Unfortunately, though the behemoths of yesteryear still do what was then
asked of them, what's evolved more than anything else is what people (oh,
yes ... the people have changed a mite, too) ask of them. Since they CAN
play this week's fantasy game, they do, and since they can show detailed
pictures of the smut, gore, or whatever else someone's into, they do that,
too. The CRAY and VAX machines didn't do that as well. That's not to say
they couldn't, but, since nobody would pay what they'd have had to, they
didn't.
Dick
----- Original Message -----
From: R. D. Davis <rdd_at_smart.net>
To: <classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org>
Sent: Thursday, June 08, 2000 7:30 PM
Subject: Re: Wirin' up blinkenlights
> 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 - 20:54:48 BST