Keeping printers quiet broke disk drives, thanks to very fuzzy logic
- Reference: 1663313105
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/09/16/on_call/
- Source link:
This week, meet a reader we'll regomize as "Darren," who shared a story of his time in a Philadelphia hospital in the 1970s.
Darren was not in the hospital to be healed!
[1]
Rather, he was there when it moved a patient billing app from a mainframe to a few Wang 2200s.
[2]
[3]
If you don't remember the 2200, Wikipedia has a [4]solid article about the all-in-one machine that explains how Wang incorporated a keyboard, cassette drive, and display into a single chassis – and allowed them to be networked to shared disk storage.
Think of it is a rickety proto-SAN.
[5]
We mention this because the 2200s Darren tended used shared storage – more of the Winchester disks we mentioned in [6]last week's On Call – which was placed in a room alongside some dot matrix printers.
Dot matrix printers of the era made a distinctive and unpleasant buzz, so the room housing them and the shared disks had been carpeted to prevent that din escaping into the hospital.
These particular printers were really noisy, so the carpet ran all the way up the walls to the ceiling.
[7]
And because this was the 1970s, the carpet was a rich, red, shag. Darren reckons that choice was an early version of fuzzy logic.
All went well for a week or so. Then the disks crashed – hard . Darren was called out to sort them out.
[8]Using the datacenter as a dining room destroyed the platters that matter
[9]Terminal downgrade saves the day after a client/server heist
[10]Doctor gave patients the wrong test results due to 'printer problems'
[11]Mouse hiding in cable tray cheesed off its bemused user
"In those days, disk drives were too big to be sealed as they are today," he explained. "Air to fly the heads and to cool the electronics came through a large, very effective air filter."
When Darren arrived to investigate the outage, he found that air filter "completely clogged by a half-inch-thick mat of red fuzz."
It was not hard to spot the culprit. As all new carpets do, this groovy one shed fibres – so many fibres that they clogged the air filters.
"The solution involved the hospital buying a stock of air filters and training staff on how to change them every few days," Darren recalled.
Cleaners were therefore instructed to vacuum both the floor, and the walls.
"As the new carpet's fuzz shed rate tapered off, so did the frequency of air filter changes," Darren recalled.
But problems persisted and eventually the hospital repurposed part of the uncarpeted mainframe room to house the disks and printers.
That move was made possible with the addition of longer cables back to the Wang 2200s.
"The cables, though expensive, cost far less than the acreage of red plush carpet," Darren concluded.
Has tech you tend ever become a fashion victim? If so, share your story with a [12]mail to On-Call . Keep 'em coming, dear readers, as the [13]On Call mailbag could use a few more yarns to consider. ®
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[1] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/storage&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YyRJN@d0nRpOJYWTVgQ3xAAAAEE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/storage&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YyRJN@d0nRpOJYWTVgQ3xAAAAEE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/storage&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YyRJN@d0nRpOJYWTVgQ3xAAAAEE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wang_2200
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/storage&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YyRJN@d0nRpOJYWTVgQ3xAAAAEE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2022/09/09/on_call/
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/storage&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YyRJN@d0nRpOJYWTVgQ3xAAAAEE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2022/09/09/on_call/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2022/09/02/on_call/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2022/08/26/on_call/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2022/08/19/on_call/
[12] mailto:oncall@theregister.com
[13] https://www.theregister.com/Tag/on%20call
[14] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Wang
Were these jokes about Princess Wang? Emperor Wang? Or ...
Re: Wang
Careful you don't get the wong wang
Re: Wang
Or their support service: Wang Cares.
That one was short-lived in the UK.
Re: Wang
But Wayne Kerr is still going strong... waynekerr.com/waynekerrtest.com
Hence the curse "Oi! Where's the Wayne Kerr"
(and apparently he's also an Irish professional rugby league footballer, a minister/musician and a Canadian author... though not necessarily all at the same time)
Re: Wang
Surprisingly, the company's management had been informed in detail about the meaning in right-pondian of the sounds made as someone answered the phone with "Good morning, Wang Care".
To prove themselves true PHBs, they forced the name on the organisation.
Re: Wang
I’ll bite: When the disks failed, presumably Wang error was signalled.
Re: Wang
And that's Numberwang!
Re: Wang
I once met a bloke who said his wife used to work for Wang. They made her wear a T-shirt that said "I've got twin floppies".
Way Back...
In the mid 80's my first job was as a civil servant, my office had formerly been used for the printers so had acoustic tiles on the walls. It was a rule that you couldn't pin, or use Sellotape to attach, anything to office walls but I got away with it as I could pin to the fibre tiles without leaving any damage.
It was useful, too. One of my projects involved getting serial plotters to work alongside the VT-220 terminals on a single connection which we duly achieved and were able to start producing graphs out of the VAX system which were invaluable to some of the users.
Re: Way Back...
graphs out of the VAX system which were invaluable to some of the users.
Maps of Colossal Cave?
NLQ
In the 80s our spanking new PC came with a dot-matrix printer. We were allowed the PC in the lab, but the printer had to go in the secretary's office - which was outside the boss's inner sanctum. As we used it more we badgered him for a laserjet, but they were expensive and the boss was tight. What convinced him was printing a large document using a near-letter-quality programme.
Re: NLQ
Ahh back in the mists of time when HP printers were good, and small furry creatures from alpha centauri were small furry creatures from alpha centauri!
Came here for the shag pile / Wang comments. Was disappointed.
Sometimes if you want innuendo, you just gotta step up and stick it in your own endo.
And I came here for the "completely clogged by a half-inch-thick mat of red fuzz." comments.
Similarly disappointed.
(told a couple of times before)
Big ad agency, open plan office, latest digital switchboard in the middle of the floor, engineer has cabinet open to make changes... passing idiot points and says "look at all those pretty light"... spark jumps from end of his finger and kills the switchboard stone dead!
The potted plants and uplighters may have meant they had to scrimp a bit and fit cheaper nylon carpets
...engineer has cabinet open to make changes... passing idiot points and says "look at all those pretty light"... spark jumps from end of his finger and kills the switchboard stone dead!
When I worked at
Approach secretary with outstretched finger, uttering the Magic Words those are nice earrings; the outcome was entirely predictable, at least to those with an understanding of physics.
In the changed times in which we live that would probably now result in instant dismissal...
I read that as the charged times in which we live
"In the changed times in which we live that would probably now result in instant dismissal..."
Only if, as a well-trained HT engineer, you kept the other hand it your pocket at all times.
Other things can get clogged too
I once visited a friend's house to investigate the reason why his fancy Pentium tower system would crash.
Sure enough, after about 10 minutes it cut out. Next boot lasted 3 minutes.
Luckily the BIOS had a page showing temperatures. It showed a figure rising quickly. It never got to show the figure with a nought on the end because the screen went dark.
Cover removed, I found a layer of insulating fibres packed into the processor heatsink, sucked there by the associated fan.
The box was standing on what was obviously a new carpet, of a matching colour.
The vacuum cleaner came into play and Windows 95 could once again stay up for a whole evening.
(though we were off to the pub) ====>
Wang
...many a joke was made...