From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.2 (2018-09-13) on inbox.vuxu.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.7 required=5.0 tests=DKIM_SIGNED,DKIM_VALID, HEADER_FROM_DIFFERENT_DOMAINS,LOTS_OF_MONEY,MAILING_LIST_MULTI, PLING_QUERY,RCVD_IN_DNSWL_NONE autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.2 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (minnie.tuhs.org [45.79.103.53]) by inbox.vuxu.org (OpenSMTPD) with ESMTP id b57d8d8a for ; Tue, 15 Oct 2019 00:08:03 +0000 (UTC) Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id 6AB579BD8D; Tue, 15 Oct 2019 10:08:02 +1000 (AEST) Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id DB0BD93D27; Tue, 15 Oct 2019 10:07:49 +1000 (AEST) Authentication-Results: minnie.tuhs.org; dkim=pass (2048-bit key; unprotected) header.d=algebras-org.20150623.gappssmtp.com header.i=@algebras-org.20150623.gappssmtp.com header.b="1BIvPp+4"; dkim-atps=neutral Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id 603D793D27; Tue, 15 Oct 2019 10:07:48 +1000 (AEST) Received: from mail-io1-f51.google.com (mail-io1-f51.google.com [209.85.166.51]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id C4BFA93D20 for ; Tue, 15 Oct 2019 10:07:47 +1000 (AEST) Received: by mail-io1-f51.google.com with SMTP id q1so41908752ion.1 for ; Mon, 14 Oct 2019 17:07:47 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=algebras-org.20150623.gappssmtp.com; s=20150623; h=mime-version:references:in-reply-to:from:date:message-id:subject:to; bh=d8j3NC2NZlMDkS+9iZwXJIGr/m5obeYIjy2yhQUYpBs=; b=1BIvPp+4ng3NQjephlWIe/lGrLRXVaaN+sBiOirIopi/mpbD4tU8eOatoOl8WuPZZ2 XC5JygYyDX+52IkE8LaTANdlNPJfxu4o3ARlObL7gFXUCK+W9RO/gqu+2dEKSCfMr941 b4KoS0MIVbjuDixiQYgAOfxQ8T/aQ2vzRmi33bM8brIiH6myZH5Xr8QKOtaW8ZZxIIWu g6rhhABOHdluY6rc+FHzXYayuxgONSk5IrkkD2pXLY+v2/A99PA+vKb2Jon6tskLUYV7 Xmx7WUP1SDlY+gux9etV3TUKNGR02SXOic4KysB3r1mXV0U+EtsCtkyP5BtbvfwW21ih qd3Q== X-Google-DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=1e100.net; s=20161025; h=x-gm-message-state:mime-version:references:in-reply-to:from:date :message-id:subject:to; bh=d8j3NC2NZlMDkS+9iZwXJIGr/m5obeYIjy2yhQUYpBs=; b=VlLMy/LpB+qu7L6HNbgmsQuGLtwx4+GNIwrTWMcc7QsfTEBaeCS34zqOyagvjYgoWL ruI8aR3WQcoOfCcDHKbJosusRyuwWjhpsvMCGVZkJ70LszrJ5eDE/P2bVNzpXR6yOfy3 Akx25upXq3DmUPpkeMyaPQ4UvAkyysCvyVvw6P4t41+XgzIVRpB4cL+5icGilTZXQP+C tNANzWDFvLqOOAAOEztlSixMv9kCU42mXrow4kQCryGVQcniE7Q6Ry7cxHqlfjvesShh iVPwM19W5Nmi1LGMEiShfFxO2+Lb8g/eDifMdPzcYP8T3QQlW1UKZOTSCs4Y7ymdfBD2 NENw== X-Gm-Message-State: APjAAAVUT61jy9X0lswhSV/CjGY6CWEn3J/ayQ3JpxsdH5rBUJip+IMd TfvDu5GtbvrUZeTvacdISbp4hqguph/14A196VvyVw2tl0s= X-Google-Smtp-Source: APXvYqy4k5wXeuzLH8zLaltjrscodYMczEtup9/xYLrUuckP527UnjXfqW6marEbIZZuDGyaHdEbrvr+OSIep76XyuE= X-Received: by 2002:a6b:f111:: with SMTP id e17mr1667104iog.65.1571098066886; Mon, 14 Oct 2019 17:07:46 -0700 (PDT) MIME-Version: 1.0 References: <20191010205546.GA29154@minnie.tuhs.org> <87h84f4kle.fsf@vuxu.org> <20191013194603.GB68749@server.rulingia.com> <0b49b06e-7fd7-8b0d-c568-ea11c36347df@kilonet.net> <4AA7BE7E-30B6-4F47-B745-657DDE2260E1@gmail.com> <0A4E13BD-C4B5-4D03-8226-3FCF2293A0A3@ronnatalie.com> In-Reply-To: <0A4E13BD-C4B5-4D03-8226-3FCF2293A0A3@ronnatalie.com> From: George Michaelson Date: Tue, 15 Oct 2019 10:07:34 +1000 Message-ID: To: The Eunuchs Hysterical Society Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Subject: Re: [TUHS] What was your "Aha, Unix!" moment? X-BeenThere: tuhs@minnie.tuhs.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.26 Precedence: list List-Id: The Unix Heritage Society mailing list List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: tuhs-bounces@minnie.tuhs.org Sender: "TUHS" Tracy Kidder evokes different emotions around "the soul of a new machine" -To me, the book is great because its a humanist reading of technology choices. People matter. Careers are built on seemingly trivial decisions like the size of the average door frame in a lift in Tokyo. (a brief moment in the book, from memory) I always wished it had been written about Digital Equipment and not Data General, because the only DG box I worked on (a Nova) was a dog. I know one person who came from Australia (UQ) to Maynard, to track the building of the Dec-10 destined for the campus. He had entertaining anecdotes about parking and weather. (australians are not naturally prepared for 2m of snow and the effect of parking in the wrong side of the snow shadow, which explains why the parking spots were empty for the visitor to claim) -I think the birth of the pdp-8 and pdp-11 would be fascinating. I was told the queue to sign up for pdp-8 at the IFIP floor show in the 60s in Edinburgh was a mile long: people were dog tired of walking card decks over to central computing facilities and the offer of a deskside or even desktop (if your desk was strong enough) compute engine for stats and maths and process control... Sub-floor radius limits made it hard to retrofit a Cray into the UQ machine room because the piping radii had been done for the IBM mainframe. We had to lift the raised floor for the flourinert piping. 400Hz voltage demanded a spinning metal regenerator to do frequency conversion from the Australian wallplate voltage/frequency. Our groundplane was inadequate. The Tops-10 box, the cluster of Vaxen, were completely oblivious to most of this: they did air cooling through floor venting, thats really all that mattered in their machine-room. It was the one we chose to fit the comms racks because it was the least pain to work in, and the nearest to the hosts which could actually use Internet protocols trivially on UTP or thinwire. (the IBM required us to buy a $10,000 PC to fit the line card which translated TCP/IP into IBM networking and was possibly the last piece of "thickwire" ethernet we owned) -G