[HECnet] Hans Vlems...

[John H. Reinhardt]

On 2/28/2020 9:44 AM, Dave McGuire wrote:
> On 2/28/20 5:11 AM, Supratim Sanyal wrote:
>> Jeez. That would be "the other Johnny". I often use the DECnet dump tool
>> he wrote (anfdump) and will always have fond memories of interactions we
>> have had.
>    I did not know Johnny Eriksson.  I will have to check out anfdump.
>
>> Same for Hans. He used to go out of his way to retrieve and digitize
>> arcane pieces of software only he seemed to have physical media of.
>> Again fond memories of email exchanges.
>    Do you know if the stuff he preserved has been archived and duplicated
> somewhere?

 From Camiel Vanderhoeven on C.O.V


After we learned of his parting, we contacted his daughters. Dutch DECcies made two trips to his house to collect the hardware, software and documentation (I took part in the second trip, as I couldn't make it for the first one). All has been rescued, and various new homes were found everything. We're still sorting through a lot, but there are some real gems there, including a nearly complete documentation set for a Burroughs 7700 mainframe. I've taken it upon myself to properly scan these and make them available publicly.

It also led me to discover additional common history between myself and Hans, besides a love of all things DEC. I knew that the Eindhoven University of Technology, where I studied in the late 90's, once had a Burroughs mainframe, so when we discovered the Burroughs manuals, I asked Hans' daughters if these could possibly come from Eindhoven University. His daughters dug up an article about Hans that mentioned how, as a student and assistant systems administrator, he used to play with the Burroughs mainframe at the University, sometimes to the despair of Carel Braam, the head systems administrator at the University datacenter. As it happens, when I was a student, I also was an assistant systems administrator - though the Burroughs was long gone - serving under the same Carel, some twenty years after Hans held the position. When I left university, Carel gave me one of the Burroughs logos taken from one of the doors of that same old Burroughs mainframe. So now I have the documentation to go with it.

Camiel

>> May their souls rest in peace.
>    Yes.
>
>             -Dave
>
-- 
John H. Reinhardt