15 Feb
2019
15 Feb
'19
8:56 a.m.
From: Paul Koning
Studied it for a while, took out a small hammer,
whacked the device at
some spot, and reported "fixed".
That reminds me of an amusing story from the first time I went to see 'Star
Wars; I went with a group of people from Tech Sq. It has that scene where
they're about to make the jump to hyperspace in the 'Falcon', and it
won't
go; so one of them (I think Solo) jumps up and whacks a particular spot on
the bulkhead with his fist, and away she goes.
We all found this terribly amusing, since one of the DEC time-sharing systems
on the 9th floor had a sticky relay in the power controller, and when you'd
try to power it on or off from the front panel, the relay would stick, and
nothing would happen. So the procedure was to go around the back, open a
particular door, reach in, and whack the power controller behind it in a
particular spot with the side of your fist, and away it went!
Noel