Good old days at Comdex (Was: Large HP plotter on the curb in Arlington, MA

On Mon, 12 Feb 2018, Pete Lancashire via cctalk wrote: OB_Reminesce (rambling) of the good-old-days: The first time that I encountered a roll fed wide inkjet printer (NOT an HP one), about 25 years ago, I happened to be in need of a banner sign for my Comdex booth. It was at a service company that printed plueprints, etc. They said that it spoke Postscript. So, I programmed a quick little Postscript routine to print MANY lines radiating from a point, but only showing withint the outlines of large letters. A gorgeous sign of rainbow colored letters. It turned out to NOT be Postscript, but "Freedom Of The Press" which was an imitation Postscript that choked on my routine (probably not enough stack space for the simplistic way that I had written it). I found a copy of that imitation Postscript, and redid my code so that it would run on it. But, it took WAY too long, so I simplified my design to something nowhere near as nice, but at least wouldn't tie up the printer too long. I had a TINY Comdex booth, 7 feet by 7 feet, which was created by a mistake in their divvying yo the space, and was much more affordable (half the price) of the next smallest 10x10. When we got there, Comdex had changed their mind and moved us to a 10x10 but at the previously agreed price! And it was next to a good friend of ours. Sure was glad that we hadn't trimmed the end margins of the sign yet! Went to Home Depot, got conduit, and made a new sign holding frame. Then, the night before the show opened (Comdex lasts a work week), our friend ended up in the hospital. AND, his wife couldn't find an important box, containing among other things, their imprinter (used both for credit cards, and taking down info from embossed attendee ID cards). So, we took down the wall on that side of our booth, and half combined our booth with theirs, to help her run it, and share our resources (staff, office supplies, refrigerator (with beer for Jerry Pournelle), tools, etc.) So, instead of a 7x7, we shared and ran a 10x20 that was partially divided. By the end of the show, our friend was almost fully recovered, and we all did well with the show. -- Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin at xenosoft.com