discussion Computer Reset

[Waspie]

Horses for courses, yep. I once found a Silicon graphics station, (cryocooled et Al, as used for making the dinosaurs in Jurassic park), in a lab being used as a word processor. Apparently the grad student it had been sourced for was working on 3D protein structure, which would certainly need that sort of processing power. However, when his research contract ran out and he returned to uni nobody else knew how to use it, so they just checked emails and typed up the occasional document on it :tongue-out3:

Sounds a familiar tale. Mega expensive target analysis HP computer the size of industrial lathe. Once it became obvious no-one could actually use it, it reverted to the units most expensive word processor. At one point a HP rep from the States came over to the UK looked at it, stated it was good in its day and jumped on the next flight back to the USA!!!!

 

[Dave Ward]

Last century, I was using a high-end CAD system, for designing engineering components. I was designated to produce homologation drawings for emissions certification for our diesel engines.The man who dealt with this was a world expert on diesel emission regulations & control. He would come and explain to me what was wanted. I'd then produce the drawings & he'd come and look. He always marvelled at the CAD work - he suddenly asked me " If I brought you my laptop, would you load the CAD programme for me? " I thought he was joking, but no, he wasn't - I had to explain that the System ran on a mainframe in the basement & I only worked on a terminal. He thought about this and said " but my laptop is the latest - it runs Windows98!!"
This gentleman was very indecisive, my first drafts were rejected & we went through several iterations ( usually over 2-3 weeks ), before finally settling on one, which was invariably the first that was produced! I was always the first person he came to for these drawings,, and the sequence was always the same, I never had the first draft accepted. When he appeared I knew that I was in for a few weeks of dithering ( I was doing my normal work as well ). He was a real gentleman, so you could never take offence. ( He was in the process of totally restoring a Lotus Elan Sprint - I wonder if he ever finished it?! )
Dave

 

[Guest]

I once found a Silicon graphics station, (cryocooled et Al, as used for making the dinosaurs in Jurassic park), in a lab being used as a word processor.

Here’s an idea of what Tim is talking about (probably not quite the same machine, though), for those who’ve never heard of SGI:—

Remember, this dates from a time when Windows (and Mac OS? not sure) couldn’t even move a window across the screen “live” with its full contents — when you dragged a window by its title bar, it would stay in its original place and you would just drag a rectangle; let go of the mouse button and the window popped over to where you dropped that rectangle (which is why this is impressive: NeXTSTEP had “live” window-dragging in 1992 when Windows XP could but didn’t even have it enabled by default ten years later … Of course, you paid rather more for NeXT hardware than for the PC you had at home 30 years ago — though nowhere near what Silicon Graphics charged.)

 

[Tim Marlow]

Here’s an idea of what Tim is talking about (probably not quite the same machine, though), for those who’ve never heard of SGI:—

Remember, this dates from a time when Windows (and Mac OS? not sure) couldn’t even move a window across the screen “live” with its full contents — when you dragged a window by its title bar, it would stay in its original place and you would just drag a rectangle; let go of the mouse button and the window popped over to where you dropped that rectangle (which is why this is impressive: NeXTSTEP had “live” window-dragging in 1992 when Windows XP could but didn’t even have it enabled by default ten years later … Of course, you paid rather more for NeXT hardware than for the PC you had at home 30 years ago — though nowhere near what Silicon Graphics charged.)

It was this one Jakko…..

Four processors, and a massive 2GB of RAM…..I think my phone has more than that these days LOL…..

 

[Waspie]

I started with 256k Scion!!!
Remember them. Hand held pocket pc!!!!!
Used to love producing graphs and pie charts on them.

 

[Guest]

It was this one Jakko…..

You know, with that “push here” on the little lid at the top, you would be forgiven for mistaking that for something like this:

View attachment 484776

Four processors, and a massive 2GB of RAM…..I think my phone has more than that these days LOL…..

Quite probably — my 2016 iPad has 2 GB, but only a dual-core processor (Plus a 12-core GPU.) I suspect it would benchmark rather higher than the SGI 540.