Feeling real grumpy !

[Clyde E. Kunkel]

Gene Heskett wrote:
> On Tuesday 21 November 2006 13:05, George Arseneault wrote:
>> --- Tim <ignored_mailbox at yahoo.com.au> wrote:
>>> On Mon, 2006-11-20 at 10:49 -0800, George Arseneault
>>>
>>> wrote:
>>>> Actually 'real' debugging was when they ran
>>> distilled
>>>
>>>> water over the circuits to remove the dead bugs.
>>> (Back
>>>
>>>> when computers took up their own building)
>>> Hmm, just water?
>>>
>>> It's years since I've actually seen a real
>>> mainframe, though this was a
>>> transistorised one.  Great big metal cabinets, where
>>> you opened up the
>>> doors to a rat's nest of wire-wrap, and it used
>>> water-cooling through
>>> the doors as well as the rest of the cabinet.
>> Theoretically, pure water does *not* conduct
>> electricity.  It's the other particles (ions,
>> whatever) that allow it to conduct.  So, it *should*
>> be safe to run the water over running circuits.

<snip>

> The original 'bug' was found by Grace Hopper (look her up on google, its 
> very educational) and was purportedly a moth crushed between a relays 
> contacts somewhere in the 60 years ago era.
> 

Nice lady, aka Mother of Cobol.  I have one of her nano-seconds that she 
handed out at a seminar one time.

WRT mainframes, in the late '70s, U2 (tube based Univac) was still being 
used to produce civilian payroll at the Boston Naval Shipyard.  Boxes of 
tubes were stored behind the tape drives (I was told the tapes were 
steel bands, but never saw one).

-- 
Regards,

Old Fart
(my reply-to address is "munged" to defeat spambots)