[G4] Buying your own work computer

[Robert H. Baucom]

Goodness gracious, I thought I was the only one that bought his own  
computer at work.
When running Subcontracts for ElectroCom Automation back in 1986. The  
company furnished me with
a Kay Pro running CPM.

We built the machines that sort the mail. Using Word Star I was  
writing long involved subcontracts pulling and using the
pseudo Government phrases from the USPS Contracts to put into the  
pass throu's to the subcontractors.
Some of the Pass Throu's were 54 pages long ... to be attached to the  
subcontract. Delivery schedules of up to 4-1/2 years
written with DATA BASE II (shudder).

I strolled on down to the software development department (the  
smartest guys in the company) and told the head man that I was going  
to buy my own computer.
That I didn't even like computers. I didn't want to mess with the  
jargon of data fields and all that bull. Didn't want to boot it up,  
wanted one I turned on, did my work and turned it off.
Didn't want a bunch of long stream commands  and all of the related  
crap.

Dr. Roejack turned to his assistant and said, "He just described a  
Mac." Turns out, the software to run
those high speed documents sorters were first coded on Macs. I went  
out and spent $2,000.00 and bought me a Mac Plus, an ImageWriter II,
a desktop printer stand and MacWrite or some other Word Processor.
The guys in SW Development gave me copies of about $1500 retail.  
worth of software and I was on my way. Three the MacWrite into the  
desk drawer
Installed FullWrite Professsional and boogied on.

A snotty little guy in Quality Control (using his IMB DOS clunker)  
said sarcastically, "You know what they say about Mac users?"
I repeated this to Dr. Roejack and he got hot as a jap. He said,  
"Look out there on all those desks. We have 30 Macs in here and one  
Sun Work Station.
No DOS for this  department.  See this picture of Seymour Cray's  
desk? He has a Mac on it. These nitwits are struggling along with  
clunky old DOS and don't know what a good OS is."

In three months I was  hooked. MY no. 3 son was calling me a computer  
nerd.  Computer stuff was rather high back then. An Apple SE/30  was  
10,000 1980's dollars. I paid 95.00 for four 1 meg SIMS, $195.00 for  
a video card. Opened it up and installed the simms and the video Card  
in that cramped space. Paid 789.00 for a 19" B&W monitor ... That  
monitor lasted  ten years. My grown step daughter had it when it gave  
up.
They bought the Purchasing Manager's secretary a PeeSee when Windows  
3.1 came out. Her cubicle was just outside my office. For hours,  
there would be three MicroSuck Whizz's around her
beige box trying to figure out "How to get there from Here?" I would  
have my work done and be on another project before they figured it out.

BTW,  IN 1989, The Post Office Dinosaurs in upper management wanted  
us to guarantee availibility of repair parts and service for 12 years  
on the DEC PDP1183 computers.
YES TWELVE YEARS, but thats another story.

RHB

The majority is nearly always wrong.

On Feb 19, 2009, at 2:16 PM, John Niven wrote:
>
> I think it's only natural that this list comes to regard itself as  
> smiling fondly on a vintage technology. But heck, I'm still a ways  
> off giving up this G4. I had to smuggle it into work under the IT  
> Nazi's noses, the fact that it doesn't have a significant resale  
> value is a big plus as I'll probably have to leave it here.
>
> OK so I'm stuck at Tiger, but the rest of the company is still  
> running WinXP! I'd prefer my G4/Tiger to a Dingely Dell XP (what  
> the company supplies).
>
> John