guru meditation

guru meditation
 n.

   Amiga equivalent of panic in Unix (sometimes just called a guru or
   guru event). When the system crashes, a cryptic message of the form
   "GURU MEDITATION #XXXXXXXX.YYYYYYYY" may appear, indicating what the
   problem was. An Amiga guru can figure things out from the numbers.
   Sometimes 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. An earlier product of the Amiga corporation was a device called
   a `Joyboard' which was basically a plastic board built onto 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 fairly early on (but there's a well-known
   patch to restore it in more recent versions).
    

guru meditation

   <operating system, exception> The {Amiga} equivalent of
   {Unix}'s {panic} (sometimes just called a "guru" or "guru
   event").  When the system crashes, a cryptic message of the
   form "GURU MEDITATION #XXXXXXXX.YYYYYYYY" may appear,
   indicating what the problem was.  An Amiga guru can figure
   things out from the numbers.

   In the earliest days of the Amiga, there was a device called a
   "Joyboard" which was basically a plastic board built onto 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
   concentrate on a solution while sitting cross-legged, balanced
   on a Joyboard, resembling a meditating guru.  Sadly, the joke
   was removed in AmigaOS 2.04.

   The {Jargon File} claimed that a {guru} event had to be
   followed by a {Vulcan nerve pinch} but, according to a
   correspondent, a mouse click was enough to start a reboot.

   (2002-06-25)