be carefull at ratshack!

[mjw357]

went in today to get a motorola to bnc connector..

I hope for sanity's sake you didn't have to explain to one of them what a motorola plug was...

clerk: "Uh, we got a Motorola phone, we can hook you up with an unlimited call package..."

 

[daugen]

I hope for sanity's sake you didn't have to explain to one of them what a motorola plug was...

clerk: "Uh, we got a Motorola phone, we can hook you up with an unlimited call package..."

that's funny, if sadly true...

BNC connector? Uh, a black normally closed connector...not sure if we have one.
RCA connector? Sorry, we don't have records anymore.
Molex quad connector? Never heard of that one. Is that like an ATV part?
RJ11 connector? Uh, male or female, or unisex?
mini to submini adapter? sounds a little hinky but they are over there.
Betamax converter? Uh, is that like a transformer? AC or DC?

And lastly, would you like an extended warranty on that ream of paper?

 

[Soundguy]

wow.. card wallopers.

reminds me of an old poem.. 9 edge.. or soemthing to that effect

how about those manual bootstrap programs using toggle / dip switches.. to get the card wallopers on line?

anyone remeber wang MF's? I did a lil work on those...

The first mainframe I programmed was a UNIVAC. I have some of my programs in a box somewhere. The programs are on paper tape. :shocked::laughing::laughing::laughing:

I need to find that box to find those tapes so I can show the college kids.

I am NOT REALLY THAT old. :laughing::laughing::laughing: Right?

Later,
Dan

 

[Soundguy]

yep.. i tried explaining it to the girl at the ounter.. it was useless though.. the clerk nor the manager.. ( if you added their ages.. the'd be yonger than me ) knew what a bnc was.. let alone a motorola type plug..

I hope for sanity's sake you didn't have to explain to one of them what a motorola plug was...

clerk: "Uh, we got a Motorola phone, we can hook you up with an unlimited call package..."

 

[daugen]

usually the store manager knows enough to be dangerous, and sometimes you get a retired guy who was a phone lineman or similar related field, maybe even an EE, looking for some p/t retirement pay.
So if there's an older guy in there, that's who I'd head to. But the young guys, it's not surprising, where would they get this knowledge? Vo-tech perhaps. Probably a computer hardware interest.
I had an older retired guy working in my store, let's call him Charlie, and he was marvelous. Utterly reliable. Had common sense. Could use a checkout system with sku's and having to do data entry.
SKU readers were just coming in when I sold the business. To a bonafide rocket scientist. Unfortunately knowing the finer points of enthalpy and spatial navigation didn't keep the guy in business.
but that's for another day.

 

[Ken]

The first mainframe I programmed was a UNIVAC. I have some of my programs in a box somewhere. The programs are on paper tape. :shocked::laughing::laughing::laughing:

I need to find that box to find those tapes so I can show the college kids.

I am NOT REALLY THAT old. :laughing::laughing::laughing: Right?

Later,
Dan

Dan worked hardware on Sigma 2 and Sigma 3 mainframe / The memory was 12 kb. and larger was 24 kb. each card the size of laptop of todays computer. And each card of memory was all of 1 and 1/2 bits.
The input was teletype and card punch for the paper tape reader. talk about chad hole problems have the punch mis-adjusted. The rotating disk was live reading and writing and as fast as todays normal computer. could bring up a substation display as fast as Dispatcher hit the button . Now have to wait for the computer to build the display then fill in the readings.
it was over 25 years old and no longer able to locate parts.
what a life.
ken

 

[California]

Todays adventure at Radio Shack:

They told me over $21 out-the-door for the cordless phone battery I asked for. I said Whaaaa - that should be around $4. I walked.

Bought it for $3.16 on Ebay. This includes postage from Utah. It should arrive soon.

Just now I looked at RS online. What they quoted me was the one they sell In-Store. They offer different ones with better capacity online at $8~$9. What a deal.

 

[dmccarty]

wow.. card wallopers.

reminds me of an old poem.. 9 edge.. or soemthing to that effect

how about those manual bootstrap programs using toggle / dip switches.. to get the card wallopers on line?

anyone remeber wang MF's? I did a lil work on those...

I worked for an organization that still had a few Wangs in the Mid 80's but they were well on their way out the door.

Later,
Dan

 

[dmccarty]

Dan worked hardware on Sigma 2 and Sigma 3 mainframe / The memory was 12 kb. and larger was 24 kb. each card the size of laptop of todays computer. And each card of memory was all of 1 and 1/2 bits.
The input was teletype and card punch for the paper tape reader. talk about chad hole problems have the punch mis-adjusted. The rotating disk was live reading and writing and as fast as todays normal computer. could bring up a substation display as fast as Dispatcher hit the button . Now have to wait for the computer to build the display then fill in the readings.
it was over 25 years old and no longer able to locate parts.
what a life.
ken

I visited the UNIVAC in its computer room one day. Just a big box with a bunch of flashing lights. :confused3::laughing::laughing::laughing:

At the same time we had two Commodore PET 2001 micro computers. One had a chicklet keyboard, cassette tape for storage, B&W monitor which I think was 40 columns, and 4 KB of memory. Yep, 4096 bytes. The other system had a full keyboard and 16KB! WOO HOO! I had programs that would not run on the 4K system. My cassette tapes with my programs are in the same box with the paper tapes. :laughing::laughing::laughing: I don't the cassette tape is usable anymore but I bet the paper tape likely would work.

I found a PET 2001 on Ebay for a few hundred dollars. I seriously thought about buying it. :laughing::laughing::laughing:

Later,
Dan

 

[EE_Bota]

I never had anything much to do with a mainframe, but I was a lowly user of a VAX system and a Wang.

I DO remember during one summer job where I made chicken feed (literally) all night, I came in one day and a fellow was smoking a pipe, and holding a piece of paper he was looking at and flipping toggle switches without looking at those, programming (if I remember correctly) a 1972 Motorola computer.

Our normal interface to that computer was a teletype machine with a tape reader. That computer was controlling all the augers, the weigh hopper, and the feed mixer and the turnheads, doing pretty much what we use PLC's for today. Made more than a million pounds of feed a night. That was a satisfying job...you knew you were needed else the feed would run out.

You never know how a job will be of value later in life. I work in automation, and I had to spec, commission, and then maintain the programming of a bulk supply system later in life, and what I learned making chicken feed really helped. I was still using a Motorola chip even then, since that was what was in the PLC-5's.

 

[Soundguy]

I never had anything much to do with a mainframe, but I was a lowly user of a VAX system and a Wang.

.

I remember some of the last work I did on a wang was upgrading it's memory.. as I recall.. that card was larger than a regualr 'pc' MOTHERboard..

 

[Redbug]

I have enjoyed reading the threads about Radio Shack. I have spent many a dollar at them in past years. Ham radio is making a come back in this day and age. But, I don't think Radio Shack will unless they can find another nitch.

Here's a funny, (tongue in cheek), write up from The Onion, back in 2007. There's more truth in it than you may think...
Even CEO Can't Figure Out How RadioShack Still In Business | The Onion - America's Finest News Source

 

[k0ua]

I have enjoyed reading the threads about Radio Shack. I have spent many a dollar at them in past years. Ham radio is making a come back in this day and age. But, I don't think Radio Shack will unless they can find another nitch.

Here's a funny, (tongue in cheek), write up from The Onion, back in 2007. There's more truth in it than you may think...
Even CEO Can't Figure Out How RadioShack Still In Business | The Onion - America's Finest News Source

There are 707,598 of us (ham radio licensees)in the US as of 09/12 76,362 In the UK, 15,626 in Australia as of 03/10 3,278,988 in Japan as of 03/09
so yeah there are a few of us left, and the term "radio-shack" well that is not exactly a WWII term. This Radio Shack CEO does not have a clue what keeps his company alive.. hum.. that does not surprise me a lot. A lot of folks have gotten to where they have gotten to without a "clue"

James K0UA

 

[daugen]

Ham radio is making a come back in this day and age.

Just curious, why?
Survivalists?

I have a Grundig s/w set at my desk that when I want to just tune out, I tune in to. Rotate the dial and visit the world. Basic long wire antenna, nothing fancy.
So maybe someday KOUA I'll tune you in. I know your handle...what's your frequency?

If a company doesn't have a vision, a driving force to do something very well, they'll fizzle. They'll be the best manufacturer of the last buggywhip made.
Radio Shack is into alarm systems, telephones, cellular, every kind of cabling and always has a giftee gadget laying around, or two or three.
But I don't see or hear them marketing to their strengths. The girl screaming when she got her first cell phone was one of the more forgettable ads, as in want
to forget. With Circuit City out of the market, I think Radio Shack was helped, but small electronics can now be purchased in so many places. Hard market, need to
find a niche and exploit it. I go to RS several times every year, or more, but never am I motivated to come back because I saw something neat there.

 

[Redbug]

Hi Daugen...Survivalists...that's a good point. I got a couple people interested recently in ham radio. And they were interested because of the survival standpoint. In a way, that's a shame. That's not what ham radio is about.

I guess a good nitch for Radio Shack would be selling dried foods, more ham radios and kits for survival. Instead of rc cars they need to be selling rc drones...

 

[Soundguy]

i know guys that live in remote areas that have no cell coverage.. don't want sat phones.. but Do want some communication.. ham works ( can ) fine for that..

the onion is some pretty funny stuff sometimes..

 

[California]

Instead of rc cars they need to be selling rc drones...

Fry's is already miles ahead of them in this area as well as everything else. 5 pages of RC helicopters.

I think RS got left in the dust as soon as the PC era began. Yes, I had their original pc. It had excellent software (for the time) MS Basic, running on really crappy hardware. It soon became unusable due to keybounce - multiple codes emitted per keystroke. They threw away a huge opportunity to be a market leader, with that cheapskate design flaw.

 

[Soundguy]

i had an original tandy 1000

I remember when they came out with the 286 add on card. we joked that it mat it a 286 XT ( not at ) as it still had that 8bit card bus and no 16 bit slots..

 

[k0ua]

amateur radios is not making a comeback its is just showing slow steady growth. There is no set frequency for an amateur radio operator. There are many bands of frequencies of what you're free to be on any frequency within those bands. I prefer 20 meters but I operate pretty much all bands 160 meters thru 6 meters and of course 2 meter FM to some a small extent which is a local coverage only band.

James k0ua

 

[Soundguy]

yep.. 2m talkie band...