eighty-column mind

	This is the JargonFile ^(V4.00) entry for eighty-column mind - Next: El Camino Bignum, Prev: echo
:eighty-column mind: /n./ [IBM] The sort said to be possessed by persons for whom the transition from punched card to tape was traumatic (nobody has dared tell them about disks yet). It is said that these people, including (according to an old joke) the founder of IBM, will be buried face down, 9-edge first (the 9-edge being the bottom of the card). This directive is inscribed on IBMs 1402 and 1622 card readers and is referenced in a famous bit of doggerel called "The Last Bug", the climactic lines of which are as follows: He died at the console Of hunger and thirst. Next day he was buried, Face down, 9-edge first. The eighty-column mind is thought by most hackers to dominate IBMs customer base and its thinking. See IBM, fear and loathing, card walloper.
* (text is auto-included via JargonExtension by mutante using jargon with VERSION 4.0.0, 24 JUL 1996* - JargonFile by Eric S. Raymond is in the public domain)*