On Tue, 12 May 2009 07:53:33 UTC, Huge
wrote:

On 2009-05-11, Bob Eager wrote:

Next task...getting the PDP-11 (a real one) running...

Pity you didn't speak up *before* I gave my 11/23+ away.

Oh well, this one is a nice challenge...out of a feed mill in Norfolk!

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On 12 May 2009 09:37:19 GMT, "Bob Eager" had this
to say:

On Tue, 12 May 2009 07:53:33 UTC, Huge
wrote:

On 2009-05-11, Bob Eager wrote:

Next task...getting the PDP-11 (a real one) running...

Pity you didn't speak up *before* I gave my 11/23+ away.

Oh well, this one is a nice challenge...out of a feed mill in Norfolk!

What - they have computers in Norfolk now?

:-)

--
Frank Erskine

In article ,
Huge writes:
I spent several years installing them in crisp factories - likely the vilest
environment a computer was ever found in; heat, grease, potato peelings... At
one point DEC refused to maintain one machine because of the temperatures in
the "computer room", whuch was a plywood shed on the factory floor.

If you want vile environments, try installing a computer
next to the track of a London Underground platform.
They had to use GEC's mini computers back in the '70's and
'80's as they were the only systems they could find back
then which didn't crash each time a train pulled out of
the station.

London Underground had some of their programmers in an
office about 3' above the train roofs at Baker Street
station. As the train below pulled out of the station,
the images on the terminal screens would roll over
sideways. Quite bizzare if you were a visitor and not
used to seeing this.

Lots of the GEC machines went into all types of Steel
plants too, and many of them didn't have a computer
room to put them in.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

"Andrew Gabriel" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Huge writes:
I spent several years installing them in crisp factories - likely the
vilest
environment a computer was ever found in; heat, grease, potato
peelings... At
one point DEC refused to maintain one machine because of the temperatures
in
the "computer room", whuch was a plywood shed on the factory floor.

If you want vile environments, try installing a computer
next to the track of a London Underground platform.
They had to use GEC's mini computers back in the '70's and
'80's as they were the only systems they could find back
then which didn't crash each time a train pulled out of
the station.

London Underground had some of their programmers in an
office about 3' above the train roofs at Baker Street
station. As the train below pulled out of the station,
the images on the terminal screens would roll over
sideways. Quite bizzare if you were a visitor and not
used to seeing this.

Lots of the GEC machines went into all types of Steel
plants too, and many of them didn't have a computer
room to put them in.


Indeed - I visited such a one in the British Steel Stainless Steel smelting
plant in Sheffield many years ago. Also used for controlling particle
accelerators.


--
Bob Mannix
(Sometime BABBAGE programmer and GEC minicomputer system manager)
(anti-spam is as easy as 1-2-3 - not) --

Tim S wrote:
Bob Eager coughed up some electrons that declared:

On Mon, 11 May 2009 21:27:17 UTC, Tim S wrote:

I was at York Uni late 80's, (Reading was a temp job mid degree).
Was Dave Atkin still there in the computer service? He and I worked
together as postgrads.

Yes indeed. He was the Systems Manager. Don't know where he is now. Very
smart bloke.

We could mail John Murdie and ask - last time I spoke to him he was
still there...

Small world isn't it!

Andy

In article ,
Frank Erskine wrote:
On 12 May 2009 09:37:19 GMT, "Bob Eager" had this
to say:

Oh well, this one is a nice challenge...out of a feed mill in Norfolk!

What - they have computers in Norfolk now?

Not any more - it's in bobs house now

Darren

On Tue, 12 May 2009 20:45:01 UTC, (dmc) wrote:

In article ,
Frank Erskine wrote:
On 12 May 2009 09:37:19 GMT, "Bob Eager" had this
to say:

Oh well, this one is a nice challenge...out of a feed mill in Norfolk!

What - they have computers in Norfolk now?

Not any more - it's in bobs house now

Once was given an IBM PS/2 server that had come from an agricultural
feed merchant - all the PSU vents were choked with some kind of dry
food!


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