head -c 32 /dev/socksys caused panic?

[a42n8k9 () REDROSE NET (A Fortunate K-9)]

Greets,

I was experimenting with different sources of random data when I ran the
following command "head -c 32 /dev/socksys" only to find my system go into
a complete panic, crash, and reboot.  I should note that I was logged in as
an ordinary user, and the system is Slackware 2.0.34.

Has anyone else heard of something like this?

Cheers,
        a42n8k9