4 Apr
2013
4 Apr
'13
12:47 a.m.
On 04/04/2013 07:54, Kevin Monceaux wrote:
On Wed, Apr 03, 2013 at 06:15:38PM -0700, Fred Cisin
wrote:
I remember being shown an app some one had written to run on Windows
that they wanted to make like DOS.
They wanted to stop everything happening while they waited for a
response from the mainframe.
Well its rather hard to do in a message switch like Windows where each
program has a message queue.
They had removed the mouse and made the app full screen and said they
didn't think any one could now re-size it to do anything else.
Sadly for them the keyboard was the a new style Compaq with the short
space bar and the "alt" key next to it,
I gently brushed the space bar, making sure I grazed the alt key first
to reveal the system menu, with the move and re-size options.
Oh were they upset!
--
Dave Wade G4UGM
Illegitimi Non Carborundum
Those don't surpass the real one:
"No keyboard. Press any key to continue."
This reminds me of one of the
most amusing looks I ever received from a PC
tech. I was working as a data entry clerk in freight bill entry somewhere
near the end of the last century. My PC was running a version of Windoze
that would boot without a mouse. I think it was Windoze 95. Anyway, PC
techs from the home office were at the terminal I worked at doing something
to all the PCs. When a tech got to mine he looked around and said, "Um ...
where's your mouse?" When I pointed to the bottom drawer of my desk I think
he almost went into shock. He was lost without a mouse.
To keep this slightly on topic at that time freight bill entry clerks
entered bills into Synergy, a text DOS based program. Each Synergy server
"entered" freight bills into TFMS, a CICS based freight bill rating package,
via three Attachmate sessions. We had four Synergy servers back then. As
for the mainframe Synergy was "entering" bills into we were running MVS on
an IBM 3090. At least I think it was a 3090, I'm not positive. I
eventually made my way from data entry into mainframe operations, and I'm
still working as an operator. Just before I moved into operations we
upgraded to OS/390, and to a large refrigerator sized mainframe with a
yellow "speed bump." I can't remember the model number. We're now
running
z/OS on a 2086 with a copper "speed bump." I wish I had made it into
operations back when the mainframe and its peripherals filled the computer
room.
Sadly we eventually downgraded from the DOS based Synergy to a Windoze
version. I heard it slowed down freight bill entry clerks quite a bit. If
that wasn't bad enough we've now outsourced our freight bill entry to a
company in The Philippines. Aaaaarrrrrggggg!!