[rescue] Computer Move Help

[Ben Greisler]

Holy cow! An ATEX unit!

I read that and a shiver went down my spine. I was one of the unlucky sods who
where subjected to using an ATEX unit back in the 1990's. The phrase "save
often" was our lifeline, but since it could take 15 minutes to save a
document, you often pushed your luck and might go half a day before saving.
You just hoped that the system didn't crash or need to be restarted in the
mean time. Saves were a good time to hit the bathroom or get a cup of coffee.

Now my experience might be different than other users since we were using it
in a way it was never really designed to do. We were publishing books with it,
not the newspaper articles it was designed for. We would print the laid out
text and our production department would paste it on wax boards to be shot
into negatives then plates. Welcome to the 1950's!

I once went to a trade show and bumped into an ATEX booth. I think Kodak had
bought it at that point. I started talking to the guys in the booth and they
were very friendly until I told them where I worked. It was obvious they
didn't want to be associated with the ATEX system that we were using.

That system was eventually replaced with a SGML based database backed
publishing and pagination system. Great idea, but someone never thought far
enough ahead to standardize the schema we were using and how it would be
populated, so each book it produced required an immense amount of hand edits
to make it right.

Sigh.

Now that I have that off my chest, I am always glad when technology is saved
and curated. Just put that one behind a display case with a "Do Not Turn On or
Use For Book Publishing" sign on it as to spare the future generations the
hell that ATEX can be.

Ben Greisler | Owner / Technical Lead |  Kadimac Corp
ofc: 215-821-1440 | email: ben at kadimac.com
Certified Member - Apple Consultants Network - ACSA | Xsan | ACT
Apple Professional Services Provider - Education and Enterprise





On Jun 19, 2011, at 10:47 AM, J Keys wrote:

> Hello
> We are looking for help in moving a ATEX minicomputer system to a local
> storage unit in Salt Lake City. We received a donation of this complete
system
> from a local newspaper in Salt Lake but are unable to pay for shipping it
> right now. I would like to rent Public Storage unit there and move the
system
> to it. This needs to be done by the weekend (6/24 or 6/25). Contact me
> offlist.
>
> Thanks,
> John Keys
> Houston Computer Museum
> _______________________________________________
> rescue list - http://www.sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/rescue