The Computer Age
During the early 1970's TAA, Qantas and Ansett introduced computers for use by Traffic Staff at the airports, Reservations, ticketing etc.
If my memory serves me correctly TAA called theirs TAARSAN, Ansett called theirs Ansamatic and Qantas called theirs Qantam.
Anyway having been trained in my late teens in computer programming with a media organisation by the time I joined TAA I was well aquainted with the understanding of them and their shortfalls. I also had been trained to touch type and was well aquainted with the Siemens Teleprinter and ticketape. Reading ticketape was like reading morse code which I was learning at the time for my pilot qualifications.
These new devices were initially despised by the old school TAA old timers who took a while to get used to them.
Anyway one day I popped into Load Control and this wonderfully eccentric Load Controller by the name of Max Bourke was cursing the dammed thing. Ex military WW11 and quite happy with the old pen and paper system. This was years before computerised load control.
Anyway I had gotten wind of the facrt that a couple of michevious programmers in head office in Melbourne had entered some error responses into the system which were for these days politically incorrect.
To try and cheer old max up I suggested he type in F***off and much to his amusement the error respose was Routing Not Necessay. Then I suggest he type in RAPE and the error respose was iLLEGAL ENTRY. Well that was it. He sat their laughing his head off. From what i heard he spent the rest of the shift, between churning out manual load sheets, typing in what 'i had suggested with great amusement. Just like a kid with a new toy!!