Mark.
they put in a counter, so that the reboot message wouldn't happen until after you had already reached 256 non-maskable interrupts.
Why not ten billion?
Reminds me of the time I used a Mac to control the lighting in the Petronus Towers in Malaysia. This was using HC.
I was on site and suspected they would not make their last payment, which was due immediately.
I put a counter in the home stack that, after 30 starts, stopped cold and asked for a password. I instructed them to shut down and restart every day. On my return to the US, no payment was forthcoming. One month later I got a frantic call. Had a bank transfer that day.
Craig