Field Service/Installation

From: blstuart_at_bellsouth.net <(blstuart_at_bellsouth.net)>
Date: Tue Apr 13 19:50:21 1999

> FS droid: Well I had a flat tyre and I changed the other three before I
> found the one that was flat...
>
> With apologies to all the good DEC FS guys that I have worked with over the
> years (and no apology for the one or two who were worse than useless - the
> TE16 on fire being the best (worst?) experience).

First I want to prefix this by saying this wasn't a DEC FS problem
even though it involved a new PDP-11/44 installation.

Many years ago (during my Freshman year of college), we got a new
11/44 for the main administrative machine. (We also got a VAX 11/780
for the academic machine that same year.) Now to save money, the
college bought a 3rd party tape drive from Plessey. It seems that
the installation guy Plessey sent out didn't know one end of an
11/44 from the other, literally. Appearantly, he connected something
backwards. Between the stories I heard at the time and what little
I've been able figure out since, I think he managed to connect the
power to the backplane backwards. DEC told us that it was supposed
to be impossible, but he managed to blow the board set anyway.
Fortunately, Plessey made good on the deal and paid for the dead
boards.

The best part of the story was a while later, my roommates and I
attended the National Computer Conference in Chicago. One of the
vendors there was, of course, Plessey. Just for fun, a couple of
us walked up to the booth and just loitered a bit. One of the
salesmen walked toward us with the standard sales smile. As he
glanced down at our nametages (afterall, a salesman needs to address
you by name) he suddenly looked ill and turned away. Another
rep came up and asked if she could help us. We said "We don't
think so," and told her the story. Here classic response was
something along the lines of "Oh, I heard about that. He doesn't
work for us anymore."

Brian L. Stuart
Received on Tue Apr 13 1999 - 19:50:21 BST