eff-bot

[Tim Peters]

[Emile van Sebille]
> Now, don't confuse me!  I thought I figured it out during this
> past year, but now that you bring it up, I thought that applied
> to the tim-bot.  I mean, there really is no Tim Peters, is there?

Yes, Emile, there is a TP.  You may as well question the existence of
Sinterklaas.

> Has anyone seen the tim-bot in human form?

Ah, I see what this is about!  As its original programmer, I (Tim Peters)
share an email address with the timbot.  It used to be easy to tell us
apart:  my posts were full of errors, & the bot's of sneering arrogance.
Over the centuries, though, we've gotten more alike in every way, except for
corporeality.  Oh ya -- and the bot doesn't like Monty Python, which
explains why only my posts make reference to spam, ni, dead parrots & such.
OTOH, the bot really likes lowbrow adult sites, which may explain why some
people get such a cheap thill from its "writing".

> It's just a self maintaining program

Self-destructing, more often.  It's got terrible, deep-seated problems,
likely due to some of its Univac 1108 and CDC assembler routines that
neither of us have been able to figure out.  Alas, they're in the analogue
of what in a human would be the most primitive reptilian areas of the brain,
and appear to be the source not only of its character flaws, but also its
will to survive.  It was, and remains, a most delicate project.

> written in, eh.., well maybe python now, but probably assembler
> fat-fingered into some early VAX that has managed to crib parts
> and pieces over the years and upgrade itself using every imaginable
> language and idiom available.  Probably doesn't even consume
> any power!  ;-)

All on target, except for the bit about power.  I have to hold an irksome
high-tech job just to foot the electricity, oil and kleenex bills (don't
ask -- it's embarrassing for both of us).

> tim-where-do-we-get-suspend?-ly yr's

A trace of the timbot's generator generator shows it's most likely a
combination of something it scanned on an S&M site, mixed with the use of
the same word for the same purpose in Icon (in which, BTW, the timbot's
generator generator is coded!  too clumsy in Python).  I'm not sure how it
weights these things anymore, although have measured an ever increasing
amount of power consumed by its firmware randomization subsystem.  Then
again, that may just be due to its "meaning of life" subroutine, which has--
good news! --eliminated 79.36% of all possiblities (as of 12:22:56AM EST).

this-is-one-bot-for-whom-"42"-ain't-good-enough-ly y'rs  - tim