Not many talk about VAXes these days. Fond memories for me. People don't say "disk packs" too much anymore. Those washing machines were wonderful. Malfunctioning top-cover interlock switches that allowed you to open the lid while the platters were fully spun up. CDC disk pack inspection tools with their cool mirror-comb assemblies. When you set the tool case down and opened it, onlookers were amazed and intrigued. It was like opening some secret agent's or hit man's tool bag.
The best WM story? Someone at the firm had written a backup/restore program that was loaded into the PDP or TI computer (rows of mini-toggle switches and lights up at the front) from a compact audio cassette. One day, the program entered an infinate looping state. Smoke was seen to be emanating from the CDC drive (around 10 platters/300MB per disk pack). The heavy head movement solenoid was going from limit to limit once every second, and the whole thing had slowly "walked" across the raised floor until it reached the end of its tether (power, data cables), and luckily, did not fall off the edge onto the concrete floor below. Nowadays, everyone has portable disk drives. We were on the cutting edge.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
