What's the rarest or most unusual computer-related item do you own?

Douglas Taylor dj.taylor4 at comcast.net
Sun Jan 29 10:11:49 CST 2017


Ed;

He was working for the US Air Force in Washington, DC.  He was not a 
'computer guy', but rather a management person.
When I found the certificate in his papers I realized that that was very 
early in the computer revolution.

I sort of followed in his footsteps and became a physicist at a Gov't 
research laboratory using computers for numerical simulations.

He didn't think much of computers, even published an article in the 
National Enquirer in 1972 with the title "Computers are turning us into 
lame brains".

I always thought that was quite an accomplishment; it is easy to get a 
paper published in a scientific journal, you have to have a really good 
angle to get into the National Enquirer!

Doug

On 1/29/2017 6:58 AM, Ed Sharpe wrote:
>
> Doug ... which sites or state was your dad working on them? Railroad 
> owned some IRS too..
>
> Sent from AOL Mobile Mail
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> On Saturday, January 28, 2017 Douglas Taylor <dj.taylor4 at comcast.net> 
> wrote:
>
> I have a certificate that my father was given in 1957 for training on a
> Honeywell Datamatic 1000 computer.
>
> Here is a summary of this 'advance' in computer technology from the ACM:
>
> The DATAmatic 1000 (D-1000) is a high-capacity electronic
> data-processing system designed specifically for application to the
> increasingly complex problems and procedures of present-day business.
> The system incorporates significant new systems techniques, as well as
> several basically new component developments. One of the outstanding
> features of the D-1000 is its ability to feed information from magnetic
> tape into the central processor at a sustained rate of 60,000
> decimal-digits per second, and to deliver data after processing back to
> magnetic tape at this same rate. The operational speed of the central
> processor maintains full compatibility with the high speed of
> information transfer. Consequently, the difficulties caused by programs
> which are either tape limited or processing-time limited do not arise in
> the majority of commercial applications of this system.
>
> Doug
>
>
> On 1/28/2017 4:13 PM, Tony Aiuto wrote:
> > I have a Minivac 601, but it is in storage and I am not sure if it is
> > working. I'm thinking of restoring it and bringing to VCF East. The 
> video
> > is not mine - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6OA8HfnxxU
> >
> > On Sat, Jan 28, 2017 at 1:13 PM, Bob Rosenbloom 
> <bobalan at sbcglobal.net <mailto:bobalan at sbcglobal.net>>
> > wrote:
> >
> >> On 1/14/2017 3:49 PM, Rick Bensene wrote:
> >>
> >>> --snip
> >>> I know what you mean about the DC300 carts...what a lousy design...at
> >>> least from a longevity standpoint. I've had numerous nightmares 
> with those
> >>> cartridges in a number of vintage systems that I've got. Broken 
> tension
> >>> bands, sticky tape...just plain bad stuff. Plus, the tape 
> transports in
> >>> the 4051/4052 are fussy as can be. I have a 4907 single 8" floppy disk
> >>> drive for my 4051, and it works great, but I don't have the proper 
> ROMpack
> >>> module to use it with the 4052, which apparently needs a different 
> ROMpack
> >>> than the 4051 to talk to the 4907. So far, such a ROMpack has proven
> >>> elusive.
> >>>
> >>> -Rick
> >>>
> >> I have the Tektronix 4052/4054 File Manager ROM Packs. Can be seen 
> here:
> >> http://www.tekmuseum.com/linked/tek_roms1.jpg
> >> I should have the documentation on them also. Only problem is they are
> >> buried somewhere in a cargo container.
> >>
> >> Are you still looking for one?
> >>
> >> Bob
> >>
> >>
> >> --
> >> Vintage computers and electronics
> >> www.dvq.com <http://www.dvq.com>
> >> www.tekmuseum.com <http://www.tekmuseum.com>
> >> www.decmuseum.org <http://www.decmuseum.org>
> >>
> >>
>



More information about the cctech mailing list