Re: What do you tell folks you work on?

["Steve Landess" <sjl_abc@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> > Booth Martin wrote:
> > What do you tell folks you work on?

> Then "David Gibbs" wrote:
> Subject: Re: What do you tell folks you work on?
> "Overgrown Abacuses" :)
>
> Seriously, I tell folks that I work on IBM Mini-computers.  If they
> pursue the question, I go into a bit of detail about cross-platform
> stuff, iSeries, Linux, NT, etc.

David -

In 1985-1986, I was working on a project on a S/36 to develop a distributed
asphalt billing system for a Dallas-based oil and gas company (Fina Oil &
Chemical).  At the time, most of their systems were running on big iron, and
they had a fairly large development staff of mainframe analysts and
programmers.

In their corporate headquarters, in an obscure corner of the building (kind
of like Milton in office space, once he had been relegated to the basement),
I had a stand-alone development system - a small S/36, a 5250 terminal, and
a printer.

One day, one of the mainframers came over, peered over my cube, and asked:
"Is the System/36 a computer?".
I said, "you're kidding, right?"

He was dead serious...I had to go through the same type of explanation for
him...he thought my S/36 was a 3274 controller...

Regards,
Steve Landess
Austin, Texas
(512) 423-0935