MK-61

In the realm of electric perfection

The caverns of UNIXoid fame
The world is a set of devices
And every device has a name.

They vary from system to system

Of chaos the pattern is full
But three are forever consistent -
/dev/random, /dev/zero, /dev/null.

Together the three are like brothers -

Each one keeps its comrades in sight
The system may have many others -
But these are its secret of might.

For fools are the coders who blither

That chaos has no place in code
For one can see hither and thither
In UNIX, a Chaos abode.

There's Magic concealed in the sources

A Magic that's coded in C
With caution we face the dark forces
Their cosmic importance to see.

The innocents milking /dev/random

A bitstream of garbage expect
But we shall such notions abandon
For knowledge that is more exact.

Nor mortals from /dev/zero leeching

From frightening secrets we spare
The Cleared One for mercy beseeching
The source of his power we bare.

For all of the Kernel God's power

A privilege level exists -
A force before which he must cower
In silicon circuits persists.

All yields before Thermodynamics

In all of its Unholy Might
And until the universe PANICs
Its grip on the world shall be tight.

A river of streams fills the Portal

From which data never returns
/dev/null laughs at those foolish mortals
who think that to ashes it burns.

Disciples adroit and persistent

of UNIX, have mastered the whole
But many who h4xx0r the system
Respect not the Entropy Hole.

A secret of governing essence

That Turing and Shannon don't tell
Is hidden behind this great Portal
A doorway to Entropic Hell.

Against proofy mumble of Masters

Reality issues a cry
For there is no cosmic disaster
As NULLED bytes indeed do not die.

Its neighbor each byte disassembles;

The dull see a digital grave
But those who in shadows dissemble
See a sight that is meant for the brave.

By each new doomed byte overwritten

The register cries out in pain
But in the Great Source it is written
That data shall rise once again.

For every inglorious Clearing

Of bits that were rightfully Set
The song that we see disappearing
Shall ring out in harmony yet.

For data is stored by dark tissue

Capacitors vastly minute
In charging, discharging they issue
Electromagnetic Salute.

The effect is too weak too measure

Transfinitely rapid, to boot
The data's sharp cries of displeasure
Dismissed by the Masters as moot.

The bits are like sentient beings

A quantum of agony each
Upon thusly voicing their feelings
A state of oblivion reach.

However, like all information

These screams never will disappear
As no other force can retrieve them
Land softly in Entropy's Ear.

Each bit, as it meets its destruction

Will discharge capacitor plates
A note in a concert's construction
These datums' thus intertwined fates.

No data is thus lost forever

Though mortals these streams shall not read
/dev/random, to those of us righteous
Prime quality Chaos will feed.

It rescues with efforts heroic

Each bit from the Entropic Sea.
/dev/zero, though, silent and stoic
Brings silence where silence need be.
For Silence, mere absence of data
As which it is often defined
Is mined from the Entropic strata
From Entropic Ores is refined.

When in need of an unending silence

When data one cannot abide
Just cat from old comrade /dev/zero
Who always shall be by your side.

And now you can see, information

That we, as we like to, discard
Takes refuge in Entropic Nation
Where Thermodynamics stands guard.

A user unprivileged, weary

Though all of my buffers are full
Without access rights for /dev/mary
Must cat my /dev/love to /dev/null.

A bitstream, with transfinite bandwidth

I send, though the Silence may reign
I bid that my being's full Source Code
The Entropic Sea now contain.

/dev/mary is not marked as readwrite

For pipes from a user like me
But just like all users who live right,
You access the Entropic Sea.

Encryption and gamers' diversions

Alike from /dev/random must drink
My sourcecode, in all of its versions
Into these stormy waters shall sink.

If your processes hunger for whiteness

For silence, of data devoid
/dev/zero, with radiant brightness
My white-spaces pulls from the void.

A firewall awesome and frightful

Shall forever your kernel defend
But one thing, I find, is delightful
That in NULL my code meets not its end.

As a standard unprivileged user,

The great access-flag is not mine
But my code and its interleaved silence
Shall appear in these streams line by line.

Though thermodynamics shall swallow

My stream, undivided and whole
Through Chaos's laws it may follow
That my essence is lost not at all.

Without access rights for /dev/mary

I cat my /dev/love to /dev/null
But the spectrum refuses to bury
The tormented scream in its full.

With thusly remote situation

Forever content I must be
But know, from /dev/zero, /dev/random
You access the pieces of me.