Home » Public Forums » GMCnet » non-GMC: If It Ain't Broke, Don't Fix It: Ancient Computers in Use Today
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| Re: non-GMC: If It Ain't Broke, Don't Fix It: Ancient Computers in Use Today [message #204988 is a reply to message #204984] |
Wed, 17 April 2013 17:48   |
Ken Burton
Messages: 10030
Registered: January 2004
Location: Hebron, Indiana
Karma: 10
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I repaired more of those in my past that I can count. I also worked on some earlier vintage ones like 024, 026, 056, and 650's (they had vacuum tubes).
I still have some 029 parts around in my basement. I wish I had stocked up on those wire contact relays when I had the chance. I also still have a few boxes of 80 column cards and a card gauge.
Ken Burton - N9KB
76 Palm Beach
Hebron, Indiana
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| Re: [GMCnet] non-GMC: If It Ain't Broke, Don't Fix It: Ancient Computers in Use Today [message #204991 is a reply to message #204988] |
Wed, 17 April 2013 18:24 |
Ronald Pottol
Messages: 505
Registered: September 2012
Location: Redwood City, California
Karma: -2
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And at a former McDonalds, in a former Navy Air Station, a group of people
are recovering all the data from old NASA 9 track tapes from the various
moon missions.
On Wed, Apr 17, 2013 at 3:48 PM, Ken Burton <n9cv@comcast.net> wrote:
>
>
> I repaired more of those in my past that I can count. I also worked on
> some earlier vintage ones like 024, 026, 056, and 650's (they had vacuum
> tubes).
>
> I still have some 029 parts around in my basement. I wish I had stocked
> up on those wire contact relays when I had the chance. I also still have a
> few boxes of 80 column cards and a card gauge.
> --
> Ken Burton - N9KB
> 76 Palm Beach
> Hebron, Indiana
> _______________________________________________
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--
Plato seems wrong to me today.
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1973 26' GM outfitted
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| Re: non-GMC: If It Ain't Broke, Don't Fix It: Ancient Computers in Use Today [message #204995 is a reply to message #204984] |
Wed, 17 April 2013 18:38 |
rcjordan
Messages: 1913
Registered: October 2012
Location: Elizabeth City, North Car...
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I'm probably the only guy here who has been part of a 5-man team that replaced the crankshaft in a 'computer.' It was such a big job that the CEs had that 402 crank mounted and hung it in the Norfolk office.
SOLD 77 Royale Coachmen Side Dry Bath
76 Birchaven Coachmen Side Wet Bath
76 Eleganza
Elizabeth City, NC
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| Re: non-GMC: If It Ain't Broke, Don't Fix It: Ancient Computers in Use Today [message #204998 is a reply to message #204984] |
Wed, 17 April 2013 18:53 |
kingd
Messages: 592
Registered: June 2004
Karma: 2
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Ken, my families history with IBM goes back to 1948. I started with IBM in 1967. I have a card unjamming tool that still comes in handy for various jobs not related to 80 column cards, like opening locked door that aren't using dead bolts or drop locks !!! Surprising how many pople lock themselves out by
closing and locking the door with their keys in the house.
DAVE KING
lurker, wannabe
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
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| Re: non-GMC: If It Ain't Broke, Don't Fix It: Ancient Computers in Use Today [message #205019 is a reply to message #204998] |
Wed, 17 April 2013 21:28 |
Ken Burton
Messages: 10030
Registered: January 2004
Location: Hebron, Indiana
Karma: 10
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That card unjamming tool was called a card saw. I never had to actually saw one out but it was a good tool for removing jammed cards.
I still have an 082 chute blade that I used as a straight edge.
My wife has a 1401 or 2821 core array. She used it to explain how core storage worked when she was teaching new IBM CEs.
Ken Burton - N9KB
76 Palm Beach
Hebron, Indiana
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| Re: [GMCnet] non-GMC: If It Ain't Broke, Don't Fix It: Ancient Computers in Use Today [message #205058 is a reply to message #204984] |
Thu, 18 April 2013 08:31 |
Kudzu
Messages: 377
Registered: November 2011
Location: Marshville, NC
Karma: 0
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Well, I'm not as old as you guys having only started out in the 80s. But
I did use a PDP-11 back in university. Aligned the magnetic heads on 9
track tapes, head replacement on CDC disk drives (minimum 8 hour job),
repair old dot-matrix printers, it goes on...
I did see on old IBM in a warehouse that looked like it was water cooled.
There is a huge business for repairing and replacing those old
computers. My old company (Prime Computer) went belly up in the 90s and
guys I know bought up all the old hardware at auction. They make a good
living keeping the old systems running. Many are kept static as it is
cheaper to maintain than re-write all the code and databases. But one
day, they'll have to pay the piper.
PS We used to make p0rn cartoons on the computer cards back in school.
Dan in NC
1976 Eleganza II
On 4/17/2013 6:26 PM, RC Jordan wrote:
>
> First up: IBM 402 tab shop still in operation. 029's of coarse, and a broken 514. Man, I ain't heard "summary card" in a long time.
>
> http://www.pcworld.com/article/249951/if_it_aint_broke_dont_fix_it_ancient_computers_in_use_today.html
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1976 Eleganza II
1996 Chevy Impala SS
1999 Kawasaki Vulcan Nomad
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| Re: non-GMC: If It Ain't Broke, Don't Fix It: Ancient Computers in Use Today [message #205134 is a reply to message #205068] |
Thu, 18 April 2013 18:35 |
Ken Burton
Messages: 10030
Registered: January 2004
Location: Hebron, Indiana
Karma: 10
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Not nearly so old, but I wrote a program running on a DOS 3.? PC that interrogates an FAA/MWS weather reporting system every 15 minutes when the airport is unattended. (10PM to 6AM weekdays and 7PM to 7AM weekends) It specifically checks for snow reports, temperature, and winds. It accumulates them and when the snow exceeds a given threshold it pages out employees to come to work and plow snow. That thing is still running to this day and the PC runs continuously from November to April every year. I forgot all about it until I was doing some Local Area Network Work there and asked the airport manager what that machine was being used for. He reminded me that I had installed it years ago. He also has some old Novell servers installed on some 6 MHZ PCATs that I sold him. I can not remember how long ago that was but they still run IPX. I still have both IPX and IP running on that LAN.
Ken Burton - N9KB
76 Palm Beach
Hebron, Indiana
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| Re: non-GMC: If It Ain't Broke, Don't Fix It: Ancient Computers in Use Today [message #205162 is a reply to message #205134] |
Thu, 18 April 2013 20:40 |
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mike miller
Messages: 3576
Registered: February 2004
Location: Hillsboro, Oregon
Karma: 0
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| Ken Burton wrote on Thu, 18 April 2013 16:35 |
... That thing is still running to this day and the PC runs continuously from November to April every year. I forgot all about it until...
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If it does what you need it to do, it is not obsolete.
Mike Miller -- Hillsboro, OR -- on the Black list
(#2)`78 23' Birchaven Rear Bath -- (#3)`77 23' Birchaven Side Bath
More Sidekicks than GMC's and a late model Malibu called 'Boo'
http://m000035.blogspot.com
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| Re: [GMCnet] non-GMC: If It Ain't Broke, Don't Fix It: Ancient Computers in Use Today [message #205174 is a reply to message #205163] |
Thu, 18 April 2013 21:37 |
Ken Burton
Messages: 10030
Registered: January 2004
Location: Hebron, Indiana
Karma: 10
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That is what bothers me. If he ever calls me to fix it, I do not remember what I did when I made it. I remember it was an exercise in a language I knew nothing about.
We now also have remote controlled online IP cameras looking at the snow. They coudl be used standalone but with them you have to get up and go look. The older system is automatic and you can sleep. What they do today is if they get paged, they go online and look at the snow before going to the airport to plow. The decision point is 1". Anything over that they get out the plows, huge truck mounted air blowers, and broom trucks.
Pilots are worse than Chicago drivers. They expect absolutely clean runways all the time. You can not say to them to slow down if the snow gets bad. You also can not use salt on runways as it destroys aluminum airplanes.
Come to think of it, you also can not tell Chicago drivers to slow down when it snows.
Ken Burton - N9KB
76 Palm Beach
Hebron, Indiana
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| Re: [GMCnet] non-GMC: If It Ain't Broke, Don't Fix It: Ancient Computers in Use Today [message #205190 is a reply to message #205174] |
Fri, 19 April 2013 02:13 |
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mike miller
Messages: 3576
Registered: February 2004
Location: Hillsboro, Oregon
Karma: 0
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| Ken Burton wrote on Thu, 18 April 2013 19:37 |
That is what bothers me. If he ever calls me to fix it, I do not remember what I did when I made it. I remember it was an exercise in a language I knew nothing about. ...
...
Pilots are worse than Chicago drivers. They expect absolutely clean runways all the time. You can not say to them to slow down if the snow gets bad. ...
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While I haven't programmed in quite some time, I learned a trick...
Start your programing with no code, just notes and comments on what the program is going to do. After that, write the code to actually do "it" and then update the notes to match. With good notes and comments your code is far more maintainable for the next guy trying to figure it out... it quite likely could be YOU!
Pilots are like Chicago drivers.. they both like to fly!
Mike Miller -- Hillsboro, OR -- on the Black list
(#2)`78 23' Birchaven Rear Bath -- (#3)`77 23' Birchaven Side Bath
More Sidekicks than GMC's and a late model Malibu called 'Boo'
http://m000035.blogspot.com
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| Re: non-GMC: If It Ain't Broke, Don't Fix It: Ancient Computers in Use Today [message #205315 is a reply to message #204984] |
Sat, 20 April 2013 08:45 |
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RF_Burns
Messages: 2277
Registered: June 2008
Location: S. Ontario, Canada
Karma: 3
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Senior Member |
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I still use a DOS based accounting system. Back in 1984 I bought an accounting system called TAS. It included the C like source code for the relational data base engine it was written around.
Since 1989 it has been running under DR-DOS and was Y2K compatible since the beginning. I changed alot of code to make it Canadian. Also wrote a POS for it and alot of other programs for our business (Work Orders, Rentals, Quotation and Estimation, Scheduling).
I can go away for vacation and when I return its still humming away with no issues. All the Windows computers on the other hand.. well you know its about as reliable as a snowmobile... no wait, snowmobiles are now much more reliable than windows.
Trouble is trying to keep hardware going that will run it. It won't run on anything newer than XP due to network and file handling issues.
There is actually a Windoze version of the TAS engine, but the time involved in porting the DOS to Windows version is daunting.
Bruce Hislop
ON Canada
77PB, 455 Dick P. rebuilt, DynamicEFI EBL EFI & ESC.
1 ton front end
http://www.gmcmhphotos.com/photos/showphoto.php?photo=29001
My Staff says I never listen to them, or something like that
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