Operatings Systems: reminiscences

[GodMark2]

Could someone PLEASE squash a_u_p's avatar for me? It's driving me buggy! I keep thinking I've got real ants (Monomorium minimum) on my screen again. Yes, again.

Install AdBlock Plus

then

Right-click AUP's avatar
Select "Block Element" (window opens with element information)
Select "Add"

or

Select the AdBlock statusbar icon
Select "Block Element"
Select AUP's avatar

or

manually add the filter

||internationalskeptics.com/forums/customavatars/avatar602_13.gif

to AdBlock

 

[alfaniner]

Here's one page of my very heavily used book of spells. It reminds me of Harry Potter's battered but highly notated potions book. I think I referred to it throughout my entire career.
(eta) Arrgh... I don't know why it rotated but it's such a hassle to fix it I'm just going to leave it. I don't get paid to do stuff like that any more.

 

[Wudang]

Install AdBlock Plus

then

Right-click AUP's avatar
Select "Block Element" (window opens with element information)
Select "Add"

Awesome!

 

[Blue Mountain]

Could someone PLEASE squash a_u_p's avatar for me? It's driving me buggy! I keep thinking I've got real ants (Monomorium minimum) on my screen again. Yes, again.

If you're using Firefox, you can set an option to have animated images stop and not loop after they get to the end of their sequence:

about:config > image.animation_mode > once​

There's an extension for Google Chrome to do this: Animation Policy

 

[a_unique_person]

OK. I've had my fun.

 

[smartcooky]

Anyone here remember using Novel SNet?

If so, are you still sane, and do you still have hair?

 

[a_unique_person]

Google knows nothing about that. Must have died an early death and sunk into oblivion.

 

[smartcooky]

Google knows nothing about that. Must have died an early death and sunk into oblivion.

Really? That is surprising. It was a Network OS used with systems running the Motorola 68000 series microprocessor. I first encountered it when I was involved in installing a computer network in an Air Traffic Control system on a military base in the 1980s. AFAIK a number of those systems are still operational today.

 

[Wudang]

It was better known as Novell Netware but even under that name I only have the vaguest memories.

 

[a_unique_person]

Novell Netware I have heard of. My brother was an admin. Novell was crushed by Microsoft. It must have been a bad experience because he has only done PC admin since then.

 

[Gord_in_Toronto]

It was better known as Novell Netware but even under that name I only have the vaguest memories.

I lived though a transition from Netware to whatever the Microsoft replacement product was. The first difference noted was that you could logon to multiple workstations simultaneously with the same account. Netware required you to logoff one before you could logon to another. Great for security.

And please don't talk about Token Ring.

 

[arthwollipot]

And please don't talk about Token Ring.

Vegemite jar lids have a plastic bit attached that forms a part of the seal. When opened, this bit breaks away from the lid and can be removed. In the same job where we had the rare earth magnet unformat.exe we also had one of these yellow plastic circles hanging on the wall. Occasionally someone visiting would ask what it was.

It was, of course, our token ring.

 

[a_unique_person]

I lived though a transition from Netware to whatever the Microsoft replacement product was. The first difference noted was that you could logon to multiple workstations simultaneously with the same account. Netware required you to logoff one before you could logon to another. Great for security.

And please don't talk about Token Ring.

Why not? It worked, usually. IBMs proprietary SDLC was very reliable.

 

[arthwollipot]

Why not? It worked, usually. IBMs proprietary SDLC was very reliable.

Back before broadband and fast data transfer, token ring was a good and reliable solution to the problem of packet collision that ethernet had, especially for smaller networks. Post about 2000, ethernet was more reliable because it worked too fast for packet collision to be much of a problem any more.

 

[zooterkin]

I lived though a transition from Netware to whatever the Microsoft replacement product was. The first difference noted was that you could logon to multiple workstations simultaneously with the same account. Netware required you to logoff one before you could logon to another. Great for security.

And please don't talk about Token Ring.

Oh, when I first started at HP, that’s what we had in the office. The main problems were that since it was a software engineering lab, people would simply add nodes themselves, so it would get overloaded, and occasionally the wrong cables were used (IIRC, TV coax cables were physically compatible, but not to the same specification). Tracing the problems were a pain for the IT team. There was a length of TV coax cable stuck to the outside of the glass on the computer room with a label saying “this is not a lan cable”; one Christmas it was replaced by a length of tinsel.

 

[Darat]

I lived though a transition from Netware to whatever the Microsoft replacement product was. The first difference noted was that you could logon to multiple workstations simultaneously with the same account. Netware required you to logoff one before you could logon to another. Great for security.

And please don't talk about Token Ring.

NT networking and the transitioning to built in networking for desktops - first in Windows 3.11 for Workgroups.

 

[Gord_in_Toronto]

Why not? It worked, usually. IBMs proprietary SDLC was very reliable.

Oh yes it did work. But physically setting it up with fixed lengths of cables was a trial.

 

[Gord_in_Toronto]

But then again, don't get me started on DecNet.

I once had a very nice booklet of about 20 pages from DEC explaining why DecNet was superior to Token Ring. I'm not entirely sure I was convinced.

 

[Blue Mountain]

And please don't talk about Token Ring.

There's the Tolkien ring LAN: there's only One Ring, but it's really powerful.

 

[Wudang]

But then again, don't get me started on DecNet.

I once had a very nice booklet of about 20 pages from DEC explaining why DecNet was superior to Token Ring. I'm not entirely sure I was convinced.

When I joined HSBC in '99 the floor of at least 30 staff had one DecNet terminal for some hell-spawned email thing that made elm look sophisticated.