Tuesday, December 2, 2014

GLIMPSE INTO THE PAST

Wired has an interesting article on ENIAC. It's worth a read. Ross Perot did what he did and most of us found it distasteful. On the other hand, preserving a bit of the first computer in this age of the world is a noteworthy accomplishment.

People might wonder, how could they not preserve the first computer in the modern era and yet they don't know. Oh God, they don't know. The 'owner' has to rent the space at about $8/square foot/year and so we only have 454 warehouses that still store CRT computer monitors. Something had to be shuffled out the door so we could keep all the millions of surplus CRT monitors, right? Out you go Ark.

I once found that I had 2 warehouses full of TALOS fire control system consoles. None of the senior staff cared that they were paying half a million dollars every year to store the fire control systems for a long defunct missile. They just kept paying the bill to store them and would do so forever.


The Talos abides dude.

4 comments:

Buck said...

Ross Perot did what he did and most of us found it distasteful.

HEY! Cut that out! That guy was my rice bowl for a few years! And a damned fine rice bowl it was.

HMS Defiant said...

Ah, but you weren't working on his NOMORECOOPERATIVEINTERNET contract were you.

Buck said...

That wasn't Perot... he was long gone by the time NMCS rolled around. But you're right: I avoided ALL federal gub'mint work while with EDS.

HMS Defiant said...

My boss at SAIC was a retired CDR and had a pony tail thiiiiiiiiiiiiissssss long. Needless to say, we didn't bother with coat and tie. My chop worked in Plano for EDS. From time to time she showed up with a cheese slice on her head. Sometimes, quarters were a little bit surreal.