The Weenie Museums are a small campus of loving parody museums devoted to computing culture. This site, blinkenlights.com, is the campus homepage and the neutral ground between the Unix Wing and the Linux Wing — Switzerland with more toggle switches.
The hardware lives here: front panels, toggle switches, and machines older than the arguments about them. Nobody argues about kernels in Blinkenlights Hall — only about which front panel blinked prettiest.
The word comes from the most famous warning sign in computing — the pseudo-German notice that hung (in spirit, if not in brass) in computer rooms for decades, and on the original blinkenlights.com. It reads, in full:
ACHTUNG!
Alles touristen und non-technischen lookenpeepers!
Das computermachine ist nicht für der gefingerpoken und mittengraben! Oderwise ist easy to schnappen der springenwerk, blowenfusen und poppencorken mit spitzensparken.
Ist nicht für gewerken bei das dumpkopfen. Das rubbernecken sightseeren keepen das hands in das pockets.
Relaxen und watchen das blinkenlights.
A staple of hacker folklore for over half a century, in countless variants — this is the classic form. Loosely: tourists and non-technical looky-loos, keep your hands in your pockets, and enjoy the blinking lights.