[HECnet] VMS/RSX Guest accounts

[Thomas DeBellis]

Yes, there certainly was something about keeping those beasts behind 
glass doors where they could be properly worshiped and given due 
sacrifice by adoring acolytes.  Of course it was "Don't touch"; they 
cost millions of dollars buy and millions more to operate.

But, believe me, after you've cleaned enough tape drive excrement so as 
to become a dark magnetic gooey mess, only to have them vomit tape all 
over the place again, decollated enough paper to look like a speckled 
hen while liberally being seasoned with ink from unruly six part forms, 
suffered through crashed disks and endured processors that seized up 
whenever anybody sneezed or the temperature went up by a tenth of a 
degree, it wouldn't hold much of a thrill at all.

I hated it when call rotation came to me and I wore the pager that 
evening.  I swear between 20 to 50% of the time, my phone would ring at 
2:00 in the morning and I would spend hours with somebody from Colorado 
on the KLINIK line.  Zzz....

For me, not only is the miracle that Dave can resurrect these monsters 
decades after they were in service, but that somehow he appears to enjoy 
doing it.  Maybe it's due in part that he doesn't have a couple hundred 
livid angry users making the phone glow red.

I'm very thankful to program them again.  But I've had my fill of the 
machine room.

Not that I won't float over there the next time I happen to be in that 
neighborhood.  Some of the memories /were/ wonderful.  Some.

> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On 4/23/20 7:52 AM, Fred wrote:
>
> I say this every time this comes up, but when I visited, every other 
> word out of my mouth was simply "Wow.".  I've had accounts (been a 
> user) on many of the machines in the collection throughout my life, 
> but never actually was *up close* to one where I could touch it 
> without getting my hand smacked.  ;)
>
> Fred
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> On Wed, 22 Apr 2020, Gregg Levine wrote:
>>
>> And we are neighbors. I am in Astoria Queens. Dave has an amazing
>> collection of machines, everything imaginable.
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