[SunRescue] Re: Best wishes for Bill...

[Bill Bradford]

On Mon, Nov 06, 2000 at 01:07:57AM -0800, Eric Ozrelic wrote:
> been into older Sun equipment now for 3 years. An ISP I used to work for had
> a bunch of IPC's sitting in the back unused, and looking sad. 
> So I took one of them
> home and toyed with it. I was hooked ever since. 

I started out on micros.  First computer was a TI-99/4A, then my first
16-bit micro was an Atari 520STfm.  I moved from there to an Amiga 1000,
and that was my favorite computer, used for everything until I started
college.. Got a 386sx-33 and used it  throughout college, upgrading it
to a 486-66, ran some PC *nix'es, etc.

Was a VMS wizard in college; my first access to the Internet was 
through a VAX 4000-700A running VMS 5.5-2 and later upgraded to
OpenVMS 6.1.  I created my college's first web server (they had a
"FULL T1!!!" and were only using it for email; I setup the first
university home page with a webserver running on the VAX and proved
everyone who said" you have to have a Sun UNIX box to run a web
server" wrong..)  The machine is still up and running, and the web
server too (altho now it just redirects you to a faster UNIX box 
running the server) at http://mercur.usao.edu.  I also got the
rest of the campus using IRC, Lynx, Usenet News, and PINE for
email (instead of VMS MAIL).  I probably ruined more than one
college education by showing labs full of kids at night how to
use IRC when I was working as the lab attendant. 8-)  In fact, I
courted my girlfriend-during-college (and later fiancee, but 
that didnt work out) over IRC while sitting across the lab from
her....  I met Amy (my current squeeze, hopefully the last one!)
on IRC as well, but I'll let Amy tell that story (she reads this
list) if anybody wants to hear it.

I still have a soft spot for VAX and DEC equipment (PDP-11s, etc);
this explains www.pdp11.org, www.decvax.org, and the VAX 6000 sitting
in my garage. 8-)

My first "real" UNIX box was an AT&T UNIX PC, the "wedge" machine
with the built-in green mono monitor, 1200 baud modem, etc.  I
remember getting into VI, and having to leave the window (had a
primitive windowing system) open for a week or so because I didnt
know how to exit!  (I only use vi now.  Fuck Emacs.  Pardon my
French...)  That machine, along with an Apple Lisa (*sigh*  stupid
decisions of my youth...) was given to a friend who gave it a good
home when I moved to Texas in '96.  The Amigas (a 1000 and a 3000)
went into "temporary storage" with the same friend, but due to a
divorce he had, they're now long gone....

Didnt acquire my first Sun until shortly after I started working for an
ISP in Oklahoma City in '95, but after working with a SS10 and a SS1
at the office, I *had* to have one.  My first Sun was a 3/50, with 4mb
RAM, a 150mb HD, and a 150mb tape drive in one of the huge external
enclosures.  Had a big monocrhome 19" monitor too - really impressed
my friends that came over and saw it on the kitchen table.  "woah.."

I moved from there to my first "real" Sun, a SPARCstation 1 that I
got for a "song" - only $750!  (yeah.  I know.  I cry, thinking about
it now...).  SPARCstation 1, 16mb RAM, dual 250mb HDs, and a bw2
framebuffer, with Type-4 keyboard and mouse.  Not much, but I *loved*
that machine.  It was my main desk box and console, etc, as well as
a shell box for a few other friends.  I'd run Netscape, AfterStep (this
was pre-WindowMaker days), terminal windows, etc, while having 2-3
friends logged in and reading email, with 2-3 external 500mb HDs
attached, all with only 16mb RAM. 8-)  I also used that box as my
machine for a while working for Texas.Net here in Austin, where I 
moved in the fall of '96.

Went from the SS1 to also getting various IPCs, SS2s, and finally got
my own SS10 in '98.  Not long after that I managed to get a good deal
on an Ultra 1/140E (with Creator2D).  Kinda moved faster after that, and
since then I've owned a few SS1/2/IPC/IPX/LXs, SS5s (70/85/110/170), a
dual-HS100 SS20 with SX, a couple SS10s with ZX/leo, a couple 
Ultra 1/140s, an Ultra 5/270 that I built up from a barebones box, 
an Ultra 10/300, and most recently, an Ultra 30/300 (VERY nice box).  
The SunHELP.ORG server is a "lowly" Ultra 1/140 with 128mb RAM and 
various HDs (no framebuffer, just serial console).  Its going to be
upgraded to an UltraSPARC-IIi-based 300Mhz machine in a couple of days
when I have the chance to make it down to OnRamp's offices downtown.
I use a cheap PPro200/128mb here at home; its for Netscape and SSH
sessions to the SunHELP server where the majority of my "real work" is
done.

Work-wise, I've used and adminned everything from Sun 4/110s (not a SS4,
a Sun4 - it was the very first master Kali server on the Internet!  Slower
than a SS1! anybody else remember Kali?) to SS1/1+/2/IPC/IPX/LX/SS4/SS5/
SS10/SS20/U1/U2/E250/E450/E4500/E6500/E220/E240.  I've not managed to be
lucky enough to see or touch an E10K, but someday....  I currently am
an "IT Support UNIX Administrator II" for a Fortune 500 Baby Bell 
telephone company/data carrier, managing a mixture of high-end Sun,
c | o | m | p | a | q, and HP machines (more HP machines than anything
else, lately..)  At a previous job, I also spent a year and a half 
managing mostly HP and SGI machines, and have heavy experience with
those OSes as well, but not near as much as I do with Sun/SPARC/Solaris.
Even registered sgihelp.org and hphelp.org at one point, but let the
domains go and decided to let other people concentrate on them, while
I did SunHELP.

I've also done a lot of admin work on Linux/FreeBSD/other-pc-UNIX, and
know my way around a Windows/95/98/nt/2k box pretty well, but dont
admit to it in public. 8-)  At home, I've owned a large variety of
equipment, from SGIs, to Amigas (still a favorite platform), to
HP-UX boxes and HP 9000/300 machines.. Amy will rant here about
big boxes arriving every week.. 8-)

Oh well, enough of my ranting... its 4:30am, I'm going to do what I do
best on my birthday - SLEEP!

Bill

-- 
Bill Bradford
KD5LQR - Austin, TX
mrbill at sunhelp.org
mrbill at mrbill.net