14 Jan
2009
14 Jan
'09
2:12 p.m.
On Wed, Jan 14, 2009 at 4:46 PM, Rich Alderson <RichA at vulcan.com> wrote:
Ah, yes. I kinda missed that era. I was a contractor at CompuServe
in 1994/1995, then worked other places until I was a CompuServe/AOL
employee in 2001, quite a time after the heyday of the SC machines
_and_ the "silver bullet" 32-bit servers. As of a couple of years
ago, the SC40s at the old CIS headquarters were still up and running,
but they've laid off so many from that facility that I don't get news
like I used to.
Yes. Thanks for the assistance over the years!
-ethan
From: Ethan
Dicks
That is small and cute. I worked next to some Systems Concepts
... in 2003... I _think_ it was a
small wall of SC30s, but I could be wrong. I was told that because of
how CompuServe was carved up between MCI/Worldcom and AOL,
MCI/Worldcom was still running billing jobs on the 36-bit machines...
Those were SC40s. Mike and Stewart licensed CompuServe to build their
own for a discounted fee (IIRC 40% of list). Around 2001 we got a call from someone in one of those
offices, but by
then we were completely out of the business of selling Toad-1 systems.
Too bad, because the CEO of CIS blew off a meeting (with people waiting
in his outer office) the day of the NT announcement.
That was right about the time I was coming back, I think.
For what I do
(Zork regression testing for ZDungeon), I don't really
need to own real 36-bit hardware, just an account is enough, so that's
what I'm doing.
Happy to help!