It’s the end of the 1980s, and this cash-strapped department is still using original-model IBM PCs when a help-desk pilot fish gets a call: “The PC crashed and it’s beeping!”

“They didn’t keep me with the rest of the staff — my cube was across the ravine,” says fish. “So I bundled up and trekked across the historic foot bridge over to the main offices.

“The PC wasn’t beeping. It did say ‘Buffer Overflow.’ What buffer? Tried Ctrl-Alt-Del…nothing. But the big red switch restarted it fine.

“Glitch? Gamma rays? I asked them to call if it happened again.

“Couple days later, same again. This went on for a week.

“One day I came over to get my paycheck, and it did it while I was standing there. Beep-beep-beep-beep… ‘Buffer Overflow.’

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