2 Jul
1999
2 Jul
'99
10:24 p.m.
Side note: In '88 I had a gig with Gulf
Oil/Cumberland Farms. Being a True
Blue shop, MIS insisted on nothing less than PS/2-80s at forty loading
terminals. About three months after installation, the floppies began to
fail. Inspection revealed that since Big Blue, in their wisdom, had failed
to build the little closure flap into the drives (probably saved them 10
cents per unit), these machines were not suitable for use in an industrial
environment without modification (replacing the drive).
As one who has spend quite a bit of time in industrial environments, I
would say that MIS department was a bunch of Bozos for not getting
industrial machines. Basically ANY floppy that spends its life at a
loading dock is going to die very quickly, followed in short order by the
power supply and keyboard.
William Donzelli
aw288(a)osfn.org