Semi-OT: IDE & SATA to USB "dongles"

Chuck Guzis wrote: I recall an operator starting out with one bad pack, and through swapping packs on drives, killing something like 13 drives and nine packs in the space of an hour. Billy: Once I moved to OKCity and worked on cartridge drives, this was one of our most common failure modes. Some people could never learn. One guy at 4 Phase Systems used to do this at least once a month. And he would lie about the bad pack and hide it. Probably the single most incompetent engineer I ever met. Of course he was later promoted to management and put in charge of their Field Engineers. Actually, I was thinking about him recently. The incoming area was at the back of 4 Phase, where Apple headquarters is now. I visited Infinity Drive and parked in almost the same spot. Deja vu. Chuck: I had a friend who observed the development of the 512. He said initially the thing was supposed to be a chain printer, but apparently they couldn't make a type chain that would hold together for more than a few minutes. Billy: I worked a little with the Development team on the 512. Their story was that they couldn't find a chain design that didn't infringe on IBM patents. This was at the time of the big lawsuit against IBM, so was a big deal. Chuck: The 501 printer was a pretty good workhorse and actually produced pretty decent output if run at the low speed setting--which no one ever did. There was another little drum printer used with the Intercom terminals that wasn't too bad; I don't recall the model number, though. Cheers, Chuck Billy: The 501 was messy to work on. The print drum segments would fill up with ribbon crap, and had to be cleaned with a tooth brush and solvent. The most efficient cleaner was carbon tetrachloride, which cut right through the ink. But left you feeling woozy. It wasn't until years later that I found out how dangerous our recommended process was. Still, even today you come across the occasional drum segment on somebody's desk. They make good pencil holders and seem to be a mark of old-fartness for field engineers. Saw one on eBay last year for some ridiculous price. The first CDC printers were made by Analex. Huge things, almost needed a room by themselves, ran at 1000 lines a minute. Sometimes for 2 or 3 hours straight, before breaking. Used a ribbon 18 inches wide. The PCBs were large horizontal PCBs the size of cookie sheets. You had to troubleshoot to the component level, then disassemble the logic chassis so you could get to the component to replace it. On small systems, a drum printer called the 166 was used; it was a 150 line a minute piece of junk. The sole reason for I remember it, is that is was made by Holly Carburetor. There were some strange bedfellows in the early days of computers. One of the most memorable printers I worked on the was the Page Printer system made in OKCity. Originally GE, then Honeywell. I'm not certain when it died - sometime after I left in 1986. It used paper on large rolls. There was a little dolly you used to move the paper - the rolls looked like newsprint and were too heavy to carry. It would print a page then had a paper knife that would cut the page from the continuous feed of paper, and move it to a bin. If you printed multiple copies, it would print the same page x times, cut them off and stack them in different hoppers. The paper path was 8-10 feet long and took a lot of hard work to thread each new roll. But the thing that sticks in my mind the most is that it also had a hole punch built in. After printing and cutting, it would also punch holes if you wanted, 2 or 3 per page. I've never seen another printer that could punch holes, not even the Seimens that were the major competitor. The chad was always in demand by people wanting it for parties or weddings. Which brings up something I'm certain others on the list have done = used teletype or other paper tape punch chad for pranks. The oiled paper would stick to anything, and vacuum cleaners wouldn't pick it up. I once left a bag of black and yellow chad where the 6 year old son of a co-worker could find it. (The co-worker had stiffed me for $20.) It took him weeks to get it out of his carpets using tweezers, piece by piece. Anyone else have fun and games with chad? Billy