Favorite Head Crash | reply somewhat Off Topic

From: Will Emerson <wpe101_at_banet.net>
Date: Sat Nov 14 19:57:21 1998

I remember the "lead vest" story! I got a surprise introduction to
a "feature" on the "gandalf" switch adjacent to the computer room
on 4-4 one evening.. I was sitting at the op's desk, writing something
in the log book, production and backups humming along on the KL10-90
and th' 2060, when all of a sudden, I hear someone talking. Wait a
minute, I'm _all_ _alone_, in a _locked_ computer room.. I start
looking around.. Nobody... Hear the voice again.. Now I'm starting
to give some credibility to the rumors of the Mill being haunted...
Turned out to be the switch calling in a trouble report to one of the
support people, with the speaker having been left on..

                                         Will


Allison J Parent wrote:
>
> < of humorous stories of misadventures involving classic equipment..
> < At DEC, we had loads of them.. Hey Allison, I bet you've got a few!
>
> I didn't live in the field so they are few. The best ones I can't repeat
> as they can from product safety. Suffice to say that the words it can
> hurt you are about as meaningfull to a three year old as some field
> engineers. Though the woman that wanted a lead vest to work on a laser
> printer due to "radiation" was always a good laugh.
>
> My favorite, was CSSE support room with mostly dead out of rev systems.
> Of course we had the best (cheap management) so our 11/70 had three
> RM03s two in use... the third for backup. Why? It had a bad spindle
> bearing as was too loud to use continuosly!
>
> I supported the roll out of the LPS40 40ppm network laser printer.
> We had a site in utah that had a printing defect and I was sent
> to see what the story was. Never got to see it... the night I arrive
> the building had a water main burst on the top floor causing a collapse
> to the floor below it crushing the printer. The MicroVAXII in the bottom
> was unscathed!
>
> I remember warstories and a few other sites... ;)
>
> Allison
Received on Sat Nov 14 1998 - 19:57:21 GMT