SysRq

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“Someday... Someday I'll figure out what it does and press that button”

~ The General Population on SysRq Button

For those without comedic tastes, the so-called experts at Wikipedia have an article about SysRq.

The SysRq button is a mysterious button located on many keyboards, designed to confuse, confuddle, irritate and genuinely piss-off the user of the keyboard. No known use for it has yet been discovered, despite its presence on nearly every keyboard in the world. Some say it has something to do with raising elephants being so utterly boring. However it has been known to cause such a thing as amusement when forcibly ripped off the keyboard, and super glued to your sleeping friend's forehead.

For those who are too lazy to look at their keyboard to find the button

[edit] Origins

It is believed that the SysRq button originated in the Great Keyboard Depression of 1995. Keyboard sales were dropping, and so the manufacturers of keyboards needed a cruel and cheap hoax to get people to buy more. After testing and deliberating, the SysRq button was born, aggravating the user of the keyboard enough to destroy their keyboards and buy new ones. This ended the keyboard depression, however it also pretty much pissed everybody off.

This could be your friend!

[edit] Side Effects

Use of the SysRq button has been known to cause side effects

Agitation
Aggravation
Vomiting
Destroyed Keyboard
Destroyed Computer
Pissed off friend
Painful Urination
Dizziness
Blindness
More Agitation
Superpowers
Time Paradoxes
Death (Don't ask)
Rape

[edit] Rumors

Many people believe that the SysRq button and the Print Screen button are actually the same key. This is utter nonsense. They are clearly different keys. The Print Screen key is the one located directly above the SysRq button. You should be able to locate it on the above diagram map. If you are unable to do so then you obviously suck at keyboards and I hope you are typing with some other device (Such as a stapler, or pencil sharpener).
Some believe that SysRq is two words, abreviated, like- however, these rumors have been shown to be completed false, as evidenced in the Logitec 2200d Keyboard Users Manual (2004) which clearly states 'SysRq is a single word, you goobers' (page 34, immediately below the bold-type line 'Press Alt-F4 repeatedly to fix your computer').
SysRq was believed (upon it's conception) to end processes running on the Operating System's main thread, due to it's being the most 'complicated' key on the keyboard- and this explaination being the only one corporate IT departments could come up with for it's existence. However- if you believe anything IT tells you, you've more problems than them (egads!).
The CIA caused the fiasco known as 'The Bay of Pigs' by inadvertanty holding down the SysRq key for the duration of the mission.
The SysRq button was added by Indian electrical technicians to confuse users of english QWERTY keyboards, as a social protest of outsourcing, before realizing there-in lay the source of their income.
Another (although far less prevelent) rumor is that the button is synonomous to the Break button (which is also rumored to be the same as the Pause button), but designers could not bear to remove buttons from the keyboard, so kept them- just in case some bit of software made use of one (but not the other) key(s).

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