On Thu, 8 Jun 2000, Richard Erlacher wrote:
> Careful, now . . . due to the passage of time and the change of the
> "climate" the PDP's, Vaxen, Cray's, etc, that are sitting in basements and
> garages are the toys now, and the former toys, the PC's, are the "real"
> computers. Bizzarre, isn't it?
It's not only bizarre, it's apparently someone's idea of a sick joke,
that the most boring and poorly designed systems are the ones that
most people depend on these days which have replaced the VAXen, etc.
Is it not true, however, that all computers are toys, and that PDP's,
VAXen and Crays could have been considered toys when they were new?
Whether I've "worked" with computers as a hobby at home, for clients,
or for employers, I've always felt as though they were toys to play
with and to experiment with. Of course, I did make sure that my
employers didn't see me in the computer rooms with screwdrivers,
etc. as I took things apart to examine them, although I did get in big
trouble when a former supervisor, who told me that there were no
programming languages installed on the company's VAX, discovered a
bunch of assembly code in with my files... I sure proved her wrong!
:-) ...of course I hacked a game of adventure in DCL there as well, I
showed here again that there was indeed a programming language on the
VAX, and that wasn't exactly appreciated when discovered either,
oddly. Ah well... some employers can be rather strange. I don't have
to wonder what that employer would have done if they found out that I
found a stray dog outside during my break (I was working the graveyard
shift at the time, about a decade ago), and took it back into the
building, let it sleep on the couch in the waiting room during my next
break, and roam around the computer room until it was time for me to
go home. I found the dog's owner for it the next day. :-) :-) :-)
--
R. D. Davis
rdd_at_perqlogic.com
http://www.perqlogic.com/rdd
410-744-4900
Received on Thu Jun 08 2000 - 20:30:46 BST