Re: Burroughs L-series paper tapes

[Stan Sieler via cctalk]

Re:  If you scroll down to the L9000 there are pictures of the rescue I was
thinking of, which may well be the system you're talking about and even the
lady in question:

>
> http://www.picklesnet.com/burroughs/gallery/bpgltc.htm


Yes!, thanks!

On http://www.picklesnet.com/burroughs/images/fullsize/burr0056.jpg, if you
go out the door, our office was to the left.

I can't recall who took the photos (if I did, it would explain why I'm not
in them :) ... I recognize several local collectors (KS & FMC, at least).

thanks again,

Stan

Re: RSTS Professional scans

[Bill Gunshannon via cctalk]

On 8/6/20 2:13 PM, Al Kossow via cctalk wrote:

almost finished with this

http://bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/magazines/RSTS_Professional

I'd like to gap-fill the rare RSTS Professional issues if anyone still 
has them. They are staple-bound so they can be scanned without removing 
a binding.





Wow!!  Can't wait to read some of them again.

bill

Re: Burrough L- Series / Heads down data entry.

[jim stephens via cctalk]

On 8/6/2020 1:07 PM, Stan Sieler via cctalk wrote:

  much of the slowdown was due to the GUI nature of the PC
program they switched to, and they no longer had the luxury of having
relatively purpose-related hardware on the L9000.
Most people have never seen real heads down data entry in action. We had 
a lady who could do it, and I wrote a custom program for her to get data 
off of inventory cards.


She did two runs of all of the inventory of Western Digital, at the time 
had progressed to the early disk controller chip time of its history, 
about 5000 tags.  Took her about an hour to do two passes entering via 
keypad on a Microdata Reality.


4 fields / card, numeric.  It wasn't even a big deal, she had worked in 
shops with 8 hours shifts doing such.


The inventory program they used via timeshare remote on our system had 
an estimate of 5 people working the entire day (a Saturday) after 
pulling the cards.  As it was they paid I think $200 for the job, and 
had it done in half a day with the edit pass.  That wasn't possible time 
wise with a data entry screen.


Systems on mainframes with 3270s could do the data entry on gui screens, 
and some systems on Reality I saw had gotten the interfaces fast enough 
to allow such.


When the PC came out we held on as long as we did because such as 123 
and whatever input sucked so bad that people would have none of it.


CP/M had some spreadsheets and MRP systems and the like but they didn't 
scale well.

thanks
Jim

Re: RSTS Professional scans

[Paul Koning via cctalk]

I have Vol 1 No 1 and Vol 2 No 2.  I see both of those are already scanned on 
rsts.org .

paul


> On Aug 6, 2020, at 2:13 PM, Al Kossow via cctalk  
> wrote:
> 
> almost finished with this
> 
> http://bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/magazines/RSTS_Professional
> 
> I'd like to gap-fill the rare RSTS Professional issues if anyone still has 
> them. They are staple-bound so they can be scanned without removing a binding.
> 

Re: Burroughs L-series paper tapes

[Mike Stein via cctalk]

- Original Message - 
From: "Stan Sieler via cctalk" 
To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" 
Sent: Thursday, August 06, 2020 4:07 PM
Subject: Re: Burroughs L-series paper tapes


> >
>> Mike Stein writes:
>>   > I remember there was another L9000 rescued in California years ago,
>> but maybe that's the one you have now.
>>
> 
> My consulting company was in Redwood City, CA.  Our nextdoor neighbor had a
> company leasing new cars.  They ran the company on a Burroughs L9000.
> 
> About August of 2000, they were at the point where they could no longer
> obtain ledger cards (roughly 8x11 with a magnetic stripe down the side for
> computer data), for the L9000, so they were going to move to a PC-based
> system.
> The owner knew I was a computer collector, so he offered to give me the
> L9000.
> 
> I was tempted...but it was a large machine, so I arranged for it to be
> given to the Computer History Museum (where I was, or became (timeline
> hazy) a senior docent).
> 
> I remember the owner saying that only the cleverness of their independent
> maintenance guy had kept the machine running ... to the point where he'd
> machined some replacement parts himself.
> 
> I talked to the elderly lady who ran the machine (i.e., did the data
> entry).  She compared it to the PC, and lamented the loss of the L9000.
> The L9000 was so much faster and easier to use!  She could probably enter
> data four or five times faster on the L9000.  It wasn't just a matter of
> familiarity ... much of the slowdown was due to the GUI nature of the PC
> program they switched to, and they no longer had the luxury of having
> relatively purpose-related hardware on the L9000.
> 
> Stan
-
If you scroll down to the L9000 there are pictures of the rescue I was thinking 
of, which may well be the system you're talking about and even the lady in 
question:

http://www.picklesnet.com/burroughs/gallery/bpgltc.htm

Re: Burroughs L-series paper tapes

[Al Kossow via cctalk]

On 8/6/20 1:07 PM, Stan Sieler via cctalk wrote:


I was tempted...but it was a large machine, so I arranged for it to be
given to the Computer History Museum (where I was, or became (timeline
hazy) a senior docent).


that is https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/X1742.2001

Re: Burroughs L-series paper tapes

[Stan Sieler via cctalk]

>
> Mike Stein writes:
>   > I remember there was another L9000 rescued in California years ago,
> but maybe that's the one you have now.
>

My consulting company was in Redwood City, CA.  Our nextdoor neighbor had a
company leasing new cars.  They ran the company on a Burroughs L9000.

About August of 2000, they were at the point where they could no longer
obtain ledger cards (roughly 8x11 with a magnetic stripe down the side for
computer data), for the L9000, so they were going to move to a PC-based
system.
The owner knew I was a computer collector, so he offered to give me the
L9000.

I was tempted...but it was a large machine, so I arranged for it to be
given to the Computer History Museum (where I was, or became (timeline
hazy) a senior docent).

I remember the owner saying that only the cleverness of their independent
maintenance guy had kept the machine running ... to the point where he'd
machined some replacement parts himself.

I talked to the elderly lady who ran the machine (i.e., did the data
entry).  She compared it to the PC, and lamented the loss of the L9000.
The L9000 was so much faster and easier to use!  She could probably enter
data four or five times faster on the L9000.  It wasn't just a matter of
familiarity ... much of the slowdown was due to the GUI nature of the PC
program they switched to, and they no longer had the luxury of having
relatively purpose-related hardware on the L9000.

Stan

Re: RSTS Professional scans

[Kirk Davis via cctalk]

Hey Al

There are some here:

http://www.rsts.org/autoindex.php?dir=rstspro

Kirk

Sent from my iPad

> On Aug 6, 2020, at 11:13 AM, Al Kossow via cctalk  
> wrote:
> 
> almost finished with this
> 
> http://bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/magazines/RSTS_Professional
> 
> I'd like to gap-fill the rare RSTS Professional issues if anyone still has 
> them. They are staple-bound so they can be scanned without removing a binding.
> 

Re: RSTS Professional scans

[John H. Reinhardt via cctalk]

On 8/6/2020 2:04 PM, John H. Reinhardt via cctalk wrote:

On 8/6/2020 1:13 PM, Al Kossow via cctalk wrote:

almost finished with this

http://bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/magazines/RSTS_Professional

I'd like to gap-fill the rare RSTS Professional issues if anyone still has 
them. They are staple-bound so they can be scanned without removing a binding.


There are a good number of the archived on Brett Bump's RSTS.ORG site.




It says 21 of 35 scanned and in process but it's been in process for a number 
of years. Brett might be on other projects.  I know he's here occasionally.

--
John H. Reinhardt

Re: RSTS Professional scans

[John H. Reinhardt via cctalk]

On 8/6/2020 1:13 PM, Al Kossow via cctalk wrote:

almost finished with this

http://bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/magazines/RSTS_Professional

I'd like to gap-fill the rare RSTS Professional issues if anyone still has 
them. They are staple-bound so they can be scanned without removing a binding.


There are a good number of the archived on Brett Bump's RSTS.ORG site.



--
John H. Reinhardt

Re: RSTS Professional scans

[Zane Healy via cctalk]

Thanks Al, the one I looked through looks like a great source of info!

Zane




> On Aug 6, 2020, at 11:13 AM, Al Kossow via cctalk  
> wrote:
> 
> almost finished with this
> 
> http://bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/magazines/RSTS_Professional
> 
> I'd like to gap-fill the rare RSTS Professional issues if anyone still has 
> them. They are staple-bound so they can be scanned without removing a binding.
> 

RSTS Professional scans

[Al Kossow via cctalk]

almost finished with this

http://bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/magazines/RSTS_Professional

I'd like to gap-fill the rare RSTS Professional issues if anyone still has them. They are staple-bound so they can be scanned without 
removing a binding.