It was twenty years ago today
It was twenty years ago today
Sgt. Morris taught the worms to play
They’ve been going in and out of style
But they’re guaranteed to last a while
So may I introduce to you…
the bug you’ve known for all these years
Sgt. Morris Lonely worm club band
We’re Sgt. Morris’ lonely worm club band,
We hope you will enjoy the show,
We’re Sgt. Morris’ lonely worm club band,
Sit back and let security go.
Sgt. Morris’ lonely, Sgt. Morris’ lonely,
Sgt. Morris Lonely worm club band
It’s wonderful to be here
It’s certainly a thrill
You’re such a lovely fingerd
We’d like to take you $HOME with us
We’ve love to take you home
I don’t really want to stop the show
But I thought you might like to know
that the sendmail’s gonna sing a song
and you’re all gonna sing and sing along
So let me introduce to you
the one and only wiz mode bug
and Sgt. Morris Lonely worm club band!
At he risk of breaking the Mill Rat code of silence, I will point out that the Morris worm was loosed about a decade after the first worm crippled a worldwide network. It has been the habit of DECkies to not identify the culprit to outsiders, so I will save our distinguished colleague the embarrassment of being named, but anyone who worked at DEC at the time will remember the Easynet, then spanning three continents, being dropped to its knees when an engineer too clever for his own good tried to map the net using a self reproducing script that copied itself to all adjacent nods without excepting the one it came from.
I’ve always found it interesting that the DECnet worm aka Xxxxxxxx’s Worm is mentioned almost noweher, and so far as I have been able to tell, Xxxxxxxx’s name or even initials ever tied to it. A secret known by thousands. (Please note that this is not the 1989 WANK worm. That one was post Morris.)
Brons
No, no, no. IBM (as usual) beat DEC by more than a year. The CHRISTMA EXEC (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_Tree_EXEC) propagated a full year before the DECnet worm.
But hey – let’s not lose the thread. Adam, your poetry is brilliant. Do I sense a second career? Maybe an off-Broadway show?
No. Not that DECnet worm. That’s a decade later. The Christma worm is in the late 80s. I’m talking late 70s. Totally different worm. I don’t recall if it was 78 or 79. I believe it was 78 that the worm was loosed at DEC. As I said, it is not well documented. I could always ask Xxxxxxxx when he let the darned thing out.
Brons