How I Got My MSN Name
People often ask me “So what does Interlock mean?” Often I try to pass this off by saying, “It’s a complicated inside joke that only 3 people find funny.” This often gets them more interested and I have to fully explain the story. At which point I chuckle and they stare at me blankly. I’ve have a history of kinda odd internet aliases. Back in the day of BBS‘s and “Trade Wars” I was DeathBot. Then I got into IRC and everything went down hill.
I believe the first IRC network I joined was Dalnet. At the time they had a 6 character limit on nicknames. “DeathB” didn’t have the same ring to it, so I had to think of something fast. Turns out I had another trademark that I used for other purposes… at the time it seemed like a good idea to base a new nickname off that. So I did, “Bic” was born. At the time not alot of people were on the internet and Bic wasn’t taken 99.9% of the time. But two things happened. Everyone and their dog was on irc and I learned that the world was going to end in y2k because computers can’t count. I thought it was amusing at the time, so Bic2k was born. I’ve never had a nick collision since (with the exception of Heath the name stealer). I still actually use Bic2k in some places because I’m lazy and don’t want to type two extra characters.
So, that was more than 10 years ago. A long time to carry a nick for most people; but, all that changed two years ago. It all started in a high voltage lab for my summer session physics 110 class. I had two really sweet lab partners who were finishing up their engineering degrees. We were the goofy and disruptive bunch in the class, and typically finished labs quickly and with little error. Since they had some odd policy about making us stay the whole duration of the lab, we were often left with alot of spare time to further explore the finer points of physics. So back to the high voltage lab we were doing.
It’s often noted that science people have a weird sense of humor. I’m not sure what causes it, but I think it’s partly to blame on comics and anime. At any rate, our lab guy was fairly cool in this regard and liked amusing himself with somewhat cruel jokes. That day we got the only retro high voltage transformer in the class. Mostly to make our work difficult and prolong our lab. As two engineers and myself, a computer scientist attempt to figure out this transformer we discover the most surprising warning about the cable connectors: “You cannot defeat interlock”. I dunno how up to date you are on internet pop-culture, but that sure sounded like a “I set you up the bomb” moment to me. Now this is probably the point where your like, “WTF! I have no idea what your talking about.” Thats normal, so let me explain what that Engrish was trying to say.
Basically from the transformer were two terminals with special interlocking connectors. This was to prevent accidental disconnects while energized. This is a good thing, since that sort of thing is bound to cause a world of hurt for those near by with all that voltage trying to jump around from the terminal to the plug. Not to mention the fire hazard it would pose. So the warning was basically note to the user that you shouldn’t try to disengage the interlocking connectors while it’s on. It’s a poor English translation, but definitely amusing. So, this is the point where my lab partners and myself crack up with laughter. For the duration of the lab we probably annoyed every person in the room with repeated jokes about defeating interlock. It was this social bonding that inspired me to use the name Interlock.
Really, I think I’ve gone full circle. Since in this context, Interlock is obviously some unbeatable villain (see Comics); just like DeathBot. It’s unfortunate that most people don’t fully appreciate it’s meaning when used by me. When I frag some 13 year old online they probably just think, “Wow, that guy wants to interlock with me. How gay. He must be gay, therefor I’ll pwn him.” Probably explains why I get hunted down when I play online games with that name.
