[geeks] BEAUTIFUL rescue!!!

[Brian Hechinger]

On Fri, Aug 24, 2001 at 12:37:02PM +0500, D Bhargav wrote:
> Sorry ...the nostalgia is contagious. My experience here.

heh, nostalgia is your friend. :)

> Reminds me of the time when I worked on the PDP 11/05.
> A simple rugged machine which worked for over 18 years till
> as late as 1995.

1995?  i've got an 11/03 and an 11/23+ that currently work.
as well as an /83 that just needs disks and as OS.  so add
6 years to that. :)

> Oh yeah, there was also a teletypewriter model LA-36 to
> punch in commands and get the output. We used huge floppy
> disks (bigger than the 5 1/4 inch ones). It was fun cranking 

8"

> up the system. In case something failed, we used to remove 
> a few cards and start off with the minimum h/w config.

heh.  i LOVE that "feature" of old computers.

> I was a fresher out of college in '93 when I first came across
> this machine and I loved it! And I did learn lots of things, 
> got my basics right because everything was so simple in the
> machine.

you can't start anywhere better.

> Now I too can say that I did fiddle around a bit with one of 
> those wonderful machines. Makes you feel like a pilot who has 
> flown Spitfires as well as the latest fighters...

ok, so you can't own/run a mainframe, but the DEC machines were
the next best thing.  i still can't afford the electric bill to
run a "real" mainframe, but there isn't a single DEC box that is
out of my power-consumption range.  beat that IBM.

-brian