18 Mar
2024
18 Mar
'24
3:55 a.m.
In my first job,I was a trainee Field Engineer on a Univac 418 system at
Bell Canada which ran a store-and-forward message service to hundreds of
Model 33 and 35 teletypes across the nation.
Bell wanted to promote it, so they hired a movie producer. I happened to
be on duty that day.
The man insisted I push some paper tape into the reader the wrong way.
I explained that I could strip the machine down and show him the ratchet
proving the direction but he wouldn't hear it. He said 'he had seen one
of those before'.
I have used this as an example to my students why everything you see in
a movie is fantasy!
cheers,
Nigel
On 2024-03-18 06:08, Norman Jaffe via cctalk wrote:
I had the same experience while working for a (very)
small company called Northwest Digital Research.
I was asked to point to a big HP plotter that was running one of our programs... and the
photograph wound up in our product brochure.
Of course, I had nothing to do with that program...
From: "Mark Linimon via cctalk"<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>
To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic
Posts"<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>
Cc: "Mark Linimon"<linimon(a)portsmon.org>
Sent: Sunday, March 17, 2024 5:43:13 PM
Subject: [cctalk] Re: DEC Processor Books
--
Nigel Johnson, MSc., MIEEE, MCSE VE3ID/G4AJQ/VA3MCU
Amateur Radio, the origin of the open-source concept!
Skype: TILBURY2591
were just DEC employees that caught
somebody's eye when they were
planning the shots.
"Planning" may assume facts not in evidence :-)
Some photographers wandered around my employer of the time, Recognition
Equipment. (Like my Canadian girlfriend, you haven't heard of it.)
I was near enough to a piece of machinery to be told "point to
that console like you are doing something to it". So somewhere
in some ancient Annual Report you can find a picture of a clean-
shaven me. My 15 seconds of fame.
Well maybe not all 15.
So the "plan" was, we're on deadline, get some shots.
mcl