tractor feeders| Warning, DEC War Story...

From: will emerson <wpe_at_interserv.com>
Date: Tue Apr 14 21:20:18 1998

As an operator trainee at the time, I remember a problem used to happen when
a
programmer would inadvertantly spool a "binary file" to a lineprinter.. We
had
an individual, in the Maynard (Ma. DEC), at one point in time, spool a job
to
the printer that hung off the DECsystem 1090 (serious tractor feeds on that
unit!) that took a day and a half, and consumed 24 boxes of "greenbar" (8
1/2 X 14") paper... Myself, and a co-worker, boxed this stuff up, loaded it
on a flatbed dolly, and delivered the entire mess, labeled "1 of 24, 2 of
24, 3 of 24" etc. to this individuals office (while they were out on
"break").... Shortly afterward, this person's cost center manager called,
demanding to know why all of this paper had been delivered, and insisting
that
his cost center wasn't going to pay for it, and that it must be removed
_immediatly_!
     Our cost center manager calmly informed him that, 1, it was _his_
programmer
that queued it to print, and it wasn't up to us to censor print jobs, 2. oh.
yes, his
cost center _would_ pay for it, and 3. His cost center now owned the 24
boxes
of paper, and it was _his_ problem, as to what to do with it... Allison, you
may
have known some of the participants, they used to reside on ML3-6... Sorry
if
I digressed too far off topic...

                                                                        Will
Received on Tue Apr 14 1998 - 21:20:18 BST