[rescue] A bit of Fun

[Jonathan C. Patschke]

On Tue, 17 Jun 2003, Michael A. Turner wrote:

> 1. Worst Machine Architecture

Macintosh LC II.

Hey!  Let's pop a faster CPU in an LC and forget to upgrade the rest of
the system so that the additional wait states actually make the system
-slower-!

Actually, I think the entire LC line belongs here.

> 2. Worst Processor

I'm torn between any member of the 68k LC family, the SM100 sbus module,
and the original Intel 80386 that couldn't exit 32-bit mode without
crashing.

> 3. Worst Operating system

Too general.

  Worst Unix:                  SCO Openserver 5 (It's still 1986, right?)
  Worst single-user OS:        Windows 1.0 (it's DOS...in color!)
  Worst non-unix multiuser OS: Novell NetWare 3.11[0]
  Worst release of MacOS:      8.0

> 4. Worst Case Design

Sun Ultra 10.  Although, this ties with the Packard Bell minitowers of
the late 1990s.  They have the same flaw (have to invert the case to
remove it), but the case slides apart--there's no clean shell/chassis
division.  The Ultra 10 gets extra bonus points for the "top" of the
case, which will invariably hold all the screws captive while you have
the case inverted.  Getting the top off is no small amount of work.

Honorable mention goes to the rackmount Aspen Alpine, which has no
real chassis.  The entire shell/chassis assembly screws together.  Remove
all the screws, an the entire thing collapses in a pile of oddly-shaped
metal pieces.  Oh, an the top and bottom panels are held on by THIRTEEN
screws each.

> 5. Etc if you can think of anything else.

The person who decided that all D-shell cables shall have protruding
screw posts to make them all act as anchors when you're trying to free
one must die.


[0] You can write a loop at the command prompt to repeatedly load and
    unload a module.  This will ABEND the system if the unload command
    hits the kernel while the module is still loading.  There is no
    facility for synchronously loading a module from a script--they
    -always- load in the background.
-- 
Jonathan Patschke   )  "Leave your lawsuits at home.  I have guns."
Elgin, TX          (                      --"Kountry" Mike Lundgren