Whoohoo! Fortune Telling...

From: John B <dylanb_at_sympatico.ca>
Date: Sat Nov 13 13:05:14 1999

-----Original Message-----
From: Roger Merchberger <zmerch_at_30below.com>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp_at_u.washington.edu>
Date: Saturday, November 13, 1999 3:03 PM
Subject: Whoohoo! Fortune Telling...


>As I gaze into my crystal ball... I can look into the future.... It is
>getting clearer now... clearer... I can see the possiblity of maybe a Vax
>in my basement sometime soon... :-) :-)
>
>There's a guy from Canada (right across the river - I live in a border
>town) that is a repair rep for (now) Compaq that does the service on a
>number of Vaxen in northern Ontario, with whom I've opened a dialogue! We
>started talking about the lunacy of Win2k, the inability of WinNT and
>defined the "good" in "good old days..."; how Wintel just doesn't cut it
>compared to the older stuff and ooey-gooeys just give you sticky fingers.
>;-)
>
>Anyway, from what I understand, he mostly works on Alpha-based machines
>now, but did Vax work in the past and knows a lot of the installations
>around the area. While we were recounting the good old days, I casually
>mentioned "well, ya know, if you know of anyone wanting to get rid of a
>Vax..." and he said that he may know of a few being replaced!!! :-)
>
>He was also telling me how he thought the OLC (Ontario Lottery Corporation
>(IIRC) - they have a rather large office building [for this area] in Sault,
>Ontario) and he thought they were throwing out some stuff but didn't know
>if they already did, and what problems I might have with Customs on the
>return trip (but I know a lot of Customs agents, so I should be able to
>swing anything provided it's not illegal... :-) but he'll check it out and
>let me know next week if anything's available. (he's out of town in Toronto
>for a week).


The Ontario Lottery Corporation uses a lot of Vaxes. (6000s +++). I met a
bunch of guys from their systems department in "DEC unlimited traning" back
when Digital was popular.

If you want anything specific, I use to work with (and know quite well) one
of the Board of Directors at the Ontario Lottery Corp... (He use to work in
the Legislative Assembly in systems).


John
>
>So... maybe I'll get to ask a lot of Vax questions here soon!!! :-)
>
>Take care & happy hunting,
>Roger "Merch" Merchberger
>--
>Roger "Merch" Merchberger --- sysadmin, Iceberg Computers
>Recycling is good, right??? Ok, so I'll recycle an old .sig.
>
>If at first you don't succeed, nuclear warhead
>disarmament should *not* be your first career choice.
>
Received on Sat Nov 13 1999 - 13:05:14 GMT