Unix tools, Bill Webb, UBC, TRIUMF

[Boris Gimbarzevsky]

I used to work at UBC in Pharmacology in the 
1980's and had a few talks with Bill Webb about 
Unix but, unfortunately, for the data acquisition 
we were doing Unix was far too slow and I did 
everything in optimized PDP-11 assembler.  Of 
course, we didn't have a PDP-11/45 like Bill had 
and had to make do with a slower PDP-11/34.  Bill 
had hacked Unix considerably and it was locally 
known as Webbix on campus.  Played around with 
Unix and Webbix back then but don't think I have the tapes anymore.

One of the RL01 or RLO2 disks I picked up at SERF 
in the 1990's (along with a MINC system) 
contained a copy of Webbix but I'm not sure I 
copied it.  Gave away the MINC and 2 RLO1 or RLO2 
drives to a guy in Seattle about 2006 and hopefully he's copied them.

Boris Gimbarzevsky

>I recovered several pieces of Unix media ­ all 
>of whichh I think made it into TUHS/PUPS 
>collection - at UBC in the mid-1990’s while I was working at TRIUMF.
>
>Those Unix disks and tapes came from a SERF sale 
>(Surplus Equipment Recycling Facility) on UBC 
>main campus, not from TRIUMF. Bill Webb was a 
>common thread for Unix use in the biology department at UBC.
>
>TRIUMF extensively used Data General Nova, then 
>Eclipse (both 16 and 32 bit), computers from 
>opening through the 1990’s for both cyclotron 
>control systems and data acquisition for 
>experiments.  They also had a fair number of 
>PDP-11’s and VAXen running RSX-11, RT-11, and 
>VMS. I myself had an Alpha workstation on my 
>desk for the two users I was at TRIUMF.
>
>One of my favorite connections between TRIUMF 
>and UBC, was the underground pneumatic tube used 
>to rapidly carry short lived isotopes produced 
>in the cyclotron to the main campus for biology 
>and medical uses. It should not come as a 
>surprise to anyone that I still work in moving 
>things and people through underground tunnels 😊
>
>Tim N3QE