Important to understanding the joke is the fact that Tom Knight designed the processor for the Lisp Machine, and therefore his power-cycling is imbued with understanding.

And this reminds me of the "More Magic" switch on a PDP-10 at the MIT AI lab: http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/magic-story.html

This, in turn, reminds me of a long-shot theory about how the universe works that I sometimes ponder.

I can't think of how many times someone has come to me with a computer problem, or I've gone to a vendor/support chat with a problem that hasn't worked dozens or hundreds of times. Then suddenly, with the guru there, whether it is me or someone else, suddenly the problem evaporates.

I've found myself wondering if this wasn't some illusion, but an actual artifact of the nature of the universe. Think about it: if noob's problems everywhere were actually the universe not letting their shit work, there would be no one to ever notice it; because when the expert comes in and fixes it, it is magic to the noob anyway, and the expert is 100% used to mundanes not having their stuff work for any given reason.

We call it "personal entropy". Some people have more of it than others.

There is already a scientific explanation for this.

It's called "confirmation bias"

Sounds like quantum bogodynamics: http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/Q/quantum-bogodynamics.html

What about the case of a person who, when they show up, magically breaks all technology. I had a friend like that, "I didn't touch it I swear!"

Reading over jwz's travails with computers of various kinds, he seems to have an amazing amount of it for someone who used to be a professional programmer.

I propose we name it the Zawinski Effect.

We call it The Aura. Some people have it and some don't.

I like to call this the Scooby Doo effect. The ghost always appears for Scooby but not for the rest of the gang.

Scooby is just a little psychotic.

At the risk of causing a bunch of you to spend the rest of the day watching the whole 3 seasons of The IT Crowd....The canonical answer to 'Have you tried turning if off and on again': http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nn2FB1P_Mn8

There are 4 seasons, although I agree that season 2 is worth skipping.

Apart from "The Work Outing" and "Moss and the German" which are two of the best episodes from any season.

Thanks for mentioning, I haven't checked up in a while (obviously). Season 2 definitely was my least fav.

Ah, there are a few good moments in season 2 also.