Never Say Never 

My college has recently switched from a VAX to UNIX system. We kept part of the old VAX online because it has a timesheet for computer operators (lab attendants, for the most part), but as a side effect of whatever changes have been made to the old system, we now get this error message upon logging in:

Can't assign sys$disk channel.

You should never see this error message. Been messing about again, eh?

%SYSTEM-W-NOSUCHDEV, no such device available

This message is probably informative to the Sys Admin, but this message appears when ANY user logs in, and has left many users – especially those with a tendency toward hacking – feeling like they're in trouble for something they did while logged on.

Submitted by: Walter Luke

Except for the "messing about again" comment, this looks like another ‘unintentional’ error message. Of course, the curious phrase might have been simply a vagrant thought of the programmer intended as a poke at a friend or colleague but … heaven knows – this could come from almost anything.

As for a ‘guilty’ conscience … well, I would find this more an incentive to try to hack the message.

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