From: michaelmossey@yahoo.com (Michael Mossey)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books.tolkien
Subject: moria
Date: 9 Aug 2002 17:52:59 -0700
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Now I remember where I kept those data files.  That old Sun, "moria"
we called it.  Gosh, I hadn't logged on there in ages.

"Come on, Bob" I said to my boss, Mr. Bob Rormir.  "We're going to get
that data back."

In a dusty corner of the computer room lurked an old monitor, sitting
above a gray keyboard and mouse.  The screen was dark.

"But Mike, that computer must be broken.  There's no image on the
monitor."

I was already muttering to myself and passing my hand over the mouse.
Faintly at first, an image appeared on the screen.  I asked Bob to
turn the lights out.  The image was clearer --- we could make out the
login screen.  "Type the password and press enter," it told us.

I explained to Bob that under proper lighting conditions, this
monitor's image could be seen.  "Now it's just a matter of typing the
right password."

"And surely you know what it is, do you not?" asked Bob.

"Why, no!" I replied.

"Then what was the use of bringing us to this accursed spot, if you
knew not the password?" shouted Bob.

"If you need to know, I can still recall ten score of passwords I've
used before without searching in my mind.  As for the use of my deeds,
you can question them when they are proved useless."

I began trying passwords.  The ones based on physical keyboard
patterns.  Then the ones I derive from the name of the machine.  Then
the older ones, the ones that used my birthday and friend's names.
Nothing worked.

I peered closer at the monitor.  Faintly, hardly noticable quotation
marks came to my attention.  The login screen actually said "Type 'the
password' and press enter."

"That's it, Bob!  There's quotation marks around 'the password.'  This
isn't the login screen, it's just some dumb old joke screensaver."  I
typed the phrase "the password" and we were inside.

Unfortunately all the data had been eaten by some virus named
balrog.exe.