A system I build from parts a few years back has had a period hang problem that I'd given up on diagnosing and had written off to gremlins (this box doesn't get used for anything important, so chasing down the problem hadn't been a priority). Over the weekend I was hacking around on it while listening to a playlist of MP3s on WinAmp, and the box froze. No problem, reboot and continue. Hack a bit. Hang. But this time I noticed that it hung at exactly the same place in the same song on the playlist. Cool. I now had a reproduceable bug*. But could the Universe be sending me a message in some backhanded way? The fatal tune was "Life's a Long Song," from Jethro Tull's "Living in the Past." It goes (in part)
As the verses unfold and your soul suffers the long day,
And the twelve o'clock gloom spins the room, you struggle on your way.
Well don't you sigh, don't you cry,
Lick the dust from your eye.

Life's a long song.
Life's a long *HANG* *REBOOT*
So what's the cosmic message? I dunno, but it may be something about perspective. Take a longer view on life, and know that the today's problems fade away, but be aware that life is finite. That, and save your work often.


* As it turns out, the problem didn't reproduce, but upgrading the sound card driver seems to have made the hang go away.

In reply to Life's a Long Song by dws

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