[Milsurplus] RS-6 ID thot

[mikea]

On Sun, Oct 05, 2003 at 09:18:16PM -0400, William Donzelli wrote:
> > It kinda amazes me, how once one technology or even instrument of
> > technology is abandoned, how quickly the knowledge of technique
> > and procedure are disremembered, and the documents lost.  This
> > even applies to stuff i've seen change at work, like microfilm data
> > storage or that strange honeycomb mass-store for the IBM main-
> > frame (water cooled ) computer.

> It should be noted that there is a group of guys, numbering at least several 
> hundred by now, that collect and fool around with mini and mainframe 
> computer systems. A few of us fools even play with both BAs *and* mainframes.

> I want a SAGE console...and a noodle picker...

Noodlesnatchers are a bit difficult to get hold of, and our IBM 3851
MSS (the honeycomb thingie) went to surplus years back, in 1989. The
buyer does maintenance on "wooden paddle"[1] hardware, and was going 
to part it out as required. I remember it all too well, as I was the
guy who got it installed, connected up, and working with the rest of
our MVS system. At the time, we were running ... a 3081-K, which was
water-cooled, but we could have used it on the 3033 or 3031 that got
replaced by the 3081. 

There's a pretty damn good 360/370/390 emulator, called Hercules,
that runs under Linux/FreeBSD operating systems (maybe on Intel 
CPUs only, but I think on all) and will itself let you IPL anything 
from PCP 1.0 through OS/390 V3.something. It's free, as is the 
obsolete IBM operating system stuff. 

[1] As in what you're up the creek without, if you're running obsolete
    IBM mainframe gear or software.

-- 
Mike Andrews
mikea@mikea.ath.cx
Tired old sysadmin