("Between 1950 and 1952, a bored weatherman, stationed north of Hudson Bay, left a monument that neither government nor time can eradicate. Using a bulldozer abandoned by the Air Force, he spent two years and great effort pushing boulders into a single word.

It can be seen from 10,000 feet, silhouetted against the snow. Government officials exchanged memos full of circumlocutions (no Latin equivalent exists) but failed to word an appropriation bill for the destruction of this cairn, that wouldn't alert the press and embarrass both Parliament and Party.

It stands today, a monument to human spirit. If life exists on other planets, this may be the first message received from us."\ITALIC) (-- The Realist, November, 1964.\BOLD) (Finger Commands) (COMMAND\DOUBLERUNNINGHEADS) (PARAMDEFLIST\COMMAND PARAMETERS) (Finger\\CMUIP_FING_1) (Fingercommand) Requests information of the local host or remote host. Both the remote and local processor must be connected via an internet network. (FINGER) ([user-name][@host-name]) (NONE) (LIST) The local machine must also have the CMU-OpenVMS/IP IPACP software correctly installed. The remote machine must allow incoming Finger connections. (user-name) The name of the user. This can be either the login name or, in many cases, the person's actual name. If no user is specified, then a list of users currently active on the machine is displayed. The parameter is converted to lowercase (in order to easily FINGER users on remote Unix systems). If you require uppercase, you may use quotation marks (") to preserve the case of the enclosed text. (host-name) The host-name may be either an internet address, an internet host name. The format of the internet address is four unsigned bytes separated by periods. For example "128.2.254.130". If no host-name is specified, then the current host is used. The Finger utility is a convenient way of obtaining information about other users. If the remote site and user are not specified, then a variety of information about the local machine is given. (FINGER_SYSINFO) shows the information about the system which is given and (FINGER_USERINFO) shows what user information is given upon receiving a FINGER request. (System Information\FINGER_SYSINFO) (2\13) (Date\The current date and time.) (Uptime\The number of days and hours, minutes, and seconds since the last reboot.) (Active Users\The list of users that are currently active including:) (User Information\FINGER_USERINFO) (KEEP) (2\13) (User\The user's login name.) (Name\The user's full name. This is taken from the owner field of the SYSUAF entry.) (Terminal\The terminal that the user is currently logged in on.) (State\The state of the user's process.) (Image\The current image that the user is executing.) (Location\The terminal location. The terminal location always comes up ``Unknown Server Down''. This is because the terminal location software is not running. The terminal location software is not distributed outside of CMU Computer Science because it is mostly a piece of crap.) (Fingerexamples) $ finger 29-DEC-1987 12:41:57.19 Uptime: 11 03:20:48 Load Ave 0.24 0.22 0.15 User Name Term State Image Location ------------------------------------------------------------------------- MOORE Dale Moore WTA2: HIB EMACSSHR Unknown Server Down MOORE Dale Moore WTA1: HIB PHOTO Unknown Server Down SYSTEM System Manager WTA3: LEF Unknown Server Down This example shows the response of the finger utility when neither the username nor the remote host is specified. A listing of active users on the current host is displayed. $ finger moore User Name Term State Image Location ------------------------------------------------------------------------- MOORE Dale Moore WTA2: HIB EMACSSHR Unknown Server Down MOORE Dale Moore WTA1: HIB PHOTO Unknown Server Down Dale Moore has no new mail. Mail is automatically forwarded to 'Dale.Moore@PS1.CS.CMU.EDU' Plan: Home: 842 Oranmore Pgh PA 15201 (412)784-8211 Stanton Heights Work: CMU CSD Pgh PA 15213 (412)268-7685 Wean 5119 When a name is specified, if the user is currently logged in, that information is shown. Additional information about the user is displayed, as well as the user's plan file. On VMS your plan file is ``SYS$LOGIN:PLAN.''. $ finger dale.moore@vega.fac [VEGA.FAC.CS.CMU.EDU] Login name: moore In real life: Dale Moore Directory: /usr1/moore Shell: /usr/cs/bin/csh Last login Tue Dec 29 08:49 on ttyP0 from 128.2.250.227 Mail is forwarded to Dale.Moore@PS1.CS.CMU.EDU Plan: Title: Research System Programmer (VAX/VMS) Office: Wean 5119 (412) 268-7685 Home: 842 Oranmore Pgh PA 15201 Mail Address: Probably Gripe If both a user and remote site are specified, the local machine sends the user string to the remote site's Finger server and displays the information returned. $ finger @sri-nic.arpa [SRI-NIC.ARPA] User Personal name Job Subsys Idle TTY Terminal location ??? 19 152 Net: CCT.BBN.COM 20 WHOIS 153 Net: AFGL-VAX.ARPA 23 FTPSRT 9 157 Net: SRI-NIC.ARPA ANONYMOU FTP Guest 17 FTPSRT 10 154 Net: CCT.BBN.COM 22 FTPSRT 5 156 Net: DGIS.ARPA FMC Fred Curiel 15 EXEC . 27 EK205 Operator Fishbowl x4664 16 SYSDPY 14 3 EK205 Operator Cage x4664 NICGUEST Query User 14 QUERY 32.151 Net: ANNEX2.UMD.EDU 25 QUERY 5.161 Net: RESTAN2.ARPA ZELLICH Rich Zellich 21 :BASE 2 155 Net: STLOUIS-MIL-TAC.ARPA If just the remote site is specified without any username, the remote site will display a list of currently active users.