Once upon a time a computer programmer designed a miraculous operating system and put it into a computer. He called it the Rocket Science Computer. No other computer on earth could come close to its capabilities.

The designer wrote an instruction book for this special computer, which said simply:
- Use only authorized software.
- Don’t change the default settings or preferences.
- Do what I tell you and all the powers and capabilities of the Rocket Science Computer are yours.

“Wow,” people thought, “I’m gonna buy me a Rocket Science Computer.” People like having the best available.

Folks started out being very productive with this wonderful computer. They used it to help a lot of people. It could do any job they wanted it to do.

Some people, who didn’t care to learn how to do the really hard stuff, just wanted to do regular stuff. It worked fine. You could get a lot of free software for the regular stuff. But when they tried to run certain games or software, they would get error messages.

That was frustrating. But worse, when they tried to go back to doing the great work they were doing, they were unable. They could only do stuff like play games, write email, make lists, waste time, and such. Now, they were really upset.

One guy called the designer and said, “Hey, the computer’s not working right.”

The designer asked what the matter was, and he told him.

“Oh,” the designer said, “Some of that software you got is unauthorized.”

“So?” he exclaimed.

“Well,” he instructed, "you’ve got to remove the unauthorized software and reboot the Rocket Science Computer. This will bring all the settings back to the original state.”

“Oh, all right,” he whined. So he started to remove the software when he felt a little miffed. He thought, “I bet the designer could change the settings if he wanted to.”

He had gotten used to using the Rocket Science Computer for stuff like playing games, e-mailing, making lists, wasting time, and such. So, he decided not to remove it. Actually, some of the unauthorized software was so saucy and fun he kept it hidden.

Turns out a number of co-workers had similar ‘problems’ with their Rocket Science Computers. In time, they had gotten so used to just playing games, emailing, making lists, wasting time, and such, that they didn’t miss the super-duper calculus stuff. Its astounding capabilities rarely even entered their minds. They reduced the name Rocket Science Computer to an acronym: RSC.

Weird thing was that once in a while someone would try to do some great and hard stuff with the RSC. They’d wonder, “Hey, isn’t this supposed to be able to do some really great and hard stuff?”

Then everyone would say, “Well, don’t you think that if the RSC could do such things, everybody would be doing them?” “Besides,” they’d say, “you may not be aware of this, but the guy who designed the so-called Rocket Science Computer only put the really dynamite stuff in the first few models. He thought if he could make a big marketing splash right out of the gate, he’d get a lot of attention and, of course, increase sales.”

Another rumor was floating around that the designer would program the Rocket Science stuff into specially selected computers. Because he was the only one with the secrets, he enjoyed equipping computers with this power, randomly. That way no one was ever really sure if their computer had it or not. They say he got a kick out of it when people called him to tell him they stumbled onto this incredible power in their computers, and wondered why it was there, and where it had come from.

The designer of the Rocket Science Computer didn’t like to hear the rumors and comments that circulated. But, having nothing to add to his original instruction book, he just let people think whatever they wanted.

Some time later a slick legal shark stole the trademark. He sold Rocket Science Computers to the masses. It was a stripped-down version. But people loved it. It was cheap, and you could still do stuff like play games, write email, make lists, waste time, and such. And people rarely spoke of ‘unauthorized’ software.

Any and everywhere you could overhear folks’ conversations about the marvels of computers. How advanced man has become, and how the Rocket Science Computer proves it. And, can you just imagine what he’ll think up next?

Last I heard, Tic-Tac-Toe was all the rage.