[TUHS] Names of famous, historical UNIX machines?

[lm@mcvoy.com (Larry McVoy)]

On Wed, Feb 01, 2017 at 04:57:58PM -0500, Clem Cole wrote:
> On Wed, Feb 1, 2017 at 4:33 PM, Larry McVoy <lm at mcvoy.com> wrote:
> 
> > It only lasted until they figured out what it meant but I didn't get
> >         in trouble.  Because a different story had just happened that had
> >         made the Japanese sales guys bust up in laughter and they had taken
> >         me out we all got shit faced a few days before I had to rename the
> >         machines.  Happy to share that story if anyone is still reading :)
> >
> ???Outstanding -- and yes please do.???

OK.  So the ETA was in the machine room, the Sun machines were just
outside in sort of a lobby that was my office.  I was frequently in
the machine room to do something, I dunno what, it was cold and loud in
there, I hated it, but I was in there all the time.  Probably doing a
hard reset on the machine I just screwed up.

The Japanese sales guys were there constantly, watching, they wanted
the sale to go through so they could collect their commission I guess.

There was a phone in there and it would ring and a sales guy would pick
it up saying "Moshi, Moshi" which I took to mean "Hi" or "hello".

It was always corporate calling to see how things were going.

So one day I'm in there by myself and the phone rings and without thinking
about it (I don't speak Japanese so WTF was I thinking?), I pick it up
and say "Mushi, Mushi".  Too which I get a stream of horrified Japanense
and I just hang up.

The sales guys show later and I say "I answered a call for you".  "Oh,
yeah, what did you say?"  "Mushi, mushi".  Stunned silence and then they
are rolling on the floor laughing.

I'm going "What?  What did I do?".

They say "Corporate called to find out how things are going and the
software guy said 'bug, bug' and hung up".

We all went out drinking that night, those sales guys were all right.
Seemed sort of cold before that but we were buds from there forward.
I'll bet you a pile of money somewhere there is a sales guy in Japan
who tells this story, probably not in a way that is flattering to me :)

(Note this about 30 years ago and I can't remember if Moshi is hi or if it
is Mushi that is hi, but you get the idea).

--larry "bug, bug" mcvoy