Blinkenlights

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This article is about the hacker term. For other uses, see Blinkenlights (disambiguation).

Blinkenlights is a hacker's neologism for diagnostic lights on old mainframe computers and modern network hardware. The Jargon File gives the following etymology:

This term derives from the last word of the famous blackletter-Gothic sign in mangled mock German that once graced about half the computer rooms in the English-speaking world. One version ran in its entirety as follows.

ACHTUNG!

ALLES TURISTEN UND NONTEKNISCHEN LOOKENPEEPERS! DAS KOMPUTERMASCHINE IST NICHT FÜR DER GEFINGERPOKEN UND MITTENGRABEN! ODERWISE IST EASY TO SCHNAPPEN DER SPRINGENWERK, BLOWENFUSEN UND POPPENCORKEN MIT SPITZENSPARKSEN. IST NICHT FÜR GEWERKEN BEI DUMMKOPFEN. DER RUBBERNECKEN SIGHTSEEREN KEEPEN DAS COTTONPICKEN HÄNDER IN DAS POCKETS MUSS.

ZO RELAXEN UND WATSCHEN DER BLINKENLICHTEN.

This "silliness" dates back to least as far as 1955 at IBM and had already gone international by the early 1960s, when it was reported at the University of London's ATLAS computing site. There are several variants of it in circulation, some of which actually do end with the word blinkenlights.

A person with at least basic knowledge of German would glean more sense from these convoluted words. The entire point of these signs was their humorously incorrect language.

A German speaker with a rudimentary command of English (or vice versa) might interpret the text to be approximately:

ATTENTION!

ALL TOURISTS AND NON-TECHNICAL ONLOOKERS! THIS COMPUTER IS NOT FOR FINGER-POKING OR GRABBING ONTO! OTHERWISE IT IS EASY TO SNAP THE SPRING-WORK, BLOW FUSES, AND POP CORKS WITH SPITTING SPARKS. IT IS NOT TO BE WORKED [operated] BY DUMB-HEADS [idiots]. RUBBER-NECKING SIGHTSEERS MUST KEEP THEIR COTTON-PICKING HANDS IN THEIR POCKETS.

SO RELAX AND WATCH THE BLINKING LIGHTS.

The sign is also reported to have been seen on an Electron microscope at the Cavendish Laboratory in the 1950s. Such pseudo-German parodies were common in Allied machine shops during and following World War II, and an example photocopy is shown in the Jargon File.

The Jargon File also mentions that German hackers have developed their own versions of the blinkenlights poster, in fractured English:

ATTENTION

This room is fullfilled mit special electronische equippment. Fingergrabbing and pressing the cnoeppkes from the computers is allowed for die experts only!

So all the “lefthanders” stay away and do not disturben the brainstorming von here working intelligencies. Otherwise you will be out thrown and kicked anderswhere!

Also: please keep still and only watchen astaunished the blinkenlights.

[edit] Actual blinkenlights

With dramatically rising CPU frequencies, the traditional "blinkenlights" soon became useless for "eyeball diagnostics". Still, there are a number of notable later uses of the term.

The Connection Machine, a 65,536-processor parallel computer designed in the mid-1980s, was a black cube with one side covered with a grid of red blinkenlights; the sales demo had them evolving Conway's Game of Life patterns.

The CPU load monitors on the front of BeBoxes were also called “blinkenlights”.

This word gave its name to several projects, including screen savers, hardware gadgets, and other nostalgic things. Some notable enterprises include Project Blinkenlights and the Blinkenlights Archaeological Institute.

Many Dell computers have a set of blinkenlights near the PS/2 keyboard plug or rear USB ports (for desktops), or on the front fascia (for servers). It is a set of four bi-color lights for diagnostic purposes (e.g., video card failure, memory failure, etc.).

Ethernet NICs, external modems, and similar devices generally have at least a pair of blinkenlights indicating data being sent and received. Older modems from the 1990s had a dozen or so blinkenlights on the front, indicating state such as whether the phone was on or off the hook.