[Milsurplus] RS-6 ID thot

[Todd Bigelow - PS]

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.
>  
>

If anyone wants some old mainframe and system software documentation, 
there are several bookcases full in the basement beneath me that my 
employer will be discarding soon. Bring a pickup truck. If you hurry, 
you can get the last dual 3490 tape unit and some controllers we're 
removing from the Operations center, too. Unfortunately the 3420 round 
drives (like the ones you always see spinning in movies when they show a 
big mainframe system) were sent to their doom last year. They sure were 
fun to watch - complete with the automatic door.

I helped disassemble an old system with an outboard chiller when I first 
got here in '96, IBM 3090. It was set up so that the water ran through 
its own cooling circuit but could be switched to the public water supply 
in the event of a breakdown. This had to be done swiftly to prevent 
processor meltdown. I have some of the big gray cables from the beast at 
home in my garage that I saved for some unknown reason. There's a power 
supply for a 3480 sitting here in my office, too. Must be the rows of 
fuse holders that attracted me.

de Todd/'Boomer'  KA1KAQ