A case for downgrading to PCs (was: WARNING: RANTING COMPUTER NUT...

From: Ashley Carder <wacarder_at_usit.net>
Date: Wed Jun 16 14:31:58 2004

And now we know the rest of the story...


----- Original Message -----
From: "Fred Cisin" <cisin_at_xenosoft.com>
To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts"
<cctalk_at_classiccmp.org>
Sent: Wednesday, June 16, 2004 3:19 PM
Subject: A case for downgrading to PCs (was: WARNING: RANTING COMPUTER
NUT...


> On Tue, 15 Jun 2004, David V. Corbin wrote:
> > Fair warning, the following message contains the ratings of a single
> > individual.
> > >>>> Sounds like somebody grabbed the old machines when a school
downgraded
> > their computer facilities to PCs...
> > As shown by the above quote, there is a strong anti "PeeCee" bias by
many
>
> Yes, there IS a strong anti "PeeCee" bias.
> But the above quote is NEUTRAL, and does NOT show it.
>
> Let me tell you about when a school downgraded their computer
> facilities to PCs...
>
> It was in 1983,...
> The community college taught DP, using a PDP11. I'm not sure
> of the specific model, because I came in later.
>
> They taught COBOL, FORTRAN, BASIC, PASCAL, and did RJE to some
> sort of modern 360 (4381?), which also did, and still does,
> all of the administrative computing.
>
> The DP department computer had a third party drive,
> and they had LOTS of problems.
> The DEC field service people would get it running, and often
> had to exceed the speed limit to get out of sight before it
> went down again.
>
> But the real clincher was one time that it went down, and stayed
> down for MOST of the semester. Try teaching compiled languages
> without a computer!
>
> The head of the DP department made a major decision.
> They replaced the computer with a few dozen PCs! He had seen the
> corners that I had cut to save money on my PC, so they bought the
> 5150s with FDC cards and CGA cards, and put in aftermarket RAM,
> floppy drives, and B&W composite monitors.
>
> They ran PC-DOS 2.0, and ran IBM (rebadged MICROS~1) FORTRAN,
> COBOL, PASCAL, and BASIC.
> Now, the worst possible single malfunction would reduce capacity
> 5%, rather than disabling the entire department.
>
>
> And they hired me to teach a Microcomputer Operating System class
> (which I had been teaching with TRS-DOS and Apple-DOS on another
> campus). When the FORTRAN teacher unexpectedly left, they handed
> me his classes, and I got one of the much coveted tenure-track
> full-time positions!
>
>
> But the story doesn't quite end there, although most of the rest
> of the story is from third party sources who will deny it.
> They sold the [working, but unreliable] PDP-11 to a local school
> district. (Richmond, now "West Contra Costa")
> It was very cheap, because they made no secret of the problems
> that it had had.
>
> The school district called in PG&E (the power company) to connect it.
> The PG&E "technician" didn't understand the difference between
> delta and Y three phase! The computer was seriously damaged.
> (PG&E did the same thing with the wiring for the compressor in my
> automobile garage 10 years previously)
>
> PG&E cut a deal - that if everyone would go along with a fiction
> that the computer had been struck by lightning, then PG&E would
> buy the school district a new one!
>
> So,...
> the DP department got a lab full of PCs, which solved the issue
> of reliability.
> The R.U.S.D. got a brand new computer for next to nothing.
> Some PG&E technicians got some retraining.
>
>
> Meanwhile, on the other end of the campus, the electronics
> department also had a PDP-11, but the electronics department
> was soon being closed down because the administration believed
> that "NOBODY ever repairs anything anymore". The administration
> dumpstered the computer! One of the teachers salvaged it from
> the dumpster(s) in violation of school rules and policies. But he
> was having major problems of his own (divorce, moving, lack of storage
> space, lack of money to rent space,...) so he stuck the stuff into his
> back yard, intending to do something with it "right away", ... and the
> computer stuff stayed in his back yard until what was left of it was
> rescued a few months ago.
>
> --
> Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin_at_xenosoft.com
>
> "Those that can, do.
> Those that can't, teach.
> Those that can't teach, administrate."
> == H.L. Mencken
Received on Wed Jun 16 2004 - 14:31:58 BST