Posts by Fedup

Back in the old days

I seem to remember we used to use Polo mints instead of Mentos .

Now this was a big bang!

Way back in the 70’s I was working in one of the Philips military companies who were involved in the Clansman Radio systems. To filter out all the noise from the tank power infrastructure they suppled a power conditioning unit. This consisted of some of the largest electrolytic capacitors around – they were about 15cm high and about 10cm round. One day the production staff had wire a couple of these the wrong way around. After being turned on in the test area a few minutes later there was an almighty explosion – not a bang, an explosion that shook the whole factory – and it was a large factory. Once the cloud of smoke had cleared everyone started looking for the remains of the test engineer. Just as we got close to the bench, a waving hand with a white handkerchief came up from under the bench - he had just managed to see the capacitors bulging moment before the explosion and dived under the bench. This is a true story.

Eh!

How are you going to read the data off the tapes from the internal library controller via HTTP. The tape drives are connected via Fibre Channel to the backup server and all the data goes via the FC interface.

This as we know is a short term financial gain for a long term loss and the possible collapse of a company. One of the biggest threats to the longevity of companies is the constant raiding the piggy bank to fund shareholder value and dividends at the cost of investment in products or manufacturing facilities to increase profitability. Just look at some of the great companies we have lost over the past few years through a lack of basic investment.

"Time to dig out my Valves. I knew there was a reason why I kept them."

Is it time to put Colossus on hot standby ? The computer guys at Bletchley Park could start a whole new DR business to fund the museum. Come to think of it , with the science museum having a working Babbage difference engine, even if the worst happens our wonderful leaders could continue to calculate the Nation Debt - or would that take second priority to calculating their popularity rating?

This is exactly what has happened to the Space Centre in Houston. I was so looking forward to that but id was full of dumbed down exhibits with no recognition of the technology and the people involved. I was caught on the way out my a market researcher asking me what I thought. When asked about my overall experience I answered that I would have enjoyed it more if I had 9/10th of my brain removed as that represents the level of intellectual stimulation. Contrast that with the Pima air museum just outside Tucson AZ. It was full of guys that had been in the Air Force / Army flying these planes. There where a couple of guys there that had flown the bombers over in Europe during WWII and their stories and view of what it was like was fascinating. We spent most of the day there - even my wife found it interesting. Unlike the Space centre which we left after a hour or so.