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Re: The True Aficionado?

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Morten Reistad <first@last.name.invalid> writes:

> In article <PM00052D38F4E28E9A@aca41c7c.ipt.aol.com>,
> jmfbahciv  <See.above@aol.com> wrote:
>>Morten Reistad wrote:
>>> In article <PM00052D2521DCF4E4@aca40c8f.ipt.aol.com>,
>>> jmfbahciv  <See.above@aol.com> wrote:
>>>>Rod Speed wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>> Every machine had its own "personality".
>>>>>
>>>>> They still do. BUT that has nothing to do with
>>>>> stuff like the machines used to make the machine.
>>>>> And so when we had humans who were JUST doing
>>>>> what machines did later, the wire wrapping, THOSE
>>>>> people contributed nothing to the personality.
>>>>
>>>>Of course they did.  Every wire-wrapped machine had it
>>>>quirks.  Fixing hardware bugs could cause more quirks.
>>>
>>> Yes, I have accounts on around 200 machines around the
>>> world. Most are just another collection of computing
>>> power, like the SIP and web farms we load balance calls
>>> to.
> [snip, kirov summary]
>>> It has a different personality, though.
>>
>>Oh, good. You understand what I'm trying to describe.
>>I know anthromorphizing a system isn't accurate but I could never
>>figure out a qualitative description.  You can feel when something
>>is going wrong, too.
>>
>
>>> -- mrr
>>>
>>> [1] historical reference. The building did assassinate the
>>> machine by letting a steel pipe come loose and dissect it.
>>>
>>
>><grin>  Yesterday, I recalled the time a pail of water crashed
>>through the ceiling behind KL1026.  Apparently, that was
>>maintenance's "fix" for a leak.  Our operations supervisor
>>was 2 feet away when it fell.
>
> I have told the story of the RP07 going terrorist?
>
> The RP07 had the heads enter the platters in a different direction
> from most other drives. Mostly, head crashes just drag the heads along
> the oxide. The RP07 had a failure mode where the heads buried 
> instantly deep into the platter when they crashed. This made
> significant havoc to the surroundings when the momentum of the
> rotating platters were more or less instantly transferred to the
> cabinet.
>
> This happened one day at my old college. The cabinet was part of
> a DEC2065 and was right next to one of the 6 strong steel supports
> that held up the 9-story building. It was at the 2nd floor.
>
> This day emacs froze and around 1 second later there was a *really*
> loud bang in the building. Instant bomb alarm and full evacuation.
> We all thought someone had bombed the computer facility, right below
> the deans office.
>
> But it was just an RP07 that had had this type of head crash and 
> hit the steel support on it's way around the computer room.
>
> It was found above the CPU cabinet; entangled in the cabling that
> still mostly held. The CPU was still operating, but was not too happy
> about a bit of swap space that was missing. The CPU cabinet had
> a visible dent; but nothing except the cable attachments inside 
> was damaged.

Confirmed by similar stories at Columbia and Bell Labs:

http://www.columbia.edu/cu/computinghistory/rp06.html

But I looked at the Service Manual:

http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/dec/disc/rp07/ER-ORP07-SV_RP07_ServiceMan_Oct80.pdf

I see the platters and head on page 1-15, but I still don't see how the
arm grabs hold of the spindle.

I don't think I'd want to go in the same room with one.
Maybe not the same building.  I wonder if they could chain react.

-- 
Dan Espen

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Re: The True Aficionado? jmfbahciv <See.above@aol.com> - 2016-02-21 15:48 +0000
  Re: The True Aficionado? mentificium@gmail.com - 2016-02-21 13:43 -0800
    Re: The True Aficionado? jmfbahciv <See.above@aol.com> - 2016-02-23 13:13 +0000
      Re: The True Aficionado? mentificium@gmail.com - 2016-02-23 06:06 -0800
      Re: The True Aficionado? "hgww" <hgww@gmail.com> - 2016-02-24 04:40 +1100
        Re: The True Aficionado? Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2016-02-23 09:50 -0800
        Re: The True Aficionado? jmfbahciv <See.above@aol.com> - 2016-02-24 13:40 +0000
          Re: The True Aficionado? "hgww" <hgww@gmail.com> - 2016-02-25 03:14 +1100
            Re: The True Aficionado? jmfbahciv <See.above@aol.com> - 2016-03-01 13:55 +0000
              Re: The True Aficionado? "Rod Speed" <rod.speed.aaa@gmail.com> - 2016-03-02 01:30 +1100
                Re: The True Aficionado? jmfbahciv <See.above@aol.com> - 2016-03-02 14:19 +0000
                Re: The True Aficionado? "Rod Speed" <rod.speed.aaa@gmail.com> - 2016-03-03 03:51 +1100
                Re: The True Aficionado? jmfbahciv <See.above@aol.com> - 2016-03-03 13:39 +0000
                Re: The True Aficionado? Morten Reistad <first@last.name.invalid> - 2016-03-03 16:18 +0100
                Re: The True Aficionado? "Rod Speed" <rod.speed.aaa@gmail.com> - 2016-03-04 03:52 +1100
                Re: The True Aficionado? jmfbahciv <See.above@aol.com> - 2016-03-04 13:22 +0000
                Re: The True Aficionado? Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2016-03-04 16:33 +0000
                Re: The True Aficionado? "Charles Richmond" <numerist@aquaporin4.com> - 2016-03-04 15:47 -0600
                Re: The True Aficionado? Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2016-03-05 01:04 +0000
                Re: The True Aficionado? jmfbahciv <See.above@aol.com> - 2016-03-05 13:57 +0000
                Re: The True Aficionado? hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com - 2016-03-06 11:40 -0800
                Re: The True Aficionado? "Osmium" <r124c4u102@comcast.net> - 2016-03-06 23:18 -0600
                Re: The True Aficionado? Morten Reistad <first@last.name.invalid> - 2016-03-04 17:18 +0100
                Re: The True Aficionado? Dan Espen <despen@verizon.net> - 2016-03-04 22:09 -0500
                Re: The True Aficionado? jmfbahciv <See.above@aol.com> - 2016-03-05 13:57 +0000
                Re: The True Aficionado? Huge <Huge@nowhere.much.invalid> - 2016-03-05 14:36 +0000
                Re: The True Aficionado? jmfbahciv <See.above@aol.com> - 2016-03-06 14:08 +0000
                Re: The True Aficionado? "Sangmo" <ju410@gmail.com> - 2016-03-07 02:03 +1100
                Re: The True Aficionado? Morten Reistad <first@last.name.invalid> - 2016-03-06 17:28 +0100
                Re: The True Aficionado? hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com - 2016-03-06 11:54 -0800
                Re: The True Aficionado? "Sangmo" <ju410@gmail.com> - 2016-03-07 07:39 +1100
                Re: The True Aficionado? Peter Flass <peter_flass@yahoo.com> - 2016-03-06 17:24 -0700
                Re: The True Aficionado? Morten Reistad <first@last.name.invalid> - 2016-03-05 18:43 +0100
                Re: The True Aficionado? hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com - 2016-03-06 11:34 -0800
                Re: The True Aficionado? Jon Elson <jmelson@wustl.edu> - 2016-03-07 16:24 -0600
                Re: The True Aficionado? "Rod Speed" <rod.speed.aaa@gmail.com> - 2016-03-04 03:45 +1100
                Re: The True Aficionado? "Charles Richmond" <numerist@aquaporin4.com> - 2016-03-03 16:01 -0600

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