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

[Fred Cisin]

On Mon, 12 Feb 2018, Pete Lancashire via cctalk wrote:
> If your in or near Portland Oregon I have a couple of the pen plotters and
> the early ink-jet monsters


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