12 May
2013
12 May
'13
12:05 p.m.
s?n 2013-05-12 klockan 18:53 +0100 skrev Tony Duell:
Could it be a creative IBM representative ?
That little joke/IBM salesman warcry:
Nothing sucks like a VAX
Or was it LUX (as in ElectroLUX) salesman who penned that ?
VAX is a (brittish ?) trademark for house vacuum cleaners.
I was searching through ebay for some PDP-8/e stuff to show to someone
and I stumbled across this:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/DL-Lesney-Matchbox-Series-Daimler-Bus-Digital-PDP-8…
I have no idea what I have just discovered...
Well, some bits are obvious. It's a model bus (as in the
passenger-carrying vehicle). 'Matchbox' was a common brand of such things
in the UK, IIRC the name was used by 'Lesney Products' or some such. Such
models were quite small scale, I would guess about 6cm-8cm long.
OK, the pun on 'omnibus is also obvious. The 'bus' as in the passenger
vehicle is short for 'omnibus' which as Michael Flanders said (at the
start of 'A transport of delight' means 'To or fo, by with or from
everybody'.
And of course we all know the assciation between 'omnibus' and the PDP8/e.
The only thing that puzzels me is where that advertiisng label came from.
I don;t think it would ever have been a real advert on a full-sized bus.
Back then people didn't buy computers ;-).
My guess is that the label is not orignal. Either somebody has made it up
appreciating the joke, or it was an advertising gimmick used to promote
either the PDP8/e or a rival machien (as it 'This is what DEC's bus rally
is'