Back then I had an old SPARCstation as a second computer with Debian, running INN (a Usenet news server) and Exim (mail server), both fed by UUCP over TCP.
That was long after UUCP was used seriously, but a few hobbyists still used it for fun.
Batches arrived, were decompressed and fed into Exim and INN.
That day (and the following days), batches were not decompressed before the next ones arrived. System load was through the roof.
I had never implemented or even thought about real load handling and queuing, because why should I? My few hundred kilobytes (or maybe a megabyte?) of mails and news every half hour were decompressed pretty much instantly. Until that day.
I was working for a small non-profit focused on youth voting. I was working out of the Americorps/CityYear office in Philly that morning. My dad was the Director of IT for a major University.
It was pretty early in the morning when it hit. And it hit fast. I received I Love You emails, but knew something was up. Called my dad and shit was hitting the fan there and he gave me a heads up what was happening. While I was on the phone with him, the office I was in started having alot of commotion as it started going through their inboxes.
I don't remember there being much actual damage, but it was stunning how fast and widespread it was. It's one of those days you look back on and remember as a day the internet changed.
That was long after UUCP was used seriously, but a few hobbyists still used it for fun.
Batches arrived, were decompressed and fed into Exim and INN.
That day (and the following days), batches were not decompressed before the next ones arrived. System load was through the roof.
I had never implemented or even thought about real load handling and queuing, because why should I? My few hundred kilobytes (or maybe a megabyte?) of mails and news every half hour were decompressed pretty much instantly. Until that day.