COMPUTER MEMORIES, Chapter 71

A VIRUS IN THE IBM ROOM
It should not be difficult to imagine that a “virus” could operate in the “IBM Room,” just as well as it operated in a computer program, many years later. At one place I worked, hundreds of people throughout the office and the factory spent at least $1 each Friday on “Paycheck Poker.” That is, they put money in one or more of several pools, and the person with the best “poker hand” from the check number, won the money in that particular pot.

All went well until someone in management noticed that every few weeks a bunch of blank or misprinted paychecks would be voided because of a problem while printing. After some investigation, it was discovered that the person who usually operated the printer for that job, had friends throughout the office and factory. Every couple of weeks (not often enough to be too suspicious), a count would be made to see how many checks would be printed until a unbeatable check number would appear, then a count would show how many checks would need be printed before that check would be prepared for one of the coconspirators.

Well, it was rather easy to figure what was needed: just destroy some checks and manipulate the deck of IBM cards. Ergo, the guaranteed payoff from multiple pools was split between the printer operator and the predetermined winner(s). That is until the scheme was discovered. Now, isn’t that much the same as a virus in a computer program?

Another version of “Paycheck Poker” was conducted by two entrepreneurial young ladies. They collected $1 from the many participants of their game, kept all the money, then awarded the Grand Prize — Saturday night at the home of the audacious young ladies.