>>>     For all of you who have experienced the king of all computer 
>>>     nightmares, this one's for you.
>>>     
>>>     
>>>     
>>>     Subject:  Computer Poetry
>>>     
>>>     >
>>>     >
>>>     >- To the meter of "The Raven" by Edgar Allen Poe... >
>>>     
>>>     
>>>     >Once upon a midnight dreary, fingers cramped and vision bleary, 
>>>     >System manuals piled high and wasted paper on the floor, 
>>>     >Longing for the warmth of bed sheets,
>>>     >still I sat there doing spreadsheets.
>>>     >Having reached the bottom line I took a floppy from the drawer,
>>>     >I then invoked the SAVE command and waited for the disk to store, 
>>>     >Only this and nothing more.
>>>     >
>>>     >Deep into the monitor peering, long I sat there wond'ring, fearing, 
>>>     >Doubting, while the disk kept churning,
>>>     >turning yet to churn some more.
>>>     >But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token. 
>>>     >"Save!" I said, "You cursed mother!  Save my data from before!" 
>>>     One thing did the phosphors answer, only this and nothing more, 
>>>     >Just, "Abort, Retry, Ignore?"
>>>     >
>>>     >Was this some occult illusion, some maniacal intrusion? 
>>>     >These were choices undesired, ones I'd never faced before.
>>>     >Carefully I weighed the choices as the disk made impish noises.
>>>     >The cursor flashed, insistent, waiting, baiting me to type some more. 
>>>     >Clearly I must press a key, choosing one and nothing more,
>>>     >>From "Abort, Retry, Ignore?"
>>>     >
>>>     >With fingers pale and trembling, slowly toward the keyboard bending, 
>>>     >Longing for a happy ending, hoping all would be restored,
>>>     >Praying for some guarantee, timidly, I pressed a key.
>>>     >But on the screen there still persisted words appearing as before. 
>>>     >Ghastly grim they blinked and taunted, haunted, as my patience wore, 
>>>     >Saying "Abort, Retry, Ignore?"
>>>     >
>>>     >I tried to catch the chips off guard, and pressed again, 
>>>     >but twice as hard.
>>>     >I pleaded with the cursed machine: I begged and cried 
>>>     >and then I swore.
>>>     >Now in mighty desperation, trying random combinations,
>>>     >Still there came the incantation, just as senseless as before. 
>>>     >Cursor blinking, angrily winking, blinking nonsense as before. 
>>>     >Reading, "Abort, Retry, Ignore?"
>>>     >
>>>     >There I sat, distraught, exhausted, by my own machine accosted. 
>>>     >Getting up I turned away and paced across the office floor. 
>>>     >And then I saw a dreadful sight:
>>>     >a lightning bolt cut through the night.
>>>     >A gasp of horror overtook me, shook me to my very core.
>>>     >The lightning zapped my previous data, lost and gone forevermore. 
>>>     >Not even, "Abort, Retry, Ignore?"
>>>     >
>>>     >To this day I do not know the place to which lost data go.
>>>     >What demonic nether world us wrought where lost data will be stored, 
>>>     >Beyond the reach of mortal souls, beyond the ether, into black holes? 
>>>     >But sure as there's C, Pascal, Lotus, Ashton-Tate and more,
>>>     >You will be one day be left to wander, lost on some Plutonian shore, 
>>>     >Pleading, "Abort, Retry, Ignore?"
>>>     >
>>>     >                                        -Author unknown