 Geek Theology...
In the beginning, God created the bit. And the
bit was a zero.
On the first day, he
toggled the 0 to 1, and the Universe was. (In those days, bootstrap loaders
were simple, and "active low" signals didn't yet exist.)
On the second day, God's
boss wanted a demo, and tried to read the bit. This being volatile memory,
the bit reverted to a 0. And the universe wasn't. God learned the importance
of backups and memory refresh, and spent the rest of the day (and his first
all-nighter) reinstalling the universe.
On the third day, the bit
cried "Oh, Lord! If you exist, give me a sign!" And God created
rev 2.0 of the bit, even better than the original prototype. Those in
Universe Marketing immediately realized that "new and improved"
wouldn't do justice to such a grand and glorious creation. And so it was
dubbed the Most Significant Bit. Many bits followed, but only one
was so honored.
On the fourth day, God
created a simple ALU with 'add' and 'logical shift' instructions. And the
original bit discovered that -- by performing a single shift instruction --
it could become the Most Significant Bit. And God realized the importance of
computer security.
On the fifth day, God
created the first mid-life kicker, rev 2.0 of the ALU, with wonderful
features, and said "Forget that add and shift stuff. Go forth and
multiply." And God saw that it was good.
On the sixth day, God got
a bit overconfident, and invented pipelines, register hazards, optimizing
compilers, crosstalk, restartable instructions, micro interrupts, race
conditions, and propagation delays. Historians have used this to
convincingly argue that the sixth day must have been a Monday.
On the seventh day, an
engineering change introduced Windows into the Universe, and it hasn't
worked right since.
Author Unknown
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