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Re: History--did relay logic (e.g. crossbar switch) need air conditioning?

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On 2015-12-08, JimP <solosam90@gmail.com> wrote:

> On Mon, 7 Dec 2015 23:27:13 -0600, Dave Garland
> <dave.garland@wizinfo.com> wrote:
>
>> On 12/7/2015 9:31 PM, JimP wrote:
>>
>>> On Mon, 7 Dec 2015 17:58:39 -0800 (PST), hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote:
>>>
>>>> Anyway, I suspect most initial a/c installations were done for the
>>>> equipment in a room, not for the people.
>>> 
>>> First ones I saw about 1952 were in movie theaters and one church.
>> 
>> The banners said "Come On In, It's Cool Inside!"
>
> With a penguin with a cigarette in its mouth. Advert for a brand of
> menthol cigarettes.

The signs I remember had letters looking as if they were carved out
of snow-covered blocks of ice.

Unfortunately (as so often happens), the concept got overdone, and
soon people started believing that the purpose of air conditioning
was not to make things comfortable, but to make them _cold_.  This
culminated in the computer rooms where you had to wear a sweater
(or even more) to keep from freezing, even on a hot summer day.
The circulation in my extremities has never been the greatest,
and my fingers would stiffen up if I stayed in such machine rooms
too long.

What people failed to realize was that - at least to an extent -
the machines cared less about it being cold than about the temperature
being fairly constant.  I got into "thermostat wars" in a couple of
shops; I'd set the temperature to where both machines and people were
happy, but others couldn't stand the thought of the room being comfortable
and would crank the thermostat back down.  My arguments that these were
not cryogenic computers fell on deaf ears.

At one shop which ran day shifts only, the staff would shut everything
down at night: both the computer and the huge a/c unit which blew so
much cold air around that you couldn't leave loose sheets of paper
anywhere.  The computer was quite unreliable.  Eventually the CEs
determined that all the thermal cycling was disturbing connections
within the machine.  Their biggest clue was when they pulled a
circuit board and a VLSI chip fell free, having walked its way
right out of its socket from months of wide temperature fluctuations.
Once the the customer left everything on 24/7, the problems went away.

-- 
/~\  cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid (Charlie Gibbs)
\ /  I'm really at ac.dekanfrus if you read it the right way.
 X   Top-posted messages will probably be ignored.  See RFC1855.
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History--did relay logic (e.g. crossbar switch) need air conditioning? hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com - 2015-12-04 19:44 -0800
  Re: History--did relay logic (e.g. crossbar switch) need air conditioning? Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2015-12-04 22:19 -0800
  Re: History--did relay logic (e.g. crossbar switch) need air conditioning? Jon Elson <elson@pico-systems.com> - 2015-12-05 13:27 -0600
  Re: History--did relay logic (e.g. crossbar switch) need air conditioning? jhhaynes@earthlink.net - 2015-12-07 13:41 -0800
    Re: History--did relay logic (e.g. crossbar switch) need air conditioning? hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com - 2015-12-07 17:58 -0800
      Re: History--did relay logic (e.g. crossbar switch) need air conditioning? JimP <solosam90@gmail.com> - 2015-12-07 21:31 -0600
        Re: History--did relay logic (e.g. crossbar switch) need air conditioning? Dave Garland <dave.garland@wizinfo.com> - 2015-12-07 23:27 -0600
          Re: History--did relay logic (e.g. crossbar switch) need air conditioning? hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com - 2015-12-07 22:12 -0800
            Re: History--did relay logic (e.g. crossbar switch) need air conditioning? "Osmium" <r124c4u102@comcast.net> - 2015-12-08 07:24 -0600
              Re: History--did relay logic (e.g. crossbar switch) need air conditioning? Ahem A Rivet's Shot <steveo@eircom.net> - 2015-12-08 14:01 +0000
            Re: History--did relay logic (e.g. crossbar switch) need air conditioning? Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2015-12-08 20:21 +0000
              Re: History--did relay logic (e.g. crossbar switch) need air conditioning? hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com - 2015-12-08 12:40 -0800
                Re: History--did relay logic (e.g. crossbar switch) need air conditioning? Lawrence Statton <lawrence@senguio.mx> - 2015-12-08 15:31 -0600
                Re: History--did relay logic (e.g. crossbar switch) need air conditioning? Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2015-12-09 01:04 +0000
                Re: History--did relay logic (e.g. crossbar switch) need air conditioning? Dave Garland <dave.garland@wizinfo.com> - 2015-12-08 21:23 -0600
                Re: History--did relay logic (e.g. crossbar switch) need air conditioning? Joy Beeson <jbeeson@invalid.net.invalid> - 2015-12-08 22:40 -0400
                Re: History--did relay logic (e.g. crossbar switch) need air conditioning? Dave Garland <dave.garland@wizinfo.com> - 2015-12-09 00:46 -0600
                Re: History--did relay logic (e.g. crossbar switch) need air conditioning? Andrew Swallow <am.swallow@btinternet.com> - 2015-12-09 07:04 +0000
                Re: History--did relay logic (e.g. crossbar switch) need air conditioning? Ahem A Rivet's Shot <steveo@eircom.net> - 2015-12-09 09:15 +0000
                Re: History--did relay logic (e.g. crossbar switch) need air conditioning? Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2015-12-09 18:27 +0000
                Re: History--did relay logic (e.g. crossbar switch) need air conditioning? "Ranger" <r5432@gmail.com> - 2015-12-10 15:39 +1100
                Re: History--did relay logic (e.g. crossbar switch) need air conditioning? "Rod Speed" <rod.speed.aaa@gmail.com> - 2015-12-10 15:35 +1100
              Re: History--did relay logic (e.g. crossbar switch) need air conditioning? Andrew Swallow <am.swallow@btinternet.com> - 2015-12-09 06:59 +0000
              Re: History--did relay logic (e.g. crossbar switch) need air conditioning? Bernd Felsche <berfel@innovative.iinet.net.au> - 2015-12-09 23:47 +0800
                Re: History--did relay logic (e.g. crossbar switch) need air conditioning? Ahem A Rivet's Shot <steveo@eircom.net> - 2015-12-09 17:20 +0000
                Re: History--did relay logic (e.g. crossbar switch) need air conditioning? Michael LeVine <mlevinespmfltr@redshift.com> - 2015-12-09 10:14 -0800
                Re: History--did relay logic (e.g. crossbar switch) need air conditioning? hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com - 2015-12-09 10:21 -0800
                Re: History--did relay logic (e.g. crossbar switch) need air conditioning? Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2015-12-09 18:47 +0000
                Re: History--did relay logic (e.g. crossbar switch) need air conditioning? Morten Reistad <first@last.name.invalid> - 2015-12-09 21:33 +0100
                Re: History--did relay logic (e.g. crossbar switch) need air conditioning? Jon Elson <jmelson@wustl.edu> - 2015-12-11 16:56 -0600
                Re: History--did relay logic (e.g. crossbar switch) need air conditioning? Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2015-12-09 18:27 +0000
                Re: History--did relay logic (e.g. crossbar switch) need air conditioning? mausg@mail.com - 2015-12-09 20:47 +0000
                Re: History--did relay logic (e.g. crossbar switch) need air conditioning? "Osmium" <r124c4u102@comcast.net> - 2015-12-09 17:01 -0600
                Re: History--did relay logic (e.g. crossbar switch) need air conditioning? mausg@mail.com - 2015-12-10 10:48 +0000
                Re: History--did relay logic (e.g. crossbar switch) need air conditioning? Bernd Felsche <berfel@innovative.iinet.net.au> - 2015-12-10 10:52 +0800
                Re: History--did relay logic (e.g. crossbar switch) need air conditioning? scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) - 2015-12-10 14:15 +0000
                Re: History--did relay logic (e.g. crossbar switch) need air conditioning? Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com> - 2015-12-10 10:02 -0800
                Re: History--did relay logic (e.g. crossbar switch) need air conditioning? hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com - 2015-12-10 10:17 -0800
                Re: History--did relay logic (e.g. crossbar switch) need air conditioning? hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com - 2015-12-09 13:10 -0800
                Re: History--did relay logic (e.g. crossbar switch) need air conditioning? Bernd Felsche <berfel@innovative.iinet.net.au> - 2015-12-10 11:22 +0800
                Re: History--did relay logic (e.g. crossbar switch) need air conditioning? mausg@mail.com - 2015-12-10 10:53 +0000
                Re: History--did relay logic (e.g. crossbar switch) need air conditioning? JimP <solosam90@gmail.com> - 2015-12-10 17:54 -0600
                Re: History--did relay logic (e.g. crossbar switch) need air conditioning? Lawrence Statton <lawrence@senguio.mx> - 2015-12-09 17:17 -0600
          Re: History--did relay logic (e.g. crossbar switch) need air conditioning? JimP <solosam90@gmail.com> - 2015-12-08 10:03 -0600
            Re: History--did relay logic (e.g. crossbar switch) need air conditioning? Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2015-12-08 20:21 +0000
              Re: History--did relay logic (e.g. crossbar switch) need air conditioning? "J. Clarke" <j.clarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2016-01-02 15:32 -0500
      Re: History--did relay logic (e.g. crossbar switch) need air conditioning? Lon <lon.stowell@comcast.net> - 2015-12-13 12:58 -0700

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