casting the runes

casting the runes
 n.

   What a {guru} does when you ask him or her to run a particular program
   and type at it because it never works for anyone else; esp. used when
   nobody can ever see what the guru is doing different from what J.
   Random Luser does. Compare {incantation}, {runes}, {examining the
   entrails}; also see the AI koan about Tom Knight in Some AI Koans (in
   Appendix A).

   A correspondent from England tells us that one of ICL's most talented
   systems designers used to be called out occasionally to service
   machines which the {field circus} had given up on. Since he knew the
   design inside out, he could often find faults simply by listening to a
   quick outline of the symptoms. He used to play on this by going to
   some site where the field circus had just spent the last two weeks
   solid trying to find a fault, and spreading a diagram of the system
   out on a table top. He'd then shake some chicken bones and cast them
   over the diagram, peer at the bones intently for a minute, and then
   tell them that a certain module needed replacing. The system would
   start working again immediately upon the replacement.
    

casting the runes

   <jargon> What a {guru} does when you ask him or her to run a
   particular program because it never works for anyone else;
   especially used when nobody can ever see what the guru is
   doing different from what J. Random Luser does.

   Compare {incantation}, {runes}, {examining the entrails}; also
   see the {AI koan} about Tom Knight.

   (1997-12-26)