Re: OS/400 topics (month+ lag) -- MIDRANGE-L


On Jun 30, 2006, at 7:42 PM, David Gibbs wrote:

pnelson@xxxxxxxxxx wrote:
Yeah,but did he ever work in Silicon Valley? On a S/38? I don'tthink
he's quite that old............. :-))
I think he might have assisted with Apple's migration from S/38 to
AS/400 ... and I'm pretty sure he worked in Rolling Meadows ... but I
would have to ask him about that.  He's got a sticker on his cube with
AS/4@@ (where @@ is two multi-colored Apple logos). He's no springchicken.

next morning took a swing at the easy weekend lob and wrote thebelow, but saved for later editing and then forgot to go back andsend it

anyway, that mail did pull me back to reading (and even posting to)the list instead of just searching and recommending it, admittedlywith a bit of a delayed reaction


thanks to you both for the prompt,

glad to be back,

--Jerome

ps numbers may get bigger, but behavior determines reality, and whoreally wants to be a chicken of whatever sort?



You're both right, sort of...

Did work at Apple's Rolling Meadows Central US Distribution andSupport Center as a "Field Analyst" before the Support Centerfunction quickly began migrating around the country (Charlotte,Austin, Colorado Springs?) only to eventually wind up out west. B60JAKE (1st 400 for me) and m700 ELWOOD. These system names made iteasier for those elsewhere to remember that these machines were inChicagoland. It was socks optional, stereo and bball in thewarehouse, lots of fun and lots of work. In my early 30s at the time,was one of the oldest 10% of the 100 or so onsite. 8 months of work,4 months of severance, managed outplacement, etc.

Only worked on S/38s in the valley remotely, emailing (in the '80s ona Mac) researched line numbered RPG bug fix requests to long termBrit consultants out West, then calling and bugging them so theywould (sometimes, eventually) implement them. Apple IS&T is a SAP andPeoplesoft shop these days, see http://www.apple.com/jobs/ist/ forsome details of what they run. Not so sure what competitor M$ uses toship those busy boxes, though, that seems to be or have been shroudedin some mystery.

Will hopefully never forget first encountering a S/38, in a sideoffice sometime in the early '80s during preparation for replacingthe S/3 at my first job in a large distribution center, coming fromice rinks. Also gained more than a little experience on the warehousefloor, driving delivery routes, and optimizing (and cleaning upafter) a decolater, burster, cigarette tax stamping machines, forklifts, conveyor belts, bundlers, compactors, shrink wrap tunnels,etc. Before long, found myself routing truck load delivery orders onthis big boxy new-fangled teevee with a keyboard called a"CRT" (thunk, thunk, thunk, braaaapppp) instead of sorting rows of 96column cards printed with addresses on a big table (thwap, thwap,thwap).

Little did I know at the time that working with machines like thehunk of plastic and metal in that side office would wind up being mylivelihood for decades. It didn't have all of what's in the photolinked below, but it didn't really need it.


   http://www.rpgiv.com/images/Original%20S38%20Design%20Model.jpg

The AS/4@@ button came from an early '90s COMMON Expo, where IBM'sLee Recknor was demonstrating Mac Midrange connectivity software fromIDEAssociates, among others.

I, on the other hand, worked on the S/38 project back in the 80's
(pre-Silverlake)


Whoa, that's got me topped, for sure. <elbow>