[ale] Need Tractor Feed Dot Matrix printer

Fri May 27 01:38:14 EDT 2005

You old fart.  ;-)

I actually still have my first IBM XT.  My Dad didn't buy it though,  
I did.  A piece at a time.  My Dad has never bought a computer.  I  
gave my Mom one about 5 years ago but he won't use it.

I think I should go to bed now.  I am not getting any work done.

Mark

On May 27, 2005, at 1:15 AM, Christopher Bergeron wrote:

> Ok, here's my background -
>
> My first machine was a TRS-80.  I was 9 years old, and I remember  
> having to rewind the cassette tape (drive?) to play "star trek" (it  
> was the only game I had; I'm not a Trekkie/er).  I was stoked when  
> at age 12 my Dad got an IBM XT (Xtended Technology baby!).  It had  
> TURBO mode that bumped it from 4.77Mhz to 8 Mhz.  I remember  
> mastering WordStar at age 13.  I think I was the only kid in Jr.  
> High that turned in "printed" homework.  In fact, I think that a  
> few teachers even rejected it (but it's been a while).   Anyway,  
> I'm pushing 30 now, so I'm feeling a bit old.  The new BBS  
> Documentary that just came out isn't helping matters any.
>
> Sorry if this post makes anyone feel bad - it isn't intended to.  I  
> just wanted to add my history to 'history'.
>
> Kind regards,
> CB
>
>
>
>
> 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-----
>>>>> Version: GnuPG v1.2.3-nr1 (Windows 2000)
>>>>> 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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