[ale] Need Tractor Feed Dot Matrix printer

Fri May 27 01:12:49 EDT 2005

Guilty,

Here's a good O'l Fart story about Linux.  I used to support  
mainframe channel attached communications devices called, for lack of  
anything better, front end processors.  They multiplexed  
communication lines onto an IBM 370 channel.   512 inbound anything,  
ATM, SNA, T1, dialup, etc connected to one 4.5 Mb/S 64 bit wide  
parallel connection.  To put patches on we used Kermit.  Any of you  
not old can google the history of Kermit.

We had to use a modem connected laptop to connect to a  remote  
mainframe.  Start the remote Kermit then start local Kermit on the  
FEP (front end processor)  and get patches.

Recently I had a friend ask me to use a newly installed Fedora box to  
configure his PBX phone system formerly done with Hyper Terminal and  
a serial connection on Windows.  I was stumped until I thought to run  
Kermit from the command line.  Once I figured out the command to  
configure his serial interface and start it we were configuring  
phones with ease.

Actually, as Dennis said to King Arthur, "I'm not old"

On May 26, 2005, at 11:47 PM, James P. Kinney III wrote:

> Ol' fart ;)
> On Thu, 2005-05-26 at 22:26 -0400, Mark Wright wrote:
>
>> I have worked on 6262's.  Didn't know anything about them but usually
>> got them running.
>>
>> The most bodacious  (thats the only word that comes to mind)  
>> printer I
>> have ever worked on was an STK 5000.  It was not a dot matrix but a
>> band printer.  It was the biggest and baddest impact printer in the
>> land.  It could print 5000 132 character lines in one minute.  It was
>> huge.  Imagine a continuos tractor fed sheet  of paper two feet wide
>> flying through this huge machine as it is pounded by a row of hammers
>> 132 characters wide.  The noise of five or six servo controlled  
>> motors
>> big enough to power a golf cart going full blast was incredible  
>> alone,
>> then the hammers printing...
>>
>> There used to be four of these in the windowless State archive  
>> building
>> downtown that printed all the tag and title forms for the state.   
>> They
>> were still in use last time I was there about 1999.
>>
>> I took a Fortran class using punch cards, a card reader to input
>> program and data and output from a line printer.  We didn't even have
>> console with a tube an keyboard.  The card reader and printer we
>> connected using IBM SNA (systems network architecture) and a T1 to GA
>> Tech's mainframe.
>>
>> I the late 80's I installed a computer for AT&T that cost 4 million
>> without any disk or tape subsystems.  They bought the disk, tape and
>> network stuff from other companies.  This computer and the connected
>> devices would just sit idle in the case another computer on the other
>> side of the data center had a failure.  These computers routed 800
>> calls.  AT&T lost about 100 million in business because that first
>> computer went down once.  (anyone remember a 800 number and cell  
>> phone
>> issue in the late 80's in New York?) Hence the approximately 6  
>> million
>> dollar hot spare.
>>
>> I love stuff like this.  I have more stories.  I better shut up.   
>> Once
>> a Space Shuttle launch was put off because we asked for time to apply
>> patches to a System at AT&T.    Ok Ok, I'm stopping
>>
>> Oh wait!  The console processor on the Mainframes I worked on used
>> UNIX!  (Is that close to having a Linux topic?)
>>
>> Mark
>>
>>
>> On May 26, 2005, at 2:36 PM, Matt Magee wrote:
>>
>>
>>> Not old enough to have worked with a 1403, but one place I worked at
>>> had a pair of 6262s which apparently operate in a similar  
>>> manner.  The
>>> 6262s will induce hearing loss if you leave the doors open!
>>>
>>> People would ask why we used these huge twinax connected monsters.
>>> The reply was always "because it works!"
>>>
>>> Ben Coleman wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
>>>> Hash: SHA1
>>>>
>>>> Brian J. Dowd wrote:
>>>> | My first home computer (1975) ran a Teletype ASR33...
>>>> | Now that was a kick. Stood on an attached stand and was  
>>>> shipped to
>>>> | me bolted to a wooden palette. Sounded just like a newsroom at  
>>>> 110
>>>> baud :-)
>>>> | Is anyone else ancient on this list or are the other geezers  
>>>> still
>>>> | running DOS or Windows?
>>>>
>>>> I'm ancient enough to remember the IBM 1403 line printers from the
>>>> same
>>>> era.  Talk about loud!  I remember one where if you had several  
>>>> lines
>>>> of
>>>> asterisks (typical for the header and trailer pages), it sounded as
>>>> though someone was hitting it with a hammer.  Fast, though!
>>>>
>>>> Ben
>>>> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
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>>>> Comment: Using GnuPG with Thunderbird - http://enigmail.mozdev.org
>>>>
>>>> iD8DBQFClgK+QBcsLKrSBE8RAhqSAJ457PGS1L2D8d2boAJ+qHsvaqbKvACgxJOI
>>>> wnzDJWpsQuUfRHuOtESfwow=
>>>> =4V83
>>>> -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
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>>
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> -- 
> James P. Kinney III          \Changing the mobile computing world/
> CEO & Director of Engineering \          one Linux user         /
> Local Net Solutions,LLC        \           at a time.          /
> 770-493-8244                    \.___________________________./
> http://www.localnetsolutions.com
>
> GPG ID: 829C6CA7 James P. Kinney III (M.S. Physics)
> <jkinney at localnetsolutions.com>
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