Re: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets
Shmuel Metz (Seymour J.) wrote: Reminds me of the old diagnostic technique: 1. Clean all of the contacts/. 2. Test the link. 3. Tell the customer that you couldn't find a problem so it must be on his end. Thanks, now I'm not feeling alone... hehehe... Or like this one (software based, not hardware like above): 220 x.x.x.x FTP proxy ready. User (x.x.x.x:(none)): @ 501 Not permitted to connect to @ Login failed. I failed many time to tell 'them' it is NOT RACF related. (Lack of 331 prompt for example) In one particular difficult to trace case, it was found to be a proxy server some censored [on T.H.E.I.R S.I.D.E !!!] configured without using proper procedures... Sigh... ;-) Groete / Greetings Elardus Engelbrecht -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets
I had that at my first job. I learned early to hate the telephone company. And concentrator office in Garland, TX. I would call them about no connectivity to TCIC (Texas Crime Information Center, or something like that). I was told nobody else is experiencing problems!. I would then call another shop at the other end of town. They would be down too. Had one remote police office with 3767s and a 3275(?). Every time it rained, they'd be down. Rain would stop and dry out, they'd come back up. Telephone company said I was lying. -- John McKown Systems Engineer IV IT Administrative Services Group HealthMarkets(r) 9151 Boulevard 26 * N. Richland Hills * TX 76010 (817) 255-3225 phone * john.mck...@healthmarkets.com * www.HealthMarkets.com Confidentiality Notice: This e-mail message may contain confidential or proprietary information. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original message. HealthMarkets(r) is the brand name for products underwritten and issued by the insurance subsidiaries of HealthMarkets, Inc. -The Chesapeake Life Insurance Company(r), Mid-West National Life Insurance Company of TennesseeSM and The MEGA Life and Health Insurance Company.SM -Original Message- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu] On Behalf Of Shmuel Metz (Seymour J.) Sent: Monday, March 26, 2012 1:28 PM To: IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu Subject: Re: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets In 7282054772622349.wa.steve.doverccbcc@bama.ua.edu, on 03/26/2012 at 08:19 AM, Steve Dover steve.do...@ccbcc.com said: ATT said everything was great on the line, Reminds me of the old diagnostic technique: 1. Clean all of the contacts/. 2. Test the link. 3. Tell the customer that you couldn't find a problem so it must be on his end. -- Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz, SysProg and JOAT ISO position; see http://patriot.net/~shmuel/resume/brief.html We don't care. We don't have to care, we're Congress. (S877: The Shut up and Eat Your spam act of 2003) -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets
On Tue, 27 Mar 2012 07:17:21 -0500, McKown, John wrote: Every time it rained, they'd be down. Rain would stop and dry out, they'd come back up. Telephone company said I was lying. Sounds like my ADSL link - and man, have we had some rain in the last year or two ... Shane ... -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets
Man, Had a Hasp RJE like that John, everytime it rained there were strange creatures on the phone lines...of course the standard phone company reply was classic, no problems here and the problems always disappeared. Sent from my iPad Scott Ford Senior Systems Engineer www.identityforge.com On Mar 27, 2012, at 8:17 AM, McKown, John john.mck...@healthmarkets.com wrote: I had that at my first job. I learned early to hate the telephone company. And concentrator office in Garland, TX. I would call them about no connectivity to TCIC (Texas Crime Information Center, or something like that). I was told nobody else is experiencing problems!. I would then call another shop at the other end of town. They would be down too. Had one remote police office with 3767s and a 3275(?). Every time it rained, they'd be down. Rain would stop and dry out, they'd come back up. Telephone company said I was lying. -- John McKown Systems Engineer IV IT Administrative Services Group HealthMarkets(r) 9151 Boulevard 26 * N. Richland Hills * TX 76010 (817) 255-3225 phone * john.mck...@healthmarkets.com * www.HealthMarkets.com Confidentiality Notice: This e-mail message may contain confidential or proprietary information. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original message. HealthMarkets(r) is the brand name for products underwritten and issued by the insurance subsidiaries of HealthMarkets, Inc. -The Chesapeake Life Insurance Company(r), Mid-West National Life Insurance Company of TennesseeSM and The MEGA Life and Health Insurance Company.SM -Original Message- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu] On Behalf Of Shmuel Metz (Seymour J.) Sent: Monday, March 26, 2012 1:28 PM To: IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu Subject: Re: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets In 7282054772622349.wa.steve.doverccbcc@bama.ua.edu, on 03/26/2012 at 08:19 AM, Steve Dover steve.do...@ccbcc.com said: ATT said everything was great on the line, Reminds me of the old diagnostic technique: 1. Clean all of the contacts/. 2. Test the link. 3. Tell the customer that you couldn't find a problem so it must be on his end. -- Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz, SysProg and JOAT ISO position; see http://patriot.net/~shmuel/resume/brief.html We don't care. We don't have to care, we're Congress. (S877: The Shut up and Eat Your spam act of 2003) -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Grace Hopper Stories!! (was RE: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets)
On Mon, Mar 26, 2012 at 6:23 PM, Tony Harminc t...@harminc.net wrote: On 23 March 2012 11:53, Sevetson, Phil psevet...@fisa.nyc.gov wrote: How many people here have been to one of her lectures? Where she used to hold up 11-inch bits of wire, explaining that This is a nanosecond and sometimes carried around a coil of wire that was a light-microsecond long? I am surprised that a nanosecond ruler has not shown up as a standard scientific novelty. There are various examples of them on the net, but they are hand crafted by physics teachers and professors. What we need is a cheap plastic ruler 1 ns long, with no inches or cm or other clutter. Played straight, so to speak, as though we really used such a ruler as an everyday tool. It would just barely be feasible to have ps divisions, though the unaided eye could not use them to measure things. But 100 and 10 ps divisions would be quite usable. That would be fun. Alternatively, have one side be inches (or mm/cm) and the other ns ... then it would actually be useful and folks could justify the cost. -- zMan -- I've got a mainframe and I'm not afraid to use it -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Grace Hopper Stories!! (was RE: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets)
I like zMan's idea for a two-sided--nanosecond and millimeter--ruler; his notion that the availability of the second, millimeter side would make justifying its cost easy is a really inspired piece of nonsense. I wish I'd thought of it. John Gilmore, Ashland, MA 01721 - USA -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Grace Hopper Stories!! (was RE: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets)
On Tue, 27 Mar 2012 09:06:30 -0500, John Gilmore wrote: I like zMan's idea for a two-sided--nanosecond and millimeter--ruler; his notion that the availability of the second, millimeter side would make justifying its cost easy is a really inspired piece of nonsense. I wish I'd thought of it. Earlier in this thread someone said 11 inches. Elsewhere, I've seen 9 inches or 8 inches. It depends largely on the speed of light in the insulation of the wire, which is not well controlled. Precise rulers are calibrated at a specific temperature; the nanosecond ruler needs to be calibrated for a specific propagation medium. -- gil -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets
Scott Ford wrote: Had a Hasp RJE like that John, everytime it rained there were strange creatures on the phone lines...of course the standard phone company reply was classic, no problems here and the problems always disappeared. I'm certainly no apologist for Big Phone, but have to relate a contra-story in the spirit of fairness: In the mid-80s I lived in Waterloo, Ontario. Working late at night over my speedy 2400bps dialup, I'd get bad characters occasionally, but always the *same* characters (curly braces, forget which direction). I called Bell Canada, and they not only took it seriously and investigated, but got back to me to tell me that it was automated line testing, and that they'd turned it off for my line. Of course that person was probably RIFfed soon after... ...phsiii -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Grace Hopper Stories!! (was RE: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets)
They have the 12 inch ruler with mm on the other side, flip side sould be scaled with nano seconds speed of light, and speed of sound http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_of_sound is 340 m/s so .34m oer 340mm is 0.001 Mach-second (13.38 inches) But speed of sound depends on medium. And second depends on human based time keeping. Just like in the movie Contact, what would someone from another planet recognize as a base unit of measurement? How about a ruler based on Hydrogen? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen A scale based upon a 10^9 multiple of a hydrogen wavelength (unfortunately there are several). It also lists a Covalent radius 31±5 pm (31 picometers = 3.1 × 10-11 meters) (3.1 cm = 1 million Hydrogen covalent bonds) On Tue, Mar 27, 2012 at 9:06 AM, John Gilmore johnwgilmore0...@gmail.com wrote: I like zMan's idea for a two-sided--nanosecond and millimeter--ruler; his notion that the availability of the second, millimeter side would make justifying its cost easy is a really inspired piece of nonsense. I wish I'd thought of it. John Gilmore, Ashland, MA 01721 - USA -- Mike A Schwab, Springfield IL USA Where do Forest Rangers go to get away from it all? -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Grace Hopper Stories!! (was RE: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets)
I saw her once in the mid-70s at an ACM meeting in Bloomington, Illinois. I recall a story she told about her first assignment at the Pentagon. She had an office and an assistant. But no furniture in the office and no budget. That did not stop her. Fortunately, her assistant was a good scrounger, and within a day she had her furniture, and she had not had to touch her non-existant budget or her own personal funds. Those nan0-second wires she would hand out were obtained by similar means. At the pentagon, the wiring in the phone closets was constantly being changed. She or her assistants would procure the scrap wiring that the phone guy had removed and use it for her lectures. When she eventually reached flag rank, she selected the Jolly Roger as her personal flag. Jeff Holst -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets
Ed, We had one of those also. Insurance agent office in downtown Manhattan. On site AS400 to manage business. Response time fluctuations at this site were off the scale. ATT said everything was great on the line, one of the best drops in our network. 6 of us were working with the agents in that office when we finally realized that response time was great before 9:00 AM and after 4:00 PM. Same hours as New York Stock Exchange. ATT finally admitted they had been working on upgrading the local switches to handle the huge increase in traffic to NYSE, which was 2 blocks from this office. On Fri, 23 Mar 2012 23:43:45 -0500, Ed Gould edgould1...@comcast.net wrote: This is not HALON related but it is along similar lines of others on here. We had a T1 that worked perfectly ATT (in the 1980's) said it was to spec and almost zero errors. One of my many part time responsibilities was for maintaining the 3725 software. Every so often the T1 (it was muxed) would go zonkers. I had ATT and everyone looking at it and they could see it go crazy and were trying to pin down what was causing it. I had traces up the ying yang showing the issue but everything (software) was up to snuf and I had IBM level 2 scratching their heads as they could not see the issue either. It was getting semi serious as the NP was out pacing the floor and yelling at people. One of our people was talking to the people on the other end (NYC) and he made a comment about it seemed to happen when ever the freight elevator went by.. Turns out they didn't use shielded wiring in the elevator shaft (DAMM ATT). They were out and replaced it and really never had an issue after that and we POURED data through it! Never a software issue (NCP or VTAM) it was solid as a rock just like good code should be. Ed -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Grace Hopper Stories!! (was RE: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets)
On Mon, Mar 26, 2012 at 8:16 AM, Jeff Holst jeff.ho...@fiserv.com wrote: deleted When she eventually reached flag rank, she selected the Jolly Roger as her personal flag. Jeff Holst Kind of like the crew of the diesel sub U.S.S. Stingray? http://www.imdb.com/media/rm3566640640/tt0116130 -- Mike A Schwab, Springfield IL USA Where do Forest Rangers go to get away from it all? -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets
In 7282054772622349.wa.steve.doverccbcc@bama.ua.edu, on 03/26/2012 at 08:19 AM, Steve Dover steve.do...@ccbcc.com said: ATT said everything was great on the line, Reminds me of the old diagnostic technique: 1. Clean all of the contacts/. 2. Test the link. 3. Tell the customer that you couldn't find a problem so it must be on his end. -- Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz, SysProg and JOAT ISO position; see http://patriot.net/~shmuel/resume/brief.html We don't care. We don't have to care, we're Congress. (S877: The Shut up and Eat Your spam act of 2003) -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Grace Hopper Stories!! (was RE: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets)
On 23 March 2012 11:53, Sevetson, Phil psevet...@fisa.nyc.gov wrote: How many people here have been to one of her lectures? Where she used to hold up 11-inch bits of wire, explaining that This is a nanosecond and sometimes carried around a coil of wire that was a light-microsecond long? I am surprised that a nanosecond ruler has not shown up as a standard scientific novelty. There are various examples of them on the net, but they are hand crafted by physics teachers and professors. What we need is a cheap plastic ruler 1 ns long, with no inches or cm or other clutter. Played straight, so to speak, as though we really used such a ruler as an everyday tool. It would just barely be feasible to have ps divisions, though the unaided eye could not use them to measure things. But 100 and 10 ps divisions would be quite usable. Tony H. -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Grace Hopper Stories!! (was RE: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets)
For awhile, I worked at the Washington Navy Yard with a number of people who had known Grace. This was back in 1995 and was after she had passed, so I never had the honor of meeting her. One of the people I worked for, the datacenter Director, told me that she had worked for him for awhile. He said it was really funny because he wasn't sure if she worked for him, or he worked for her. He told me that every time he told her that they didn't have money in the budget for one of her trips, he started receiving phone calls from Congressmen who, I assume, would suggest that he might have real budget problems soon. I miss the days when I worked there... really great people. Greg Schmeelk Sr. Systems Programmer J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc. Cell: 678-416-2358 E-Mail: greg_schme...@jbhunt.com From: Tony Harminc t...@harminc.net To: IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu Date: 03/26/2012 05:23 PM Subject: Re: Grace Hopper Stories!! (was RE: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets) Sent by: IBM Mainframe Discussion List IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu On 23 March 2012 11:53, Sevetson, Phil psevet...@fisa.nyc.gov wrote: How many people here have been to one of her lectures? Where she used to hold up 11-inch bits of wire, explaining that This is a nanosecond and sometimes carried around a coil of wire that was a light-microsecond long? I am surprised that a nanosecond ruler has not shown up as a standard scientific novelty. There are various examples of them on the net, but they are hand crafted by physics teachers and professors. What we need is a cheap plastic ruler 1 ns long, with no inches or cm or other clutter. Played straight, so to speak, as though we really used such a ruler as an everyday tool. It would just barely be feasible to have ps divisions, though the unaided eye could not use them to measure things. But 100 and 10 ps divisions would be quite usable. Tony H. -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Grace Hopper Stories!! (was RE: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets)
My memories of Grace Hopper go back a bit farther than what is generally being discussed. As my father was an engineer with IBM back in the 50's I have some recollections of a young Grace Hopper being around the house quite often. I do recall her and my father and a few other colleagues having some heated discussions around the barbeque. Martin Eison Computer Science Corporation This is a PRIVATE message. If you are not the intended recipient, please delete without copying and kindly advise us by e-mail of the mistake in delivery. NOTE: Regardless of content, this e-mail shall not operate to bind CSC to any order or other contract unless pursuant to explicit written agreement or government initiative expressly permitting the use of e-mail for such purpose. -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Grace Hopper Stories!! (was RE: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets)
The one impactful moment I had with Grace Hopper was when I attended a conference that she was presenting in and she was talking about how far technology had gone but in her mind when she spoke about a nano second she wanted to know what that represented. She ordered her engineers to come up with something physical that would represent that. The engineers thought and thought and finally came up with an answer that she could understood. They came up with a wire about 18 inches in length and they said that the time it takes electricity to travel from one side to the other is a nano second. She handed the wire to everyone in the conference. What a fantastic lady! George Rodriguez Specialist II - IT Solutions Application Support / Quality Assurance PX - 47652 (561) 357-7652 (office) (561) 707-3496 (mobile) School District of Palm Beach County 3348 Forest Hill Blvd. Room B-241 West Palm Beach, FL. 33406-5869 Florida's Only A-Rated Urban District For Seven Consecutive Years - Original Message - From: Martin Eison [mailto:mei...@csc.com] Sent: Sunday, March 25, 2012 05:58 AM To: IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu Subject: Re: Grace Hopper Stories!! (was RE: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets) My memories of Grace Hopper go back a bit farther than what is generally being discussed. As my father was an engineer with IBM back in the 50's I have some recollections of a young Grace Hopper being around the house quite often. I do recall her and my father and a few other colleagues having some heated discussions around the barbeque. Martin Eison Computer Science Corporation This is a PRIVATE message. If you are not the intended recipient, please delete without copying and kindly advise us by e-mail of the mistake in delivery. NOTE: Regardless of content, this e-mail shall not operate to bind CSC to any order or other contract unless pursuant to explicit written agreement or government initiative expressly permitting the use of e-mail for such purpose. -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN Home of Florida's first LEED Gold Certified School Under Florida law, e-mail addresses are public records. If you do not want your e-mail address released in response to a public records request, do not send electronic mail to this entity. Instead, contact this office by phone or in writing. -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Grace Hopper Stories!! (was RE: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets)
Hi Phil, Ah yes. 11.8 inches, I believe. I still have mine. The last time I saw her, she was handing out picoseconds as well - the little 'to go' packets of ground pepper. I lost my picoseconds along the way. Once upon a time, when I was a student at Hartnell College in the Monterey Bay area, I was also the president of the student chapter of the Data Processing Management Association. Grace Hopper was often in the area at the Naval Post Graduate School, and there was a large data center. Our Parent DPMA chapter was able to arrange for her to speak to us several times at the NPGS. She was absolutely amazing. She helped to light the 'fire in the belly' for many of us. After the presentation, and usually a tour with stop and talks along the tours, we would gather 'round for a chat - those of us who were willing to stay late. A couple of times, she rewarded those few of us who stayed for the deep dive by introducing us to Arpanet. Last May, while in DC, I went to the Smithsonian to see the 'computer bug' and the rest of the displays, incuding hers. I was very disappointed that the display was down during renovations, but thrilled to run into a former neighbor of hers who remembered her fondly. Linda - Original Message - From: Phil Sevetson psevet...@fisa.nyc.gov To: IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu Sent: Friday, March 23, 2012 8:53:33 AM Subject: Grace Hopper Stories!! (was RE: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets) How many people here have been to one of her lectures? Where she used to hold up 11-inch bits of wire, explaining that This is a nanosecond and sometimes carried around a coil of wire that was a light-microsecond long? --Phil Sevetson -Original Message- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu] On Behalf Of Ed Finnell Sent: Thursday, March 22, 2012 4:56 PM To: IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu Subject: Re: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets Grace Hopper used to tell about the destroyer that lit up the Naval Yard outside of D.C. and crashed the data center. Personally, my fav was the Ops manager that upgraded the walkie-talkies for tech support from 1 watt to 3 watts(I think)-anyway if they were within 25' of a Memorex controller(DASD) it would bleep on itself In a message dated 3/22/2012 3:48:37 P.M. Central Daylight Time, scott_j_f...@yahoo.com writes: made a sweep they crashed on the mainframe, anyone heard that before ? -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets
Mid 1980's. We had added on to the raised floor. Halon vendor had finished adding the new room into the system and turned over to the building engineers. They had disabled the Halon system because the telco vendor was installing another phone rack. I came on shift early to give a troop of Boy Scou ts the 3 dollar tour on a Saturday. Everything looked fine with the Halon panel - disabled. I was in the tape library with the Boy Scouts when the Halon warning horn went off. There should have been a bell first, but not. That sea of young men parted quickly, me racing for the master abort. Reaching for the abort, only inches away, the Halon started to dump. I have never seen young men run so fast, but in a flash down the ramp and out the computer room door they went. The Halon panel lights still showed disabled status. The tripped zone was where the telco vendor was working. That zone dumped and the Halon system was in full auto - no way to stop it then . The scouts didn't close the door while running for their lives, so that zone dumped. Then the next adjacent zone. The power didn't drop, so the electric door from the main room to the Command Center 'saw' the Halon cloud and opened r ight up. One of the building engineers, runing toward the Halon panel in the Command Center, opened the door between the print room and the Command Center, so the print room Halon dumped. Then the electric door between the print room and the new raised floor saw the cloud and opened, so that zone dumped too. When the building engineer reached the Halon panel, he couldn't get control of the panel. He thought it might be because power hadn't dropped at the beginning of the festivities, so - yep the big red button. I heard the screams of the DASD as they crashed. 12 hours later, the panel was truly disabled (and partly dismantled), the rooms vented, and power stable. The screams were from three thoroughly crashed DASD, and IBM came in to join the party. In another 4 hours, we were up again. Linda - Original Message - -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Grace Hopper Stories!! (was RE: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets)
Your question brings back fond memories. I once was president of the Tampa Bay Florida Chapter of Association of Computing Machinery and my wife Charlotte and I picked up Grace Hopper at the Tampa airport and brought her to the dinner meeting to speak. She did talk about the nano-second wire but more importantly talked about the need for industry standard languages such as COBOL and standard communications protocols such as TCP/IP and HTML which evolved out of the DARPA military network. Hopper was a leader with vision: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_Hopper -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets
On 03/23/2012 04:47 PM, Shmuel Metz (Seymour J.) wrote: In cafo-8tqy1ea0pispweiwomxpnajxzs2+rvadkzbd-2kva8q...@mail.gmail.com, on 03/22/2012 at 01:33 PM, zManzedgarhoo...@gmail.com said: Who else has stories to share? EDS, at a government facility. Halon dumps, everybody ordered out. One operator decides to be a hero and to shut down the equipment in an orderly fashion, which he did. It turns out that non-toxic is a relative term; he did require medical care. I don't know whether he got a commendation or a reprimand. There are a couple of other list members who were there at the time; [perhaps they recall the details. Halon had a minimum concentration of 5% to be effective and a maximum concentration of 7%, over which it starts to have toxic effects on the nervous system. When ozone-depletion concerns caused discontinuation of use of Halon, one of the replacement suppression agents was FM200, or heptafluoropropane. FM200 has a slightly broader band of useful-safe concentration, 6.25% to 9%. But, above 9% it is described as causing cardiac senstivity, which doesn't sound like a good thing for long-term exposure either. With both of these suppression systems, if through design error the dispersal system is over-sized for the area, or if the agent isn't distributed uniformly, personnel remaining in the area could be at risk from overexposure. The recommendations for maximum exposure to both of these agents is based on the assumption you are not in a room with an active fire. These compounds break down while doing their suppression job in the presence of fire and other compounds could be released that are much more toxic -- not to mention that the typical by products of the type of electrical fire one might expect in a computer room would by themselves be toxic in a closed area. That's why one should always assume the worse in the event of a discharge and exit. -- Joel C. Ewing,Bentonville, AR jcew...@acm.org -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Grace Hopper Stories!! (was RE: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets)
My favs were the interactions with other luminaries such as Turing and Adm Chester Nimitz. Sometime in the late seventies she got a burr in her saddle about 'it wasn't true until IBM invented it' and could site verse and title of who and when it had been done before. In a message dated 3/24/2012 6:35:56 A.M. Central Daylight Time, d...@higgins.net writes: Hopper was a leader with vision: -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets
Insurance data center in NC, first failure when main underground power feed (single feed) burned in two. Big portable Cat generator outside the building for 3 weeks while local power company replaced. So local power company was paid to bring alternate feed in from the other direction. Bush hog guy clearing the undergrowth clipped the power pole support cable which flew up in the air, shorted a transformer, which exploded and set the property on fire, caused massive outage in the entire area. Hurricane Hugo led us to generator backup. Finally got the data center where we needed it. Huge UPS room full of batteries, 3 massive Cat generators, redundant power and telco feeds. Oops, forgot about the water. The cooling towers were out away from the buildings. Broken water main 2 blocks from the office, so utility department shut off the water, in July, in NC. Took about 15 minutes for the cooling towers to shut down because of lack of water. Took about 6 minutes before t! hermal alarms had us shutting down systems. 2 weeks later, 8 inch well beside the cooling towers was completed. Pump was hooked to local power and generator feed. Then they closed the data center and made it a call center. Best prepared call center I have ever seen. On Thu, 22 Mar 2012 13:33:25 -0400, zMan zedgarhoo...@gmail.com wrote: So over the years I've heard a few good stories about accidental (or deliberate) Halon dumps and BRS pressings. Like operators playing Frisbee in the machine room and discovering that the Halon button really, really needs a cover on it... Who else has stories to share? -- zMan -- I've got a mainframe and I'm not afraid to use it -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets
I attended and worked at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, CA, USA, in the mid-1970s. We had a 370-155 (later 158). The library was a few buildings away. It had a micro-wave connection to the library at our sister campus in the next city over (Huntington Beach if I remember correctly). For awhile, every morning we would get a system crash: a hardware crash, the CPU just died. They traced it down to when the microwave got fired up just before the library officially opened. Once the antenna was re-directed slightly everything was fine. We told the students that the elves had to empty the bit buckets after the overnight production runs. Some of them actually believed us. We had another issue there. The young ladies liked to have long hair and liked to wear loose scarves around their necks. We used a lot of APL and had the type-ball terminals. Those terminals LOVED to eat hair and scarves. Lloyd - Original Message From: Scott Ford scott_j_f...@yahoo.com To: IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu Sent: Thu, March 22, 2012 4:47:57 PM Subject: Re: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets All, Someone told while working in Europe they worked not far from a big radar station.. Every time the disc made a sweep they crashed on the mainframe, anyone heard that before ? Sent from my iPad Scott Ford Senior Systems Engineer www.identityforge.com On Mar 22, 2012, at 4:44 PM, Ed Finnell efinnel...@aol.com wrote: Unless they discharge a thousand lbs. of Halon at $72 USD per pound. In a message dated 3/22/2012 12:43:50 P.M. Central Daylight Time, ee...@us.ibm.com writes: Hydrotesting is cheap -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets
On Fri, 23 Mar 2012 07:12:15 -0500, Steve Dover wrote: Then they closed the data center and made it a call center. Best prepared call center I have ever seen. Sick - seriously sick . ;-) You never get what you need until you don't need it any more. Reminds me of a telecom exchange built in our national capital a (good) few years back. With the change in technology (miniturization), the building became surplus to requirements. Became home to several *extremely* secure data-centres, all in the same building. Must have been planning one hell of a lot of phone relays ... Shane ... -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets
On Fri, 23 Mar 2012 05:22:53 -0700, Lloyd Fuller wrote: For awhile, every morning we would get a system crash: a hardware crash, the CPU just died. We had a system where intermittently the overnight batch update would die - after several hours. Non-restartable - we're talking old-school here; tape masterfile, tape tranfile, tape output. Serious PITA. The datacentre was several floors up, and the airport was a few kms west, so some bright CE suggested we cover the tape drive (roll-top) covers with foil in case the radar was interfering. Worked a treat. Later someone observed the west wall of the datacentre was solid. But we had windows to the north. Out that way, 4 or 5 times as far away as the airport was Weapons Research - a government entity now known as Defence Signals. North Americans can think of NSA and Echelon for comparison. They had (and have) all the baddest equipment known to man. We later reckoned they were to blame - even in those days. Shane ... -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets
Lol Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry -Original Message- From: Steve Dover steve.do...@ccbcc.com Sender: IBM Mainframe Discussion List IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu Date: Fri, 23 Mar 2012 07:12:15 To: IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu Reply-To: IBM Mainframe Discussion List IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu Subject: Re: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets Insurance data center in NC, first failure when main underground power feed (single feed) burned in two. Big portable Cat generator outside the building for 3 weeks while local power company replaced. So local power company was paid to bring alternate feed in from the other direction. Bush hog guy clearing the undergrowth clipped the power pole support cable which flew up in the air, shorted a transformer, which exploded and set the property on fire, caused massive outage in the entire area. Hurricane Hugo led us to generator backup. Finally got the data center where we needed it. Huge UPS room full of batteries, 3 massive Cat generators, redundant power and telco feeds. Oops, forgot about the water. The cooling towers were out away from the buildings. Broken water main 2 blocks from the office, so utility department shut off the water, in July, in NC. Took about 15 minutes for the cooling towers to shut down because of lack of water. Took about 6 minutes before t! hermal alarms had us shutting down systems. 2 weeks later, 8 inch well beside the cooling towers was completed. Pump was hooked to local power and generator feed. Then they closed the data center and made it a call center. Best prepared call center I have ever seen. On Thu, 22 Mar 2012 13:33:25 -0400, zMan zedgarhoo...@gmail.com wrote: So over the years I've heard a few good stories about accidental (or deliberate) Halon dumps and BRS pressings. Like operators playing Frisbee in the machine room and discovering that the Halon button really, really needs a cover on it... Who else has stories to share? -- zMan -- I've got a mainframe and I'm not afraid to use it -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets
Snack food manufacturer in UK. Computer room was a room *within* the main warehouse, with windows all around (ops hated it - said it made them feel like animals in a zoo). Engineer plus trainee running maintenance on the Halon system. Trainee fumbles something and triggers the gas dump. Pressure surge was great enough that the compuer room windows blew out into the warehouse. Management not impressed with the idea of using Halon to extinguish smoking potato chips, etc.. From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu] on behalf of zMan [zedgarhoo...@gmail.com] Sent: 22 March 2012 17:33 To: IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu Subject: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets So over the years I've heard a few good stories about accidental (or deliberate) Halon dumps and BRS pressings. Like operators playing Frisbee in the machine room and discovering that the Halon button really, really needs a cover on it... Who else has stories to share? -- zMan -- I've got a mainframe and I'm not afraid to use it -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets
Isn't that potato crips? Richard and Vickie Pinion --- john.comp...@teamwpc.co.uk wrote: From: John Compton john.comp...@teamwpc.co.uk To: IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu Subject: Re: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets Date: Fri, 23 Mar 2012 13:24:18 + Snack food manufacturer in UK. Computer room was a room *within* the main warehouse, with windows all around (ops hated it - said it made them feel like animals in a zoo). Engineer plus trainee running maintenance on the Halon system. Trainee fumbles something and triggers the gas dump. Pressure surge was great enough that the compuer room windows blew out into the warehouse. Management not impressed with the idea of using Halon to extinguish smoking potato chips, etc.. From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu] on behalf of zMan [zedgarhoo...@gmail.com] Sent: 22 March 2012 17:33 To: IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu Subject: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets So over the years I've heard a few good stories about accidental (or deliberate) Halon dumps and BRS pressings. Like operators playing Frisbee in the machine room and discovering that the Halon button really, really needs a cover on it... Who else has stories to share? -- zMan -- I've got a mainframe and I'm not afraid to use it -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN _ Netscape. Just the Net You Need. -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets
More like potato cripes. :-) Martin Packer, Mainframe Performance Consultant, zChampion Worldwide Banking Center of Excellence, IBM +44-7802-245-584 email: martin_pac...@uk.ibm.com Twitter / Facebook IDs: MartinPacker Blog: https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/mydeveloperworks/blogs/MartinPacker From: Richard Pinion rpin...@netscape.com To: IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu, Date: 23/03/2012 13:27 Subject: Re: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets Sent by: IBM Mainframe Discussion List IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu Isn't that potato crips? Richard and Vickie Pinion --- john.comp...@teamwpc.co.uk wrote: From: John Compton john.comp...@teamwpc.co.uk To: IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu Subject: Re: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets Date: Fri, 23 Mar 2012 13:24:18 + Snack food manufacturer in UK. Computer room was a room *within* the main warehouse, with windows all around (ops hated it - said it made them feel like animals in a zoo). Engineer plus trainee running maintenance on the Halon system. Trainee fumbles something and triggers the gas dump. Pressure surge was great enough that the compuer room windows blew out into the warehouse. Management not impressed with the idea of using Halon to extinguish smoking potato chips, etc.. From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu] on behalf of zMan [zedgarhoo...@gmail.com] Sent: 22 March 2012 17:33 To: IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu Subject: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets So over the years I've heard a few good stories about accidental (or deliberate) Halon dumps and BRS pressings. Like operators playing Frisbee in the machine room and discovering that the Halon button really, really needs a cover on it... Who else has stories to share? -- zMan -- I've got a mainframe and I'm not afraid to use it -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN _ Netscape. Just the Net You Need. -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN Unless stated otherwise above: IBM United Kingdom Limited - Registered in England and Wales with number 741598. Registered office: PO Box 41, North Harbour, Portsmouth, Hampshire PO6 3AU -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets
I've never been near an actual Halon dump, but I do remember those computer shows in the 1970s, with vendors showing off their various infrastructure, tape racks, document storage, even an outfit with a mockup of a 360/30 used for operator training. The Halon people always had a demo - a clear plastic box the size of a phone booth (I assume we're all old enough here to remember what a phone booth was), rigged up with a small Halon cylinder. Every half hour or so, after a lot of sales talk (it dices, it slices...) the demo guy would get into the box, light up a cigarette, smile, and the sales guy would pull the handle. The box filled with Halon mist, and when it cleared a bit, the cigarette was out, the guy was still smiling (non-toxic, you see), he'd show that his Bic would not light inside the box, and then he'd stick his hand out through a little hole and show that it would light just fine in the outside air. The Halon demonstration disappeared from the shows after a few years, and of course the shows themselves were consolidated and then gone by the 1990s. Halons, like their close relatives once called Freons (now generically CFCs) vary widely in their properties, including toxicity and price, with the Halon 1301 used in data centre systems conveniently being the least toxic and most expensive. I've often wondered whether the travelling demo guy is enjoying a long and healthy retirement now... Tony H. -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Grace Hopper Stories!! (was RE: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets)
How many people here have been to one of her lectures? Where she used to hold up 11-inch bits of wire, explaining that This is a nanosecond and sometimes carried around a coil of wire that was a light-microsecond long? --Phil Sevetson -Original Message- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu] On Behalf Of Ed Finnell Sent: Thursday, March 22, 2012 4:56 PM To: IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu Subject: Re: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets Grace Hopper used to tell about the destroyer that lit up the Naval Yard outside of D.C. and crashed the data center. Personally, my fav was the Ops manager that upgraded the walkie-talkies for tech support from 1 watt to 3 watts(I think)-anyway if they were within 25' of a Memorex controller(DASD) it would bleep on itself In a message dated 3/22/2012 3:48:37 P.M. Central Daylight Time, scott_j_f...@yahoo.com writes: made a sweep they crashed on the mainframe, anyone heard that before ? -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Grace Hopper Stories!! (was RE: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets)
I had that fortunate experience around '73 or '74. She was a guest lecturer at my college's ACM student chapter. She was a Naval Commander at the time (I think this is after her recall from retirement). She left her office in the Pentagon, flew to Atlanta, rented a car made a 2 hour drive to address a dozen or so computer geeks. She stayed overnight I got to sit next to her at dinner. She gave the nano-second demo (I unfortunately lost mine over the years), saying to make 'em faster you've got to make 'em smaller. She also predicted that within a very few years after we graduated from college, we would have desktop computers with more horsepower that all that currently existed. She predicted the Y2K bug, saying that she wanted to be around at the millenium, just to see how the bug was handled and to experience the wildest New Year's Eve party in history! Randy -Original Message- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu] On Behalf Of Sevetson, Phil Sent: Friday, March 23, 2012 11:54 AM To: IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu Subject: Grace Hopper Stories!! (was RE: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets) How many people here have been to one of her lectures? Where she used to hold up 11-inch bits of wire, explaining that This is a nanosecond and sometimes carried around a coil of wire that was a light-microsecond long? --Phil Sevetson -Original Message- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu] On Behalf Of Ed Finnell Sent: Thursday, March 22, 2012 4:56 PM To: IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu Subject: Re: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets Grace Hopper used to tell about the destroyer that lit up the Naval Yard outside of D.C. and crashed the data center. Personally, my fav was the Ops manager that upgraded the walkie-talkies for tech support from 1 watt to 3 watts(I think)-anyway if they were within 25' of a Memorex controller(DASD) it would bleep on itself In a message dated 3/22/2012 3:48:37 P.M. Central Daylight Time, scott_j_f...@yahoo.com writes: made a sweep they crashed on the mainframe, anyone heard that before ? -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Grace Hopper Stories!! (was RE: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets)
For the real dunces(at the Pentagon) she had a 1100 millisecond hose-come dragging it out to begin the lecture. In a message dated 3/23/2012 10:54:27 A.M. Central Daylight Time, psevet...@fisa.nyc.gov writes: that was a light-microsecond long? -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Grace Hopper Stories!! (was RE: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets)
I think you have to be talking about a microsecond. A millisecond is 186.282 miles long. A microsecond is 11,000 inches long, or .186282 miles. --Phil, pretty sure he did the division right -Original Message- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu] On Behalf Of Ed Finnell Sent: Friday, March 23, 2012 4:25 PM To: IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu Subject: Re: Grace Hopper Stories!! (was RE: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets) For the real dunces(at the Pentagon) she had a 1100 millisecond hose-come dragging it out to begin the lecture. In a message dated 3/23/2012 10:54:27 A.M. Central Daylight Time, psevet...@fisa.nyc.gov writes: that was a light-microsecond long? -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets
In cafo-8tqy1ea0pispweiwomxpnajxzs2+rvadkzbd-2kva8q...@mail.gmail.com, on 03/22/2012 at 01:33 PM, zMan zedgarhoo...@gmail.com said: Who else has stories to share? EDS, at a government facility. Halon dumps, everybody ordered out. One operator decides to be a hero and to shut down the equipment in an orderly fashion, which he did. It turns out that non-toxic is a relative term; he did require medical care. I don't know whether he got a commendation or a reprimand. There are a couple of other list members who were there at the time; [perhaps they recall the details. -- Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz, SysProg and JOAT ISO position; see http://patriot.net/~shmuel/resume/brief.html We don't care. We don't have to care, we're Congress. (S877: The Shut up and Eat Your spam act of 2003) -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Grace Hopper Stories!! (was RE: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets)
Yes, my glasses were still fogged up from the ultrasound In a message dated 3/23/2012 4:10:32 P.M. Central Daylight Time, psevet...@fisa.nyc.gov writes: microsecond. -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets
This is not HALON related but it is along similar lines of others on here. We had a T1 that worked perfectly ATT (in the 1980's) said it was to spec and almost zero errors. One of my many part time responsibilities was for maintaining the 3725 software. Every so often the T1 (it was muxed) would go zonkers. I had ATT and everyone looking at it and they could see it go crazy and were trying to pin down what was causing it. I had traces up the ying yang showing the issue but everything (software) was up to snuf and I had IBM level 2 scratching their heads as they could not see the issue either. It was getting semi serious as the NP was out pacing the floor and yelling at people. One of our people was talking to the people on the other end (NYC) and he made a comment about it seemed to happen when ever the freight elevator went by.. Turns out they didn't use shielded wiring in the elevator shaft (DAMM ATT). They were out and replaced it and really never had an issue after that and we POURED data through it! Never a software issue (NCP or VTAM) it was solid as a rock just like good code should be. Ed -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets
So over the years I've heard a few good stories about accidental (or deliberate) Halon dumps and BRS pressings. Like operators playing Frisbee in the machine room and discovering that the Halon button really, really needs a cover on it... Who else has stories to share? -- zMan -- I've got a mainframe and I'm not afraid to use it -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets
zMan wrote: So over the years I've heard a few good stories about accidental (or deliberate) Halon dumps and BRS pressings. Like operators playing Frisbee in the machine room and discovering that the Halon button really, really needs a cover on it... Who else has stories to share? A retired IBM engineer did some freelance consulting after retiring. He told me about an incident in which a large-capacity, un-maintained Halon tank ruptured. He said it moved nearly an entire data center wall *three feet* from its original position. I'm certainly glad I wasn't in the room; I like my eardrums just the way they are... I think the moral of the story might be: Hydrotesting is cheap. -- John Eells z/OS Technical Marketing IBM Poughkeepsie ee...@us.ibm.com -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets
Well, our old computer room had a exit button to unlock the magnetic lock. Located right next to the Halon discharge button. And both were painted red, for some weird reason. Neither was secured. So, to exit one night, a maintenance worker pushed the Halon discharge instead of the exit button. At another shop, the EPO button was on the wall near the door. There were two 370/145s in the room, on opposite walls. The operators were playing bat the can between them. One did a perfect pitch and hit the EPO switch. Instant darkness because the computer room was in the basement. Case of worse manangement decision. It was snowing, a rarity in Ft. Worth TX. Building maintenance, in their wisdom, asked themselves why the hell a water chiller was running in a snow storm. So they shut it and all AC off. Started getting very warm in the computer room (two 370/145s 3330 disk drives). Operator called ops manager. Direction from the ops manager: Continue running the system until it stops, because we don't want the Police dispatch function to be impacted. Luckily, only one disk controller actually suffered any damage. The rest just thermal checked and shut down uncontrolled. Again, complete darkness, except for the newly installed emergency lighting. -- John McKown Systems Engineer IV IT Administrative Services Group HealthMarkets(r) 9151 Boulevard 26 * N. Richland Hills * TX 76010 (817) 255-3225 phone * john.mck...@healthmarkets.com * www.HealthMarkets.com Confidentiality Notice: This e-mail message may contain confidential or proprietary information. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original message. HealthMarkets(r) is the brand name for products underwritten and issued by the insurance subsidiaries of HealthMarkets, Inc. -The Chesapeake Life Insurance Company(r), Mid-West National Life Insurance Company of TennesseeSM and The MEGA Life and Health Insurance Company.SM -Original Message- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu] On Behalf Of zMan Sent: Thursday, March 22, 2012 12:33 PM To: IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu Subject: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets So over the years I've heard a few good stories about accidental (or deliberate) Halon dumps and BRS pressings. Like operators playing Frisbee in the machine room and discovering that the Halon button really, really needs a cover on it... Who else has stories to share? -- zMan -- I've got a mainframe and I'm not afraid to use it -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets
Before I joined IBM I worked for a mid sized company near Atlanta. We had our electrical company install a UPS. They got everything installed and decided, mid day on a working day, to test the system. The hit the button and the ENTIRE building went dark. Oops. Ken Hume IBM PD Tools Client Advocate (720)396-7776 kph...@us.ibm.com On 3/22/2012 11:33 AM, zMan wrote: So over the years I've heard a few good stories about accidental (or deliberate) Halon dumps and BRS pressings. Like operators playing Frisbee in the machine room and discovering that the Halon button really, really needs a cover on it... Who else has stories to share? -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets
Ah, yes. I remember a similar story now. I don't know if it is true or not. Building had emergency electric generators, diesel. The starter for the engines was run off of city power. Need I say more about what __didn't__ happen when city power failed? -- John McKown Systems Engineer IV IT Administrative Services Group HealthMarkets(r) 9151 Boulevard 26 * N. Richland Hills * TX 76010 (817) 255-3225 phone * john.mck...@healthmarkets.com * www.HealthMarkets.com Confidentiality Notice: This e-mail message may contain confidential or proprietary information. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original message. HealthMarkets(r) is the brand name for products underwritten and issued by the insurance subsidiaries of HealthMarkets, Inc. -The Chesapeake Life Insurance Company(r), Mid-West National Life Insurance Company of TennesseeSM and The MEGA Life and Health Insurance Company.SM -Original Message- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu] On Behalf Of Ken Hume, IBM Sent: Thursday, March 22, 2012 12:45 PM To: IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu Subject: Re: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets Before I joined IBM I worked for a mid sized company near Atlanta. We had our electrical company install a UPS. They got everything installed and decided, mid day on a working day, to test the system. The hit the button and the ENTIRE building went dark. Oops. Ken Hume IBM PD Tools Client Advocate (720)396-7776 kph...@us.ibm.com On 3/22/2012 11:33 AM, zMan wrote: So over the years I've heard a few good stories about accidental (or deliberate) Halon dumps and BRS pressings. Like operators playing Frisbee in the machine room and discovering that the Halon button really, really needs a cover on it... Who else has stories to share? -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets
Similar to what I heard happened in the San Fran quake. Only it was pumps for the oil from the tanks in the basement to 8th floor for generators that were on city power when the quake took the power out. Got from QUAKE FORUM for those who remember it. :-) Cheers, Martin Martin Packer, Mainframe Performance Consultant, zChampion Worldwide Banking Center of Excellence, IBM +44-7802-245-584 email: martin_pac...@uk.ibm.com Twitter / Facebook IDs: MartinPacker Blog: https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/mydeveloperworks/blogs/MartinPacker From: McKown, John john.mck...@healthmarkets.com To: IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu, Date: 22/03/2012 17:50 Subject: Re: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets Sent by: IBM Mainframe Discussion List IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu Ah, yes. I remember a similar story now. I don't know if it is true or not. Building had emergency electric generators, diesel. The starter for the engines was run off of city power. Need I say more about what __didn't__ happen when city power failed? -- John McKown Systems Engineer IV IT Administrative Services Group HealthMarkets(r) 9151 Boulevard 26 * N. Richland Hills * TX 76010 (817) 255-3225 phone * john.mck...@healthmarkets.com * www.HealthMarkets.com Confidentiality Notice: This e-mail message may contain confidential or proprietary information. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original message. HealthMarkets(r) is the brand name for products underwritten and issued by the insurance subsidiaries of HealthMarkets, Inc. -The Chesapeake Life Insurance Company(r), Mid-West National Life Insurance Company of TennesseeSM and The MEGA Life and Health Insurance Company.SM -Original Message- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu] On Behalf Of Ken Hume, IBM Sent: Thursday, March 22, 2012 12:45 PM To: IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu Subject: Re: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets Before I joined IBM I worked for a mid sized company near Atlanta. We had our electrical company install a UPS. They got everything installed and decided, mid day on a working day, to test the system. The hit the button and the ENTIRE building went dark. Oops. Ken Hume IBM PD Tools Client Advocate (720)396-7776 kph...@us.ibm.com On 3/22/2012 11:33 AM, zMan wrote: So over the years I've heard a few good stories about accidental (or deliberate) Halon dumps and BRS pressings. Like operators playing Frisbee in the machine room and discovering that the Halon button really, really needs a cover on it... Who else has stories to share? -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN Unless stated otherwise above: IBM United Kingdom Limited - Registered in England and Wales with number 741598. Registered office: PO Box 41, North Harbour, Portsmouth, Hampshire PO6 3AU -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets
2 incidents at a shop where I no longer work. 1) Fire alarm started sounding. Checked the zones and found an electrical smell, but no flames. Couldn't find the fire, and the Ops Manager said Everyone out!. The Halon dumped. Sounded like the building collapsing. That was in the good ole days when you could smoke at your desk. For the next 2 days, the smokers had to go outside to smoke, because there was still a presence of Halon that would not let a bic lighter stay lit! 2) Second incident at same facility. One of the motor generators that supplied the power for our IBM 3084 processors actually caught fire and flames were coming out. Ops Manager ordered an operator to hit the EPO button..you guessed it...nothing happened. The EPO was not wired correctly to force a ground fault! -Original Message- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu] On Behalf Of zMan Sent: Thursday, March 22, 2012 12:33 PM To: IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu Subject: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets So over the years I've heard a few good stories about accidental (or deliberate) Halon dumps and BRS pressings. Like operators playing Frisbee in the machine room and discovering that the Halon button really, really needs a cover on it... Who else has stories to share? -- zMan -- I've got a mainframe and I'm not afraid to use it -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets
Who else has stories to share? Not my personal story but... Customer designs a new datacenter, moves in, has an issue where a guy in a backhoe clips the incoming power source. Customer is patting themselves on the back for the wisdom of having two separate power lines, one on each side of the building. Meanwhile, someone decides to send the backhoe guy to the other side of the building, since a backhoe guy is damned expensive; and you guessed it, he somehow clips the other side. -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets
maryanne4...@gmail.com (Mary Anne Matyaz) writes: Customer designs a new datacenter, moves in, has an issue where a guy in a backhoe clips the incoming power source. Customer is patting themselves on the back for the wisdom of having two separate power lines, one on each side of the building. early days of internet ... connectivity out of the boston area was set up with nine(?) different 56kbit links with diverse routing (telco provisioning) ... physically separate lines exchanges over the years, telco company eventually consolidated all nine links until they were being carried on a common fiber-optic trunk ... one day, someplace in Connecticut, a backhoe clips the fiber-optic trunk ... and boston was partitioned from the rest of the internet. ... one customer we were marketing ha/cmp to ... had major datacenter in large metropolitan area ... carefully chosen to be in building that was fed by multiple water mains down different sides of the building, four different power feeds from different physical power substations and four different telephone trunks to different physical central exchanges (all different sides) one day transformer in the basement blew ... contaminating the bldg. with PCB ... everything was off and bldg. had to be evacuated. ha/cmp had started work on supporting physical separate and I coin the marketing terms disaster survivable and geographic survivable (to differentiate from disaster/recovery). I get asked to write section in corporate continuous available strategy document ... but the section gets pulled when both Rochester and POK complain (that they couldn't meet the requirements, at least at that time). misc. past posts mentioning ha/cmp http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subtopic.html#hacmp -- virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970 -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets
John Deere's data center in the 70's had two independent power supply companies, but with Midwest lightning strikes still had several to many outages each year. Data Center Manager could NOT get approval for a diesel power backup UPS because: The only backup system that was large enough for their power load was available from a single vendor and that vendor would ONLY use a caterpillar diesel engine. I think after the second year of outages, the data center manager was finally allowed to build a John Deere Green colored outbuilding building to hide the yellow Caterpillar engine. Barry Merrill -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets
I worked for a major ny pharm company, one day an electrician dropped a wrench into the air handlers on the roof while working creating a major DR panic.. I have been involved in one disaster in Indy in operations, when an entire city block was a blaze..we were 10 stories up and the windows were so hot you couldn't touch them.. Second one when we moved the pharm. company from NYC to nj, one of the channel interface cards caught fire and the halon dumped..we thought we were on our way to Sunguard DR.. Sent from my iPad Scott Ford Senior Systems Engineer www.identityforge.com On Mar 22, 2012, at 2:46 PM, Barry Merrill ba...@mxg.com wrote: John Deere's data center in the 70's had two independent power supply companies, but with Midwest lightning strikes still had several to many outages each year. Data Center Manager could NOT get approval for a diesel power backup UPS because: The only backup system that was large enough for their power load was available from a single vendor and that vendor would ONLY use a caterpillar diesel engine. I think after the second year of outages, the data center manager was finally allowed to build a John Deere Green colored outbuilding building to hide the yellow Caterpillar engine. Barry Merrill -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets
I worked for a financial institution that had multiple power grid feeds coming into a set of transformers located in the same room with an earth quake switch. Add workers using jack hammers ... viola dark building. Earth quakes and jack hammers are remarkably similar. Rob Schramm On Thu, Mar 22, 2012 at 2:58 PM, Scott Ford scott_j_f...@yahoo.com wrote: I worked for a major ny pharm company, one day an electrician dropped a wrench into the air handlers on the roof while working creating a major DR panic.. I have been involved in one disaster in Indy in operations, when an entire city block was a blaze..we were 10 stories up and the windows were so hot you couldn't touch them.. Second one when we moved the pharm. company from NYC to nj, one of the channel interface cards caught fire and the halon dumped..we thought we were on our way to Sunguard DR.. Sent from my iPad Scott Ford Senior Systems Engineer www.identityforge.com On Mar 22, 2012, at 2:46 PM, Barry Merrill ba...@mxg.com wrote: John Deere's data center in the 70's had two independent power supply companies, but with Midwest lightning strikes still had several to many outages each year. Data Center Manager could NOT get approval for a diesel power backup UPS because: The only backup system that was large enough for their power load was available from a single vendor and that vendor would ONLY use a caterpillar diesel engine. I think after the second year of outages, the data center manager was finally allowed to build a John Deere Green colored outbuilding building to hide the yellow Caterpillar engine. Barry Merrill -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets
Also was working in Europe, Switzerland during the first gulf war..for a large American company.. Came through the mantrap...day after the bombing campaign started..saw a dude with an ear jack and a huge bulge under his jacket, he was packing a Uzi . Sent from my iPad Scott Ford Senior Systems Engineer www.identityforge.com On Mar 22, 2012, at 2:58 PM, Scott Ford scott_j_f...@yahoo.com wrote: I worked for a major ny pharm company, one day an electrician dropped a wrench into the air handlers on the roof while working creating a major DR panic.. I have been involved in one disaster in Indy in operations, when an entire city block was a blaze..we were 10 stories up and the windows were so hot you couldn't touch them.. Second one when we moved the pharm. company from NYC to nj, one of the channel interface cards caught fire and the halon dumped..we thought we were on our way to Sunguard DR.. Sent from my iPad Scott Ford Senior Systems Engineer www.identityforge.com On Mar 22, 2012, at 2:46 PM, Barry Merrill ba...@mxg.com wrote: John Deere's data center in the 70's had two independent power supply companies, but with Midwest lightning strikes still had several to many outages each year. Data Center Manager could NOT get approval for a diesel power backup UPS because: The only backup system that was large enough for their power load was available from a single vendor and that vendor would ONLY use a caterpillar diesel engine. I think after the second year of outages, the data center manager was finally allowed to build a John Deere Green colored outbuilding building to hide the yellow Caterpillar engine. Barry Merrill -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets
Rob, That's funny Sent from my iPad Scott Ford Senior Systems Engineer www.identityforge.com On Mar 22, 2012, at 3:09 PM, Rob Schramm rob.schr...@gmail.com wrote: I worked for a financial institution that had multiple power grid feeds coming into a set of transformers located in the same room with an earth quake switch. Add workers using jack hammers ... viola dark building. Earth quakes and jack hammers are remarkably similar. Rob Schramm On Thu, Mar 22, 2012 at 2:58 PM, Scott Ford scott_j_f...@yahoo.com wrote: I worked for a major ny pharm company, one day an electrician dropped a wrench into the air handlers on the roof while working creating a major DR panic.. I have been involved in one disaster in Indy in operations, when an entire city block was a blaze..we were 10 stories up and the windows were so hot you couldn't touch them.. Second one when we moved the pharm. company from NYC to nj, one of the channel interface cards caught fire and the halon dumped..we thought we were on our way to Sunguard DR.. Sent from my iPad Scott Ford Senior Systems Engineer www.identityforge.com On Mar 22, 2012, at 2:46 PM, Barry Merrill ba...@mxg.com wrote: John Deere's data center in the 70's had two independent power supply companies, but with Midwest lightning strikes still had several to many outages each year. Data Center Manager could NOT get approval for a diesel power backup UPS because: The only backup system that was large enough for their power load was available from a single vendor and that vendor would ONLY use a caterpillar diesel engine. I think after the second year of outages, the data center manager was finally allowed to build a John Deere Green colored outbuilding building to hide the yellow Caterpillar engine. Barry Merrill -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets
This wasn't Halon... but it was worth sharing. Travelers, the insurance company, in the days before they became part of Citigroup (and there's a lot more history there), had a data center in Hartford (CT) in a freestanding building. Data center power supply from the grid ran across busses and various equipment that was placed outside the building, presumably due to the cooling needs, protected from people by a head-height cyclone fence, I believe I recall. However, the equipment was not far from a couple of trees, and every once in a while, a squirrel would decide that those funny-looking short trees over there were something worth jumping to. He'd complete a short circuit: dead squirrel: dark data center. There were two or three of those incidents, I'm told (I worked a few buildings away for the same employer and occasionally lost service to the mainframe), before they put up cyclone fence on all sides of the outlet plus over the top, saving the squirrels from their own worst impulses. --Phil Sevetson -Original Message- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu] On Behalf Of John Eells Sent: Thursday, March 22, 2012 1:42 PM To: IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu Subject: Re: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets
Unless they discharge a thousand lbs. of Halon at $72 USD per pound. In a message dated 3/22/2012 12:43:50 P.M. Central Daylight Time, ee...@us.ibm.com writes: Hydrotesting is cheap -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets
All, Someone told while working in Europe they worked not far from a big radar station.. Every time the disc made a sweep they crashed on the mainframe, anyone heard that before ? Sent from my iPad Scott Ford Senior Systems Engineer www.identityforge.com On Mar 22, 2012, at 4:44 PM, Ed Finnell efinnel...@aol.com wrote: Unless they discharge a thousand lbs. of Halon at $72 USD per pound. In a message dated 3/22/2012 12:43:50 P.M. Central Daylight Time, ee...@us.ibm.com writes: Hydrotesting is cheap -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets
Grace Hopper used to tell about the destroyer that lit up the Naval Yard outside of D.C. and crashed the data center. Personally, my fav was the Ops manager that upgraded the walkie-talkies for tech support from 1 watt to 3 watts(I think)-anyway if they were within 25' of a Memorex controller(DASD) it would bleep on itself In a message dated 3/22/2012 3:48:37 P.M. Central Daylight Time, scott_j_f...@yahoo.com writes: made a sweep they crashed on the mainframe, anyone heard that before ? -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets
I have heard that, yes. I don't remember much else about it. -- John McKown Systems Engineer IV IT Administrative Services Group HealthMarkets(r) 9151 Boulevard 26 * N. Richland Hills * TX 76010 (817) 255-3225 phone * john.mck...@healthmarkets.com * www.HealthMarkets.com Confidentiality Notice: This e-mail message may contain confidential or proprietary information. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original message. HealthMarkets(r) is the brand name for products underwritten and issued by the insurance subsidiaries of HealthMarkets, Inc. -The Chesapeake Life Insurance Company(r), Mid-West National Life Insurance Company of TennesseeSM and The MEGA Life and Health Insurance Company.SM -Original Message- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu] On Behalf Of Scott Ford Sent: Thursday, March 22, 2012 3:48 PM To: IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu Subject: Re: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets All, Someone told while working in Europe they worked not far from a big radar station.. Every time the disc made a sweep they crashed on the mainframe, anyone heard that before ? Sent from my iPad Scott Ford Senior Systems Engineer www.identityforge.com On Mar 22, 2012, at 4:44 PM, Ed Finnell efinnel...@aol.com wrote: Unless they discharge a thousand lbs. of Halon at $72 USD per pound. In a message dated 3/22/2012 12:43:50 P.M. Central Daylight Time, ee...@us.ibm.com writes: Hydrotesting is cheap -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets
I worked at a place that had a cold site for D/R and the Halon dump switch was just above the light switch. One time a service guy got called in because the always on lights in the room were out, he opens the door but because of the dark, instead of stepping in and hitting the switch, slaps his hand around the wall to try and feel for the switch. Well guess what he hit first? The force of the halon dump blew out ceiling tiles and broke a bunch of light fixtures and light bulbs. === Wayne Driscoll OMEGAMON DB2 L3 Support/Development wdrisco(AT)us.ibm.com === From: zMan zedgarhoo...@gmail.com To: IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu Date: 03/22/2012 12:35 PM Subject: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets Sent by: IBM Mainframe Discussion List IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu So over the years I've heard a few good stories about accidental (or deliberate) Halon dumps and BRS pressings. Like operators playing Frisbee in the machine room and discovering that the Halon button really, really needs a cover on it... Who else has stories to share? -- zMan -- I've got a mainframe and I'm not afraid to use it -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets
While working in Galveston for an insurance company, each time the radar would sweep our building we would get an I/O error on the drum. We had to but tin foil in a few windows to stop the errors, about 1971. Don Don Bolton Director of Technical Services OpenTech Systems, Inc. -Original Message- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu] On Behalf Of Scott Ford Sent: Thursday, March 22, 2012 3:48 PM To: IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu Subject: Re: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets All, Someone told while working in Europe they worked not far from a big radar station.. Every time the disc made a sweep they crashed on the mainframe, anyone heard that before ? Sent from my iPad Scott Ford Senior Systems Engineer www.identityforge.com On Mar 22, 2012, at 4:44 PM, Ed Finnell efinnel...@aol.com wrote: Unless they discharge a thousand lbs. of Halon at $72 USD per pound. In a message dated 3/22/2012 12:43:50 P.M. Central Daylight Time, ee...@us.ibm.com writes: Hydrotesting is cheap -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
location/ was RE: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets
Design Flaw(s)? Given requirements for DR/alternate sites, I'd think physical protection of the primary site has lapsed a bit. Out of curiosity, what is the current thinking on high floor vs. basement/sub-basement for primary hardware in a densely populated urban environment? Possible Answers: Clouds/AirForce1/etc. History: Around 1980+, a major municipal datacenter's physical plant was located next to the highest judicial floors of the new municipal skyscraper. We (the city's programmers most IT support staff) were located far below, a level or two below ground under the same building. The hardware of the time took up quite a bit of space, but we didn't miss the view much (as entry/egress was much better with 1-2 flight(s) of stairs/escalator than the elevators generally used for the highest floors.) We acknowledged a personal target (e.g. judge) may be safer on the highest floors, but could never identify why hardware was safest on the top floor. (Safer from a lone/weak attack, but more decidedly more vulnerable should someone have the ability to destroy the top few floors.) p.s. some may recognize the location by what we (not the artist) called Big Bird (over our heads), or a from movie in whose final chase scene the sculpture became more famous. -Original Message- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu] On Behalf Of zMan Sent: Thursday, March 22, 2012 1:33 PM To: IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu Subject: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets So over the years I've heard a few good stories about accidental (or deliberate) Halon dumps and BRS pressings. Like operators playing Frisbee in the machine room and discovering that the Halon button really, really needs a cover on it... Who else has stories to share? -- zMan -- I've got a mainframe and I'm not afraid to use it -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets
I was told that at the old DEC plant in Maynard, they got a lot of HDA crashes about the same time of day. They finally figured out that a delivery was made at that time every day, and the truck would back up to the loading dock and bump it. The old wooden building would shiver, and the HDAs would crash. The fix was to turn the disk packs 90 degrees: these were *vertically* spinning, so doing that meant the head might skip to the wrong track (which apparently would be handled) rather than crashing into the platters. I think I have those details right...at least how I heard it! -- zMan -- I've got a mainframe and I'm not afraid to use it -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets (keyboard ghosts)
Ghosts?: In the mid-1980s (about 1 block from the Empire State Building), our hard-wired 3270s would suddenly start typing away, no one on the keyboard. Special shielding had to be added. (It usually worked.) lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets
Early 80s. Brand new data center. Brand new hardware. Brand new halon system. Facilities decided to test the halon system. They didn't expect the force of the dump. Shredded ceiling tiles everywhere. CEs were still picking pieces out of cabinets years later. So in case it dumped again, to prevent ceiling tiles from getting into the equipment, someone came up with the bright idea of putting sheets of plastic over all the boxes. Know how fast restricted air flow can cause problems? Don Imbriale On Thu, Mar 22, 2012 at 5:10 PM, Wayne Driscoll wdri...@us.ibm.com wrote: I worked at a place that had a cold site for D/R and the Halon dump switch was just above the light switch. One time a service guy got called in because the always on lights in the room were out, he opens the door but because of the dark, instead of stepping in and hitting the switch, slaps his hand around the wall to try and feel for the switch. Well guess what he hit first? The force of the halon dump blew out ceiling tiles and broke a bunch of light fixtures and light bulbs. === Wayne Driscoll OMEGAMON DB2 L3 Support/Development wdrisco(AT)us.ibm.com === From: zMan zedgarhoo...@gmail.com To: IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu Date: 03/22/2012 12:35 PM Subject: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets Sent by: IBM Mainframe Discussion List IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu So over the years I've heard a few good stories about accidental (or deliberate) Halon dumps and BRS pressings. Like operators playing Frisbee in the machine room and discovering that the Halon button really, really needs a cover on it... Who else has stories to share? -- zMan -- I've got a mainframe and I'm not afraid to use it -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets
On 2012-03-22 10:33, zMan wrote: Who else has stories to share? Not business production critical, but...back at the community college where I was a student and eventually worked as lab manager, we had a few EPO buttons scattered around the public terminal room. One of these was next to a professor's office. One day near the end of the semester, a gentlemen was having some sort of issue with a program and was talking with said professor outside his door. He got more and more excited and upset, and began gesturing for emphasis. You guessed it... Within a week, all EPO buttons in the lab had covers. Luckily, during my lifetime, I've managed to avoid Halon dumps and bizarre EPO activations. However, I have had my share of UPS tests (both planned and unplanned) that didn't do what they were supposed to do. Heck, I've even had it happen once on a new UPS in my home data center. Cheers, Ray -- M. Ray Mullins Roseville, CA, USA http://www.catherdersoftware.com/ German is essentially a form of assembly language consisting entirely of far calls heavily accented with throaty guttural sounds. ---ilvi French is essentially German with messed-up pronunciation and spelling. --Robert B Wilson English is essentially French converted to 7-bit ASCII. ---Christophe Pierret [for Alain LaBonté] -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Pre-Friday fun: Halon dumps and POK Resets
(back in the 70's) had a union operator shop. The company wanted to put HALON into the DC and the union went on strike. If I remember correctly both sides backed down. Ed On Mar 22, 2012, at 12:33 PM, zMan wrote: So over the years I've heard a few good stories about accidental (or deliberate) Halon dumps and BRS pressings. Like operators playing Frisbee in the machine room and discovering that the Halon button really, really needs a cover on it... Who else has stories to share? -- zMan -- I've got a mainframe and I'm not afraid to use it -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
