Well, I guess I wasn't a real programmer, because I only had to walk uphill one way through the snow to see if the computer was still up. Which is why I actually did whistle at 110--whenever the lights would flicker in my girlfriend's dorm room while we were smooching, I would call up the modem and whistle 110 at it, and if it warbled back, I knew the computer was still up, and I didn't have to trudge uphill through the snow. Actually, this was in Seattle, so rain was much more likely...
And no, you can't blackmail me with that story, because, Gentle Reader, I married her. (The girl, that is.)
