fun for OTHER Quanta people and a little dig at the 'SuperCharge Compiler' 25 years ago, nearly to the day and it was me it caught out. Talk about what goes around comes around, 25 years!!! suffice to say I have paid my winning bid now.