I just watched the Timeless episode mentioned by Frank. Yes, the plot
was a little thin when it came to the adding and removing the virus from
the mainframe. But, it's not that unexpected of a time travel series.
But, I had to laugh when they installed the tape reel with the write
protect ring toward the outside, not once, but twice by two different
characters. :0
Tony Thigpen
Frank Swarbrick wrote on 01/13/2017 01:05 PM:
There was a recent episode of the new TV series "Timeless" that involved this era, and in fact had the
Katherine G. Johnson<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katherine_Johnson> "character". In this show
she and the main characters fairly easily got themselves access to the computer room and "fed a virus" in
to the mainframe using paper tape! I'm guessing the TV show was a bit less realistic than the movie...! :-)
Frank
________________________________
From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU> on behalf of David
Boyes <dbo...@sinenomine.net>
Sent: Friday, January 13, 2017 9:38 AM
To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU
Subject: Hidden Figures
It's interesting to note that this mailing list indirectly contributed to the
movie. The directors contacted several people on this list whose experience
goes back to the days when 7090s walked the earth, and we were able to correct
a number of issues about what would have been possible or permitted with such a
machine.
It's really weird to see how personal computers have influenced people's
assumptions about what is and is not possible. NASA's 7090 was strictly
access-controlled, and there would have been no ability to touch the hardware,
certainly not by applications programmers. The directors had a hard time
comprehending the idea of leased machines and charging by the CPU meter -- they
didn't believe it until I was able to show them paperwork from that era that
laid out IBM's expectations of customer and FE responsibilities and the
charging model.
So, pat yourselves on the back -- we kept things accurate. The movie's worth
seeing.
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