DaleB: I became the Northeast Regional Bank Specialist for IBM, because I was so good at repairing 2741s and 1052s, etc, etc. Unlike the other Systems guys, I found the Office Products guru on Selectrics in our area, and had him train me on repairing them. He was a card carrying Wizard. When he was done training me I could rebuild an entire machine belt, tapes, cords, clutch, in 45 minutes. I still have all my tools and a cabinet full of parts. I occasionally get called by IBM to repair the IBM Museum machines (at least 6 years ago they were still calling me). IBM was\is (maybe) still maintaining 2 working copies of every machine they ever sold.
I wrote a lot of cool programs on a model 33 teletype like the one pictured. I had an 8 track stereo and a 23 channel CB radio that i installed on the same slide mount so I could swap them.
I remember calling collect, getting my parents’ long distance code when I went to college, and getting 1000-minute phone cards to call the office when I was on the road.
I remember when every kid around me had a pedal bike, and if you didn't ride the bus, you rode to school, until the snow was too deep to ride it any more. Almost daily we went for lunch time rides.
I’ve done most of those, including razor-blade edits. Ever bounce tracks on a 4-track RtR? I even know how to slip-queue a song on an LP turntable. Never took a physics test with a slide rule, though. Things changed amazingly fast. We had slide rules in sophomore chemistry, and by the time I was taking AP physics as a senior I had a TI-58 programmable. Class of ‘79, Nathan Bedford Forrest High. Give ‘em hell, Rebels!
Cool stuff. I was trained on the 2030 and 2040 (S/360 models 30 & 40) in 1981, long after most of the work had stopped using them. The Army still had a bunch, mounted in semi-trailers along with all the peripherals, as a division mobile data center. I went from the Mod 40 to 370s and 303x when I got out. I was the one they sent out on weird stuff nobody wanted to touch. System/3, Series/1, some pretty weird stuff. And the computers that ran the light show for Lionel Richie's concert. Pro tip: Don't plug both your primary and backup into the same outlet strip, then plug that into the wrong voltage.
I used Series 1s and System 7s for doing the E-Beam chip writing at IBM Research after I left Field Engineering. Cool old hardware, but they weren't fast enough. I ended up designing and building a custom processor for controlling the electron beam.
We are also the generation in school when then US adopted the metric system and had to learn that. Then between my sophomore and junior years in college we abandoned it and went back to English units and had to re-learn. I’ll still take Joules over BTUs and Watts over horsepower any day.
Yep. I still have a working TEAC-A2340 in the rack but I don't use it much at all anymore. Most everything now is done on the Tascam digital but analog tape has a unique quality to its sound ...
I used a TEAC quite a bit in college. I still have a Dokoder 4-track at home but haven’t used it in years. We would fill 3 tracks with a basic rhythm section, bounce while adding something like piano or synth during the bounce, then add lead guitar and strings and backing vocals, then add lead vocal during mixdown. Eight parts done with a little 4-track. Had to be pretty good at mixing because there was no way to correct the bounced mix later.
Got to learn that lesson fast. Once it's buried it's in there for good! Was doing a piano part this morning and just couldn't get it nailed correctly. Mostly distracted working through the auto punch-in & out functions along with virtual track edits. I finally got a nice take on the part I needed and then realized it was in the wrong key. Using a work station or MIDI device would make a transpose easy but the way it was done I have no choice but to retake it. New technology is fun!
Cool indeed. The one at our house was (if I am remembering right) more of a sedan. Well… convertible, I guess, but you get the idea.
Here's a twofer. I was too big for a big wheel when they came out. Kids I work with...."what's a big wheel?"* *I know they still sell similar trikes but the original was only made until 1981.
Oh, so you were one of those rich kids that lived across the tracks from us. This one is sorta similar to what I had, cuz we was po.
And talking about cheaper models, I had a 'home built' too, just like this: Not sure if these speed demons ever made it across the pond
My first skateboard had skinny steel wheels like that. Then came clay composite wheels, then JOY OF JOYS urethane wheels! Urethane wheels were a miracle for skateboarding, enabling all the tricks and stunts and wall riding that would have killed us on steel or clay wheels.
yep. I used to unscrew the mouth piece and take out the microphone while the phone was still “on the hook” and then pick it up and listen.
I had a step sister that we only got one weekend a month. She is 4 years younger than I and I have no interest in anything she has to say- still.
Trick I used was to turn the rotary dial just a little before picking up the phone and then let it slowly rotate back. That would prevent the slight click in the phone that might give away the fact that you were on the extension ...
My daughter informed me yesterday that I am to be a grandfather. In addition to all the other signs of advanced age, that tops 'em all.
