Chris Linfoot | Computing Systems Fundamentals: What's she doing?

Wednesday, 21. May 2008

Computing Systems Fundamentals: What's she doing?

Captions, please.

Comments :

1. Carl Tyler21/05/2008 13:54:11
Homepage: http://www.iminstant.com

She's changing the hard drive.

My Dad used to bring broken platters home from work, metal was still good, but the magnetic surface had suffered a catastrophic head crash or some such thing.

Basically a big aluminum disk with the insides of a cassette stuck to it. They made lethal Frisbees, you'd never want to catch one.

2. Chris Whisonant21/05/2008 14:09:12
Homepage: http://www.bleedyellow.com/blogs/lotusnut

"James Bond told me that all I need to do is place my make-up compact on top of the drive and it will clone the data..."

3. Duffbert21/05/2008 14:26:18
Homepage: http://www.duffbert.com

What I find scary is that my career in Operations started on the 360/30 and the 360/65. I recognize most of that stuff. :)

4. Nathan T. Freeman21/05/2008 14:52:49
Homepage: http://nathan.lotus911.com

6: A creature you are unlikely to meet if you spend your days among 1-5, commonly known as a "female."

5. Wild Bill21/05/2008 15:08:34
Homepage: http://www.billbuchan.com

Duffbert! Was that you in the picture ?

Hell, you looked nice then!

---* Bill

6. Ben Rose21/05/2008 15:38:49
Homepage: http://www.jaffacake.net

I'm surprised she doesn't have a smoking cigarette in her hand, it wasn't uncommon back then.

7. Steve McDonagh21/05/2008 18:00:28
Homepage: http://dominoyesmaybe.blogspot.com

Hmmmmm
I would say either a 3340 (200 MB) or 3330's .. (100Mb) in the dark recesses of the glory hole we still have some of those. Cept the last time they were used it was as "stones" in an impromtu game of "Data Curling".

Oh those heady days of the 370, now they were impressive boxes i seem to remember ours came with a free IBM butterfly... Oh and getting our first Sys38 with 2gb 3380's @ Ł30K each.

We had respect then, these young wippersnappers don't know they are living!

8. Steve McDonagh21/05/2008 18:04:09
Homepage: http://dominoyesmaybe.blogspot.com

OOOOOH the caption.. my moisty-eyed grumpy old fart nostalgia made me forget.

"So thats where they have hidden the feebies for ILUG 1971"

9. Chris Linfoot21/05/2008 20:16:55

That would be ILUG 1967.

10. Bruce21/05/2008 23:49:00
Homepage: http://battlegroundtales.blogspot.com

Caption: Great stereo. This is the record player, right?

11. Ian Randall22/05/2008 01:53:44

I remember a young sales cadet demonstrating the safety features of the removable hard disk drive to a customer (can't remember if it was a 5 or 10MB drive "mass storage drive"). The removable disks drives has plastic tabs that had to be pressed before releasing the disk and they would lock if the disk was still spinning. However despite these safeguards he pressed too hard and broke both tabs, then proceeded to removed the drive while it was still spinning at full speed.

There was a mighty explosion and a room full of thick grey smoke. The cadet ended up on the other side of the room covered in black soot with just the plastic handle of the removable disk remaining in his hand, but he was otherwise OK, the removable drive had simply vanished in the explosion. The customer seemed unruffled by these events and more concerned about the well being of the young sales cadet.

Being the sensitive type, I had to remove myself from the computer room because I was laughing so hysterically.

12. Duffbert22/05/2008 02:45:39
Homepage: http://www.duffbert.com

@5... So I obviously didn't age well, Bill... :)

13. Carl Tyler22/05/2008 13:45:00
Homepage: http://www.iminstant.com

Caption:
"The new System 360 is the easiest to clean system yet. To cleanup up and bits and bytes that may have fallen off your storage device, take your duster and move it in a circular motion over the inside surfaces, as Cindy is showing us here. With the speed at which you can now clean the system, you'll have more time to focus on the important things in life like your hair, or which wonderful Crylon fabric to upholster your sofa with."

14. Chris Linfoot22/05/2008 15:47:14

@11: So, when did IBM start calling them DASD (direct access storage devices) instead of mass storage drives?

They call them DASD to this day.

15. Philip Storry23/05/2008 12:40:56
Homepage: http://www.not-so-rapid.com

I suddenly have lots of (very bad) captions in my head...

1. "Nope, I still can't find the coffee-cup holder. Maybe we should send it back?"
2. "There! All nicely polished and ready for storage, just like corporate accounts should be..."
3. Sharon couldn't possibly have known how violently the system would reject the MS-DOS installation disks...
4. Although the IT team tried to hide their snacks from the other staff, the heat of the IBM 360 made the scent travel so far that it was futile...
5. "Hey, you know what, I don't see any wires! Do you think this thing's wireless? More importantly, could I get my MacBook on the network?"