Hi!
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Hi! Can we entertain each other with our fun stories about the oldest or weirdest tech we've come across?
Please boost for science or cows or something. TELL US YOUR COOL STORY!
While starting Uni (2006!), I was a part-time IT labourer at my former school. There were computers for programming classes, and I think they had 32 MB RAM at that point. Sometimes Windows OS would stop booting on them, and I would come with my personal handy LiveCDs collection. Linux LiveCDs (Knoppix, Slax) were cool, but didn't boot on 32 MB as I remember. But FreeBSD one, called Frenzy, booted, and I could inspect the hardware condition, mount disk, repair filesystems (FAT and NTFS).
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@Pepijn I’ve been inside a Soviet submarine. There were a lot of valves and zero screens (that I could see). I discovered that Soviet submarines were not built with 2m tall Dutch girls in mind.
@venite I've visited a Dutch navy submarine, am just 190cm and had a similar feeling. I'm amazed people working in these things don't end up wearing full body armour.
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While starting Uni (2006!), I was a part-time IT labourer at my former school. There were computers for programming classes, and I think they had 32 MB RAM at that point. Sometimes Windows OS would stop booting on them, and I would come with my personal handy LiveCDs collection. Linux LiveCDs (Knoppix, Slax) were cool, but didn't boot on 32 MB as I remember. But FreeBSD one, called Frenzy, booted, and I could inspect the hardware condition, mount disk, repair filesystems (FAT and NTFS).
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The joke was that we were only receiving, not sending. So we laughed a lot. And the best part is that the antennas had such a small task: we received data from weather satellites that would tell us if we needed to pack our raincoats to school.
We had a weather app before there was proper internet! He is dead now, but sometimes I still hear him laughing.
️@astridpoot That's both awesome and super sweet. Thanks for sharing both the words and photos!
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@astridpoot That's both awesome and super sweet. Thanks for sharing both the words and photos!
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Hi! Can we entertain each other with our fun stories about the oldest or weirdest tech we've come across?
Please boost for science or cows or something. TELL US YOUR COOL STORY!
@Pepijn Probably the oldest technology item I have personal experience with was a positive-ground Motorola tube- based two-way radio, older than I am (so pre-1964). This was back in my days as a radio technician, late 80s or very early 1990s.
The owner got mad when my employer cancelled the annual fixed-price maintenance contract. But we had no choice, because the last time we repaired it under the contract, the replacement component required was the last one. In the world.
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Hi! Can we entertain each other with our fun stories about the oldest or weirdest tech we've come across?
Please boost for science or cows or something. TELL US YOUR COOL STORY!
@Pepijn Different story: from 2003-2005 I worked for a large junior college. One day I was the security rep accompanying an inspector of some kind (I forget who he worked for) and one of our network engineers in our main, very old, and small, data center. He notices a device in tge bottom of a rack. “Is that really a Bay Networks router?”
“Yup.”
“What does it do?”
“It’s part of the network core.”At that point Bay Networks had not existed for over a decade.
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The joke was that we were only receiving, not sending. So we laughed a lot. And the best part is that the antennas had such a small task: we received data from weather satellites that would tell us if we needed to pack our raincoats to school.
We had a weather app before there was proper internet! He is dead now, but sometimes I still hear him laughing.️@astridpoot that is next-level fixation with the weather
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@astridpoot that is next-level fixation with the weather
@cazmockett or just an excuse to build big things!
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@cazmockett or just an excuse to build big things!
@astridpoot that too
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My dad was a techy, he was part of the team that built the radiotelescopes in Westerbork in Holland. So his work was already amazing. (Picture: him at his work, a place of magic for me.)
@astridpoot alt-text says "chaotic workshop". What do you mean? Looks completely as I remember electronics workshops from 70ties and 80ties. Those were the days, before health and safety officers spoiled every creative process by insisting on clean tables and no coffee mugs (and definitely no Danish pastry) at the soldering station...
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fallout:
-We still have the remains of the drive the tech whacked to death with a hammer. It's used during onboarding.
-tech has been happily working with us for many years. He's over the embarrassment (or acts that way).
-the client thought it was HILARIOUS. They also figured out a way to upgrade the system to work with SD cards
.-costs were 4800 euro. An exact 4000 for the drive, and 800 for "one-day delivery" (seller drove from DE to NL on a Sunday).
3/3
@Pepijn
Do you also still have the hammer? -
Hi! Can we entertain each other with our fun stories about the oldest or weirdest tech we've come across?
Please boost for science or cows or something. TELL US YOUR COOL STORY!
@Pepijn Look, I'm enjoying all these stories a lot, but people. People! This is all brand new stuff! You all have a way to narrow definition of tech. I have crushed nuts between two rocks. I have used a pointy stick to plant seeds. Used branches to roast food without burning myself. Once upon a time, these were cutting edge techniques.
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@Pepijn Look, I'm enjoying all these stories a lot, but people. People! This is all brand new stuff! You all have a way to narrow definition of tech. I have crushed nuts between two rocks. I have used a pointy stick to plant seeds. Used branches to roast food without burning myself. Once upon a time, these were cutting edge techniques.
@Stratski I mean, yes. But. I've used the glowing hot point of my pocket knife, heated over a fire, to dislodge a tick from my leg.* But I'm just not sure if that's a "cool story".
Maybe in wording the question I should have put more emphasis on the old tech and less on the cool story.
*Don't do this.
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I'm amused that PTT RCD/ "witte muizen" would have kept checking the antennas, as surely they must have known what they were for, and PTT had some input into what satellites were around? maybe they still didn't trust your dad as just about *everyone* who had any knowledge of RF seemed to be building pirate transmitters (and some still are in NL and even occasionally across the North Sea in UK (we shared a lot of designs)
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@Stratski I mean, yes. But. I've used the glowing hot point of my pocket knife, heated over a fire, to dislodge a tick from my leg.* But I'm just not sure if that's a "cool story".
Maybe in wording the question I should have put more emphasis on the old tech and less on the cool story.
*Don't do this.
@Pepijn haha ouch!
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@astridpoot alt-text says "chaotic workshop". What do you mean? Looks completely as I remember electronics workshops from 70ties and 80ties. Those were the days, before health and safety officers spoiled every creative process by insisting on clean tables and no coffee mugs (and definitely no Danish pastry) at the soldering station...
@jakobtougaard Health and safety officer here. I make a point of walking around with coffee cups in our electronic workshops. Unless there's a very delicate operation going on there's no real risk.
I was actually thinking how relatable everything in the photo is. At least two of our current techs could be starring in it (although they wouldn't have the plants).
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