Text 5724, 93 rader
Skriven 2010-03-07 17:03:26 av Bob Ackley (1:300/3)
   Kommentar till text 5701 av Bo Simonsen (2:236/100.0)
Ärende: Windows Update Fix
==========================
Replying to a message of Bo Simonsen to Bob Ackley:

 BA>>>> And SAC had an IBM service contract, which means that if
 BA>>>> the machine broke IBM would fix it - even if it had to
 BA>>>> manufacture the part(s) to do it.
 BA>> 
 BS>>> I never heard of that company.
 BA>> 
 BA>> SAC = Strategic Air Command, headquartered at Offutt AFB,
 BA>> Nebraska. It was reorganized out of existence probably 20
 BA>> years ago and replaced with the "Air Combat Command," also
 BA>> headquartered at Offutt.  Both are subdivisions of the US
 BA>> AIr Force.

 BS> Ah I see. and you worked there?

Yes, in several different capacities over a period of 11.5 years.  I was
on active duty in the USAF, completed my 20 years (actually about 20
years, six months, 11 days, 13 hours and 20 minutes <g>) and retired here
effective December 1, 1983.

 BA>>>> You've probably never seen a removeable disk pack, but we
 BA>>>> used them a lot.
 BA>> 
 BS>>> You're right :)
 BA>> 
 BA>> There must be a computer museum of some sort near you that
 BA>> has one or more.  You should have seen the old fixed disks
 BA>> we had, box about the size of a 4 drawer filing cabinet
 BA>> but a bit deeper.  Contained *two* platters about 3 feet
 BA>> in diameter and an array of fixed read/write heads on both
 BA>> sides of each platter.  As media librarian I had custody
 BA>> of a small stack - maybe ten - used platters that had been
 BA>> replaced, suckers were heavy at maybe 20 lbs each.

 BS> I heard of that some kind of computer museum was created in
 BS> DK, however it think there is just one. I don't think there
 BS> are many computer museums here in Europe.

 BS>>> OS/2 would have been, that's for sure. Eventhough I've
 BS>>> never been running OS/2, I think that the fundamental
 BS>>> architecture in OS/2 is much better than Windows. My
 BS>>> biggest problem about Windows is that it's messy. It
 BS>>> seems like the GUI, Drivers, Programs, etc. is all in one
 BS>>> big mess..

 BA>> This particular system is running OS/2 version 4.0 (no
 BA>> fixpacks). I've been using OS/2 since 1995, and I have
 BA>> versions 1.2, 1.3, 2.0, 2.11, 3.0, 4.0, 4.51 and 4.52
 BA>> here, plus eCS 1.2R, installed on various machines.  What
 BA>> I don't have (and would very much like to have) is OS/2
 BA>> Warp Connect (which is an enhanced edition of OS/2 version
 BA>> 3.0).

 BS> Ah, I think you can find it on ebay or so. And I guess you
 BS> have no problems with regards to stability?

Oh, I've managed to lock up the desktop a few times, but the only system
crashes have been due to power failures or hardware failures.  I haven't
managed to lock up the desktop on any of the machines for years (but then
I haven't been trying <g>).

FWIW I have never seen and in fact never *heard of* an IBM mainframe OS
crashing absent an underlying hardware problem or a power failure.  At my
last employer one night (I worked nights, usually all by myself) a nearby
lightning strike took out the commercial power line *and* the company's big
UPS (really fried that thing - when the repair tech pulled the cover and looked
inside he said "Oh, my!" - this is NOT a good sign <g>), which resulted in a
sudden stop of everything in the computer room (it really gets quiet in there
when that happens <g>; dark, too, our emergency light was on the big UPS
that got fried).  We didn't have to do anything special to get it back up and
running after they fixed the UPS, the IBM software recovered everything and
since *I* (not the company) had a policy of going idle (allowing running jobs
to complete and not starting new ones) when thunderstorms were nearby (just
in case... <g>) nothing significant was running anyway.

Y2K was a hoot.  On December 31, 1999, beginning at about 2330 various
managers and executives started wandering into the computer room to see
what was going to happen.  *Nothing* happened, the mainframe kicked over
to 0000 on 01/01/2000 without even a hiccup.  Note that *none* of those
characters could have done anything if it had crashed - they'd laid off the
company's only systems programmer a couple of months earlier and hadn't
replaced him (they never did, in fact - they got rid of the mainframe,
which is now sitting out in my storage building along with its HD array
and some other peripherals - all were U-Haul - iow 'get it out of here',
no charge).

Note - for those unaware, U-Haul is the name of a nationwide US company
that rents various types and sizes of automobile (or pickup truck) trailers,
they also rent small (up to about 30' long) straight trucks with van bodies.

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 * Origin: Bob's Boneyard, Emerson, Iowa (1:300/3)