guru meditation
n. Amiga equivalent of `panic' in UNIX
(sometimes just called a `guru' or `guru event'). When the
system crashes, a cryptic message "GURU MEDITATION
#XXXXXXXX.YYYYYYYY" appears, indicating what the problem was. An
Amiga guru can figure things out from the numbers. Generally a
guru event must be followed by a
Vulcan nerve pinch.
This term is (no surprise) an in-joke from the earliest days of the
Amiga. There used to be a device called a `Joyboard' which was
basically a plastic board built onto on a joystick-like device; it
was sold with a skiing game cartridge for the Atari game machine.
It is said that whenever the prototype OS crashed, the system
programmer responsible would calm down by concentrating on a
solution while sitting cross-legged on a Joyboard trying to keep
the board in balance. This position resembled that of a
meditating guru. Sadly, the joke was removed in AmigaOS 2.04.
