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Re: Why did you choose that handle?
Old 03-02-2005, 11:52 AM   #61
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Re: Why did you choose that handle?

Hey Dory, I worked at Digital for my first real job out of high school...five years worth. Too bad they never released the Jupiter...the large scale dec10/20 architecture machine meant to compete with IBM's mainframes...decided the VAX was the way to go and didnt want to muddy the waters. The same decision also killed my pet project at the time, the kdj-11a...a PDP-11/70 on a single chip that was intended to be released as a "desktop mainframe".

Good thing Ken Olson was right and "there is no reason why anyone would ever want to have a computer in their own home". Another one of those "wish I hadnt said that" sayings.

Ironically, I was uncertain about putting all my money into Digital Credit Union, concerned about the long term prospects. Sad that the captive credit union outlived the company that spawned it. But it turned out to be a good bank and my money is still there.

Digital did come back to me years later though, after a fashion. Compaq bought Digitals microprocessor business and then sold it to Intel. The Digital people were freaking out because Intel was the "evil empire" and they had been indoctrinated into believing that Andy Grove had horns and a tail. Which he did

So since I had spent considerable time at Digital in MPU and OS development in the "golden years", I got the job of going back for a while and calming their fears that we were going to kill them all and eat their children. Sigh. It actually worked out well. In fact, the ideas for the multi-processor cores that Intel is rolling out right now came from some of the Digital architects.

Dory...I used to write BIOS/BDOS customizations for CP/M back when I was a teenager in the 70's...the upper case 'Y' was to force the user to hold down the shift key and press "Y" to avoid accidental formatting. Apparently pressing two keys causes one to be less dumb...

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Old 03-02-2005, 01:57 PM   #62
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this thread captured by geeks

Interesting coincidence. I was TH's customer!

We were holding promised delivery dates for Jupiters when they pulled the plug. My boss and I had flown to Boston and then on to DEC on "DEC Airlines" to get the sneak peek. I think that was around 1985-86, iirc. At that time, I was over computer operations at Carnegie-Mellon Univ.
Quote:
I used to write BIOS/BDOS customizations for CP/M back when I was a teenager in the 70's...
For those not familiar with this, when you got CP/M (the operating system before Microsoft showed up), you received something that was, well, not as complete as what you get today. I bought a copy to install on an early Radio Shack computer - their "Model 2", with 8" floppies (500k of storage!). What I got was a core operating system with no drivers for the keyboard, disk drive, screen, or anything else. Those you had to write yourself. So we did. Sort of like ordering a car, and getting a frame and an engine in a box, and a note telling you to figure out how to build the transmission and the steering mechanism from any spare parts you had laying around.

OK, sorry for the geek attack. You can have the thread back now.
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Re: Why did you choose that handle?
Old 03-02-2005, 02:04 PM   #63
 
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Re: Why did you choose that handle?

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For those not familiar with this, when you got CP/M (the operating system before Microsoft showed up), you received something that was, well, not as complete as what you get today.
I am not familar with the 'birth' of PC's, as I came from the Classic IBM Mainframe environment of the 60's and 70's. DOS/VS, VSe, VM, OS, VS1, VM. Yes I was a Cobolasaurus. - Did not get envolved with PC's until 1995.
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Re: Why did you choose that handle?
Old 03-02-2005, 04:49 PM   #64
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Re: Why did you choose that handle?

Quote:

I am not familar with the 'birth' of PC's, as I came from the Classic IBM Mainframe environment of the 60's and 70's. DOS/VS, VSe, VM, OS, VS1, VM. Yes I was a Cobolasaurus. - Did not get envolved with PC's until 1995.
THAT explains it...

Dory...you missed me by thatmuch...I left DEC in early 1985. When they bagged my project I decided that VAXen werent the future and there was something to this PC/networking stuff and went off to do several startups over the next few years. Apparently a good choice.

Although I think one of them (Interlan) had CM as a customer...in fact I was flying around doing board installs in PDP and VAX machines from 85-87 with them. You had to remove wire wraps from the backplanes to install our DMA network cards and I was the only guy they trusted to do it. I dont remember if I went to CM during that time, but if you remember any of that old ethernet gear, I was probably the guy who put it in.

And you silly people thought you were going to get this thread un-hijacked...
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Re: Why did you choose that handle?
Old 03-03-2005, 12:07 PM   #65
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Re: Why did you choose that handle?

Talk about a Geek-fest. My current career started soon 'after' the IBM PC began to catch on. Our agency had 3. Dual floppies, no hard drives yet. 512k. Lotus 123 was the killer app. I got interested as a lowly Account Clerk. Some years later I became the first dedicated PC support type job classification. Now I'm the Senior Systems Engineer, with a staff of 14, and we have well over 1,000 PC's to support, plus Servers, Routers, Switches, Printers, Laptops, Palms, CrackBerries, Cameras, you name it, if it's EDP related, we have a hand in it. And for me it was because I was interested, went back to school, learned all I could about the subject material, and wormed my way into the good graces of management. Still here with a year to go.

But the Thread needs to get back on track. Back in the year 2000 it was possible to publish Independent (Indie) music to various websites and get paid for it based on the number of "plays". They called this P4P or Pay for Play. I needed a band name for my Solo recording projects. I took the name on my Birth Cetificate (that I've never used for anything except my Driver's License) stretched it a bit, and added my last name initial. Hence JonnyM
Unfortunately the Tech Boom crash killed all such sites and the gravey train of P4P with it. It was fun while it lasted.
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Re: Why did you choose that handle?
Old 03-03-2005, 04:47 PM   #66
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Re: Why did you choose that handle?

LOL! My first full time job was working on a Windows 95 machine, yes, I'm a punk kid compared to y'all.

Handle is just my name shortened and squished.....boring I know....
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Re: Why did you choose that handle?
Old 03-03-2005, 04:54 PM   #67
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Re: Why did you choose that handle?

Quote:
Digital did come back to me years later though, after a fashion. *Compaq bought Digitals microprocessor business and then sold it to Intel. *The Digital people were freaking out because Intel was the "evil empire"

I got the job of going back for a while and calming their fears that we were going to kill them all and eat their children. *Sigh. *It actually worked out well. *
Wow TH
I still work for that group - Were you by any chance in Shrewsbury, MA in the summer of 2001? I would atleast have seen you then.
I don't post much here but used to at nofeeboards and raddr-pages under bigboy8888. Interesting that I used to read your posts and think hey fellow engineer from the same company, now it turns out I might have in fact seen you!!!

-h
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Re: Why did you choose that handle?
Old 03-04-2005, 07:09 AM   #68
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Re: Why did you choose that handle?

HI dory36,

Enableling cookies was not enough. I had to disable
my McAfee Privacy Service altogeher.

Thankks for your help.

Cheers,

Charlie
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Re: Why did you choose that handle?
Old 03-04-2005, 07:11 AM   #69
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Re: Why did you choose that handle?

P.S.

For my cyber friends, I am also known as Chuck-Lyn.

Cheers,

Charlie
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Re: Why did you choose that handle?
Old 03-04-2005, 08:32 AM   #70
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Re: Why did you choose that handle?

Quote:

Wow TH
I still work for that group - Were you by any chance in Shrewsbury, MA in the summer of 2001? I would atleast have seen you then.
I don't post much here but used to at nofeeboards and raddr-pages under bigboy8888. Interesting that I used to read your posts and think hey fellow engineer from the same company, now it turns out I might have in fact seen you!!!
Entirely possible! By summer of '01 I was just ER'ing. I'd have to dig out a calendar to remember for sure but I believe it was in the winter between '97 and '98 when I was there (just as we were finalizing the acquisition), and I was mostly at the Hudson facility. I met for a couple of weeks with the fab groups (who took a beating from the intel mfg guys and their 'my way or the highway' methodology), the microprocessor architecture groups (smart guys who were already mad that they werent taken seriously enough), and the IT groups.

Its a small world...
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Re: Why did you choose that handle?
Old 03-04-2005, 08:35 AM   #71
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Re: Why did you choose that handle?

fire5soon... I want to FI/RE, 5 is my lucky number, and I hope I fire 'soon.'

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Re: Why did you choose that handle?
Old 03-04-2005, 03:25 PM   #72
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Re: Why did you choose that handle?

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HI dory36,

Enableling cookies was not enough. *I had to disable
my McAfee Privacy Service altogeher.

Thankks for your help.

Cheers,

Charlie *
I bumped your message count arbitrarily to 500, since seeing single digit counts would be really strange for one of our regulars, and your guest posts weren't counted. So I just guessed at your message count.

This puts you in the bottom few of the top 15 posters -- sorry if I bumped someone else unfairly.

TH remains #1 at 2729 , followed not too closely by Cut-Throat (the real one) at 1848. johngalt had 437 (ranking at #15) before he stopped logging in and started posting as a guest.
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Re: Why did you choose that handle?
Old 03-05-2005, 05:43 AM   #73
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Re: Why did you choose that handle?

Thanks, dory36.

Charlie
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Re: Why did you choose that handle?
Old 03-05-2005, 10:26 AM   #74
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Re: Why did you choose that handle?

Quote:
TH remains #1 at 2729
Crap, now I have to go out and get one of those big foam hands with the raised index finger. Oh well, I need a new spare tire on my truck anyhow... :P
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Be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful. Just another form of "buy low, sell high" for those who have trouble with things. This rule is not universal. Do not buy a 1973 Pinto because everyone else is afraid of it.
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Re: Why did you choose that handle?
Old 03-06-2005, 08:00 AM   #75
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Re: Why did you choose that handle?

Nothing particularly creative about my handle. AltaRed is simply a short form of Alberta Redneck...

Which for those geographically challenged, Alberta is a province of Canada north of Montana with right wing tendencies like Montana, Wyoming and Texas.

The redneck part is meant mainly to yank other peoples' chains which I tend to like doing from time to time. Truth of the matter is that I am slightly right of center in political and social views, but consider Texas sentiment too far to the right for me.
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Re: Why did you choose that handle?
Old 03-06-2005, 11:24 AM   #76
 
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Re: Why did you choose that handle?

"Texas sentiment" is too far left for me, but it's the best I could find in the USA. I never did figure out how Ann Richards got elected governor. A real mystery.

JG
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Re: Why did you choose that handle?
Old 03-06-2005, 01:14 PM   #77
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Re: Why did you choose that handle?

Hey JG,

Ann got elected because of her personality, not her
politics. She is funny, sarcastic and a real stand-up
Texas gal. I liked her in spite of her poor choice of
party.

Cheers,

Charlie
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