📸

important components of a computer's hard disk: it is a master index that keeps track of where all the pages for each file are kept. On a hard disk, unlike in a filing cabinet, pages of a single file are not stored together. When an operator calls for a file the job of the FAT is to find all the parts and assemble them in the correct order. Once corrupted, the FAT takes on all the attributes of an unqualified temporary secretary: it can't find anything, it loses files, and the ones it doesn't lose are incomplete or presented in the wrong order.

The gamble the operators faced was more or less the same as on a slot machine – except the computer user was playing with data, not a coin. If he played and lost, the virus would zap the FAT, with disastrous consequences. If he played and won, the virus would replace the FAT it had captured with a copy it had sequestered in the RAM – the computer's principal memory, the Random Access Memory, the area where programs run.

When operators followed the on-screen instructions and pressed a key, the characters in the three 'windows' ran through a sequence, like a real slot machine. The operator had five 'credits', or tries; the game was over when three Ls, Cs or ?s came up. The operator could try again if a combination of characters came up. The jackpot was three Ls, when the operator would see the following on his screen: 'BASTARD! You're lucky this time – but for your own sake, now SWITCH OFF YOUR COMPUTER AND DON'T TURN IT ON UNTIL TOMORROW!!!' Three ?s was a loser: the virus would then announce 'No Fuckin' Chance' and destroy the FAT. Three Cs, unsportingly, was also a loser: the message was 'HA HA!! You asshole, you've lost: Say Bye to your Balls.' Once again, the FAT would be zapped.

The bank had no choice but to gamble. Once the virus had taken control of the FAT, there was no possible way of retrieving it other than by coming up with a 'jackpot'. The odds against them were three to one. The computer operators pressed their keys, losing two games to every one they won and on two-thirds of their computers having to rebuild the system and restore the damaged files. They also had to track down and destroy the virus – which became known as Casino – on all their machines, a process that required the help of a computer security expert from Britain.

From the spelling and the use of Americanisms like 'asshole', it

📸