Classic Computer Rescue - A Story from Peoria

From: Daniel A. Seagraves <dseagrav_at_bsdserver.tek-star.net>
Date: Mon Aug 4 14:57:11 1997

> The Great Galesburg, Illinois Rescue
The other side of the story. (We were the peoria guys!)

Saturday, August 2, 1997 - 8:00

We overslept because Jeff can't set an alarm. But only by 20 minutes.
We made it to work, stole my boss's van, and off we went! Jeff brought
his soon-to-be-girlfriend, and they left in my car. (A little Chevy
Sprint) I took my boss's van. We left at about 10:45, after killing some
time at work.

This van is great. Everything works fine, except the driver's side door
refuses to latch. We tied it closed with a bungee cord.

Saturday, etc etc etc - 11:45

I show up at the the pickup place. We lost jeff somewhere, he arrives 20
minutes later. We take 20 minutes to find our contact. Then we actually
see how BIG this thing is!

The Things We Got:

2 PDP-11/44s. One in operational condition, the other is a spare CPU
without a power supply.
1 Letterwriter 100 Printing Terminal...
Loads of RSTS-E docs, backup tapes, diag tapes for the PDP on the drive
Brett got.
A set of 11/750 diags on DECTape IIs.
More serial cable than I can carry.
Loads of miscellaneous Unibus cards.
Various assorted PDP and VAX docs. Including a copy of the DEC
Peripherals Handbook
and various other things...

We had REAL fun fitting all this into the minivan and the car.
Poor car was about 5 degrees nose-high on the way home! Given a set of
wings, we could have taken off!

Saturday, about 5:00

We get to our workplace, hoping to get this thing fired up Sunday.
We later learn how foolish this is!
Almost remove my fingers trying to get the double-cabnet 44 out of the
van!

Sunday, All day.
Various unloading. Jeff succeeds in dropping the double-cabinet 11 on his
foot, sideways. He smashed it up pretty well. The 11 survived. Found
out the smaller 11 has no PS, and I dropped the power key inside of it.
Then found out I don't have a hex key! Ended up unlatching it with a
screwdriver. This was fun. Got the 11 powered up, but haven't gotten it
booted yet. Terminal problem.

Monday - 9:00
Boss shows up. Complains soon as he sees it. Looks like the big 11 gets
to live in a storage shed for awhile! And after he gave us permission to
put a computer here!
Oh well. Looks like booting it will take a little longer than I
thought...

We had fun anyway. (Even Jeff)
Received on Mon Aug 04 1997 - 14:57:11 BST